Final Fantasy XV’s demo gets an unprecedented update from fan feedback

By Gabe Gurwin June 9, 2015

FINAL FANTASY XV –EPISODE DUSCAE- Version 2.0 – Promotional Video [Updated version from ATR 6.0]

Final Fantasy XV Episode Duscae demo offers eager fans a taste of the long-awaited Final Fantasy XV. Today, Square Enix released a new update for the demo dubbed “version 2.0,” featuring changes requested through community feedback and even additional character interactions.

Patches and updates for game demos are already extremely rare (Square Enix community manager Dan Seto even called this “the very first time a demo has ever been patched/updated”), but the changes in this version of Episode Duscae go far beyond bug fixes. The demo now features additional side quests, “new combo attacks using all four party members,” and the ability to battle the giant, water-dwelling Catoblepas monster, which Seto says “takes 20 minutes to defeat with all four characters at level 99 and it can still knock you out in one hit.” Episode Duscae now also includes additional character interactions, which Square Enix hopes to better convey the game’s central theme of friendship.

Although the developers are no longer taking player feedback through its demo survey, Seto stresses that many of the suggestions the team received already made their way into the new version of the demo. Additionally, the team plans to incorporate several more suggestions into the full version of Final Fantasy XV. These include the ability to buy and sell items in bulk, “richer” environmental effects, and “specific uses” for all dropped items.

While Square Enix is hosting its own press conference at this year’s E3, don’t expect to see too much of Final Fantasy XV on display. We reported back in April that the publisher was expecting its “next major reveal” to take place at Gamescom later this summer instead of next week’s show. Still, Square Enix has several high-profile titles to show off this year, including Kingdom Hearts III and the recently announced Deus Ex: Mankind Divided.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Gabe Gurwin has been playing games since 1997, beginning with the N64 and the Super Nintendo. He began his journalism career…

Gaming

Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth: Queen’s Blood tips and tricks

Queen's Blood

After Fort Condor arrived in Final Fantasy 7: Remake Intergrade, you may not have expected an entirely new minigame to be introduced in Final Fantasy 7: Rebirth. However, after the opening hours, when you're let loose in Kalm, you will automatically be given your very first deck of Queen's Blood cards. While this minigame is entirely optional after you play your first game to learn the basics, you would be missing out on a ton of content and secrets, let alone fun, by ignoring it. Still, we understand if you feel you didn't sign up for a strange new card game in your Final Fantasy adventure. Plus, there is a lot more depth to the game than is properly explained. If you want to rise up the ranks and be a Queen's Blood champion, but are unsure how to start, we'll show you the ropes.
The basics

The tutorial for Queen's Blood does a decent job explaining the basic rules of Queen's Blood, but it goes by rather quickly and may leave some things a little unclear until you play a few rounds.

Gaming

PSA: Don’t burn yourself out on Final Fantasy VII Rebirth’s open-world activities

Cloud from FFVII

I'm normally a completionist when it comes to games, but I wish I had told myself to push that mindset to the side before I started Final Fantasy VII Rebirth.

I get the desire to do it all, I really do. In the critically acclaimed sequel, we're finally let loose outside of Midgar. Square Enix has laid a huge, lush set of biomes to stretch our legs in after being stuck in the cramped hallways and tunnels of the drab city. Despite most of the world activities in Rebirth being standard open-world fare (activating towers, scanning points of interest, and hunting down specific monsters), there's an undeniable novelty to doing it with Cloud and the rest of Avalanche. What I wish I had known before starting was just how easy it was to burn out on that feeling.

Gaming

The best armor in Final Fantasy 7: Rebirth

Cloud from Final Fantasy VII Rebirth.

Just like in Remake, you only have one valuable armor slot per character in Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth. Deciding on what you want to put there is more complicated than you think, since each piece of armor has multiple factors that determine how effective it will be, and you may want to prioritize different things for different characters. New armor will become available as you go deeper into the world of Gaia, and you can even make some yourself with the new Transmutation system, so comparing and contrasting them all can be a major chore. We get it, you're just a merc looking to get the job done, so let us worry about figuring out the best armors so you can just put them on and get back to the action.
The best armor in Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth
Armor in Final Fantasy 7: Rebirth have three major factors to consider when you're equipping some: the physical defense rating, magic defense rating, and Materia slots. The best armor will either focus heavily on one of these or have a strong balance of them all. Here are our picks.
Garm Bangle

The Garm Bangle is an amazing piece of physical-focused armor that becomes available once you hit the Nibel region. It has a fantastic 59 rating for regular defense, aplus a decent 28 for magic defense to keep you from being totally vulnerable to spells. Offensively, it has two pairs of linked Materia slots plus a spare, so you can still make plenty of killer magic combos for your mages.
Hades Armlet