Final Fantasy 7 Remake Intergrade review: discover the story of Yuffie

April 2020 saw one of the most anticipated events for fans of the RPG genre and video games in general: the release of the first part of the remake of the legendary Final Fantasy VII. Many of us had already given up hope of seeing Cloud and company with modern graphics and a story that (while maintaining its essence) presented important changes with respect to the original. It was a breath of fresh air in the midst of the pandemic and a reason to rejoice for fans of video games. Do you want to know how the facelift for its adaptation to the new generation in Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade has done?

A reinterpretation of one of the best role-playing games in history

In Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade we will find ourselves in front of the same game that we already enjoyed on our Playstation 4. We will get into the skin of Cloud, a former member of the elite section of Shinra combat: SOLDIER. Cloud is a lonely and cold person who does not like company, but thanks to a reunion with a childhood friend, Tifa, he will begin to discover that sometimes it is necessary to rely on friends to achieve your goals. A resistance group called Avalanche is confronting the large Shinra corporation, which is depleting the planet by making excessive use of Mako energy. Cloud will join this group almost unwillingly and along the way he will meet other characters that will mark the course of his story (such as Aeris or Sephirot)

Those who were looking for in Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade an exact copy of the original work with renewed graphics will be disappointed. This video game is not a remastered, but a remake that reinterprets the story in a certain way and only narrates approximately the first 5 hours of the original Playstation video game. To give you an idea, those 5 or 6 hours of the original game translate into between 30 and 40 hours in this Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade, so the additions are more than obvious. However, we will not feel at any time that the story has been artificially lengthened to reach that quota of hours. There is absolutely nothing to overdo in this remake of Final Fantasy VII and will surprise us at every step we take with mini-games (special mention to Cloud's dance disguised as a woman) or a completely new and differentiating combat system with respect to the usual classic turn-based combat of the JRPG genre.

If you want to know more details about its gameplay mechanics or about the Final Fantasy 7 remake in general, you can consult the analysis we conducted at the time of the video game's release

Same content, better graphics

Although the content of the main story remains the same (not even a comma of the script has been modified), the changes in the graphic section and the correction of some errors present in the videogame are more than evident. Much care has been put into the textures and emphasis has been placed on solving some backgrounds that gave to talk about during the launch of the game, as they never loaded and looked like a photograph pasted at low resolution. No doubt Square Enix has taken good note of the comments of the fans and wanted to do justice to one of the most beloved games of the Final Fantasy franchise. Perhaps we would have preferred that they had focused on further developing the second part of the remake, but nostalgia is knocking on our doors again and it's hard to resist anything with Final Fantasy 7 in its title

One of the main improvements present in Final Fantasy 7 Remake (apart from the correction of textures, improvements in lighting, shadows, resolution and the addition of new visual effects) is undoubtedly the loading times. The difference between one video game and another is abysmal and the new generation of consoles (in this case Playstation 5) pulls muscle and can save us more than 40 seconds of waiting to load our game. Perhaps this new generation of consoles is not characterized by having an abysmal graphical difference compared to the previous generation, but it does make a difference in terms of speed of use. You turn on the console and you are practically already playing the video game

Another compelling reason to get Final Fantasy 7 Remake Intergrade if you already played the original is the ability to play in performance mode. We can enjoy Cloud's swords and Tifa's punches at 60 frames per second, and that's always great news. The fast and spectacular fights of this title cried out for a more stable mode and now put us at the controls of the Avalanche group will be even more realistic and we will feel inside the combat

Intermission: the story of an endearing little subject hunter

Let's not fool ourselves. If we have enjoyed this Final Fantasy 7 Remake Intergrade it has been mainly because of the episode Intermission, which tells the story of Yuffie (an old acquaintance of the original game). This DLC is included for free with the game and it will also be possible to purchase it for 19.95 euros from the Playstation Store as long as we have a physical or digital copy (not worth the Playstation Plus copy) of Final Fantasy 7 Remake

