Square Enix finally released its heavily anticipated PC port of Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade for the Epic Games Store on Thursday, but not a lot of fans appear to be impressed for reasons that go beyond the game’s exclusivity and lack of a Steam version.
Digital Foundry’s Alex Battaglia, for one, has called Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade for PC “the worst AAA release I have seen on PC in a good long time,” a statement that was presumably prompted by the game’s myriad issues that include stuttering and framerate drops to the lack of traditional graphics options such as anti-aliasing.
“Alex sent his clips over for us to check out and, yeah, the PC port of FFVIIR is terrible,” Battaglia’s colleague, John Linneman, said in a tweet. “He captured this using an RTX3090 + 10900k at just 1080p and it’s a mess. The smooth presentation was central to its story telling and this version compromises it.”
What’s interesting (and potentially embarrassing for Square Enix) is that the version of Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade that was sent to the Epic Games Store might have been an incomplete version. “BuildConfiguration=PPBC_Development,” reads a line shared by modders who dug into the game’s files.
[/Script/UnrealEd.ProjectPackagingSettings]
BuildConfiguration=PPBC_Development
FullRebuild=False
UsePakFile=True
bGenerateChunks=False
bChunkHardReferencesOnly=False
IncludePrerequisites=True
IncludeCrashReporter=False
InternationalizationPreset=English
+CulturesToStage=en
DefaultCulture=en
bSkipEditorContent=false
bSharedMaterialNativeLibraries=False
bShareMaterialShaderCode=False
“Cloud Strife, an ex-SOLDIER operative, descends on the mako-powered city of Midgar,” reads a description of the game on the Epic Games Store. “The world of the timeless classic FINAL FANTASY VII is reborn, using cutting-edge graphics technology, a new battle system and an additional adventure featuring Yuffie Kisaragi.”
Square Enix launched Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade on the Epic Games Store at a price point of $69.99, but it’s unclear whether some, or all, of its future PC titles might carry this same premium.
Source: ResetEra