Final Fantasy XVI Demo – First Impressions.

The launch of Final Fantasy XVI is imminent and we have been gifted with a demo for the upcoming title to tide us over until then. The demo consists of around 2 hours of early gameplay, and helps you ease into the game’s mechanics and story. It does very well to set up the premise and I highly appreciated the ability to carry over your save data from the demo into the full game.

In terms of the overall presentation, the demo really impressed me. It features a lot of grandiose and stunning cinematic sequences. They are very well executed and it really helps to amplify the storytelling that Final Fantasy is so well known for. This demo also introduces us to many of the main characters and features a plot twist that really helps establish the story for the main game. I found it engaging and entertaining from start to finish, and was definitely left wanting to know what was going to happen next.

Another part worth commenting on is the combat. The demo featured multiple combat tutorials and I had a good feel for the battle system by the end. You can dodge, parry, lock on, attack. All the standard moves found in an action RPG are here. However, you can also close in on enemies and perform special attacks with your equipped ‘eikons’. Another element I appreciated is the ability point system. In brief, you can learn new abilities and new moves from levelling up and gaining these points. All these mechanics when combined really do make Final Fantasy XVI feel like a true Action RPG and it is something I very much welcomed. In terms of the combat difficulty, I found it to be very forgiving so far and there were multiple ways to make it easier, such as by equipping special items the game gives to you, or by obviously choosing the story mode.

Lastly, I was very content with the performance of the Demo. As promised, there is a 60 FPS mode with a lower resolution, as well as a resolution mode running at 4K. I opted for the 60 FPS mode and noticed few frame drops. The experience was smooth overall and the visuals were still very impressive.

All in all, I came away from the Final Fantasy XVI demo feeling more excited than ever about playing the full game. I thoroughly enjoyed my time with it. The game felt like a welcome return to a series I know and love, while also managing to set itself apart from earlier entries. The opening two hours were extremely promising, and so I can’t wait to experience the rest of what Final Fantasy XVI and the world of Valisthea has to offer.