The next installment of the Final Fantasy VII Remake series, Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII Reunion, is only a handful of months away. That means that it should be mostly finished by now and it’s just a matter of developers cleaning up whatever bugs remain. So, hopefully the game is feeling good by now, yes? Well, if the demo being shown at Tokyo Game Show 2022 is any indication, it absolutely is.

As fans might or might not be expecting, Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII Reunion is basically a remastered port coming to PC, PlayStation, Xbox and Switch. It’s looking like a well-done enhanced remaster, but one can still see that the environments and characters aren’t on the same level as Final Fantasy VII Remake. They don’t look bad or anything; it looks like a modern game, just not on the same level. Though it did seem to run somewhere around sixty frames during most gameplay.

Another point in its favor is just how well the original Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII’s combat has been translated to a standard controller format. Features like the limit-break slot machine that’s constantly running during battle may have been designed to compensate for the PSP’s shortcomings (remember that it only had one thumbstick), but it nonetheless feels totally natural here.

Crisis Core Final Fantasy VII Reunion - Zack Combat 1

Everything about controlling Zack felt natural and intuitive. Fights in this demo had a nice, fluid feeling to them thanks to how easily one could move Zack around the battlefield and access his skills. Anyone who’s played an action RPG before should have no trouble at all picking this one up.

As for that slot machine function, it’s not as make-or-break as one might initially expect when it comes to content. Zack can do plenty of work on his own thanks to plenty of magic attacks and his powerful sword swings. To be frank, it was easy to forget about the slot machine entirely while fighting through this demo. It was only when a “jackpot” was hit that one was reminded of its presence, and any damage that it did might as well have been nothing more than bonus damage. It was sometimes a lot of bonus damage, but still just a bonus since it couldn’t be relied upon.

Possible new tie-in content aside, Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII Reunion feels very much like a highly-refined version of the original. It’s incredible how well it works in a two-stick environment, and the overall presentation is still fantastic even if it’s not looking as good as its fully-remade cousin. Those that enjoyed the original will likely enjoy this new version too, and new fans should have no major problems playing their way through the story of Zack Fair and the fall of the pinnacle members of Shinra’s SOLDIER First Class.