The Beta Test is going on right now for Final Fantasy XV Comrades, the multiplayer online DLC, if you want in hurry up and get in on it while it lasts, and don't worry if you don't hav a lot of time to play it, there isn't that much to do with it right now, just a few quests, but it's still kind of fun to get a sneak peak at this. The coolest part is probably just getting to make your own character. It has been confirmed, you make your own original character for FFXV.
Story wise, we don't find out much right now, but we do know that Cor, Monica, and Cindy form the main story make appearances putting us in the timeline of the game. We start in Old Lestallum which looks kind of like Hamerhead in Chapter 14, and a sign on Kenny's Crow's Nest saying they're closed until the sun rises again suggests that this DLC is, as I expected, taking place during the time that Noctis went into te crystal and the darkness descends upon Eos.
Your character in the game is a member of the Kingsglaive, which means you get to use magic, although magic in the beta works a little different from the main game. For now, you can actually use healing magic, but your offensive magic is poor, think Holy with the Ring of Lucii, hopefully they upgrade this or revert to elemancy for the final product. You also have the ability to produce a protective shield and warp and all of these abilities require MP. Warp is one of the few mechanics that works like the main game. Although the Kingsglaive hasn't been covered in depth until now, what I have read says they were granted some of the King's magic to use themselves, so the precedent goes back to Kingsglaive the movie that there are these soldiers that have these powers. For the game, apparently Cor gathers the survivors of the coup to hold down the fort in Noctis's absence.
The gameplay is basically just three quests, each with a second follow-up quest. You get four weapons to use right now, a katana, a shuriken, a mace, and a pair of daggers, with some upgrades in game, but you can't really enjoy them because the beta resets once you finish the second quest in the set. Still it's promising because we can assume we'll see the rest of Lucis during the darkness in the final product. They also say the main cast will make an appearance, but I don't see how Noctis will be there if I'm right about the time frame, the others could be interesting, especially Ignis who will overcome his blindness during the time frame of Comrades.
The beta itself is lacking, the biggest problem is server connections making it hard to team up for quests, which is presently required, my game freezes if I try to join somebody else's team, my game only works if I make my own camp. Square Enix claims that there will be single player quests in the final product which makes sense, since this seems to actually have some canonical story content and some of it may be played out without other players, but for the beta, they want to make sure multiplayer works so single player tests are pointless at this stage. If I'm right, there is a lot of potential for where this can go, but mainly expect that it's going to be a lot like the main game with even more sidequests. Another problem is lag with the mace, which seems to result in everybody just using the katana. As for customization, it is going to need some work, right now options are pretty limited and even the features that you can change sometimes are too subtle to notice at all. Somehow everybody's avatars look like pot-bellied neanderthals no matter how much care we put into making them. Still, this game will be worthwhile for anyone who liked the main game enough to even once consider a fan fiction.
So if you want in, hurry up it's only up until August 8. And don't forget about Sharknado 5: Global Swarming Sunday night on SyFy!
