Final Fantasy VII Remake, MediEvil, and other games showcased in PlayStation’s State of Play

Sony made a big splash this early this morning in their latest State of Play broadcast when they dropped even more footage of the long-awaited Final Fantasy VII Remake — a good couple of years after the game’s first teaser made fans bawl their eyes out during E3 2015. 

Oh, and there were other games shown too. No luck with getting updates about their hyped up next-gen console though. 

In lieu of an official presentation at this year’s E3 convention, Sony is going the Nintendo Direct route with their State of Play showcases, unveiling trailers and teasers of upcoming games, with a third one already planned later this year. It makes sense too if we’re trusting the words of Sony Interactive Entertainment Worldwide Studios chairman Shawn Layden, who told CNET that having a big show without anything new to present ain’t gonna add value to the brand. 

The broadcast this morning was on the short side (just 10 minutes) but Square Enix’s short FFIV teaser on their latest game should satiate fans till the developer’s own press conference at E3 come June. 

Oh, and did we mention that there were other game trailers as well? Because there are. Check out all of Sony’s announcements below. 

Monster Hunter World: Iceborne

[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NOqB4kKRWEQ[/embed]

Capcom’s Monster Hunter World is going big with a “massive expansion DLC” that promises to bring new behemoths to slash, smack, and stab with your giant weapons. Also, snow! 

Launching on consoles on September 6 (and on PC probably in the winter), Iceborne puts players in a chilly new land that’ll feature monsters old and new — including a pretty badass land shark. 

Riverbond

[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CsASJ1r-DLk[/embed]

Oh look, a cutesy dungeon crawler. Developed by indie studio Cococucumber, the voxel “shoot and slash” made an appearance at PAX East last year, and now will be coming to the PS4 this summer. And it’s a couch co-op game too, which should make for a charming party activity. The big draw, however, is the fact that you can pick player skins from fellow indie games, including Guacamelee!, Enter the Gungeon, Bastion, and Psychonauts — which adds to the game’s already adorable factor. 

Predator: Hunting Grounds

[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ocP3VPsEGds[/embed]

Asymmetric co-op multiplayer games are still in vogue, and the studio behind the Friday the 13th survival game has a new one coming to PS4 in 2020. It’s 4-v-1 carnage when a team of four paramilitary soldiers take on the titular Predator in a jungle. If we’re going by the traditional lore of the film franchise, the soldiers will be no match against the player-controlled Predator, which will have access to its invisibility cloak, among other advanced Yautja (that’s the name of the alien species) weaponry. 

MediEvil

[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OdFgmLIjYiw[/embed]

For those too young to remember, MediEvil is a series of hack-and-slash games on the first PlayStation console back in the ‘90s. Praised for its sense of humour and Halloween-like aesthetics, the game appears to have garnered enough nostalgic love for Sony to greenlight a remake for the PS4, with a release date of October 5th this year. 

From the trailer, it looks like it’ll be a fun, colourfully campy action-adventure romp. 

AWAY: The Survival Series

[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIjGxIxQ8ok[/embed]

We don’t know if we need a game that puts us in the paws of a sugar glider, but this animal-based adventure game looks like it’ll be an epic platformer. Jump, glide and stealth your way to safety through dense forests and natural disasters. For a pretty unorthodox game, the graphics look pretty excellent. If they manage to get a David Attenborough-type narrating your moves, even better. 

Final Fantasy VII Remake

[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Df0YG3qfZ8E[/embed]

And there it is, the revamp to one of PlayStation’s best games has resurfaced. If it feels like it’s been way too long since you’ve heard anything about it, you’re right — the game apparently underwent some issues during development and Square Enix had to take operations back from the third party studio which had been working on it. 

Shoutout to everyone who immediately teared up when they saw this face pic.twitter.com/gN0k3mwOCX

— Alexa Ray Corriea (@AlexaRayC) May 9, 2019

But whatever the problems are, FFVIIR is back, baby. Cloud, Aerith, Barret (and more) make appearances in the new teaser trailer, complete with some gorgeous footage of its updated action-RPG battle mechanics. It’s still unclear if Square Enix is planning to make FFVIIR episodic, or if we’ll even get to play it within the next decade. 

ilyas@asiaone.com