Well the Demo is literally a first chunk of the game. So there is that.
I just.. could not get into it. The style of story telling, and the tropes they were using were NOT some of the ones I like.
I did not like the pointless beginning to set up "Intrigue" and then a flashing back. I get it.. they wanted to show off Shiva and Titan, but still, the whole first opening felt pointless to me. Then Joshua.. I don't know.. I'm just tired his his archtype in general.
Well, I would put this in spoilers, but for one thing, it's within the first hour of the tutorial to the demo. For another thing, it's so far been very cliche "winter is coming" type stuff, so really nothing to spoil.
I only got so far as the end of the sparring (movement tutoria) when the king told his son "war is coming. Meet me in the throne room." I figured there was a good breaking point.
Right at first with the Phoenix and Ifrit, I'm honestly surprised (in a disappointed way) that they went with the Gandalf vs. Balrog route. It just seems like an old reference to make at this point.
It also irks me when games formerly of an E-T rating try too hard when they go for an M. "Hey, look at the blood on that ax! Did you see those horrible deaths? And yes, that was the main character that just gave a string of F-bombs in quick succession.
WE'RE 'M' RATED!!!!
Being the beginning of the game, there was also an imbalance between cinematics and act gameplay. But that's normal for many games and will hopefully settle down when it gets into the main game.
Here's the thing though. Overall, it looks like it can be a fun action game. But aside from obligatory appearances from some summons and a chocobo or two, so far it's done very little to sep itself from other action games as a Final Fantasy game. Hopefully they do something about this in the full game. But if Final Fantasy is going to move on from its roots and truly go the route of just another action game, they better have thought it through so they don't become
just another action game.