The story puts us in the shoes of Yuffie, a self-proclaimed Wutai materia hunter ninja. At the beginning of the downloadable content she has just arrived in Midgar in search of a very powerful matter (the supreme matter) and before even setting foot in the city she is already missing her homeland. The events take place parallel to those narrated in Final Fantasy 7 Remake. In fact, in the early stages of the adventure we will see through a cinematic as Tifa and Barret arrive at the Seventh Heaven pub after destroying the second reactor and Cloud suffers a fall that will make him meet for the second time with Aeris in a church. In this way we learn how Tifa decides to go to Don Corneo's mansion (where she will meet Cloud again)

The combat system is very similar to that already seen in Final Fantasy Remake and will serve to familiarize us with the character of Yuffie for a second part of the Remake. The combats will offer more possibilities thanks to the shuriken (Yuffie's main weapon) that we will be able to throw at our enemies. This time Yuffie will have a partner in crime (Sonon), a fighter who was a pupil of his father in Wutai and who has decided to help our protagonist and be his ever faithful squire. This time we can not handle this character, as if we could do in Final Fantasy 7 Remake (changing for example the control between Cloud, Barret and Tifa). However, we will be able to press the L2 button to make both characters attack simultaneously or perform combined skills until we press the same button again. And we will also have access to the menu of that character and we can tell him to perform any of his skills or to heal us with an object

Yuffie's shuriken will be an important element between battles as we will be able to throw them to access boxes that would otherwise not be accessible or to move platforms or switches that allow us to advance through the stage

The story told in this episode Intermission is not at the height of what we saw in the main story, but it is true that we will have an alternative ending that will give clues to fans about the highly anticipated sequel to this historic remake. Reaching that ending will take us between 5 and 8 hours, depending on how complete we want to be. It should be noted that completing the story of Intermission also has a prize in the main story, since we will unlock a fight against a very powerful secret boss

An unexpected mini-game that fans will love

Final Fantasy 7 Remake Intergrade came to surprise us with its graphics, but we have fallen in love with its surprises. One of the most notable is the inclusion of a mini-game that could well be a short and replayable game in itself. We are talking about Fort Condor, a kind of board game within the universe of the game that, in terms of gameplay, will remind us of the tower defense or real-time strategy genre

In Fort Condor we will have access to a menu in which we will be able to deploy units of different types on a scenario. We will have short and long distance troops and up to three types of combatants under a triangle of weaknesses that we will have to exploit to always obtain victory. The amount of units that we can deploy will be determined by our BTC bar and the objective of the mini-game will be to destroy the 3 bases of our rival. As we advance in the scenario, the area in which we will be able to deploy troops will expand

The Fort Condor mini-game works in a similar way to the classic card games that we have seen in other installments of the saga (such as Final Fantasy VIII). On the map we will be able to locate people who will be willing to play against us, and as we get victories we can face more powerful opponents and with better units. It will be possible to acquire new troops or boards in stores, chests or missions

Final conclusions

Final Fantasy 7 Remake Intergrade is the perfect opportunity to enjoy again an unforgettable story full of magical moments. The Intermission episode is an excellent way to keep the hype alive in front of the second installment and a very good option if we want to know more about the adorable ninja Yuffie. Maybe we weren't asking for this video game, with a little more than a year after its release, but it's also true that we loved the proposal and that it never hurts to expand our knowledge about the characters in this journey. Who wouldn't like to delve into the stories of Vincent or Cid, for example, and find out what they were doing before meeting Cloud and company? All in all, we recommend acquiring this title both to those people who did not play the title released in April 2020 and to those who did and are eagerly awaiting the second part of the remake. Final Fantasy 7 is and will remain one of the greatest role-playing video games in history

The best

• Graphics and performance: improvements in textures, resolution and lighting, and inclusion of 60 fps mode
• Intermission: knowing Yuffie's story is an opportunity for all fans of the saga
• Mini-games: Fuerte Condor could be a game in itself and has mechanics that will get you hooked
• Added content: its alternate ending and the unlocking of a secret boss for the main storyline

The Worst

• If you played the 2020 title, it may not offer enough new features to buy it again

This review was made possible thanks to a Playstation 5 download code provided by Koch Media.