Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade: when the fanservice has a name

Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade: when the fanservice has a name

A few days ago it was the turn of Final Fantasy XVI, today instead at the center of the umpteenth sterile controversy we find Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade, even more specifically the paid DLC dedicated to Yuffie, exclusive for PlayStation 5 shown at State of Play held recently. The issues that have moved the fans have been many, but the truth is that most of them, unfortunately, still do not have the whole vision of the project very clear. Do not mistake me as someone who defines himself as the bearer of absolute truth, with this article I do not pretend to change anyone's mind, I just try to give a different point of view, one in which we do not necessarily have to criticize anything just because it does not reflect our own tastes or hopes.



Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade: when the fanservice has a name

What is happening 

Let's start from a fact, Square Enix is "educating" its fan base to the new consoles, we saw this with the announcement of the expansion dedicated to Final Fantasy XIV, with the PS5 exclusivity of the XVI and, now, as was to be expected, the turn of the VII Remake Intergrade has also arrived. It was clear from the start that the sequel to the Remake would be dedicated to new hardware, which inevitably from the beginning it excluded those who were not willing to make the generational change. The lack of stocks certainly slowed down times, but the general plans remained the same. So what did Square Enix do? Simple, to incentivize even more the passage of users has decided to put, in addition to the free update for PS5, a separately purchasable DLC dedicated to Yuffie. The release of the additional content one year later was quite plausible, especially considering that Square Enix has used the same strategy in the past with Kingdom Hearts III e Final Fantasy XV. The experience dedicated to Wutai's girl does not take away or add anything to the base game, but tells a parallel story that had to be present in the version of Final Fantasy VII of 1997.



Here, however, comes the first wrong interpretation by users who have been most burned: they are selling the DLC of an incomplete Remake. I'm sorry to have to dismantle this thought, but defining Final Fantasy VII Remake as incomplete would be like saying the same thing as a Horizon: Zero Dawn or a God of War. This new course of the Remake serves to expand the story as it was not possible to do in the past, also bringing new players closer to make them enjoy one of the titles that have marked the history of our favorite medium. That said, the entire production was meant to be a complete story, playable from start to finish, closing a small part of the plot but opening a door to the future. This structure is used by any game that has a sequel, but since this first chapter of the Remake is only part of a game available already complete, it has been perceived as something partial, but it is absolutely not.

Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade: when the fanservice has a name

So this DLC? Final Fantasy VII Remake what is it becoming? 

Let's talk for a moment about DLCs in general; initially identified as game pieces extrapolated in development and sold separately from the base title. These additional contents, however, over time have also proved to be central in the marketing campaign of certain products, becoming varied and of different caliber. There are DLCs dedicated to weapons, skins and additional missions, but then there are other much richer ones, like those of The Witcher 3 or the first The Last of Us. These types of content have ceased to be the main evil of the industry for some time now, but there are simply users who are not clear on this concept. What you are paying for, in the case of Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade, is an addition that you can safely refuse to buy, unrelated to the base game and that in no way undermines the experience of the main story. This additional content has received separate development, so it is perfectly legitimate that it should be paid for separately.



In all this speech I can empathize more with those who believe, even rightly I would say, that this new course started with the Remake is "betraying" its real nature. A lawful thought but, said by those who did not in the least appreciate Chapter 18, it is still to be developed in more depth. What happens in the finale is chaos, but at present it has not yet been contextualized in the right way. Precisely for this reason we must have trust and patience, also considering the team behind the total development of the project. For the more mischievous, the removal of Nomura from the role of Director should already calm the minds, but we will see the results of this choice only in the future.


Put down the pitchforks and accept the franchise's change of direction

Before concluding I want to give an example of how the Japanese think when it comes to works considered "sacred". Musashi, one of the most important books for Japan; written by Eiji Yoshikawa, tells the story of the best swordsman in the world. The historical importance of the story is so high that no one has ever come close in a concrete way to the revisitation of the project, except Vagabond, a manga written and drawn by Takehiko Inoue, or one of the greatest, if not the best, cartoonist in Japan. After a great start, the manga project was stopped because in some ways Inoue was drifting away from Musashi's true nature. Currently the manga is on a "forced" hiatus, and its return is not even so obvious until they understand the direction to take. The same principle can be safely applied to Final Fantasy VII Remake because no one, especially the original creators who are working on the work, wants to ruin a masterpiece like the original.


Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade: when the fanservice has a name

the truth is that fans can't stand the new direction of the franchise, the abandonment of the shift component for many nostalgics represented the distortion of a historic brand which for years had accompanied users in a "classic" way. Unfortunately for them times change and, for now, the new Final Fantasy are the same games that would have come out in the 90s if they had had the current technologies. The videos are explicit in this regard, but certain battles were really unthinkable for the hardware of the time. Guys, everything that is happening is perfectly normal, not shareable in some ways but still inevitable. Anyone who has played the original enjoy this new journey and leave the discovery to new fans, it will never be this DLC that will mark the quality of the whole project.

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