My Favorite and Least Favorite Things in Crisis Core: Reunion

Plot and Setting

• Favorite main quest: Nibelheim—all of it! I loved seeing the Nibelheim incident from Zack's perspective (which I assume is more accurate than Cloud's screwed-up memories of it). Chapter 8 was, hands down, the best chapter in the entire game.
• Least favorite main quest: I did not enjoy the seemingly-endless quest to build Aerith a flower wagon. I felt like it ruined the game's pacing.
• Favorite side quests: The Costa del Sol missions were hilarious, although they kind of made me feel sorry for Zack. When will he finally get a decent vacation with some real, uninterrupted fun in the sun?
• Least favorite side quest: I skipped the extra side quests to upgrade Aerith's flower wagon, because I felt like I'd wasted too much time on the main one.

Characters

• Favorite character introduced in the game: Lazard! While I really liked Angeal and found Genesis's theatrics highly entertaining, I've had a huge weakness for Lazard since months before I started playing this game, simply because I think he's gorgeous. Sure, every major male character in this game other than Hojo and Hollander is good-looking, but none of the others made me sigh like (pre-Angeal-copy) Lazard with that long golden hair. Even Sephiroth isn't quite as beautiful, in my opinion. Lazard's style is also really cool, and he has excellent taste in glasses. (If I ever need glasses, I want a pair that look like his. They look so elegant, as does everything else he wears.) Whenever I battled, I kept hoping that the DMW clip featuring him would replay, just so I could admire his beauty.
  My second favorite would have to be Genesis. Although I felt like, in some ways, he was too much of a Sephiroth expy, I loved that, personality-wise, he was essentially a wannabe theater kid who let his obsession with his favorite play consume his life. (As a former wannabe theater kid, I can relate to the frustration of a love for theater that is neither requited nor consummated.) He was a lot of fun to watch and also gorgeous, although Lazard is more my current type.
• Least favorite character introduced in the game: I found Bruno rather annoying.
• Most improved character: Yuffie, by far. I actually thought she was cute and funny this time instead of just annoying, probably because what's cute in a child of nine is annoying coming from a sixteen-year-old (and I don't even like children all that much). And although I've always liked Tseng, I grew even fonder of him while playing this game. I can see why Rufus chose him as his boyfriend, and I don't care if that isn't canon, because they're perfect for each other. Also, although he will probably never be one of my favorites, I enjoyed getting to know Sephiroth as he was before he went off the rails. He was actually a pretty cool guy.
• Most derailed character: I actually found Aerith more annoying than Yuffie in this one, and I usually like Aerith. I blame it on the long, drawn-out flower wagon quest which sapped so much momentum out of the game.
• Best (dub) voice actors: Zack's English VA was perfect. I also loved the way that Genesis's dub actor chewed the scenery (by video game voice acting standards, at least), although I felt like he could have gotten away with being even hammier and more affected. I mean, this is a crazy overgrown theater kid wannabe we're talking about!
• Worst (dub) voice actors: I thought that the voice acting for most of the random NPCs was terrible.
• Most miscast (dub) voice actor: Lazard's VA's acting was good enough, but why does a twenty-something man who's never shown smoking sound like a 45-year-old chainsmoker? It was such an odd choice for him.
• Best fashion sense: Lazard! I want to cosplay him someday, and may even do so in real life as well. He looks so sharp! Why is it that all the men in the Shinra family, including the elder illegitimate son, have so much style? Is there some sort of Shinra style gene?
• Worst fashion sense: It's a toss-up between Dr. Hollander (although one could argue that he instead has no fashion sense) and the female NPCs with the Karen haircuts.
• Funniest NPC: The girl bragging about her uncle Don Corneo, when she calls him handsome. Sure, beauty is in the eye of the beholder and all, but Don Corneo? I think she's just biased because they're related. Although I'm not sure if it really counts as NPC dialogue given that we never see the characters who made the calls, the answering-machine recordings at the abandoned hot spring were also funny.

Gameplay

• Favorite new feature: The DMW, especially when it showed extra cutscenes of the characters. In addition to the aforementioned Lazard clip, I particularly loved the DMW scenes involving the Turks.
• Most annoying aspect of gameplay: Why the hell was it so hard to get Zack to open chests or talk to NPCs? I spent one quarter of the game running in circles and accidentally dry-humping things and people when all I wanted to do was get items or hear/read dialogue.
• Favorite enemies: I got a charge (no pun intended) out of the Shinra robots that looked like Roombas, and I loved seeing all the different breeds of Shinra tentacle dog in glorious 3D.
• Least favorite enemies: Those fucking ostriches! (I know they're not called ostriches in the game and they're supposed to be monsters that escaped from Hojo's lab, but I still think of them as ostriches.) Nothing like going on a sidequest at Level 16 and getting repeatedly pecked to death, only to return at Level 44 only for the same exact thing to happen again, as though you'd never leveled up in the first place. This game made me hate ostriches with a passion.

Miscellaneous

• Biggest disappointment: The bonus soundtrack and digital artbook, both of which were extremely short. I wish that I hadn't wasted an additional $20 or so on them (although I did find a $20 bill on the sidewalk in a touristy part of town the day after I purchased the game, so I guess, in a way, I did get my money back).
• Most baffling things: How can any of these people willingly eat Banora apples? I love apples and all, but those blue apples look disgusting! Also, when Zack says, "This is gonna stain," is he saying it to himself or to the enemy he's fighting?
• Line that's most likely to age poorly: "I'm the GOAT ninja!" (ROFL) In five years or so, that line is going to sound so cringey.