Final Fantasy Remake: Intergrade - Episode Intermission isn't only the proud winner of the goofiest title of all time award; it's also a five-hour encapsulation of the potential of Final Fantasy 7 Remake. Having played the original FF7 recently, Yuffie was always a character on the verge of greatness. She had the best side quest, the funniest lines, the most unique backstory; hell, she even got the best theme tune cause that Wutai jingle goes hard.
The problem was that it was the original Final Fantasy 7, and the game was utterly terrified of her because she was an optional companion. Yuffie was lucky to say a line of throw-away, expositionary dialogue about her own home town, let alone get consistent screentime or really any story significance outside of her side quest. She was basically like every character on The Walking Dead when they'd managed to survive their initial arcs and the writers simply forget they existed, relegated to standing in the background nodding silently while Rick Grimes says "are the dead the monsters, or are WE the monsters?" for the 62nd time that episode.
Intermission finally manages to cash in on the idea of Yuffie as a character. It transforms her from the summons mule I used her as in the original game to an endearing, loveable hero with an inflated ego and a sense of tact about as subtle as a ghost pepper in a bowl of cheerios. The story itself isn't particularly riveting, the dialogue still feels like it was written by an AI and its filled with shit that I swear is just there to shame most of us for not caring about Dirge of Cerberus, but giving Yuffie centre stage feels like Square promising it's going to transform all its lesser explored party member into fully fleshed out characters by the time the dust has settled on Final Fantasy 7 Remake. What makes it better is that the gamble of spotlighting a character as potentially obnoxious as Yuffie really paid off; they go overboard with her reactions A LOT, but what can I say, she's a really charming character.
And even if you don't really like Yuffie, it's just more fun FF7 Remake gameplay. More wild, spectacle-heavy boss fights, waves of enemies to smash through and light puzzle-solving elements. So, yeah. If you like FF7 Remake, then it's just more FF7 Remake with a fun little Yuffie prequel attached. If you don't like FF7... well, unless you're a masochist, I don't think you're playing this expansion, so it doesn't really matter.
My main question is where this recurring "bean" motif came from. Like, the indestructible Wutai bean thing came up early on and I thought it was a funny gag, but then the bean joke kept recurring. And then it became the centre of one of the "heart-wrenching" emotional climaxes. Who was sat in that writers' room being like, "lads, listen. I think we need more bean" and everyone nodded in resounding agreement...
The problem was that it was the original Final Fantasy 7, and the game was utterly terrified of her because she was an optional companion. Yuffie was lucky to say a line of throw-away, expositionary dialogue about her own home town, let alone get consistent screentime or really any story significance outside of her side quest. She was basically like every character on The Walking Dead when they'd managed to survive their initial arcs and the writers simply forget they existed, relegated to standing in the background nodding silently while Rick Grimes says "are the dead the monsters, or are WE the monsters?" for the 62nd time that episode.
Intermission finally manages to cash in on the idea of Yuffie as a character. It transforms her from the summons mule I used her as in the original game to an endearing, loveable hero with an inflated ego and a sense of tact about as subtle as a ghost pepper in a bowl of cheerios. The story itself isn't particularly riveting, the dialogue still feels like it was written by an AI and its filled with shit that I swear is just there to shame most of us for not caring about Dirge of Cerberus, but giving Yuffie centre stage feels like Square promising it's going to transform all its lesser explored party member into fully fleshed out characters by the time the dust has settled on Final Fantasy 7 Remake. What makes it better is that the gamble of spotlighting a character as potentially obnoxious as Yuffie really paid off; they go overboard with her reactions A LOT, but what can I say, she's a really charming character.
And even if you don't really like Yuffie, it's just more fun FF7 Remake gameplay. More wild, spectacle-heavy boss fights, waves of enemies to smash through and light puzzle-solving elements. So, yeah. If you like FF7 Remake, then it's just more FF7 Remake with a fun little Yuffie prequel attached. If you don't like FF7... well, unless you're a masochist, I don't think you're playing this expansion, so it doesn't really matter.
My main question is where this recurring "bean" motif came from. Like, the indestructible Wutai bean thing came up early on and I thought it was a funny gag, but then the bean joke kept recurring. And then it became the centre of one of the "heart-wrenching" emotional climaxes. Who was sat in that writers' room being like, "lads, listen. I think we need more bean" and everyone nodded in resounding agreement...