PS5 Showcase (September 2020)

We have an official PS5 release date: November 12th or November 19th depending on where in the world you live! Personally, there were some pretty exciting announcements and reveals in this showcase, and that’s what I’m going to be focusing on in this post.

One thing that I think is pretty cool is that a lot of the games shown are coming to PC as well. I don’t know when I’ll be getting a PS5, so it’s nice to know that I might have the option to play some of these games on PC before I pick up a PS5…if my now 5 year old PC meets the minimum requirements that is! After the presentation, Sony shed more light on PS5’s backwards compatibility with PS4 games, announcing that PS4 discs would be playable on the version of PS5 with a disc drive. It’s nice to have that confirmed!

Anyway, here are the games I was most excited to see during this showcase event, and some brief thoughts on them.

Final Fantasy XVI

This announcement had been rumored for a little while now, but seeing it actually announced still got me hyped. I haven’t played many Final Fantasy titles, but I love that it features classic Final Fantasy staples like crystals, chocobos, marlboros, summons, and so on. The setting seems to be high fantasy, or at least leaning more toward high fantasy than FFXV. Since I’ve only played high fantasy Final Fantasy games (I, II, IX, Tactics Advance) that feels very comforting. I also loved the nods to classic Final Fantasy musical themes spread throughout the trailer.

Naoki Yoshida (Yoshi P) is the producer on this game, which is a good sign I guess since he is often credited with transforming Final Fantasy XIV from the mess it was at launch to a very popular and well-received MMO. I’ve never played FFXIV, but it sounds like FFXVI is in good hands! Combat will be real-time action combat, possibly similar to FFXV or maybe FFVII Remake. It seems like it would make sense for them to re-use and build upon FFVII Remake’s battle system, but I guess we’ll see. Would I prefer turn-based combat? Yeah, probably, but I can’t be too critical since I haven’t played any of the more recent action RPG Final Fantasy games.

Final Fantasy XVI will be a timed PS5 console exclusive, and will be coming other platforms later, although which platforms those are has yet to be confirmed. The end slide shown during the presentation said it would be coming to PC, but the trailers uploaded since then have an alternate end slide that just says “other platforms” and doesn’t explicitly mention PC.

Spider-Man: Miles Morales

This game looks beautiful. In the segment where Miles and his friend are walking down the street, the reflections in the water on the pavement look fantastic. I wonder if they were included as a nod to the “water puddle controversy” of the PS4 Spider-Man, where some people where irritated when reflections were shown in water puddles in a trailer but weren’t present in the final game. I digress - that really doesn’t matter.

What does matter is that Spider-Man: Miles Morales looks like it will be a solid return to the gameplay that made Spider-Man so much fun, obviously with some new features and new abilities since Miles Morales has a few powers that Peter Parker doesn’t.

Spider-Man: Miles Morales is releasing for both PS4 and PS5, with a Holiday 2020 release window.

Hogwarts Legacy

This was the announcement I was most excited about from the presentation. Some development footage/screenshots of this had leaked ages ago, circulating as early as October 2018, and some more rumors of its existence were circulating since then too, but the official reveal was still super exciting! The Wizarding World is an IP that has been woefully underutilized in video games, so seeing a game of this scope is really promising.

My wife and I have really enjoyed the Harry Potter books, films, and even video games, as well as open world RPGs like Skyrim. If this game gives us the “open world Harry Potter RPG” we’ve been dreaming of for years, then we will both be very, very happy!

There weren’t many concrete details to be found in the trailer, but upon doing some research for this post, the official WB Games site for Hogwarts Legacy says the following:

“Hogwarts Legacy is an immersive, open-world action RPG set in the world first introduced in the Harry Potter books. Now you can take control of the action and be at the center of your own adventure in the wizarding world. Embark on a journey through familiar and new locations as you explore and discover fantastic beasts, customize your character and craft potions, master spell casting, upgrade talents, and become the wizard you want to be.

That definitely sounds promising!

The trailer lists a 2021 release year. It doesn’t indicate any platforms, but the official website shows logos for PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, and PC, so it’s probably safe to assume it will release on all of those platforms.

Deathloop

From the new trailer in this showcase, it seems like Deathloop might have some pretty cool branching routes. Unless it was just cinematic trailer flair, I get the feeling you’ll be able to play through different levels or variations of levels depending on your choices. That’s what I’m imagining based on how the trailer explains how Colt only has 24 hours to kill his 8 targets and how he’ll have to somehow “kill 2 birds with one stone.” That kind of freedom to choose your own route would be amazing! Alternatively, it could just be that there’s one solution to killing all 8 targets within 24 hours, and you’ll just have to try different things and play through the time loop multiple times to get it right. That would be pretty cool too.

I love the supernatural powers Colt has at his disposal. The teleportation power looks nearly identical to Dishonored’s “Blink” ability, and telepathically picking up and throwing enemies looks really cool from what’s shown in the trailer. Every Deathloop trailer I’ve seen just has me thinking “Dishonored, but with more guns,” and that sounds awesome!

Deathloop is coming to PS5 and PC with a release window of Q2 2021.