It took us much longer than expected to get to the Final Fantasy VII Remake (Intergrade). A big update by Square Enix of the legendary FFVII on the PlayStation, it’s a fan favourite from the series and its epic themes were ideal for a big overhaul.

Remake launched in 2020 as an action role-playing game, at first on PS4 before making its way to the PC. Finally, in January 2026, there were ports for the Nintendo Switch and Xbox consoles.

We got the Switch 2 version and happily dove on it. What we found was a heavily cinematic idealised title, but one that can often be a wonder (even if it occasionally mires itself in some AAA tedium).

The Emotive Sweep of Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade

Squaresoft launched Final Fantasy VII in 1997. The company became Square Enix in 2003 after merging with the developer Enix. Even though the FF series continues to this day, the peak years are considered the SNES outings and then FFVII on the PlayStation.

As FFVII is one of our favourite games. We first got to play it on the PC port in 1998 and fell in love with it.

As an RPG, its epic story and dramatic characters, amazing soundtrack, and everything else just swept us along with the whole shingdig. Although the original’s blocky graphics show their age, they have a real charm to them.

Once the news of the long-awaited remake was announce, we were worried Square would do AAA trope stuff for the sake of graphics snobs who wanted a graphical overhaul.

However, Final Fantasy VII Remake is much more than just a graphics update. It’s a very impressive reimagining of the original story, with new arcs, complexities, game mechanics, and characterisation. Frankly, within hours we were swept along with it all and think the remake is a total triumph. A magnificent beast!

FFVII Remake Overhauls (and improves) the Iconic Narrative

The great thing Square has done here is do much more than modernise the graphics. The dev has also given the genuinely brilliant, emotive story a big update and expanded on the concepts of the 1997 original.

Some of the updates are subtle, others major, but on the whole these are all very well done. And show that Remake is much more than a pandering to graphics snobs wailing about a lack of 60fps.

As pretty as the game now looks, what kept us coming back to Remake night after night for three hour runs is that story.

The Remake is a trilogy, with the second installment launched in February 2024, and the third outing is due for release in 2026 or 2027. This first outing focusses in on what’s about a one to three hour segment in the original game, where players are in the radical eco-terrorist movement AVALANCHE.

In the metropolis city of Midgar, you take control of the mercenary Cloud Strife. He’s hired as a one-off to blow up a reactor in the megacorporation of Shinra. He’s initially just out for money, but soon gets drawn into a sprawling story of love, loss, grief, and environmental collapse.

For us, that was our favourite bit of the original game. The opening hour is magnificent.

For Remake, the entire first installment is an expansion of Cloud’s time in Midgar. Brilliant! A full 30 hours or so of that opening segment, so there’s nothing to complain about from us.

It’s genuinely one of the best video game narratives out there. We’ve been critical of video game narratives in general on Professional Moron, mainly in modern AAA games as they’re often so poorly done. AAA games are like having to watch a terrible movie.

But FFVII Remake Intergrade is largely a big success. It helps that the story from 30 years ago was already there, but the expansions of plot and themes are done intelligently and with great compassion.

Central to that is Cloud’s friendship with a young lady called Aerith, a brilliant human being who stands as a beacon of light amongst the economic collapse and corruption of Shinra.

The CRUNCH of the Gameplay and Those Melancholic Moments

The original FFVII merged a combat system alongside the deep and emotive storyline, plus a genuine sense of melancholia. It’s a game about capitalism destroying the world, with the head of Shinra a cold and calculating psychopath.

Away from the story, which is what drives the game, Remake offers a fleshed out combat system. Square Enix has been great here and offered all sorts of difficulty settings to accommodate for different playing types.

Before you begin, you can set things to be super tough or super easy. It’s really welcoming and allows everyone to experience the game the way they want to (something devs like Team Cherry need to keep in mind).

Combat is good fun, but can get a bit repetitive. Plus, the gameplay experience is surprisingly linear, alongside some of the more tedious AAA game tropes added into the mix. Mainly in the form of side quests, which are just the usual “I’ve lost several chickens, go and collect the chickens” filler. For us, it added little to the experience other than fleshing out the game length artificially.

Some of the dialogue and voice acting can be cringeworthy, too, but the whole it’s well done. Even the comically oversexualised Tifa, in the most revealing outfit imaginable, has a clearly defined character. She’s a great human being, compassionate and confident.

Players are also always encouraged, led by Square Enix at regular turns, to just stop and bask in life’s moments.

Its philosophical in that reach, expecting you to think of your own existence and sense of mortality. FFVII is about several very brave people putting their precious lives to one side in the name of something greater.

As the player, you’re very much part of that. Living out the dramatic experience.

And the glorious thing about Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade? This is part one of a trilogy. The game fully deserves this treatment, a masterpiece of gaming modernised in the best possible way.

And a Nod to FFVII Remake’s Musical Overhaul

On a final note, we’ve done a full feature on Final Fantasy VII Remake’s soundtrack. Remake offers a big reimagining of the original 1997 score, updated by the composers Masashi Hamauzu and Mitsuto Suzuki.

The composer for the 1997 original score, Nobuo Uematsu, made one contribution. Otherwise, the work includes new arrangements of his brilliant work 30 years ago.

Credit to the team and what they’ve done here, faithfully recreating classic old pieces whilst fleshing out the main soundtrack with new compositions. It’s a vast score, too, with over 150 pieces and totalling eight hours in length. Square Enix’s official soundtrack release is a seven CD set!

They weren’t messing around with this whole project. Everyone involved put in maximum effort to build on the legacy of the original and from the music to the core gameplay, everything is rather magnificent.