Hiya!

In hindsight, Sony pulling out of E3 to concentrate on posting monthly State of Play videos showcasing their upcoming titles for the PlayStation brand was a goo idea, especially now that E3 is dead. The side effect, however, is it’s hard to predict when Sony will put out a State of Play video worth watching. The September edition, though, most gamers had the sneaking suspicion it was going to be a big deal. It is the State of Play just before Tokyo Game Show and they would want to frontload all their reveals so fans would tune in to all the Tokyo Game Show coverage for their upcoming games.

Well, if any did bet big on the September State of Play being huge, they probably got their money back and so much more. All it took was just one game but I’m getting ahead of myself. Before that, we got to talk about the middling midcard before talking about the main event.

Surprisingly, they started out the State of Play with an indie game, Baby Steps. It’s basically a silly game where you seemingly control Nate, a full-fledged adult who seems to be just learning he could walk. This was actually announced way back in June but I only knew about this during the State of Play. It may look stupid but I’m all for stupid. Thanks to the show, Baby Steps is now on my radar.

The next couple of games, Roblox and the Ghostbusters VR game, didn’t really tickle my fancy. For Roblox, they hyped it like it was a big thing as it was finally “making the jump” to Sony’s consoles. Well, I haven’t heard of it and, honestly, if it’s such a popular franchise, would it matter if it was hitting the PlayStation 4? I mean, if it’s a huge as your saying it is, everyone who wanted to have it already has it on other systems! For the Ghostbusters VR game, well, it’s simply a matter of not owning a PlayStation VR setup and I have no plans of getting one in the future. So, pass on these games.

However, if there was one game which might convince me to take the plunge for the PlayStation VR gear, it might be Resident Evil 4 Remake VR. Then again, maybe not. I do like the idea of playing Resident Evil 4 Remake in VR but I have tried other VR games before and it never really felt as fun as playing the same type of game with your regular controller. I’m happy for the people who do have PlayStation VR gear as they can play this when it comes out.

Besides, it’s not like I’m going to be out of new Resident Evil 4 Remake content with Separate Ways. This is going to be Resident Evil 4 but from Ada Wong’s point of view. I’m super stoked for this as it’s a good excuse for me to boot up Resident Evil 4 Remake. It’s sad it’s not free as it’ll cost around $10. Okay, the Mercenaries update is but, honestly, I don’t like Mercenaries. I’m in it for the story! Oh, side note: Capcom put out a separate trailer for Separate Ways, showing off some of the cut stuff from Leon’s campaign which seems a little silly, like the laser beam hallway and the gondola sniper section. They’re making their appearance in Separate Ways! Now I’m even more excited for this!

This is when the State of Play went to snooze mode for a bit as the next several games are ones I couldn’t care less for. Sure, Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora may look gorgeous but I didn’t even like the first Avatar film! So, I have no attachment to this franchise whatsoever. Ghost Runner II is a sequel to a game I’ve never played nor heard of so, once again, I have no reason to care for this sequel.

I will give devote some time talking about Helldivers II because, not only do I not care about this game as it’s a co-op shooter with no story, the gameplay showcase actually made me hate the game! I’m not going to say anything bad about the graphics or the actual gameplay as they both look fine. My issue is with how they presented how the players are supposed to talk to each other!

I really hate it when they make it look like gamers are all calm and collected, able to talk in very monotone voices during heated battles. It seems so joyless and so much opposite from real gamers who would be screaming at other players for help or yelling expletives when getting killed by the enemies. Sorry, Helldivers 2 promo team, that’s not how gamers play! In fact, you just made your game look boring and dull because of that!

Things do pick up after this lull as Sony gave us another peek at the upcoming Spider-Man 2! The first Spider-Man was a blast and, while I haven’t had a chance to play the Miles Morales Spider-Man game as I’m waiting to get a PlayStation 5 before I do, it does look like Spider-Man 2 just might outdo the first game. New York is much larger so there’s more to explore. I’m not exactly excited about Peter and Miles’ new web wings, allowing both Spider-Men to traverse the larger city as web swinging was so much fun in the first game. Then again, it might be important as some sections will be separated by water. Maybe we’ll be able to glide to the Statue of Liberty now!

The biggest thing would be being able to switch between Peter and Miles seemlessly thanks to the PlayStation 5’s faster loading speed. I really needed them to justify Sony to make this feel like it deserves to be on their latest console and why it’s not on the PlayStation 4. Simply making better graphics just won’t do. I do hope they do a few more tweaks and upgrades as the levelling up system looks a little same-y to the first game. Otherwise, Spider-Man 2 looks like it’s going to be a huge hit for Sony.

We then hit another snooze worthy section as this is when they stuck in the Tales of Arise DLC, Honkai Star Rail and, possibly the game I really don’t care for, FoamStars. I’m not against Tales of Arise getting a new character in the form of DLC. It’s just that I didn’t care for the game so it feels meh. I also never understood the hype for HoyoVerse’s first big hit, Genshin Impact. It’s not like I didn’t try it because I did! So, Hontai Star Rail gets the same treatment from me. FoamStars is just laughably dumb because it’s literally feels like a Splatoon ripoff. I do hope it’ll get some sort of hardcore fanbase but… nope. FoamStars is a hard pass for me.

We then come to the main event of the State of Play. The reason why, despite the entire show not really showing anything super good up to this point, this State of Play was a huge mind-blowing showcase of games. It had the latest trailer of Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth. Saying it’s just a “trailer” actually feels like underselling how big this showcase of what Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth has in store as they showed off a ton of stuff to get me and fans super hyped! Don’t take my word for it! Just watch how hyped they all are while watching it!

I knew the original Final Fantasy VII was a huge game so I’m amazed how much stuff Square Enix will be cramming into Rebirth based on the trailer! They’re even adding Team Attacks, something the original game didn’t have! Well, it is coming on 2 discs so it’s definitely going to be huge!

Honestly, if it weren’t for the Final Fantasy VII Rebirth trailer, I would say this State of Play was just okay. We got some decent reveals, like Separate Ways for Resident Evil and an update to Spider-Man 2. Baby Steps was also a fun surprise. Even so, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth carried the show. That made this State of Play from just being okay to being one of the most memorable State of Plays ever. I know Sony can’t pull off this kind of hype every month but I’m glad they pulled out all the stops for this one.

Byee!

What was your take on this month’s Sony State of Play? Let me know in the comments section below!