FFXV Demo Impressions & Gameplay Videos

[damon8r351]

Yes, I know I'm late to the party. With Final Fantasy XV getting closer to being released, I finally got around to playing the Episode Duscae demo. I'll just say this, the whole bromance party dynamic is going to take some getting used to. Also, that battle system. I'm not completely sold on Final Fantasy being an action RPG, but whatever I'll give it a chance. I pretty much got the combos down, but if parrying is going to become a thing that's vital to get through the game with, I'm going to have some issues. Also, Gladiolus needs to stop standing around with his sword on his shoulder in the middle of very important happenings.

 

Anyway, if you're the slightest bit curious about what the game might turn out to look like, but were uninterested in pre-ordering and paying for an entire game just to get the demo, here's a video containing the entirety of my playthrough. There's some walking around, a few side quests, the weird leveling system, lots of fighting. If you're only interested in what the battle system looks like, check out the boss battle with the Behemoth starting around 02:05:00, because it also has a summoning of Ramuh, which I thought was the best part of the whole thing.

 

Edited April 1, 2016 by damon8r351

[Xel]

I'm interested to see how the magic will be used in the combat.

[Galactic Hyper Balls]

I'm still stuck at the first boss for the demo, not really used to the battle system, the whole transporting to high spots is a dramatic change in FF battles.

 

I'll get back to it after Xmas

[damon8r351]

I hope the magic won't be selectable the same way the special attacks are, by using the D-Pad. Because that will be a pain in the ass trying to cycle through all those spells like that while trying to not get your face smashed in.

[ShadowReplicant]

I dunno, I was just really underwhelmed by the whole demo. The graphics are sorta nice I guess, nothing to lose your mind over but the performance is just horrendous. I really hope they can make it run decently in the final version.

 

The combat is - let's be completely honest here - as simple as it gets. It's a button masher. And the targeting system was driving me crazy. Can you even switch between characters? I don't think you can.

 

The whole area is super empty and just feels lifeless. The NPCs are complete set dressing and repeat one line over and over again. I really hope they have something interesting going on in all these areas in the final game.

 

The characters are... alright? I guess? At least Noctis and Gladio seem kinda interesting, the blonde dude and the one with the glasses are cardboard cutouts, couldn't even remember their names. But generally speaking they're already more likeable than the majority of FF XIII's characters, so I guess that's a step in the right direction.

 

The story/quest progression, once again, felt on-rails. There's no freedom in how you go through the story or quests, everything is scripted. The whole Behemoth affair is a perfect example. You'd think that there was more than one solution to "Kill Monster XY" in a 2016 game but no, you have to go here, then there, then through this tiny little hole, sneak through a scripted sequence only to find out that you require one particular summon from one particular location to kill this guy.

 

But... it's a demo, so my hope is that the final product is significantly more polished in every way possible. My main concern is still the story. If the writers somehow magically remember how to write a good Final Fantasy story again, I'm ready to jump on board one more time.

Edited December 9, 2015 by ShadowReplicant

[FrecLognAizeW]

The story/quest progression, once again, felt on-rails. There's no freedom in how you go through the story or quests, everything is scripted. The whole Behemoth affair is a perfect example. You'd think that there was more than one solution to "Kill Monster XY" in a 2016 game but no, you have to go here, then there, then through this tiny little hole, sneak through a scripted sequence only to find out that you require one particular summon from one particular location to kill this guy.

 

For what it's worth, I think I've had just about enough of games dropping me into a world and saying "there's a whole big story out there, now find it".  The Final Fantasy games have always been more-or-less on rails (at least going as far back as FFVII, my first one) when it comes to progressing through the story.  Even with the world map, there were almost always mountains and bodies of water guiding you along until you're far enough into the game for it to not matter anymore.

 

Making games too open and free flat out kills storytelling, with very few exceptions.  Let's please not force gaming down that road by pretending that games being too linear are not "hip" enough for you, or not evolved enough.  There's room for both.

Edited December 9, 2015 by FrecLognAizeW

[Daniel_Shadow170]

The demo was fine i believe we are getting a second one in march when they reveal the date i would prefer turn-based combat also but that's a dead relic of the past.

