Episode INTERmission

Episode INTERmission is a downloadable extra episode for Final Fantasy VII Remake. It takes place midway through the events of Final Fantasy VII Remake, and follows Yuffie Kisaragi, its main protagonist, as she enters Midgar in search of a hidden materia within the Shinra Building. Yuffie teams up with Sonon Kusakabe, a fellow Wutaian, and with members of Avalanche, on her quest, before coming into contact with the Shinra Electric Power Company executive, Scarlet. The story in the episode is entirely new, and not based on any events within Final Fantasy VII, though it does reference some elements of the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII.
The episode is included with the standalone release of Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade on PlayStation 5 and Microsoft Windows. Upgrading Final Fantasy VII Remake to the PS5 version does not include Episode INTERmission, which must be purchased separately.
==Synopsis==
===Characters===
* Yuffie Kisaragi, the playable protagonist, a 16-year-old ninja from Wutai who has come to Midgar to infiltrate the Shinra Company and steal their "ultimate materia".
* Sonon Kusakabe, a ninja from Wutai sent to support Yuffie. He is Godo Kisaragi's (Yuffie's father) former student and hates Shinra for what happened to his sister, Melphie, during the Wutai War. Sonon is a guest party member, who can synchronize with Yuffie, but not be directly controlled.
The Wutaian duo is supported by an Avalanche cell consisting of Zhijie, the charismatic and fearless leader, and its members Nayo, Billy Bob, and Polk. While in the slums, Yuffie also meets the eccentric Old Snapper, the mysterious Chadley, and the impressed Wymer who wants to hire Yuffie to the neighborhood watch, though she is uninterested.
Barret Wallace, Tifa Lockhart, Biggs, Jessie Rasberry, and Wedge are members of the infamous Avalanche "splinter cell", who appear as side characters.
The main antagonists are Scarlet, the head of Shinra's weapons development, who decides to use Yuffie and Sonon to test her newest creations, and Nero the Sable, a Deepground SOLDIER who can manipulate darkness.
===Story===
Yuffie Kisaragi comes to Midgar to steal a legendary materia from Shinra Electric Power Company rumored of being in the works. She makes her way through the mostly abandoned slum areas littered with rubble and monsters, shocked at the state of the supposed megalopolis. She runs into strange men dressed in long dark cloaks with number tattoos on their arms, who do not defend themselves even when monsters attack them. She is crept out how the men are acting and makes haste to the slums' inhabited area by following posters of moogles posted by Avalanche to guide her.
Yuffie surprises the local neighborhood watch by arriving from the monster-infested scrapyard and makes her way to the local clinic that has a moogle doll outside. The clinic is a front for a local Avalanche cell, led by Zhijie and run by Nayo, Billy Bob, and Polk. Yuffie's partner, Sonon Kusakabe, is not there, even though he had arrived days ago, and scouts out the area while waiting for him to return. She learns how to play Fort Condor, a tabletop tower defense game that had gained popularity recently, and takes on Chadley's VR mission. She finds a Wutai supporter called Old Snapper advertising the Happy Turtle bar with an unusual campaign; Yuffie partakes and scores a materia as a reward. She impresses Wymer, the local neighborhood watch leader, by venturing into the abandoned factory in the area despite the monsters that lurk within.
Finally meeting up with Sonon, the two team up to infiltrate the Shinra Building and make way to Scarlet's (the head of Shinra's weapons development) research facility in the basement. Sonon is a former student of Yuffie's father, the former leader of Wutai, Godo Kisaragi, who is currently imprisoned while a new government has taken over. Yuffie does not want to hear about her father, but Sonon still respects his old master, and so he agrees to follow Yuffie's lead even if he is her senior. Yuffie is pleased with her status as "boss", and the mission is underway.
They realize their goals differ from the aims of the Avalanche cell that had agreed to help them; while Yuffie and Sonon feel but hatred for both Midgar and Shinra, the Avalanche members seek to liberate the city from Shinra. Yuffie considers it impossible to separate the two, the city being entirely Shinra's creation. Yuffie and Sonon soon learn of the infamous "splinter cell" of Avalanche that also resides in the slums, which was behind the recent attacks on Midgar's mako reactors. Yuffie thinks the splinter cell has the right idea on how to attack both city and Shinra, and secretly wishes they had partnered with them instead. Barret Wallace and Tifa Lockhart are among the members of this splinter cell, returning from their bombing mission on Mako Reactor 5, looking dejected, informing Biggs that they had lost contact with the hired member of the group, a mercenary named Cloud Strife.
When Nayo takes Yuffie and Sonon to meet a contact who would provide them with forged ID cards to get into the Shinra Building, they are accosted by Don Corneo's lackeys looking for "bridal candidates" to recommend to the Trio back in Wall Market. They take a liking to Nayo, infuriating Yuffie when being overlooked for "being a kid". They beat the lackeys up who depart after hearing they had secured an excellent candidate already.
Nayo, Yuffie, and Sonon meet up with the contact in a warehouse who gives them Shinra ID cards. Zhijie has gotten into trouble, however, with Shinra having arrested him and is currently escorting him out to the factory in the outskirts. Yuffie and Sonon follow them and save Zhijie while battling a Shinra mecha built to resemble a centipede. Zhijie has learned that Shinra was going to destroy the Sector 7 slums, and Yuffie asks him to inform the "splinter cell" as well. They return to find the "clinic" ransacked, the locals shocked that an Avalanche hideout had been uncovered in their midst. Yuffie and Sonon make their way to the train station where the last train heading topside is about to depart, as the train schedule has become erratic after the recent bombing of Mako Reactor 5. To their relief, they spot Nayo, Billy Bob, and Polk in the crowd, also leaving the slums.
