The news came directly from the official Twitter account of Final Fantasy VII Remake revealing that the game together with Yuffie’s directed Episode Intermission will be sold on Nintendo Switch 2 and Xbox Series X|S as of this coming Thursday. This would be the first time the highly appreciated remake would ever be played on those platforms, so now the timeline of exclusivity ends and a vast new player base will be able to access the game.
So the news is out and it is confirmed. Square Enix has unexpectedly announced that Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade is to be available on Xbox as well as Nintendo’s new console, Switch 2, the very next day i.e. Thursday. That’s the incredible news for this week. Xbox players have been coveting this game for years already while everyone on the Switch has been speculating about the performance of their console. But now, they all get the complete package – which is not only the original Remake game but also the Episode Intermission DLC with Yuffie as the protagonist. Truly, this is just a win for the said platforms.
What do you say about the online community’s response? It is mixed and this is something one would expect. There are some people who are very happy. For instance, there is a user with the name ‘CBonXseriesX’ who was ready to get it on Steam, yet he preferred to wait for the Xbox version and then he joked about the fear of dying before it comes to Xbox. This is a feeling many can relate to. Apart from him, there is also ‘XboxLoverBR’ who is posting his pre-order confirmation and is already celebrating. A good part of the gamers is sharing the excitement with each other.
But there are other people among us. Not everyone is satisfied and the fun is not over for everybody. A certain group of people is voicing their weariness with the whole drama. User ‘davidmcromp’ was very blunt with his remark: “Hey! It’s that game i already finished 3 times 5 years ago!” The truth is, he is quite right. It has been a long time ago since PlayStation and PC gamers have been through it. And then there is Yuffie… The announcement tweet actually celebrates her episode, but she is certainly not a favorite character. ‘deligma733’ has labelled her personality “unbearably annoying” while ‘luke clarckson’ has even suggested the game should just get rid of her. Ouch. The ninja likes it colorful but apparently the crowd is not really with her.
But the whole bomb drama is not nearly surrounding Yuffie. It is all about the consoles. A strange kind of console war atmosphere has emerged in the comments. One person, ‘meyerpark’, simply and very rudely proclaimed: “Ps5 was always a poor system” and then went on to make the claim “Xbox is the best.” Alright. That was very subtle indeed. Another one, ‘Topsecret111111’, tweeted “You know #him is fuming right now,” and almost certainly he was referring to a rather vocal segment of PlayStation fans whose excitement for the end of exclusivity might be overshadowed by some dissatisfaction. It is such petty, hilarious fan rivalry that makes gaming Twitter what it is.
Then it is a matter of taking the practical concerns into account. The file size is massive. It is around 90 GB as reported by players, which is the same as the PS5 version. That is a huge download, especially for a portable device like the Switch 2. The user ‘AncientArgonaut’ was making a point asking why the assets are not smaller, and this turned into a whole conversation about microSD cards. ‘ActionJaxonH’ was sharing his knowledge about how to get cheap 1TB cards through GameStop’s price mistakes. Gaming has turned into a logistics operation, man!
And then there is the major concern that looms large over everything else; What about Part 3? User ‘ODGactual’ put it plainly: “Xbox players are getting a banger. Part 3 when?” They even went on to suggest that after the trilogy is done Square should package all three games together with seamless character progression. That sounds like a brilliant idea, to be honest. It would turn the whole saga into an epic, single journey that it was meant to be. But for the moment, everyone is just waiting for a little bit of news regarding the next installment. Some even think it might be unveiled during Summer Game Fest.
So, how do we summarize all this? It is a typical gaming scenario. A beloved title breaks loose from its platform chains and hence the different responses of some joyfulness and others indifference or even irritations.
