Topic: Best Game Demos

Alright, another thread I am participating in prompted me to start this one, and since it's for any and all systems, genres, etc. I think this is the best location for it. What are your favorite demos? Not the actual game and regardless of whether you liked the game or not, but the demo itself. Why they your favorite demos? What particular aspect of the demo convinced you whether the game was worth purchasing or not?

I'll start it off with my absolutely favorite demo, which I did buy the game because of the demo: Final Fantasy 12

The demo was a few select portions of the game world with a diverse selection of enemies in these areas, which were all single area maps instead of the complete map for that location so the enemies were out of place. You had control of the characters are an expected point in their development, so the difficulty was what you would most likely be facing at that location. That was it, you got to experience the actual gameplay of the game, without spoiling any of the story or development of the characters. You got a taste of how it would be like progressing through the actual play portions, since that's the barrier that holds you back from the next point in the story it helped me decide if I would enjoy playing it. You learned how to use the menus and combat through trial and error, but the demo areas were balanced just right so it was not a huge chore. Of course when I started tinkering with the demo I thought "this isn't Final Fantasy," but then once I figured out what was going on it felt more like Final Fantasy than any Final Fantasy game has ever managed. Thus I not only bought the game, I also bought the collector's edition, and I did not regret it.

Etrian Odyssey IV, hands down, bar none. It's literally just the first portion of the game, right through the first (big) floor, and nothing quite tells you how the game's gonna be like than just playing the first 5-10 hours of the game.

I also greatly enjoyed any RTS demo that offered a skirmish mode.

I came here to say Etrian Odyssey as well. Best demo I've played on 3ds.

I third this. I wouldn't have given the series a second thought if it weren't for the demo.

Etrian Odyssey IV's demo is the standard by which I judge all video game demos now.

Yeah, Etrian Odyssey IV's demo almost single-handedly convinced me to buy that game. It did so much to inform the player of how the game would play and progress, and it was obviously pretty darn fun to boot.

The Kingdom Hearts 3D demo for 3DS is/was amazing. I played that demo over and over. It totally convinced me to buy the game. Fire Emblem: Awakening ALSO convinced me to buy the game. When I saw that beautiful anime scene... I was like: "OH MAN! I gotta buy this!". I also give props to EO:MG's demo! That demo is awesome! The MGS:Snake Eater 3D is also a favorite of mine. And last but not leat... Resident Evil: Revelations 3D demo is really good.

I haven;t played the MG and MSG one yet, but those other ones are pretty stock standard demoes. They're competant enough to give you a feel for whether or not you'd like the game, but I've seen far better demoes, personally.

Resident Evil: Revelations demo is what convinced me to buy the game. So it was a pretty good demo I must say =P Was also surprising to play the game and find that it was in a different order to the demo, so they had actually custom made the demo.

Etrian Odyssey IV, it was the best demo but so many great games I was hyped for came out and I didn't get the actual game..

Heh. Me with the KH demo:
[20 minutes of jumping off lampposts, fighting random enemies, and wondering where the heck to go next]
Me: Yep. Still don't like Kingdom Hearts.

Also, is the framerate in Snake Eater 3D as bad as it was in the game's demo?

I agree. I have actually wanted to play a RE game, but I didn't like the gameplay of the first one I ever played so I never even thought about buying one since. The RE:R demo gave an excellent sampling of the gameplay. I still don't like the gameplay and thus won't buy this one either, but I got a great chance to make sure I didn't want to buy it.

Seriously Etrian Odyssey IV, that demo was pretty awesome.
...But I didn't end up buying it >_<. Too many other things I wanted.