Valkyrie Elysium demo was pretty weird. They give you the ghost dudes for the tutorial but then take them away for the first mission (and you don't get either one back yet as part of that mission). Hopefully there's a lot more depth to the game than what was shown in the tutorial too; my first impression of it was that it's just a watered down, less interesting, and uglier version of Scarlet Nexus.
Really wanted to preorder it for the early access and get the deluxe edition for Valkyrie Profile: Lenneth remaster, but I think I'll wait for reviews of both games. Especially since they've said nothing about the Lenneth remaster besides that it exists and will release on 9/29. If it's a PS4/5 port of the mobile port it could be decent, but I can't even find a screenshot of it (or who the developer handling the port is) now.
Wo Long demo was pretty disappointing too. Hopefully Star Ocean surprises in the opposite way, since my expectations couldn't possibly be lower after the Intergrity & Faithlessness shitshow. Actually downloading the demo was a pain in the ass--you have to search for Star Ocean on PS5 and then go to the ... menu and change to Demo before the download button will show up. Sony needs to start hiring some UI/UX people who know the meaning of the word "intuitive".
Had the same thoughts about Valkyrie, it felt somewhat shallow. Just picking up gems to level up a very baseline skill tree set or skills. Not getting the ghost guy was weird, he was a reward for the last mission, but you can't get him in the demo I think since after the main mission you can't do anything except take the two side quests. I found two, not sure if there is more, if so you'd have to replay the entire first mission to get it I think. And in the mission there was at least one spot where you needed the ghost guy to open up a secret, but since you can't get him, you're locked out from it. The side missions are like small Nioh side quests in a locked up portion of the main mission area, I think one of the missions would let you get to the secret, but you didn't have him there either. If in the full game you can talk to Odin to unlock the ghost guy before you actually do the side missions, then its bad demo design to make you complete them beforehand since it carries over.
It's a wait and see game for me.
Star Ocean was .... not the best impression. Even at prioritize framerate, it had FPS drops like mad when you get to the zone before the first town. From 60 to 20. Lip synch isn't a thing, it's like they just made their mouths move up and down when speaking. Combat wasn't bad though, and liked the verticality. But again, felt like it was just zooming around to pick up gems.
Wish modern games would push more towards the RPG side of ARPGs instead of just ACTION
rpg
Neither of the two impressed me.
That the PSN store doesn't have a separate demo tag section is just strange. I had to google how to find demos the first time. Didn't occur to me to find the game, then select the dots and activate the demo. Demos don't show up when searching for "Demo" either.