John Friscia
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Writing For
The EscapistLatest Reviews
Ultimately, Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII Reunion doesn’t do anything too crazy beyond massively upgrading the visuals and expanding the audio. And frankly, that’s good enough. The original PSP game was excellent with its strong central character and carefully crafted combat, and the addition of a right thumbstick on modern controllers to control the camera is a huge upgrade all by itself. By just taking this foundation and freshening up the graphics and sound, Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII Reunion is both one of the most successful video game prequels and one of the best action RPGs in general.
Artistically speaking, I don’t think a game could have more depth when exploring its own cutesy abomination theme. The design and palette, aside from the oversaturation at times, wonderfully portrayed this colorfully dark landscape. The music was playfully foreboding with instruments corresponding to the nature of each great monstrosity’s domain. The childlike presentation of the dark certainties of life, death, and taxes never failed to amuse me and draw me in with its moral dilemmas. I believe this is a welcome addition to rogue dungeon crawlers and base builders alike; it certainly stands out as a frontrunner within its hybrid niche.
If you demand really intricate combat systems and character progression, Live A Live won’t satisfy you. If you demand dozens of hours of storytelling across an epic saga, Live A Live won’t satisfy you. But if you want to play an RPG that takes you on a concise roller coaster ride of extremely varied and exciting experiences, then you absolutely need to play Live A Live on Nintendo Switch. The English localization has problems, but this is nonetheless an important piece of gaming history that has gone underappreciated till now. This HD-2D remaster is the chance for Live A Live to get the mainstream attention it deserves.