Sony’s State Of Play Stream Reveals New Glimpse At Final Fantasy 7: Remake
by Sage Ashford
Sony’s second State of Play has launched on YouTube, bringing with it Final Fantasy 7: Remake, a new PlayStation design, and…Predator? Reminiscent of Nintendo Directs, Sony’s State of Play has become the way for the publisher to remain in touch with console owners in the aftermath of cancelling both PlayStation Experience in 2018 and E3 this year. Though the last one didn’t offer very much, this second one in the series significantly stepped their game up.
This State of Play offered an extended look at Monster Hunter World: Iceborne, the next major DLC for one of Capcom’s biggest success stories of this generation. Iceborne will place hunters in a new location known as the Hoarfrost Reach, and gives a new story and more monsters to hunt, including Banbaro a dangerous wyvern, and Velkhana, a giant elder dragon specializing in (what else?) ice attacks. Iceborne will also offer a Master Rank for those looking for harder challenges with the monsters they take out. Monster Hunter: Iceborne will release on September 6th.
Next, Sony gave us a new dungeon crawler in the form of Riverbond, a game allowing four-player couch co-op, and featuring a number of crossover characters including the leads from Guacamelee, Shovel Knight, and many more. Riverbond launches sometime during the summer.
Perhaps the biggest surprise turned out to be Sony’s latest game from their worldwide studios, a partnership with Illfonic to develop Predator: Hunting Grounds. Hunting Grounds is a asymmetrical multiplayer shooter, pitting an armed to the teeth Fireteam versus the Predator, an alien killing machine armed with futuristic technology. While Predator’s goal is to kill all of the other players, the players will actually have other goals they need to achieve, from hunting down villains to securing items, making victory all the more complicated for them. Predator: Hunting Grounds is scheduled for 2020.
Gamers will finally be allowed to return to Gallowmere to protect the realms as Sir Daniel Fortesque with the remake of MediEvil. Sir Dan will fight the forces of an evil wizard with his trusty sword, but also hammers, knives, and shields will be available to give him the edge he needs. The game has been beautifully recreated with high-definition graphics, but Sony has also given it a new camera system, a new narrator, and more secrets they’re still leaving us in the dark on for now. One thing they did share with us though is that MediEvil will release on October 25th.
Another new game revealed during State of Play was Away: The Survival Series. Away puts players in the role of a sugar glider, trying to survive as natural disasters ravage the world. In Away, players must both find a new home as well as try to dodge the dangers of predatory animals.
The last major title for this turned out to be a biggie: the re-reveal of Final Fantasy 7: Remake. First announced during Sony’s E3 2015, the game has been radio silent after a brief second appearance during that year’s PlayStation Experience. This new video gives us a look at Barrett, Cloud, and an introduction to a certain familiar flower girl. They don’t go into much detail beyond that and the trailer is fairly short, but we’re promised to see more at E3, which is probably why Square-Enix is showing up at the convention again this year.
That’s it for the second State of Play. A pretty packed second installment for something that barely ran over 13 minutes. As they’re skipping E3, presumably the next one will release sometime in mid to late July if they intend to keep these going.