[ShadowReplicant]

Let's please not force gaming down that road by pretending that games being too linear are not "hip" enough for you, or not evolved enough.  There's room for both.

 

Well, first of all, I'm not forcing gaming down any road, I'm simply stating an opinion. Second, I'm the biggest proponent of linear story driven games you can imagine. Heck, The Last of Us is my favorite game of all time. I just don't think extreme linearity (FF XIII) suits the RPG genre. I'm not saying FF should turn into a Bethesda game, that being said I do expect games to evolve. Japanese games in particular are notorious for clinging to established (and sometimes outdated) formulas for years, even decades because that's what the Japanese market apparently demands. FF was one of the rare franchises that liked to change that formula with almost every iteration. They're obviously trying to do that with FF XV, with a semi open world approach and all that, and that's fine, it's just the storytelling techniques that seem so outdated to me. I don't know, maybe I've been spoiled by the likes of The Witcher 3. I'm fine with a linear story as long as there's some form of choice involved. Perhaps make it so that you give your teammates orders on how to attack the Behemoth instead of a cutscene telling you how everything's gonna be. Why not give the player the option to approach his nest from a different direction. Or let there be a different way of defeating him, one that doesn't involve Ramuh and makes him potentially missable. Little things like that. Even FF VII had completely missable story and gameplay elements and asked you to make a small choice from time to time.

[starcrunch061]

Making games too open and free flat out kills storytelling, with very few exceptions.  Let's please not force gaming down that road by pretending that games being too linear are not "hip" enough for you, or not evolved enough.  There's room for both.

 

Given its budget, its prestige and its pedigree, Final Fantasy should be one of those exceptions. Also, it's odd that you cited FFVII. While there was no real choice element in the story, the player at least had the opportunity to visit locations at his pleasure and leisure. I would guess those are the "rails" being cited.

 

Rails didn't kill FFXIII storytelling, I'll grant. FFXIII did that all by itself. But the rails really drew out the horrible flaws.

 

 

Japanese games in particular are notorious for clinging to established (and sometimes outdated) formulas for years, even decades because that's what the Japanese market apparently demands. 

 

That's exactly right (and the word "apparently" is very apropos here - Japanese companies are also notorious for missing market signs, and slow-burning into death because they cling to these notions).

 

The fact is, Square ain't Gust. Gust can get by with pleasing the fans and fanboys alone, because of their lower budgets and lower expectations. For Square, a million seller is not enough. They can't justify their budgets with that. 

 

BUT, with that all being said, I'm not ready to read so much into this demo just yet. I know there's been a lot of complaint here, and I know Square has disappointed markets for some time, but I think that they might get this one right. Just an opinion here, of course, but you can't ignore the writing on the wall for so long.

[FrecLognAizeW]

Well, first of all, I'm not forcing gaming down any road, I'm simply stating an opinion. Second, I'm the biggest proponent of linear story driven games you can imagine. Heck, The Last of Us is my favorite game of all time. I just don't think extreme linearity (FF XIII) suits the RPG genre. I'm not saying FF should turn into a Bethesda game, that being said I do expect games to evolve. Japanese games in particular are notorious for clinging to established (and sometimes outdated) formulas for years, even decades because that's what the Japanese market apparently demands. FF was one of the rare franchises that liked to change that formula with almost every iteration. They're obviously trying to do that with FF XV, with a semi open world approach and all that, and that's fine, it's just the storytelling techniques that seem so outdated to me. I don't know, maybe I've been spoiled by the likes of The Witcher 3. I'm fine with a linear story as long as there's some form of choice involved. Perhaps make it so that you give your teammates orders on how to attack the Behemoth instead of a cutscene telling you how everything's gonna be. Why not give the player the option to approach his nest from a different direction. Or let there be a different way of defeating him, one that doesn't involve Ramuh and makes him potentially missable. Little things like that. Even FF VII had completely missable story and gameplay elements and asked you to make a small choice from time to time.

 

I know you aren't personally forcing anything... but it's opinions of the consumer that drive trends in gaming.

