Bravely Default feels less like a demo, and more like a game made as proof of concept. Now this is not to say the game feels unpolished, quite the opposite actually. It isn't like that video Squaresoft made way back when showing Final Fantasy VI characters on the technology of the N64; it is an oddly complete package that shows in full the promise of the systems contained over a longer narrative. What is even more impressive about this package is that while the systems are (from what I am guessing) abbreviated, they are by no means anything short and easy. This is a demo that requires genuine effort to get through (which in RPG terms usually means grinding), and from what I can tell, gives the player an accurate prediction of what the final product will be, while not giving any of the plot away.

That is really the key here for the Bravely Default demo; it is not a piece of the game cut up and given for free for people to try. From what the demo says at the start, and from what I have read elsewhere; the fine people at Square-Enix and Silicon Studio crafted a unique adventure for the demo. This adventure comes complete with its own story; which is a little shallow, but gets the point across. This also allows the experience to remain entirely self-contained, spoiling nothing in future play. It also has its own system of upgrades and leveling that keep the demo tightly contained. While in most longer JRPG's, going from a Long Sword to a Mythril Sword isn't often a big deal (it happens usually very quickly in most Final Fantasy games), this small, 6 hour adventure made me feel like a badass when I finally got access to those Mythril weapons. The combination of the equipment and Job Class leveling loops allows the demo to keep expectations right where they should be in terms of scale, and time reward for time invested. While I have no doubt the proper game will have an expanded loop of equipment and skills to gain, the demo does a good job of giving us just enough items and new abilities to make the time sink of grinding and using the social features worth it.

Speaking of the social features, allowing a large number of the Streetpass bonuses to carry over to the main game is probably the best reward this demo offers. It seems like the optional quest to rebuild this town to access extra supplies will be one of the more time-consuming things Bravely Default has to offer. This is especially compounded if you aren't able to amass Streetpass friends to help cut the time requirements down. By allowing us to start building a decent construction team of at most 20 going into the game when it comes out, Square is allowing us to get a big head start on the beginning of Bravely Default, which is honestly a very nice reward.

Everything about this demo can be easily summed up by a very simple statement: This demo, and the game by extension was crafted by a team of RPG veterans who have seen what works, and what doesn't over their careers. Everything in Bravely Default's very long and satisfying demo is tightly controlled and is there to show the players exactly what they will be doing, on a far larger scale when the came finally comes out in North America. More companies should take notice of what Square-Enix has done here and think about how they present demos to their players. While I am sure this isn't the first of its kind, it is the one that has resonated with me, as it seems to have for gamers everywhere. The combination of free, extra content, decent story and long-term rewards is a very enticing carrot that was dangled in front of 3DS owners. It was a great 6 hours of my time, and I hope Square remembers how fun this demo was when it comes time to make future RPG's.

-Ray Grohosky

As far as I know, Bravely Default's demo is actually a fairly lengthy side story to the main game. That is, indeed, going above and beyond what you should do for a demo, but I just can't expect that from devs considering the amount of work that already goes into a final product. When they do make that extra effort and give it away for free, I definitely appreciate it.

Demos are always a very conflicting thing to make for developers. On one side we have the people who outright hate the fact they take resource time away from the game and so try and make them as easy as possible to produce (e.g. copy and paste a level from the main game). Others hate the idea completely of any time being used on demos so don't make them (probably a reactionary one to things like E3 where historically they have been created in such a way as to misrepresent the actual game). And going by this Extra Credits video [Edit - forgot to link to it, here], there's also a feeling in the business community that demos actually reduce sales and so shouldn't be made regardless. Then there are those who realise that a demo would be really useful at getting their game out there but have to question how much to show to not spoil the game (The Stanley Parable demo is a great twist on this problem).

Nevertheless, Bravely Default's case is rather different. Since the game had already been released for a while in Japan, it isn't much more effort to make the demo for internationals as it would also coincide with their re-release/extended edition in Japan (which is a lot easier to produce than the original game). The biggest cost was the writing, adding extra things to translate could have been a difficult task to do in tandem with localising the game; however, since it was released originally many months earlier in Europe, they probably focused very hard on the localising for a week and were probably done (if I remember correctly, when it was released here it had a message saying that the demo was only in English but the final game would include European Languages - basically saying they didn't localise the demo for those languages). I did really like the demo, and the ability to move stuff across to the final game in a meaningful way is very impressive and I applaud it. I especially like how it gives you things that don't make you overpowered in the final game, when RPG demos reward you for completing it with a unique piece of armour that trumps any early game equipment it can screw up the difficulty curve (ditto for some pre-order perks) so I liked how the rewards were basic items and the ability to move over a side-game streetpass feature. The latter of which is an incredibly suave move. Knowing that I can download the demo and use it just once to start accumulating streetpass hits before the final game is a big boost to downloading the demo early. My guess is that it also works two-fold in the developers favour: it gets more people to download the demo (i.e. not forget) and it allows those that have to get attached to that profile and want to progress it.

My only gripe with the demo is its poor attempt at a tutorial. The first time I got into a battle, I died immediately as I didn't know what all these mechanics meant (my first thought was I should use Default as that made the numbers next to my guys increase - and that must be the best move right? I'll keep doing that). The game seems quick to punish failure to understand when to attack and when not to attack.

Other than that though, I would want to see other developers follow their footsteps. I know just for me, it was probably the reason that I ultimately bought the game when it came out in December, and I shadow-a-guess that I'm not the only one.

I like these types of standalone demos. They are super rare but cool, The Stanley Parable has been mentioned and that is a fantastic demo. Some of the older examples of this are Starcraft which had a mini-campaign of 4 levels (I think) that was a side story to the main game. There is also Half-Life: Uplink a standalone story with original content. Both of those demos were released well after their respective games had released.

The Front Mission 3 demo was around 5 hours in length

Bravely Default's demo is easily the best game demo I've ever played, though I will admit that I haven't played nearly as many demos as a lot of people around these parts. The demos I tend to remember the most are the absolute worst. Final Fantasy XII's highly restrictive demo was the worst I've ever played, as it did nothing to sell me on the game (which I actually ended up enjoying a whole lot). Bravely Default's demo gives the player just enough of a taste of the gameplay to get a feel for the flow of combat and customization without spoiling any of the actual story content, and provides a measure of meaningful rewards for the hours of time that the player can sink into it with some early rewards in the full game. It's an approach I wish more developers took.

The demo is very upfront in explaining that it does not have any connection to the primary story. For demo purposes, it's really meant for gameplay exclusively. Trying to give players a taste of an RPG story in the context of a game demo, and do it successfully, is not an easy task. I remember Mass Effect 2's demo failing for me in this regard.

@grantheaslip: Not tying it to the main story gives is a much cleaner ending though. While the story itself could have been fleshed out with more, even say something as basic as a "Someone has been kidnapped" thing, it is nice knowing that this demo puts a bow on itself at the end. That way the demo keeps its very optional appeal. Doesn't force players to try it lest they miss something.