Tailing the Truth

1. The Prologue

The game begins before the story does. It opens on a war between magic and machines, told as a pixel-art cinematic, and works the tutorial into that action. You play that prologue as a mysterious woman the game calls the Archwitch. Only then does it jump to the present.

• 1

  The opening movie — 3D rendered as pixels

  Square Enix's PlayStation Blog post says the opening movie and the game's other cinematics are made by rendering 3D CG in pixel form, for dynamic shots that keep the look of pixel art. Director Hiroto Furuya, interviewed the day after the demo came out, picked the opening cutscene — an armoured man and a mysterious mage fighting each other — as one of the most representative battle sequences in the game and one of the hardest to build: the pixels were re-placed and re-angled for the moments the weapons clash, and the effects, the sound and the background were synced down to the millisecond.

• 2

  Three tutorial fights

  The prologue is three scripted battles against enemies far above anything you will meet in chapter 1, and the game tells you what to press in each. First a pair of soldiers with a Shock Trooper, to learn the turn order. Then two Magitek Armors, where Thundaga is the only spell allowed, to learn elemental weaknesses; a Cutting Edge Magitek Weapon joins once they fall, and a Limit Burst finishes it. Last, an Iron Giant, weak to Lightning, where the battle has you summon Bahamut. Nothing here can be lost: you only have to follow the prompts.

  • What it teaches, in order: turn order, elemental weaknesses, Multicasting (one spell spread over several targets), Limit Bursts and summoning an Esper.
  • How to get through fast: Thundaga on everything, and Bahamut when the prompt appears.

2. Grandshelt and the Earth Shrine

The present day, and the premise of the whole game. The first objective is to leave Grandshelt Castle, and the second is to investigate the Earth Shrine, the first dungeon.

• 1

  Rain, Lasswell and their orders

  The story snaps to the present in Grandshelt and introduces Rain, an airship commander, as the protagonist: he commands the airship squadron of Grandshelt, the Kingdom of Knights, a land blessed by the power of the crystals. Lasswell goes with him: his childhood best friend, who, as the Story page notes, was orphaned and raised by Rain's family. The errand is a royal decree to investigate the waning barrier of the Earth Shrine. There is nothing else to do in the castle yet, so head out.

  • Where you are going: the Earth Shrine.
  • Why: a royal decree to investigate its waning barrier.
• 2

  The first choice — a stat for Rain

  At the shrine's entrance Lasswell asks how Rain wants to go in, and the three answers each give Rain a permanent bonus. It is the first of several conversations like this through the game, so do not skip cutscenes blindly. Rain is the party's defender, which is why the defensive answers are the usual advice.

  • "I'll take point. Follow my lead." +3 Strength.
  • "We're only here to check that everything is in order…" +3 Stamina.
  • "Cohesion is key…" +3 Spirit.
• 3

  The Earth Shrine — the first dungeon

  Open the two chests at the entrance and go in. An interviewer who had played the demo put the change to the director: in Brave Exvius the starting dungeon was also the Earth Shrine, and there it was a series of fights leading up to a boss; in Resonance it is an area to explore, with random encounters and treasure chests to find. Furuya answered that the level design was built from scratch, because progressing through dungeons and finding hidden paths to treasure chests is part of what makes an RPG fun. Explore it: among its chests are two Flame Scroll I, which throw Fire damage, and a Nodachi sword for Lasswell. Keep the scrolls for the boss at the bottom.

• 4

  Boss: Belmodar

  Belmodar guards the chamber of the Earth Crystal at the bottom of the shrine. It is level 4 with 2,000 HP and weak to Fire and Dark. Rain's sword does little against its hide, so have Rain cast Fire on every turn and let Lasswell throw the Flame Scrolls, which take big bites out of its stagger gauge.

