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Bravely Default: Flying Fairy TGS tech demo hands-on preview
By Janelle | September 15, 2011 at 3:04 pm
Since Bravely Default: Flying Fairy was just announced, it wasn’t playable at TGS in the strictest sense. However, there was a short demo available that was basically a tech demo for an AR cutscene.
At first, the 3DS showed a game screen, where the main character breaks the fourth wall to tell the player to look for an AR mark. At that prompt, the 3DS’s rear camera switches on, and you point the 3DS’s camera at the AR mark on the booth floor. Looking at the booth floor through the 3DS’s screen, you see a glowing pendant rise from the mark. A woman (from all the posters and trailers) appears, and begs you to save the world, asking if her prayers are answered. During the scene, she walks back and forth, turning around, sometimes with her back to you and sometimes facing you, as though she were physically in the room. If wandering around was permitted in the booth, you could probably move around to follow her. After her little speech, some sort of evil entity attacks her and she vanishes with a scream, ending the brief demo.
It’s hard to say how I feel about Bravely Default‘s demo. Was it gimmicky? Sure. But it was also pretty cool. I felt like it was more choreographed than other game cutscenes, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Most AR games and applications I’ve seen have either been simple games or cutesy images, rather than a serious dramatic cutscene. This demo gives me hope that there might be a way to make a game character walking around in my living room and acting out a serious scene feasible and gripping.