So i've had the pleasure of playing the Demo for about an hour now and thought I would give some of my early impressions and observations!
1.) The Opening Scene that introduces you to the Demo...was surprisingly awesome. Not because it was epic in scale or anything, in fact its just 4 dudes waking up to an alarm clock in a tent. It was awesome because of how amazingly well done the interactions between the characters were. It was easily the most natural communication sequence I have ever seen in a video game - and that goes well beyond just how they speak to each other. The subtle reflexes and reactions the characters make with their bodies to certain things is SUPERB. Its very natural and realistic. I think you will LOVE IT.
2.) While I admittedly havent done much in the Demo yet, I have noticed some pretty cool things pertaining to the wildlife. There is an ecosystem of sorts. for instance there are the Garuda. There are very large and aggressive Male Garuda who bear large and dangerous tusks. There are the Female Garuda, who are much smaller than the Males and sport much smaller horns. Then there are the baby Garuda, which stand about chest high with Noctis, no horns and slightly differently parterned than the female Garuda.
3.) The Combat is VERY VERY VERY FUN! I was causiously excited about the combat going into the demo as my faith in SE to make a good battle system and my concerns over it being repetitive combated each other. I now have no concerns. Even with Magic and many other battle mechanics removed from the Demo because the demo is an old build...its FANTASTIC. With just the 5 weapons you are granted to Noctis, there are dozens of different set-ups you can use that each have exceptionally different combos. And if you were worried about the game being easy...well...hahahahahahaa...ouch...just ouch.
4.) Graphically the game is easily the best we have seen so far this generation - and its not even remotely the final build of the game. Now, as we know there are some frame drop issues in the Demo, but we knew about that weeks ago via Tabata himself. I did notice that the grass in the game had some texture stetching on sharp cliffs, but im sure that will be fixed if it isnt already (as the Demo build is a year old...I have repeated this multiple time but I cant stress it enough...the Demo is a year old build...and it looks and plays this well)
Ill update more as I play longer!
...uhh...ill just put my favorite quote of all time here.
"Welcome to Pain, the second of three...You have dealt the first...now deal with me!!"
