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In a recent interview with IGN (opens in new tab), Crisis Core: Final Fantasy 7 Reunion producer Mariko Sato went in-depth on the remaster’s conception and development. The developer also touched on an interesting tidbit for PC players: the remake will apparently be targeting 120 fps on PC.
This is an encouraging development, especially if “targeting” refers to how the game will behave on lower spec systems, but I’m still not sure a higher fps target indicates that Square is finally taking its PC ports seriously—consistent high frame rates haven’t been its biggest hurdle.
It’s true that recent releases Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin and NieR Replicant Please-Don’t-Make-Me-Do-the-Numbers-Gag released with 60 fps caps, but the quite good Final Fantasy 7 Remake allowed frame rates up to 120 fps, and it had the most glaring performance deficit of the lot: persistent stutters tied to running the game in its default DirectX 12 API. Until very recently this issue could only be addressed by running the game in DirectX 11 (opens in new tab), which also broke the game’s HDR functionality.
These issues on their own are minor annoyances, and 2022 GOTY-apparent Elden Ring proves that a good enough game can overcome any number of performance woes (opens in new tab), but Square Enix has a demonstrated history of sloppy, underwhelming PC ports at this point.
The company’s worst offence remains its treatment of NieR Automata—a phenomenal, breakout hit that had a persistent, seemingly hardware-agnostic periodic stutter that went unaddressed for four years (opens in new tab). Even then, the fix was only in response to a vocal fan reaction to the game’s issues being absent on its PC Game Pass release while the original Steam version languished.
I’ll be happy enough if this remaster of a fifteen year-old PSP game that’s also planned to release on the low-power Nintendo Switch targets 120 fps on lower-cost hardware, but I’m bracing myself for the limited graphics menu and glaring performance issues remaining unaddressed months or years down the line I’ve come to expect from Square Enix on PC.
It might be fun to play it on Steam Deck though—run this PSP killer app on what is essentially a giant PSP.
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