Final Fantasy VII demo


 * For the PS3 tech demo, see: Final Fantasy VII Technical Demo

The Final Fantasy VII Demo was a BETA release of Final Fantasy VII released in 1996 and was the first playable demo of the game released. It appeared on Square's Preview Extra, released with in Japan and North America. Square's Preview Extra also contained a video preview of Final Fantasy Tactics, as well as and.

Overview
The demo includes only the opening bombing missions right up until the explosion. While the basics were the same as seen in the final game, there were a few notable changes to the game. Other differences were used in the demo as a taster of the full game, such as the inclusion of ready-leveled-up materia, a Summon, and a third party member, Aeris. She does not appear outside of battle however.


 * The menu is not accessible in the demo, therefore Materia and items are inaccessible except during battles. The characters can not level up and will remain at levels 9 (only Aeris) and 10 during the entire demo. It is very difficult to die during the demo unless it is tried deliberately.


 * Items such as the two Potions retrieved from the guards at the beginning are not present, nor is the Restore materia on the bridge before planting the bomb.


 * The battle models have slight differences, as do the out of battle models. This can be seen in character's eyes where they appear like lifeless black ovals instead of the more life-like eyes seen in the game. Cloud's menu portrait uses the young Cloud portrait, as seen during the Kalm flashback to the Nibelheim Incident.


 * All of the characters have the same name except for Jessie, who is named "Jesse." In the demo, players can not name their characters, so at the start of the game Cloud appears in battle as "Cloud" instead of "Ex-SOLDIER". The translations are also a bit different, an example being "Makoro plants" instead of "Mako Reactors," and SOLDIER are spoken of as actual soldiers instead of an organization.


 * Areas are slightly different. Jessie will also get stuck in a different area, just further on her path. Biggs can be found collapsed in the area next to the stairs, and much like the situation with Jessie, the player will have to use the activate button to get him to move. He will claim he was attacked by a guard from behind. Oddly, he wasn't arrested.


 * Once the timer is activated, the player will get just three minutes to escape instead of the original ten. Instead of the timer appearing in the top-right, a message will appear on the screen reading "3 minutes until detonation", "2 minutes remaining" and so on. Time in battles does not decrease the time however.


 * When a character is speaking, instead of what they're saying shown beneath their name, the demo version presents their name, a colon, and then spacing before it shows what they said.


 * Messages in battle such as the name of the enemy attack appear taller than in the full game.


 * There is no save point as you cannot save your data in the demo.


 * The scene where the screen goes red, and Cloud reacts isn't present.


 * Many of the enemy names are different, and many of them appear from outside the Mako Reactor. The Guard Scorpion does not appear as the boss, but is replaced by a larger version of the Sweeper accompanied and two Grunts, known in the demo as Sweepers (despite being one entity) and Combatants. One new enemy appears, the Grenadiers, which are a recolor of the Security Troops (MP) and therefore not the Grenade Combatants seen later in the game. Enemy formations are largely different. One formation used features a Security Troops enemy standing directly next to a Guard Hounds enemy, twice. Another formation is six Hedgehog Pies in a 3-2-1 formation.


 * Case for enemy attacks is different. Instead of "Machine Gun", the attack is called "Machine gun".


 * Many more spells appear in the demo version that aren't available at this time of the story in the full game. Bolt, Ice, and Fire all appear up to their second stages, Demi appears without an upgrade and all three levels of the Cure spell are available, but Regen is not, despite being in between Cure 2 and Cure 3 in the full game. Many MP costs are also far smaller than in the full game, likely due to huge MP consumption they would use otherwise. All the spells animations are the same, bar Ice 2.


 * When an All materia is equipped to another, selecting that materia will give you the option to cast it on All opponents, or just a single opponent.


 * The Attack command is called "Fight". The Limit Break command is called Special


 * Aeris can only use the Healing Wind Special technique, and Barret can only use Heavy Shot, the demo's name for Big Shot. Cloud has access to both Braver and Cross Slash, however they function differently to the full game as Braver temporarily paralyzes an enemy and Cross Slash does not, the opposite appears in the full game.


 * Only one summon features in the demo. Leviathan uses the Tsunami attack for a cost of 40 MP. The Tsunami attack is the same attack as Tidal Wave as seen in the full game, just with a different name. The MP cost is also far less than seen in the full game (78 MP).


 * If you run out of time before you escape the reactor, it will still say Mission Complete.

Opening sequence
The opening sequence is largely the same as the original. The biggest difference is the text appearing in the starry sky which tells the opening story of Final Fantasy VII. In the game, the story is picked up on only as the game proceeds.

The only other difference is the text beneath the Square logo, "1996 SQUARE" instead of "1997 SQUARE".

Items

 * Potion
 * Hi potion
 * Ether

Enemy formations

 * Security Troops x2 (Fixed)
 * Deenglow x5
 * Combatants x2, Hedgehog Pie x2
 * Combatants x3
 * Guard Hounds x2, Security Troops x2
 * Hedgehog Pie x6
 * Sweepers, Combatants x2 (Boss)