It’s a great day for PC gamers because the JRPG industry looks like it’s starting to recognize the platform as a solid audience. Such is the case with the advent ofFinal Fantasy 7 Remake Intergrade. It’s the much-awaited and somewhat surprising PC version of one of the best remakes of recent years. As always with PC ports coming from Japan, there’s a culture of skepticism.
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Players will surely want to know ifFF7 Remake Intergradeis decent at the very least since there’s a long history of underwhelming PC ports from Japan. Well, the short answer is yes. The long answer is yeees! Now, for more details on why that is, there’s a full rundown below on why or why not it’s better tosee Sephiroth’s flowing white mane in higher resolution and a smoother framerate.
10It’s An Epic Games Store Exclusive
Not all ports are perfect, of course, and some roadblocks are to be expected. In this case, those who favor Steam as their game client on the PC will be disappointed to hear thatFinal Fantasy 7 Remake Intergradeis available only through the Epic Games Store. It also costs roughly70 USD.
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Don’t bother looking for it on Steam or other clients (just yet) as it was Epic who managed to snag the deal with Square Enix. That very well means running Epic in the background while playing the remake is almost mandatory. On the bright side for Steam enthusiasts, there are periodic free game giveaways in the Epic Games Store.
9The System Requirements Are Manageable
With how pretty and modern-looking the remake is even in the console releases, one would expect some backbreaking system requirements here, which is troubling considering the high price of hardware hasn’t budged these days. Luckily,Final Fantasy 7 Remake Intergradeis not too demanding. Thesystem requirementsare as follows:
Minimum:
Recommended:
Okay, that 12 GB RAM for the recommended is unconventional or impractical even but it’s an honest estimation of what’s needed to run the game in full glory. Even the recommended specifications are two to three generations behind so anyone with a good PC from 2016 can runFF7 Remake Intergradeon ‘High.’ Meanwhile, anyone with a good PC from 2013 can run it at the bare minimum. That’s generous considering gaming PCs won’t need replacing until around the fifth year or so.
8Tests Say It’s A Decent PC Port
As expected when a PC port is released, or any other PC game for that matter, numerous tests will pop up like mushrooms. That’s a PC player’s most favorite hobby apart from actually playing games.Benchmark results are inand thegame runs good, even on less than the recommended settings.
Hence, players can expect the listed system requirements to be spot-on. On the exact recommended specs, one can expect around a hundred FPS (1080p) give or take. What helps keep things running smoothly is thelinear level designand the numerous cutscenes.
7Textures Are Comparable To The PS4 & PS5 Versions
One of the big questions that get asked whenever a PC port is released is how much better it is compared to the console version. Texture quality is the first thing that comes to mind here as one should rightfully expect better textures from the PC version.
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For the most part, however,Final Fantasy 7 Remake Intergradeplays things fairly. The “low” setting on the PC port should be roughly equivalent in visual fidelity to thePS4 version. The “high” setting on the other hand is just abit more superior to the PS5 versionwhen it comes totextures and contrast or lighting. The PC also gets the added benefit of having readily available higher resolutions as well as a faster framerate.
6The Graphics Options Are Limited
Those expecting to tweak graphical settings down to the smoothness of individual blades of grass might get disappointed here though. Because here are the only graphical settings inFinal Fantasy 7 Remake Intergrade:
That’s it. There are no elaborate spectrums of very low to very high or ultra or extreme. Even the Shadow and Texture Resolution options range from only “low” to “high,” nothing in-between. The only other setting that can impact performance significantly apart from resolutions is the number of characters displayed and even that’s a simple option. So sadly, it’s no graphics enthusiast’s paradise.
5It’s Not Going To Push Hardware Limits
Those with hardware that far exceeds the recommended specs forFinal Fantasy 7 Remake Intergradeshould also note that they won’t get much out of their excess processing or rendering power. This stems from the fact that the graphical settings are too limited. Theframerate is capped to 120 FPS. It’s also fixed, starting from 30 FPS with increments of 30 per adjustment until it reaches the 120 cap.
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Also, as stated above, there’sno setting that allows the maximization of future hardware(such as “extreme” or something similar). At best, high-end PC players can squeeze out 4K performance. In any case, one also shouldn’t upgrade hardware just for this remake. It’s astoundingly accommodating to several configurations that are considered low-end these days.
4There Is No Ultrawide Support
With that said, one other thing that might disappoint PC gamers who are ahead of time is the fact that there’s currentlyno official ultrawide monitor supportforFinal Fantasy 7 Remake Intergrade.Granted, many remakes forego that option as it takes a lot of work to implement and the audience might not be that big anyway.
Moreover, there aretoo many pre-rendered cutscenesin the game and most of them meld into the gameplay. Putting in ultrawide resolution support would mean having to redo those cutscenes. The budget and effort for that could go into makingnew contentinstead.
3There’s Full Mouse & Keyboard Support But The Default Bindings Are Odd
Most PC ports have poor or even dysfunctional mouse and keyboard support as if the developers don’t understand how those work at all for the game. This was at its poorest in ports likeDark Souls,forcing the players to use controllers instead. Thankfully, that’s not the case in this remake port.
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Final Fantasy 7 Remake Intergradehas full mouse and keyboard support, taking into account how PC players operate the UI and use the keys. The caveat, however, is that the key bindings are impractical. The menu, for example, ismapped to the letter “M"instead of the escape key. This is also the case for other keys or functions. Still,a few minutes of rebindings should fixthat small oversight.
2Yuffie’s Content
Alright, enough talk about technicalities. What about gameplay stuff for the faithful PC players who didn’t give up on Square Enix? As this is theIntergradeversion ofFinal Fantasy 7 Remake, Yuffie’s ninja adventures are included in the PC port.
This content comes in the formofFF7REPISODE INTERmission. In it,players get to control Yuffieas she works with the Avalanche HQ to steal material from the Shinra Electric Power Company.
1Yes, There Are Already Mods
One of the endgame joys in being able to play PC is the ability to tamper the locally-stored game files and create some wacky or lore-friendly mods. It’s what gave incredibly longevity to games likeSkyrim.Now, players get to enjoy that aspect of PC gaminginFinal Fantasy7 Remake Intergrade.
There’s already aNexus Mods pagefor the PC port and it hasn’t even been out for a week. At the time of writing, there are only around 20 mods available but expect that to increase exponentially as more and more PC players flock to the remake and complete their playthroughs. At this point, it should be fair to anticipate a mod that canturn an Ifrit into Thomas the Tank Engine.
Final Fantasy 7 Remake Intergradeis available now for Microsoft Windows. It’s also available on PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5.
