Final Fantasy VII: Remake Intergrade: First Impressions

I’ve played plenty of remakes and remasters over the last year or so, but this might be the first time I’m playing a remake of a game where I’ve not played the original version. That’s right – I’ve never played FFVII! If you’ve followed this blog, you’ll know my experience with the FF series is extremely limited. The only game I’ve played in the series to completion was FFXV – which I enjoyed a lot, although it seemed to receive a more mixed reception from the FF hardcore.

Although I’ve never played FFVII that doesn’t mean I’m entirely unfamiliar with the title – it’s kind of hard not to be given its enduring popularity nearly 30 years since its original release. I knew the game’s main character was Cloud Strife – a young man with a silly name, even sillier spiky hair and a ridiculously silly giant sword.

I knew about Sephiroth – the villain. And I knew about Aerith. And I knew about the MASSIVE SPOILER. And I of course knew about Tifa – the wet dream of an entire generation of teenage boys. But I can’t say I knew much else, so I’m going into this remake – or rather, part 1 of this remake – judging it entirely on what it is, not compared to what it was.

I’ve now put nearly 15 hours into FFVII: Remake Intergrade and decided it was time to share my initial impressions which are, I’m sorry to say, somewhat mixed right now. The thing I find most intriguing about Intergrade is the story because – and I could be wrong about this – it seems like it’s not a direct remake of the original, more of a ‘What If?’ scenario? So not a remake so much as a reimagining of the events of the original which may still represent the ‘canon’ version of events and may still factor into how this new story unfolds?

I really don’t know! And that’s kind of exciting and has made me interested to actually play the original so I can see how they compare – although not until I’ve finished Intergrade. But I have to say, I really quite like the story and character aspects – I even like Cloud, despite him being such a sulky, brooding git. He has grown on me!

What I can’t say I like so much are the gameplay aspects – hence my initially mixed impressions. Most of my ‘gameplay’ so far has been running down needlessly long, linear corridors and back again. Or being forced to walk through needlessly long, linear corridors as people talk. Or squeezing (very, very slowly) through small gaps – so much squeezing! Or (very, very slowly) crouching and crawling though other small gaps . . .

I just finished one section where I had to control two (tediously slow to move) giant robot arms to carry a character over to another ledge just so they could drop down a ladder for me to progress. It wasn’t a puzzle, if that’s what you’re thinking. You can only move the arms (very, very slowly) where they need to go, and even that’s marked by – yep, you guessed it – yellow paint! All so I could cross a little room and use a ladder! None of this was necessary. All it did was turn a ten second stretch of linear corridor into a five minute one.

Intergrade, I hate to say it, is seriously testing my patience. It wouldn’t be so bad if I didn’t feel like the game was still treating me with kid gloves. When you begin, you only control Cloud in combat, which is fine – keep it simple, let you learn the ropes. You then get access to your first party member and the combat starts to open up more as you can switch characters on the fly and utilise more abilities. Well – to a degree, at least. So far, the majority of combat encounters are extremely short and easy battles which don’t give you any real time to engage with the party mechanics.

Eventually the game did give me three party members to control (including Cloud) and some more challenging and lengthy fights and that’s when I really started to get stuck into combat and enjoying it . . . only for the game to decide I’d had enough fun and take it all away again. Even after 15 hours, I still feel like I’m waiting for the game to actually trust me to play the bloody thing!

Everything is so slow! There are times when it forces you into slow walks for no real reason . . . like I said, it’s really testing my patience. And because the majority of combat encounters are largely so quick and easy, I don’t feel like I have a good handle on combat yet because the game never really lets me get stuck into it.

I do feel like the balance between the ‘action-RPG’ aspect and the party system doesn’t quite work. It feels like it’s trying to have its cake and eat it too, but we’ve ended up with a combat system that doesn’t provide the most satisfying action-RPG combat, nor does it provide the most satisfying party based combat. But it’s really f**king hard to tell right now when I’ve barely had any fights where I actually had more than one party member and that lasted more than ten seconds!

And that’s all I have to say right now because even after fifteen hours, it doesn’t feel like very much has happened yet. Lots of walking. Lots of squeezing. Lots of talking. Lots of linear corridors. Lots of pointlessly easy and quick fights with only a handful of actually challenging and engaging battles. And every time I think the game is going to open up, pick up the pace and trust me to seriously engage with its mechanics, it pulls back and resets everything.

It’s frustrating, because I am still enjoying it enough to keep plodding through it – because the game doesn’t seem to have a speed setting faster than ‘plod’! But I really, really hope it picks up the pace from here!