Started the demo last night. I'm sure it's no Elden Ring (which I'm holding off on for now), but it's definitely really fun.
The story is super disjointed, you can tell the cutscenes and NPC dialogue were created in a vacuum and just kind of tacked on. If not for the fact that the full game launches in a few days and you can transfer your demo save, I'd think there might still be some unfinished scenes that were left out and replaced with text placeholders. That said, given that it's a retelling of a pretty threadbare NES game, it's not like it needs a ton of exposition.
So far, there's an obvious timeloop at play and everyone seems to have casual amnesia, as if it's just normal in this world for everyone to forget important things. There's no explanation yet for why the Warriors of Light have out-of-time clothes and tech, but the main key art shows them standing against a modern city skyline, so I still assume it's time travel. There are also reports you find that give you extra lore, one written by a "fool" and one written by a Lufenian. One report overtly describes the Pravoka Seagrot being created by some mysterious architects based on a location in "dimension 14," so the references to other FF games are baked into the narrative.
The opening cinematic of Garland kidnapping Princess Sara and fighting Cornelia soldiers is very cool, and the only CGI I've seen so far. Likely inspired by Rogue One's Vader corridor scene. The game's visuals on PS4 are definitely handicapped. FPS mode seems to hold a consistent 60 and actually looks mostly okay during regular gameplay, but cutscenes look like they drop down to about 60% render resolution and generally look like a PC graphics mod for potato rigs. Resolution mode looks much better and seems to maintain what I assume is a very solid 30 FPS during gameplay, but cutscenes have some noticeable hitching. I assume PS5 runs like butter, because this game isn't exactly pushing the visual envelope.
As for the part that matters most: it's a damned fun game. Took me a while to get the hang of the controls since I haven't played a Soulslike since Sekiro. I started on Action (aka Normal) difficulty, then upgraded to Hard after clearing Chaos Shrine. It also has Story (aka Easy) and Casual (aka Very Easy) modes.
All the main jobs feel sufficiently unique; I haven't tried the Advanced ones yet. Every job has its own playstyle, combos, and abilities. Each has a skill tree, and similar to job unlocks in FFT, filling out skill trees for different combinations of jobs unlocks new, more powerful ones. The core loop of using combos and abilities to stagger enemies, then Soul Breaking them to restore MP, is extremely satisfying, similar to executions in Doom or zandatsu in Metal Gear Rising.
You've also got lots of defensive options, and your party members are very useful -- maybe even too useful, as you can periodically instruct them to go all out, and they'll pretty well thrash whatever you're fighting. Difficulty isn't too bad, though I play lots of character action games so I'm used to dodges and parries. The penalty for dying seems to be pretty mild, compared to Souls games; rather than losing important currency, it decreases your max MP, which is increased by doing Soul Breaks. Recovering your soul restores it, but you can also get back some bars by just fighting more monsters.
The demo itself seems to be pretty robust: I'm not sure where it cuts off, but it at least has the first three dungeons and associated side missions, and otherwise seems to be the full game. After clearing the first two dungeons you unlock all the base jobs, and it looks like you have free rein to grind all the jobs to level 30, which seems to be enough to unlock all the various advanced jobs.
Gear drops are plentiful and Diabloesque, but a bit bland; randomized effects and rarities, often with barely perceptible increases to minor stats. Hopefully it becomes more interesting as you progress deeper into the game, with perhaps unique drops to find or craft. Dismantling all the junk you pick up is also kind of annoying, even with the quick multi-select option.
Probably not grabbing this at launch since I've got other unfinished games on my plate, but definitely having enough fun to want to finish it up at some point. Part of me feels like they should have delayed this just so Elden Ring doesn't overshadow it. Maybe take six months to clean up the story sections and add in more connective tissue.
