Full Circle’s playable demo gets off to a sprinting start. You’re thrust into a dilapidated city at a frantic pace, joining lead character Ena as he steps into battle against a damaged cyberdrone. It’s a confident setup for the story-driven RPG that will be immediately familiar to fans of Final Fantasy and The Legend of Dragoon, flaunting a combat rhythm that’s inspired by both – but with a few tricks up its sleeve.
There’s no time to hang about. Ena is supported by E.C.H.O, a robotic guide that provides vital information, such as how to use your pulse to spot treasure chests and other points of interest. It’s not long before the hero is vastly outnumbered. Fear not; the gang are just around the corner.
Team dynamics are a vital part of Full Circle’s combat, so it’s a relief to see the stern-faced Octo and chirpy Max, who wields a floating android called Pip, step in to save Ena from certain doom.
Their introduction allows a full combat tutorial to play out, introducing the basic turn-based mechanics that aim to challenge your planning and timing against mutated beasts that stalk the streets and automatons that monitor the sky.
Combat is immediately rewarding. You pick your team’s actions in one go, setting them all up before the enemy can respond, with interesting caveats playing out even at this early stage.
For example, it’s mentioned that the player should take precaution when the enemy is prepping a powerful move, perhaps by guarding, which allows for a strong counter. Knowing there’s multiple attacks coming your way before you can next use a medikit gets the brain ticking nicely, with both sides laying it all on the table as group turns play out.
Most actions require you to time a button press to get the most out of them. Rotating squares fill the screen when Ena steps forward, ready to slash through your chosen target, as you time your attack for when the moving shape lines up with a stationary one. The window is pretty generous across all three difficulties, with it almost being impossible to miss a perfect hit on easy.
This active style of combat ramps up with chain attacks, which invoke beautiful anime-styled character cut-ins as the momentum builds. That electric pace from the start of the demo returns; this time met with the huge numbers of Ena and Octo combining forces to eliminate an opponent that initially appeared intimidating with a health bar in the seven hundreds.
Chain attacks, like skill moves, are limited use throughout battles. While landing perfectly-timed shots restores attacking points to replenish them, there’s a sense that everything is earned in Full Circle.
Each character possesses unique abilities, such as Ena being able to deploy a powerful turret, that I’m excited to see play out across further time with the game. Aisha’s affinity for turning into different beasts looks particularly promising. Those who aren’t in your battle crew can also support from the sides, with Max providing a healing top up if you bench her.
Everything is propped up with an inviting graphical style that combines 2D and 3D pixel art. It’s a basic gameplay element in itself that needs to be taken into account when traversing each area. You’re told early on to consider three dimensions, a perspective that nudges you towards moving deeper into the screen and unearthing a ladder to climb.
Exploration, like the rest of the game, is absolutely rapid. Your characters fly across the screen, darting in-and-out of rooms, while making haste at all times. Plenty of NPCs fill the broken down city once you escape the abandoned streets, with a marketplace and inn propped up by other busybodies who are legging it around the small map.
One unfortunate bug did impact my time with the game. After receiving a permit to enter the lower levels of the area, a section teeming with danger, all but one of my party got stuck in the lift on the way down.
I pushed on as Ena, able to win fights, but switching to anyone else showed them to be floating in mid air. This obviously made battles much harder than they should be, even if Max’s support abilities continued to work.
It’s also worth mentioning the music, which is an important part of Full Circle’s energy and zest. Developer 2nd Player Games recently got into a back-and-forth with a user on X over whether or not these productions are AI-based. Both the dev and publisher vehemently claim this isn’t the case. They are impressively full tracks if true, even if one part in the inn cuts out sharply before its loop restarts.
Full Circle has clearly had a lot of love poured into it. There’s a strong vision in place that allows both the combat and visuals to sing. I’m looking forward to going further, especially with the battle system, to see how things evolve across the full game.
The breakneck speed of the demo is evidence of a dev that understands first impressions are important. It forces you straight into engaging with the game’s most interesting features, a smart tactic as this year of top-tier releases fills everyone’s backlog right to the top.