  • Weak to: Fire and Dark.
  • Bring: Rain's Fire and the Flame Scrolls from the shrine's chests.
• 5

  The Earth Crystal — and Fina

  This is the premise: at the shrine the pair run into Veritas of the Dark, a mysterious warrior in pitch-black armour, who shatters the Earth Crystal. Fina is a girl who emerges from the Earth Crystal with no memory, skilled in white magic and archery, and able to summon Espers into battle. She is the one who does the rescuing: when the crystal shatters, a mysterious girl carries Rain and Lasswell out of the shrine, and later in the chapter she saves them again before she gives her name. The attack on the shrine is the work of the Sworn Six of Paladia, and the trio's goal from then on is to track the Sworn Six down and stop them.

3. Mitra and the First Visions

Three objectives in a row: go to the town of Mitra, go to Rain's house, investigate Rain's house. Leaving the shrine puts you on the overworld map for the first time; Mitra is a short walk south.

• 1

  The town of Mitra

  Rain's home town is the first one on the route with shops: an inn, and merchants for items, weapons, armour and accessories. Rain's house is the one with the blue roof at the back of town. The postbox in front of the inn is where the pre-order and edition bonuses are claimed, as section 9 explains.

• 2

  Tronn and Leah

  A door Rain was never allowed through as a child leads to a tunnel and a portal. On the other side, the Will of Light lets Rain and Lasswell touch two Vision Crystals, and you come out with two Visions at once: Tronn, a Black Mage, and Leah, a White Mage. The next objective is simply to equip a Vision, and the game's tutorial explains how.

  • Who wears which: Leah on Rain and Tronn on Lasswell is what all three walkthroughs we read recommend. Tronn's offensive magic suits Lasswell, the party's breaker, and Leah's Light spell Banish pays off against the next boss.
  • Later: nothing is locked in. When Fina joins, Leah suits her, a healer like Leah.

4. Grandshelt Under Attack

The objectives: go to Grandshelt Castle, then save the King of Grandshelt. The way back runs south and east from Mitra. The castle you find is burning, and the inside is now a dungeon of its own.

• 1

  The castle in flames

  Buy what you need from the soldiers outside before you go in. The castle is full of undead, and undead are hurt by restorative items: a Potion or a Phoenix Down thrown at a skeleton damages it, and a Phoenix Down can finish one outright. The skeletons are also weak to Fire and Light. Charlotte fights beside you as a guest until the boss is beaten. Explore as you go: you will not be back inside for a while.

• 2

  Boss: Hell's Rider and three Dark Skeletons

  Near the throne room a mounted enemy blocks the stairs. Hell's Rider is level 6 with 4,000 HP and weak to Ice and Light; the Dark Skeletons with it share the undead weaknesses. Lasswell's Ice skills and Leah's Banish on Rain do the damage, and Tronn's Resonance, Hibernal Fury, is a volley of Ice that suits this fight. Clear the skeletons first: a Phoenix Down drops one at once.

  • Weak to: Ice and Light (Hell's Rider); Fire, Light and restorative items (the skeletons).
  • Bring: Lasswell's Ice, Leah's Banish, Phoenix Downs.
• 3

  The king, and a fight you cannot win

  You reach the king wounded but alive and take him out to the courtyard. There the man in black armour from the shrine is waiting: Umbra, one of the Sworn Six of Paladia. The fight that follows is scripted to end in defeat, so spend nothing on it. Rain returns to find Grandshelt under attack by the same man, manages to rescue the king, and then sets out to protect the remaining crystals; he and Lasswell have failed to protect their home kingdom, their allies and the crystal that protected them. It comes straight after the shrine and a stop in Rain's home town of Mitra, and it is here, once Umbra's fight is over, that the girl from the shrine steps in and gives her name, Fina; she joins the party as you leave the city.

• 4

  The capital, the first side quest, and Fina

  The story moves to the inn in the town around the castle, where Charlotte marks the Sanctums of Light, where more Visions wait, on your map, and the party settles on Felicitas as the next stop. Before you leave, the capital's merchants have the next weapon upgrades, and the courtyard has the first side quest, Dream of an Idealist. As you leave the city, Fina catches up and joins the party: a ranged fighter with healing magic.

