Article: Lightning Returns Demo out now!

[Mirage]

Well the clock did tick when I played. I just described it to make it easier for you to tell for sure if it was the prologue or not

[Sephiroth]

I cannot say that for sure because you start the prologue with Snow in Yusnaan and end it with the dragon and later in the story you enter the same building to confront snow but the dragon only appears randomly then. I don't know what the demo is like but as said, it sounds like the Prologue with some slight changes.

My post before was actually as much of a try to confirm as possible. I could download it but I don't want to now as I am done with the story and probably will donwload the demo before the European release.

[Mirage]

Well, seeing as you know what do do you could probably clear the demo in... 5 minutes if you skipped all the cutscenes and tutorials. I think I used 3 minutes on the boss the first (and only) time I did it

[Scotty_ffgamer]

I'm pretty sure it's the prologue.

Honestly, I think the whole ending at 6am thing was meant to try to simulate how the clock in game works, but it wasn't really utilized in the demo. All it did was make you feel like you had a lot more time left in your demo just before you were at the end of it. That's kind of silly.

However, I liked this demo. Once I started grasping what was going on with the battle system somewhat, it seems like it will be pretty fun. The story seemed intriguing enough to make me know what will happen next. Yes, the battles were super easy... but it's the very beginning of the game. The only thing I would have asked for is to maybe have a couple of short sections to pick from rather than just the beginning to maybe give us a feel for a harder battle and to see a more open environment, but eh. I might buy this day 1 now.

[Sephiroth]

This demo needs over 2 hours to be downloaded. And I know the story already. I will download it but try it out when I want.

I checked it. It is the prologue.

[Vermachtnis]

Whelp, the demo did it's job. I really, really want this now. The Muse was my favorite class, I really liked that hat.

[DMKA]

I played it today. The new battle system is a lot of fun, and it's unbelievably amusing to see Lightning in mage outfits. I also really love Snow's new design.

It was extremely short though, especially considering the file size, and I'm guessing either the part of the game the demo takes place at is down the line, or the game is told out of chronological order, because nothing made any sense at all.

Also, is it just me, or does not automatically getting your HP back at the end of battle anymore feel odd now?

I'm very excited to get my hands on the full game in a few more weeks.

[Skyblade]

I can't believe no one has apparently figured this out yet. For all of the "it's ending early" complaints: Once you beat the boss, turn around and run back. Don't run forward. Running forward to the checkpoint finishes the demo. Running back through the areas you've been through lets you keep fighting mobs until 6:00 AM. I figured that out as soon as it ended early on my first run, and confirmed it on my second run.

After you beat the boss, it will show up as a random fight (an extremely common one in the room you fought it, and right by the vendor) so you can re-fight it. It will also rescore you on the five star system so you can see how well you did, or try to do better.


The demo is a little disappointing. There is an extremely heavy cutscene-to-content ratio, and it does seem to be a return to the hallway. Not the best aspects of XIII to start out with.

Then too, the customization you get to mess with is borderline useless. The normal enemies die extremely quickly to anything, but the boss is weak to ice and magic. Guess what, the magic and ice using setups you have are all in the default schemata, making using the others incredibly frustrating. They needed some enemy variety to reward using the other version.

That said, the more I use the battle system, the more I'm enjoying it. There is a lot of depth in there, and I can definitely see customizing and fleshing out my schemata to a huge degree. The controls take a little getting used to, and the timing takes quite a bit, due to the differing cast times, but overall, I think it's going to be fairly solid as I get the hang of it.

Also, I'm a little disappointed that you apparently can't recolor the equipment, only the outfits.

[Carl the Llama]

This demo needs over 2 hours to be downloaded. And I know the story already. I will download it but try it out when I want.

It only took me 11 minutes to download it

Also, is it just me, or does not automatically getting your HP back at the end of battle anymore feel odd now?

It did feel strange at first, but the more it happened the more I liked it, making you plan your visits between the item vendor and the hallway... I can see this becoming a semi decent strategy point during the harder points in the game (unless they include a healer type class >.>).

[Endless]

It did feel strange at first, but the more it happened the more I liked it, making you plan your visits between the item vendor and the hallway... I can see this becoming a semi decent strategy point during the harder points in the game (unless they include a healer type class >.>).

It's in the demo: Red Mage -> Mediguard.

[radicaledward124]

I really think that i'm going to enjoy this game! I was disappointed by the shortness of the demo but then again i understand that. Don't want to give away too much at once, but oh i had fun!

[Skyblade]

It did feel strange at first, but the more it happened the more I liked it, making you plan your visits between the item vendor and the hallway... I can see this becoming a semi decent strategy point during the harder points in the game (unless they include a healer type class >.>).

It's in the demo: Red Mage -> Mediguard.

Or Dragoon -> Lancet.

[Jessweeee♪]

I played the demo. I thought it was neat c:

[DMKA]

Also, I'm a little disappointed that you apparently can't recolor the equipment, only the outfits.

From what I can tell that's only in the demo; there are videos on Youtube of people changing their weapon's colors. Or maybe that's something you unlock later?

[jlenoconel]

Seems like much of the same thing as the original Final Fantasy XIII, from what I've played. Was hoping for much more of an open world environment. Didn't enjoy the demo if I'm honest.