With Final Fantasy 7 Remake's enhanced "Intergrade" version officially released on the PlayStation 5, fans quickly took to social media to share screenshots of the game's stunning visuals and highly detailed world. The screenshots show off the PS5's power to render impressive detail, especially in the lighting.
The PlayStation 5 Intergrade enhancements for Final Fantasy 7 Remake bring a photo mode into the mix, which was a highly requested feature missing from the PS4 version. Photo modes allow players to manipulate the in-game camera and take screenshots showcasing areas and characters of the in-game world.
Many players have taken to the Final Fantasy 7 Remake subreddit to post photos and discuss the game's art. Among the screenshots are occasional comparisons between the PS4 and PS5 versions, highlighting how much of a difference the more powerful hardware can make. The lighting especially sees major improvements, and the photo mode itself allows players to carefully adjust the camera position and even apply filters to show the best possible view of the world. For such a seemingly small change coming with other enhancements such as an entirely new character and DLC, photo mode is receiving a lot of attention.
It is SO NICE to see this silly thing in HD with actual detail! PS5 photo mode is DOPE! from FFVIIRemake
Final Fantasy 7 Remake's photo mode is powerful yet simple. In only a few seconds PS5 owners can get set up to show off their favorite areas of the game, and judging by the number of posts on the subreddit fans appreciate the addition. Photo modes have become a staple of highly graphically intensive Triple-A releases, and a large portion of game fanbases appreciate the ability to immortalize their favorite moments with images, many fans even using such images as desktop backgrounds to bring pieces of their favorite games everywhere.
The stunning photos players have taken showcase not only the skill of Final Fantasy 7 Remake's art team, but also offer a direct point of comparison between what is possible on the PS5 as opposed to the PS4. Final Fantasy 7 Remake may not justify picking up a next-gen console for everyone, as the game is still perfectly playable on PS4, and was recently leaked for a possible Epic Games Store release, but it would be difficult to argue that Intergrade is anything but impressive.
The graphics of Final Fantasy 7 Remake were a high point of praise when the game first launched, and with the Intergrade upgrade the improvements are undeniable. However, these improvements come with a massive file size on PlayStation 5 and with one of the PS5's biggest weaknesses right now being the limited storage space, the high requirements could prove problematic for fans with lower-resolution displays or who care more about efficiency than graphical detail.
The problem of high storage requirement has already been solved by other games, such as Rainbow Six Siege. Games mitigate storage requirements by offering high-resolution textures as a separate download, making the game more accessible to players who care about performance and storage space more than graphical detail.