On February 13th (or 12th if you live in the US), Playstation had their first State of Play of this year and for an hour long show, they didn’t slow down at all with a mass amount of reveals and announcements.
But here are a couple of highlights that I believe are worth noting!
Shinobi: Art of Vengeance
Ninjas seem to be making a comeback this year in gaming as we saw earlier this year at the Xbox showcase with Team Ninja’s Ninja Gaiden 4 being announced and while this game was teased a long while before that, we didn’t get to see more of it until now.
With the help of developer Lizardcube, the same team that revived beloved Sega classics in the past with titles like Wonder Boy: The Dragon’s Trap and Streets of Rage 4, this is shaping up to be something familiar yet amazing with it’s fast paced action and incredible 2D visual style. Coming out on August 29th.
Digimon Story: Time Stranger
It’s been a long while since we’ve seen an entry in the fan-favourite RPG series, set within the Digimon universe, especially after Digimon Survive, which went through a long development history. It’s great to see an old favourite return for those who enjoyed both Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth games on the PS4 and beyond. Not much was shown or mentioned in terms of story, characters or gameplay mechanics but we hope to see more before it’s supposed release later this year.
Lies of P: Overture
The prequel DLC for the beloved soulslike action-RPG, based on the story of Pinocchio in a dark, steampunk inspired world. Featuring new bosses to fight, new weapons to play around with and a different and frosty land to explore. If you loved the original game and want more, this may as well be it! Set for release later in 2025.
Tides of Annihiliation
A debut action game from Chinese developer Eclipse Glow Games and it’s certainly an interesting one with it’s dystopian look of London in ruins, with a tale inspired by Authurian legends as you play Gwendolyn, a survivor of an Outworld invasion, on a quest to fight against the demi-gods that laid ravage upon the world. The action is of high-spectacle with amazingly detailed visuals to make it stand out, definitely one to keep an eye on. No word of it’s release yet though.
Darwin’s Paradox
While Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater with it’s release date announcement was the big news, Konami also had another game under their sleeve that is intriguing to look at. In this game, you’re in control of an octopus escaping from a mysterious meat factory. Played in a 2.5D space, this game has a combination of platforming, underwater exploration and stealth, almost in the same vein as INSIDE but way more cartoony. No release date mentioned.
The Midnight Walk
Announced back in September, this first person dark fantasy adventure that is built from clay, giving the vibes of various stop-motion stylised games like Harold Halibut and the upcoming South of Midnight, but this one goes for a different look as you aim to help bring light to the world of darkness, facing various monsters that step in your way. While you can play this game via a monitor, but the developers also made this game with virtual reality in mind, so you can imagine how scary it could be when played with a head set on! Coming to PS5 and PC in May.
Dreams of Another
A game that you shoot but you don’t destroy? Such a bizarre but fascinating concept for a game like this. Developed by Q Games of the PixelJunk series has crafted something of a strange wonder where you create by shooting with a gun to tell a story, rather than causing a wreckage. It’s certainly something that is very out of the box and one can’t help but be amazed by such an idea. No planned release date as of yet but is coming to PS5 and PS VR.
Lost Soul Aside
This is a rather special one as it’s been in development for a decade. Originally started off as a passion project for one man developer Bing Yang that managed to wow everyone when he uploaded the first trailer for the game on his YouTube page in 2016 that managed to gained everyone’s attention and since then, he managed to get support from Sony (via the China Hero Project), formed his own studio (Ultizero Games) and been hard at work ever since.
And now, it’s finally been dated for a May 30th release on PS5 and PC. Inspired by Final Fantasy XV during it’s prolonged development, Lost Soul Aside aims for a similar but different goal as it focuses on Kazer’s quest to become the hero to save humanity as well as his sister. With fast-paced action and stunning worlds and characters to encounter, it may have been a very long road for many, but we can now hope that the wait will be worth it.
And those are some of the notewortthy highlights from the State of Play that I thought were worth mentioning. There was others like Mindseye, a new sandbox sci-fi action game from the producer of the Grand Theft Auto series. Onimusha: Way of the Sword gets a new gameplay trailer that looks amazing. Housemarquee (the studio behind Returnal) unveil their new game Saros and a new look at Sonic Racing Crossworlds just to name a few.
Any game that tickled your fancy from the State of Play presentation? Let us know!
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