Final Fantasy VII Remake: Intergrade

While somewhat confusingly named (thanks, Nomura-san), Final Fantasy VII Remake: Intergrade is a fairly simple product. It's an expanded version of 2020's Final Fantasy VII Remake with nicer graphics, some new features like photomode and higher difficulties, as well as a short expansion chapter featuring a new character. This review will primarily cover the graphical changes and the new chapter, you can check my original review of Final Fantasy VII Remake for more baseline thoughts on whether or not you should play the game (you should, though. You really should).

The new chapter, titled Episode INTERmission, puts players in the shoes of the Wutai ninja Yuffie Kisaragi as she infiltrates Shinra HQ to steal their 'ultimate materia.' It's a relatively simple and linear heist story clocking in at aroune 4-5 hours (give or take depending on how much side content you engage with). And while it never truly hits the same was the base game's story did, it manages to stand as an appropriately bombastic introduction to a new character, while hinting at where the Remake storyline might go next.

The core gameplay loop in INTERmission is largely identical to Remake, with the player exploring self-contained hub areas looking for treasure chests, materia, and side-quest NPCs. The new addition to this loop is the tabletop game Fort Condor which, while never becoming quite as arresting as The Witcher 3's Gwent (the gold standard for distracting minigames), it remains thoroughly entertaining. The majority of the episode takes place in Midgar slums and the Shinra HQ with some lengthy action sequences taking place in the meandering passages and factories between them.

The episode takes place after the Reactor 5 bombing, during the period where Cloud goes missing. So even though it recycles content from the base game, the NPC chatter and banter felt fresh because it was getting into the thoughts of characters like Jessie, Barrett, and Tifa during a time when we didn't see what they were getting up to. If anyone was wondering how or why Tifa ended up in Don Corneo's mansion, for instance, you'll find those answers here.

Final Fantasy VII Remake's greatest strength was how it managed to put names and faces to the people of the slums and other locations that Cloud explores, and INTERmission continues that to great effect. I feel like I know Johnny, Chadley, Kyrie, etc. This really adds some gravity to late game events when these locations are put in danger because it's not just a matter of lots of people getting hurt. They are people you know, and hung out with. To use a tired old cliche, the game world feels alive.

Most of your time with INTERmission will be spent in combat, and the battle system adds some interesting (if not necessarily good) changes to the formula. Remake had you constantly switching between party members to directly control their actions, while mixing up the actual party formation to make sure things remained interesting throughout. You weren't just switching between characters, but actual movesets and playstyles.

Here, you only ever play as Yuffie, with her buddy Sonon minding his own business. You can press L2 to 'synergise' with Sonon which causes him to attack in concert with your moves and modifies your abilities to include him. These abilities look extremely cool and do great damage but Sonon's AI doesn't always do what you want him to do.

Yuffie herself has a much more diverse moveset than any of the previous characters. You can use her giant shuriken as a melee weapon by mashing the attack button, or hold the button to immediately put some distance between you and the enemy. You can throw it at an enemy to 'mark' them and then hurl elemental ninjutsu at the marked enemy from afar. You can immediately close distance between you and the enemy by pressing the throw button again to yank yourself back to the weapon like Noctis from Final Fantasy XV. Yuffie makes the game feel much more like a character action game than before, and I'm not complaining.

Visually, Final Fantasy VII Remake: Intergrade is an upgrade over the base game, though not by too much considering the game was already looking very "next gen" on the PS4. Still, there are minor changes. On PC you can run the game at native 4K resolution at up to 120 frames per second (but not unlocked, sadly). On my potato laptop from 2016, I managed to get a respectable 40-45 frames at 1080p but I preferred to lock it at 30 for consistency. The new version also packs a photomode, which is always a plus in my book, but the settings and features on offer aren't great. You can't move the camera too much within the photomode itself, but that is easily circumvented using nvidia's photo tools on PC.

Episode INTERmission feels more like a momentary distraction than a full-on new chapter in the ongoing Remake storyline, but it's a great way to flesh out Yuffie before she inevitably joins forces with Cloud and friends. The core combat and exploration is expanded in fun ways, and it serves to make me hate the Shinra characters even more than I already did. It's a great little snack for fans of Final Fantasy VII Remake, and Intergrade is a great version of the game to jump into if you missed it on consoles.

Final Fantasy VII Remake: Intergrade is out now on PC via the Epic Games Store and Steam. Review code provided by Square Enix.