LogFAQs > #923222850

Oh man, this game looked pretty cool, and I already loved the original, but this demo was pretty amazing.

It wasn't a big portion; just the reactor core and a boss fight against the Guard Scorpion, but it was still a great way to show off the game. The graphics are amazing, although I couldn't hear much of the music. The voice acting was solid, with the actors delivering the memorable lines keeping things feeling familiar while still updating it.

The battle system is really curious, but it definitely caught my attention. While it looks like an action game, it reminded me a lot of Xenoblade. You have free movement, but you don't move as fast as, say, Kingdom Hearts. You can guard, do dodge moves, and move out of the range to avoid attacks, but (at least in the demo) you aren't harshly penalized for not doing so. You could just stand and tank all the attacks, you'd just need to waste more time healing.

You had a standard attack to use in battle. Cloud had a three hit close range combo, while Barret could hold the button down for a multihitting ranged attack ( you are able to switch out characters on the fly at any moment). When you dealt damage you built up an ATB gauge that consisted of two bars. You could press X to slow down time and bring up a menu to spend ATB bars to perform actions. There were strong attacks (that each had different properties and ranges. Cloud had a strong attack, a multihit stagger, and an attack that hit everyone surrounding him. Barret had a defense buff, a stagger move, and a power shot), magic (you still have MP meters) and items (which could be freely used outside of combat). You could also use your Limit when you took enough damage, which was more of a cutscene type super move. This made things feel more like a turn based game, and the meter built fast enough, but you also had to aware of when you used a move. They could miss if you weren't in the right range, and your attack could be canceled if you got hit in the middle of the animation. There was also a stagger mechanic, where if you dealt enough damage or used certain moves you'd build up a meter that toppled the enemy when it maxed out, increasing damage you dealt while it was knocked down. This added a lot of strategy in how you approached the battle.

The boss fight was amazing and much more expanded from the original. There are multiple setpieces to it that weren't in the original. The Scorpion jumps and lands across the arena making you reposition yourself, it crawls along the walls forcing you to use magic to reach, and it could use its tail laser, requiring you to find cover using debris around the battle field to avoid. Partway through the battle it deploys a barrier, so you have to target it from behind to disable it. It also used a regenerative module at one point, and had a segment where you had to target its legs to knock it over. All in all it consisted of around five phases and took a considerable amount of time to beat. And this is from the tutorial boss! It makes me really excited to see what the rest of the game will be like.

Just from that small portion I'm incredibly hyped. It always looked wonderful, but the gameplay actually holds up. I'm officially on board with it 100%.

Edit: please excuse errors. I typed all that on my phone, but that's how excited I am for this.
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Okay, I rolled a 14. What's that mean? Hsu
That you're a cheater. This is a 12-sided die. Chan