Topic: Tomadochi demo and demos in general

Just played the Tomodachi demo and would love to hear everyone's thoughts.

I found the demo too limited and short and I felt a little less than satisfied with the demo.

The second thing I wonder, do demos usually make you less or more likely to get a game? It feels like I regret so many purchases that I feel that demos are most likely to make me decide a game is not worth it. This is usually ensured by the fact that early game is almost never the best part of a game. It's too easy. Or undercooked with features.

Why don't they ever do demos in the middle of the game? Or maybe do the tutorial part and jumping to a better part of the game. What would make you more likely to purchase?

There's some demos that do that iirc, like FF16's demo does that pretty sure. Kinda took a slice from the latter part of the beginning and changed a lot of it so you can get more skills and stuff.

And some demos do occasionally makes me get a game, and some demos make me drop a game Both happens. Like daemon x machina 2 demo makes me drop it, while the absolum demo (and tomodachi life as well) makes me want to get them

In a way, less likely. Lol. It can go either way. I am always glad we get them though.
Without, I might be tempted to take a chance. Demos can sometimes make me decide it is really not for me.

Demos that turned me off from buying:
Tomadochi, Kirby Air Riders, Captain Toad, and the Final Fantasy CC remake. There are plenty more, but these stand out as ones I was seriously considering, not just trying out of curiosity.

Demos that convinced me to make a purchase:
Mario vs. Donkey Kong. Princess Peach Showtime! Yoshi Crafted World.

There have been demos for things that I would have got regardless though, such as Kirby and The Forgotten Land and Trials of Mana remake.

While there have always been demos that mimic the start of the game, I think it’s been especially prevalent recently. A lot of demos are built with the aim for you to carry your progress over to the main game.

I thought this was kinda cool at first, but tbh I agree with you. It’s not so much that the beginning of games are “boring”…it’s that they take ages to get going and show off the best parts of a game. Carrying over progress is best but (i) I don’t often end up investing enough time into demos for this to be worthwhile, (ii) by the time I get the game I generally want to start from scratch anyway.

As for demos putting me off? This is an interesting discussion, because I’ve heard claims that demos are a net negative for a game’s success, but many demos over the years have led me to buying games. Kirby Air Riders is probably the most recent that I may not have risked paying full price on had I not enjoyed the demo. Funnily enough one of the examples given here (Final Fantasy XVI) is a demo that put me off its game.

I generally don't play demos at all. If I'm going to spend time playing something, I want it to be a full game.

If I'm unsure about buying a game, reviews and videos covering the full game usually give me all the information I need to make a decision.

The demo for Voyager Across the Unknown got me to buy the game and I was very satisfied with it. (Despite some hiccups and the game being really close to a much better game. And having some day 1 DLc)

I have also had several games that were good demos that I used in place of buying games, because I just couldn't justify the purchase.

I really appreciate demos rather than having none. But I feel like they are like Blockbuster rentals in the past. If I am lucky I'll get a couple every few weeks and odds are I'll be upset with my choices and I won't play them long.

That's something you young folks may never have experienced. You would pay 4 bucks or whatever and the game would suck so much that you just went back to your other games and hoped your parents didn't find out you wasted some money. With the off chance you find a gem.

Earthbound was a game that I found through rental and I ended up renting twice then buying and beating dozens of times. That was like a demo. I guess Voyager was like that... But most of the time I am thinking this game is undercooked and underwhelming.

YouTube helps me more than anything else these days.

I play the majority of demos which come to the eShop, or at least portions of them. If I have no idea about the game, a demo can easily be instant wishlist or instant no. If I am already interested in a game, a demo can push me one way or the other.

The Tomodachi demo made me decide not to get the game. On the one hand the demo was more fun than I thought it would be, but on the other hand the voices bothered me more than I thought they would to the extent I don't think I could play the game. So that was useful information.

Generally I find demos useful and I would rather they exist when possible. There are whole franchises I am interested in but never played because I don't want to buy an expensive game I don't have much idea about without testing it first.

I don't really recall ever loving a demo and then disliking the main game.

Some demos are more useful than others. Dragon Quest demos I've always found especially good. Sonic Frontiers demo on the other hand was just very poorly designed as a demo to the extent that I knew the game had to be better than the demo.