Redo the characterization entirely. The game introduced a bunch of new potentially interesting characters and killed them off before even meagerly establishing them. SE did a terrible job with characterization, with Zack being the only exception, and Genesis being the most notorious example. The sympathetic depiction didn't match up with his actions; he slaughtered the people who cared about him for no reason and obsessively quoted a book that had nothing to do with anything; I'm not gonna feel sorry for the guy when I slice him up. Lazard even lampshaded the nonsensical Loveless quotations in the end, and Zack, like the viewer, was completely confused by the actions of the other characters. "I'M A MONSTER. Let's go fuck shit up and whine about honor." Where's the thought provoking moral conflict, aside from the notion that human experimentation is bad and that fame distances people from others? A lot of the issues could have been resolved if Crisis Core had been an actual 40 hour game instead of a weak string of events and a morass of generic missions - then again, Before Crisis had only 20 hours of gameplay as well and didn't have these crippling characterization issues. I was also disappointed to see the gritty slum riddled with class struggle watered down to the extent that it was - let's see a bit more of that sadness, violence, and suffering that fueled Lazard's pathos. Didn't like Cissnei's character interpretation either, but that is probably more of a personal preference/textboxes don't fully capture intended mannerisms/personality.
On a more positive note, in terms of the bromance, I enjoyed the first interaction between Zack and Cloud and the nice immersive use of game lore "If a reactor's there and it ain't Midgar, must be nothin' else out there," and how the tinkering of gameplay mechanics was used to the advantage of the storytelling during the last scenes. I thought the concept of legacies and living on through others was a great start, but fell short because it had no backbone in this story. And I do think the mass insanity of the 1st Classes put a bit of context to Sephiroth's rampage. But aside from Zack and Seph, nothing to see here really. Overall I enjoyed Crisis Core for what it was worth, but it felt like a game that wrongly assumed we would relate to the characters and came out as nonsensical and melodramatic instead.
) but I know that his cells were used to create the Tsviets (?). But plot-wise does that bit matter so much? I suppose it could well be said that Shinra just created a different SOLDIER type for those.