‘Final Fantasy XV’ Live Gameplay Footage Leaks, Demo Promised For 2015
It’s okay if you were a bit skeptical of the reality of Final Fantasy XV when a trailer emerged earlier this week. Now, though, we’ve got confirmation that Square Enix’s next Final Fantasy does exist in the form that it was shown off, as new gameplay video shows the game looking terrific. What’s more, we can expect a demo some time next year.
When Square Enix released the initial Final Fantasy XV trailer on Wednesday, the video started out with a warning that “The following is a sneak peek of a work in progress. We aim to deliver even more with the final product.”
That second sentence, the “aim to deliver” part, gives some gamers pause, as video game companies are notorious for “bullshotting,” or showing off “aspirational” images of a game that the developers know they can’t actually attain. The fluid hack-n-slash action of the Final Fantasy XV trailer looked like a perfect example of bullshotting – just too good to be true – and it was all the more suspicious given how quiet Square Enix has been about the title since unveiling it last year. The new gameplay video out of the Tokyo Game Show, though, shows just how real that footage is. Final Fantasy XV does look that good in action, and it looks like we’re in for a treat.
In fact, as Kotaku notes, Final Fantasy XV director Hajime Tabata said during the demonstration that he wanted to show off live gameplay to dispel online rumors that the trailer was entirely pre-rendered. Tabata also said that FFXV will actually look even better than it does in these videos when a demo of the game sees release next year.
That’s right: A Final Fantasy XV demo is set for release in March of next year. Gamers can look forward to getting their first taste of FFXV bundled with Final Fantasy Type-o HD when that game goes on sale March 17. The demo will contain about one hour of gameplay, according to Kotaku. That’s one hour, though, if players simply use the car and don’t explore too much.
Players will be able to drive the car themselves or have another party member drive in an auto-pilot mode. There’s also talk that the demo could include a chocobo.
If one hour of gameplay doesn’t seem like enough to slake your thirst, you can rest assured that further exploration will yield more play time. If you decide to go through the Final Fantasy demo on foot, you’ll be able to explore the surroundings, battling monsters and maybe even encountering a dungeon. As Kotaku points out, the demo won’t have any boss fights, but Tabata says that there will instead be “something that ‘Final Fantasy’ fans will really like.”
We haven’t seen much of the game world of Final Fantasy XV, so we don’t know if the game will have the same “Hallway Simulator” feel that Final Fantasy XIII did. That linear game design made the game feel stilted to many players, and many began to doubt that Square Enix still had what it takes to make a great Final Fantasy game. With the way that Final Fantasy XV is looking, though, Square Enix might be on the verge of silencing doubters once and for all.
