Final Fantasy VII - Demo #2: Playstation Underground #2 Disc (1997)

This is the second demo of the Playstation version of FFVII and it came along with the Playstation Underground magazine in 1997. It's much closer to the finished game than the Tobal No. 1 demo, but there are still some significant differences. This video contains a full playthrough of the demo and it was played on an actual console. I bought it on eBay two weeks ago.

The demo covers the beginning of the game up to the point where the first reactor blows up, but let's talk about the disc first. The first thing you will notice is that "Descendant of Shinobi" plays in the menu, which I must say is an interesting choice. It also contains video previews of FF Tactics and SaGa Frontier, as well as a playable demo of Bushido Blade. Maybe I'll do a video on that too. Never played it before. Anyway, it's FFVII we're interested in this time, so the first thing we'll check out is the controls screen. Here, you can test various stuff with Cloud and Barret. Not very useful, but certainly a curiosity. "Stolen Materia" plays here, so I'm sensing a plot here.

Onto the demo itself. Unlike the Tobal demo, there's no text in the intro video, so you can just skip to 3:50, where the game begins. The first thing you might notice is that there is no menu, so you can forget about changing the battle speed and field message speed. The guards carry Potions like in the finished game, so pick them up and enter the first battle where you will notice several major differences from the finished game.

First of all, Tifa is in the party unlike the Tobal demo where you have Aerith. As most FFVII players know, Cloud is easily able to OHKO these guys, but that's not gonna happen here unless you get a critical hit. They usually have 30 HP, but it's probably 60 here. In fact, most enemies seem to have twice their normal HP. Speaking of HP, you also have a lot more of it yourself, and even more than in the Tobal demo, but the most remarkable thing here is the shitload of MP. Once the battle is over, Cloud and Tifa's levels are revealed to be 6 and 2, and the EXP requirements seem to be correct.

Outside of battle, things are pretty much normal, except that Cloud is already named Cloud from the beginning and you don't get an option to name him and Barret. Like in the Tobal demo, Barret will not tell you about the controls, but unlike the Tobal demo, Jessie will tell you how to use ladders. However, unlike the full game where the brackets are purple, it's all white text here. The save point is also absent. I didn't notice much different in the dialog, except that Barret certainly doesn't say "foo" in the full game. You can see this at 14:10.

Attacks, limit breaks, spells and items all seem normal, but you certainly come armed to the teeth here. Cloud's got Life2, Ice3 and Bolt3=All, Barret's got Ifrit and Titan and Tifa has Cure3 and goddamn Neo Bahamut! Now that's something. I guess that explains the very high MP.

Well, there you have it. I probably forgot a couple of things, so just shout out if you notice anything out of the ordinary that I didn't point out. And yes, I will do the Tobal demo as well, even though it's already all over Youtube.