Final Fantasy 7 Remake Intergrade is set to come to the PlayStation 5 on June 10th. The upgrade of the PS4 title features a slew of the standard updates expected of a next-gen port: enhanced graphics, quality-of-life improvements, and some new features. Square Enix further surprised fans when it announced that Final Fantasy 7 Remake Intergrade will also release alongside a new DLC story episode set to focus on the exploits of Yuffie Kisaragi in Midgar before meeting up with Cloud and the other members of AVALANCHE.
Fans were definitely excited to get new info about Intergrade recently, but with such an expansive upgrade having been planned and developed, some are concerned about whether this took away from time spent developing the next part of the Final Fantasy 7 Remake project. The first FF7 Remake is now officially a year old, so many are looking toward the future of the monumental task that is this project.
Will Intergrade Impact Final Fantasy 7 Remake Part 2?
Final Fantasy 7 Remake had a notoriously long development cycle. It was understandable as developing a full remake of a game as widely loved as the original was a giant task in and of itself, even before considering how large of a game world was being adapted. While a lot of Final Fantasy 7 Remake has already been changed, following up on its success will largely depend on how well the world of Gaia beyond Midgar is adapted. Naturally, putting so much care into a game world can be a lengthy process. Many are hopeful that the next part of FF7 Remake won't take nearly as long to release as the first since its skeleton is already constructed. At the same time, diversions like the new Yuffie chapter took time to craft, so some worry it will impact overall development time.
Many fans are excited about the Yuffie chapter coming to Intergrade, but with so much story content accompanying Yuffie and her journey to Midgar, it's natural to make some assumptions. But on a hopeful note, it's likely that developing the combat system for Yuffie was a factor that needed to be dealt with anyway. Yuffie was an optional character in the original Final Fantasy 7, and it wasn't long after the escape from Midgar that players could first encounter her. So developing a unique combat style and story for Yuffie, something the game has been praised for doing with the other characters, was likely to have been on the development docket already.
FF7 Remake Intergrade has a lot of new features coming to PS5, so the Yuffie DLC was a nice appetizer for many fans. Many elements of her story would need to have been addressed in developing the next chapter either way. The apprehensiveness is to be expected though. After a year wracked with delays due to Covid-19 (including FF7 Remake), many fans have come to accept delays as inevitable, but hopefully, FF7 Remake's next chapter isn't terribly far away. The game's producer has stated that after Intergrade the team is now fully dedicated to the sequel, so ultimately it seems like Intergrade will be more of a good thing than not for fans of Final Fantasy 7.
Final Fantasy 7 Remake Intergrade is set for release on June 10th for the PlayStation 5.
