I really thought Sony was going to pull out all the stops for the most recent State of Play. After all, they were taking a lot of flak after they announced the PlayStation brand was going all digital and foregoing physical media starting in two years time. While I don’t think they’re going to change their mind anytime soon, they really needed to put on a show that, at the very least, make gamers forget that they’re doing this. And the way they could have done so was putting on a State of Play that showed us a ton of fantastic upcoming products that will still make us want to play games on our disk drive-less PlayStation 5.

And while I think that’s what they thought when they put out not one, but two back-to-back State of Play shows, it still felt flat for various reasons. And, no, that didn’t stop the “no disk, no buy” outcry in the least!

So, how did Sony go wrong with the State of Play? Well, for one thing, they didn’t have that many new killer games. Oh, there was the last game: Final Fantasy VII: Revelation. Yep, if there was a game that Sony needed to close out the show with, it would most definitely be Final Fantasy VII: Revelation. This is a game that everyone is looking forward to by devoting a full ten minutes to featuring what you can do when you play it.

They showed that Cid and Vincent are going to be playable and how you can pilot the Highwind pretty much anywhere and seamlessly skydive from there to the ground below seamlessly. They also featured how you can speed up cutscenes, which is pretty neat, I guess. I do wish they focused more on how the FITS system, Final Fantasy VII: Revelation’s pseudo job system works vs. how you normally do combat. Ditto with fighting on your chocobo mount. I mean, how will this benefit you vs. if you do so without your giant chicken? Still, it did show enough for people who want this game to get hyped up for.

Also, to be fair, this State of Play started out pretty strong as well because they showed us a new clip of the upcoming live-action Resident Evil movie and Marvel’s Wolverine. Those were pretty cool as well. Oh, and I did like the idea of the LEGO PlayStation set. A part of me wishes it was an actual working Playstation build in a case you make out of LEGOs. But that would be ridiculous… until some engineer manages to actually do it in the near future. I guess the Ghost of Yotei, Crimson Desert, Saros and Monster Hunter: Wilds updates were neat. But, as they were DLC, I can’t really get all that excited. After this, it was all downhill, in my opinion, anyways.

I guess one of my biggest problem with this State of Play is how a lot of their upcoming new games just feel so… uninspired. I’m probably not the target for Gundam: Rogue Orbit but why are they fighting monsters and not other Gundams? And, I’m sorry, but the art style is just not… anime enough. Speaking of anime, Rev. NOIR‘s trailer looks like it’s trying to trick people into thinking it’s the latest game in the Tales franchise but with a more generic art direction.

One of the bigger games the State of Play tried to get gamers excited for is Rhapsody in Scarlet. The concept of the game is supposedly all about a young girl with magical powers who gets involved in a conflict between other magic users in the roaring 1920s. And it’s all strung together with a cool jazzy soundtrack. Honestly, that a good hook. It’s execution, from what I’ve seen in both the announcement trailer and the story trailer, however, leaves a whole lot to be desired. Rhapsody in Scarlet doesn’t really need to be set in the 1920s because, from what I’ve seen, they could’ve set it even in present times and it wouldn’t matter. Then again, it’s still early but Rhapsody in Scarlet needed to make a bigger splash than it made.

Uncanyon to me comes off as something that could be played on a PlayStation 3, not a super high-tech system like a PlayStation 5. That’s not exactly a ding on the game but the graphics and art style just didn’t do it for me. I’m actually a big fan of Double Fine Productions as they do make a lot of quirky games and Keeper does fit the bill. Too bad it was already released a year earlier! Kinda hard to get excited for a game that has been playable on other systems.

I did kind of forget the State of Play also had another big reveal: the release window for Until Dawn 2. Now, I know a lot of fans really enjoyed the first Until Dawn. I was not one of them. I found all of the characters to be insufferable teens who made bad decisions. I get Until Dawn was inspired by teen slasher movies so that’s par for the course. But that means that I would have to be controlling the insufferable teens who made bad decisions! I actually gave the game a chance when it came out but, after playing it for a couple of hours, I just couldn’t take it. It even got to the point where I was actively picking the wrong choices so they could die! That’s how much I hated these characters. Until Dawn 2 looks like more of the same. So, yeah. No thanks!

Oh, and they could have ended the show on the high note that was Final Fantasy VII: Revelation… but they had to keep going with the State of Play: Japan show! Why? We already sat through almost an hour of game trailers. Did we need another hour? What’s even worse is how the State of Play: Japan show was just them adding more information on the games they showed off during the first State of Play!

Okay, that’s not exactly true. There were a couple of things I was intrigued by in this State of Play. There was Where the Seeds Fall, a literal action platformer wherein you control a character who jumps down on platforms. But instead of trying to climb up, you’re trying to get down. If you’re afraid of heights Where the Seeds Fall will definitely make you queasy! I don’t suffer from that and the game looks intriguing so I just might get it. There was also a new trailer for Stupid Never Dies, a game I’ve had my eyes on ever since it was revealed. I was a big fan of Lollipop Chainsaw, despite all its flaws. Although it’s not made by the same team that made Lollipop Chainsaw (as far as I know), Stupid Never Dies seems to embody the same bubbly spirit and I’m all for that. There were also a few other games the State of Play: Japan did show off, like Dragon Ball Xenoverse 3, SlashZero and the laughably named CONQ: Crown of No Quarter, but they just didn’t do it for me.

The real problem with the State of Play Japan portion is how they essentially did a re-debut for some of the games they already showcased. Take Rhapsody in Scarlet for example. They did an interview with one of the game’s producers and then showed off the story trailer for the game. Couldn’t you have spaced the trailers out to build anticipation for the game? They also gave us an expanded trailer for Rev: NOIR as well and my issue with how they handled the release of their trailers is the same I have with Rhapsody in Scarlet. And, to close out the show, they showed off a new gameplay trailer for Ghost of Yotei. Couldn’t they have done that at the start of the show when they were showing it off earlier?

It’s not like I tried to like what Sony did cook up for the two State of Play shows. But what I look for in a State of Play are new games. Games I would want to play and entice me to get a PlayStation 5. There just wasn’t that much here. There were no big surprises and rethreading what you’ve shown off earlier just felt like they were padding for time because they knew they didn’t have much to show this time around, despite making the show much longer.

I may be a Sony fanboy… but do better.

What’s your opinion on the most recent State of Play shows? Let me know in the comments section below!