Dungeon Demo

[Big D]

Anyone else playing the new Dungeon Demo?

So far, it's cementing my nascent hatred of this game. Especially when I had to fight and kill a trio of tiny chibi moogles. They said "kupo" when they died after being stabbed with swords. WTF is this!?

This game still fees like a bizarre and cynical mixture of nostalgia-baiting references to the franchise's previous successes, and jarringly incongruous cutesy styling that only serves to detract from that same nostalgia. Couldn't they pick a theme? Like, either an adventure populated with faithful adaptations of the classic heroes, OR a family-friendly chibi wonderland?

:edit: To say nothing of the seemingly lazy design that's made it into the demo. No Config menu once you're in the game, for one thing. Also, when a member of my party got stuck behind some terrain, she didn't walk around it to catch up with the rest of the team. She just teleported straight through to the other side of the obstacle. FFVIII had better 'party of three moving around together' mechanics than this back in the 1990s.

[The Summoner of Leviathan]

I'm kinda liking it minus the fact that I hate random encounters. Not gonna lie I kinda want the game now but not at full retail price.

I like how depending if you are chibi or not your party changes and stuff. I wish you could explore the battle system more since it seems pretty interesting!

Also, curious about different transmutations for the mirages.

[Aulayna]

My only real annoyance with it is the-Navi the-style the-help the-that the-randomly says the-the before the-some of the-worlds in the the-most the-annoying the-voice the-ever.

Battle system seemed a tad simplistic too, but it seems that there's room for depth and strategy later on.

Not gonna be a Day One buy for me though.

[Loony BoB]

Haven't played it yet, but will have the game on day one because I'm intrigued by it. I just dislike demos. I've heard decent-to-good reviews from my mates in FFXIV.

[DMKA]

I've had it installed for two days now but I haven't played it yet because, well...I'm a bit embarrassed to play it in front of my significant other. It really looks like it's intended for little kids.

[Fynn]

Because it is. So what?

[DMKA]

I played a few minutes of it secretly today. It's really fun! Still torn on whether to buy it or not though. I'm really curious what the story is like.

[Wolf Kanno]

It's certainly interesting. Like one part Pokemon, one part KH Dream Drop Distance, and one part quirky Japanese game.

[Fynn]

Okay, now you guys got me interested. Might check out the Vita demo then. How long is it?

[Wolf Kanno]

Not terribly long, but there are quite a few Mirages to catch in the demo.

[Fynn]

Well, it's a good thing I have a long weekend coming up, then!

[Wolf Kanno]

So basically for those in the dark about the demo, it's a simply romp through a mountain area with a couple Chibi FF characters wandering about. There is no story for the demo but the final four treasure chests by the boss unlock mini-cutscenes from the main game as a teaser.

The dungeon itself uses an FFX/XIII style layout with the environment in 3D but with a mostly fixed camera angle giving it a slight dynamic look despite being pretty plain looking. In fact the visuals of the dungeon feel like something out of the SNES era FFs.

The dungeon is littered with Chibi FF characters who hand over items when spoken to but do little else. I can confirm the following cameos: Warrior of Light, Lightning (LR Version), Cloud Strife, Squall Leonhart, Edgar Roni Figaro, Boko, Bartz, Yuna, and Vivi.

Most of the enemies on the field are the classic staples of the series: Chicobos, Mini Moogles, Bombs, Mandragoiras, Tonberry, and Ahiram. Fenrir is the only traditional summon, though the boss of the demo is a female Ifrit called Ifreet.

Lann and Reyna have skill slots that unlock once they reach level milestones. Two are already unlocked for the demo and you can fully customize them though they do seem to share a skill pool so neither can have the same skills.

Mirages on the other hand gain SP in battle which can be used on their skill boards (think KH 3D's Dream Eater boards) to unlock various skills and stat bonuses. You can even unlock open slots which you can customize with skill seeds similar to the Sphere Grid in X. It's also possible to unlock the ability to have the Mirage follow you on the screen when you're not in battle.

Mirages also have the ability to transmigrate into different forms within their class, though it's very limited in the demo and I don't really know the full rules just yet. Basically Mirages come in sizes, from Small (Chicobo and mini-moogle) to medium (Chocobo and Tonberry) to Large (Fenrir and Ahiram) and once unlocked its possible to move them from these different sizes I believe. In the demo the Chocobo could be transformed back to a Chicocbo for instance.

Why all of this is important is because of the stacking mechanic which is the main party building mechanic of the game. The humans and Mirages use an AP system like 4 Heroes of Light which serve as the points for skills and magic but recharges every round. A unit only has four AP at a time but stacking them together adds their AP and abilities together in addition to modifying the units stats. This allows the characters to use their Mirage skills, gain enough AP to use higher tier abilities and even unlocks special stack combo moves where all three units work together to perform a special elemental move.

Course enemies can do the same thing and this brings in an interesting mechanic. The stability of your stack depends on the units chosen. The story characters for instance have good stability together but trickier stacks which might offer great skill sets can sometimes have weak stability. Many melee moves like the Chicobo's Ram and the Tonberry's Knife move will cause topple damage and if the character is attacked enough the stack will fall apart and you'll lose a turn as your stack can be hit with a group confusion or your human character can act but has limited AP and restricted to his own move set until they can get their stack back together. A great strategy against the boss of the demo was actually stun locking her by knocking her stock over.

Mirages are gained in battle in a semi-Pokemon style. You capture them with either special Mirage specific crystals which can be gained by defeating enough of them or you can fulfill certain conditions in battle to make them susceptible to capture such as healing the Moogles with an item or cure spell, using a fire attack on a Bomb, or even just plain old reducing their HP to critical though it varies from Mirage to Mirage and nothing is universal except the crystal method. Also note that you can't capture any enemy that is part of a stack, you must first topple the stack and inflict the right condition to get the individual Mirage.

Combat is basic turn based but there are two entry methods to choose from. You can use a classic menu-screen (which I highly suggest for first time players) or you can use an interesting hot key approach where specific skill and moves are attached to certain button combinations on the controller for a more streamlined approach.

Though never stated in the demo itself, having the demo on your system with a complete save will unlock a special Magitek Armor in the main game.

[Shauna]

The best thing about the battles? The fast forward. It was glorious.

[Fynn]

Okay, this game is NOT optimized for the Vita

[fat_moogle]

I downloaded the demo yesterday and I deleted it after the first fight. I'm sorry, but this just isn't for me!