Experience of the PlayStation Experience

This sure was a weekend of firsts for events. We were greeted with the first installment of The Game Awards Friday night, the streamed evolution of the Spike TV Video Game Awards. Though it could have used some improvement, it turned out well for an event that was mostly self-funded. But the biggest one of the weekend was the Playstation Experience, one held for fans and the press by Sony, with numerous first and third-party publishers showing off their upcoming titles. You could consider it a Sony-exclusive miniature E3, considering attendees could play some games after the keynote finished.

A healthy variety of games were revealed, but no one should expect a see many AAA for the first time at any event outside of E3 from now on. Anyone who expected to see one after the other set themselves up for disappointment.

The show started (late, in classic Sony fashion) with a very lengthy demo for Uncharted 4. It featured protagonist Nathan Drake traversing through a jungle while having a nice chat with himself like no one else can. Suddenly, he comes across a number of mercenaries. While he tries sneaking past them while taking some out stealthily, he tips off a number of them to his presence and has to engage them in a gunfight. It was a good way of showing the audience he’s still the ruthless killer we all know. That description could be used to describe any Uncharted game, sure, but it nonetheless looked enjoyable.

The demo showed the luxury Sony had with holding their own event, because they could let this demo run as long as they could. They rented out this place in Las Vegas for the whole weekend, and damn if they weren’t using it. That could also apply for the conference, which was longer than some of their E3 offerings. But it was still more entertaining than The Game Awards.

Of course, Sony demoed some other first-party PS4 titles during the event, including Bloodborne (revealing the procedurally generated Chalice Dungeon mode), The Order: 1886 (showing, holy crap, actual gameplay), Until Dawn (featuring plenty of fan interaction, which should be great for Twitch plays), and Tearaway Unfolded. The problem is many of those games were just shown at The Game Awards less than 24 hours before this, which made some give off a “Been here, done that” feeling. But not everyone saw those, and these weren’t bad presentations.

It’s a shame one of the biggest announcements had to leak early. By the time the event started, everyone already knew Street Fighter V was confirmed thanks to the trailer being accidentally uploaded to Capcom Japan’s Youtube channel too early. We also knew that it was coming only to Playstation 4 and PC, with the game skipping Xbox One. Sony’s Alex Boyes also clarified that PS4 will be the only console we can play it on. It’s still not clear if Sony’s funding the project, but it wouldn’t be hard to believe considering producer Yoshinori Ono previously said he was having trouble receiving funding for it. That it will have cross-play between the PS4 and PC versions is a welcome bonus.

Ono and Sony wanted something new to show, and decided to provide some gameply consisting of a match between Ryu and Chun-Li. A number of new features could be seen between both the teaser and gameplay, so much that I’ll need another post to discuss them all. Stay tuned for that this week. Also, a live gameplay demo will be given at the Capcom Cup on Saturday.

It was evident that SFV is nowhere near finished. To hold everyone off, Capcom is finally honoring an old request (albeit later than expected): Ultra Street Fighter IV is being ported to PS4, and that system only, in spring 2015. It will include all the DLC released thus far, perhaps including the new wild animal outfits. I wouldn’t expect SFV until a year after that releases.

The only other AAA game revealed at the conference was one teased before the event: a new IP called Drawn to Death for PS4. Its name makes it sound like a “mature” counterpart to Drawn to Life, but it’s actually a multiplayer arena shooter taking place inside a teenager’s notebook. It’s directed by David Jaffe at The Bartlet Jones Supernatural Detective Agency. (That name sure made it sound like they were working on some intriguing mystery game, huh?) It’s still early in development, meaning you shouldn’t expect to see the finished project for a while. You might have another chance to get into the early access period in the near future, so keep your eyes on the Playstation Blog if you’re interested.

As far as smaller Sony efforts are concerned: Fat Princess must have done well enough for Sony to greenlight what’s apparently a more expansive game in Fat Princess Adventures for PS4. It’s a co-op RPG starring, well, Fat Princess and a bunch of generic-looking adventurers. With all the indie support Sony provides, it’s nice that they’re making their own indie-esque games too.

