Final Fantasy 7 Remake Intergrade Fixes Cloud’s Ugly Door

Looking to put an end to fan complaints and their associated memes, Square Enix has officially redone the look of Cloud Strife’s door in Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade. The change has been jokingly highlighted a day ahead of Intergrade‘s launch on PlayStation 5.

The scenery in Stargazer Heights took on outsized importance after Final Fantasy 7 Remake first launched in April 2020. Although the game was generally well-received, protagonist Cloud Strife’s door became a metaphorical punching bag, sometimes symbolic of the game’s greater problems, like bugs. Because of its blurry texture, it failed to match some of the game’s other, more impressive visuals. To fans’ credit, it was difficult to even tell if the door was supposed to be wooden or just rusted metal. In FF7 Remake Intergrade, however, that will no longer be the case.

In a joking Wednesday tweet, the official Final Fantasy VII Remake Twitter account highlighted the door’s major visual upgrade. “And here we are. Good ol’ Stargazer Heights,” the Square Enix account said. The post features a mundane screenshot of Cloud standing next to the door, standing in stark contrast to most of the account’s tweets, which in recent weeks has focused on snippets of the FF7R Episode INTERmission DLC and a 4K re-release of the movie Advent Children. Reception to the new-and-improved door appears mostly positive, although some gamers are complaining about other textures, such as the game’s flowers.

FF7 Remake Intergrade introduces improved graphics all-around, as well as a photo mode and enhanced haptic feedback for PS5 DualSense controllers. Players can choose between performance and quality modes, the latter sacrificing frame rate to maintain 4K resolution. Only FF7 Remake Intergrade players will have access to the INTERmission DLC, and if they’re upgrading from the PS4 game, it’ll cost extra. The DLC is a new episode starring Yuffie Kisaragi, who joins up with other new characters to steal the “ultimate” Materia from Shinra Electric.

Both  FF7 Remake Intergrade and INTERmission are a likely attempt on Square Enix’s part to keep customers happy until the release of Final Fantasy 7Remake‘s sequel. Much of the needed technology, artwork, and gameplay should be in place, so the follow-up may take much less time than the original’s five years. However, the wait will still likely until at least 2022. It’s possible that the developer could share more information about the sequel during E3 2021, during which the next Square Enix Presents showcase is scheduled. In addition to Marvel’s Avengers and Life is Strange, it’s there that the publisher could also spend some time discussing Final Fantasy XVI, Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker, and Final Fantasy Origin, with the lattermost being a rumored spin-off by Nioh studio Team Ninja.

Source: Final Fantasy VII Remake/Twitter

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Roger Fingas
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Originally from Ottawa, Canada, Roger now lives with his family in Austin, Texas. He has years of experience in tech writing, and his gaming specialties include FPS and VR games on the PC.

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