Crisis Core: Final Fantasy 7 Reunionmakes a classic PSP game much more widely accessible after fifteen years, while also remastering the graphics in order to make it more in line with theFinal Fantasy 7 Remakeproject. Players can once again step into Midgar as SOLDIER operative Zack Fair and discover all the skeletons in Shinra’s closet. While meeting up with iconic characters like Sephiroth, Aerith, and Cloud, players get to watch as the origin story for Square Enix’s classic RPG unfolds before their eyes.
However, not everything inCrisis Core: Final Fantasy 7 Reunionis a good time for players. The main villain of the game, Genesis Rhapsodos, is a character players either love or hate, who can always be heard quoting a book of poems known as Loveless in all of his cutscenes at least once. While this is a source of annoyance for many players, the poetry Genesis reads plays a big role inCrisis Core’sstory as well as his own motivations. Just like in the game, there are numerous theories as to what the book means for the characters.
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Crisis Core: Final Fantasy 7 Reunion - Understanding Loveless
There’s quite a bit of lore to the book of poems that fans may overlook thanks to Genesis' constant quotations. Thebook Genesis reads fromis how the story begins, told in a poetic format. It’s a tale about three friends who went into battle to find the “gift of the goddess.” The story says that “one was captured, one flew away,” and “the one that is left becomes a hero.” Loveless is said to be a rather old tale, as it’s studied and debated by scholars and fans alike as to what the epic truly means. This is made even more interesting to Loveless fanatics as the last act has been lost to time, so fans can only speculate as to how the story ends.
The Hero, Prisoner, and Traveler in Crisis Core: Final Fantasy 7 Reunion
Genesis' love for the story is important because when he learns exactly he is, anexperiment with Jenova’s cellsthat failed, he turns to Loveless to cope with it. He actively tries to reenact the story through himself, Angeal, and Sephiroth. This is why he challenges Angeal to a duel when the two of them. Genesis purposefully forces all three of them into the roles of friends in the story, with Genesis as the “hero,” Angeal as the “traveler,” and Sephiroth as the “prisoner.”
The “gift of the goddess” in Genesis' reenactment is Jenova’s cells, which all three of them have been infused with before birth. This is why when his first attempt to recreate Loveless fails; he tries again with Zack, carrying Sephiroth’s Jenova cells, who begrudgingly assists him with his efforts. When Genesis and Zack fight one last time, he says that Zack represents both Angeal and Sephiroth through the Jenova cells now within Zack, as well as his ownership ofAngeal’s Buster Sword. According to the developers in the “Crisis Core Complete Guide,” the battle makes Genesis realize that he isn’t the “hero,” but the prisoner, and that revelation is what gives him his “gift of the goddess” before he dies.
However, one other interpretation is that Loveless could also relate to the three main players in the Nibelheim incident that kickstart the events ofFinal Fantasy 7itself. While they can’t be considered friends per se, Zack could be seen as the traveler, Sephiroth as the prisoner, and Cloud as the hero. Sephiroth could be seen as imprisoned by the Jenova cells inside him after howCrisis Corereveals that the truth of his creation drove him insane, Zack “flew away” to heaven upon being gunned down, andCloud remained and became the heroof the world.
There’s a chance that this isn’t meant to be the case, though, as Zack is now back from the dead in what appears to be analternate timeline as ofFinal Fantasy 7 Remake. Thankfully for those who weren’t a fan of the Loveless story in CCFF7R, Genesis has fulfilled his wish in reenacting Loveless and finding the “gift of the goddess,” so perhaps the character won’t be found quoting it as much if he returns in theRemakeProject.
Crisis Core: Final Fantasy Reunionis available now on Nintendo Switch, PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
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