Those soft, eerie strings. The tinkling glockenspiel motif. The camera pans out to show the formidable Shinra corporation building towering over the polluted slums of Midgar, illuminated in sickly greens. The hero arrives on a train and another Final Fantasy 7 adventure begins.
It's a familiar opening for Final Fantasy 7 fans, especially those coming to Crisis Core for the first time, who are yet to experience the PSP prequel to Square Enix's most popular game in its illustrious series but eager to explore this world once more.
And plenty of fans have been gained over the two and a half decades since Final Fantasy 7 released on the PlayStation. It means that now, Crisis Core Final Fantasy 7 Reunion (what a mouthful) has a fair bit of heavy lifting to do, as a 2022 remaster of a 2007 prequel to a 1997 game that received a celebrated Remake in 2020. It's for fans of the original PSP game looking for an update. It's for fans of the original JRPG looking for an expanded story. And it's for fans of Remake looking to experience the game's roots - and perhaps even a hint of what's yet to come.