Every action is an event that little traversal maneuver every odd minute is accompanied by a uniquely sluggish pace (and maybe camera angle), that new vista Cloud and crew approach seizes control from the player, or any number of other things that add up over time. (In the original, the first fight is triggered after you’ve walked the length of the train platform.) In isolation, little annoyances like these are nothing, but whether it’s slowing Cloud down to a crawl just for a character to deliver an inconsequential line of dialogue or pausing the action to hop over a little debris, the game has a way of breaking players like me down slowly and thoroughly over the course of many hours. The remake opens up with a lengthy but gorgeous interpretation of the original cinematic, before handing the player the reins for all of one second another (brief) cutscene before I was even able to get my bearings. On a moment-to-moment basis, the meticulous attention to the ebb and flow of the experience reads as more stringent and claustrophobic than careful.

Batches of side quests are introduced strategically every few chapters to give players the opportunity to appreciate Midgar outside of action-packed set pieces and the drama of the main story. I welcomed lengthy cutscenes with open arms because they came after tense battles or arduous treks, and because their contents never disappointed. Never are players worn down by endless combat and challenges, nor made apathetic by extended periods of downtime and menial activities. It’s a steady stream of action, drama, and spectacle, with lighthearted lollygagging and somberful reflection interspersed between an 18-chapter theme park rollercoaster that’s always acutely aware of when to lay off the gas and when to crank things up to 11. The remake, Intergrade included, is defined by its meticulous pacing and structure - its greatest strength, and potentially, weakness. On the bright side, I was closer to understanding Cloud’s confusion at that moment than any player in history. 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. 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.

Ff7 intermission review