Final Fantasy XIII demo The only playable " Final Fantasy XIII " demo that was released to the public was bundled Japan - exclusively with the " " . The " Final Fantasy XIII " demo takes as much as 5 . 09GB of space on the blu - ray disc , which may be why it or any other playable demo was never released outside of Japan as a download - only feature , although Square Enix considered this at some point . Square Enix ' s Yoshinori Kitase once commented , " We are thinking of providing it in a downloadable format . If we were to provide the demo overseas , it would be a completely new version . " Demo . The Japanese demo takes place at Hanging Edge and is about one hour of gameplay . The demo starts at the Purge train , with Lightning and Sazh escaping and fighting the first boss that works as a battle system tutorial . The demo follows Lightning and Sazh until it comes time to switch perspective to Snow who hires the Purge deportees to fight for NORA and Nora Estheim joins his side , leaving her son behind . The demo ends where Nora falls from Snow ' s grip and they bring the Pulse Vestige into the Hanging Edge . Vanille watches on and her narrator ' s voice says it is the Pulse fal ' Cie . Gameplay . The demo differs slightly from the final game . In the final game the character executes the command chain as soon as the ATB gauge is full , although the player can execute the commands early by the press of . In the demo , the character will not act until the player presses , even if their ATB gauge is full . There is no Auto - Battle option , the player must select every command separately . Lightning starts with three ATB segments , and unlike in the final game , already possesses spells and special moves , but notably , can ' t use items . Lightning has both Fire and Cure in her arsenal that she can use in one turn - the demo has no paradigm system so no classification between Ravager or Medic ; the player can execute all the skills in their arsenal in any order . Lightning is associated with Fire spells , whereas Snow uses Blizzard . The chain gauge is called simply " Bonus " , and enemies stagger once the player has chained enough hits , rather than by trying to fill the gauge up . The battle results is also different in the demo , showing the familiar star rating and elapsed time , but also the number of " maximum chain " the player managed during the battle . The " bonus " and " chain " were merged into a single entity in the final game . Also , the " Retry " option doesn ' t exist in the demo : If the player gets a Game Over they end up back at the title screen . Visual differences to the final game . The back of Snow ' s coat is blank , unlike in the final game , where a different emblem appears on his coat during battle depending on which weapon he is equipped with . Also during battle , the chain gauge doesn ' t sit permanently in the corner of the screen , but disappears if the player is doing something else than attacking the enemy . In the demo , Yuj uses a completely different character model than in the final game , and instead , a regular NPC takes his place . The Battle Results screen looks different in the demo , and displays the highest chain achieved during battle . Development . The " Final Fantasy XIII " demo was actually an important turning point in the whole game ' s development , as it marked the point the development team finalized the game ' s battle system and visuals . The game ' s development was ridden with numerous problems , with lack of communication between different sections and the failure to set up an international focus group in time to actually implement the global players ' feedback during the game development . In fact , according to the October 2010 issue of " Game Developer " magazine the game didn ' t fully come together until the team was tasked with creating a playable demo to be included with " Final Fantasy VII : Advent Children Complete " . Interestingly , no playable data on the game existed before the demo was created , despite the late stage in development . The team hadn ' t originally planned on creating a demo , but once having been commissioned to create one for the " Advent Children " release , the team had to accommodate it into their schedule . The demo finally realized the game in a way which unified the team , and allowed the development process to move forward from the stand - still it had been in before .