Final Fantasy Vii Remake : Intergrade/Intermission

Game'scover

About the Game

Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade is the ps5 version of Final fantasy Vii remake which also encludes the DLC expansion - Final Fantasy Vii Intermission which includes the episode of the Wutai NInja Yuffie. Intergrade also includes upgraded graphicks and plenty of improvements from the Playstation 4 counter part which will be seen below. The game was released a year later after the initial release of the remake. The Ps5 upgrade did come for free as they didnt charge for it unless the player had the free ps plus version of the game for a small fee. Furthermore, the DLC was only playable for the ps5 version of the game which was forcing people to obtain the upgrade in order to experience which was something heavily critisized. Furthermore, the director of the project Tetsuya Nomura confirmed that the DLC will act as a bridge and as something to fill in the gap between Final Fantasy Remake and the next installment Final Fantasy Vii Remake Pt2(FFVii: Rebirth). Tetsuya Nomura also confirmed how some of the main characters from the original 1997 game did not shine as much as other so they were developed in side projects. To ellaborate the Characters of Yuffie and Vincent can be skipped in the main game and thus they were heavily included in the complilation of : It was in his believe that these characters are no less important than the main party (Cloud, Tifa, Aerith & Barret) and that he should start introducing them early on in order to have them naturally join the party.

Final Fantasy Vii Remake

A review of Final Fantasy Vii Remake has already been made and it can be found here by clicking on the game.

The Differences between Ps4 version - Ps5 version

The Ps5 version as mentioned came with a number of changes mostly towards the quality of life. The first thing that changed was the frame rates that the game can run. With the ps5 upgrade the game can run at 60 Fps which allows for smooth animation to play when the heroes attack move and generally exist on the screen. Every motion found is smooth and pleasant for the sight. Furthermore the textures everywhere in the game had a massive improvement. Whether these are background lights, signs, crates etc they all look good with higher textures which load faster than before. Whilst in the topic of textures, the heroes themselves also seen some upgrades. These upgrades can be seen on their clothing, armor and even their skin. These improvements are majorlily shown during cutscenes. Partical effects can also be seen more clear than before and they can be seen from reflections due to ray tracing. Fire, spark and fog effects look more realistic than before and make the world feel more realistic. Despite all these graphical changes, the game significally reduced the loading times making it faster to join in gamne.

In terms of gameplay, the game added two new features and allows the ps5 dualshock to make the game more Ps5-ish with it's heftic feedback and vibrations when playing the game. The first feature is the addition of normal mode when playing the game in classic mode. As a reminder classic mode allows the heroes to move and guard on their own while the player controls certain attacks such as abilities, summons, limits and magic. This version of the game only had Easy mode but now Normal is also available making the game more challenging towards the player. Moreover the upgrade also comes with a free camera mode that allows the player to take some cool looking screenshots. Photo mode can be accessed from the pause menu. Last but not least The adventure of Yuffie is included with the purchase of the ps5 version of the game BUT it's NOT free if you upgrade from ps4 to ps5 for free.

Final Fantasy VII Intergrade ( Episode of Yuffie)

Story

Yuffie

The story of the game introduces the player to Yuffie, a young ninja girl from Wutai who arrives in Midgard. Yuffie is not alone as she is a party with Sonnon, a young man who is completely new to series and act as a companion to Yuffie. Their goal is to break inside of Shinra's headquarters in order to find out what kind of destructive materia are they making. Shinra and Wutai are two opponents whose backstory goes back a long time, but to keep it short, at some point Wutai was capable of competing with Shinra who then decided to sent their Soldier's including Zack Fair to put an end to them. Whilst on their adventure the players get to know more about Yuffie and Sonnon as the two spent time getting to know each other better. Furthermore, the episode also brings back an old familiar organization known as the Undergorund which allowed them to bring back familiar faces such as Nero and Weiss.

Thoughts on the Story

Honestly the story of the game is really good but some key moments were to be expected. It is a perfect way to slowly introduce Yuffie to the players as she will play an important role for the future titles. Yuffie's motives and backstory are still very well hidden (as this will come up later with a twist) and thats fine because in this journey she finds new motivation and new goals. Sonnon on the other hand is a brand new character of whom we know nothing about. He has a nice design in terms of his appearance and his story is not as interesting as it falss abit to the "clishe" category where he had lost important figures when shinra invaded Wutai. Despite that, the duo has an amazing dynamic, where Sonnon is calm and cool whereas Yuffie is "loud" and childish, acting as she is the superrior. This is something that the expansion captured very well and made the duo feel unique in comparison to Remake. Furthermore, plenty of moments were hilarious and others very serious creating a perfect balance. Once again the episode is fully voice acted and is escorted with in game and CGI cutscenes.

