Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII[a] is a 2007 action role-playing game developed and published by Square Enix for the PlayStation Portable.

The game's storyline spans the war between the megacorporation Shinra and the people of Wutai to the events in Nibelheim, ending just before the beginning of Final Fantasy VII.

A remaster of the game, Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII Reunion was released on December 13, 2022 as part of the remake series.

[4] Crisis Core is an action role-playing game in which the player controls Zack Fair through and between open areas, allowing him to talk with non-player characters, interact with the environment, and engage monsters in battle.

[7] Up to six Materia can be equipped at any one time, which can impart special attacks, magic spells, or passive bonuses such as health increases or the ability to display the statistics of the current foe in combat.

[9] The North American and European releases of Crisis Core also have an added difficulty mode, which increases the power and health of enemies.

Crisis Core begins seven years before the events of Final Fantasy VII, and many characters from that game and related works appear.

Over the course of the game, Zack encounters and befriends Aerith, a young woman tending flowers from a ruined church in the Midgar slums, and Cloud, a Shinra infantryman.

[23] Angeal, intent on keeping Hollander alive so he can be returned to normal, prevents Zack from killing the doctor and knocks him into the slums of Midgar.

Tired of the fighting and succumbing to his gradual degradation, Angeal summons and fuses with his own clones and mutates into a monster, forcing Zack to kill him.

[30] While Shinra continues the pursuit of Hollander, Genesis re-emerges, producing clones; some of them appear in Midgar, forcing Zack to return to protect Aerith.

Zack awakens to find that Shinra covered up the Nibelheim incident and that both he and Cloud have become part of Professor Hojo's experiments on Jenova cells and Mako exposure.

[42] The idea of Crisis Core originated when Hajime Tabata was chosen as director for an upcoming Final Fantasy title for the PlayStation Portable.

[44] Similarly, Tabata explained that he and the staff were very wary throughout the production of altering the fans' perception of Final Fantasy VII's characters.

Additionally, the Digital Mind Wave system (DMW) was added to give gameplay an element of luck, as well as to prevent combat feeling repetitive.

[53] The addition of "Why" was revealed by Square Enix in May 2007, with Ayaka stating that she was fascinated by Crisis Core's story and felt she "would like to deliver "Why" alongside Zack's fate to the hearts of many people".

This limited edition included special slipcase packaging and a book of promotional CG artwork entitled The Art of Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII.

[72] Similarly, GamePro gave it a positive review, calling it the "best looking PSP title" and praising how it incorporated elements from the Compilation, and at the same time created new aspects.

[80] In March 2008, Crisis Core sold 301,600 copies in its first month of release in the United States,[81] behind the sales of God of War: Chains of Olympus, which sold 340,500 copies, making Crisis Core the second best-selling game for the PSP during the month of March and the sixth best-selling game overall.

Co-developed with Tose, who previously collaborated with Square Enix on World of Final Fantasy (2016), the graphics have been converted to HD, including new 3D models for all elements, using Unreal Engine 4.

[101] Many characters are voiced by their English-dubbed voice actors from Final Fantasy VII Remake, as well as the original Japanese cast, including Zack Fair (Caleb Pierce / Kenichi Suzumura), Sephiroth (Tyler Hoechlin / Toshiyuki Morikawa), Aerith Gainsborough (Briana White / Maaya Sakamoto),[102] Cloud Strife (Cody Christian / Takahiro Sakurai), Tseng (Vic Chao / Junichi Suwabe),[103] and Tifa Lockhart (Britt Baron / Ayumi Ito),[104] with additional characters and voice actors including Angeal Hewley (Bill Millsap / Kazuhiko Inoue), Genesis (Shaun Conde / Gackt),[102] Cissnei (Kayli Mills / Asumi Nakada), Lazard (Francis Ausley / Junpei Morita), Hollander (Jason Marnocha / Shinya Owada), and Yuffie Kisaragi (Brandilyn Cheah / Yumi Kakazu).

[105] Crisis Core is regarded by executive producer Yoshinori Kitase as a bridge to play between Final Fantasy VII Remake and Rebirth.

However, since the original Crisis Core was released only for the PlayStation Portable, the game was remastered into Reunion in order to make it accessible.

Creative director Tetsuya Nomura wanted Crisis Core to be seen as its own story when compared with other games from the recently released Remake.

Producer Mariko Sato stated that the gameplay was altered to avoid interruptions in the middle of the combat while retaining the base elements of the Digital Mind Wave system.

Sato says that it was difficult but they believe that players would be pleased with the final product as the game was released to several consoles instead of the original which was PlayStation Portable exclusive.

[108][109][110][111] Critics were divided in regards to the narrative, with Eurogamer seeing Zack's character arc as unnecessary fan service that did not expand on anything from the original Final Fantasy VII with an overdramatic tone.

[122] Critics felt the gameplay was improved in the remaster comparable to previous entries, but still not as much as Remake, with GamesRadar finding it "fantastic",[109][116] while VG247 found it highly superior to Crisis Core, thanks to the advantages of the ports.

[122] GameSpot did not find several differences between Reunion and its original PSP game, but still found the gameplay appealing, most notably the DMW system being complimented as improved.

IGN also panned the handling of sidequest, and noted the DMW system comes across as divisive for how much it can alter a player's reaction to the combat.