I never was the kind of guy that buys demos or prototypes, but I just decided to try and give it a shot, because why the hell not? It's fun to see how stuff was before the final product!
I bought a demo of a game that's dear to me and also because it have an awesome video on it that makes the whole thing worth it to me.
Final Fantasy VII - Square's Preview Extra w/ Siggraph 95' Works
It was an awesome experience to play this demo that was given to a few members of the japanese press before the game's release. Especially if you can put yourself in the skin of someone that's playing the demo for the first time of what later became a pillar in the history of RPGs. There's some things that are different from the final product, things that inspired me to make this thread because we could all share our knowledge about these demos of games that people love.
Here's some things I noticed while going through the demo:
-There writings during the intro, but I can't read japanese. D:
-Cloud model is a bit different. His eyes aren't the same as well.
-The Bombing Mission theme is a bit different, in fact all themes are a bit different, by this I mean some instruments used in these aren't exactly the same.
-Aeris is in the party at the beginning, probably to have a full party for the demo. I read that Tifa wasn't created yet so that could explain her presence.
-She can summon Leviathan already.
-You cannot access the menus, so the items can only be used during battles.
-Cloud and Barret are at Level 10 and Aeris is Level 9 at the beginning. You start with the three of them even at the first fight.
-The characters portraits are a bit different, Barret and Aeris are the same but uses different color palette but Cloud's pic is different, which is probably the one from Cloud's past with a different color palette as well.
EDIT: Yep, it's the same as in Cloud's Past. Though it's way more low-res in the demo.
-Can't interact with the first Soldier you kill, so you can't take the potions like the finished game since you can just go through him.
-Can't interact with Jesse nor Wedge when you want the doors open, it's like they're invisible too. You need to go face to the doors and they will open these automatically.
-There's no chest to be found.
-You cannot escape from a fight.
-The sound effect when someone uses Magic is different. Same thing applies for Aeris's Limit Break.
-There's no victory fanfare when you win a battle.
-There's some enemies you won't usually encounter during this part of the game.
-The boss isn't the Scorpion mech, these guys instead, but the robot is tougher than those we fight in the final game.
-The countdown after setting up the bomb is only 3 minutes this time and there's no countdown in the corner of the screen, you get a little blue square warning you after each minute passes instead. (Note: The sounds of Cloud setting up the bomb and the following alarm are different than in the final game as well.)
-Not only you have to save Jesse that is at a different place than usual but you also need to give a hand to Wedge who's lying on the ground at the next place, which doesn't happen in the main game. It's pretty much the only time in the game you can 'interact' with them because you simply can go walking through them for the rest of the demo as if they doesn't exist.
-Everyone look pissed, they all have mad eyebrows. It's like they have that Japanese mad Kirby cover symptom.
Finally there's that famous video that almost everyone here saw already. The FFVI Remake technical video that was supposed to show Square's potential with 3D games in the future. This is one neat thing I love to have on an official disc.
So GAF, I know there's a lot of people here that possess a lot of great historical gaming gems, share those with us a let's discuss and learn more about what the games we love today were before their release. In my case it was a nice experience, I probably will get more soon. Old school or new school. It's comparison time!
I bought a demo of a game that's dear to me and also because it have an awesome video on it that makes the whole thing worth it to me.
Final Fantasy VII - Square's Preview Extra w/ Siggraph 95' Works
It was an awesome experience to play this demo that was given to a few members of the japanese press before the game's release. Especially if you can put yourself in the skin of someone that's playing the demo for the first time of what later became a pillar in the history of RPGs. There's some things that are different from the final product, things that inspired me to make this thread because we could all share our knowledge about these demos of games that people love.
Here's some things I noticed while going through the demo:
-There writings during the intro, but I can't read japanese. D:
-Cloud model is a bit different. His eyes aren't the same as well.
-The Bombing Mission theme is a bit different, in fact all themes are a bit different, by this I mean some instruments used in these aren't exactly the same.
-Aeris is in the party at the beginning, probably to have a full party for the demo. I read that Tifa wasn't created yet so that could explain her presence.
-She can summon Leviathan already.
-You cannot access the menus, so the items can only be used during battles.
-Cloud and Barret are at Level 10 and Aeris is Level 9 at the beginning. You start with the three of them even at the first fight.
-The characters portraits are a bit different, Barret and Aeris are the same but uses different color palette but Cloud's pic is different, which is probably the one from Cloud's past with a different color palette as well.
EDIT: Yep, it's the same as in Cloud's Past. Though it's way more low-res in the demo.
-Can't interact with the first Soldier you kill, so you can't take the potions like the finished game since you can just go through him.
-Can't interact with Jesse nor Wedge when you want the doors open, it's like they're invisible too. You need to go face to the doors and they will open these automatically.
-There's no chest to be found.
-You cannot escape from a fight.
-The sound effect when someone uses Magic is different. Same thing applies for Aeris's Limit Break.
-There's no victory fanfare when you win a battle.
-There's some enemies you won't usually encounter during this part of the game.
-The boss isn't the Scorpion mech, these guys instead, but the robot is tougher than those we fight in the final game.
-The countdown after setting up the bomb is only 3 minutes this time and there's no countdown in the corner of the screen, you get a little blue square warning you after each minute passes instead. (Note: The sounds of Cloud setting up the bomb and the following alarm are different than in the final game as well.)
-Not only you have to save Jesse that is at a different place than usual but you also need to give a hand to Wedge who's lying on the ground at the next place, which doesn't happen in the main game. It's pretty much the only time in the game you can 'interact' with them because you simply can go walking through them for the rest of the demo as if they doesn't exist.
-Everyone look pissed, they all have mad eyebrows. It's like they have that Japanese mad Kirby cover symptom.
Finally there's that famous video that almost everyone here saw already. The FFVI Remake technical video that was supposed to show Square's potential with 3D games in the future. This is one neat thing I love to have on an official disc.
So GAF, I know there's a lot of people here that possess a lot of great historical gaming gems, share those with us a let's discuss and learn more about what the games we love today were before their release. In my case it was a nice experience, I probably will get more soon. Old school or new school. It's comparison time!