 

Personally, because of games like The Last of Us, I'm not ready to say that every game needs to have a freely accessible open world, 50 ways to approach every situation and 17 different endings to be relevant.  In fact, I flat out find it annoying that my PC backlog is loaded with the Witchers, and the Fallouts, and the Batman Arkham Knights after getting over the "open world" craze probably 3-5 years ago... when the best recent "linear" game I have is Tales from the Borderlands.

 

It also kind of gets my goat when I read of a review of a game and a "con" is that it's linear.  There's good linear and bad linear of course, but just reading peoples opinions, I don't get the impression that there's good open world and bad open world... because people tend to have a narrow mindset that as long as it's not linear, it's better.  And that seems unreasonable to me.  Not saying that you're saying that, but people do say that.  Slippery slope.

 

But that's just my opinion.  Take it for what it's worth.

 

 

Given its budget, its prestige and its pedigree, Final Fantasy should be one of those exceptions. Also, it's odd that you cited FFVII. While there was no real choice element in the story, the player at least had the opportunity to visit locations at his pleasure and leisure. I would guess those are the "rails" being cited.

 

Rails didn't kill FFXIII storytelling, I'll grant. FFXIII did that all by itself. But the rails really drew out the horrible flaws.

 

As far as FFVII is concerned, it really didn't open up much until you were probably halfway through the story or further (arguably when you acquire the Tiny Bronco, definitely when you're given free reign of the Highwind/Chocobo breeding).  Before that, you were generally guided where Square wanted you to go to progress the story... granted, with occasionally a little room to explore... even in the world map where backtracking was often impossible or difficult and pointless, and the route to take going forward was clearly defined by impassible mountains or bodies of water.  That's just as much "on rails" as anything.

 

I could see FFXV following a similar path based on videos I've seen, semi-open world as Shadow called it.  I haven't actually tried the demo.  Too early to tell either way though.  I'd be okay with that.

Edited December 9, 2015 by FrecLognAizeW

[starcrunch061]

I personally miss the "semi-open" world. Anything that gets back to that idea is great to me.

 

A lot of people say that FF games were always different, but for me, they weren't so different. FF, FF II (FF IV in Japan), FF III (FF VI in Japan), and FF VII were quite similar in gameplay (as was FF IX, although FF VIII was a bit of an oddball at the time).

[damon8r351]

After a little more thought, I'll say this about the battle system: It's a little too busy as it stands now. The game makes a huge point about telling you how to block correctly so you can retaliate (it's one of the first things you learn), but the only time I ever used block was in the tutorial and during the last Behemoth fight and that was because I was continuously holding the button down the entire fight. The rest of the time I was getting tossed around and using more potions than I needed to, because I could never tell what was about to hit me. There's too much going on onscreen. Which is why I think that Kingdom Hearts' battle system needs to stay in Kingdom Hearts.

[damon8r351]

 

Gameplay from the Platinum Demo above. I'll tell you right now that it's a lot shorter than the Episode Duscae Demo. What it seems like was just a teaser for the people that couldn't be bothered with pre-ordering Type-0. As in, showing off the quality of the graphical environment and a taste of the battle system, and that's pretty much it. Got 30 minutes? That's how long it'll take you to get through it. So the battle abilities seem like they'll be equippable like in Lightning Returns, but instead of pressing different buttons for each you'll be using the D-Pad to select them. Magic seems like it'll be no different than any other attack, equippable as are the rest. And the battle system still confuses me but at this point if the story hits all the right Final Fantasy buttons then I can rally my way through anything, up to and including FF8's fucked up magic system. Also, don't worry if you have no idea what was going on through most of this, because I didn't either.

Edited April 1, 2016 by damon8r351

[CediFonei]

My main take aways from the Platinum Demo? It feels mostly like a demonstration of the engine, albeit a very charming one, with a liiiiiiiiiiittle bit of a taste for the plot at the end. Just a lil' bit. The gameplay is fun, but it definitely feels a lot simpler than Duscae, most likely intentionally for the sake of fitting the whimsically childish themes of the demo's presentation. The fact that weapon abilities such as the Dragoon Jump are stripped away from it also gives me the impression this demo intentionally omitted more "complex" features like those, because I find it hard to believe they would be removed from the game altogether. I personally expect magic like Fire and etc. to be traditionally available as skills like those weapon abilities, but you'll also have the option to use them as consumable bombs like you do in the demo. But that's just an assumption. I'm fine with magic as limited use individual items if that's the only way it works, but I'd prefer if it functioned more similarly to, say, DnD spell slots (except on a per-spell basis instead of per-spell-level) than items you dump 50000 gil to restock way more than you'll ever need. We'll have to see exactly how that works out in the future.

