Final Fantasy XVI Demo

Final Fantasy XVI Demo is the playable demo of Final Fantasy XVI. It was formally announced at the Final Fantasy XVI Pre-Launch Celebration event and was released worldwide on June 12, 2023 for the PlayStation 5. The Microsoft Windows version was announced on August 20, 2024 and released on the same day for Steam and the Epic Games Store.
The demo is split into two sections, the first consisting of a Playable Prologue which features the first 2 hours of gameplay and story of the full game, detailing the origins of Clive Rosfield during his younger years in Rosaria and allowing cleared savedata to be carried over to the main game.
After finishing the Playable Prologue, players will unlock the Eikonic Challenge, a two hours action-heavy segment detailing the action combat aspect of the game by granting a full suite of Eikonic abilities for gameplay. This part of the demo is set around Clive, Torgal and Cidolfus Telamon infiltrating a fort at night where the players encounter various enemies and bosses.
== Specifications ==
== Story ==
=== Playable Prologue ===
In the year of the realm 873, a group of imperial Bearer assassins known as "The Basterds", consisting of sergeant Tiamat and members Biast, Aevis and Wyvern, were given the order to retrieve Shiva's Dominant in The Nysa Defile as a war raged in the Dhalmekia between the Ironbloods from the Iron Kingdom and the Republican Army Front Lines of Dhalmekia.
Elsewhere in The Zirnitra Stronghold, the Dhalmekian Chief Strategist and the Prime Minister held a meeting with the King of Waloed Barnabas Tharmr, it's Lord Commander and Waloed's Intelligencer Benedikta Harman in order to request its support for the war against the Iron Kingdom. Barnabas rejected the plea, with Benedikta noting that their forces had once successfully held back the Crusaders in the Battle of the Twin Realms, as well as the fact the Dhalmekian Dominant Hugo Kupka had yet to participate in the battle, reasoning that it would only bring them unnecessary casualties if he joins the bloody field. Hugo left the meeting to participate in the battle with Benedikta chasing after, the two engaging in a secret liaison.
Back in the field, the Basterds moved onward with their objective until Titan disrupted their movement and confronted the newly emerged Shiva. The clash between the two eikons destabilized the ground and separated Biast and Wyvern from the others. As the battle grew fiercer, rock debris ws scattered around the area. The two attempted to get away from the conflict only for the debris to crush and kill Biast and leave Wyvern on the verge of unconsciousness. Tiamat soon found him afterwards and dragged him to safety. As he fades out, Wyvern recalled his past.
Thirteen years prior, a 15-year old Clive Rosfield, his younger brother Joshua Rosfield and ward Jill Warrick resided in the castle of Rosalith in The Grand Duchy of Rosaria along with his father and ruler Elwin Rosfield and Duchess Anabella Rosfield. Rosaria housed the Phoenix, Eikon of Fire, with Joshua its Dominant. 
Clive, having been passed over for the Phoenix, had instead trained his sword and magic skills with Lord Commander Rodney Murdoch in order to become Joshua's First Shield. After a sparring session with his mentor, the group received word that Lord Elwin had returned from his expedition. Anabella picked Joshua up from the training field to present himself, the Duchess showing disgust and contempt to her firstborn son due to him being rejected by the Phoenix.
The people of Rosaria greeted the archduke's safe return and the latter asked Clive to come see him due to evolving situations outside the kingdom. Inside the throne room, Elwin informed Clive of the Blight's reach on the northern territories, emcroaching near the border of Rosaria with refugees from the deadlands fleeing to the capital to seek shelter. Elwin planned to fight against the Iron Kingdom and secure Drake's Breath in order to use the Mothercrystal to defend their realm from the Blight's spread and intended to ride to Phoenix Gate to listen to the words of their ancestors in the Apodytery before going to war. Clive was ordered by Elwin to go to Stillwind Marsh where sightings of Northern beastmen were reported in order to clear them out and assigned him Sirs Wade and Tyler to aid before he joined the main company at Phoenix Gate.
