After speculation and rumors of all sorts, the first part of the Final Fantasy VII Remake has finally landed on PC.
The writer has been waiting for it for a long time (much, too much): this is because, let's face it, your author has a deep love for Final Fantasy VII, which dates back to the 90s, when by mistake they gave me the Japanese version of that immortal title for the first PlayStation. You can therefore easily imagine what it meant to be able to play the remake of Final Fantasy VII in 2020: a revised, rethought, re-imagined game but still faithful to the original, albeit with some licenses. The remake was a real hit on PlayStation 4, and Sony's recent opening towards the PC world has made practically anyone with a good gaming machine dream. A dream that has come true with the arrival of Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade, announced a little in a hurry but undoubtedly welcome and awaited.
And it is precisely this much discussed (and controversial) version that we will talk about today; at the moment, Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade is exclusive to the Epic Games Store, and also comes complete with the INTERmission downloadable content, which allows us to play as Yuffie. However, there were many doubts and perplexities about this port. First of all, the exclusivity of Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade has not made fans and enthusiasts happy, who turn up their noses at Epic's aggressive commercial practices. And then there's the technical side: the PS4 version was spectacular and well done, especially as regards the polygonal models of the protagonists, but the textures of Midgard and its structures often left something to be desired. Will the situation on PC be improved?
Let's start from the basics: Final Fantasy VII Remake is a spectacular game (in the cinematic sense of the term), with a new dynamic combat system and an engaging story, which follows the fundamental pillars left by the 1997 original. In the primary campaign, the protagonist is Cloud Strife, a mercenary who has set to work with Avalanche, an organization that wants to save the planet from the abuses of the Shinra Electric Power Company. In the INTERmission chapter, we instead use Yuffie, the agile Wutai ninja who also came to Midgard. The story of Final Fantasy VII Remake takes up all the events of the first disc of the original game, which essentially concerned the chapters set in Midgard, the city powered by Mako reactors that we see in the unforgettable introductory movie. There are some elements that have dissociated themselves from the narrative of the original Square '97 title, but I'll let Icilio tell you about this in the review of the game on PlayStation.
So let's forget about the dying planet and Avalanche's courageous attempts to stop Shinra for a moment to focus on the more technical side of the game, which has arrived on PC with a port that, unfortunately, doesn't make you scream at all. Let's start with the basics: Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade is based on the much-appreciated Unreal Engine 4, which manages to transpose Midgard in a way that, honestly, had never been seen before. The city looks even more beautiful than the one seen in Final Fantasy VII Advent Children, and I said it all. However, the PlayStation 4 version was known for often having visually unappealing pop-ups, blurred backdrops, and very low-resolution textures: this unfortunate combination ruined the immersiveness and gaming experience, even if not in a really impactful way. Collisions and hitboxes also felt a bit patchy at times, but overall the experience remained superb.
Unfortunately, some of the technical flaws of the PlayStation version have been inherited from the PC version, and this is already evident by taking a look at the game's graphics options. Few choices on the quality of shadows and textures, and the ability to manage the number of characters on the screen is also reduced to the bone. HDR options are present, but nothing more. Totally lacks greater customization of the gaming experience, control over lighting, or depth of field. In short, Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergradeit doesn't allow the PC gamer to fiddle around enough with the graphics options to find the best match for their system. Instead, could you pigeonhole those few available options into a couple of choices each? It would also be fine if the performances often did not turn out to be up to par, even with rather high-performance hardware.
The legacy of the PS4 version is felt: every now and then one or more blurry textures appear (despite the texture options being set to "high" resolution), which are even more noticeable given that, thanks to the PC hardware, the rest of the game has been revised and adjusted to look even more visually splendid. The annoying pop-ups also return, made evident when we explore the settings faster than the game expects. The bad thing is that I fear, unfortunately, that these are defects that do not depend on the hardware: even by changing the settings downwards, the defects remain. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying this port is bad or unplayable - Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade is still a sight to play; even in terms of framerate, it is possible to always maintain a rather high average even with not brand new hardware. A positive note concerns the loading times: although they are not lightning fast, they manage to give us access to the game excellently whether you have decided to install on SSD or (hear, hear) you have preferred the "old" hard disks. I carried out a test installation on both, and although the SSD is more performing, loading on the HDD still manages to defend itself well.
A certain bitterness transpires from my words, but it is only because I am aware of the fact that this game could have given us even better performances, easily becoming a benchmark in PC games. Instead, he saw himself limited by a design that has the hardware of a 2013 console at its heart and that was "satisfied" with doing the right thing so that the game runs optimally on different hardware. Whether you have a super-performing PC or a mid-range with not exactly the latest hardware, the chances that the game runs the same way on both are high. Keep in mind that resolution is the only real discriminator of this port and that with more modern hardware you can aim for more pixels on the screen and not much else.
Some things are visibly fixed, like the now infamous Cloud room, which on PS4 Pro had a pastel door and textures that defining essential would be an understatement. Others have remained the same, such as the Midgard markets. In essence, Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade is extremely worth playing if you skipped the PS5 version altogether or if you have never tried it on PlayStation. If you already own the same chapter on Sony's new flagship, the differences with the PC version are minimal, and for the price at which it's sold on the Epic Games Store, it's not worth switching platforms.
