Final Fantasy XV: Platinum Demo

2006 was looking to be the start of a very good period for Square Enix. They had a solid game; release a number of games under the ‘Fabula Nova Crystallis’ umbrella, tying a series of side games to the main series without having them be actual sequels, or have to have anything to directly do with the actual main numbered game. The hope of the ‘Fabula Nova Crystallis’ was that people thought they were all in the same universe and as such part of the same story puzzle. This would lead people to be invested in them and sales of the side games would be closer to that of the sales of the main series games.

A pretty good business plan, one Square Enix would have gotten away with it too if it weren’t for those meddling kids. Meddling kids being the critics and people who played it. See, there was a small problem in Square’s plan. The whole ‘Fabula Nova Crystallis’ project hinged on the popularity of the main numbered title. Unfortunately for Square, that game was Final Fantasy XIII.

Whatever your personal feelings on the XIIIth Final Fantasy title, you can’t deny that it’s been a heavily criticised Fantasy. Possibly due to its own development problems, Final Fantasy XIII lacked certain elements that a considerable number of Final Fantasy fans felt were essential to the enjoyment and soul of a numbered game. This led to XIII getting quite the negative reception

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It might not be a coincidence that after this negative reception that Square Enix moved to release several press releases to tell us all of how Final Fantasy VS XIII wouldn't have the same problems, in fact, VS XIII would be a completely different game and would totally have an open world to explore and towns and airships! Whether this was the original plan or not, one cannot say. However, the fact it has taken a decade for the game to receive a release date is telling. As well as getting a name change to make it into one of the main number Fantasy’s, it is now cross platform instead of being a PlayStation 3 exclusive. Those 10 years suggests, to me at least, that the negative reception of XIII had a massive impact on Squares business plan. Not only that, but also the futures of the ‘Fabula Nova Crystallis’, Final Fantasy VS XIII and the game it would evolve into; Final Fantasy XV.

So, now that we’re almost at the end of this nightmarish development cycle, Square Enix is doing its best to try and sweeten the Final Fantasy fans, giving us a CGI movie (starring the vocal caramel that is Sean Bean), a multi-part anime and a new demo; Final Fantasy Platinum.

The first thing to note about the demo is that it’s available to all those with a PlayStation 4 and/or Xbox One, a working internet connection and at least 4.5 GB on their hard-drives, no purchase necessary. This is unlike their previous demo, Final Fantasy XV; Episode Duscae, which was only playable by those bought the PlayStation 4/Xbox One remastered version of Final Fantasy Type-0 Day One edition. So for many people this’ll be the first hands on experience they’ll get of Final Fantasy XV.

The second thing to note is this isn't the usual demo where they just give you a section of the full game to mess around with, they've instead made a whole new experience for you to enjoy, giving you a flavour of what will be to come in the main game. A little gift to the fans to show how much Square values your support. But is this ‘gift’ any good, and is it time to get pumped for the September release?

What you will probably notice from the very first moment of starting the demo is how beautiful it looks. The character model of Noctis ‘Noct’ Lucis Caelum is amazingly life like, showing great emotive facial expressions, alongside Carbuncle’s very realistic fur effects, the visuals are a testament to the talent Square Enix has. The demo also showcases a few different locations, all four of them bright, colourful and vibrant in some way.

However, when dealing with a Final Fantasy game the visuals are never going to be the top a fans ‘to be worried about’ list. I mean this is the company that thought it best to release their MMO with the recommendation of needing a graphics card that came out on the same day.

Once you’ve managed to stop staring wide eyed at the demo’s aesthetics, you can move on to finding out about the weird coma dream of a young Noctis. He is helped by his dream guardian, the adorably cute Carbuncle, takes him through the dreamscapes’ various environments, giving him helpful tips via a smartphone. Yes, Carbuncle communicates with Notis through a smartphone, which presents itself as helpful text boxes at the bottom of the screen, informing you of what to do next and how to actually play the game.

As suggested this demo isn’t simply just a tech demo, there’s a semblance of a story here as well. While Carbuncle is helping to lead Noctis out of the dream world we get little glimpses of character and the relationship between Noctis and his father, Regis. Regis himself isn’t really in the demo (we get to have a short sighting of his arm) the demo does start to paint a picture about the relationship between father and son, while also giving us an idea of the personality of the two.

While the story and characterisation are only a small part of the short demo, you probably get a better sense of who Noctis is than we did for Penelo in the whole of XII, and probably more likeable than Lightning was in the vast majority of XIII. So there’s definitely hope for the writing!

Though fans might be worried about having to drudge themselves through another tedious and disappointing story, what they’ll definitely be interested in is what the demo is mainly focused on; the battle system!

The first stage is a lovely, vibrant forest for Noctis to jump around, and for the player to be introduced to the new melee combat. XV might be closer related to XIII, but the battle system is definitely more reminiscent of XII’s. Gone are the swishy transitions to take you to a separate battle map, all the exploring and battling takes place on the same maps and in real time; no ATB system here.

