Here's a Rundown of Everything at Sony's State of Play [25/02/2021]

Phew, E3 feels like it starts earlier and earlier every year. I kid, but The Summer Game Fest is returning this year and so too is E3 (at least the ESA want it to, we’ll see). What’s more, is if you were paying attention to the games industry this week you might easily be mistaken that we were already in the announcement season. Anthem Next was officially canned, Destiny 2: The Witch Queen was delayed to 2022, Japan Studios is reportedly winding down production on any games, the Zelda series quietly celebrated its 35th anniversary, Blizzcon was on last weekend and Pokémon celebrated its 30th anniversary with a slew of new games and announcements. Wall to wall news.

That being said probably the single biggest event during the week was Sony’s first State of Play for 2021. So with PS5s in short supply what games will the few that do own a new console get to play and which games will now also arrive on PS4 in some form.

Crash Bandicoot: It’s about Time Update

There was a fair deal of excitement for the long awaited continuation of Crash series before it came out last year. However, despite generally positive reviews the reception among long time fans has been somewhat muted. So maybe there is some hope that this update will renew interest in a game which in all regards is a pretty solid experience. This next-gen update will offer 4K/60fps gameplay along with faster load times and additional Duelsense features. The updates arrive on March 12th and the game is also coming to Switch, Xbox Series X|S and PC the same day.

This thing doesn’t seem so sc— NEVERMIND.

Returnal

It was a sad day when Housemarque announced that they were stepping away from arcade style games, citing that they just don’t compete at market. However, Returnal looks like it is keeping a lot of the spirit of the studios previous work. Fast paced shooting and hordes of enemies firing countless projectiles are all here but now things are looking a little more, we’ll call it, “prestige-AAA”-esque. In a big change for the sudio Housemarque is putting a strong focus on story and even brought on board an outside story consultant. It is cool to see a game led by a middle-aged woman rather than the usual “sad dad” we get from Sony games but also worth noting that game director gave an interview about Selene with some questionable answers around the reasoning behind the character and trauma. Still no sign of Housemarque’s long in development Stormdivers but Returnal arrives on.April 30th.

Knockout City

A surprise announcement from EA at last Nintendo’s Direct last week, Knockout City is competitive multiplayer dodgeball game. It is coming from new studio Velan who have previously worked on Mario Kart: Home Circuit. Knock City seems to be following the recent trend of future sports multiplayer games with a clean aesthetic like Roller Champions, Quantum League, Disc Jam and Rocket League and it is yet to be seen if it will be able to do enough to differentiate itself from the crowd. After a PC only beta last weekend, it was announced at the State of Play that there will be a crossplay beta from April 2nd to the 4th on PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Switch and PC. The game is scheduled to launch on the 21st of May this year on all of the previously mentioned platforms.

Oooooh, you idiots are about to get beat the heck up!

SIFU

Slowclap found a fair bit of success with their first game, Absolver, when it was released in 2017 as it quickly found a dedicated fanbase. This was despite (or maybe due to) the game being an incredibly niche sort of 3D fighting game where the player learnt new moves, combined them and wound up with their own unique fighting style. The systems in that pervious game went deep and SIFU seemed intent on iterating on this refreshing idea. However, out is the minimalist grey and brown, faceless fighters and in is a very stylised looking protagonist along with a much more overt story. There is currently no release date on SIFU other than a 2021 window.

Solar Ash

From Hear Machine, the studio behind Hyper Light Drifter, comes Solar Ash. Moving on from top-down Zelda inspired action of their previous game, Solar Ash features fluid 3D platforming as you skate across solar clouds. The game set within a black hole and focuses on traversal with fast combat and massive “sentinel” bosses remencient of Shadow of The Colossus. No release date beyond 2021 but the game now has two confirmed platforms: PS4 and PS5.

Oh hi there existential dread, how are you doing today?

Five Nights At Freddy’s: Security Breach

I’m going to be honest here. I have never played FNAF game but did watch a lot of theory videos around 2015. I know, I know I’m disappointed in myself too. Good news though, I couldn’t tell you the first thing about the story anymore. All I know now is it is still inexplicably popular with kids and development is still led by series creator Scott Cawthon. Security Breach will be the first mainline game with full free movement and will arrive sometime in 2021.

Oddworld: Soulstorm

Oddworld is a strange series jumping from platform to platform, genre to genre, protagonist to protagonist and even taking an nine year break in entries between 2005 and 2014, all under the stewardship of Lorne Lanning. However, this new game goes back to the series’ roots staring Abe as the leader of the Mudokons revolution once again. Full of Lemmings-esque puzzles the new game is said to have more action and complex problems to solve alongside new crafting elements. The grim-capitalist hellscape of Oddwrold returns April 6th and will be free for PS5 Plus members.