Story and remake

The story of the Expansion takes place simultaneously with the events of Final fantasy Vii Remake.. This is a fantastic way to keep the players in the loop of when certain things occur. For example the first time we meet Yuffie she is outside of sector 7 and makes her way in. The area here Yuffie's game begins, is the same area where Cloud is unable to reach due to restrictions in the remake so its a nice way to expand midguard. When Yuffie reaches the sector 7 slums, we immidietly see the Avalanche trio of Wess, Jessie Biggs discussing about how Cloud Barret and Tifa are not yet back. This means that when Yuffie arrived, the heroes already met up with Biggs and procceeded to the reactor while Biggs made his way back to the slums. After a few side missions we witness Barret and Tifa returnig, which once again gives us a prespective of time and at the same time, shows us how these characters reacted after their seperation from Cloud. Procceeding with Yuffie's story she comes across Don Corneyos girl regroupers and after certain event we get to learn how Tifa volunteer to be captured for the event of the remake. Thats The last time the two games inteconnect, as Yuffie and Sonnon, her teammate, leave for their own adventure and head over to shinra, while the remake should ve still be at the Aerith Cloud and Tifa adventure. Near the end of the Dlc and as shown by the trailer, the dlc procceeds to give us the time stamp as Shinra decided to throw the plate on top of sector 7. The screen then fades to black and a time skip occurs that will be further expand in the Final Fantasy Vii rebirth ( sequel to remake)/

Gameplay

Yuffie vs ramuh

The gameplay of The DlC is absolutely fantastick. Honestly Square enix managed to make Yuffie very different than any of the four heroes playable in Remake. Yuffie carries a giant shuriken star which she can use in close and in range compat. Tapping the attack button allows Yuffie to swing her star hitting anyone near her. When an enemy is far away, or if she needs to close the gap between her and her target she can throw the shuriken and then teleport to it in order to hit her enemies. It's very similar to how Prince Noctis from Final fantasy Xv attacks and how Sora from kingdom hearts approaches enemies with flast step. The best part is Yuffie can do multiple combos mid-air where she can throw the enemy down in order to proceed with land combos. Moreover, an impressive addition to Yuffie's arsenal is her Ninjutsu skills. Yuffie unlike any of the previous characters can cast every single elemental attack without the usege of materia and MP. The player only requires to throw Yuffies shuriken once and then spent one ATB bar in order to cast the ninjutsu of the prefered element and then constantly use it to attack the enemy. Once the shuriken is thrown and the ninjutsu is cast the player should just mash the attack button. Similar to the Remakem, mastering weapons give Yuffie extra techniques to use as well as Various Materia . Shonon, Yuffies ally, is always controlled by an Ai however, the player can control his abilities, MP, as well as customizing his weapon, gear and skills. When both heroes have atleast 1 ATB bar pressing the team button will result in combination attacks where both Yuffie and Sonnon team up and release various attacks that deal alot of damage. On top of that using certain individual skills whilst in synch, if the player uses a certain hero skill, will have the other hero combined his own skill into the combo. Last but not least, if Yuffie falls in combat, Sonnon will transfer his remaining Hp to the player and he ll die instead.

Post content and Mini Games

FortGondor
For it's post content the game has the inlcusion of two major boss battles. The firt battle is againts Ramuh, a popular summon with the power of electicity. The fight is very similar to the Remake's Shiva's and Irfit's battle. When Yuffie succesfully defeats him, the summon becomes available for the players to summon in battle in order to aid them. The battle can only be fought as a 1 vs 1 as Sonnon cannot join Yuffie. The second battle is againts Weiss which can be fought in the Vr machine in the main game. By defeating the story mode of Yuffie a pop up window will appear explainning where and how the player can phase off againts Weiss. This is a challenging boss battle and it can only be fought with the party of the four heroes of Remake.

Minigames
The game has a few minigame sections throughout the game, but there are only two that can be accessed at will. These are:
Shinra Whack a Box
This game mode is very similar to Cloud's whack a box. The minigame is simple enough. Yuffie has to smash various boxes with different score points. There's a specific score to beat so Yuffie has to be in perfect shape and form. The only enemy is the timer. The boxes all have different values and reward that ammount when destroyed. Furthermore boxes with bigger points require more damage in order to break
Fort Gondor
This is a game similar to Clash Royale where there are three phoenix representing each player's life points. Both competitors have to sent their army to take down the phoenix. It's a nice small minigame that once you get how it works it's fun. You place troops, and they will always walk onwards. One good detail about the figures, is that they re all avatars from the original "poligony" Final Fantasy Vii. The rules are simple, you spent ATB bars that feel on their own to summon a figure. The cost of each figure is on top left. Each figure has a colour type Blue, Red and Green. Blue defeat Red, Red defeat Green and Green defeats Blue. However, its not as simple since each figure also has HP, damage and attack type. For example a green figure may not be able to kill a blue if the blue is flying type while the green is ground type. These figurines can be collected from the shops, vending machines and defeating other players. the game also has a few side quests and trophies that can be unlocked by beckomming the number 1 players.

Final Thoughts

Overall, Final Fantasy Vii Intergrade is the ps5 version of the Game Final fantasy Vii remake with the addition of the DLC InterMISSION. The gameplay has seen massive improvements from the ps4 version in both it's graphick's and it's performance. The upgrade also made plenty of quality of life changes that make the overall experience better. The episode of Yuffie is made up with unique story and characters development for the party. The game makes a perfect effort to constantly keep the player in track with the events of the Remake portion of the game. The Combat of Yuffie is very interesting and by far more different than all the other heroes. The inclusion of Sonnon allowed for some interesting party attacks which is something that will most likely be included in the sequel. The episode also showedcase new locations of both Midguard and Shinra's building. The duo also have an encounter with none other than Scarlet who is responsible for Shinras weapon department. The animation and gameplay is really good and improved. Last but not leastm the game teases what is to follow with the next entry of the game.

This is a video with my Honest review close to when i played the Game

This is a video showcasing and reviewing the Game

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