Crisis Core Final Fantasy 7 Remake: Release date and everything we know

The sequel to Final Fantasy 7 Remake, which we now know is called Final Fantasy 7 Revival, is still at least a year away. This long-awaited game will arrive on PlayStation 5 next winter. What should Final Fantasy fanatics do until then? Catch up with Zack Fair, of course!

Crisis Core: Final Fantasy 7 was a 2007 hit on the PSP, and after years of fan complaints, it’s being remade on modern consoles as Crisis Core: Final Fantasy 7 Reunion. This is more than just an opportunity to play a 15-year-old classic, as longtime Final Fantasy producer Yoshinori Kitase has said, it’s also part of the Final Fantasy 7 Remake project. terms, the Crisis Core story is essential to the next two Remake games.

Here’s what you need to know about the upcoming game.

What is the release date of Crisis Core Final Fantasy 7 Reunion?

Crisis Core Final Fantasy 7 Reunion will be released “late 2024”. We don’t have a specific date yet, but we know it will be on PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch and Windows.

Is it a direct remake?

Yes. Final Fantasy 7 Remake, false to its name, ended in a way that detracts from the original PlayStation title. In fact, the whole point of FF7R’s ending was to signify that what happens in the next two games will be different from what happened in the OG version. Speaking to GameSpot, however, the developers at Crisis Core confirmed that no story elements of the PSP game will be changed.

“Crisis Core Reunion’s story is actually going to be a very faithful retelling of the original story, so there’s no additional story content,” said Mariko Sato, one of the game’s producers.

But the development team does more than nudge Crisis Core. All dialogue will be voiced, and there will be tweaks to gameplay and combat – probably a good thing considering how old the game is.

Why is a Crisis Core remake so important?

There are three reasons why you should care about Crisis Core Final Fantasy 7 Reunion. The first is the simplest: it’s an awesome game, especially if you’re a fan of FF7. It’s a lengthy RPG that takes players through the towns, cities, and regions they first experienced when Cloud was just a handful of purple and yellow polygons. It gives depth to characters who were on the periphery of Final Fantasy 7 and shows a world before a certain soldier became a planet-killing maniac.

Second, Square Enix has been uncharacteristically shy about releasing the game on new consoles. Although the company has ported PS2-era games like Final Fantasy X and Kingdom Hearts to every console imaginable, Crisis Core has yet to receive a remastering treatment. That’s unusual, because it’s not like it wasn’t popular: over 2 million copies of the game have been sold. However, until Reunion, you had to have a PSP on hand to play Crisis Core.

Finally, Zack’s story appears to be pivotal to the upcoming Final Fantasy 7 revival.

Why do we need to know about Zack Fair?

This section contains spoilers for Final Fantasy 7, Remake, and Crisis Core.

In 1997’s Final Fantasy 7, Zack Fair was only seen in flashback scenes. Anyone who’s played this game knows that Zack was a mentor to Cloud and saved his life – but was shot by the Shinra militia before the events of Final Fantasy 7. That’s partly why 2007’s Crisis Core is so memorable. It made you care more about Zack and his relationships with the other characters, which made his inevitable fate even more devastating.

But Final Fantasy 7 Remake’s ending saw Cloud and the gang defeat the “arbiters of fate.” You can read a full explanation on what it means here – but the little story is that the Final Fantasy 7 Remake trilogy takes place in another dimension, and the enigmatic “arbiters of fate” creatures were responsible for ensuring that all events take place in this dimension as in the original of 1997. With them killed, however, nothing keeps the timeline intact. Aerith’s death, Cloud’s amnesia, Sephiroth’s ultimate defeat: none of this is guaranteed anymore.

Perhaps most crucially, it also leaves the fate of one Zack Fair unknown. At the end of Final Fantasy 7 Remake, we see Zack recovering from the Shinra Militia attack which, in other dimensions, had ended his story. At the end of Final Fantasy 7 Intergrade, a DLC pack featuring Yuffie, Zack breaks into the Sector 7 church to find Aerith, an old flame, only to find she is gone. So we know that Zack is alive, although it’s unclear what dimension he’s in.