PSN Description:

PLATINUM DEMO — FINAL FANTASY XV whisks players away to a fragmented dreamscape, introducing an original story with a few unique twists. Join young Noctis and his magical guide as you explore the fantastical world of his dreams.

Square Enix recently released a demo of the upcoming video game and long awaited series Final Fantasy XV. The demo is available for PS4 and Xbox One. Unlike the previous demo, Final Fantasy XV Episode Duscae, which was included in the Day One edition of Final Fantasy Type-0 HD, The company of SE released a new demo that focuses on the different aspects of Final Fantasy XV. I recently played this demo last Saturday and I am impressed on how the graphics and gameplay that was done in this game. I will do my best to cover the points of the game. This is just a demo and the official and final version of the game will be on September 30 of this year.

Story/Plot

The story for this demo begins with a young Noctis waking up in the middle of a forest and encountering a Carbuncle. This blue pet communicates to Noctis with a cell phone and leaves messages that guides the player through the surroundings; it also makes squeaky noises. As you follow the Carbuncle, it will guide the player through many worlds which is explained as “dream sequences”. Without going into details, you are in a dream and the Carbuncle is a guide to the player (or Noctis). Besides as a guide, Carbuncle also seems to understand the young boy Noctis and reveals the thoughts and feelings as you progress in the game. This may hint on what will happen in the full game.

Visually/Gaming Graphics

Like in every Final Fantasy game, Square Enix (personally) does an excellent job on the art and visuals of the game scenery and characters. For this Demo, I felt that this game was focused on how will the background and time will appear on the final version. While playing in the game, I came across these mysterious floor panels (sorry I don’t have a picture to show). If you step on them, the game will tell you that the weather or time has changed. You could change the setting and you can play the game in the morning or in a rainy day. Overall, I think the weather function is amazing and it looks like Square took the time to make the world look real as possible.

Combat

Unlike the previous Final Fantasy games where players relied on turn-based actions or like FFXIII paradigms, Final Fantasy XV will focus on action combat similar to the game Kingdom Hearts. You first get the feel of action as the young Noctis as he fights monsters named Nightmares. You use either a squeaky toy sword which makes fast attacks and there is a squeaky toy hammer where it deals with the heavy but slow attacks. Noctis will also gain toys that give him magic abilities like “firework” which is actually the magic attack “fire”. When you do become the adult version, you gain the ability to teleport ability in which players can teleport to the environment by throwing swords (almost like Minato from Naruto :P).

I had a fun time playing with the combat. It really did feel like it was trying to be like Kingdom Hearts. The game enabled the player to move freely anywhere and the button function is identical to KH. For example, this is only for the PS4 but when you press the X button, Noctis jumps, the circle button is to attack, square blocks attack or roll away. This is a new experience for this Final Fantasy game and I am really like this. I will admit however, I feel like the attack controls can be clunky. There are times where I get caught up fighting and get less time on defending and I get hurt.

Conclusion

Even though this is just a demo, I am astonished on how far Square Enix went to construct a game like this. I can’t wait until the final version is complete and hopefully improve some stuff like combat. The background is amazing and the combat is something to get used to but since I played Kingdom Hearts, I will definitely have fun with it. As an added bonus, players who complete the Platinum Demo will be rewarded with a Carbuncle and they can name it whatever they want to be. Have you played the demo? If so, what did you think of it? Do you plan on buying Final Fantasy XV? Comment down below for thoughts and opinions. Final Fantasy XV will be released for PS4 and Xbox One on September 30th.