This past weekend, the second annual PlayStation Experience invaded Moscone West in Downtown San Francisco. PlayStation fans from all around the world were in attendance to celebrate a community that was brought together by a mutual love of gaming. As is customary for a gathering such as PSX, the celebration began with a keynote speech from PlayStation’s heavy hitters like Shawn Layden, President and CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment America and Gio Corsi, head of Third Party Studios and the savior of the PS Vita, to name a few. But of course, as with any keynote, there were glorious highs, and rocky lows.
High: Final Fantasy VII Remake
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A3sBZ5Nr4hc[/youtube]
Wasting no time, right at the beginning of the keynote we were treated with brand new footage for the Final Fantasy VII remake which showcased scenes from the beginning of the game as well as the revamped battle system. At the beginning of Final Fantasy VII we see the members of AVALANCHE, a radical group of activists lead by Barret Wallace and accompanied by Cloud Strife, commence their attack on the mega corporation, Shinra. Predictably, the combat system has been reworked to be more like an action RPG along the lines of Final Fantasy XV (or, for series faithful, Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII).
However, unlike FFXV, it seems like you’ll be able to switch between your party members on the fly in order to utilize their unique fighting styles. And, although not mentioned in the keynote, it seems FFVII will be episodic. What that means in terms of how many episodes there will be, and what the release schedule will be like is unclear. But at the very least, it might mean we’ll get to play FFVII much sooner than we originally thought. Albeit in chunks rather than one whole package at launch.
Low: Battleborn + one exclusive character for Playstation gamers
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ySp1A9ZWHIw[/youtube]
Randy Pitchford took the stage during the keynote to talk more about Gearbox Studio’s new hero shooter Battleborn. Battleborn wasn’t the problem, personally I’m looking forward to the game, the problem is that PlayStation gamers get access to a character that is exclusive to the PlayStation platform.
Let me back up, Battleborn is a first person hero shooter, which is just another name for a MOBA, multiplayer online battle arena. In MOBA’s, the emphasis is on a balanced roster of characters that everyone has access to in order to keep the game competitively viable across all platforms. Granted, it’d be easy to just ban the one extra character that is available to PlayStation gamers, but simply by creating the character, the balance of all other characters is called into question. This might sound like a nitpick, but competitive hero shooters are on the rise, and to a competitive player, something like this shouldn’t happen.
High: Ni No Kuni: Revenant King
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VMuVM9Sn8W0[/youtube]
Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White was arguably the best JRPG to hit the PS3 despite being released towards the end of the console’s life cycle. So when Ni No Kuni 2: Revenant King was announced, the theater of Moscone West erupted with cheers and applause. Ni No Kuni 2 follows the story of Evan Pettywhisker, a child king who becomes a fugitive after his kingdom is usurped during a coup d’etat. Forced out of his kingdom Evan is joined by Roland, a mysterious stranger from a another world, on a journey across the kingdom to gain the support of the people and to take back Evan’s usurped birthright.
No information has come out as yet about whether or not the battle system from the original Ni No Kuni will make a return but whatever it turns out to be, I’m sure it’ll be great.
Low: Paragon
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mly3hBQvHtI[/youtube]
Paragon had the unfortunate luck of having to be debuted right at the end of the keynote so I think a lot of the disappointment surrounding it isn’t exactly fair. Developed by Epic Games–Gears of War, Unreal Tournament, Shadow Complex–Paragon is a MOBA that is attempting to do away with the “clickiness” of other MOBA’s in favor of a more shooter-centric gameplay style. Not much more information about Paragon was revealed, but outside of it’s extremely poor position in the keynote Paragon doesn’t look half-bad. It would have just benefitted greatly from being shown much earlier in the keynote.
High: Long Live the Vita
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ImFzUPN3GPk[/youtube]
Gio Corsi, the head of PlayStation’s third party studios, proved he was the savior of the Vita by announcing a slew of games that would not only come to PS4, but will also find their home on PlayStation’s underdog handheld system, the PlayStation Vita. Games such as Hitman GO, The Last Blade 2, and Maniac Mansion: Day of the Tentacle will all be playable on Vita, proving once again that the Vita is not dead.
Although it’s not related to the keynote, I have to point out that there were a ton of booths on the showfloor that all had Vitas as well as an even larger amount of convention goers with Vitas on as they waited in line to play other games. Where the Vita will end up a few years down the road is murky, but the immediate future of the Vita is bright.
Low: No First Party Games
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0c0kdIFijtg[/youtube]
The biggest disappointment, by far, was the fact that no first-party Sony studios were in attendance to show off the games they’ve been working on, save for Sony Santa Monica debuting a zombie taxi driving game, The Modern Zombie Taxi Co., and Sony San Diego Studios with Guns Up!, a free-to-play tower defense game. But otherwise, nothing truly show-stopping came out of Sony’s first-party studios. Before this past weekend I was certain we’d be hearing about a new God of War game from Sony Santa Monica, a new game from Sucker Punch, and we’d finally see what Sony Bend has been working on for the past however many years.
But instead, we got none of that. In the place of these studios, we got a ton of second and third party titles, which aren’t bad mind you. If there was anytime to really celebrate first party games, it would’ve been at PSX. But, alas, I guess we have to wait until E3 2016 for Sony’s first party games.