The Final Fantasy XV: Episode Duscae demo is here, bringing a small taste of what’s to come in Square Enix’s hugely anticipated and long-awaited open-world RPG.

For the first time in nearly a decade we get to experience the action-oriented combat that the game has to offer, set in an amazing-looking backdrop filled with whimsy and wonder.

We’ve played a good portion of demo itself and chronicled our adventures within Duscae. detailing the basics while underlining the toils and troubles we had along the way. So without further adieu, let’s jump right in! Campfires, male bonding, and epic battles await!

The four main characters of FFXV, from right to left: Prompto Argentum, Gladiolus Amicitia, Prince Noctis Lucis Caelum, and Ignis Stupeo Scientia.

Final Fantasy XV Combat:  Targeting, weapons, MP and more

The fighting sequences in Final Fantasy XV are seamless within the open-world itself, so there’s no battle transitions that lock players into smaller environments like the old-school games. Combat is action-oriented, but it’s not as fluid as, say, Devil May Cry games where you can get away with button-mashing.

That being said you can auto-attack by holding down Square, but you’re going to have to pay attention go what’s going on around you in order to keep out of danger.

The combos in Episode Duscae aren’t your traditional button sequences. Although you do have different moves, they’re not really strung together so much as separately sequenced out. And the game doesn’t really explain how to execute the various types of attacks.

There’s also a Defensive stance that’s activated by holding L1. You can dodge attacks as well as parry while in this stance, and if you hit Square after parrying, you’ll deliver a devastating counterattack.

You can even cross-parry and cross-counter against two enemies at once.

Essentially you get a number of different attacks like Ravage, Vanquish, Crush, Counter and Descend, but you have to experiment to see how to actually do them in battle.

• Ravage - Melee barrage, executed by holding Square for constant attacks

• Crush - Initial assault, activated as the first attack when you press Square

• Vanquish - Lethal Force Strike, executed as the final killing blow on an enemy

• Blood Sword - Counter, activated when you attack after dodging

• Descend - Crushing blow from on high, executed when you attack in air

Once you enact a specific attack like Counter, which is activated when you subsequently land a blow after dodging, the battle status menu will briefly show the attack you just executed.

Players can customize which weapons they want assigned to various attacks, providing tactical strategy against different enemies.

Weapons and attack slots

Noctis has a nice array of weapons that can be mixed and matched in various ways to provide some impressive customized strategic advantage.

Remember those different attack types? Well they’re actually sort of “slots” that weapons can be assigned to. The way it works is that you can, at any time, assign any of the five weapons listed below to the battle stances.

Let’s say you have the Zweihander set in your Descent slot. This means every time you jump attack, you’ll slam down the heavy two-hander that negates defense and has quite a decent range. Also personally I like having my Blood Sword set in my Counter slot so I regain mana every time I dodge-slash.

This setup is quite tactically sound, making for an impressive array of strategem for every single battle, and you can change your loadout at any time and adapt to different enemies.

Plus every weapon has its own unique Technique attack that acts like a sort of special ability, but they tend to drain MP so you’ll want to use them sparingly.

Noctis’ weapons include:

• Avenger – Default blade with no special attacks or abilities, short to mid-range blade

• Wyvern Lance (Dragoon Jump) - MP recovery attack, long reach

• Partisan (Full Thrust) - Critical x3, MP recovery attack, longer reach

• Blood Sword (Drain Blade) - MP recovery attack x 3, Regeneration x2, mid-range blade

• Zweihander (Tempest) - Negates enemy defense, long range, slow wielding

Setting up your weapons to your attack slots is only half of the battle, and the actual combat proper is actually rather…awkward. It’s very much unlike anything we’ve seen in the series to date, despite the fact that it’s action-based like Final Fantasy Type-0.

Targeting and MP system

Final Fantasy XV‘s combat requires a steep learning curve, and to get it just right you’ll have to practice a bit. The real problem is the game’s awkward targeting system which gets kind of crazy when you’re fighting a big group of baddies.

At one point I was fighting a pack of sabertusks when all of a sudden a sortie of magitek troopers dropped in from the night sky. That’s when things started to get out of hand.

The game’s combat system seems like it was built upon 1vs1 style fights, as Noctis can only target one enemy at a time. The key to taking on groups, though, is to switch targets and whittle away HP here and there while trying to focus taking out baddies one at a time.

When you’re fighting a group you’ll need to pay attention to what’s going on around you. You can’t have tunnel vision and fight only one target, you’re going to have to switch targets quite often, dodge, and even warp to higher ground or hide to regenerate MP.

Warping to higher ground is a great way to regenerate MP, which is a significant resource in FF15.

MP is extremely important in Final Fantasy XV, and if you run out, you go into a sort of “staggered” state called Stasis. While in Stasis you can’t use your warp ability, you can’t dodge, nor can you cast techniques.

Dodging is one of the most important things you can do in the game, and you’ll be doing it a lot, but you can’t do it too much, because dodging actually takes MP. That’s right, you need MP in order to dodge.

The only ways to regenerate your MP in battle is to use Noctis’ warp ability to zap to a metal tower, hang there, and replenish your magical energy, or you can hide behind rocks, trees and other outcroppings.

This hinders that fluid, action-packed feel quite a bit, but it also does something quite important and forces players to pay attention and carefully weigh their choices in battle. You can’t just spam Dragoon Jumps or dodge every attack, and like or not you’re going to take a few hits here and there.

So what happens when you get overrun and wiped out?

