Final Fantasy 7 Remake Intergrade: let's discover the Episode INTERmission DLC
Final Fantasy 7 Remake Intergrade
There are now only a few weeks left until the release of Final Fantasy 7 Remake Episode INTERmission, the DLC that has so much discussed the fans of Final Fantasy VII, the original and the Remake. The reasons are manifold. Its nature as a PlayStation 5 exclusive DLC has left fans who have not yet purchased the Sony console baffled, for which Square Enix has improved and converted the game into the form of Final Fantasy 7 Remake Intergrade, adding new content and options that take advantage of the new hardware. For the most nostalgic and purists, who have discussed so much about the changes made to the original narrative, the idea of an unpublished story starring Yuffie Kisaragi, a character who entered the scene only later in the title of 1997, took aback.Finally, the grafting of elements belonging to the so-called Compilation of Final Fantasy VII, such as the Deepground and the villains Nero and Weiss, frightens all those who have already had to deal with the delusional Dirge of Cerberus and who were hoping to having moved on permanently. Beyond these considerations, however, it is undeniable that Final Fantasy VII Remake Episode INTERmission has passed at least the first test, that of the trailers: what has been shown so far has seemed to be of the highest quality, both in terms of gameplay and from an exquisitely technical point of view. . The thirteen minutes or so that Square Enix allowed us to preview told us a lot of details and rumors about the DLC, confirming our first positive impressions and suggesting that this addition really deserves to be played.
Yuffie, the ninja of Wutai
Final Fantasy VII Episode INTERmission: Bloodbath is Yuffie's limit ability. Square Enix has extrapolated almost a quarter of an hour of gameplay from the initial stages of Final Fantasy 7 Episode INTERmission, which seems to open with the arrival of Yuffie Kisaragi in Midgar. Sent by the Wutai government, Yuffie is tasked with meeting the members of the Avalanche HQ and planning the theft of a powerful Materia kept in the Shinra building. Yuffie is a ninja, but the introduction immediately highlights the nice clumsiness that characterized her also in the original Final Fantasy VII: not even a minute has passed from the beginning of the game that our young heroine loses her balance due to some pigeon and falls into the abyss below, landing in perfect balance on the roof of a shed ... which gives way a moment later, making her make a great fool. Yuffie's gaffes contribute to making her a hilarious and captivating character, diametrically opposed to the curmudgeon Cloud Strife that perhaps the new generations have known precisely with Final Fantasy VII Remake.Final Fantasy VII Episode INTERmission: one of the first fights. The first few gameplay sequences see Yuffie exploring Sector 7 and following the Moogle signs to get to Avalanche HQ. We are in a kind of tutorial, in short, that teaches the player how to control Wutai's ninja. Yuffie mainly fights at medium range with a huge shuriken that she can hurl at enemies by pressing the Triangle button. The weapon returns to her hands after a while or by pressing the same button again, but while she is unarmed, Yuffie can still hit targets with a variety of long-range ninjutsu techniques. These attacks initially possess no elemental properties, but Yuffie can use an ability called Elemental Ninjutsu to infuse the power of fire, water, lightning, and wind into her blows. It is therefore important to choose the exact element to exploit the weak points of the enemies and increase their Tension level until they induce the state of Stremo, which allows them to inflict more damage.
Final Fantasy VII Episode INTERmission: Yuffie he can throw his shuriken like a boomerang. Yuffie also possesses a number of ATB-consuming secondary abilities such as Art of War, a series of chained attacks that deal damage and increase those dealt thereafter; Banishment, which can be affected by Elemental Ninjutsu and charged up to a maximum of three levels for even more damage; or Windstorm, with which the ninja generates a cyclone that hits surrounding enemies and draws them on her.
Exploration sessions make use of Yuffie's agility through a series of scripted steps that can be jumped into acrobatically on walls and ledges or hanging from certain supports, while the boxes in the distance, apparently unreachable, can be destroyed by throwing the shuriken which, on its return, will bring us the collectibles found. Reached the inhabited neighborhood, Yuffie wanders around in search of the Avalanche HQ: we remind you, this story takes place after the destruction of Reactor number 5 and before all the mayhem breaks out in this Midgar sector as well.
Final Fantasy VII Episode INTERmission: Yuffie can explore the scenario in a decidedly acrobatic way. The members of the Avalanche HQ are less aggressive than the terrorist cell led by Barret, so much so that they have decided to ally with Wutai's forces precisely to overthrow the Shinra with minimal bloodshed. Square Enix introduced us to the four characters who will interact with Yuffie throughout her adventure. Zhije used to live in Wutai and is now the link between the Avalanche and its homeland; being deep in the undergrowth of Midgar, he will help Yuffie settle in. Nayo is the team's logistics expert: she is in charge of maintaining contact between Avalanche HQ and its supporters, as well as procuring passes and other useful tools in the various operations. Billy Bob, despite his listless temper and attachment to the bottle, is the spy and informant of the group. Finally, Polk is the youngest of the group; his companions see him as a kind of younger brother, and he will teach Yuffie how to play Fort Condor.
