![]() ![]() ![]() Only, there was no controller, just several white-knuckled minutes stressing over the placement of the literal ABXY keys on the keyboard. In one especially iconic rhythmic segment, the minigame called for ABXY - the face buttons on an Xbox controller. Sometimes, it’s more comedy than inconvenience, like seeing a giant prompt for the ESC key mid-puzzle other times, I was left completely dumbstruck by the absolute audacity of this game. Although the inputs are remappable and the general movement/combat controls are serviceable, the game is loaded with a myriad of minigames and mechanics, all with their own idiosyncratic control schemes that can’t be accounted for. There was arguably no worse time to misplace my Xbox One controller. With one thorn in my side attended to, I could focus all my energy on grappling with the other: the PC controls. But, in the hours that followed, performance was surprisingly stable, hovering at around 90 fps save for the semi-frequent drops below 60 when things got busier on-screen. I had the game running at 1440p, 120 fps on my desktop sporting a RTX 2070, Ryzen 5 2600X, with 16GB of RAM, and the opening hour put my PC through the wringer - frequent stuttering and then some. And, even then, some have reported less-than-stellar performance regardless of their fiddling in the menus. To say the settings menu is barebones would be an understatement there are virtually no graphics options to tweak your performance. The sole benefit of the PC port is the possibility of 120 frames per second, which Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade seems intent on keeping out of reach. ![]() The only thing that could’ve possibly elevated my experience is a PlayStation 5, or at the very least, a controller. This remake is everything everyone enjoyed from Final Fantasy VII lovingly translated to the modern day, right down to the cinematography - albeit with some modern-day genre problems as well. The incredible voice acting, across every provided language, does so much to sell the emotion in every beat of the story, both old and new. First-class visuals put those old pre-rendered cinematics to shame while a revamped soundtrack juggles paying its respects to Nobuo Uematsu’s legendary score and introducing some new flavors. Intergrade slaps an extra 4 hours on top of the base game with the Yuffie-led INTERmission side story. The Final Fantasy VII remake reimagines the first act of the original as a 30+ hour action-oriented thrill ride with new sub-plots, characters, and an elegant, modern interpretation of the ATB combat system. Plus, as someone who’s most comfortable on PC, what better opportunity would I get to experience Final Fantasy VII in 1997, in 2021? Needless to say, the remakes are perfect for players like myself. It was a journey well worth the time commitment, but what I’d really wanted was the same magic that enraptured everyone else. At the time, all my teenage eyes could see were hilariously polygonal characters with awkward proportions living on a display that wasn’t particularly kind to someone who enjoyed his lengthier adventures on a bigger screen. My first brush with destiny, however, wasn’t the grand event I thought it’d be I originally played Final Fantasy VII on my PlayStation Vita close to a decade ago. To many, there’s no piece of media more important we’re talking childhoods defined by mandatory after-school viewings of Advent Children and entire friend groups built upon a shared love for “the greatest story ever told.” Our own Kay Purcell reviewed the remake through a similar lens last year. Anyone who’s even held a controller in their hand since Final Fantasy VII’s debut has been touched by the title in some way. Cloud Strife, with his signature spiky hair and unwieldy Buster Sword, has spent his entire public life as one of the JRPG genre’s leading mascots.
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