Let’s Talk About the State of Play and Marvelous Game Showcase

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It’s almost Not-E3 season, and while we were still talking about mystery games, May 30 saw a State of Play, a showcase from Marvelous, and a new Silent Hill presentation.

Frustratingly, the State of Play and Marvelous Game Showcase were at the exact same time, so I did what any reasonable person would do and opened them in two separate tabs to watch them simultaneously.

The State of Play made this easy at first, since they went on for over 10 minutes about a multiplayer shooter game called Concord that I couldn’t care less about, which gave me plenty of time to start with Marvelous’s show!

Marvelous began with a look at a game they’d announced last year called Project Magia, now revealed with the official title Farmagia. I’d guess this means it has farming elements, but I don’t actually know, because they showed the opening video and introduced the characters without saying anything about gameplay. So while Farmagia looks nice enough, I don’t even know what sort of game it is.

Then they showed the next Story of Seasons game and emphasized the improved graphics. I’ve seen a lot of fans criticizing their choice to focus on that aspect, but all I can say is that it’s really pretty. I especially like the fireworks.

They moved on to talk about mobile and arcade games, which worked out well for me since the State of Play had finally gotten past Concord.

…to announce that God of War Ragnarok is coming to PC, but then after that it was time for a new announcement, a new Dynasty Warriors game called Dynasty Warriors: Origins.

I’ve never played Dynasty Warriors, but it’s one of those series I have a mild passing interest in.

The next trailer was for Infinity Nikki, and I’ve never been more impressed and tempted by a game I might not enjoy at all. Just look at it! It’s gorgeous!

Infinity Nikki is an “open world dress-up game” in which you use costumes to get different skills that let you traverse the world and solve puzzles and stuff. That sounds so neat it’s almost enough to make me look past my open world aversion, but it’s actually the 5th game in a series and the others were gacha games, so there’s a good chance this one will be as well. Their information about signing up for the PS5 beta tests specifies that the beta test won’t have in-app purchases, so that likely means the full game will.

The next game in the State of Play was an action RPG called Ballad of Antara, which looks pretty cool. It’s apparently free-to-play, though, which also has me wondering if it will involve gacha or some other monetization scheme.

They moved on from there to VR games and a Marvel game I don’t care about, so it was back to the Marvelous Game Showcase for me! Marvelous showed some indie games, including the cute-looking Moonlight Peaks, a life sim / farming game where you play a vampire.

The State of Play went on to open world action RPG Where Winds Meet, the Until Dawn remake, and Path of Exile while Marvelous talked about Rune Factory, so I stayed with Marvelous to watch the new footage from the upcoming Rune Factory spin-off, Rune Factory: Project Dragon.

Now I could have sworn I blogged about this when it was announced, but I must be misremembering. Anyway, this new Rune Factory spin-off looks beautiful to me. Apparently you use the power of dance to connect with the Earth instead of the power of farming, so that’s an interesting change. I’m pretty excited to learn more about this one.

Marvelous closed its showcase with a new teaser for the upcoming Daemon x Machina sequel, Titanic Scion.

Next, from the State of Play, we got a new trailer for the Silent Hill 2 remake, as well as a release date – October 8. The Silent Hill Transmission live stream after the State of Play largely focused on Silent Hill 2 as well, with a lengthier gameplay video, so I’ll discuss both at once.

Discourse has gone absolutely crazy, with what appears to be people who haven’t even played the original getting on it (if you’re going to post comparison shots, at least make sure you get the right game), so I’ll just summarize my impressions by saying I think Angela looks fine, the gameplay has me cautiously optimistic, and I’m concerned about Maria’s redesign. Maria looking so different has me a little nervous about whether or not they grasped her role in the story. Also, I’m glad they improved James’s face from the first model we saw.

The State of Play didn’t end with Silent Hill, however, as they next showed off the upcoming Monster Hunter Wilds. I’ve never gotten into the Monster Hunter series, so I’m not especially interested in that one.

But they closed with a game that looks right up my alley! I know they’ve had a few shorter Astro Bot games, but now they’re making a full-length 3D platformer just called Astro Bot, and it looks great!

So while the events might not have been stacked with must-play games for me, there were still some great ones in there. Which games from the State of Play and Marvelous Game Showcase stood out to you the most?

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