Final Fantasy 16 demo is out, save carries over to full game

Square Enix released a demo for FinalFantasy 16 on PlayStation 5 with the game’s prologue, with progress carried over into the final release version of the game – so you can now embark on protagonist Clive Rosfield’s epic journey, if you wish.

The prologue introduces you to Clive as he runs around in a spectacular and somewhat confusing battle between two warring factions, before looking back at Clive’s childhood as Prince of the Grand Duchy of Rosaria. During this section, you’ll learn the basics of the game’s fluid combat, take on one or two of its excellent boss fights, and experience some pretty dramatic story beats. You can retrieve your save game from the end of this prologue when the game is fully released.

I got a chance to play this prologue (and a bit further into the game) a few weeks ago and found it to have that quintessential Final Fantasy feel, despite some major changes to the series’ traditional tone and gameplay.

According to a PlayStation blog post, completing the prologue unlocks a “special battle demo” that gives you a taste of Clive’s skills later in the game. This sounds like it will be Polygon’s sampled demo earlier this year that left us in awe of the game’s combat dynamics, which have been fine-tuned by Devil may cry 5 designer Ryota Suzuki. You can’t save your progress on this portion of the demo, but you can replay it as many times as you like.

FinalFantasy 16 releases on June 22, exclusively for PlayStation 5.