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[Spyxos]

I saw the trailer for Phantom Blade Zero yesterday and it looked great, but it immediately reminded me of many other games of this type that are announced with a short gameplay section and then disappear for a long time.

I've always wondered if they're even real games or are they just short sections made for investors and not meant to be made into games at all?
Black Myth wukong has several trailers but somehow it does not seem like a real game?

 

[feynoob]

Some game finds success, when they have enough budget, and some gets shelved when there is not enough budget, or in bad shape.

 

[Heisenberg007]

These devs have been making mobile games for years now. They made a AAA game engine a decade ago (but didn't use and shifted this game to UE5).

This is the first attempt at a big console game. Could be vaporware; could be real. But seems like the studio is an active one at least.

 

[Mr Hyde]

It would suck if Phantom Blade wasn't real. It was one of the highlights of Sonys show, despite having a lot of scripted action, but yeah, might as well be vaporware. Black myth seems awol at the moment too, which is a bummer, because it looked really good. Almost too good.

 

[Jinzo Prime]

These Chinese and Korean AAA games never materialize. Where's Black Myth Wukong? Stellar Blade? Dokev?

Companies put them in their showcases because gamers like pretty graphics and don't care about gameplay. It's cheap padding.

 

[ckaneo]

These Chinese and Korean AAA games never materialize. Where's Black Myth Wukong? Stellar Blade? Dokev?

Companies put them in their showcases because gamers like pretty graphics and don't care about gameplay. It's cheap padding.

Dokev is made by a known entity. Doesn't deserve to be on the list

 

[HerjansEagleFeeder]

 

[near]

I'm not going to lie, I got semi excited when I saw Phantom Blade Zero in the presentation yesterday. But when I read it was being developed by an unknown Chinese studio, I stopped caring. There is no doubt that a new studio in China could secure funding and resources to pull off a project of this scope, but we have yet to see a single one materialize that had similar promise. Haaaaaving said that, there may yet be hope for Phantom Blade Zero.

The studio was founded in 2019 by someone called Michael Chang who happens to be an art director, the site also claims he worked on Dark Souls, Darks Souls II and Ninja Blade! What? Let's verify this shit!

A search for mobygames brings up a shit ton of Michael Changs. But searching through the credits of Dark Souls, Darks Souls II and Ninja Blade and you will find said Michael Chang and Michael Chang Ting Yu. All under an outsourced company called Movanova Limited with the exception of DSII, where he is credit under the main team. Movanova limited was dissolved in 2015. The website also lists Square Enix and Tencent as partners, I have failed to find anything online that could corroborate this. It's all very interesting indeed.

Sources:

PHANTOM BLADE ZERO | Cruel Man Studio

Coming Soon!

www.cruelmanstudio.com

Art Director & Lead Concept Artist - Dark Souls
Concept Artist - Dark Souls II
Creature Design and Poster Artist - Ninja Blade

Movanova Limited | Hong Kong Companies Directory

Movanova Limited information, includes incorporation date, status, type, directors, address, contacts & more.

www.ltddir.com

 

[TheInfamousKira]

I don't think it's a grand conspiracy for investors or anything, no. But rather, look to these kind of games in general and try and pick out the similarities: Usually Eastern based -from devs down to setting and themes. Usually Korean or Chinese, as Japanese games usually get released and have a sort of reverence attached. Weeb culture. I'd say a lot of these games never get a fair chance, either critically or financially. Also take in the fact that a good majority of these games are Soulsborne adjacent, and that's become enough of a gaming staple that the market is saturated. I could see a lot of these getting canned because investors are seeing an excessive amount of already under budgeted capital being used to make a pale imitation of something that is going to outsell their own product by virtue of brand recognition.

 

[roosnam1980]

black myth wukong is on nvidias home page though

 

[Hayabusabruh]

I was so looking forward to Faith of Danschant:Hereafter.

 

[-Zelda-]

Fear Effect remake when?

 

[balls of snow]

Poster child of this thread, 6 fucking years and unreal engine 4 for a 2024 release. If this comes out everything else will too.