US fans get a Final Fantasy XV Demo in March; Here is what we know so far

During the annual Tokyo Game Show last week, Square Enix broke their silence and finally revealed some new info on the highly anticipated and long awaited Final Fantasy XV (previously known to many as Final Fantasy Versus XIII). But what many didnt expect, was that Square had some big news to share, one bit in particular meant fans will be getting to play it much sooner than anyone was expecting.

Check out the TGS Trailer below:

Along with the above trailer, Square Enix revealed that Hajime Tabata (Crisis Core -Final Fantasy VII-, Final Fantasy Type-0, and The 3rd Birthday) is now directing Final Fantasy XV instead of Tetsuya Nomura (Kingdom Hearts series), they also revealed a playable demo called “Episode Duscae” will be available for free to all those fans who buy Final Fantasy Type-0 HD when it releases in the US this Spring.

So what does the demo hold for fans?

Thanks to a recent reveal from the NicoNico livestream with Square Enix (via Siliconera), we now have some new details on the demo.

According to the podcast, the demo will take place in the “Duscae” region (hence the title) in the Final Fantasy XV world, and will feature a handful of systems that are still currently incomplete and will likely be finished and changed by the time it receives its official release. While the report seemingly indicates that we shouldn’t expect any boss fights, Square did promise a few challenges and surprises for longtime fans of the Final Fantasy franchise.

So is the demo a big dungeon and that’s all?

No, you will also get a car to drive. In the podcast it was also revealed that you can either take the wheel of the car yourself, or you can let Ignis handle it, which basically means the game puts you in auto-drive and you can just enjoy the ride.

During the course of the car ride, Random talk events are set to take place between Noctis and the other characters in the car, thus giving a little more backstory to the characters. But this will only happen if you allow the auto-drive to occur, but all of this can be skipped if you decide to take over driving.

Rumors also suggest that we may see a chocobo or two in the demo as well, with the implied ability to ride those also.

So how long is this demo?

Reports indicate the demo itself should take roughly 3 hours of your time from start to finish. But they do admit that if you divert from the path, and even drive the car on your own, the demo will last much longer.

How do I get this demo?

As mentioned before, the demo is currently listed as an exclusive feature for those who buy the Final Fantasy Type-0 HD game for either the PS4 or Xbox One. The game itself will be available at all major retailers, or you can pre-order from Amazon right now.

So why do we get a demo before a release date? 

Obviously this is big news for fans, but the biggest question is still why we dont have a release date. Game director Hajime Tabata answers the question on why the demo is such a big deal:

It is the first time that fans who have been waiting for XV get a chance to try out the game. I can’t say what their reaction is going to be. The reason I wanted to make a demo is to let players see whatever portion is available right now and to understand that XV is still coming and we’re still working on it.

When asked about a release date:

During the “Versus era”– though it might be weird to refer to it that way – we weren’t able to reveal any information on release timing because that was a project in which we had to overcome so many different problems that arose. Unfortunately, while we were trying to work through the issues, the timing never matched. But about two years ago, when I officially joined the project, we did a pretty major directional change when we decided not to go with the previous generation. I also had to talk with Nomura-san about the direction FF XV is going to take. Unfortunately, it’s still going to take a while, but I’m hoping people will reset their timers from when I joined the team and restart the count from there.

So there you have it. After almost a decade of waiting, the wait is almost over. While we still dont know how much longer we will have to wait, but at the very least fans will get to play the long awaited game soon enough.

Final Fantasy XV Demo will be released on March 17, 2015 as a bonus feature included with Final Fantasy Type-0 HD.