The train is packed and Yuffie suffers from motion sickness and frets over the ID scan, though the fake IDs Avalanche had provided get them through it. Sonon tells Yuffie about his sister, Melphie Kusakabe, who had perished in the Wutai War when Shinra troops attacked everyone indiscriminately. Yuffie realizes Sonon is trying to act as a surrogate elder brother towards her, and rejects being compared to Melphie.
They make their way to the Shinra Building swarmed by reporters and get through in guise of being employees. They make it to the elevator, when Scarlet steps into the lift with them and notices they are Wutaians. Rather than raise the alarm and have them captured, she sends them to her weapons research department for use as test subjects against her latest mechas. Yuffie and Sonon navigate their way through the facility while destroying Shinra's weapons and stealing every materia they get their hands on, but cannot find any "ultimate materia". Scarlet follows their progress through security cameras, puzzled over what they are after, before confronting the two "in person" via a hologram and soon after, in her personal war machine.
After being defeated, Scarlet remains unfazed, disappointed that her creation had not fared as well as she had hoped but recognizing what needed to be improved in its design. Sonon goes on ahead while Yuffie stays behind to interrogate Scarlet, who claims Shinra does not have any "ultimate materia", as such projects have been postponed in favor of a more immediate one: the dropping of Sector 7 plate. Yuffie does not realize the magnitude of this at first, but when she hears Sonon in trouble, she rushes to help him and relays the news, learning that "dropping the plate" means Shinra was going to destroy 1/8th of the metropolis, killing countless of their own citizens. Scarlet deploys the Deepground on Yuffie and Sonon and releases Nero the Sable to pursue them to see what would happen. She traps them in a Combat Simulator with maximum pain level, but the two break out by destroying the projector.
Yuffie and Sonon come upon a sight of carnage where Nero has killed the Deepground SOLDIERs. Nero turns his focus on the two, and Yuffie tries to keep her cool even if she's scared by Nero's mysterious powers over darkness. The Shinra scientists set to monitor Nero lose control of him, but Yuffie and Sonon prevail. On their way out, Nero regains consciousness and comes after them. Sonon shoves Yuffie to the elevator leading out and pushes the up button while shielding the door. Nero impales his body and drags him away to darkness while Sonon hallucinates meeting with Melphie. Yuffie realizes Sonon sacrificed himself to protect her to make up for the time he was unable to save Melphie, his own sister, in the Wutai War, and is overcome with grief. When she gets out, she witnesses Sector 7 plummet to the ground by its collapsed plate, and screams out in despair.
Yuffie later leaves Midgar on a chocobo. Not wanting to give up on her mission to fighting Shinra, stealing their materia, and restoring Wutai's glory, she thinks she needs new companions to join her, as it would be a tough mission to complete alone. Elsewhere, Cloud, Barret, Tifa, Aerith Gainsborough, and Red XIII are on their way to Kalm before hitching a ride from Choco Bill, a local chocobo farmer. Elsewhere still in an unknown time, Zack Fair, still in possession of the buster sword, arrives in the Sector 5 slums church. Instead of finding Aerith there like he had expected, the church is full of survived injured topsiders, seemingly taking refuge.
==Gameplay==
"Episode INTERmission's" events take place concurrently with Final Fantasy VII Remake, between the outcome of the assault on Mako Reactor 5 and the destruction of the Sector 7's Plate. The player starts with full access to their equipment and materia customization, and Yuffie's starts at level 25 to match the shorter length of the campaign, which is comprised of just two chapters. All shops sell nearly all the items, armor, accessories, and materia available. This, combined with Yuffie's innate ability to steal from enemies through her Mug special ability or through the Steal command, makes stocking items a lot faster. Breakable boxes have a much higher chance to contain consumable items, such as Hi-Potions and Phoenix Downs.
New to "INTERmission" are a couple of materia exclusive to it, such as and . Other exclusive equipment are the Gozu and Mezu drives, two special accessories that only work in tandem with the chthonian armlet to activate their effects.
The only directly controllable character is Yuffie, though the player can still customize Sonon's equipment and control his target and attack type with Synergized. Yuffie is a ranged fighter specialist who can swap her elemental affinity on a whim. Sonon is more physically focused, but can empower whatever Yuffie is doing by synergizing with her. If Yuffie falls in battle, Sonon will use up his own HP to revive her.
"INTERmission" has two exclusive minigames. The first is a Fort Condor tower defense tabletop game based on the Condor War minigame from the original Final Fantasy VII. The player can collect individual figures of various enemies fought throughout the main game, as well collect different boards to strengthen the player's deck. The second one is the Shinra Box Buster minigame, which plays much like the Whack-a-Box minigame from the main game, taking place inside the Shinra Building. Both minigames are optional and not necessary to progress through the story, but will award materia if completed.
==Chapters==
"Episode INTERmission" has two chapters:
#Wutai's Finest, taking place within the Sector 7 Slums. Yuffie Kisaragi is introduced and explores the slums, joining up with Avalanche, meeting various characters. Three sidequests take place, including collecting flyers for the Happy Turtle bar, fighting Ramuh, and playing the Fort Condor minigame.
#Covert Ops, taking place in the Shinra Building. The chapter mostly comprises a brawl through the Shinra Building, though it does include the Shinra Box Buster minigame.
ru:Episode INTERmission
Category:Final Fantasy VII Remake
Category:Downloadable content