Last night (or early this morning, for those of us out West), Sony held their Tokyo Game Show press conference, and oh boy, is there a lot to unpack. The company dropped numerous announcements, and with so much to cover, we might as well get things started.
The big news, at least as far as myself and John are concerned, was the announcement of New Danganronpa V3: Minna no Koroshiai Shin Gakki, coming to not just the Vita, but also the PS4. The trailer didn’t tell us too much, other than that we’d be seeing a brand new killing game in a new school – nothing on new characters, or old ones returning, unless you count Monokuma and Monomi. Still, it makes a lot of sense for this new game to finally step up to a home console, especially given that Sony themselves seem content to let the Vita die a slow, unspectacular death. Maybe we’ll get lucky and they’ll port the first two games to the PS4 too.
Bloodborne’s first expansion pack, entitled The Old Hunters, will hit worldwide on November 24th this year. It’s gonna set you back €15 / £12 / $15, with the expansion revolving around the tale of hunters who had previously made Yharnam their hunting grounds, with promises of new weapons, items, magic and monsters. The game will be getting a re-release in Japan, with which the expansion will be bundled, but there’s no word of this coming to the West just yet. Still it looks cool, and if you’re into Souls games, you probably own Bloodborne already.
Gravity Rush is one of the Vita’s best games, and now, it’s not only set for a PS4 re-release, but we’re also getting a sequel. Gravity Rush Remastered hits PS4 in Japan this December, with release in North America and Europe in February. The remaster will come bundled with all three DLC packs from the Vita version. Gravity Rush 2 is coming some time during 2016 – no definitive release date has yet been set.
Speaking of remasters and sequels, how about Yakuza? Much like Gravity Rush, the original Yakuza is getting a remastering for PS3 and PS4, complete with additional content under the title Yakuza: Kiwami, and is set to release on January 21st in Japan. It’ll also come bundled with a code for a PS4-only demo of Yakuza 6. We didn’t learn much about Yakuza 6, other than that it’ll be arriving sometime next fall. Here’s hoping that these games eventually make their way over to these shores, but given that we’re just now getting Yakuza 5, with no sign of Ishin or Yakuza 0 on the way, I wouldn’t hold my breath.
Koei Tecmo announced that Ni-Oh, originally announced ten years ago for the PS3, was back from the dead, and would now be released on PS4. According to Koei, the action RPG will be “very difficult”, and judging from the trailer we saw last night, it looks like it’s taking cues from both Bloodborne and The Witcher – which obviously, isn’t a bad thing – but with a more traditionally Japanese aesthetic. Ni-Oh looks promising, and I’m sure they want to finally get this thing off their backs, lest it become Japan’s version of Duke Nukem Forever. Maybe that’s a bit harsh.
Project Setsuna had some people talking at E3 this past year, and now we finally have some details. The game’s called Ikenie to Yuki no Setsuna, and will be released for the Vita and PS4 early next year. We didn’t get a ton of information about the game, though Square was keen to stress that Tokyo RPG Factory’s new game is, indeed, a “pure fantasy, true RPG”. It certainly seems to be taking cues from old school Japanese RPGS, though the quality of the footage they showed off wasn’t anything amazing. It does look cute though, so fingers crossed that it turns out to be worth it.
Dragon’s Crown developer VanillaWare announced 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim, a new mecha game for PS4 and Vita. They were pretty light on the details, but at least they gave us a trailer. It looks pretty nice, as you’d expect, but it’s tough to tell what it actually is at this point.
We knew something to do with Kingdom Hearts would be announced at the show – but none of us were quite sure what. Now we know, with a compliation of Kingdom Hearts games, called Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue being announced for PS4. It’s a real mouthful of a title, that combines a HD remaster of Dream Drop Distance, Kingdom Hearts 0.2 Birth by Sleep: A Fragmentory Passage – a brand new chapter taking place after Birth by Sleep – and a new movie, entitled Kingdom Hearts Chi: Back Cover. There’s no word on a release date, but the package is being released worldwide.
Sony announced a price-drop in Japan for the PS4. Currently retailing at ¥39,980, the console will drop to ¥34,980 on October 1st. Sony also announced that Project Morpheus has officially been renamed to PlayStation VR. Speaking at the Press Conference, Sony’s Masayasu Ito said;
“The name ‘PlayStation VR’ not only directly expresses an entirely new experience from PlayStation that allows players to feel as if they are physically inside the virtual world of a game, but it also reflects our hopes that we want our users to feel a sense of familiarity as they enjoy this amazing experience. We will continue to refine the hardware from various aspects, while working alongside 3rd party developers and publishers and SCE Worldwide Studios, in order to bring content that deliver exciting experiences only made possible with VR.”
Capcom announced yet another addition to the Resident Evil franchise at the show, with Resident Evil: Umbrella Corps. It’s not the first time Capcom has gone down the third-person action game route with the series, but hopefully this one fairs considerably better than Operation Raccoon City ever did.
Lastly, some quick hits from the rest of the conference.
– Star Ocean 5 will launch in Japan on February 25th. No word on a western release as of yet.
– World of Final Fantasy seems set to be Vita exclusive.
– The King of Fighters XIV is due out in 2016.
– New Hot Shots Golf is coming to PS4 next year.
– One Piece: Burning Blood was announced for PS4 and Vita, but as of yet, there’s no release set.
– Hatsune Miku: Project Diva Arcade will hit the PS4 in 2016 under the name Hatsune Miku: Project Diva Future Tone, and will be released exclusively on the PSN.
– Toukiden 2 will release in 2016 for Vita, PS4 and PS3. The game will feature an open-world.
