Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII Reunion review - "Bibles and boredom"

JRPG fans are no strangers to a bit of tedium. Whether it’s grinding in the tall grass or waiting for a random battle transition that’s just a few seconds too long, the genre is known for producing games that take days to finish, but it’s always best when it feels like the time is just flying by as you get wrapped up in an unforgettable story. Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII Reunion is, instead, an indecipherable story, drawn out by optional-but-not missions. The long routes of Pokémon games are filled with wild monsters and aggressive trainers – it’s essentially a corridor stuffed full of battles to ensure the game isn’t over too fast, but moving down the route gives you a great sense of progress. In Crisis Core, your progress is almost always represented by numbers. What matters here is what chapter you’re on, what percentage of that chapter is complete, how many missions you have available, and the percentage of missions you have completed – it’s the illusion of progress while the game continues to throw b