FFXIII demo will last over an hour

The Final Fantasy XIII demo will hit Japan next week and it appears that it will contain a considerable chunk of gameplay.

Famitsu magazine's editors have had the chance to preview the upcoming Final Fantasy XIII demo; it will be shipping with the Blu-ray release of Advent Children.

In their preview they reveal that the demo's play time weighed in at over an hour and twenty minutes, further explaining that it'd be a loss to miss out on the demo before the full games release.

The demo is reportedly split into two parts, with the first putting you in control of Lighting and the second as Snow. Although the demo only lets you play from these perspectives, the final game will include others, where you'll switch to other character's experiences in parallel.

The demo will consist of the opening scenes of the game, which you can observe in the trailer released earlier this year.

The end of the demo will also give players a look at an important and unknown character, which the creators are reticent to reveal beforehand.

The Famitsu editors also praised the speediness of the game, the almost non-existent load times, the "cool" music and the detailed backgrounds that show characters fighting in the far distance.

The magazine also featured an interview with the game's director Motomu Toriyama, who revealed a number of facets in the game. For a start, standard Chocobos will return, but they won't be used as a means of transportation.

The game's battle system will consist of fast action and command based battles, where the demo will include only a sample of the final game's strategic components (around 30%). Allies will be controlled by AI, but although the demo will only show them entering battle of their own accord, the final game will give you more control over this - perhaps even letting you swap characters mid-battle.

At the end of each battle full HP will be restored, which apparently demonstrates the game's emphasis on tough battles rather than small irrelevant ones.

The game will also render at 720p and at 30 frames-per-second, where a few slowdown issues will remain in the demo, this will be ironed out for the final release.

Moreover, the game is apparently nearing completion - the design is basically finished, with the final construction being all that remains. Thus, we hope that the game will release at the end of the year in Japan, with the rest of the world having to wait until 2010.