Final Fantasy XV: Platinum Demo Impressions and Thoughts

[ScienceNonfiction]

Just thought I'd make a thread to share this in, since I don't think it really belongs in the general thread.

I've played the Platinum Demo now and I've gotta say: the combat kinda blows. I haven't played Duscae so I have no point of comparison here, but alternating between holding square and circle just isn't fun. Of course it does get better when you control grown Noctis and get more abilities (warping is very cool!), but even still it seemed a bit... bland. Magic was pretty cool to control though and I actually "killed" myself by setting off an explosion too close! I know they want to implement an alternate control scheme, so hopefully that's a little closer to Kingdom Hearts (preferably with one press of a button equating to one attack). Anyway, I'm assuming the combat will be more enjoyable when I'm able to choose weapons more freely in the full game, since if it were up to me I'd never let a great sword get anywhere near my weapon deck, lol. Gonna play the demo again tonight and pick up those hidden weapons!

Oh, also outside of combat the controls were pretty unresponsive. Sometimes I'd have to press x or square multiple times to get Noctis to jump or dodge roll, and this is when I was standing completely still or just running. Also the camera was pretty wack, especially with the blocks.

Despite all that I actually did enjoy the demo believe it or not. And, needless to say, I was impressed by the visuals. When it's raining at night... DAMN.

So. what did you guys think of the demo?

Edit: Ok, so I played the demo again and had a lot more fun with it this time! I skipped all the beginning junk and headed straight to the iron giant. This time I remembered that you can mash the button instead of holding it, so already it felt much better. I also used some of the tips from this cool post from @Lucina and I guess you could say the combat just clicked for me. The shuriken was pretty sweet, but I couldn't figure out how to use the shield. (I'll try it more next time.) Obviously I was more used to the controls this time as well, which helped, but I still want to put jump on circle and attack on X in the final game.

Still didn't think of a good name for Carbuncle

 

[DrBretto]

Your post basically echos most people. At first, the combat seems super simple, then you figure out how to do things, then it clicks. Duscae was the same way. The good news is, once it clicks, it doesn't unclick. My only problem there is that I got so used to Duscae that I'm still struggling with the controls, but I do believe the new scheme is better.

For the rest, though, you gotta take the demo for what it is, which is just there to show off the weather, the lighting effects, etc, with a splash of combat.

 

[Tornak]

Yeah, the first time I fought the Iron Giant (bear in mind I didn't play ED) I was "is that it?". But once you get the hang of it (Throwing shurikens while in the air and alternating it with the sword is sooo satisfying), you have a lot of fun. I actually remembered LATER on that you could hold the button to attack. I like it even if I'd prefer to have a more responsive control set (and I'm still not totally into how guarding works, but it's not bad at all).

And yeah, I had totally forgotten about the two different gameplay modes. It's weird they didn't talk about it. I hope the one we played is not the more action-y one, but I actually think that that's the one, haha. Which is alright, there's still time to correct the little things that don't truly wotk.

Still, I think that they could have added a few more monsters in the adult Noctis stage (Sabertusks, Goblins...) making the fight a little bit longer and harder and/or granting the ability to start in the Iron Giant battle in any moment after you beat the demo (I currently have my PS4 on resume mode in that area, lol).

But yeah, it's a tech demo. Considering that we're still half a year away, they have plenty of time to polish the framerate and the visuals. I'm kind of dissapointed in the latter, actually, particularly in the Altissia part and in the Insomnia one (I mean, I didn't expect the game to look like the obviously CG 2013 trailer, but...). Do you think we'll experience a significant upgrade of the things that aren't clicking right now? Or... the opposite, lol.

BTW, didn't they say in an ATR that we'll eventually get another one, with the whole party? I mean, I'd obviously love it, but don't really need. It's just that many people seem to think that this is how the game is going to be like, so I understand if they release the Overture demo to sell the game to the casual audience.

 

[DrBretto]

Still, I think that they could have added a few more monsters in the adult Noctis stage

This is the only thing I was disappointed about. I'm more than OK with everything else, despite the internet's collective insanity with all the knee jerk reactions and lack of vision out there, but I would have liked a little more to do. At least with Duscae there was a variety of enemies to mess around with. I want to explore the combat in more depth, but I can't just fight one guy and stay interested long enough.

 

[ChrisB]

Personally think the demo doesn't reflect the main game in anyway think they made is short and sweet just to get us started, will be more excited for the main game now

 

[Lulcielid]

I personally haven´t played it but for what I could see, they made the demo short but sweet. For the most part it seens to have clicked with people far more than Duscae did, at least going by internet reaction.

 

[LeonBlade]

I think the fact that people don't actually know how the controls to get more out of your attacks is why people think it feels weak. Look at Lucina's post and you will see how much you can do, especially with the two hidden weapons when in adult Noctis.

Kid Noctis doesn't have access to anything special, so there's no sense in comparing that to anything to begin with. Working around invincibility frames from dodging with the Airstep Sword alone can really beef up combat, you should never need to just rely on holding Guard to avoid attacks, if you do that, you don't know how to play the best to your advantage. Lucina's video is a perfect example of showing you that you can be offensive even while dodging attacks, and using the Hero's Shield you can do "frame" perfect blocks which can actually stagger the enemy so that you can do a big followup.

The combat is actually really rewarding compared to Duscae, and that's without the rest of your party and the other systems to compliment the battle system.

 

[Chocobocoholic]

I don't think you can really judge the combat of the final game just by the Platinum demo. Episode Duscae was more "complete" in regards to that, because at least you had some techniques to use (Jump, Drain, an AoE attack) and we got to see how the chain attacks were implemented (at the time - that was a work in progress). The Platinum demo added magic which was nice, so if you think about it all together I think the combat will be very satisfying!

