DO NOT BUY Final Fantasy 7 Remake Intergrade - VERY disappointing

Hello and welcome back to a new video game

review. So recently I've been playing the

fairly new Final Fantasy VII Remake

Intergrade. I don't know why they randomly

added the word Intergrade onto the end,

but I guess that's Japanese marketing for

you. They just for some reason love to add

random English words onto things even

though it doesn't really make much sense.

I don't even know what Intergrade means,

but it probably has nothing to do with

Final Fantasy. Anyway, as an avid Final

Fantasy fan and as someone who's played

every single Final Fantasy game that's

ever been made, I just knew I had to play

this game when it came out.

Unfortunately, so far it's been kind of

boring, bland, uninspiring, and dare I

say, lacking in luster. So first of all,

you may have noticed that I am indeed

playing this on a Steam Deck, but the

criticisms and complaints of the game that

I have would apply to any version of the

game. Doesn't really matter if you're

playing on PC or console or Steam Deck.

All of my criticisms are still valid.

It's just I play games on a Steam Deck

because I recently got a Steam Deck and

I've been testing it out with. Several

different types of games. So the Final

Fantasy VII Remake, a remake that people

have been waiting for such a long time,

and the original Final Fantasy VII game

came out such a long time ago that the

graphics in the original game just look

absolutely terrible. The game has not aged

well, and if you want to introduce new

people to this game, the original version

of the game just wasn't really selling the

brand. So it made sense to make a remake

that looks a lot better graphically. And

as you can see in this game, the graphics

look fairly good. The lighting is very

dynamic and the character models have all

been updated to look modern and fresh.

The game does look physically and visibly

quite impressive. However, in that

impressiveness, it's kind of lost any

charm of the original Final Fantasy

series. It doesn't really feel like you're

playing a Final Fantasy game, which is

really weird because it's got the same

characters, the same story, the same kind

of gameplay, which we'll get onto later.

But all in all, the essence of the game

just doesn't really feel like a Final

Fantasy game anymore. And with this shiny

new facade that it has, it's kind of made

this feeling of, well, you're just playing

like a generic modern action RPG game that

doesn't really have anything to do with

Final Fantasy. If I didn't know what Final

Fantasy was, I would have no idea that I

was playing a Final Fantasy game, and

that's just a real shame here. So as you

can see from the gameplay footage, the

majority of the gameplay involves running

around Going up and down ladders and doing

kind of basic platforming. You can't

really call it platforming because there's

no jumping. You don't really have to do

any kind of skillful jumping. You're just

pressing a button to get over a hurdle or

duck under something or climb up a ladder.

The way you traverse through the levels is

kind of frustrating and annoying.

Basically, you're just going to be trying

to sprint through the area as quickly as

possible so you can get to the enemies.

And for some reason, there's a lot of

cutscenes that you'll constantly have to

be skipping. I swear, I felt like I was

trying to skip cutscenes scenes every 10

seconds. Maybe it's just in the beginning

of the game it's like this, but there's

just way too many cutscenes, and I'm just

thankful that there's actually a skip

button, because if they forced me to watch

every single cutscene, I think I would

have ripped my hair out. So after you've

gotten around the cutscene stuff, you'll

see that the majority of the gameplay just

involves running through the level,

encountering enemies, and when you

encounter enemies, you'll be able to see

the brand new combat system, which is not

really that great. I don't really feel

like it's a very fun combat system.

Basically, it just feels like a very

generic hack and slash kind of game.

