Crisis Core Reunion Is A More Faithful Remake Than You Might Expect--For Better And Worse

gamespot.com:

Final Fantasy VII is an enduring classic, and the success of Square Enix's 1997 RPG also led to several spin-offs. Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII was the best of them, but if you didn't buy Sony's first handheld gaming console, the PlayStation Portable, you missed it. Some 15 years after its release, you'll get another chance to experience Crisis Core with its remade version, Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII Reunion, and it appears that it'll be very similar to the PSP original--only better.

GameSpot got a chance to play a short Crisis Core Reunion demo at a Square Enix preview event in Los Angeles. What was notable about the demo was just how similar it feels to the original Crisis Core, in its gameplay and presentation.

Final Fantasy VII Remake set a high bar for reviving a classic game, both retelling the original game's story and altering it in key ways to create something new. Crisis Core is a prequel to the original FFVII, but despite its links to FFVII Remake's revised story, producer Mariko Sato previously told GameSpot that Reunion is hewing closely to the original Crisis Core's story. That's what we saw in the demo as well--the story and cutscenes of Crisis Core Reunion seem extremely similar to what was in the original game. The primary changes and improvements are in Reunion's combat.

Though the original Crisis Core was released in 2008, it brought with it an action-centric focus on combat that feels similar to what Square Enix has done with more recent Final Fantasy games, FFVII Remake in particular. Your primary means of fighting enemies in Crisis Core comes down to melee strikes against foes, dodges to get you out of harm's way, and guarding to absorb incoming hits, although you only control one character