We received our first look at Batman: Arkham Knight’s Playstation-exclusive Scarecrow Nightmare Pack. It doesn’t look too bad, but the Batmobile sections leave a little to be desired. I hope it’s more fun to play, because the vehicle sections they’ve demoed thus far look slow and boring. They have a little more time to polish it, so we’ll see how it turns out in June.

There were localization announcements at this thing, surprisingly enough. I saw people thinking Persona 5 would have a significant presence at the show, for some peculiar reason. Atlus typically reveals information on their titles in Japan first, with the American department providing that later. The only news was confirmation that the PS4 version is making its way over here in addition to the PS3 one in 2015, which anyone could have guessed. The same anime teaser put on Atlus Japan’s Youtube account around Tokyo Game Show time was uploaded to Atlus USA’s account, down to leaving in the persona5.jp URL. It’s releasing sometime in 2015 in both territories, and hopefully there isn’t too much of a release gap.

By far the biggest localization news was Sony acknowledging they heard our pleas: Yakuza 5 is being localized. Yes, that’s “Sony,” not “Sega,” because Sega clearly didn’t care to do it themselves at this point, a hair over two years after its Japanese release. Unfortunately, it will be released only on Playstation Network when it hits next summer, but at least it’s coming. To commemorate the occasion, some older titles were also released on PSN, starting with Yakuza 4 and Dead Souls for $20 each. It’s nice that you’ll be able to use the former to catch up on the series, but feel free to ignore the latter.

Interesting how they haven’t said anything about releasing Yakuza 3 on PSN, but maybe Sega’s still embarrassed about the censorship.

Lastly, Suikoden II is hitting PSOne Classics tomorrow, meaning Konami decided to stop playing with fans’ hearts after having it rated by the ESRB twice for no good reason. It would have been nice if both games were retranslated, especially in the case of the second game. But again, something is better than nothing.

As far as announcements from Japanese companies are concerned, I can’t ignore the greatest troll of them all. Final Fantasy brand producer Shinji Hashimoto made it seem like Square Enix was gearing up to reveal either a remake of Final Fantasy VII or a sequel for PS4, but the reality was far more miniscule: they’re merely porting the PC version to PS4 in spring. To say fans didn’t appreciate it is a massive understatement. Just check out the dislike bar on the Youtube trailer for proof.

Given how their previous press conferences have gone, you shouldn’t be surprised about Sony’s keeping their promise in working with independent developers. And they had plenty to show, some with Sony platform bonuses. Sony Worldwide Studios President Shuhei Yoshida will be a playable character in the PS4 and Vita versions of Super Time Force Ultra, while God of War’s Kratos will appear in Shovel Knight. Other indie titles announced included What Remains of Edith Finch, Darkest Dungeon, Wattam (presented by a bizarre Keita Takahashi), Bastion, Severed for Vita, and Skytorn. You’ll have plenty of variety on Sony systems in the near future.

Double Fine’s Tim Schafer appeared to confirm that the remastered version of Grim Fandango is coming on January 27th. He also confirmed that another classic LucasArts adventure game, Day of the Tentacle, is receiving the same treatment. Sadly, they weren’t ready to show that off, but you have to wonder if they’re using the cancelled remaster as a base — assuming it still exists.

One big announcement was made outside the conference: Sony Santa Monica is working on a new God of War game. Yeah, I know it’s a huge surprise that a publisher green lit a sequel in a multimillion-selling franchise, but some people get skeptical. The big question is whether they’ll keep Kratos as the protagonist.

It ran a little long and didn’t feature the most exciting announcements around, but this was a solid keynote for one outside E3. Adam Boyes mentioned that this will be a yearly event, so we’ll have something to look forward to each December.

Feel free to check the Playstation Blog and Sony’s Youtube Channel to see screens and videos of games presented at the Playstation Experience — including the whole keynote itself.