Similar to what Konami did with including the Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty demo with Zone of the Enders, Square Enix bundled the Day One Edition and Collector’s Edition of Final Fantasy Type-0 HD with Final Fantasy XV Episode Duscae. While the playable demo of Final Fantasy XV has its fair share of flaws, it also has plenty of potential. Below is our top five list of reasons as to why Episode Duscae makes us excited for the final game.
5. Compelling Story
Admittedly, Final Fantasy XV Episode Duscae did not have much of a story. It basically follows Noctis and his crew as they got sidetracked from their road trip. As a result, they needed to hunt down the Deadeye Behemoth to pay off the repair costs.
With that said, you got a taste of the party banter as you get to know more about the other characters aside from Noctis. Gladiolus, Ignis and Prompto will end up growing on you during your time in the demo, especially when they are teaming up to take down the wanted Behemoth. If you managed to get to the end of the demo, you also get an epic teaser that gives you a better idea on the bigger conflict happening in the story. The demo does a great job at setting up the plotline for the final version.
4. Cinematic Moments
What separates the Final Fantasy series from most JRPGs are the cinematic moments. Even in Episode Duscae, you can experience several epic sequences. One of which is your party teaming up to try to lure the Behemoth towards a gas tank. After acquiring Ramuh, you will also be able to summon him to trigger an impressive-looking attack that demolishes all enemies, causing the weather and surrounding area to change as well.
Even in the trial version, Square Enix is making sure that gamers will have plenty of exciting experiences.
3. Impressive Graphics
While Final Fantasy XV may have started out as a PlayStation 3 game, Square Enix has given the game a big makeover when the project was moved on the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. As a result, it is easily the best looking game in the genre with great art direction in addition to highly-detailed character models and environments. Not to mention that the day-night cycle along with other small touches such as cars driving by the highway make the world feel alive.
Episode Duscae does have a few aliasing and frame rate issues. With that said, Square Enix should be able to iron out those problems in the final version.
2. Open-World Exploration
In the Final Fantasy XV demo, you get to explore an open-world setting. Thankfully, Square Enix did not simply cut and paste the areas within the Duscaen region. Instead, several unique locations (such as campsites, outposts and even a cave-like dungeon) were implemented naturally into the game. As a result, you will actually want to explore the massive region, especially if you want to find the secrets and side quests littered throughout.
If the final version of Final Fantasy XV has the same openness as the demo, then fans should expect an absolutely massive game with plenty of exploration (an element that was extremely lacking for almost all of Final Fantasy XIII).
1. Combat System
What impressed us to most in Episode Duscae is, without a doubt, the action-based combat system. Having direct control over your character really makes every fight exciting as you have to manually dodge, attack, parry and warp. Since combat takes place on the same screen as field exploration, other enemies could also naturally join in the fray, making fights feel dynamic and unpredictable.
The combat in the final game should be even better as Square Enix will be adding the ability to command the other members of your party in addition to implementing magic abilities. Hopefully, the development team will also find a way to fix the camera and lock-on issues.
Final Fantasy XV Episode Duscae came out along with Final Fantasy Type-0 HD on March 17. The final version of Final Fantasy XV is still without a release time frame. If you are interested, you can preorder XV on the PS4 and Xbox One with this page on Amazon.