Square Enix is doing a good job, a real good job at making the next few weeks hard for me. I’m aching to start another playthrough of Final Fantasy VII Remake but not until the new PlayStation 5 enhancements are available. Today, the studio has revealed new information about Intergrade and also new key visuals teasing future sequels.
Picking up just as Mako Reactor 5 is destroyed, players will control Yuffie and her partner Sonon, two elite ninja operative for the Wutaian government who have infiltrated Midgar. Their task is to steal Shinra’s most powerful material and bring it back to the village. However, even with the support of Avalanche, things don’t go to plan and they must head into enemy territory to restore Wutai’s former glory and get revenge for their people.
Since the remake is an amalgamation of everything Final Fantasy VII previously offered, Nero has been added to canon and the elite member of Deepground controls the power of darkness. He is known as Nero the Sable, the younger brother of Weiss the Immaculate and is formidable in battle.
Scarlet will be a tough opponent for Yuffie and Sonon and the director of Advanced Weaponry has an arsenal behind her. In this case, she uses the Crimson mare suit of battle armour to stop anything that gets in her way using its interchangeable weapons including mako cannons and sabres.
In battle, you only control Yuffie and Sonon can be given orders but not controlled. By pressing L2, you engage the synergy mechanic with Yuffie, allowing the two to team up for special attacks and a faster staggering of enemies. If both Yuffie and Sonon have ATB available, they perform synergized attacks including Art of War, which lands a barrage of blows on an enemy, each dealing more damage than the last. There is also Windstord that creates a gust of wind and damages all nearby enemies.
Yuffie has her limit break available and Bloodbath deals a large amount of damage by landing a flurry of blows on enemies. Sonon’s limit break is called Dance of the Dragons and delivers blows with his staff, making sure they don’t get up.
And while I’m ecstatic to see Fort Confor return, it isn’t the same minigame from before. Inspired by one of Shinra’s military conquests, Fort Conder is a strategy game where two players deploy units to capture the opponent’s base while defending their own. In Sector 7, the game has gained immense popularity and whoever defeats the grandmaster may earn a rare orb of material. 
You first select the board, which in turn determines the number of ATB charges and material you have available to use, along with the available units. Then, using ATB charges to deploy units, you watch them march towards the enemy base and engage the opponent. There are three roles to choose from, vanguard, ranged, or defence and these determine what enemies it will be effective against. Materia can be used to cast spells but they have a one-use per-game policy, make it count!
Lastly, Ramuh returns and the Lord of Levin is capable of bending lightning to his will to strike those who oppose him. Ramuh casts judgement on the wicked with bolts of lighting and he uses the Voltaic Lance to summon a lance of lighting that damaged all nearby enemies. His ultimate is Judgement Bolt (similar to the original game) and that conjures a powerful lighting storm that annihilates all enemies on the battlefield.
Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade launches June 10, 2021, for PlayStation 5.