At night, Elwin and Anabella discussed of the necessities of bringing Joshua to Phoenix Gate, the former informing her that only the dominant can enter the Apodytery to preform rites before marching into war and reassured her that Clive will be watching over him as his Shield. Anabella expressed further disgust of her firstborn and her view that he had disgraced the bloodline by not becoming the Phoenix. Elwin was taken aback by her claims and announces that men like Clive had been preserving their lives from gracing the gutter much to her fury dismay. Elsewhere, Jill met with Clive, who announced to her of his first given mission, and prayed for his safe return. The two confide that he will be in a war much bigger than the previous but Jill is confident in his safe return. The two retire for the night.
The next morning, Elwin and Joshua departed for Phoenix Gate while Clive, Wade and Tyler headed for Stillwind where they encountered several Goblins within the area and defeat a brute Gigas. Before they could kill the Goblin leader, it was swallowed whole by a Morbol much to the shock of the trio. They managed to slay the creature and set out for Phoenix Gate before nightfall. Sometime later, the Shields threw a celebration feast in which Joshua questioned his father why their family always held the power of Phoenix. Elwin answered that their family is chosen to share the power of the crystals with the people of Rosaria and continue to do so as part of their duty. Joshua left and met Clive who had been abstaining from the feast, and confidef his insecurity of his lack of ability as a leader and that the power of the dominant should have been Clive's to wield. Clive comforted him in that their duty was decided by their ancestors long before with Joshua's duty in protecting Rosaria and its people and Clive's to be his Shield and protector in keeping him safe. They then retire for the night. Meanwhile, outside the castle, soldiers not loyal to Rosaria secretly infiltrated Phoenix Gate, murdered the garrison and set the castle alight.
Joshua awoke to the smell of the smoke with Wade rushing to his chambers and escorting him to safety. Along the way, they fended off assasins and discovered they wear garb belonging to the Holy Empire of Sanbreque much to their confusion as the two nations were allied. Wade and Joshua came across a mortally injured Tyler and was reunited with Clive, Lord Commander Murdoch and Archduke Elwin. Joshua used his ability to heal Tyler and Clive usherd his father to escort Joshua to the rear gate and make their escape alongside Wade and Tyler, while he and Murdoch stayed behind to hold off Imperial Soldiers, killing an Imperial Dragoon in the process. Discovering that sashes, which were issued the day before in Rosalith, were on their person, Clive and Murdoch coclude that the assasins had been amongst their number and rush to Joshua's location. Before they go, Clive spotted a hooded man whispering something before vanishing.
At the rear gate, Elwin ordered his remaining men to escort Joshua safely back to Rosalith but the chocobo is slain, revealing that they were also assasins. Elwin tried to protect Joshua but was decapitated by a rogue soldier, the sight of which caused Joshua tolose control and transforms into Phoenix, accidentally incinerating Wade and Tyler in the process. Clive and Murdoch witnessed the Eiko nemereging, with Clive rushing in to help him but was saved by his chocobo Ambrosia from rock debris though she herself was injured as a result. Clive orders Murdoch to help her run away. As he attemptde to head to Pheonix again, Clive was struck by a powerful headache and collapsed to the ground. Before losing consciousness he saw a vision of an unknown flaming figure.
Suddenly, a similar burst of flame that accompanied Phoenix's transformation occured, and a second Eikon of Fire made it's presence known, incinerating Murdoch in the process. The two Eikons battled each other, Joshua gaining control of himself in the process, reaching to the Apodytery before the unknown Eikon unleashed an attack and incapacitated Phoenix who was beaten to death, seemingly killing Joshua in the process.
