A demo forPersona 3 Reloadjust went live on PlayStation and Xbox. It’s been over a year since the game launched, so it feels a little bit late to the party, if you ask me. Better late than never, though, I suppose.
What’s interesting about the demo wasn’t its tardiness but the patternAtlushas displayed when it comes to its game demos. Atlus has cracked the code on what makes a good demo for its brand oflengthy JRPGs, regardless of how late some of the demos can be.
A New Age Of Video Game Demos
It’s become a common strategy for publishers torelease the first 30 minutes or so of a game as a demoso that players can get a feel for the hook of the story and what the primary mechanics are. Sometimes, the demos can last longer, depending on how quickly a player gets the hang of the systems, but usually, they’re pretty quick. The best part is that since it’s just the opening of the game, your save data will usually carry over, and you won’t have to replay the first bit once the full game comes out.
The Stellar Blade democomes to mind as a relatively recent example. The demo is the first 45 minutes of the game, showing off a few boss fights and about a quarter of the first level after the tutorial. It’s a great appetizer for what’s to come with the rest of the game, and after playing it, most people will know if they want to purchase the full game or not.
Things get a little trickier when making a demo for games that have slower starts,like many of Atlus’ titles. Because games like Persona 3 Reload orMetaphor: ReFantaziodon’t get to the real meat of the experience until many hours in, giving a player a 45-minute demo won’t be helpful. Over the last few years, however, Atlus has started releasing demos for its biggest titles that can last nearly five hours.
That is the best way to handle demos for games like the ones in Atlus’ catalog. This way, players are given a substantial amount of content to explore while still understanding that they’re just beginning to scratch the surface of a hundred-hour experience. With Persona 3 Reload, players are given more than a month of in-game time to start getting the feel for the social link system, the combat, Tartarus, the calendar system, andjust about everything else that the game has to offer.
Atlus Has The Best Demos
The studio has done the same thing with Metaphor: ReFantazio andShin Megami Tensei 5: Vengeance. Atlus seems to know that a 30-minute chunk of Persona isn’t going to sell someone on the game, so it just goes for it and hands players the reins for a while, giving them the timeto really soak in the game’s systems and vibes.
I hope that this becomes the norm for Atlus since everyone I’ve talked to about the demos has had a really positive experience with them. A friend of mine who didn’t seem particularly interested in Metaphor: ReFantazio gave the demo a shot since it was free and ended up buying the full game and sinking over 60 hours into it. Obviously, this sort of story isn’t an isolated incident since Atlus seems keen on doing these sorts of demos for its biggest releases, which can only benefit them going forward–especially with the ever-increasing price of games.
All that said, I do have one note for Atlus: demos typically release before the game launches, not 14 months after. Maybe write that one down.
