Fumito Ueda is an esteemed Japanese game designer behind iconic PlayStation exclusives likeShadow of the Colossus,Ico, andThe Last Guardian. Even though he has only directed three video games in his entire career, his work has been widely considered some of the best the gaming medium has to offer.Ico, Ueda’s directorial debut and his first-ever collaborative effort with Sony Interactive Entertainment, inspired many famous developers in the gaming industry. The same could be said forShadow of the ColossusandThe Last Guardian, both of which became instant cult classics.
All three of Fumito Ueda’s games were developed by Team Ico, a division of the PlayStation-owned developer Japan Studio. Team Ico’s works were critically acclaimed, but the studio ultimately didn’t last long; it was shuttered in late 2011 after Ueda departed Sony for unspecified reasons. After Team Ico was disbanded, Ueda went on to establish a new studio called GenDesign to help Japan Studio finishThe Last Guardianas its director. Ultimately,Japan Studio itself was shut down by Sonyin 2021, due to the poor performance of its recent releases. The closure of two studios one after another created a big disappointment among fans of Ueda’s work, but fortunately, a new game from him was finally announced earlier this week.
GenDesign’s Untitled New Game Bears a Resemblance to Shadow of the Colossus
The Next Game From Fumito Ueda Was Revealed at the TGAs With a Cryptic Trailer
During The Game Awards 2024,GenDesign gave viewers a first look at its upcoming project. The reveal trailer for the game, which is currently untitled, shows a mysterious individual climbing up a giant robot as they seek to evade a dangerous shockwave that’s quickly approaching. The unnamed character enters the robot’s head, detaches it from its mechanical, rust-tinged body, and flies it off into the sky. In typical Fumito Ueda fashion, almost no dialogue is spoken throughout the entire trailer. The only voice that can be heard is that of the robot, which counts down to the number of seconds left until the shockwave hits it.
It’s hard to piece together who this unnamed protagonist is and where they are, but it seems like the game takes place on an alien planet. The dark, purple-tinged sky and the dull, gray landscape depicted in its trailer look nothing like the traditional, Earth-like environments seen in some of Ueda’s other works. Furthermore, none of his previous games have taken place in sci-fi settings;IcoandThe Last Guardian, for example, were both set inethereal fantasy worlds. Even still, this untitled GenDesign project does seem to share at least some things in common withShadow of the Colossus, particularly from a gameplay point of view.
Fumito Ueda’s New Game Seems to Put a Spin on Shadow of the Colossus' Gameplay Formula
Like in Ueda’s 2005 masterpiece, it appears climbing gigantic beings is going to be a focal point of the gameplay in GenDesign’s upcoming title. After all, in the trailer for the game, the unnamed protagonist is seen ascending ladders on the aforementioned robot. However, it looks like these giant robots aren’t enemies players must defeat, but rather vehicles they can use. The robot head that the unnamed protagonist flies off with may even be from a mech of some kind. Players are probably not going to be soaring around in these robots at break-neck speed such as ingames likeArmored Core 6orDaemon x Machina, but they will likely be using them to traverse through dangerous environments, similar to the one depicted in the trailer.
Ueda’s next game is being published by Epic Games Publishing and, even though it doesn’t have a release date yet, it’s already beenconfirmed for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC via Epic Games Store. Fans will probably have to wait a while to see this game again, but hopefully, when it is eventually released, it will end up being on the same level asShadow of the Colossusin terms of quality.
Shadow of the Colossus
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Tales speak of a distant place where creatures the size of mountains roam free. Bound to the land, these beasts hold the key to a mystical power - a power capable of bringing the departed back from the other side.From the creators of ICO comes an adventure like no other. Spurred by love, yet armed only with sword and bow, one man faces an extraordinary challenge - a solitary quest to find and slay opponents so immense they seem to possess no weakness.But in this desolate, beautiful land, very little is ever as it seems. And the journey is just beginning…