5. Kol, Felicitas and the Kolobos Ruins

The objectives send you to Felicitas, then on to the Village of Kol for chocobos, back to Felicitas, and into the Kolobos Ruins to look for Emma's mother. The map opens up here, with overworld travel between towns on chocobo-back and three Sanctums of Light within reach.

• 1

  The Village of Kol and the chocobos

  Kol is west across a bridge and into the desert. Stay the night at its inn, and the next morning you rent a chocobo; obtaining it earns the trophy Kweh!. The chocobo is more than a faster mount. On the desert road an Antlion waits in a sinkhole, a level-20 fight far above the chapter's level, and it only catches you on foot: ride across. Scott, from the Grandshelt side quest, is in Kol.

• 2

  The Warrior of Light, Cloud and Terra

  The first Sanctum of Light is just north of Kol. Inside, the Will of Light asks three questions about the hero in the crystal, and there are no wrong answers. It gives you the Warrior of Light, the usual pick for Rain; Leah can then pass to Fina. Two more Sanctums on this landmass hold Cloud and Terra, and they are worth collecting before Siren's Tower: Cloud's Lightning skills and his Resonance are what the chapter's last boss is weak to.

• 3

  Emma and Felicitas

  South of Kol you find a girl, Emma, surrounded by goblins; beat them and she leads you to Felicitas, the mining town where she lives. Her mother went into the nearby Kolobos Ruins with a survey team that never came back. In Felicitas, take the side quest Secrets Unearthed from the scholar Chloe: it is done in the Kolobos Ruins, and its reward includes a set of Monk's Prayer Beads, which stop Charm — the thing Siren does at the end of the chapter.

• 4

  Boss: The Hunger, twice

  At the bottom of the ruins The Hunger is fought twice in a row, and its weakness changes. The first time it is level 9 with 2,500 HP and weak to Ice: Lasswell's and Tronn's Ice spells. Then it comes back stronger with two soldiers beside it, and this time it and its escorts are weak to Light: Fina's and Leah's Light magic. Do not spend everything in the first round, and clear the escorts first in the second.

  • Weak to: Ice (first fight), Light (second fight, escorts included).
  • Bring: Ethers; there is no break between the two fights.
• 5

  Emma's mother

  Emma's story is part of the main path, not a side quest. The man behind the experiments in the ruins, Dr. Lazarov, tells the party the Sworn Six have already moved on to the continent of Dirnado to destroy the next crystal. Past the fights, a crystal on a broken bridge shows Emma an image of her mother, who has died; the survivors of the survey team are rescued and brought back to Felicitas. The next objective is to find a ship in Grandport.

6. Grandport and Siren's Tower

The last three objectives: find a ship in Grandport, visit Siren, and ride the ship out of Grandport.

• 1

  Grandport Harbor

  The port has two side quests: The Weight of Mercy, which sends you back to Felicitas and the Kolobos Ruins, and Rear Support, Ahoy!, from Zile at the docks. The ship's captain will not sail: the sea is too rough since Siren stopped singing, and her tower stands north of the town.

• 2

  Siren's Tower and Gilgamesh

  Fina hears Siren's voice and the doors open. On the way up, one chest holds Monk's Prayer Beads: pick them up. About halfway, another chest holds the Genji Gloves, and opening it brings Gilgamesh down on you. The fight is a joke at your expense: he always flees, and once he is hurt enough he steals the Genji Gloves and leaves. You cannot keep them here, so spend little on him.

• 3

  Boss: Siren

  At the top, Siren tests the party before she will help. She is level 11 with 20,000 HP, the hardest fight of the chapter. She is weak to Lightning and hits with Water; her dangerous move charms your party members, who then attack each other. Equip the Monk's Prayer Beads before you go up, cast Shell, and put Lightning into her stagger gauge: Tronn's, the Warrior of Light's and Cloud's skills, and Cloud's Resonance once she is staggered.

