Final Fantasy XV has certainly taken its time in arriving. Starting off life as Final Fantasy XIII Versus, the game has ultimately evolved into its own distinct numbered entry that we’re finally seeing released this year. Square Enix obviously feel that they need to re-engage with players, building on the solid work of Final Fantasy XIV, and as such we’ve been give little snippets of information and hands-on time with the game. The newest piece of the puzzle is the Platinum demo, a showcase of sorts, which was made available for all on PS4 and XBO last week.
You begin with XV’s lead character Noctis waking as a child in the middle of a glade, with your tiny unicorn/dog/rabbit friend Carbuncle – a returning summon from the series – keeping you company. Once you can get over the fact that Final Fantasy characters have mobile phones, not to mention that these allow you to understand your companion via some form of text message translation, you set off into the beautifully presented world of Noctis’ dreams.
Collecting crystals as you go, you unlock a series of metal plates that change an element of the world around you each time you step on them. From allowing you to see the passage of time sped up to the weather changing in front of you, many showcase the phenomenal graphics engine at work, and alongside unlocking vehicles and other abilities, they walk you through what Final Fantasy XV is capable of. You also glimpse future summons, which boast immense scale and are certainly impressive.
The first time you run into some enemies, your companion gives you two weapons with which to dispatch them, though being a child they come in the form of a toy sword and an adorable squeaky hammer. Combat is action orientated, as anyone that played the Episode Duscae taster from last year will know, with weaponry phasing in and out as you use it. Holding the Circle button provides constant attacks, while Square auto-dodges, and you can shift between your four pre-selected weapons mid-flow.
Lacking Noctis’ ‘Warp’ ability and your teammates to fight beside, the combat on show here is far more basic than that experienced in Episode Duscae. The enemies also present little threat, barely fighting back, and it’s only at the close of the demo that you’ll need to pay more attention to what you’re doing.
Soon you find yourself moving from the outdoors to a homely interior, though you’ve been shrunk to the size of a Borrower, with an immense dining table off in the distance. From here you gain fireworks that act as a substitute for magical attacks, before hopping into a toy truck to experience the game’s driving model, crashing into a creation made of wooden blocks that all fall down upon impact. Again, the metal plates grant you access to items and time changes that let you tinker about with the visuals and explore the combat further.
Moving back outside, the demo showcases not only its impressive draw distance and architectural design work, but also some of its creature designs, with new plates that turn you into a range of beasts to lumber around as, making short work of the enemy nightmares with your huge jaws.
The demo takes you through some beautiful Byzantine architecture, before you find your way to the Citadel, which is within the central city in FFXV. Just as you think you can wake up, you’re faced with a huge Iron Giant who will cut you to shreds if you don’t evade him before pouncing in to strike. This encounter actually reminded me of Monster Hunter, and I wonder whether any of that game’s tough combat has influenced the designers here.
During the battle the area around you has destructible elements that crumble as the encounter continues, making it feel like a dynamic world as opposed to an immovable one, and one that takes advantage of the additional processing power of the current console generation.
Running side by side, the PS4 version of the demo certainly seems to boast slightly improved performance. The Xbox One version has more noticeable texture pop-in, though it doesn’t affect the gameplay in any meaningful way. Given how much the Xbox One originally struggled with Episode Duscae, it’s heartening to see this demo running relatively smoothly on Microsoft’s machine, albeit with a few minor visual concessions. At this point, both console suffer from some mild frame rate issues that will hopefully be resolved for the final release.
Square Enix are doing everything they can to ensure that Final Fantasy XV is a success, and after the diminishing returns of the XIII-era games it’s clearly in their interest to do so. Having had a great look at the game with Episode Duscae, the Platinum demo is a sweet diversion that mainly serves to showcase how good the game looks, and act as a basic introduction to its action-based combat.
It would have been nice to have something with a bit more substance, particularly as the combat here actually does the game a disservice, especially when Episode Duscae has remained exclusively available to those who bought Final Fantasy Type-0. However, for graphics aficionados at least, the Platinum demo should be hugely appealing.
Combined with the five-episode anime prequel Brotherhood, fans should be fully prepared, and hopefully engaged in Noctis’ story, by the time the full game launches on the 20th of September, mobile phones and all.
nouveller
Overall, the I found the demo to be just a bit lack lustre. My two main niggles were the animation/FPS and the combat.
