Sony’s State of Play October 2021 Roundup

Sony’s State of Play is always exciting. Usually, Sony doesn’t give us a lot of information of its contents ahead of time, unless it’s a presentation focused on a particular game. That is pretty much the case with this month’s livestream as well, though some things are to be expected. Such as the announcement for November’s games available through Playstation Plus, most likely including one or more VR-Games, considering Playstation’s own VR-Headset just turned 5. This presentation is only about twenty minutes long, so it’s probably not going to be jam-packed with lots of exciting news, but it should be worth the watch. Let’s dive in!

Turns out, not all of my assumptions were true so far. There was absolutely nothing on VR, but maybe Sony is saving that for a future presentation. Only one of the games included within Playstation Plus for next month was shown, and other than that, they actually ended up showing more games than I thought they’d fit into roughly twenty minutes of footage. First off, we got Deathverse: Let it Die, which looks like a hero-/character-based arena fighter along the lines of something like Overwatch, but a little less bright and colorful and a bit grimmer, as the name might suggest. It looks like a game fun enough to jump into every once in a while, and is set to release in Spring of next year.

One of the games that sort of fell off my radar was We Are OFK. This musical biopic-game split into five different episodes has an absolutely stunning visual style, a great soundtrack, and a good story. That combination is something I’m always interested in. Each of the episodes comes with an interactive music video, and this time I’m definitely putting the game in my notes to remind myself to look out for it when it releases some time next year.

Bugsnax is a game I have yet to experience myself, and maybe I will when the patch The Isle of BIGsnax releases in Spring of next year. The update is bringing along an entirely new area to explore as well as some fun little extras, like Bugsnax wearing hats or the ability to change the interior of your own hut! Best of all, the update will be completely free to anyone who already owns the game.

I am no big horror fan myself, but I know that the FNAF-Franchise has a huge cult following. I’m guessing those people will be very excited to hear that the latest game Five Nights at Freddy’s: Security Breach releases in just under two months on December 16th. The trailer already managed to scare the hell out of me but don’t let that be an indicator of how scary it is. It is not very hard to scare me.

One of the more popular indie-titles of this year, Death’s Door, is coming to PlayStation on November 23rd, just one month away. I haven’t picked the game up myself yet, but I’ve heard big praise from people I trust. Maybe I’ll end up playing it on my PS5. For those interested in the devs’ previous game, Titan Souls is going to be free for anyone preordering Death’s Door.

Personally, I’ve become very cautious when it comes to free-to-play-titles, and as fun as KartRider: Drift might look, the game looks like the perfect opportunity for micro-transactions. However, if the developers keep them purely cosmetic, it shouldn’t be too much of an issue. I can’t say I’ve seen a Kart-racer as a free-to-play game before, so maybe the concept will actually work out. Beta registrations for the game are now open for those interested in trying the game out before it officially releases.

For the fighting game-fans among you, there’s another beta coming up for The King of Fighters XV. This one’s going to be an open beta, so no pre-registrations will be necessary. For those who’d rather wait for the finished product, the game’s full release is scheduled for February 17th of next year.

Now comes the one PlayStation Plus-game announced for next month. First Class Trouble is an online social deduction-game that looks like it could be loads of fun for fans of the genre. The only problem might be getting enough people together to play it. I doubt the game will be much fun if you can’t tell your friends how suspicious they are right before they stab you in the back.

A surprise announcement for me was Star Ocean The Divine Force, a new installment in the popular futuristic JRPG-series. The trailer looked quite promising, showing off some fun ways of exploring as well as some interesting looking combat. I haven’t played a single game in the franchise so far, but maybe I’ll give it a proper shot when the game releases next year.

Lastly, we got another look at Little Devil Inside, another game I’m fairly excited about. The visual style is quite intriguing, and so is the overall mood and setting of the game. In this new trailer, they showed us some more elements of the game, like the overworld-navigation that kind of reminded me of older Final Fantasy titles or a slightly deeper look into the game’s story. Sadly, they didn’t mention anything about a release date, so we might have to hold out a little longer until we can finally play it.