Final Fantasy VII Remake Demo Now Available for Download

Originally, Final Fantasy VII Remake was supposed to be launched tomorrow on 3 March 2020 for the PlayStation 4. If you’re not thrilled the game’s been delayed to 11 April, you’ll be happy to know that you can download the demo of the game on the PlayStation Store now.

That’s right, the demo of Final Fantasy VII Remake can now be played by the general public, and it’s quite an extensive demo. In fact, it’s much, much more elaborate than the demo we’ve played back in January, though it’s still focused in the first Mako reactor part of the story.

On top of that, the demo also includes the ability to switch modes; a feature that was missing from our demo. Basically, every character in FFVIIR have two modes. Cloud, for example, defaults to Operator mode, which can be switched to Punisher mode if you want to deal extra damage at the cost of slower attacks. This dual mode system adds more depth to the revamped combat system.

Speaking of which, the turn-based approach of the original game is now based on a real-time combat system, though there are still some turn-based elements here and there. Normal attacks and dodges can be performed with the Square and Circle buttons respectively, but any time during combat, hitting the X button summons the Commands menu.

Once you’re in this menu, you can perform a number of actions, like selecting abilities, spells, or items. Time is also slowed down quite a bit when accessing this menu, allowing you to “pause” the action. If you prefer a more fluid combat experience, you can perform pre-selected actions instantly with the L1 button instead.

Another improvement the FFVIIR demo brings lies in performance. In the demo we played through a couple of months ago, the frame rate was not consistent, the environment didn’t look like it was rendered in high resolution, and the character models were not very detailed. Well, the new demo seems to have resolved most of these issues, especially when it comes to frame rate consistency.

The Final Fantasy VII Remake demo can now be downloaded from the PlayStation Store. If you download the demo before 11 May, you can also get an “exclusive theme” on 10 April. Considering the sheer length of the demo, it should keep fans satiated until the full game is released on 11 April next month.