The Rise of Babylon’s Fall
It’s been too easy to be concerned about the wellbeing of PlatinumGames throughout 2019. They somehow had four games in development at one point, two of which went MIA for an extended period, while they were removed from one. The recently-released Astral Chain, which had been in development since just before NieR: Automata released (which they also developed) came out fine, but Bayonetta 3 and Babylon’s Fall have been MIA since they were announced in December 2017 and May 2018, respectively. Meanwhile, Granblue Fantasy: Relink’s development was shifted entirely to publisher Cygames’ internal Osaka offices. Having too many projects in development combined with recent staff departures was enough to suggest that PG was in disarray at the very least.
Their situation has been improving, fortunately. The Nintendo-published Astral Chain for Switch was well received and appears to have sold well enough. The newest State of Play stream from Sony provided the long-awaited first look at the Square Enix-published Babylon’s Fall, meaning Square Enix wasn’t kidding when they claimed they’d have something to show for the game by the end of the year a few weeks ago.
When this project was announced at E3 2018, most predictions suggested it would either be PG’s attempt at a Souls-like game or a four-player multiplayer game, both solid presumptions based on the concept art-heavy announcement trailer. Turns out, it’s neither of those. The gameplay shown in the first real trailer was, to put it succinctly, extremely PlatinumGames.
The trailer showed how Babylon’s Fall’s gameplay flow will place a heavy emphasis on melee combat, with the main character using twin floating swords for combos on enemies. It couldn’t have been more reminiscent of the aforementioned NieR: Automata action, the main characters in which also used floating swords in combat, in a game also published by Square Enix. Funny coincidence. The energy chain to pull opponents closer to the character looked reminiscent of those from the Devil May Cry games and somewhat of Astral Chain.
I’ve seen comments of disappointment from PG fans about the action flow looking more like Automata as opposed to Bayonetta or Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, but this was bound to happen. Automata was PG’s best-selling game by far, so their potential desire for creating more games like it isn’t surprising — and they happen to be working with Automata’s publisher again here. But don’t take the footage being shown now as a definitive representation of what the final project will resemble, since indications suggest that it’s still early in development.
The trailer ended by saying don’t plan to show the game again until next summer, and not even a vague release timeframe was provided. Considering the game was announced a year-and-a-half ago, it feels like they revealed this project’s existence mere weeks after the ink dried on the Square Enix/PlatinumGames contract in 2018. But that may not entirely be the case, given how the initial teaser said the game was due for a release in 2019. Those suspicions that PG was an internal mess weren’t baseless.
Babylon’s Fall is still due for a release on PlayStation 4 (hence its appearance on Sony’s stream) and PC via Steam. We’ll see it again next summer, conveniently around the time of E3 2020, likely in a more polished form.
P.S. Speaking of MIA PlatinumGames titles: Bayonetta 3 was announced at The Game Awards in 2017 with nothing but a teaser trailer, and little has been said about the game since, outside an assurance that it’s still in development. It would be nice if it resurfaced at TGA this year, which will air on Thursday evening starting at 8:30 PM ET. If not, keep hope alive until the next Nintendo Direct. Also, the Cygames-developed Granblue Fantasy: Relink is planned to be shown sometime this weekend, though exactly how much will be shown and how much of PG’s work they kept remains to be seen.
P.P.S. Sega also announced the Bayonetta and Vanquish 10th Anniversary Bundle for PS4 and Xbox One yesterday, which will contain remasters (likely ports of the PC versions) of both games in one package to commemorate PG’s 10th anniversary. Now you have another chance to play both of them — especially Vanquish.
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Geoff
News Editor | Geoff is some nerd who writes for a blog and thinks he's knowledgeable. He write a lot about video games, but is capable of writing about other subjects, too. Twitter