  • Weak to: Lightning.
  • Bring: Monk's Prayer Beads against Charm, and Lightning skills from your Visions.
  • Reward: Siren joins as your first Esper, summoned by Fina.
• 4

  A choice for Fina, and the Moogle of Light

  After the fight, a third dialogue choice gives Fina a permanent bonus: +10 MP, +3 Stamina or +3 Spirit. Back in Grandport, the Moogle of Light appears: from now on it uses Magicite to unlock stronger abilities for your Visions.

• 5

  The ship, and the end of the chapter

  Before boarding, finish what you want on this landmass: the side quests, the Tablet Shards, the optional fights in section 7. Talking to the captain ends the chapter, and the demo with it. The king and Charlotte see the party off, and Emma runs after the ship. Chapter 2, Eternal Blue, opens on Dirnado.

7. Side Quests, Optional Fights and Trophies

What the chapter offers off the main path, and the trophies that come with it. The optional Sephiroth fight is covered here too, because it is not in this chapter.

• 1

  The four side quests

  Chapter 1 has four sub quests, all on this landmass. Each one is shown with an exclamation mark over the person who gives it.

  • Dream of an Idealist — Grandshelt, continued with Scott in Kol. Reward: a Flamberge and 500 gil.
  • Secrets Unearthed — Chloe in Felicitas; done in the Kolobos Ruins. Reward: a Magicite Shard and Monk's Prayer Beads.
  • The Weight of Mercy — Grandport; takes you back to Felicitas and the ruins. Reward: an Iwakirimaru and 500 gil.
  • Rear Support, Ahoy! — Zile at the Grandport docks. Reward: a Magicite Shard and 500 gil.
• 2

  The stories behind them

  Producer Keisuke Nakashima has said that players of the demo may have seen the side quests for Rain and Lasswell, and that the full game has the same kind for Nichol, Jake and Lid, telling their pasts and how their relationships change — things the mobile game never showed. PowerPyx's launch guide places Rain's and Lasswell's character substories much later, Lasswell's in chapter 7 and Rain's in chapter 8, which does not match Nakashima's remark about the demo. One hands-on report singles out two stories from the demo as tearjerkers: Scott's side quest, in which the airship engineer decides to step away from the airship squadron, and Emma, who longs for her mother — hers is part of the main story, at the Kolobos Ruins, not a side quest. Side quests and extra exploration take one to two hours on top of three to four of main story. Square Enix's PlayStation Blog post names side quests as one of the ways Espers are unlocked; chapter one's only Esper, Siren, comes with the story instead.

• 3

  Optional fights, Tablet Shards and the Oblivion Palace

  Two fights here are optional and above the chapter's level. The Antlion on the desert road is level 20, and riding a chocobo avoids it. The Marauder, in a cave north of Grandport, is a level-15 superboss weak to Wind, which makes Siren's Wind useful against it; you can always come back for it later. The golden sparkles on the ground are Tablet Shards. They are handed in to the Enigmatic Princess at the Oblivion Palace, near Grandport, for chests of items; no objective points you there, but you can visit it in this chapter.

• 4

  Sephiroth — not in this chapter

  Square Enix's own announcements — the press release and the PlayStation Blog post — said players would be able to find and challenge Sephiroth in the hope of unlocking a special reward, and they said it of the game, not the demo. The launch guides agree: the fight opens in chapter 5, once the party has an airship, so a pre-launch report that placed it in the demo was wrong. The special reward is Sephiroth himself, as a Vision: he is the one Vision won in battle rather than at a Sanctum.

• 5

  The trophies of chapter 1

  The trophy list counts eight chapters, each with a trophy for clearing it; chapter 1's is A Journey Begins. Kweh!, for obtaining a chocobo, comes at Kol. Princess's Reward, for the first reward at the Oblivion Palace, can also come in this chapter if you hand in Tablet Shards there. Only Conscience Renewed is disputed as missable, and the trophy tracker has the full list. No source says whether A Journey Begins can be earned in the demo, or whether it unlocks when the save is loaded into the full game. Most of the hands-on previews before the demo were set further on: one was in chapter two, named there as Eternal Blue, at the Wind Shrine, with Lid in the party.

