If there’s one studio in the whole gaming industry that keeps surprising and loves to offer a refreshing twist on the gameplay, it surely must be Platinum Games. Over the year, the Osaka-based studio, founded by veteran Capcom/Clover figures such as Hideki Kamiya, director of Resident Evil 2, Devil May Cry, Okami, Viewtiful Joe among others, has build himself a solid reputation over gamers alike thanks to the flashy tone and fast-paced gameplay offered by its games. Although most of the developer’s games have never been breakthrough commercial successes, that still hasn’t stopped games like Vanquish, The Wonderful 101, and Bayonetta to reach a cult following among their fan bases. Although they have over the years gone through some rough times especially after the Scalebound fiasco, it was after the release of popular franchise NieR’s newest entry Automata, developed in partnership with series creator Yoko Taro that Platinum Games has finally witnessed critical AND commercial fame with this title. To the point that Hideki Kamiya himself acknowledged Yoko Taro as the person who “ saved “ Platinum Games according to him.
Thanks to NieR : Automata, Platinum Games is back on track, and more than that, they’ve been going on a roll lately as they have confirmed working on three new games at the same time. And if we rely on the words of the studio’s lead produced Atsushi Inaba, we should expect Platinum Games to have a pretty intense year with some surprise announcements over this year. In the meantime, here’s a recap of all the ongoing projects happening at Platinum Games.
Babylon’s Fall
Highlighted reveal of the cumbersome Square Enix E3 2018 livestream, Babylon’s Fall marks Platinum Games’ second collaboration after the successful NieR : Automata. So far, very little information, apart from the E3 reveal trailer, has surfaced regarding the project. But based on the trailer, we should expect a game full of lore set in an a dark fantasy world where, according to the main artwork above, the player will control a class between many, such as a mage, a warrior, etc... Thankfully, we do know when the game will release, but for now we’ll have to take a vague 2019 release window... until more information gets eventually released at next E3 ?
Bayonetta 3
After the commercial failure of the original Bayonetta game, the series was initially planned to be cancelled by Sega. Fortunately, Nintendo came in just on time to save the series by accepting to finance in partnership with Sega the idea of a second instalment, resulting in the release of Bayonetta 2 as a Wii U exclusive. However, given the fact that the game was released on an ill-fated system with a very limited park of copies sold compared to the Wii, the game, albeit outshining Bayonetta 1 in every aspect, underperformed even harder than the first game. That didn’t stop Platinum Games and Nintendo to announce a third instalment of the series at the 2017 Game Awards, in addition of the Switch ports of Bayonetta 1/2. This time, Nintendo will entirely fund the development of the game, letting Platinum Games even more liberty other the development process. But what about the game itself ? The reveal trailer showcased Bayonetta into serious trouble as she is seen fighting against a mysterious and unknown new enemy. And that’s about it. To this day, there aren’t any concrete information on how the gameplay and the story will evolve, as Platinum Games remains very secretive on the game. As to wherever gameplay will revealed, 2019 may be a bit too soon still to expect to see how the game plays but we should hopefully expect to see a new trailer at E3.
Astral Chain
Arguably the most interesting, and hypest project out of all the upcoming games from Platinum Games. Revealed out of nowhere in the recent Nintendo Direct, Astral Chain is the second exclusive after Bayonetta 3 set to release on Nintendo Switch. Directed by Takahisa Taura, senior game designer on NieR : Automata and supervised by none other than Hideki Kamiya himself. Unlike games previously mentioned, Astral Chain has been given during the Direct a solid gameplay reveal and even a release date that is closer than you think ( 30 August 2019 ) ... and so, how does the game play you may ask ?
In Astral Chain, you seem to be playing as a member of a special police task force who seeks to protect the Ark, a multi-cultural city in the near future, from a alien invasion. To do this, you will engage battle with those obscure invaders with the help of a special weapon called Legion whose purpose is kind of similar to the Blades from Xenoblade Chronicles 2, except that the concept seems to have been way more fleshed out as the Legion will act as your ideal comparing for all kind of operations. Judging by the reveal trailer, there seems to be going on A LOT in it, it would be rather interesting to see how the gameplay turn out to work and given the fact that the game releases sooner than expected, we should definitely expect a more detailed presentation at this year’s E3.
Here’s a overall description of the game via Nintendo.com
As part of a police special task force, it’s up to you to fight against mysterious, alien-like creatures who have invaded the world.
In the Ark, a multi-cultural city in the near future, disaster strikes when gates to another dimension suddenly appear! Dangerous creatures begin to emerge, attacking the people and polluting the land, and normal police forces are unable to compete with them. To stand up against these threats, a brand new, special police unit known as Neuron is formed.
Choose between two playable characters – one male, one female – on your adventure. The character you don’t choose also appears as your younger twin, and a fellow member of Neuron.
In order to resist the creatures, humanity developed a special weapon: the Legion. The Legion acts as your partner, and helps with your investigations. However, it’s in battle where the Legion shows its real ability...
Work together with the Legion and use all sorts of combat styles to fight your enemies. You could both attack the same enemy simultaneously, target different opponents, or send your Legion on the offensive while you support it with items. Use this synergetic action system to battle and explore together!
(Speculation) The Wonderful 101 Switch
The Wonderful 101 remains to this day Platinum Games and the Wii U’s most criminally underrated game. No wonder why a lot of the fans of the game who turned out to have brought it have been begging for a port on Switch in order to give the game a second life.
In fact, Hideki Kamiya and Platinum Games have been teasing several times in the past a port of The Wonderful 101 was indeed coming to the Switch, but they also mentioned in past interviews that they really wanted to port the game. So wherever the game is indeed planned for Switch or still at the stage of consideration is a mystery. However, chances of having The Wonderful 101 on Switch is almost certain given the fact that Bayonetta 1 and 2 already sold better on Switch than on Wii U and that it would be a non-brainer for Nintendo to this time better promote the game and convince new gamers to try this underrated gem.
(Speculation) Mysterious unannounced game
And last but not least, Platinum Games has also confirmed that they had a top-secret project in the works that, according to Kamiya and Inaba’s sayings, is set to “ turn the action genre on its head “. This tease regarding the mysterious game in question was first mentioned during an interview at Bitsummit last year in May. Since then, no news or update regarding the unknown project has been said. It is unknown if the game in question turned out to be Astral Chain or if it turns out to be something else.
According to the Wikipedia page of Platinum Games, there are 209 persons working on at least four different games ( five if we eventually count the hypothetical Wonderful 101 port ), therefore there are more than 40 persons estimated per game.
Anyway, there is no denying that it will be seriously exciting to look forward at what Platinum Games is cooking up. Apart from the “anime-licensed” games, they have yet to deliver a bad game. And there could end up being even more announcements from Platinum Games this year as previously mentioned. E3 will surely be their next bus-stop on their way to the hype train, so we can definitely look forward to a gold year with Platinum !
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