Square Enix Looking to Update Duscae Demo

[Andromeda]

A while back Square Enix sent out a fan survey to take in the feedback on the Final Fantasy XV demo. The results are now in and they are wanting to respond to that feedback by updating the existing demo with changes. They said that it is not something done with demos, so they have to work out with Sony and Microsoft if they'll be fine with updating it. Director Tabata said they are looking to have the work done for it by mid to late May. If they're unable to update the demo, they plan to make it available during events.

The planned changes to the demo that they have outlined are, improvements to the combat, game camera, targeting, more moves in combat, more joint attack, possibly adding dodge roll, improving range of Noctis' weapons, balancing on MP usage, perfect dodge doesn't consume MP, bug fixing like the Titan bug, but possible allowing the player to see Titan a different way, possible quests to team up with NPCs and trying to improve the framerate.

The results of the survey they went over in a live stream event touching on the big points that came out of it and responding to how they are going to change or address certain things brought up.

The 15 points that they outlined are:

The camera lock-on, the camera doesn't follow well and it was not communicated that pressing R3 has a better lock on. He said it will be fixed.

Fans felt the camera was too close and they can't see what was going on, which Tabata agreed was unacceptable. They are looking at different options, he said that might just put in a camera distance option to let players pick the range that they want.

Heavy/slow or bad camera controls, he said they're working on fixing it.

Bad AI or they get in the way, Tabata said they'll be doing more work on the AI to improve it and wanting to work on their interactions more so it feels like 4 friends together on a trip.

Framerate drops and anti-alias, he said the final game will have anti-alias on, the demo didn't have it. They are also going to be targeting 30 fps and 1080, but said framerate is more important than resolution, so they'll make cuts in resolution to hit their framerate.

The game feels slow with it trying to be realistic, Tabata says that they understand that the trailer showed faster combat and that they'll be addressing the feel to speed things up, but want to keep the immersion and weight. So it'll be a balancing act.

No mini-map or compass, he confirmed plans to add something either a mini-map/radar or compass, something to help direct players will be in the final game.

Fans want a dodge that doesn't consume MP, which Tabata said the warp dodge is a high level dodge and that there is a dodge roll, which was not able to be put into the demo. The dodge roll doesn't consume MP.

There were complaints combat was all just regening MP and hiding behind rocks. Tabata said that there will be more options available in the final game and combat will be short, so that should help with more combat variety and less MP regening. He does want it to still be strategic in MP use and have the player think about how and when to use MP.

Japanese, American and European players were divided on the difficulty of the game. Japanese players said it was too hard, while American and European players said it was too easy. Tabata said he feels the best solution will be to include a difficulty option.

The game feels monotonous, which he said with the more combat options in the final game should help to fix that feeling of doing the same thing repeatedly.

Players didn't like that there was a stamina bar for sprint, but Tabata felt that it was not a problem and noted that the speed and length you can spirit can be increased through buffs from the food.

Players wanted to cancel attacks, which seems to be something that Tabata wants very much as well, so it'll be in the final game.

And there were complaints about too many bugs.

Source: Final Fantasy XV Episide Duscae 2.0 Planned For Release This May ; What Did Fans Think Of The Final Fantasy XV: Episode Duscae Demo?