WiLD
Y’all remember WiLD? Announced way back in the Neolithic period AKA Gamescom 2014, this Sony exclusive is a super interesting looking open-world survival game set in the Stone Age.
Featuring some wild (heh) looking supernatural elements involving animism, ancient goods, and gigantic skeleton kings. It’s a cool concept, and its a game I’ve often wondered if I will ever get to play.
Being developed by Michel Ancel (perhaps best known as the creator of the Rayman franchise) and his new team at Wild Sheep Studio, we still don’t know a lot about it.
After the initial trailer, we got another one the following year, at Paris Games Week in 2015. Here we got a taste of the gameplay. which features a procedurally generated open world, and an animal possession mechanic was shown off.
And then, radio silence. Since then, there has been much speculation, but the game is still very much in development. We are long overdue for an update on the project, and fingers crossed we hear an update soon.
The prospect is intriguing, as the pitch for the game is compelling and unique, especially on PlayStation, where the only thing set in a similar period is FarCry Primal. But whereas that was essentially a Stone Age shooter, WiLD appears to be something far more ambitious, and I’d love to check it out.
Or if it’s dead, at least let us know.
Death Stranding
Hideo Kojima is the closest thing that video games have to a Quentin Tarantino. His games, like Tarantino’s films, are incredibly stylized and true to a singular vision, sometimes to their own detriment. And you had better not criticize either within earshot of a true believer, or you are really going to hear about it.
Of Sony’s unreleased exclusives, we know the least about Death Stranding, despite it having the most coverage in the form of trailers and interviews. If you look into it, you’ll find a random assortment of imagery and iconography seems designed to bewilder.
At this point, I don’t want to hear anything more about it until the team at Kojima Productions is ready to announce a date.
We do know that Hollywood types like Norman Reedus, Mads Mikkelson, and Guillermo Del Toro are involved in and completely sold on the project.
Del Toro, speaking to IGN, let it be known that even he doesn’t know what is going on with the game, so it’s safe to assume Kojima-san is playing this one close to the chest.
We still don’t have a release date for Death Stranding and aren’t likely to get one anytime soon. Personally, I think it’s going to be a 2020 game and launch on both PS4 and PS5.
It would make sense to take advantage of the increased power of the new console, and having such a mysterious game on the launch lineup would be incredibly tantalizing.
Ghost of Tsushima
Ghost of Tsushima is an upcoming action-adventure game from Sucker Punch, the studio behind the inFAMOUS series. It tells the story of the last surviving samurai on Tsushima during the first Mongol invasion in 1274. But a game in this setting is, of course, going to be romanticized, and certain liberties have to be taken
For example, samurai of this period hadn’t fought a war in living memory, and are nearly 200 years off becoming the feared warriors of the Sengoku period, that we all know and love.
Their Mongol invaders, conversely, are fresh off conquests in both China and Korea, and its soldiers are highly experienced veterans at the height of their empire.
All I’m going to say is a samurai of this time period would have his hands full with a single Mongol soldier, much less the dozen the protagonist casually cuts down in last year’s gameplay trailer. I feel like my boys from the Horde don’t get the rep they deserve, OK?
What we do know about the game, though, is very intriguing. Apparently, there are no waypoints, and exploration must be done in the old fashioned way. There will be sidequests and the game takes place in an open world full of dynamic events.
I’m glad for Sucker Punch. Ghost of Tsushima seems infinitely more ambitious than their previous titles (which were already rock-solid), and as Sony Santa Monica did with the new God of War, it seems like a real level-up for the studio.
We are likely still a long way away from seeing the finished product. Just this month a job listing for a Narrative Writer was posted, which could indicate there is still quite a bit of work left to be done.
Final Fantasy VII Remake
Of the games on this list, Sony fans are likely the most apprehensive of this one. Final Fantasy has changed a lot in the two decades since Final Fantasy VII’s release, and it remains to be seen if they can recapture the magic. A lot of time has passed, and so much has happened in this industry.
We know so very little about this game, and its hard not to be concerned. Officially announced back in 2015, we have heard nothing of substance, the only evidence the game is even alive is a single CGI trailer that was released in 2017, plus a smattering of leaked pictures.
The game was originally being developed by CyberConnect2, best know for their Naruto and .hack games. The game was also meant to be released episodically, to get the games out the door quicker.
Since then, due to concerns over the quality of the product being produced, Square Enix has moved development in house. If you are anything like me, none of this sounds comforting.
And we don’t really know much else. It’s an action game, and I would imagine combat is something along the lines of Final Fantasy XV, or possibly even like the Kingdom Hearts series.
We are fast approaching E3, and we are long overdue for an update. I really hope this one comes together, but I have tempered my expectations. After all, we will always have the original, no matter how Remake turns out.
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