I have only know these furry fairies for two trailers but if anything happens to them I’m killing everyone in this game.

Kena: Bridge of Spirits

Ember Labs started out as an animation studio when it was founded in 2009 and their beautiful first game, Kena: Bridge of Spirits, was announced at the PS5 announcement showcase with a holiday 2020 release date. However, like many other games, the pandemic has forced Ember Labs to delay their Zelda-inspired adventure until the 24th of August. Kena continues to look astoundingly pretty in its run up to its release on PS4, PS5 and the Epic Game Store.

One O’Clock, Two O’Clock, Three O’Clock Rock!
One O’Clock, Two O’Clock, Three O’Clock Rock!

“Deathloop”

Arkane Studios are no strangers to systems driven games with immersive sims like Prey and Dishonored being a tapsey of interweaving AI routines and gameplay mechanics. However, none of their previous games look to be able to hold a candle to the complexity of time-looping madness in Deathloop. The game stars two player controlled characters; an assassin, Colt, and an agent, Jullianna. Colt is trying to break a time loop by killing eight targets on an island before midnight while Junliana is trying to put him in the ground. The trailer shown leaned heavily into the stylish 80s spy-thriller aesthetic with a theme song that would put most Bond movies to shame. If you are interested in the game we would strongly recommend you check out the video where Game Director, Dinga Bakaba, explains just what in the hell is going on. Deathloop will be releasing on PS5 and PC on May 21st, despite publisher Bethesda now being owned by Microsoft. 2021 sure is weird.

Yuffie’s poncho is doing more to sell me on trying FFVII than anything else shown.

Final Fantasy VII Remake INTERGRADE  + PS5 Update

One of last year’s biggest hits is getting a PS5 update, which was announced with a trailer that was nothing short hilarious thanks to its proclamation of “GRAPHICS ON PS5”. But seriously the game looks really, really nice on a next gen-machine and Cloud’s hair continues to be fabulous. This version of the game is called Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade, which I suppose answers the question, “Is Tetsuya Nomura really going to go full Kingdom Hearts with the new FFVII games?”. Intergrade come with a new chapter taking place after the main game’s campaign that will focus on fan favourite Yuffie Kisaragi infiltrating the Shinra Corporation. If you have the the PS4 version of the game you will automatically gain access to the PS5 version but you will have to pay for the Intergrade content seperately. FFVII Intergrade will arrive on PS5 on the 10th of June.

We have to stop Normura. He has gone too far this time.

Following up from the State New of Play was a slew of other FFVII related announcements so we’ll rundown those quickly too. Firstly, Final Fantasy VII Remake will be one of the PlayStation Plus games for March, making it one of the biggest games on the service in quite some time. However, it is worth noting if you pick up this version of the game you will have to pay for the PS5 graphics upgrade separately. Secondly in an interview with Famitsu the Director of the Final Fantasy VII Remake, Tesuya Normura, confirmed that game’s co-director, Naoki Hamaguchi will take over as the lead on FFVII Remake Part 2. This comes as Nomura continues to supervise and work on an “unprecedented number of projects” for Square Enix. Lastly there were two brand new games announced, kind of. The first game is a battle royale prequel to Final Fantasy VII coming to iOS and Android… What? Is this real? FFVII The First Soldier is a shooter with magical spells, summons and Chocobos and I really cannot believe this is real. Finally, if you are still with us, the last game announced was Final Fantasy VII Ever Crisis, this will also be a mobile title but this game aims to retell the story of the entire FFVII universe in one game. That means this episodic game will contain all the stuff that happens in Advent Children, Before Crisis, Crisis Core and Dirge of Cerberus. And yes for those that are paying attention the Final Fantasy VII media now has a alphabetical naming system as convoluted as Kingdom Hearts’ numerical convention (AC, BC, CC, DC and now EC with Ever Crisis). 

Video games are so incredibly silly.

So that was Sony’s first State of Play of 2021 and Square Enix’s “Confuse All News Writers Bonanza”. Overall not an awful showing despite mainly being updates for already released games or more info on games we knew were coming. SIFU and Solar Ash look striking as all hell and while Deathloop continues to hold promise. We’d still except another, much bigger showing from Sony sometime this Summer, around the time of but probably not affiliated to E3’s online event, showing off Sony’s holiday slate.

Boy, that sure was a lot of Final Fantasy VII stuff, huh? I need a lie-down.