Final Fantasy VII Remake may have been rereleased just as many times as the original Final Fantasy VII at this point. First released on the PS4 in 2020, the enhanced Intergrade version (which featured a new scenario where you play as Yuffie) hit the PS5 exclusively a year later, then came to PC a few months after that. Now, five years later, Intergrade is coming to Nintendo Switch 2 and Xbox Series consoles. I've been putting the game on Switch 2 through its paces, and while it was initially jarring to go back down to 30 frames per second and a few other small quirks, this is an incredibly solid port.
If you're not already familiar with Final Fantasy VII Remake, you can check out our review of the game here and our review of Intergrade here. In short, it's a great game, deviating from the original just enough to flesh things out and make its own mark on the gaming landscape, while remaining true to the original's themes. As someone who didn't grow up with the original game and bounced off of it pretty hard (I did eventually finish it), the Remake trilogy so far has shown me why Final Fantasy VII was so revolutionary and why people loved it.
So how does it fare on Switch 2? Well, from a technical perspective you're getting 30 fps in docked or handheld modes, which seem to target 1440p and 1080p respectively. They use DLSS to achieve this, which I think may be why the game looks much sharper in screenshots than in motion. It's not like the game looks blurry or anything while you're playing it; it's just a very odd difference.
Speaking of odd, while the framerate is super consistent in gameplay, it will occasionally dip a bit in cutscenes. You'd think this would be because of intense visual effects or having tons of characters on screen, but no, the game hits 30 handily in those bits. I can't fathom why, but in certain scenes the camera cutting or panning will occasionally result in lower a lower framerate for a second or two. It's not every single time, but I did notice it seemed to happen more often in scenes with Aerith and her mom. The only time I encountered a noticeable framerate drop was when all the Avalanche members were having a party in Seventh Heaven. Everything else is impressively stable.
It looks fantastic too, no matter how you're playing. Things will still look their best in cutscenes, but that's consistent with other versions. Cloud's face in particular can look very weird in certain lighting conditions in gameplay, while other times he looks just fine. Sometimes you can also see textures loading in after a scene transition, but again, that's just an Unreal Engine quirk.
The game overall looks closer to the PS5 version in quality than the PS4 version, but there are some downgrades to get this working on Switch 2, namely the draw distance. In towns you can see NPCs pop in right in front of you. Areas like the Sector 7 Slums or Wall Market have pretty small and tight corridors, so you'll be running through a section that seems deserted when suddenly whole swaths of people fade into existence. It's pretty jarring, and probably the worst aspect of this port. I'm willing to make that sacrifice for portability here though, especially since performance on Steam Deck never felt right to me.
That said, I'd also be willing to sacrifice some of the fidelity here for higher fps if there was a performance mode. Even just being able to get 40 in portable modem, taking advantage of the screen's VRR feature, would have been nice. Still, this is a very impressive port, and I hope we see Rebirth come over to the Switch 2 soon. It certainly feels strange to go back to Remake after Rebirth, with the latter title's ranged moves for melee characters and better aerial combat, but this game does have the better version of Cloud's Punisher Mode. It'll be interesting to see if, once the full trilogy is out, all of those additional abilities and features will be backported in some sort of Compilation of Final Fantasy VII Remake
The Switch 2 and Xbox versions also add a brand new feature: streamlined progression. Starting a new game, you'll be asked if you want to begin normally or with higher leveled characters and better equipment. New weapons (and thus new abilities) are still acquired through the story, but you do get a big head start here with tons of gil too. During gameplay, no matter what option you pick, you can also access the Streamlined Progression menu, which lets you adjust various settings to make the game easier. For example, you can make yourself invincible, have unlimited ATB, always deal max damage, etc. I personally wouldn't make use of these options because I enjoy the playing the game part of the game and I wouldn't consider these accessibility options, but they're there for people who really just want the story.
Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade plays great on Switch 2. You won't get the higher framerates or resolutions, but what you lose there you gain the versatility of the hybrid console. This is yet another way to play a phenomenal game.
