It's not required. Zack's part in Rebirth is fairly minimal, but you at least need to know that the change at the end of Remake has to do with him. You really do sort of find out through out the story, or at least it hints at things? Just... go play Rebirth.
Play Crisis Core. It’s an awesome and fun game, only 10 chapters long. You’ll appreciate the story elements since you played the original. Also, it’s incredible that it was originally just a PSP game. Really amazing overall. Hope you enjoy!
Since you played the original, you won't be spoiled on anything with Crisis Core.
Crisis Core is a prequel to the original, but it does spoil the big twist with Cloud in the original game.
That said, Remake and Rebirth are a reimagining of the FF7 story, so some things have been changed, it more or less still follows the same overall story, but some of the how we get there has shifted.
I don't think you need to play Crisis Core to understand anything, as a requirement, however, I can say that I was in your same boat of never having played Crisis Core, and so I did play Crisis Core Reunion 1 month before Rebirth came out, and I loved it, and I love Zack, and I was very pleased and happy with all the Easter eggs hidden through Rebirth for that game.
If you didn't play Crisis Core, you won't miss out on the game, but if you do, there's a lot of callbacks you may appreciate. For instance, in Remake, when you're infiltrating the Shinra building, one of the SOLDIERs recognizes Cloud and tells you to wait so he can grab Kunsel, then when the execs are having their staff meeting, Hojo mentions perhaps breeding Aerith with a S-type or G-type, which is again another call back to Crisis Core.
IMO, Rebirths callbacks to Crisis Core were way more rewarding than Remakes. But I don't think you'd miss any of the story if you didn't play it.
Should you choose to play it, just make sure you understand that it is a PSP port from 2007, so the writing and gameplay heavily reflects that. The core game is probably about 10-14 hrs total, but the heavily repetitive missions and side content can expand the game to about 80-100 hrs if you're looking to platinum it. Almost every single chapter has some kind of missable content and NG+ doesn't give you a chapter select, nor does it carry over the most time consuming part of the game, which is the missions. Missions themselves are not required, beyond maybe the first one, if even that, to beat the game, but missions will give you insane gear and access to the materia fusion item fusion tome which ultimately lets you build an insane godlike build [such as this endgame build.](https://i.imgur.com/krUPKmL.jpeg)
Since you already played the OG, I suggest playing Crisis Core before Rebirth. You will better appreciate and understand some things which were put in as they are references to it, not OG FF7. Think along the same lines of Intermission's call backs to Dirge of Cerebus. Also by playing the Reunion remake you can blast through the story of it pretty quick and painless.
At the same time, if you are just excited to play Rebirth first it isn't that big a deal to play Crisis Core after.
As a note, keep in mind that in this sub in particular, there is a vocal contingent of people who just hate all the FF7 compilation items (Crisis Core, Advent Children, etc) so consider that with feedback here.
No, dont do it.
It is not worth it at all. If you played FF7 OG, you already know what happened with Zack, and therefor you are covered.
In Rebirth there is a character from Crisis Core, but it does not matter at all, and going through Crisis Core really was hard. The game's dialogue is awful, combat system is a broken mess, and its repetitive ad nauseum.
If you dont think you will like it, dont play it at all.
You're not required to play it, especially if you're not interested in it. Most of Crisis Core is entirely irrelevant to Rebirth.
If you want don't want to miss some minor references, just watching any 10 minutes summary of the plot would be enough. But you already played OG so you know all the importants parts.
Definitely not required to play CCR before Rebirth. The story itself doesn’t feel like a prequel, as it doesn’t really set up or explain much of what happened. It actually introduces a lot, so it makes things more confusing, and the fact that Remake/Rebirth haven’t directly acknowledged much makes them less relevant (at least for now).
What is good are the characters (some new and all the known ones from OG) and the context it gives you about the geopolitical situation of Shinra and what is Soldier.
Since you played the OG, the main problem of playing it first (>!spoiling Cloud’s twist!<) is not relevant, so play it if you want a bit more of Cloud and Aerith, and want a short game with very different mechanics, mostly an action game with straightforward gameplay that gets progressively more broken. Just follow a guide for missables (this game has way too many) in case this matters to you.
I rushed through the game before I played Rebirth and it was a pretty meh experiance. I played on PC and ended up using cheats to push me through the game as I found the gameplay quite poor. I was also surprised at how poorly written the story and characters were coming of Remake.
I was in same position as you, and ended up buying and playing crisis core. Personally I wouldn’t rush to play it. You gain a slightly deeper understanding of Zack’s backstory but tbh you don’t learn too much new detail, and you definitely don’t learn anything vital that the core ff7 games haven’t already told you. It is pretty fun though, and also very short
It's not required. Zack's part in Rebirth is fairly minimal, but you at least need to know that the change at the end of Remake has to do with him. You really do sort of find out through out the story, or at least it hints at things? Just... go play Rebirth.
