Having opted to forego a press event during last month’s gamescom, Sony is fresh and ready for Tokyo Game Show 2015. Kicking off the yearly event a little early, the Japanese giant is primed to place a laser focus on its homegrown talent, with a media showcase slated for Tuesday, September 15 at 4:00pm local time (12:00 a.m. PST/3:00 a.m. EST).
Before the doors of the Makuhari Messe swing open and the public can go hands on with a slew of titles , Sony will take to the stage to likely discuss its biggest releases, Project Morpheus and all things PlayStation. But what of the yet-to-be-revealed tidbits keeping the PlayStation Faithful on tenterhooks?
E3 may still be the industry’s marquee trade show year in year out, but with PlayStation Experience and Paris Games Week on the calendar, Sony is beginning to leverage its announcements over multiple events. If E3 2015 was a potent blast of nostalgia, then what could TGS 2015 herald ?
For the sake of perspective, last year severed up Tomorrow Children , Dragon Quest Heroes , Resident Evil HD and Resident Evil Revelations 2 . In 2015, well, now’s time to dust off those crystal balls.
Essential Reading:
Sony TGS 2015 Predictions
Tokyo Game Show 2015
Sony is primed and ready, are you?
Persona 5 Worldwide Release Date
It’s been a long time coming, but Persona 5 is teetering on the brink of release — and we couldn’t be more excited. Atlus’ anticipated follow-up is arguably the biggest fixture for the publisher at TGS 2015, and it’s understood the company is pulling no punches in promoting its ultra-stylish RPG.
To date, Atlus has been adamant that Persona 5 will release in North America in 2015, could the publisher confirm as much tomorrow? Granted, the beloved Shin Megami Tensei series has enjoyed a healthy history with the PlayStation brand throughout the years, though it’s much more likely that Atlus will reserve an announcement until the Persona Special Stage.
On September 19, the company will boot up the Persona Channel (no affiliation to the Midnight Channel, thankfully) a dedicated livestream to all things Persona . Surely it’s only a matter of time before we can mark the date in our calendar for Persona 5 , right?
Bloodborne DLC Revealed & Dated
Ready to venture back into Yharnam? Nope, us neither. But it’ll soon be time to dust off that saw cleaver for another journey into From Software’s blood-drenched Victorian nightmare. Sony’s own Shuhei Yoshida — ever the advocate of all things Bloodborne — has teased that the game’s maiden DLC could launch before the year’s end , meaning an unveiling at TGS would be perfect timing.
After all, Game Director Hidetaka Miyazaki is juggling the expansion along with development duties on From’s Dark Souls III , and considering that the latter is on course for a release in early 2016, we imagine that both director and studio will want to give Bloodborne ’s DLC some breathing space by debuting it in 2015. That, and offering ardent fans the chance to recuperate before preparing to die all over again.
Gravity Rush HD Remaster, Gravity Rush 2
Gravity Rush (or Gravity Daze in Japan) was a bona fide on PlayStation Vita, carving out a niche audience with its reality-bending gameplay and quirky, clumsy protagonist, Kat. Buoyed by solid sales, Game Director Keiichiro Toyama took to the stage at TGS 2013 to showcase a brief teaser for another game based in this intriguing universe.
Back then, it was championed as a “new project from Team Gravity,” but all has been quiet from both Project Siren and Sony’s Japan Studio. Featuring a sprawling vertical metropolis, the clip hinted at improved graphics and new powers for Kat, though both parties remained mum on whether this new venture was a remaster, pseudo-sequel or genuine follow-up.
News of a Gravity Rush PS4 port would mean that technically PS Vita would lose an exclusive in a similar manner to Tearaway , but even ardent supports of Sony’s flailing handheld would agree that Kat and Dusty deserve a bigger audience. The 2012 original was by no means perfect, but it presented a solid foundation that could potentially be nurtured into a new franchise for Sony.
Indeed at E3 2015, Shuhei Yoshida noted that the Japanese is giant is simply "waiting for the right time " to unveil Gravity Rush 2 . Is it almost time?
Freedom Wars 2/Delta
Remaining in the PS Vita’s wheelhouse for the time being and our next prediction brings us to SCE Japan Studio’s apocalyptic RPG, Freedom Wars . Orbiting around burgeoning city-states called Panopticons, the handheld actioner performed remarkably well when launching in Japan, behind only God Eater 2 in the rankings of highest opening week sales.
This naturally fuelled talk of a sequel, and it’s understood that Japan Studio is keen on the idea . It all comes down to fan demand, however, with Producer Junichi Yoshizawa noting that he won’t return for the follow-up whether or not it sees the light of day.
Given the cachet of Freedom Wars , it could be that the developer will pursue a pseudo-sequel in the vein of Vita RPG Soul Sacrifice , which was followed up with Soul Sacrifice Delta — an expanded version of the core game that sated appetite for the follow-up. Will Japan Studio deploy a similar tactic? Time will tell.
Level-5's PS4 Exclusive Revealed
PlayStation LifeStyle harbors a deep love for Level-5’s delightful JRPG, Ni No Kuni , so imagine our excitement about the studio’s next mysterious project. Set to be a PlayStation 4 exclusive, there’s little-to-no-information on what said project actually involves, though TGS 2015 is a perfect corridor to formally announce the studio’s nascent IP.
Now comes the exciting part: what could it possibly be? Common logic would dictate that Level-5 is quietly working on a true sequel to Ni No Kuni , though there’s also the chance that the developer plans to showcase White Knight Chronicles 3 . Indeed it was the latter follow-up that was teased by the studio during a Twitch stream earlier this year.
In a perfect world we’d get both, right?