Does 源初之结's Demo Feel Like Final Fantasy 16?

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After playing miHoYo's new action game Primordial Knot at gamescom last weekend, Polygon published a hands-on report today saying that the Unreal Engine 5 title feels less like Elden Ring in play and much closer to Final Fantasy 16. The game, officially revealed during gamescom Opening Night Live, supports co-op for up to four players and is currently built around tracking and killing giant monsters.

On paper, Primordial Knot suggests a blend of Elden Ring and Monster Hunter. Once Polygon played it, though, the rhythm was clearly less severe. The demo offered four playable characters: an archer, a giant greatsword swordsman, another archer, and a more conventional swordsman. Players can also customize the skills they bring into a mission. That flexibility suits a game built around four-player squads.

The hub area is a tent village built against the side of a steep mountain range. Wooden platforms connect merchants, equipment upgrade stations, and a quest board, while some parts of the base are tucked into caves. The first mission centered on purifying evil spirits. After leaving camp, players could ride a fantasy horse-like mount into the open world, though Polygon notes that the mount does not have a double jump. The loop is familiar from Monster Hunter: accept a quest, track a massive creature, and bring it down. There are no Palicoes, however.

Combat uses normal attacks, special attacks, dodges, and a distinctive parry system. Parrying requires players to charge a heavy attack and release it just before an enemy strike lands, making the incoming strike collide with the player's attack. Four equipped skills are accessed by holding the right shoulder button, and each skill has its own cooldown. Polygon found the skill casting smooth and the special attacks more elaborate, but normal hits felt less forceful. Repeated basic strikes did not have the same impact as they do in Final Fantasy 16.

The first boss in the demo was Qiongqi, drawn from traditional Chinese folklore. Polygon described it as a 30-foot, or roughly 9.1-meter, griffin-like monster with three health bars and the ability to summon tornadoes. Once the team reduced its health to around half, Qiongqi fled, forcing players to chase it on their mounts before finishing the fight in the middle of a vast underground lake. In co-op, weakened enemies can also trigger a joint execution. One such animation summons a ghostly giant to swing a roughly 30-foot battle axe into the target, prompting one teammate at the session to simply say, "Too cool."

The mission's final boss, Omen, is also around 30 feet tall. Its rider, the Omen Knight, can summon a 30-foot sword of light. The fight again uses three health bars and relies heavily on spectacle, including an animation where the player character is kicked into the air and then smashed back down with a giant weapon. For Polygon, this is where the comparison becomes clearest: Primordial Knot plays more like Clive's free-flowing, highly stylized combat in Final Fantasy 16 than the Tarnished's more measured, technique-driven exchanges in Elden Ring.

That direction makes sense for a four-player co-op action game. If every boss demanded strict mastery of complex patterns, high-level players bringing newcomers along could easily leave them struggling to contribute. By lowering the technical barrier for basic combat while preserving coordination through parries, skill cooldowns, chases, and joint executions, Primordial Knot gives the group more room to function as a team.

The cautious read is to wait for more hands-on impressions and a clearer sense of the final content volume. Players who want stylish action spectacle, multiplayer monster hunts, and lighter co-op execution should continue watching Primordial Knot. Anyone expecting pure Soulslike defensive depth should wait for a clearer picture of the final game.