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 of Final 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.
Players will surely want to know if FF7 Remake Intergrade is 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 to see Sephiroth's flowing white mane in higher resolution and a smoother framerate.
10 It'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 that Final Fantasy 7 Remake Intergrade is available only through the Epic Games Store. It also costs roughly 70 USD.
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.
9 The 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 Intergrade is not too demanding. The system requirements are as follows:
Minimum:
- CPU: Intel Core i5-3330 / AMD FX-8350
- GPU: GeForce GTX 780 / Radeon RX 480 (3GB VRAM)
- RAM: 8 GB
Recommended:
- CPU: IntelCore i7-3770 / AMD Ryzen 3 3100
- GPU: GeForce GTX 1080 / Radeon RX 5700 (8GB VRAM)
- RAM: 12 GB
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 run FF7 Remake Intergrade on '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.
8 Tests 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 in and the game 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 the linear level design and the numerous cutscenes.
7 Textures 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.
For the most part, however, Final Fantasy 7 Remake Intergrade plays things fairly. The "low" setting on the PC port should be roughly equivalent in visual fidelity to the PS4 version. The "high" setting on the other hand is just a bit more superior to the PS5 version when it comes to textures and contrast or lighting. The PC also gets the added benefit of having readily available higher resolutions as well as a faster framerate.
6 The 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 in Final Fantasy 7 Remake Intergrade:
- Display Mode
- Screen Resolution
- Texture Resolution
- Shadow Resolution
- Framerate (limit)
- Characters Displayed
- Dynamic Range
- Brightness
- HDR Luminance
- HDR Darkness
- HDR Brightness
- UI Brightness
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.
5 It's Not Going To Push Hardware Limits
Those with hardware that far exceeds the recommended specs for Final Fantasy 7 Remake Intergrade should 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. The framerate 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.
Also, as stated above, there's no 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.
4 There 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 currently no official ultrawide monitor support for Final 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 are too many pre-rendered cutscenes in 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 making new content instead.
3 There'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 like Dark Souls, forcing the players to use controllers instead. Thankfully, that's not the case in this remake port.
Final Fantasy 7 Remake Intergrade has 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, is mapped 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 fix that small oversight.
2 Yuffie'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 the Intergrade version of Final Fantasy 7 Remake, Yuffie's ninja adventures are included in the PC port.
This content comes in the form of FF7R EPISODE INTERmission. In it, players get to control Yuffie as she works with the Avalanche HQ to steal material from the Shinra Electric Power Company.
1 Yes, 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 like Skyrim. Now, players get to enjoy that aspect of PC gaming in Final Fantasy 7 Remake Intergrade.
There's already a Nexus Mods page for 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 can turn an Ifrit into Thomas the Tank Engine.
Final Fantasy 7 Remake Intergrade is available now for Microsoft Windows. It's also available on PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5.