FF7R Episode INTERmission (DLC)

Note: This review contains spoilers for Final Fantasy VII Remake.

Over a year after the release of Final Fantasy VII Remake, with no word yet on the second full installment, Square Enix released an updated version, Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade, for the PS5. Square Enix not only offered this upgrade for free for existing PS4 owners, sans those who downloaded the free PS+ version, they also released a piece of DLC exclusively for PS5 owners (as of this writing). This DLC, FF7R Episode INTERmission, would explore Yuffie’s role in Remake and release as a separate $20 purchase for those who didn’t purchase Intergrade. This was how I played it, as I didn’t want to buy the same game again at full price, though the process involved in getting to that point ensured that I couldn’t actually play it on launch day. As soon as I could play it, however, I explored just about everything it had to offer and found it worth the asking price. Mostly.

Shortly after the bombing of the Sector 5 Mako Reactor, Yuffie Kisaragi, a ninja from Wutai, arrives in Midgar. There, she seeks help from an Avalanche cell, as well as her partner Sonon Kusakabe, to infiltrate Shinra headquarters and steal their “ultimate materia” to help strengthen Wutai. Unfortunately, it’s not as easy as she thinks.

Yuffie (left) teams up with Sonon (right) against Shinra.

Adding in Yuffie this early into the Remake storyline was certainly unexpected, but the plot of INTERmission integrates her surprisingly well and helps flesh out her character while staying in-character. Some extra details from Remake get filled in during her journey, though their significance varied greatly, from why Tifa investigated Don Corneo to hints at what Scarlet was developing for Shinra. Yuffie’s relationship with Sonon, however brief, still worked in the context of Remake and I liked that the ending actually advanced the story for Cloud’s party and felt like a direct lead-in to the next installment. The one thing I felt iffy on was how the story incorporated elements of Dirge of Cerberus, if only due to my own general feelings on that game. Putting that aside, however, I thought those elements were at least integrated better in the Remake timeline, even if they still feel a little out of place.

As an expansion of Remake’s story, INTERmission has very similar gameplay to the main game, including traversal and combat. However, playing as Yuffie does add its own unique twists that keep the experience fresh. During combat, she has her own ninja-based playstyle where she can maintain distance from her enemies with a combination of her throwing star and various ninjutsu. Although players can’t control her partner Sonon directly, Yuffie can sync up with him and perform combination attacks, including more powerful versions of some of their abilities. During exploration, Yuffie can also throw her weapon at faraway objects and switches, though obstructions can block the weapon’s intended path.

Yuffie can also get around with conveniently-placed grates.

Ninjutsu adds a great twist to combat.

Syncing up with Sonon opens up new strategies.

INTERmission also takes certain concepts from Final Fantasy VII and expands on them. One of these is the Happy Turtle, a bar players could go to during an optional questline in the original game. The Remake timeline establishes that the bar has locations outside of Wutai and even brings back the Happy Turtle Poster collectables as a self-contained side quest during Chapter 1, which includes a small stealth section based on an event in Remake. Retrieving all the posters and bringing them back to Old Snapper, a man advertising the Happy Turtle in the Sector 7 slums, grants the player a unique reward that can make it worthwhile.

The Fort Condor minigame also returns from the original Final Fantasy VII, but now in an expanded form as a board game, complete with collectable pieces. When starting this version of Fort Condor, you first select a board, which determines how many pieces you have access to, which spells you can cast during play, your starting/maximum ATB and the speed at which you recharge ATB. You can then choose which pieces you’ll want to use. Each piece has their own attack and defense stats, ATB cost and element that determines their strengths and weaknesses during the game. More powerful pieces are usually more expensive to deploy.

Selecting the right Board is half the battle.

Once you’ve selected everything, you can start the game. Each game has a three-minute time limit with the objective of reducing the HP of your opponent’s Headquarters to zero. When the timer starts, the player engages the opponent in fast-paced real-time combat where strategic deployment of each piece is crucial to victory. Pieces regularly clash on the board with rock-paper-scissors style damage calculation. Since the position of the furthest piece determines where players can deploy additional units, pushing through defenses with powerful pieces is important, but unit pools may also need a good defensive option to ward off the opponents. Attacking the Headquarters isn’t easy once you get near, however, since each player also has two Outposts with their own HP and attacks. If you can win against the AI, you’ll be rewarded with additional boards and pieces or Conder Coins that you can use to buy even more boards and pieces from Old Snapper.

Fighting is the other half.

I wasn’t sure about the Fort Condor minigame at first, believing it would take a long time, but I actually got into it and willingly put in an extra hour-and-a-half battling all of the AI opponents and obtaining most of the boards and pieces after defeating all seven opponents once. If you have the time, it’s a great way to get more out of INTERmission and is a great reimagining of an otherwise clunky FF7 minigame.

In any case, if you play through INTERmission just for the story, you can through it in about four hours. If you go through the effort of finding all the Happy Turtle flyers and engage in the Fort Condor minigame to the fullest, the side content easily brings the total time to around five-and-a-half to six hours. Beyond that, it’s all about maxing out Yuffie and Sonon’s weapons and materia, much like in the main Remake story. Although weapons and items don’t transfer between campaigns, completing INTERmission unlocks a special secret boss fight against Weiss the Immaculate in Remake. However, he can only be fought within the combat simulator and only on Hard difficulty.

Weiss is a difficult opponent.

Although I didn’t play the Intergrade version of Remake, INTERmission gives a great taste of what previous PS4 owners can expect. On the PS5, players can choose between Performance Mode, which prioritizes a buttery smooth 60 FPS, and Graphics Mode, which prioritizes displaying in 4K resolution; since I don’t have a 4K display, I played through INTERmission in Performance Mode. Additionally, there’s also a new Photo Mode and new Classic Mode difficulties. The game does a great job taking advantage of the PS5’s power, with virtually no loading times and a great use of haptic feedback. The only issue I had with the graphics, however, was that when I went back for the Fort Conder stuff, the game had a hard time drawing Yuffie’s poncho in certain scenes.

Despite the improved graphics, Nero the Sable's jockstrap thing still looks bad.

Much like the main game, the voice acting is pretty good and the original music is both fitting and consistent with the tone of Remake. There are even multiple variations of the Happy Turtle theme, including a hilarious heavy metal rendition, which shows just how versatile it is. As a bonus, you also hear the Happy Turtle theme from the controller speaker when you collect each of the Happy Turtle posters.

My one big sticking point, however, is how Square Enix handled distribution of the Cacstar weapon. Since I was going for the free Intergrade upgrade to save money, I wasn’t able to pre-order INTERmission, which included the Cacstar weapon for Yuffie as a bonus. Fortunately, they made this DLC available at launch for a fee, which is a reasonable approach. Unfortunately, they priced the Cacstar at $10, which is half the price of the campaign itself. For that reason, I didn’t go for the weapon and it could easily be a turnoff for other players. Considering PS5 owners can freely claim the Remake DLC that was once behind different paywalls on PS4, I wonder if the Cacstar weapon will eventually get a similar treatment.

Whether you’re upgrading Remake to the Intergrade version or held out for the PS5 release, INTERmission is a great addition. Its expansions on the lore of the main game, not to mention how it advances the plot at the end, are already good enough reasons to buy it, but the unique gameplay twists and Fort Condor minigame certainly help with the enjoyment.