 

[LeonBlade]

I don't think you can really judge the combat of the final game just by the Platinum demo. Episode Duscae was more "complete" in regards to that, because at least you had some techniques to use (Jump, Drain, an AoE attack) and we got to see how the chain attacks were implemented (at the time - that was a work in progress). The Platinum demo added magic which was nice, so if you think about it all together I think the combat will be very satisfying!

I think they removed abilities all together honestly, you can execute Tempest without using MP in the new demo. I don't know, but yeah, I agree with you completely.

 

[Lucina]

I think they removed abilities all together honestly, you can execute Tempest without using MP in the new demo. I don't know, but yeah, I agree with you completely.

It still uses MP, actually. Just tied to directional inputs now. Not sure what to make of it but it is what it is.

 

[Chocobocoholic]

I think they removed abilities all together honestly, you can execute Tempest without using MP in the new demo. I don't know, but yeah, I agree with you completely.

I didn't even notice techniques / abilities in the Platinum demo! How did I miss that?!

 

[LeonBlade]

I didn't even notice techniques / abilities in the Platinum demo! How did I miss that?!

Lucina said they do use MP apparently, but yeah it's with directional input. I don't know what does what, in the full game I imagine they will explain what your weapon types do etc.

It still uses MP, actually. Just tied to directional inputs now. Not sure what to make of it but it is what it is.

I didn't notice, thanks for pointing it out. It's probably because that sword also recovers MP I never noticed...

 

[Chocobocoholic]

Lucina said they do use MP apparently, but yeah it's with directional input. I don't know what does what, in the full game I imagine they will explain what your weapon types do etc.


I didn't notice, thanks for pointing it out. It's probably because that sword also recovers MP I never noticed...

I know that the directional buttons were used for techniques in Duscae, but the directional buttons in Platinum were just used to select weapons, weren't they? Am I missing something?

 

[Death Penalty]

Lucina said they do use MP apparently, but yeah it's with directional input. I don't know what does what, in the full game I imagine they will explain what your weapon types do etc.


I didn't notice, thanks for pointing it out. It's probably because that sword also recovers MP I never noticed...

It's worth noting that tempest executes on a directional input for the greatsword that had no special attack in Duscae. My working theory at this stage is that each weapon does have a special ability just like in Duscae, save for maybe the cross shuriken. The airstep sword's special ability is the aerial combos, the broadsword has tempest and the shield has an improved guard. All of these consume MP, just like abilities. It's possible the cross shuriken's powerful warp strike is its ability, or the fact that it's an aerial weapon like the airstep sword is its ability. The weapon skills are just now baked directly into the weapon rather than requiring a button press to execute! My theory is that the blood sword in the full game will execute drain blade with the forward attack in the final version, as it shares an animation with drain blade's. I think we'll find out a lot more when we see weapon upgrading and customization- they even stripped down the HUD from Duscae so there wasn't much info to be gleaned from menus.

 

[Chocobocoholic]

My working theory at this stage is that each weapon does have a special ability just like in Duscae, save for maybe the cross shuriken. The airstep sword's special ability is the aerial combos, the broadsword has tempest and the shield has an improved guard. The weapon skills are just now baked directly into the weapon rather than requiring a button press to execute!

Well I clearly need to play the demo again! If it does work as you say it does, as in the abilities being "baked in" to the weapons, then I'm glad. In Duscae it felt a bit awkward having to take your thumb off of the left analogue stick to use an ability with the d-pad.

 

[DrBretto]

It's worth noting that tempest executes on a directional input for the greatsword that had no special attack in Duscae. My working theory at this stage is that each weapon does have a special ability just like in Duscae, save for maybe the cross shuriken. The airstep sword's special ability is the aerial combos, the broadsword has tempest and the shield has an improved guard. All of these consume MP, just like abilities. It's possible the cross shuriken's powerful warp strike is its ability, or the fact that it's an aerial weapon like the airstep sword is its ability. The weapon skills are just now baked directly into the weapon rather than requiring a button press to execute! My theory is that the blood sword in the full game will execute drain blade with the forward attack in the final version, as it shares an animation with drain blade's. I think we'll find out a lot more when we see weapon upgrading and customization- they even stripped down the HUD from Duscae so there wasn't much info to be gleaned from menus.

Cross Shuriken has a special, more powerful warp srtike, I believe. Otherwise, yes, this is exactly how I believe it will be as well.

 

[Death Penalty]

Cross Shuriken has a special, more powerful warp srtike, I believe. Otherwise, yes, this is exactly how I believe it will be as well.

Yeah, I actually mentioned that myself. It's also worth noting that the weapons seem to still have passive abilities as they did in Duscae. The broadsword apparently ignores a certain amount of defense as well as restoring MP, according to its description. The passive abilities on the other weapons are a little less clear since we don't have access to the full weapon HUD, but the broadsword having two of these support abilities makes it pretty clear they're still in. I was really hoping to see weapon upgrades at Uncovered or in the demo to get more insight...

 

[Chocobocoholic]

I completely missed the Shuriken and the shield.

 

[LeonBlade]

I know that the directional buttons were used for techniques in Duscae, but the directional buttons in Platinum were just used to select weapons, weren't they? Am I missing something?

I mean analog stick, if you hold the analog stick in a certain direction while attacking you can perform different type of combo strings.

 

[Lulcielid]

To anyone playing, have you noticed that HP works different than Duscae ? The HP cap goes down even when your not in critical status.