Crisis Core Reunion trophy guide: missable trophies and platinum tips

Crisis Core Final Fantasy VII Reunion's platinum trophy can be something of a grind for PS5 and PS4 players. To help, we've compiled a quick trophy guide with tips you can use to streamline your path to the Crisis Core platinum.

As we warned in our Crisis Core Final Fantasy VII Reunion review, and as you'll no doubt have noticed while scanning the game's trophy list, Crisis Core Reunion's platinum trophy can be a relentless grind. That said, the game isn't exactly on the same level as the hardest platinum trophies on PS Plus — Crisis Core can be platinumed with just a little bit of advice. To make your trophy-hunting experience that bit easier, we've highlighted some of the game's easiest trophies to miss, and where you might be able to save yourself the most time as you gun for that Crisis Core platinum.

Zack Fair, Gongaga's trophy extraordinaire.

Crisis Core Reunion's missable trophies require planning

Crisis Core Final Fantasy VII Reunion trophies are riddled with missables — nearly one for every chapter of the game. Sometimes, even if you know what to expect, you might still miss a bronze trophy due to bad luck in a rhythm minigame or accidentally talking to Sephiroth a little early. That's why we'll give you the most important advice right off the bat: Make a clean save file at the start of each of Crisis Core Reunion's chapters.

It's remarkably easy to let one of the machines escape in the sniping minigame and blow your chance at earning Zach the Sniper, and it's equally easy to just entirely miss the perfume minigame required to unlock Master Blender (which will impact another trophy we'll get to shortly). Each chapter can be relatively short, so it's not usually a big deal to breeze through and try for these shorter trophies, but it can be gutting if your last closest save was three chapters back.

If you're a good boyfriend for Aerith, there's a trophy in it for you.

Aerith's affections are a fickle flame to fan

Look, this isn't a spoiler, but it is a hidden trophy, so avert your gaze if you somehow intend to work this one out for yourself. The description of the Good Match for Aerith trophy does not reveal just what a pain this particular trophy can be — only that you need to be told by Bruno that you and Aerith "make a good couple." Not only is this completely missable, but a few wrong steps without an extra save file on hand and this one will need doing all over again.

In Chapter 4, while in the Slums Market area (in which a boy named Bruno robs you of your wallet), you'll be invisibly judged on Aerith's affection towards you as you complete a series of optional, mundane tasks. Without any foreknowledge, you'll want to get this invisible counter up to 75 affection points, then complete the chapter. If your former wallet thief thinks you're a good match for Aerith in a later cutscene, the trophy's yours.

Here's everything you need to do to win Aerith's affection in Chapter 4

Once you've been robbed, ask at the three shops if they've seen Bruno
Ask the little girl if she has seen Bruno, then wait ten times
Give the little boy in the market five potions (buy some from the shop in the menu if you need some)
Choose the second option each time you talk to Aerith
After retrieving the wallet, pick up the Materia for the shop owner fast enough to unlock the Godlike trophy
Create the perfect perfect three times. This will unlock the Master Blender trophy for completing once. You'll want to save before trying, as a bad attempt can lose you Aerith's affection

Vitally important: this is "the kid."

The Seven Wonders of Nibelheim and its invisible flags

If you're not entirely au fait with game development lingo (is anyone, really?), a "flag" in a game is a condition or value that, once met by the player, 'flags' to another component in the game that it can now activate or move forward. Perhaps the most prominent example of a flag in single-player games like Crisis Core is whenever you move your character over a certain invisible line in the stage, triggering a cutscene. When this happens, you've flagged to the game that you are in a certain spot, and now the game state can progress.

This can be utterly infuriating when you're trying to collect trophies in games like The Last of Us Part 1, for example, as you're never quite sure when you're about to step over an invisible flag into a new cutscene and accidentally leave a bunch of collectables behind. This is something Crisis Core Reunion players are going to want to be exceptionally wary of when hunting down the Seven Wonders Expert trophy.

In the game's eighth chapter, Zach and company will visit Nibelheim, kicking off the spoiler-riddled portion of the game that has us recommending you play the Final Fantasy VII games in release order. There, you'll find a kid who references the Seven Wonders of Nibelheim — a sidequest you might miss if you choose to talk to Sephiroth in the local inn and trip one of this chapter's various irreversible flags. To help, and without spoiling the solution to each wonder, here's how to avoid tripping the flags.

You'll want to avoid seeing this scene for as long as possible.

