Unlimited SaGa

There are probably worse criticisms that a game could receive than “ruined the SaGa franchise” but that’s what Unlimited SaGa did. You wouldn’t know based on the game’s elegant box art with its butterflies and flowers, rendered in gorgeous water colour. It was all the more disheartening at the time because Square was releasing classics like Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles, Drakengard, Final Fantasy Tactics Advance and Kingdom Hearts. Unlimited SaGa stands as proof that even Square could mess up big time (and not for the last time either).

Friend and Foe AB’s Vane, an adventure game that evokes the likes of The Last Guardian with its mood, is now available for the PS4. You can watch the launch trailer below to see just how brooding and evocative the aesthetic can be. Spoiler: It’s very brooding and evocative.

Vane sees a bird transformed into a child after coming into contact with golden dust. The land you find yourself in itself is mysterious and in ruins – it’s up to the bird/boy to explore it. As you shift between both perspectives, the land will respond in kind and morph into something new. What’s going on, and how does the bird return to normal?

Well, you’ll have to wander on the edge of getting lost to find out. Vane has no shortage of mysterious figures and puzzles to solve. We’ll see if its environment and pacing can deliver on the unique visual style’s promise. Vane is currently available on the PlayStation Store for $24.99.

Evoking the spirit and soul of Fumito Ueda’s gorgeous The Last Guardian (itself a PS4 exclusive), Vane, an indie game by Friend and Foe AB, will be coming to the PlayStation 4 exclusively on January 15. The game sees a bird transformed into a young boy, and set out on a journey through the desert to try to restore its form.

The game intends to be an emotionally evocative experience—something that is immediately apparent when you view its trailer. Much like GRIS, which launched on PC and Nintendo Switch last month, it seems to be trying to handle abstract concepts via its gorgeous visuals and minimalistic gameplay. Based on the feelings that are elicited by the snippets of it we get to see, it seems like this is something the game will end up being successful at that.

If you need to see the game in action, you can check out a trailer for the game, which can also be viewed on its PS Store page.

Along with some of the bigger names, PlayStation Experience saw a number of other announcements that should keep fans busy when they eventually release.

These include remasters of games like PaRappa The Rapper, Patapon and Locoroco; a new Danganronpa; the return of the Ys series with Ys Origin; the announcement of YAGER’s Dreadnought being exclusive to the PS4 for its console release; a mysterious new adventure title called Vane; fighting game/MMO Absolver; and Nex Machina, the latest title to come from Housemarque of Resogun fame. That’s not including a ton of other indies (like Strafe) that were seen in passing.

And for all the PlayStation Vita players, you’ll be happy to know that some of these games will be heading to the handheld in the coming year.

What are your thoughts on PlayStation Experience this year? Let us know in the comments below, along with whether it was an improvement over last year.

Two developers who were formerly working on The Last Guardian with Team ICO have formed a brand new indie game studio, Friend & Foe; Rasmus Deguchi and Rui Guerreiro, who previously worked as character artists on The Last Guardian, are the co-founders.

Friend & Foe has also announced its first game- Vane, which is an open world adventure game about a child who finds himself stuck in an odd land with some strange abilities. Vane has currently been announced only for PC, although it appears that the developers will also announce other platforms in the future.

As for when Vane will release? In true Team ICO tradition, we don’t quite know. The official release date for the game is ‘when it is done,’ which sounds about right for a studio formed by two guys who worked on a game for three years that still hasn’t released.

Friend & Foe also announced a second game called Dangerous Men, an action arcade game that is apparently inspired by 1980 era buddy cop movies. But that’s pretty much all we know about it. No wait, we know that it too will be released ‘when it’s done.’

The games sound interesting, but let’s just hope they all manage to release before The Last Guardian does. Which… really shouldn’t be difficult.