Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII › Guides

Crisis Core Squats Minigame: Squatting Rewards & Tips

by Alex Donaldson on 12 December, 2022

Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII brings back many elements present in the original FF7 for nostalgia’s sake - and thus it’s perhaps unsurprising to see the return of a Squatting minigame, since there was a Squat-off in Wall Market in the original.

Consider this short guide everything you need to know about the Crisis Core squat minigame, including the Squatting Rewards and an explanation of exactly how this little mechanic works. You'll be able to undertake squatting up until the end of Chapter 7 (Crisis Core Reunion) or Chapter 8 (PSP), when you head to Nibelheim. After that, the location where the mini game is becomes unavailable.

Crisis Core Squat Minigame Tips

The Squatting minigame is an iconic piece of Crisis Core, but it's difficult.

The Crisis Core Squatting minigame is available on the SOLDIER floor of Shinra HQ from Chapter 5. At that point, you’ll be able to head into the Training Room and chat to one of the scientists about testing your physical fitness.

The way the mini-game functions is pretty simple - you’ll just need to press the action button to squat with the correct timing to perform squats one after the other. The button varies depending on the platform you’re playing Crisis Core on:

  • PSP: Cross
  • PS4/5: Triangle
  • Xbox: Y 
  • Switch: X

The challenge is that the squats will gradually get faster over time, making the timing tighter and keeping up even more difficult.

In Crisis Core Reunion on modern platforms, the controller will vibrate along with the correct timing window to press the squat button. On PSP you don’t have this, but I also found that this is incredibly useful on the slower squats, but as soon as it gets super fast the vibration is no longer helpful - and actually might make matters worse.

The key is to press the button when Zack’s arms are stretched far behind him, right as he’s about to hit the bottom of the current squat. Using rhythm, keep pressing even when the camera angle briefly changes to signify Zack getting pumped and speeding up. 

It’s important to only press once each time, as multi-presses will reset the process. 

In fact, any miss will reset the process, making Zack slow again and reducing the number of squats you can perform inside the time limit. More squats - and therefore less mistakes - are required for each subsequent opponent.

Crisis Core Squatting Rewards

The Crisis Core Squatting rewards will tie into another side quest.

If you’re wondering what you get for this slightly frustrating minigame, well… it’s so-so on the rewards front. There’s four different opponents, each carrying a different squatting reward:

  • Shinra Infantryman - Shinra Lunch Cart Specs
  • Shinra Captain - Shinra Ceramic
  • SOLDIER 3rd Class - Shinra Treads
  • SOLDIER 2nd Class - Shinra Solder

You’ll be able to beat the first few opponents by making a mistake or two - but the last opponent requires extreme concentration, and you’ll need in excess of fifty squats to beat them at a minimum.

Squatting nets you four items, as noted above - all of which are useful when you’re building a Flower Cart for Aerith. This is a required activity, but the quality of what you build and Aerith’s reaction depends on the items you provide. Completing this mini-game, therefore, helps you to do better - but it’s by no means required.

In Crisis Core Reunion, you’ll also get a Trophy or Achievement for finishing all four levels of the Squatting minigame.