How to avoid the invisible flags throughout Nibelheim's Seven Wonders

Mystery #1: You will be bombarded with cutscenes upon arriving at Nibelheim, including a jarring photo montage of your trip. When these conclude, Sephiroth will gesture for you to rest up at the inn. Instead, go talk to the kid standing about Nibelheim and follow the simple instructions to get one step closer to unlocking Limit Break Collector.
Mystery #2: You'll need to go into the inn to solve this one about the ghost girl. Whatever you do, do not talk to Sephiroth while you're here — just skooch past him a few times while you solve this. (If you need a hint for this... don't leave the inn.)
Mystery #3: Keep ignoring Sephiroth for this one — I promise you can chat later. Simply exit the inn, head up the mountain to find the three kids talking about a mystery, and then solve it while you're out there.
Mystery #4: While you're out and about, find the entrance to Shinra Manor outside the town on one of the alternative paths before you head up the mountain. This mystery, involving the combination of a safe upstairs, can be solved before the story forces you to visit the manor. Figure out the code, unlock the safe, then head back to the kid in town to wrap that up.
Mystery #5: Finally, you can talk to Sephiroth — after a misadventure up and down the mountain, you'll eventually land back at Shinra Manor. Head into the basement, but ignore the far down at the end of the catacombs. There are two other doors much closer to your starting point — the mystery pertains to these rooms. Leave the manor and confirm the mystery with the kid before opening that last door.
Mystery #6: Later, when everything is on fire, go talk to the kid in the square. Do not leave the square until this mystery is finished.
Mystery #7: When Zack and Cloud return to town (after much plot happens) to find everything eerily no longer on fire, go talk to the kid one last time. Do not leave town until you find the solution — finally, the trophy is yours.

Your biggest fan.

Joining fan clubs and receiving mail

Perhaps the most tedious trophy in the game is Mail Completionist, which requires you to receive at least one message from each individual sender in the game. Not only will this require you to more-or-less complete all of Crisis Core's missions for the Mission Completionist trophy, but some mail senders are completely missable if you're not on the ball.

Two missable senders are the Reporter and the Wonder Hunter. In Chapter 5, the reporter can be found in Sector 8 (use the map to highlight any side quests). Once confronted, make sure to let the reporter go — that way, he'll send you mail for the rest of the game. The Wonder Hunter is the name of the kid we just described in Nibelheim, who will send you a message after you finish finding all the wonders.

Aside from these two, there are five more missable senders, all of which are interlinked with the Fan Club Savior and Fan Club Aficionado trophies. To make sure all bases are covered, you're best unlocking these trophies together in the same playthrough to avoid missing any mail. We've included a quick rundown on how to complete the fan club sidequests below, just to make sure you don't miss out.

Keep in the loop with these diehards and you're in the running for three trophies.

How to unlock Crisis Core's fan club trophies and mail

There are three fan clubs you can join from Chapter 2 onwards: Red Leather, Keepers of Honor, and Study Group. All three can be found dotted around Sector 8 and you'll get mail after agreeing to join. If you miss your chance, you can still join in Chapter 3 and Chapter 7.
There is a fourth fan club, Silver Elite, which you can join in Chapter 5 by answering a lady's Sephiroth quiz correctly in the park in Sector 6. You'll need to make sure you're in this club to unlock both trophies.
The secret Zach Fan Club is the most easily missed. In Chapter 6, after defending Junon from the mechs (which can earn you the Immovable Object trophy) and the General's Tank, you can find an elevator outside the shelter which takes you to Cissnei. Talk to her, then the receptionist at the Shinra Building during Chapter 7, and you're in the club. You can earn Fan Club Savior without doing any of this.
That's all you have to do to unlock the mail, but to unlock Fan Club Aficionado you'll need to repair the fan clubs in Chapter 7. Simply talk to all the above club members dotted around Sectors 5 and 8 and, eventually, this will pop.

While there are plenty more trophies to earn that will require a little extra attention, this should be more than enough to help get your start on your Crisis Core Reunion trophy-hunting adventures. Fans of Crisis Core Final Fantasy VII on PSP are sure to have further advantages here, so feel free to share any additional tips and details (without spoilers please) in the comments below!

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Written by Lee Brady

News Editor Lee covers the latest upcoming PS5 games like Ghost of Yotei while making sure PlayStation Plus’ classic PS1 and PS2 games are given enough respect. Lee leads the charge on our original data analysis courtesy of Game Lens. His 25 years of PlayStation experience compliments his love of Final Fantasy, Kingdom Hearts, and Sonic the Hedgehog.