The next morning, more Sanbrequiane forces arrived at the ruins of Phoenix Gate with Joshua no where to be found, considered dead. Anabella arrives at the scene and is desponded of the news, having been the mastermind behind the betrayal of her family and Rosaria in exchange for a high place in the world the Emperor was looking to create. The forces discovered an unconscious Clive who had somehow survived the carnage, much to Anabella's surprise and disappointment. She initially ordered the imperial soldiers to kill him but decided to instead have him enslaved as a front line soldier for the Imperial Army of Sanbreque, remembering her late husband's praise of his skill. Clive retained enough awareness to realize that Joshua was dead before blacking out.
=== Special Battle Demo ===
13 years after Phoenix Gate is raided by the Sanbreque, Clive earns his freedom from a man named Cidolfus Telamon and reunites with Torgal. Together, they ventured to an ancient stronghold Caer Norvent where Joshua's supposed killer is held by an elite party of Waloed knights commanded by Benedikta.
In Headwind on Caer Norvent, an knight named Gerulf informs Benedikta that one of their sentries fails to make a report with the latter orders to lead Cid and his party to the chapel. Meanwhile, Cid, Clive and Torgal ventures through the stronghold and fights through forces of Waloed. The trio ends up in the chapel where they encounters Benedikta. She pleads Cid to return back to Waloed and serve alongside her in building a new world that Barnabas imagined but rejects due to his twisted visions much to her anger as Cid questions her moral change and realizes her inner conflict. Realizing that he is still not the person she used to know as Lord Commander, Benedikta uses her dominant power as Cid does so as well and gestures Clive to stay out of their conflict. The two engages in battle only for Cid to be incapacitated from her attacks and Benedikta orders Suparna and Chirada to finish them off. Clive successfully defeat them and rushes to aid Cid who tells him to leave him behind and chase after her.
Clive and Torgal chases after Benedikta and reach to the top of the stronghold who offers to shelter Clive due to his rare skills but the former demands the location of the dominant. Benedikta fends and fights off against the pair with Clive emerging victorious much to Benedikta's confusion and anger. Cid recovers and arrives at the top who Benedikta is surprised at his survival from her attack. Clive intends to interrogate her but instead harness the dominant power and starts to suffer painful attacks much to all of their confusion with a mysterious voice utters "There you are".
== Gameplay ==
=== Controls ===
General movement is controlled with the left analogue stick. Camera movement is controlled with the right analogue stick, thought there is automatic tracking. Three control schemes are available to be freely changed between, the commonality is that there is a dedicated jump button, a dedicated melee atack button and a dedicated magic attack button. The last of the right hand face buttons is dedicated to the special ability of the currently selected eikon. The left directional button is used to swap between the items menu and the Torgal command menu, while the remaining directional buttons are used to select items or issue commands to Torgal. By default, the left shoulder button is used to swap between the equipped Eikons, while the right shoulder button is used for evasion. The right bumper is used to interact with environmental features, while holding the left bumper switches the attack menu to the Eikon abilities, which can be utlised with the face buttons.
=== Scenario ===
=== Battle system ===
Through combat, the player can earn ability points. These ability points can be spent on the skill tree to unlock more moves for Clive or unlock more Eikonic Feats. Eikonic Feats that are mastered can subsequently be equipped to other Eikons and be utilised when those Eikons are selected. Each Equipped Eikon can use up to 2 abilities.
== Musical themes ==
== Development ==
== Reception ==
The demo was well received by fans and critics alike. Sales of the game increased after the demo's release.
== Gallery ==
File:Final Fantasy XVI - Demo - Playable Prologue slide.png|Pre-Launch Celebration - Slide 1
File:Final Fantasy XVI - Demo - Special Battle Demo slide.png|Pre-Launch Celebration - Slide 2
File:Final Fantasy XVI - Demo - Menu Screen.jpeg|Menu Screen
File:Final Fantasy XVI - Demo - End.jpeg|Demo End
== External links ==
Playstation Blog - Final Fantasy XVI demo
Demo Announcement Trailer
Category:Demos
Category:Final Fantasy XVI