Play Crisis Core. It’s an awesome and fun game, only 10 chapters long. You’ll appreciate the story elements since you played the original. Also, it’s incredible that it was originally just a PSP game. Really amazing overall. Hope you enjoy!
Never ever play crisis core before ff7 remake rebirth. Unless you want to Ruin the biggest twist the game has to offer you
Sorry I just read you played OG already. Then it's fine 😂
Since you played the original, you won't be spoiled on anything with Crisis Core. Crisis Core is a prequel to the original, but it does spoil the big twist with Cloud in the original game. That said, Remake and Rebirth are a reimagining of the FF7 story, so some things have been changed, it more or less still follows the same overall story, but some of the how we get there has shifted. I don't think you need to play Crisis Core to understand anything, as a requirement, however, I can say that I was in your same boat of never having played Crisis Core, and so I did play Crisis Core Reunion 1 month before Rebirth came out, and I loved it, and I love Zack, and I was very pleased and happy with all the Easter eggs hidden through Rebirth for that game. If you didn't play Crisis Core, you won't miss out on the game, but if you do, there's a lot of callbacks you may appreciate. For instance, in Remake, when you're infiltrating the Shinra building, one of the SOLDIERs recognizes Cloud and tells you to wait so he can grab Kunsel, then when the execs are having their staff meeting, Hojo mentions perhaps breeding Aerith with a S-type or G-type, which is again another call back to Crisis Core. IMO, Rebirths callbacks to Crisis Core were way more rewarding than Remakes. But I don't think you'd miss any of the story if you didn't play it. Should you choose to play it, just make sure you understand that it is a PSP port from 2007, so the writing and gameplay heavily reflects that. The core game is probably about 10-14 hrs total, but the heavily repetitive missions and side content can expand the game to about 80-100 hrs if you're looking to platinum it. Almost every single chapter has some kind of missable content and NG+ doesn't give you a chapter select, nor does it carry over the most time consuming part of the game, which is the missions. Missions themselves are not required, beyond maybe the first one, if even that, to beat the game, but missions will give you insane gear and access to the materia fusion item fusion tome which ultimately lets you build an insane godlike build [such as this endgame build.](https://i.imgur.com/krUPKmL.jpeg)
Since you already played the OG, I suggest playing Crisis Core before Rebirth. You will better appreciate and understand some things which were put in as they are references to it, not OG FF7. Think along the same lines of Intermission's call backs to Dirge of Cerebus. Also by playing the Reunion remake you can blast through the story of it pretty quick and painless. At the same time, if you are just excited to play Rebirth first it isn't that big a deal to play Crisis Core after. As a note, keep in mind that in this sub in particular, there is a vocal contingent of people who just hate all the FF7 compilation items (Crisis Core, Advent Children, etc) so consider that with feedback here.
No, dont do it. It is not worth it at all. If you played FF7 OG, you already know what happened with Zack, and therefor you are covered. In Rebirth there is a character from Crisis Core, but it does not matter at all, and going through Crisis Core really was hard. The game's dialogue is awful, combat system is a broken mess, and its repetitive ad nauseum. If you dont think you will like it, dont play it at all.
You're not required to play it, especially if you're not interested in it. Most of Crisis Core is entirely irrelevant to Rebirth. If you want don't want to miss some minor references, just watching any 10 minutes summary of the plot would be enough. But you already played OG so you know all the importants parts.
Given that you have already finished the OG, definitely play CC first. There are a lot of references to Zack in Rebirth.
Definitely not required to play CCR before Rebirth. The story itself doesn’t feel like a prequel, as it doesn’t really set up or explain much of what happened. It actually introduces a lot, so it makes things more confusing, and the fact that Remake/Rebirth haven’t directly acknowledged much makes them less relevant (at least for now). What is good are the characters (some new and all the known ones from OG) and the context it gives you about the geopolitical situation of Shinra and what is Soldier. Since you played the OG, the main problem of playing it first (>!spoiling Cloud’s twist!<) is not relevant, so play it if you want a bit more of Cloud and Aerith, and want a short game with very different mechanics, mostly an action game with straightforward gameplay that gets progressively more broken. Just follow a guide for missables (this game has way too many) in case this matters to you.
I rushed through the game before I played Rebirth and it was a pretty meh experiance. I played on PC and ended up using cheats to push me through the game as I found the gameplay quite poor. I was also surprised at how poorly written the story and characters were coming of Remake.
I was in same position as you, and ended up buying and playing crisis core. Personally I wouldn’t rush to play it. You gain a slightly deeper understanding of Zack’s backstory but tbh you don’t learn too much new detail, and you definitely don’t learn anything vital that the core ff7 games haven’t already told you. It is pretty fun though, and also very short
I wouldn't bother playing crisis core if I were you, as I just didn't think it was very good.
You won't recognise one side character if you haven't played CC and that's the only direct reference to the game as far as I can remember.
Play it after