Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade leads latest PlayStation game-reveal event

Sony’s latest PlayStation-focused video reveal event, as part of its State Of Play series, was its shortest yet, lacking announcements on any first-party Sony games coming to either PlayStation 5 or the older PS4. Instead, the event was led by a third-party whopper: a remake of… last year’s Final Fantasy VII Remake.

That definition is a stretch, since this new title may be better classified as a graphical remaster, but there’s a lot going on, as visible in the above gallery. The new game, FFVII Remake Intergrade, will land exclusively on PlayStation 5 consoles on June 10, and in good news, existing owners on PS4 will get nearly all of its content as a free upgrade (so long as they either own the game digitally or have a disc-based PS5). That content includes a sweeping graphical overhaul with new lighting, texture, and particle systems and an optional 60fps mode, plus a new “classic” option for the game’s active battling system. Picking “classic” will let players focus entirely on selecting commands from menus, instead of giving direct joystick control to a “lead” character like Cloud or Tifa.

For existing owners who may have already beaten the game, the incentive to double-dip comes in the form of a new “episode” of content. This will put players in control of original series character Yuffie, and the revealed footage includes her and a companion named Sonon spending time in existing game regions like the Sector 7 slums—and Yuffie using Sonon as a springboard to pull off cinematic, sweeping attacks. To access this new chapter, existing owners will have to pay for the extra DLC, though publisher Square Enix hasn’t yet clarified how much that will cost.

The closest Thursday’s event got to a “first-party” reveal came from Returnal, a second-party project by longtime Sony collaborator Housemarque. We finally learned that the game is launching April 30—and saw the clearest footage yet of its roguelike action. This third-person shooter largely resembles Risk of Rain 2, in terms of pitting players against fantastical, supernatural beasts while letting players access a mix of wild attacks and high-speed dodges. (Though unlike RoR2, Returnal appears to be a single-player affair.) Thursday’s trailer also gave us a peek at a plot tying the game’s “die-and-retry” roguelike loop together, which included a look at the main character’s childhood home (which players could discover and explore in a first-person perspective).

Solar Ash, which was revealed during Sony’s last State of Play presentation, will arrive “later this year” from the team behind beloved indie action game Hyper Light Drifter, and we finally got a firm look at this PlayStation console exclusive’s gameplay. The results look like a cross between Jet Set Radio and Shadow of the Colossus, in terms of high-speed third-person platforming combined with epic “crawl over bosses” encounters.

The PlayStation console exclusive shooter Deathloop received its first hard gameplay reveal on Thursday, as well, and it finally looks like an Arkane Lyon game—meaning, it now resembles its Dishonored first-person-stealth pedigree. Only, imagine that kind of gameplay supercharged with supernatural powers (invisibility, stealth, and magical attacks), 007-styled gadgets, and the tongue-in-cheek, ’70s-technicolor-spy gaming glory of No One Lives Forever. That combination of influences has us excited for what’s to come from this Bethesda-published game (which Sony nabbed before that Microsoft acquisition deal), but we’re still waiting on its release date.

Unfortunately, the highly anticipated video event was utterly bereft of first-party announcements, thus leaving fans in the dark about June’s Ratchet and Clank sequel, let alone sequels to Gran Turismo, God of War, and Horizon: Zero Dawn. For the rest of the event’s announcements and teases, which included a firmer look at upcoming PlayStation 4/5 games Oddworld Soulstorm and Kena: Bridge of Spirits, check out the full 30-minute video, embedded below.

Listing image by Square Enix