 

Also, this demo is an infinitely better Banjo Kazooie game than Nuts and Bolts. Make of that what you will.

[ShadowReplicant]

I'm not sure what SQEX is trying to do with these demos. Considering how random the Kingdom Hearts III FFXV Platinum Demo is, they might end up doing more damage than good. Imagine a newcomer to the series wants to jump on board and his first contact with the game is the Platinum Demo.

 

Here's what I took away from the demo:

 

- Hold attack button to win (OK, I had to press the guard button a few times during the final boss fight).

- Beautiful graphics for the most part, awful textures in some places, but I guess it's because some of the surfaces weren't meant to be examined at these distances (I don't suspect there will be any Alice in Wonderland sequences in the main game).

- Very unpleasant framerate drops, just like in Episode Duscae.

[TigressLion]

I haven't gotten to play the demo as I have no PS4 but I've watched some PSNP'ers stream it and this is what I got:

 

It looks like a High Definition Polished Kingdom Hearts, and watching the person collect those golden orb things, feels like Epic Mickey/Mickeys Castle of Illusions.  I will not make a firm conclusion on it as I haven't played it, but it looks like Final Fantasy Crossbred with Disney and this is what became of it.

[ShadowStar83x]

The summon is adorable! As for the rest, didn't really convince me one way or another to get FFXV.

[Auto-Tomato]

 

Gameplay from the Platinum Demo above. I'll tell you right now that it's a lot shorter than the Episode Duscae Demo. What it seems like was just a teaser for the people that couldn't be bothered with pre-ordering Type-0. As in, showing off the quality of the graphical environment and a taste of the battle system, and that's pretty much it. Got 30 minutes? That's how long it'll take you to get through it. So the battle abilities seem like they'll be equippable like in Lightning Returns, but instead of pressing different buttons for each you'll be using the D-Pad to select them. Magic seems like it'll be no different than any other attack, equippable as are the rest. And the battle system still confuses me but at this point if the story hits all the right Final Fantasy buttons then I can rally my way through anything, up to and including FF8's fucked up magic system. Also, don't worry if you have no idea what was going on through most of this, because I didn't either.

 

I just got around to playing the Plat Demo and...it was dreadful, omg please no.   I haven't played the Duscae Demo so maybe that's far superior but this one is frankly awful.  Yeah, it looks nice enough...that's about as much good as I have to say about it.   Camera angles were flying all over the place, the gameplay was cumbersome and clunky, I honestly couldn't believe what I was playing, and it was soooo....slooooow, the combat wasn't in any way intuitive, half the time I was attacking, well, nothing, as enemies either moved too far away during the week and a half I took to execute an attack, or the camera was losing them and I had no idea what I was attacking or if an enemy was even in range and again it was all so slow.   I'm moving, press L3 to sprint, ok...er, is this working, because I'm struggling to see a difference...?!   

 

I don't know what SE are thinking with this demo but if that's anything like what I've to expect from XV then er, no thanks, it was slow, boring and frustrating.  Really can't believe how bad it was!  

[JapanimeGamer]

Summoning Ramuh to use judgment bolt seemed like an odd move as Ramuh and the Behemoth are both lightning based and as such Behemoth would be strong to such an attack.

 

I mean I know it worked but it wouldn't ordinarily be the best move unless something has changed with this game.

 

Either way, the graphical effects were stunning for Ramuh.

[Guest]

I thought the world was great. Very open world like. Wasnt just a background wallpaper. But is it just me or was the textures terrible. Also what is with the fuzzy graphics? I know it was a dreamy state but wth?? Were they trying to do some sort of overlay? I didnt feel like i was playing 1080 crisp. It was almost like pixelated in a next generation style.. I guess i had too much Final Fantasy XIV PC graphics. Im too used to that clean clear crisp art.