Earlier this week, I had a conversation with my best friend about how long we’ve waited since Final Fantasy Versus XIII, now Final Fantasy XV, was announced and we realized that at the time (in 2006) we still wouldn’t even know each other for another two years. We waited together over the next 7 years and with rumors of cancellation every other month it seemed as though it would never make it out.
But now it’s here, partially at least. Nine years later, the first playable demo of Final Fantasy XV is really, truly here.
Taking place in the opening portions of XV, Episode Duscae follows the brooding prince, Noctis, and his well-dressed entourage as they road trip across the region of Duscae, a vast grassy plain that sits alongside the main highway leading to their mysterious next destination. Unfortunately their car breaks down and the local mechanic, Cindy, demands the group fork over 24,000 Gil in exchange for her repairing their vehicle. Luckily for them, a giant Behemoth is wreaking havoc all across Duscae and the locals have put out a bounty that conveniently covers the cost of their repairs.
Upon gaining control of Noctis, players are thrust into a simple tutorial against your beefy bestie, Gladiolus, who happily teaches the game’s battle mechanics while bashing you with his great sword. Noctis has a variety of swords and spears at his disposal that he swings with great visual flair. Each weapon can be placed within five different slots, changing their function in battle and giving Noctis unique properties to use to his advantage. For instance, putting a great sword in your “ravage” slot causes Noctis to repeatedly swing his sword around, hitting multiple targets at once, while using a spear allows him to his single targets with rapid thrusts, breaking through any defenses they may have.
Management is the name of the game when it comes to XV’s combat. Holding L1 allows Noctis to continuously dodge enemy attacks at the cost of MP. Holding the square button launches an endless barrage of attacks for free, which can also be used to restore MP. On top of that, you can rotate through a handful of medium-cost skills, activated by triangle, ranging from the classic dragoon “jump” to the always helpful “drain blade” that heals with life siphoned from enemies to a giant spin slash “tempest.” If the MP gauge reaches zero, Noctis enters a weakened “stasis” mode. Similarly, if Noctis’ HP reaches zero he enters a broken state where he can no longer attack and must either wait for his friends to revive him or chuck a potion to instantly bounce back. Furthermore, he can chuck his sword at enemies or certain targets and warp to them for damage or a reprieve from the often-hectic battles.
Dodging is important, as there is no active roll or block command that Noctis can utilize to save himself. During certain attacks, a large symbol will pop over an enemy announcing that their next attack can be parried, which, if all goes well, leads to countering for massive damage, often killing targets in one hit.
As far as things go, especially for a clearly unfinished build, the combat in the game is both visually and physically satisfying. Things can get a bit overwhelming due to large enemy counts and a lock-on system that refuses to work correctly, but when combat starts to flow as intended, it looks and feels like something straight out of a well-choreographed action film. Your teammates constantly run around, rebounding off each other and attacking anything that comes across their field of view, although they’re very prone to simply getting beat up and waiting for you to rescue them from death. Combat happens a bit too often for my liking, especially since there’s no minimap or enemy radar, so the party is often ambushed by enemies you haven’t even come into contact yet, even seconds after exiting the previous battle. Luckily, you’re not punished for running from battle, keeping any experience and items you or your party members gained.
Interestingly enough, you only level up while resting for the night at one of the various campsites across Duscae, including an adorable Chocobo trailer park, much to the glee of Prompto, your youthful blond-haired companion. While camping, Ignis, the group’s glasses wearing pretty boy, cooks various meals that give you up to three seemingly random boosts for the next day’s adventures. Camping, however, voids all sidequests, meaning you’ll have to choose braving the enemy infested night to complete objectives or simply trying again the next day. The developers have stated that cooking will be fleshed out in the final product, although to what extent I do not know.
The music, handled by the always outstanding, Yoko Shimomura, is especially fantastic. The characters animate predictably well by Square Enix standards, although there were several times when I was caught off guard by simply how amazing they looked. Early on, Gladiolus ran ahead but then turned around to see if I was following him. Upon turning around to continue on, he tripped a little bit, losing his balance before regaining his stride. Later, a fiendish goblin sucker punched Noctis while he was trying to consume a potion, scooping it up from underneath him and using it on itself.
Speaking of goblins, the classic renditions of tenured Final Fantasy enemies in three dimensions is an amazing touch, leading to a sense that this game has morphed from simply the next Final Fantasy into a celebration of all things Final Fantasy. It hits all the right nostalgic notes while propelling the series forward, leaving its antiquated brethren behind.
All in all, you’re left with a well-crafted bite-sized portion of probably the most anticipated JRPG in history. It will be interesting to see how much Square Enix changes due to feedback from Episode Duscae.
In closing, here’s a short list of things Square Enix will hopefully alter in the final release:
– The constant vignette across the screen needs to go.
– Noctis’ Batman voice is strangely out of place where as all the other character’s voices are well suited and well acted.
– The game desperately needs a minimap.
– Fighting in enclosed areas is a bit of a clusterfuck. I assume most places won’t be as large and open as Duscae, so this is especially worrisome.
– Lock-On needs to, well, work. You shouldn’t have to still rotate the camera when you’re locked onto something.
– Combat frequency needs to be dropped drastically. What’s the point of ditching random battles if you’re going to constantly be in battle anyway?
– A slight tweak to the player arrow on the map would be appreciated. Currently it’s far too large and doesn’t accurately represent where the party is located.
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