Crisis Core FF7 Reunion: PC Games interview with the developers

So, are you eagerly awaiting the recently revealed Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth? Square Enix recently announced the successor to the acclaimed Final Fantasy 7 Remake to mark the anniversary of the original game. However, it wasn’t the only Final Fantasy 7-related game to have its big reveal that day: Crisis Core: Final Fantasy 7 Reunion would also be presented to the world, due out in Winter 2022 for PC, PS5, PS4, Nintendo Switch, Xbox Series X/S and Xbox One will be released. This is a remaster of Crisis Core: Final Fantasy 7, which was released in 2007 for the Playstation Portable. However, anyone who thinks that the developers simply made a few textures nicer is wrong. Instead, the PSP origins of Crisos Core Reunion are all but obscure.

So there’s a lot of work in the thing. How much that the makers have changed and what else there is to know about Crisis Core: Final Fantasy 7 Reunion, we were able to discuss in an interview with the developers. We answered questions:

• Tetsuya Nomura, Creative Director & Character Designer. Tetsuya Nomura has been with Square Enix since 1991, then Squaresoft. The first game he worked on was Final Fantasy 5. Among other things, the designs of Cloud and Aerith from Final Fantasy 7 came from his creative mind. In addition to numerous Final Fantasys, he was also involved in The World Ends With You and Parasite Eve on board. Nomura is also director of the Kingdom Hearts franchise and creative director and character designer on Final Fantasy 7 Remake and Rebirth and Crisis Core Reunion.
• Mariko Sato, Producer on Crisis Core: Final Fantasy 7 Reunion. Mariko Sato joined Square Enix in 2014 and has worked on projects such as World of Final Fantasy, Final Fantasy 7 and 8 Remasters, and Chrono Cross: The Radical Dreamers Edition.
• Yoshinori Kitase, Producer on Crisis Core: Final Fantasy 7. Kitase joined Square Enix in 1990. He has been involved in countless projects as a producer, for example on Compilation of Final Fantasy 7, Final Fantasy Type-0 and Final Fantasy 13. He is Executive Producer on Crisis Core Reunion.

Source: Square Enix

Source: Square Enix

Source: Square Enix

A few years ago, Square Enix released a whole range of Final Fantasy 7 spin-offs. Why did you choose Crisis Core for the current remake and not one of the other games?

Kitase: Anyone who has played Final Fantasy 7 Remake knows that Zack plays a really important role in the story. He makes an appearance very early on in Final Fantasy 7 Remake and as a player you want to find out more about him as a character and his backstory. Crisis Core is the game centered around this backstory.

It’s very important to find out more about Zack. He also features in the Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth trailer, with people wanting to know how he will impact the ongoing story. That’s why Crisis Core was a good choice for a remake or remaster. Of all the spin-offs, Crisis Core is simply the best for a reboot. For example, Before Crisis was a mobile game, so on very old phones, not even smartphones.

A remaster wouldn’t be enough, it would have to be a complete remake. That would have been difficult to implement. The other “big” spin-off besides Crisis Core, Dirge of Cerberus, is story-wise set after the events of the original Final Fantasy 7.

So now is not the right time to do a remake or a remaster here, the remake of the main game is not yet complete. How we’re going to finish it, how we’re going to bring the story to a close, we’re logically not revealing at the moment.

Crisis Core: Final Fantasy 7 Reunion: PC Games interviews the developers (5)

Source: Square Enix




Jumping now to a story that takes place after the end of the game would therefore not work. So Crisis Core is the only game that currently needs a remake, that’s why we chose the game.

Final Fantasy 7 Remake changes the story of the original quite drastically. Does Crisis Core Reunion continue to reference the story of the original Final Fantasy 7, or have you altered the spin-off’s story to fit the events of Final Fantasy 7 Remake?

Sato: The Story of Crisis Core Reunion (buy now €59.99) stays true to that of the original Crisis Core. We didn’t change anything about the story or the timeline.

So the new Crisis Core is linked to the original Final Fantasy 7 but not the remake?

Kitase & Nomura: That’s a tough question to answer because of course we haven’t revealed everything there is to reveal about the Final Fantasy 7 Remake trilogy. The question implies that the original Final Fantasy 7 and Final Fantasy 7 Remake do not exist in the same timeline, and the truth is, we still have mysteries in that regard that we haven’t revealed yet.

How the story ends up, where it’s going, is a huge mystery, so I can’t give you a direct answer. However: Crisis Core’s story is relevant to the original Final Fantasy 7, it takes place in the same timeline, but it is also relevant and part of the remake trilogy’s timeline.

So the games are not independent of each other. Unfortunately, I can’t go into more detail at the moment without spoilers.

Crisis Core’s graphics have been significantly overhauled. Have you been held back in any way by the fact that it’s a 15 year old PSP game?

Sato: Without a doubt, the original Crisis Core had limitations that held the game back. We definitely had to put a lot of work into the character animations for the new edition. Animations used to be very limited, combined with the new graphics and high-resolution character models would make them look cheap in Crisis Core Reunion. So we had to work a lot on that.