Having played the Platinum Demo and Episode Duscae I figured it was time to get a little preview of the game ahead of it’s five month release period from now. Showing off different mechanics of gameplay, both the Platinum Demo and Episode Duscae shows off quite a bit of the full game within just two or so hours of gameplay. In Final Fantasy XV you play Noctis a Prince who looks to save his kingdom and regain his crown, and you control himself as well as his comrades during combat, each with their own gameplay styles.

Launching September 30th for Playstation 4 and Xbox One.

Having never played a Final Fantasy before (unless Kingdom Hears counts), due to a lack of personal interest, I was rather surprised at how quickly I began to fall for Final Fantasy XV. After it’s re-announcement from Final Fantasy Versus to Final Fantasy XV at E3, it became an almost instantaneous attraction. The new characters and gameplay peaked my interest in the new title.  So I ended up getting my hands on Episode Duscae a few months back, and the interest in the title increased even further.

Episode Duscae gameplay.

I’ll have to replay Episode Duscae to recall everything that players can do (such as being able to control the car or not), but I remember basically everything from a combat standpoint. One of the main take aways from the gameplay is that mastering the warp point is going to take some serious amount of time. It’s not particularly difficult to get the hang of, but in small areas. and in the middle of combat finding the right combination of attack, dodge, escape, and opportunity while using warp point in the middle of a huge ambush takes some serious getting used to.

The future is looking bright and big for the gold version of the game.

One of the minor annoyances is the auto healing feature. While it only goes so far, and you still will have to use potions to heal yourself, taking advantage of the auto healing feature gives you too much opportunity. While Noctis will struggle to move as the auto healing activates, it still makes things feel a tad too easy. Luckily the AI comes off as just smart enough where that won’t always be an issue.

Mastering warp point will take some time.

The overall game feels an awful lot like fan favorite Square Enix series Kingdom Hearts. So players who have experience with that series won’t have much issue getting the hang of the core gameplay as far as combat, item use, and magic are concerned. As the final game is released hopefully the minor annoyances will be taking care of or at the very least adjusted to a certain degree, but for what it is currently Final Fantasy is definitely living up to the hype as one of the top titles of 2016.