You’ll first need to assign your weapons to the D-pad, initially only having two, a toy sword and a squeaky hammer, allowing you to toggle between them at any time. The toy sword is a faster weapon allowing for combo’s, while the squeaky hammer is for heavy attacks. Thankfully the dream monsters are weak against plastic.

The monsters will mainly ignore you, going about their monster-y business, until you come within their territory. When you do get into range you’ll be given the attack and defence capabilities. My personal preference in battle was the squeaky hammer of destruction! Not only does it give a satisfying squeak on impact, it also has a slight staggering effect, meaning you can either dodge the attack of the monster sneaking up behind you, or change targets to catch that sneaky dickens before they can attack.

Unfortunately if you’re doing a combo with the toy sword you get locked into the combo, so if someone does come up behind you to attack you can’t easily end your combo to dodge or counter, which means if you're dishing out some smooth moves and a mob wants a piece of you, you'll probably be getting hit. There might be a skill to combo'ing and avoiding enemy damage, but I’ll admit I just stuck to my squeaky hammer!

Moving through the stage you’ll collect small floating orange glow gems, these’ll unlock different plates that when you jump on them will change something, like the weather or time of day, or give you some new weapons. You might need to play it through more than once if you want to collect everything though.

When you’re ready to move on to the second stage you’ll find yourself shrunk down to Borrower size and running around a dining room. Here you’ll be introduced to cars (via standing on a plate) and the games’ ranged weapon mechanic.

Carbuncle will give you 10 fireworks, very child friendly, which when chosen you’ll get a trajectory and an area of effect illumination on the screen, showing where the firework will hit and how much it’ll hit. You can aim the firework with the right analogue stick and lock on with R2, but the lock on doesn’t mean the firework will home in on your target, just let you quickly gain a target. This means there’s an element of skill in using the ranged weaponry, to which some might moan about due to the all too easy ability to completely miss the target, even with the firework affecting an area, but others will like the challenge and the chance for some mastery in the combat system.

Once you’ve finished pushing the balls around in the car you can move onto the next stage, a posh city street. Here you can play with one of the demo’s most interesting features. By stepping on certain plates you will be changed into a big beast. I got changed into a big hog/rhino type creature and stampeded my way through the stage, gleefully laughing all the way through.

While this does draw out the childlike joy, I can’t help but wonder how this’ll relate to the main game. Does Noctis have Druid powers of turning into animals? Does he have special husbandry powers that’ll let you control creatures? Or will summoning let you take command of the ethereal beasts and go Godzilla on the asses of your enemies? Or is it simply put in the demo to give the player a laugh? I know what I'm hoping for!

If you ever get tired of stomping out your enemies and actually make it to the fourth and final stage you’ll be treated to a familiar sight, if you’ve been keeping up with the trailers over the last 10 years anyway.

The plaza with the water fountain, the area where a moody looking Noctis fires a small battalion of glowy swords at his enemy in one of the first teasers, is apparently Noctis’s ‘safe space’, however the safety is very much threatened by the emergence of an Iron Giant. Those of you who have fought Iron Giants in previous Final Fantasy’s will know plastic isn’t very effective on them, so for this fight Noctis has to hit puberty, and fast!
With Noctis’s testicles fully descended you’re given the responsibility to handle real weaponry; a one handed sword for the combo attacks and a two handed sword for the heavy attacks. Variety.

For this fight you’ll also be given the opportunity to play with a new ability; warping. By pressing triangle you’ll be able to warp towards the giant to attack, warp away to save yourself from attack or if you have the one handed sword equipped, and are near certain points, you can warp up to the lamp posts around the level and hang there from your sword. However this isn’t just the coward’s solution to the battle, once you target the Iron Giant and press triangle again you will hurtle towards the monster while the words “Warp Strike” appears on the screen and hit him for big damage.

The fight itself is pretty epic like you would hope a battle of this size would be. You have a big area to move around in and an environment the Iron Giant will happily destroy while trying to cleave you in two. To get the better of him you’ll need to read his moves, know when to go in for an attack, when to block and when to dodge. If you get it right you’ll be participating in a pretty badass fight scene, and claiming a very satisfying victory.

Standing victorious (now as a child) you have a few choices. You can either go back through the game, finding the secrets you missed first time round, you can challenge the Iron Giant to a rematch, or you can get into your Dad’s car and get the end screen, which will ask you if you’re ready to pre-order Final Fantasy XV, the true reason for this demo being released the more cynical of you will be thinking.

Personally I had a lot of fun with the demo, even though it's short it’s shown me a game that could be a lot of fun to play. As someone who was left disappointed and doubtful of Square Enix’s abilities in creating Final Fantasy games after playing XII and XIII, this demo breathes new hope into the possibility of getting an enjoyable game, with fun combat, well rounded characters and an engaging, intriguing plot.