The neat thing about FF15 is that you don’t “die” when your HP runs out. When you’re knocked out you can still move around–you go into a “Danger” state that’s akin to the Stagger state–and there’s a secondary health bar that can be depleted before you’re K.O.’ed.

When you’re in the Danger state one of your teammates can jump in and Rescue you, and you can always do the same for them, basically adding another level of depth to combat.

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A fresh batch of Final Fantasy XV screenshots have emerged, showing off some more of the upcoming Episode Duscae demo.

The FFXV Motherlode

Also in case you missed Square Enix’s massive Final Fantasy XV demo blowout, just last Friday franchise director Hajime Tabata showcased a huge livestream made up of 40 minutes of pure gameplay footage.

The livestream proved to be a wealth of information on the demo, displaying in-depth action-based combat sequences with the Active Cross Battle System along with exploration and even campfire cooking.

And that Behemoth battle…yikes! Word is that the monstrous baddie will be able to wipe your entire party, so you should definitely be prepared before you go tracking him down.

As for quests, DualShockers reports that the player’s basic motivation in the demo is to scrap up enough cash to pay Cid (who’s now been rendered into a woman mechanic) to repair Noctis’ car. This means exploring, tackling enemies, and of course taking down the Behemoth to earn that sweet 75,000 Gil bounty.

The storyline should take players about three hours to complete, but the demo is bolstered by a hefty amount of exploration activities.

As for a taste of gameplay, party members will naturally interact with the environment and point out specific areas and points of interest along the way. Also players will have to visit camps in order to level up and allocate exp points and cook food to receive various buffs.

And the more you camp, the more camaraderie you build with your team, the stronger they get and learn more moves. This is a very interesting dynamic take on “male bonding” in the great outdoors.

On that same note we also got our first glimpse at the in-game map system, which looks pretty comprehensive and functional. It also looks like the final game’s map will be 10 times the size of the Duscae region.

Although gamers will be able to keep the demo and replay as long as they like, it will have certain limitations. Weather and night effects won’t be present, and the demo won’t run in 1080p at 30fps. Plus you won’t be able to carry over your saved data to the final release version.

Demo Availability

As far as availability, Square Enix has revealed that the Final Fantasy XV: Episode Duscae demo will be bundled with digital copies of Final Fantasy Type-0 HD for the first two months after the game’s release.

Download codes will only be available in the physical Day One editions of Type-o HD, and pre-orders are guaranteed access to the demo.

So if you haven’t pre-ordered, you can still get the demo if you pick up a digital version of Type-0 in the two-month window. After that it’s gone for good.

Also the Final Fantasy XV demo will go live the day that Type-o is released, and will be available to download about an hour after the game’s release.

2016 Release Window?

But when can we actually expect to get our hands on the final release? Probably not any time soon. Maybe not even in 2015.

In the livestream, Square Enix game director Hajime Tabata said that the team was 60% finished with the game. That sounds pretty good, right?

Back in September 2014 Tabata told Kotaku that Final Fantasy XV was 55% finished. So in about half a year the game’s progress has only been bumped by 5%. Considering how big the game actually is, 5% could be a helluva lot of progress.

Final Fantasy fans have been waiting almost 9 years for FFXV, so what’s another half a year? Square hasn’t even released a tentative release window yet, and it’s pretty much fair to say that the game won’t be hitting shelves in 2015–not unless the studio rushes it out the door.

The Final Fantasy XV demo releases alongside Final Fantasy Type-0 HD on March 17, 2015 for Xbox One and PlayStation 4 consoles.

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Square Enix has released a new batch of Final Fantasy 15 screenshots that depict Noctis and his party in a roadside skirmish and sneaking past a massive behemoth in the Duscae forest, all in full 1080p HD glory.

The screens further show off FF15‘s unique Active Cross Battle system, which utilizes real-time action much like Kingdom Hearts or Devil May Cry instead of the traditional turn-based system.

Rather than the stop-and-pause style of active-turn/turn-based systems, the Active Battle system affords for more fluid gameplay.

Final Fantasy 15 also features seamless combat sequences that are dynamically integrated in the game’s open-world environments, meaning there’s no loading screens between exploration and battle.

Final Fantasy XV will feature fluid real-time action-based combat set in a vast, open world.

The new images certainly instill that natural flow of combat, completely bridging the old-school barriers between in-game fighting sequences and outer-world exploration.

Square Enix’s new PS4 and Xbox One RPG certainly blends these mechanics together to deliver a rather alluring package that mirrors real-life sentiments. Players can expect a swath of random encounters when they go sight-seeing, including being blocked by a sortie of enemy soldiers while roaming the streets in a futurecar, or sticking to the shadows as a hulking behemoth roams past in a nearby glade, shaking the very earth with its footsteps.

It looks like anything might be possible in Final Fantasy 15, and it’s certainly a welcome change in innovation from the landmark franchise’s earlier roots.

Exploring will often stay interesting with randomized encounters, and players can start up a fight on a whim. Sometimes it pays to sneak, though!

While Square Enix has yet to finalize a release date for the cross-platform RPG, game director Hajime Tabata says he wants to do a simultaneous worldwide release for Final Fantasy 15.

“I’d like to be able to do a worldwide release,” Tabata said in an interview with games publication LevelUp.

“We don’t want to impose any big delays to players from around the world, so I’m hoping that everyone will be able to play the same Final Fantasy XV together within as close of a time frame as possible.”

Hopefully Square Enix will unveil a release date soon, but for now, we’ll have to stick with snatches of video trailers and screenshots to tide us over.

Final Fantasy 15 is currently in development for Xbox One and PlayStation 4.

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