Developer: Square Enix
Publisher: Square Enix
Platform: PC, PS4, PS5
Tested On: PC
Final Fantasy VII Remake INTERGRADE – Review
Back in 2020, the long-awaited remake of Final Fantasy VII was released. A year later, an enhanced edition containing a side story came to PS5 and the Epic Games Store. Now, this enhanced edition has finally been released on Steam. Here is what it contains. As we have covered this version on PS5 before, we will focus on the contents of the “Intermission” DLC and overall technical details. A review of the base game can be found by clicking here.
Taking place during the events of the base game’s first act, Intermission follows Yuffie Kisaragi, a Wutaian ninja tasked with stealing Shinra’s Ultimate Materia. Soon after her arrival in Midgar, Yuffie joins up with Avalanche and her mission partner, Sonon. What follows is a quick succession of events, where the main duo acquires IDs to infiltrate the Shinra building, only to get caught by Scarlet and they are ultimately put through a gauntlet of trials.
For those who didn’t play the original game back on the PS1, it is worth noting that Yuffie was a secret character that didn’t participate in the story. Despite this, she went on to become a fan favorite, which eventually led to her getting her own DLC in the remake.
Intermission’s gameplay is somewhat different from the base game, as it doesn’t allow players to swap between their characters freely. Instead, Yuffie and Sonon have the ability to synergize, attacking the same enemy and quickly stacking damage on them. Additionally, Yuffie’s kit allows for ranged and melee gameplay, being capable of throwing her weapon and following up with magical ninjutsu or teleporting to it.
Unlike the base game, Intermission’s world is much more linear. During the first act, players will have some freedom to explore the slums, enter shops, and participate in the available side-quests. That being said, even with these options, the town mostly just serves as a hub to return to, not offering much more than a pitstop between story sections. The later act is even more egregious with its linearity, only providing constant progression and no quests or other manners of alternative entertainment.
Other than that, Intermission also introduces a brand new minigame, dubbed Fort Condor. In this minigame, players will be tasked with deploying troops in order to destroy the rival’s towers. While the gameplay is simple, both contenders also possess spells to affect the deployed creatures, on top of a rock-paper-scissors system. To put it simply, Fort Condor is a riff on Clash Royale adapted for Final Fantasy.
The quest involving said minigame will see players battling familiar characters from the main story in increasingly difficult Fort Condor duels. In order to prepare for the harder challenges, players will be able to purchase new units, as well as acquire unique boards with different properties. These properties will change the selection of spells, max energy (required to summon units), and more. While the mini ame isn’t particularly challenging besides the last battle, those playing in the harder difficulties will also have to face scaled-up encounters.
With gameplay out of the way, it is worth mentioning the PC release runs less than flawlessly. Besides wonky default settings, poor optimization leads the game to stutter and suffer from frame drops, even on high-end machines. To top this off, the graphical settings lack any sort of depth, barely providing options for anything besides textures and shadows.
Conclusion
Although the base game is still as enjoyable as when it was first released, the Intermission DLC is simply a bit more content for those who already enjoy the game. Those looking to purchase the game on PC will find all currently available content for the FFVII Remake here. That being said, console gamers may still prefer to pick it up on PS5, as we suspect some of the issues mentioned above will not be present there. All in all, this is still a great game and it’s definitely worth looking into if you’re a fan of the original, or simply a fan of the Final Fantasy games.
Personal Opinion
“FF7 Remake is a very good game, both on PlayStation and PC. While it’s a shame the optimization is as bad as it is, the overall content of the game does compensate for it. The extra content added with Intermission is also entertaining, and it’s just a bit more of this world to experience. Beating the DLC in normal mode will run players around 4 to 5 hours, which is not particularly long. This also includes clearing all the side-quests.”
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