You're just mashing the X button over and

over again, and you've got like a charged

up X button attack. And this charged up X

button attack does more damage, but it

will make you move a lot more slowly. But

the one that lets you move around fast,

the attacks are just so weak it's not

worth using. So what you do is you'd run

up to the enemy, then press Y to enable

the more powerful attacks and then just

button mash X in their face until they

die, which usually takes just a couple of

strikes. The enemies in this game are just

so easy to take down. There's absolutely

no challenge at all. You can nearly

one-shot or two-shot any of them. And you

also get special abilities where you can

choose from a selection of different

abilities that you have, or spells, and

you choose which enemy to attack. And this

is kind of where the combat system feels

like it's kind of weird and falls flat on

its face. So in the original Final Final

Fantasy games, you'll know obviously that

it was all turn-based. There was no hack

and slashing, there was no running around

and swinging a sword about. You lined up

with your teammates opposite the enemies

which lined up, and you took turns to

select from a list of attacks. You could

do a basic attack or maybe cast a spell or

ability or use a potion, and then you

would choose one thing to do, and then the

enemy would take their turn and choose one

thing to do, and then it'll be your turn

again. And that's kind of how Final

Fantasy has always been. Now, with this

new combat system in the Remake for Final

Fantasy VII, they've tried to incorporate

this kind of hack-and-slash combat system

with a mix of the traditional and old

style of taking turns. So there's still a

way that you can select abilities and

potions and attacks using a menu and then

select which enemy to use that ability or

attack on. And you can do that in real

time whilst also hack-and-slashing. It

just feels kind of weird switching from

Devil May Cry kind of action combat where

you're hitting a button to attack And then

you also have to navigate a menu to choose

abilities and spells whilst also fighting.

It just doesn't really feel quite fluid.

I don't know why they didn't just let you

use attacks using a different button, but

you have to go into a menu system to

select stuff. I guess they wanted it to

still feel like the old Final Fantasy

games, but it just feels weird, like a

weird Frankenstein monster of a combat

system, a mishmash of different styles

that don't really blend into each other

that greatly. I feel like if they really

wanted to change the combat system, they

could have done a much better job. If they

just went with one direction, if they just

went for pure hack-and-slash game with

parries and counterattacks, that would

have been fine if they made the combat

system challenging and rewarding and fun

to play. But unfortunately, in this game,

the hack-and-slash fighting just feels

really boring and really bland. It just

feels like you're on autopilot. I don't

really feel like I'm skillful or I'm being

good at the game or I'm using my great

reflection reaction skills. I just feel

like I'm button mashing and it's pretty

boring and mundane as a combat system.

And I think I would have just preferred it

if they just stuck to the good old taking

turns turn-based gameplay. At least that

felt like a bit more strategic and you

have to use some intelligence and

brainpower to survive some of the more

challenging fights. I mean, I give them

kudos for trying to do something new and

it's great and everything to try something

fresh, but they just didn't really do a

very good job at it, which is very

unfortunate. As for the characters and the

story, I mean, it's Final Fantasy, you

kind of know what to expect. By now,

there's usually some kind of evil power or

evil crystal or some kind of powerful

crystal that the enemy's trying to get

their hands on. And as the heroes, you've

got to get and secure that power before

the villains get it. And in Final Fantasy

VII, they've kind of gone for a whole

environmentalist theme where the planet is

poisoned by some kind of thing that was

created out of greed. I don't know, the

storyline just feels kind of preachy with

the characters going on about how

important it is to take care of the planet

and corruption and blah blah blah. I just

feel like I'm being lectured and there's

some kind of agenda, some kind of

political message they're trying to push

in the game, which I don't really care

for. The characters in the game are

extremely bland and boring, stereotypical

JRPG types. You got the quiet characters,

you got the big tough bravado macho

characters, you got the little nerdy cute

girls, and then the quiet silent types,

which is basically what Cloud is as the

main character. And all these characters

are just so cheesy. All of the dialogue is

really cheesy and lame. None of the jokes

are funny at all. And I just end up

skipping through any cutscene that I can

possibly skip through because it's all

just so boring and bland, and I feel like

it's just trying to waste my time.

They're trying to make the game feel like

it's a long game by just adding loads of

cutscenes in there to extend— artificially

extend the gameplay. So unfortunately, I

can't really recommend this game. It's

pretty boring. I don't really see the game

getting any more fun as you progress

unless the game becomes much more

challenging and more in-depth later on,

which I don't really feel like that would

happen. I think I'll have to give this

game a 4.2 out of 10. It's also way too

expensive for what it is. It's about £59

on sale. Without the sale or any kind of

Steam discount, I think it's about £70,

which is just insanely expensive for a

remake of a very, very old game.