So gaming websites can't seem to keep things on lock when it comes to this game. Yesterday game informer announced the FFXV demo in Type-0 too early, and today, IGN leaks gameplay (Mitch Dyer appears to be playing the game in the video).

Here's a direct link to the video.

Impressions as I watch the video:

• Looks better than I thought a PSP port would.
• Combat looks somewhat similar to KH / FF XV
• Weird / cinematic camera. People won't like that
• I have a feeling there will be similar criticisms of the gameplay for this as there was for KH
• What I found interesting in the FFXV E3 gameplay video was the cooperation between the characters during combat. That seemed cool and hopefully the combat in general is more fine tuned than this.
• It should be noted that we're probably seeing someone play this game for the very first time, so it might not be entirely indicative of the quality of the combat
• Shouldn't be surprised about the wide, empty-looking environments, considering the game's origins
• lol Mitch Dyer's blank face every time a loading screen comes up

Alright, let's get real for a moment here. The only reason the FFXV demo is atattched to this game is to boost its sales. It does not guarantee a 2015 release for FFXV (Japan or otherwise).

I miss when this series wasn't a bunch of action games with Final Fantasy trappings.

Also the camera seems awful.

Getting kind of a Dynasty Warriors vibe from this. Various characters with unique but simple movesets, running through big featureless environments, having people yell in your ear about the larger battle you are taking part in, narration that gives you context for the battle you are about to be in. Not really what I'm looking for from Square. Fingers crossed though.

I played the demo years ago and liked it, so I'm looking forward to this.

Really? It looks about as good as Peace Walker HD to me.

The 'psp-ness' of the environments really shows.

I haven't looked at PW HD.

@corruptedevil said:

@aegon said:

@corruptedevil said:

@aegon said:

• Looks better than I thought a PSP port would.

Really? It looks about as good as Peace Walker HD to me.

I haven't looked at PW HD.

Couldn't tell you why specifically but Type-0 looks significantly better than PW HD to my eyes. Or at least the characters do.

@euandewar: Pretty sure they've said they're using the pre-rendered cut scene models of all the characters in the HD version. The game definitely looks better than Peace Walker HD.

@euandewar said:

@corruptedevil said:

@aegon said:

@corruptedevil said:

@aegon said:

• Looks better than I thought a PSP port would.

Really? It looks about as good as Peace Walker HD to me.

I haven't looked at PW HD.

Couldn't tell you why specifically but Type-0 looks significantly better than PW HD to my eyes. Or at least the characters do.

This was off screen footage so that might have to do with some of this but two parts of the visual makeup stuck out to me.

- They are using some hardcore anti-aliasing for this game. I didn't see a single aliased edge during that entire video nor any sub-pixel shimmer that would be telling of the low quality AA methods used last generation. Might be more evident with footage captured from the screen not shot off-screen but I didn't notice any aliasing at all. That is going to make the entire game look way better than it would otherwise.

- They are also using some super-high quality motion blur. The low quality blur we saw on games last generation tended to just make things look worse a lot of the time. But the really high quality effect they are using here really adds to the cinematic look of the game.

Also worth noting this is running in 1080p vs 720p for the Peace Walker HD version and they are using very high resolution textures and maybe even a pass of tessellation as well. The fire, smoke, and other alpha effects also seemed to be rendered in full resolution/framerate although being off screen footage that was hard to tell just by eyeballing it.

I think the only thing that bothered me about the visual makeup was how segmented each area was. Obviously that was a way of getting around the super limited amount of RAM in the PSP but having to load in a new area every 10 feet is going to be a bit annoying. I guess it would have been asking a hell of a lot for them to connect each room as it would require that they add in an entire streaming system into the game or to fit every level within the RAM from the start, but that would have completely transformed the pacing of this game.

@raven10: PW HD was 1080p, MGS2 and 3 HD were 720p.

@corruptedevil: Oh. That could be true. My mistake then. Probably just the super high quality AA giving the image such a clean, sharp look then. Looking at this I wouldn't be shocked if it was straight up super-sampled. Considering each area is like 10 feet big running it at an internal 2k resolution wouldn't be a major challenge.