For Square Enix to Introduce Yuffie Kisaragi in Final Fantasy VII Remake: Intergrade with a separate story, nothing is genius, especially since it sets a precedent for how subsequent entries in the series can solve the first issue’s biggest problem.
Cloud, Barret, Tifa and Aerith almost get the spotlight VF7, and the remaining four members of the cast only get their backstory later in the game (or, in a striking case, a separate game). As FF7 Remake we have shown something, it is that this new retelling is infinitely more interesting the deeper it goes into the original history, and even more so when it deviates from experimenting.
We need stand-alone deliveries dedicated to each core member of the cast to give each one the spotlight they need. Intergrade is about to set the precedent in a big way, but Square needs to go even deeper by examining flashbacks that could never have been completely played out in the original or new stories.
Final Fantasy VII Remake is an excellent game with very few errors, but one of the most striking is how it fails Red-XIII. The talking wolf lion is introduced in the last act of the game as an NPC fighting alongside the party and engaged in a feline platforming maneuver, but we learn nothing about him beyond his desire to bite the evil mad scientist Hojo.
By comparison, learn a lot about Cloud, Barret, Tifa and Aerith during the adventure: what motivates them, the general direction of their moral compass, their relationships and trifles in personal history. We do not understand this with Red-XIII. He’s just an animal talking. This is of course because the story of the original game has been cut up. We have not been to Cosmo Canyon to visit Bugenhagen yet, so we still know nothing about Nanaki (that’s the real name of Red-XIII!).
FF7 Remake: Intergradehowever, takes a new approach to character development with a brand new episode in which Yuffie is introduced “while invading the shady Shinra Corporation to steal a powerful Materia and restore the glory of her homeland.” This is a much more interesting way to introduce the character compared to the original, where she was an annoying stranger you meet in the forest who later steals ALL your Materia in one of the more frustrating series of the game. Square Enix should do this for every character, even if it means we get some shorter story-based DLC over the next few years before Part 2.
For all we know, Square Enix could already plan to focus every remaining member of the core cast in the same way: by presenting them in distraction chapters that overlap with the main story.
As much as I strangely despise Cait Sith FF7 Remake during the destruction of Sector 7 cutscene, a few chapters examining how the animatronic cat travels from Midgar to the Gold Saucer do interest me. Double as it struggles with Reeve Tuesti’s growing concern about Shinra’s lack of morality.
Even more interesting, however, is the potential for playable flashbacks starring Vincent Valentine and Cid Highwind, especially if their backstory in the original game is already portrayed in flashbacks, or in spinoffs such as Dirge van Cerberus and Before the crisis.
Imagine this: A few chapters with Cid six years before the main game (as depicted in Before the crisis) when he works for Shinra to build a space rocket. But due to the intervention of Avalanche, his life dream is thwarted. That would explain why he is so hostile today and can help contextualize this old man before bringing his spear to fight with Cloud and friends.
Similarly, Vincent is just a strange vampire who meets the party in the basement of Shinra’s Nibelheim mansion, and only later is his backstory exposed as a Turk that Hojo experimented with. What if we have a Intergrade-size flashes back to three decades before describing Vincent’s transformation? So if the party encounters him during the main match, we are already caught up in why he is brooding like that.
Granted, all of these events will be in the Final Fantasy VII: Ever Crisis mobile game, but there is reason to believe that Square Enix might develop mini-adventures for every character.
In Final Fantasy VII Remake Ultimania, released a few weeks later FF7 Remake, Game Director Tetsuya Nomura spoke somewhat vaguely about the number of “parts” in the Remake series. “If we divide the story into large parts, it will take longer to make,” Nomura said, according to a translation. “If we divide it into more detailed smaller sections, it will develop faster.”
In retrospect, Nomura may have thought of Yuffie’s Intergrade adventure when he talked about “detailed smaller sections”, which could mean that the long-term plan for FF7 Remake is to take in more bite-sized portions of the story moving forward. At the very least, it would keep things very interesting and entertaining like the FF7 Remake series unfolds over the next few years.
FF7 Remake: Intergrade will be released on June 10, 2021 for the PS5.