On Tuesday, June 9, Square Enix will release a patch for the demo of Final Fantasy XV. A patch. For a demo. Video games!
This might be unprecedented—I can’t think of a single other demo that has been majorly patched—but nothing about Final Fantasy XV has been orthodox in any way. You can see the trailer for the new version of the FFXV demo—which now lets you fight those big ol’ beasts near the water!—at 57:55 in the video above. They’re also promising graphical enhancements, more buddy interactions, and framerate improvements.
In addition to announcing the date, FFXV director Hajime Tabata said in a pre-recorded video this morning that, as many fans had already presumed, the heroine Stella has been removed from the game. You might remember Stella from the original promotions of Final Fantasy Versus XIII back in the day—now, she’s no more, replaced by a different heroine named Luna who we’ve seen a few times in various FFXV trailers and shots. RIP Stella. We never knew you.
Also, don’t expect any FFXV at E3 this year. They’re going to do a big marketing push at Gamescom in August, where we will hopefully get a release date for this never-ending game.
You can reach the author of this post at jason@kotaku.com or on Twitter at @jasonschreier.