8. The Free Demo and What It Teaches

Square Enix's PlayStation Blog post sums the demo up as the opening chapter of the story together with the evolved turn-based command battle system, and sets that system out part by part. This is its list, with what the people who played add to it. The Gameplay page covers the parts the demo does not reach.

• 1

  The timeline

  A bar across the top of the screen showing who acts next — allies and enemies alike — through the next turn, with characters taking their turns from left to right (PlayStation Blog). Everything else hangs off it: the same post says the key to battle strategy is watching the timeline to know when to stagger.

• 2

  The stagger gauge

  It sits under every enemy's HP bar. Empty it and the enemy is staggered: it loses its turn and its defence drops (PlayStation Blog). One preview adds that every attack command carries its own health damage and stagger damage, and that striking a weakness amplifies both. Square Enix's feature list puts the aim in one line: exploit weaknesses to stagger, which breaks defences and wins extra turns.

• 3

  Sweeping Stagger, the Extra Phase and Resonance

  Stagger every enemy and you get a Sweeping Stagger; at the end of the Extra Phase that follows, you can unleash a Resonance, a special move unique to one of your Visions (PlayStation Blog). Resonances are not only damage: the post lists area attacks and additional effects, and a preview mentions support Resonances that buff or heal the party. The same preview also describes the smaller version of the reward — staggering a single enemy gives a character an extra action at the end of the turn.

• 4

  Visions, and the abilities you keep

  Visions are items, the crystallised essence of a character. You get them by completing events with characters you meet in the story, and the heroes of earlier Final Fantasy games come from vision crystal sanctums around the world; equip one and win battles to unlock its abilities (PlayStation Blog). The part worth understanding early: an ability learned from one Vision stays equippable while a different Vision is active, as long as it fits the cost limit, which is how abilities from several Visions end up on one character. Square Enix calls this a more accessible take on the series' job system. Collecting a Vision at a Sanctum walks through that hero's story in three short questions, and there are no wrong answers. Chapter one hands out five: Tronn and Leah with the story in Mitra, and the Warrior of Light, Cloud and Terra at Sanctums along the way.

• 5

  Espers

  Summons that fight beside the party for three turns and deliver a finishing move on the last one before they leave, unlocked by progressing through the story and by completing side quests (PlayStation Blog). Fina is described as able to summon Espers into battle. The demo gives you one: Siren, the first Esper, who joins once you beat her in a boss fight. She comes with the story; the other eight in the full game are optional, each won by beating it or meeting its challenge.

• 6

  Difficulty, tutorials and the level restriction

  The demo's PlayStation Store listing includes an adjustable difficulty — a lower preset you can choose to reduce the challenge — and tutorial reminders among its twelve accessibility features, and marks its subtitles as covering the main story and main characters only. Square Enix's July details, on the Gameplay page, name three difficulties: Casual, Normal and Expert. The full trophy list has no difficulty-related trophies. And Steam's demo listing says some level restrictions apply; none of the sources gives the cap.

9. What Carries Over

The point of the demo, in Square Enix's words on every storefront: play chapter one now and continue from that save when the game comes out. What is promised is short, and what is not promised matters as much.

• 1

  What Square Enix promises

  Save data carries over to the full game, out since 22 October 2026. The press release, the PlayStation Blog post and the Steam listing all say it. In practice, you continue your journey without replaying the opening. Steam's listing adds that the chapter you play is the first chapter exactly as it appears in the full version.

• 2

  What nobody has spelled out

  No source we read says whether a save moves between platforms — a PS5 demo into a Steam copy, say; what exactly comes across, item by item; what happens to the demo's level restriction once you are in the full game; or whether the chapter-one trophy unlocks from an imported save. Square Enix's wording is only that save data carries over.