I didn’t really experience any frame rate drops, but the overall FPS just felt too low. What added to this feeling was the jerky animation. In Duscae, Noctis had some inertia to him. Now jumps are quick and sharp and you can turn from left to right in an instant. While I can see this to be of some advantage in a tight spot during a fight, it just felt odd while exploring. I’m not one for caring much whether a game runs in 30 or 60 fps, but this seems like a strong contender for the higher end of the spectrum.
The combat definitely seemed dumbed down. I remember watching YouTube videos of people finding all the tiny nuanced combat mechanics in Duscae that just didn’t seem to be presented, even during the final fight. Maybe I’m just remembering it incorrectly, but wasn’t there a way to combo light and heavy attacks together and the like? Unless you have to do that with the d-pad this time around and I just didn’t give it much chance.
Magic was also a little strange. It was hard to aim, making it like trying to throw a grenade and fast moving enemies. If the combat only requires you to hold O, why not have the magic perform like Kingdom Hearts, when you lock and just fire a projectile?
Good write up though Dom.
nouveller
This may shed some light on the combat as of now.
https://www.reddit.com/r/FFXV/comments/4d6a5s/platinum_demo_combat_explained/
coxy1701
It was ok. It didn’t really feel like a final fantasy game. It didn’t really get exciting until the iron giant battle. It still hasn’t put me off though.
Dave Irwin
Been meaning to look into this, but reminds me of Kingdom Hearts somewhat…
MrYd
That’s not a bad thing, surely? At least it’s not like that “Press X to Lightning” game.
MrYd
It was an odd little demo. Almost as if it was a very early tech demo to show off what they _could_ do. Looks nice, but nothing approaching a game there.
It’s made no difference to the amount of interest I’ve got in the game either way. Which is a shame, because they’ve got a long way to go to make up for a certain previous game I won’t name. (Clue: I quite enjoyed 13, and thought 13-2 was even better. Then it went horribly, horribly wrong)
There’s a hilarious article on Another Website comparing the PS4 and XBone versions too. The XBone version doesn’t look as nice (dropping to 768p), but they desperately try and find flaws in the PS4 version. Comparing framerates in the same area of the demo, but making sure there’s more going on in the PS4 version to try and get the framerate down. One of their more blatant attempts at MS bias.
TSBonyman
I knew there was a demo out but i thought it was a preorder exclusive, so i was surprised when i spotted this on the store last night. i’m not a huge fan of the series (always loved the visuals, story and characters but invariably came up against a brick wall with the combat system) but i gave it a go anyway.
it looks gorgeous, great to see a FF game where the gameplay visuals match the cutscenes. i found it quite delightful, running about picking up gems and exploring the oversized room and furniture. I found the combat a bit weak though and almost missed the turn-based systems of the previous games. I wasn’t certain about what all the discs did, besides the obvious time-advancing ones, so i avoided them once i got to the citadel and thus missed out on the beast-transforming ones. i did try the truck one but disappointingly i couldn’t run over enemies with it.
The boss fight wasn’t too difficult, but my confusion over the discs caused me to start that fight a second time. I spent about 45 mins playing the demo but it still seemed a bit short.
Kennykazey
Super obvious texture filtering /LOD pop-in on PS4 combined with the poor framerate/pacing, made for an unimpressive graphical showing.
And I didn’t find the gameplay on display that engaging either. When the best part of a Final Fantasy demo is driving a toy-truck into wooden blocks, to play with the physics. Something seems very wrong. And it’s then a dissapointment when you find that only very specific items have physical properties as well.
I was hyped for Final Fantasy Versus XIII. But now I’m worried for Final Fantasy XV.
wonkey-willy
Wet weekend in Bognor!
Although you could change the weather by standing on some silly discs.
Camera was twitchier than a peado in a school playground!
And how was i supposed to beat the crap out of a slobbering demon with a squeaky mallet?
Ghastly attempt to bring ff into the now!
Tuffcub
It’s a rather odd demo, very much like Kingdom Hearts. I love Kingdom Hearts but I don’t want FF to become that.
I agree with nouveller in that the frame rate was just far too low, it was painful in some places. Demos are meant to sell games, this one has left me completely indifferent.