Cloud’s buster sword is one of Crisis Core showed the sword had a legacy before Cloud ever wielded it, and that it was the franchise’s ultimate hand-me-down weapon. The remastered Crisis Core: Final Fantasy 7 – Reunion followed the same story beats as the PSP original, chronicling the rise and fall of SOLDIER First Class Zack Fair. Cloud also appears in Crisis Core, as the game sets up the story of FF7. Those who missed Crisis Core’s PSP version might have been surprised to learn that Cloud was not the first wielder of the Buster Sword, and neither was Zack.
[Warning: The following article contains spoilers for Crisis Core: Final Fantasy 7 - Reunion.]
Players should quickly acclimate to where Crisis Core takes place in FF7’s timeline. The game depicts the final stages of the war between the Shinra Corporation and the nation of Wutai, an event only referenced as backstory in FF7. Although the anti-Shinra rebellion of Avalanche is mentioned in Crisis Core, the game’s conflict deals with rogue Shinra . Zack is mentored by veteran SOLDIER First Class Angeal Hewley, who was a close friend of Sephiroth and Genesis, other of Shinra’s genetically modified strike force. Players see the Buster Sword very early on in the game, but it is rarely used in battle for good reason.
The FF7 Buster Sword Changed Hands Twice Before Reaching Cloud
Angeal and Genesis both hailed from the small town of Banora, and though Genesis grew up rich and Angeal was poor, the two were friends. When Angeal ed the prestigious SOLDIER program, his father borrowed money to pay for the custom-forged blade. In the original FF7 Cloud used many other non-Buster Sword weapons, and the Buster Sword was the weak starting weapon. In Crisis Core, Angeal treats the Buster Sword with reverence, keeping it on his back but rarely using it in battle to avoid wear and tear on the blade. This suggests the Buster Sword is a superior weapon relative to the generic swords given to SOLDIER .
Zack questions Angeal’s reluctance to use the massive Buster Sword he carries more often and learns some of Angeal’s history and the sentimental significance of the sword. Angeal’s father left him the legacy of the Buster Sword, but his mother, Gillian Hewley, provided a more important inheritance. Gillian worked with Shinra scientist Hollander on Project G, wherein she was injected with cells from the alien Jenova. This ed the Jenova cells on to Angeal, and Gillian’s cells were also injected into Genesis. Jenova cells were also injected into Sephiroth, making Jenova Sephiroth’s mother figure in FF7, in his mind, as he never knew his human mother, Lucretia Crescent.
The two experiments to merge Jenova’s cells with humans were split into Hojo’s Sephiroth experiment, Project S, and Hollander’s experiments with Angeal and Genesis, Project G. Crisis Core shows both Angeal and Genesis undergoing unexpected physical changes which provide strange new powers, but also degrade their bodies. Shinra selected Hojo over Hollander for its lead scientist, possibly due to the perceived failure of Project G. Genesis allies with Hollander to take revenge on Shinra, and the scientist promises to use his expertise to stabilize Genesis’ body. Angeal ends up ing Genesis and Hollander, after learning the truth of the experiments.
The Buster Sword Symbolizes A Legacy Of Honor & Friendship In Crisis Core
Before Angeal dies, he gives the Buster Sword to Zack, while also ing on his sense of honor and his dreams for the future. Some might debate whether Zack or Cloud is the best FF7 hero in the franchise, but in Crisis Core, Cloud owes everything to Zack. The game’s ending shows a mortally wounded Zack repeating Angeal’s actions from earlier in the story, as he es the Buster Sword, and his dreams, onto Cloud. Crisis Core resembles a classic John Woo “heroic bloodshed” action movie, with its emphasis on honor and the bonds of friendship between killers, and the Buster Sword is a symbol of those themes.
Although the Buster Sword is not the strongest weapon in FF7, the imagery of the improbably large, mostly blunt weapon is part of the game’s identity. In Crisis Core the Buster Sword goes beyond a unique design, as the weapon carries emotional weight, symbolizing the hopes and dreams of both Angeal and Zack which Cloud inherits in FF7. The Buster Sword changed hands repeatedly in Crisis Core, before leaving Cloud with a complex legacy borne of friendship, honor, and human experimentation, setting up his unique origins in Final Fantasy 7.
Source: Final Fantasy/YouTube