Game Awards 2022 Announcement Highlights

The Game Awards were last night, and while there was no Ace Attorney news or clarification on Beyond the Dawn, we have several exciting announcements to discuss.

The highlight for me was the surprise announcement of Hades II.

I loved Hades, so I was interested when I saw Supergiant was announcing something new, but I never expected a sequel. (Shout-out to the friend who realized what it was first and kept saying, “Sam, look, look,” while I was going, “What? What? I don’t get it!” during the trailer.)

The official website provides some more details about the game, including that we’ll be playing as Melinoe, Zagreus’s sister, and fighting against Chronos (who is here interpreted as the same god as Cronus).

If Hades II has the same level of story as the original Hades, this could easily become another favorite. Like the original, though, Hades II will launch in Early Access first, so I’ll wait until the full release.

As we move on to the next big highlight for me, I want to talk briefly about Bayonetta 3. We haven’t discussed Bayonetta 3 much here since I reviewed it at MonsterVine and had mixed feelings because of the story, but one thing that stood out was a tiny unlockable secret chapter that let you play a young Cereza in a storybook-like world. I thought it was a teaser for DLC.

But no, it was a teaser for a whole spin-off game! PlatinumGames announced Bayonetta Origins: Cereza and the Lost Demon, an entire game done in that style. It will be out on March 17 and is getting both a physical and digital release, which makes me wonder if this will be the length of a regular Bayonetta game after all.

It looks extremely different from regular Bayonetta games (it’s even rated T), and according to the eShop page, you’ll control Cereza with one stick and Cheshire with the other to fight fairies and solve puzzles. For as different as it is, it’s also beautiful, and I’m pretty interested. I don’t mind the series experimenting with other styles for what seems to be a spin-off, and the “Cereza and the Lost Demon” subtitle makes me wonder if they could make more “Bayonetta Origins” games if it does well.

So that was pretty unexpected, but a welcome surprise.

Moving on, Forspoken now has a demo out, which I’m mildly interested in. We also got a new trailer for The Lords of the Fallen, not to be confused with its predecessor, Lords of the Fallen.

And the long-awaited new Armored Core came was announced. While I’m not enough of a mech game fan to normally include something like that in my highlights, the trailer for Armored Core VI is so cool I’m going to share it anyway.

Finally, the last trailer of the show was the one I was most excited for going into it, Final Fantasy XVI.

Final Fantasy XVI will be out on June 22, which gives me a date for when I want to have a PS5 by. In addition to the standard edition, a deluxe edition, digital deluxe edition, and collector’s edition were also announced. The deluxe edition comes with a steelbook case and a cloth map, which I don’t think is worth it for me. The digital deluxe edition, meanwhile, comes with a digital mini art book and digital mini soundtrack.

Meanwhile, the collector’s edition has the steelbook case and cloth map, the digital mini art book and digital mini soundtrack, and also a collector’s box, a statue of Phoenix vs. Ifrit, a metal pin set, and an in-game sword. If any version came with a physical art book and soundtrack, I’d be tempted to go for it, but as it is none of the bonuses appeal to me enough.

(All of these editions also include the game, of course.)

But if the special editions are a little disappointing to me, the new trailer was not. It’s exciting and flashy, although the emphasis is still on combat like in previous trailers.

(I embedded the Japanese trailer because the English one can’t be embedded, but you can watch it here.)

I still want to see something of Final Fantasy XVI’s non-combat gameplay, like exploration, but aside from that, I think this will be the last Final Fantasy XVI trailer I watch. Square Enix has a tendency to put major late-game events in their trailers, and I don’t want to spoil another game that way.

There were some other interesting-looking games shown at the Game Awards, like a horror game called Post Trauma that looks very much inspired by the classics, Star Wars Jedi: Survivor (I’ll play Fallen Order eventually), Death Stranding 2 (I’ll play the original eventually), and a new action RPG from Dontnod called Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden that could be cool, but those were the major highlights for me.

Which Game Awards announcements stood out to you the most?