World of Demons
PlatinumGames! YAY!
Spiritual sequel to Okami! YAY!
Free-to-play mobile game! YAY, wait WHAT?!
"PlatinumGames has unveiled World of Demons, an action game that pits samurai versus yokai in what looks very much like a spiritual successor to Ōkami, leaning as it does on traditional Japanese folklore and mythology and featuring artwork that's heavy on parchment textures and drawn with thick, tangibly inked lines.
Oh, and another thing. It's a free-to-play mobile game that's being published by partner DeNA.
If that last little caveat comes as a bit of a disappointment, know this: World of Demons looks and plays every inch the PlatinumGames action experience, its combat encounters complete with combos, counters and cancels. And, despite the touchscreen, it plays like an extremely good example of the type of action PlatinumGames has built its name upon - as you might expect given it's from the director of Anarchy Reigns and designer of The Wonderful 101.
"Historically we've been a console-specific developer, but we want to focus on any type of game on any type of system, regardless of whether it's a console or not," PlatinumGames' co-founder and executive director Atsushi Inaba explains at the launch event for World of Demons in Osaka's Umeda Sky Building. "Our company mission is just to create great feeling action games with full originality - and we think this project fits that."
"That philosophy is what made me excited to work with Platinum," says Andrew Szymanski, DeNA's producer on World of Demons and a man who also brings console experience to the team, having previously worked at Team Ninja and Capcom. "They're platform-agnostic, and they'd treat this as how to get the best possible action game on a mobile device. I'm trying to challenge people's preconceived notions of what's possible with a mobile game. People, especially in the west, say, well you can't do that - but I think Platinum has risen to the occasion quite exceptionally."
After a couple of hours spent playing World of Demons, I can attest to that. This is a much more effective distillation of an existing brand of play than DeNA's more recent work with Nintendo on Fire Emblem and Animal Crossing; instead, think more along the lines of Super Mario Run, with a little automation helping smooth out the lack of traditional controls. It runs a little deeper than that, in practice, affording you complete 360 degree control over your character in small, closed-off arenas with your attacks automated once you're in range.
It's easy to assume that World of Demons has been quickly assembled to spin up some money after the cancellation of Scalebound, but that's not the case - this has been in the works since 2015, well before Microsoft canned Kamiya's ambitious action RPG."
PlatinumGames! YAY!
Spiritual sequel to Okami! YAY!
Free-to-play mobile game! YAY, wait WHAT?!
"PlatinumGames has unveiled World of Demons, an action game that pits samurai versus yokai in what looks very much like a spiritual successor to Ōkami, leaning as it does on traditional Japanese folklore and mythology and featuring artwork that's heavy on parchment textures and drawn with thick, tangibly inked lines.
Oh, and another thing. It's a free-to-play mobile game that's being published by partner DeNA.
If that last little caveat comes as a bit of a disappointment, know this: World of Demons looks and plays every inch the PlatinumGames action experience, its combat encounters complete with combos, counters and cancels. And, despite the touchscreen, it plays like an extremely good example of the type of action PlatinumGames has built its name upon - as you might expect given it's from the director of Anarchy Reigns and designer of The Wonderful 101.
"Historically we've been a console-specific developer, but we want to focus on any type of game on any type of system, regardless of whether it's a console or not," PlatinumGames' co-founder and executive director Atsushi Inaba explains at the launch event for World of Demons in Osaka's Umeda Sky Building. "Our company mission is just to create great feeling action games with full originality - and we think this project fits that."
"That philosophy is what made me excited to work with Platinum," says Andrew Szymanski, DeNA's producer on World of Demons and a man who also brings console experience to the team, having previously worked at Team Ninja and Capcom. "They're platform-agnostic, and they'd treat this as how to get the best possible action game on a mobile device. I'm trying to challenge people's preconceived notions of what's possible with a mobile game. People, especially in the west, say, well you can't do that - but I think Platinum has risen to the occasion quite exceptionally."
After a couple of hours spent playing World of Demons, I can attest to that. This is a much more effective distillation of an existing brand of play than DeNA's more recent work with Nintendo on Fire Emblem and Animal Crossing; instead, think more along the lines of Super Mario Run, with a little automation helping smooth out the lack of traditional controls. It runs a little deeper than that, in practice, affording you complete 360 degree control over your character in small, closed-off arenas with your attacks automated once you're in range.
It's easy to assume that World of Demons has been quickly assembled to spin up some money after the cancellation of Scalebound, but that's not the case - this has been in the works since 2015, well before Microsoft canned Kamiya's ambitious action RPG."
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