Final Fantasy 7 Remake Intergrade is officially coming to Switch 2 and Xbox on January 22, and with this launch comes a new "Streamlined Progression" setting that basically says, to hell with difficulty, let's just max everything out so players can experience the story as uninterrupted as possible.
Days after Hollow Knight Silksong reignited the dreadful difficulty discourse due to its harsh learning curve, Square Enix has announced these new versions of Final Fantasy 7 Remake Intergrade that include a setting specifically aimed toward people who simply don't care or don't have time to deal with challenging fights, especially when they have to go back and grind to be appropriately leveled.
Per Square, the new setting adds unlimited HP and makes you invincible to enemy attacks (yes, even instant death hits), puts your MP at max value permanently, maxes out your Limit and ATP gauges, and cranks up the damage value on all of your attacks to 9999.
Square adds, "some of these features may not be applicable in certain situations," and says they can all be toggled on and off at will.
I have a love/hate relationship with JRPGs (leans heavily toward love), and literally all of the hate comes from the amount of grinding that's often necessary to keep pace with the difficulty of boss fights, even when I've spent a lot of time doing side quests. That's why Final Fantasy 7 Remake director Naoki Hamaguchi really speaks to me when he says this about the new progression features:
"I feel that the way people enjoy content has become more flexible these days, as we see with video streaming platforms, and that people also want the same thing from games, with options to tailor the experience based on the time they have and their levels of interest," Hamaguchi says.
"I have also had personal experiences where I wanted to play something with the limited time I have but gave up because of the time it takes to level up characters or traverse the game."
Same, Hamaguchi-san, same. That was very nearly me with Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, which really starts to drag as you get closer to the end, and while I don't remember Final Fantasy 7 Remake being quite so grindy, I'm happy it'll be much more accessible/approachable to new players who might feel somewhat daunted by the prospect of playing through such a meaty RPG but still want to experience its timeless story.
In the meantime, here are the best JRPGs you can play right now.
