Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII Reunion
Trying to think how this game could have been better constructed given the constraint of having originally being designed for a handheld console, the conclusion I come to is more of a persona style slice of life.
The plot is at it's strongest when it focuses on Zack and his relationship with Aeris, a more fleshed out telling of their romance could have been quite sweet.
I think the focus on the expanded universe with Angeal, Genesis and Sephiroth was a mistake. The whole plot is nonsence, no motivations are clear, it undermines sephiroth's character, him calling zack to chat about work wasn't something we needed. It's also so separate to the other events in the game that it undermines itself, we have a climactive fight with Genesis which should have been the emotional peak of the game and then we have the awkwardly bolted on death of Zack afterwards. In a vacume both are fine scenarios but taken in context it really didn't work for me.
The plot stuggles to balance making Zack a likable protagonist whilst working for the evil shinra organisation.
I think the main plot should have been more around Zack establishing himself in Shinra, becoming a hero in the wutai incident and being promoted to first class. Then having an internal conflict over the acts he's asked to commit being part of SOLDIER, culminating in the Niblheim incident
the turks should have remained in the shadows and I don't think Zack would have approved of their underhand methods.
I quite liked the combat, it's a fairly fun mix. Being able to switch between loadouts in battle would have been useful but I understand why it wasn't permitted. The missions were so tedious and the constant stopping for a pointless cutscene really killed any pacing the game could have had.
So fun in parts but plodding in places.