Part One: Final Fantasy VIII Shows Its Face

Final Fantasy VIII has finally shown itself in the form of a playable demo. The demo came packaged with Square's latest Japanese PlayStation title, Brave Fencer Musashiden.

The demo opens with the video sequence previously shown at Square's FFVIII press conference. The video makes a seamless transition into gameplay, as your boat crashes on a beach, and you and your team storm out, ready to fight. From there, you make your way through the town to a communications station. Along the way you'll fight guards and other monsters.

The fighting has remained the same as FFVII, including items, limit breaks, summons, and spells. When using the Gunblade, you can hit R1 right as the sword strikes the enemy to cause a small explosion, causing more damage than a normal strike would.

The limit breaks and summons are absolutely incredible. Casting Leviathan causes the sea beast to appear, then a huge rock formation grows out of the ground. Leviathan goes to the top of the formation and explodes into water. The water then tumbles down the rock formation, washing away the enemies below.

The game's art style is much more realistic. All the characters in your party look very human and very detailed. Check out these 18 shots.