Fort Condor
Final Fantasy VII Episode INTERmission: Fort Condor is a minigame strategic. We finally found out more about Fort Condor, the minigame inspired by one of the most controversial storylines in Final Fantasy VII. In the Remake's Intermission Episode, Fort Condor is a sophisticated strategy board game, based on a Shinra military campaign, which sees two players battle it out for the conquest of the opposing base. Specifically, the new playable version in Episode INTERmission takes some distance from the original one, but it remains a sort of tower defense in which the player must deploy a certain number of units and conquer ground up to take the enemy base, located on the opposite side. to his. The game begins with the choice of a formation that determines the number of ATBs and Materials that can be used during the match. The ATB charges are used to deploy the different units, which will start marching in the direction of the enemy base, facing each enemy unit that will block their way head on.Final Fantasy VII Episode INTERmission: Polk will teach us how to play Fort Condor. Each unit can belong to a certain category (Vanguard, Ranged or Defense) which will make it more or less vulnerable against certain enemies, in a kind of Chinese morra. By pressing the L1 key you access the available Materials, and therefore the powerful spells that can turn the tide of the clash but which, being limited in number, will only be used at the right time. The interface seemed quite chaotic to us, full of information, portraits and icons, but Square Enix pointed out that Fort Condor, being a fun secondary minigame, was designed to be easily assimilated and not to last too long. Obviously there will be rewards to be won, the greediest of which should be the mysterious and very rare Materia owned by the reigning champion in Sector 7. Did someone say Phoenix?
Quotes and collectibles
Yuffie will also come across a wacky individual who goes by the name of Old Snapper and who works for Happy Turtle. This character will instruct us to find six flyers scattered around Sector 7: it is a quote from Final Fantasy VII, in which a sidequest saw us looking for flyers of a Wutai bar called Turtle's Paradise, scattered all over the world. Although there are only six in Yuffie's adventure, and they are hidden in Sector 7, you'll have to use your wits and sift through every corner, even solving some environmental puzzles to catch them all and receive the reward.Two is better than one
Final Fantasy VII Episode INTERmission: Sonon Kusakabe is a brand new character. Sonon Kusakabe is an unpublished character that Wutai sent to help Yuffie: personally trained by the father of our protagonist, Sonon was personally affected by the conflict between his country and Shinra, and brooding against the society that reigns over Midgar a deep resentment. His phlegmatic character is the perfect counterbalance to Yuffie's eccentric personality, who is practically his boss. In terms of gameplay, the player does not directly control Sonon, who is instead entrusted mostly to the care of his artificial intelligence: the player can at most give him some orders by pressing R2. In the long montage produced by Square Enix, we see him facing Don Corneo's men together with Yuffie and fighting with his stick. If both Yuffie and Sono have a certain number of ATBs, it is possible to press L2 to activate a synergy that will see the two characters combine their attacks into devastating moves like Synergized Art of War and Synergized Windstorm - practically much more powerful and spectacular variants of the abilities which Yuffie normally uses alone.Final Fantasy VII Episode INTERmission: the Windstorm ability used in synergy with Sonon. The combat system, in short, would seem to represent an interesting drift compared to the one played in Final Fantasy VII Remake. It tends to work the same way - for example, you can still play in real time, like an action game, or take advantage of the slow motion effect when opening the action menu - but the semi-interactive component Sonon represents could be a clue to the direction Square Enix is taking in the development of Final Fantay VII Remake 2. Let's be clear: we are not saying that the player will only control one character in the party, but that the synergy system could remain in operation, and we already imagine the combined attacks of Cloud and Tifa, and that any secondary party members could be controlled indirectly instead to remain autonomous as was the case in the final stages of Final Fantasy VII Remake, when Red XIII joined the cast.
Final Fantasy VII Episode INTERmission: Ramuh makes his triumphant comeback in the DLC. In any case, the combat system of Episode INTERmission does not lack even the limit Skills. Yuffie has at least one, called Bloodbath, which results in a spectacular combination of devastating attacks; Sonon can also use a Limiting Ability, which in her case is called Dance of the Dragon and causes him to repeatedly hit the target with her staff.
In the video we saw, Yuffie and Sonon face a variety of enemies as they explore various scenarios, often solving small environmental puzzles in which Yuffie will have to use the shuriken to push distant switches and the like. Square Enix recorded the gameplay in Performance mode and in 4K, maintaining a stable frame rate and a significantly higher quality than Final Fantasy VII Remake. It is a detachment that appears clear in the fight with Centipede, a giant boss that Yuffie and Sonon will have to defeat at some point in the story. It is on this occasion that we have seen in its entirety the highly anticipated evocation of Ramuh: the old man manifests himself in a triumph of particles, and fights temporarily alongside our duo and then unleashes his iconic Lightning of judgment on the boss, destroying him permanently.
Despite the suspicions that can be nurtured towards this DLC, what we have seen in almost fifteen minutes is undeniable that it promises very well. Final Fantasy VII Remake is still a prestigious title with a really great combat system, which Episode INTERmission seems to have made its own along with some new experimental options that would not surprise us if they were reused even later. We cannot yet express ourselves on the history of this DLC, but technically we can see the leap in quality: it will certainly be a pleasure to return to Midgar once again, but for now we can only refer you to our future review.