• 3

  Switch and Switch 2 are separate versions

  A 13 September round-up of Square Enix's cross-generation releases reports that the Australian and Japanese eShop pages confirm the Switch and Switch 2 versions are separate, with no save transfer from Switch to Switch 2 or back, and its table lists no upgrade path; its demo comparison says the same about upgrading. Nintendo's US eShop lists a demo on both the Switch and the Switch 2 product pages. None of this is about demo saves in particular, but these are the only statements about the two versions, and they say the saves do not cross.

• 4

  Edition bonuses are a separate matter

  The pre-order, early purchase and Digital Deluxe items are claimed from the postbox in front of the inn in the Town of Mitra once you have progressed past a certain point in the game. No source we read says where that point is, or whether it can be reached in the demo. What each pack contains is on the Editions page.

10. Platforms and Sizes

The demo went out on all five platforms at once, which made it the first chance anyone had to compare versions before buying one. The sizes below are the storefronts' and the outlets' own figures, and they do not all agree.

• 1

  Where to download it

  Square Enix's press release lists PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch 2, Nintendo Switch, Xbox Series X|S, PC via Steam and Xbox on PC; on PC the storefronts are Steam and the Microsoft Store. The PlayStation Store listing marks the demo free, one player and playable offline, with cloud streaming to PS5 and PlayStation Portal only on a PlayStation Plus Premium subscription. The Microsoft Store listing names Xbox Series X|S, PC and handheld. On Steam the demo is offered from the game's own store page, and on Nintendo's eShop from each version's page.

• 2

  How big it is

  Push Square gives the PS5 demo as about 4.8 GB. GameRant says the demo needs at least 5.4 GB of free space, without naming a platform. The Microsoft Store listing's data gives a maximum install size of 6,063,591,424 bytes, a little over 6 GB. We found no demo size for Switch, Switch 2 or Steam. For the full game, Nintendo's US eShop gives 8.8 GB on Switch and 11.9 GB on Switch 2, Nintendo's UK store gives the same 11.9 GB for Switch 2, and Steam asks for 15 GB of storage.

  • Demo, PS5: about 4.8 GB.
  • Demo, Xbox and PC through the Microsoft Store: up to 6,063,591,424 bytes installed (the listing's data).
  • Demo, platform not named: at least 5.4 GB free.
  • Demo, Switch, Switch 2 and Steam: no figure found.
  • Full game: 8.8 GB on Switch and 11.9 GB on Switch 2 (Nintendo); 15 GB on PC (Steam).
• 3

  On PC

  Steam lists one set of requirements on the store page the demo is downloaded from: Windows 11, 8 GB of RAM, an AMD Radeon RX 6400, Intel Arc A580 or NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650, 15 GB of storage, and 1920 by 1080 at 30 fps on the Low preset as the minimum; the Platforms page has the full table. The Microsoft Store's listing for the demo gives the same processors, graphics cards and memory, adds 4 GB of video memory, and asks for Windows 10 version 18362.0 or later rather than Windows 11. The game is already Steam Deck Verified.

• 4

  How it ran, in one outlet's hands-on

  Mikhail Madnani ran the demo on Switch, Switch 2, PS5, Steam Deck and ROG Ally on 4 September, warning that the full game may change. On Switch 2 it targets 60 fps handheld, he saw no major performance issues in the hour he played, and he called it the most polished HD-2D game on Switch 2 yet, its one real issue being dithering in parts of the environment. The Switch version holds up docked and handheld but targets 30 fps and drops below it in places; played on a Switch 2 it is steadier but still 30. The PS5 version, captured on a PS5 Pro although no Pro enhancements are listed, ran flawlessly with almost no load times. On Steam Deck the High preset stays above 60 fps almost always and dips into the 50s under heavy spell effects; the ROG Ally ran at around 100 fps at 1080p in its 25 W mode. His one general complaint was the font, which he found stale. He could not test the Xbox app on PC, and the Xbox Series X version is not covered; he promised both for the full game.

11. Before the Full Game

Before the Full Game...