Oh my God! It’s Uncle Death!: My Favorite Things from Sony’s September State of Play (and Some Thoughts on that OD Teaser)

Let it Die: Inferno by GungHo and Super Trick Games

I’ve always had a strange relationship with the Tokyo Game Show. 

On one hand, most of my favorite devs operate out of Japan and I’ll always be hyped to see what they bring to the event. However, with announcements being released almost at random over the course of the week, I exist in a near constant state of FOMO (I usually do, but the chance of the newest, coolest trailer slipping through the cracks increases exponentially). Luckily, PlayStation decided to corral all of their biggest announcements in one place. It certainly made my life easier–not that I necessarily hate picking through YouTube a la carte. 

So, here are my impressions from September’s State of Play with just a dash of Kojima for dessert. 

Saros

Saros is Housemarque’s spiritual successor to Returnal–a third-person bullet hell (metaphorical) that takes place on a planet that might be Hell (literal).

If you aren’t afraid of brutal difficulty and haven’t played Returnal, I highly recommend it. Even if run-based shooters typically aren’t your thing, I feel it does so much right that it transcends those trappings. It’s currently my 32nd favorite game of all time (this isn’t a backhanded compliment, I aim to finish 100ish every year). 

So far, this appears to be more of a good thing. We can look forward to our screens being filled with sparks, lasers, and jelly orbs on March 20, 2026. 

Zero Parades–For Dead Spies 

I almost skipped including Zero Parades in this recap. It looks incredible and incredibly dense but my lack of Disco Elysium experience makes me feel like I’m just not the right person to write about it. 

Watch the above trailer for yourself and let me know what you think. 

Nioh 3

Nioh is another franchise that I’m not qualified to write about, but I was taken aback by how much story seems to be crammed into a game that otherwise clings to the Soulslike playbook. Not just a Japanese mythological epic–but one that spans multiple time periods across hundreds of years. 

Code Vein 2

The original Code Vein added a healthy dose of anime and vampires to a solid Soulslike foundation. The characters zipping around on motorcycles in this footage leads me to believe we’ll be exploring some less linear locations in this entry. 

My curiosity surrounding motorcycles and what they mean in regards to game design is going to be a theme moving forward in today’s article–and probably future articles as we inch closer to a post Metroid Prime 4 world.

Is it just me, or are there a lot of tits in this trailer?

Let it Die: Inferno

If it wasn’t obvious from the title of this article, the appearance of our skateboarding skeletal uncle filled me with joy. The original Let it Die and Deathverse are both incredibly interesting projects and that Grasshopper DNA and style appears to be back.  The ghost of Suda 51 haunts the things I love the most in one way or another. 

Don’t worry, he’s still alive. It’s his metaphorical ghost. 

And it’s out in December? What the heck, throw it on the pile. Who needs a full eight hours (or 5 hours…or 3 hours…) of sleep, anyway?

Chronoscript: The Endless End

I would have probably been more excited about Chronoscript if I hadn’t just finished The Plucky Squire (another adventure that takes place between the bindings of a book–and the room that surrounds it). However, I do appreciate the darker tone this is going for. I’ll always have a thing for dusty and illuminated manuscripts. 

PlayStation Plus Updates

Alan Wake 2 is scheduled to be one of PlayStation Plus’ “free” games next month. If you haven’t played it yet, that’s a pretty big get. Worth noting for the “It’s a Sprint” crowd, Cocoon, the puzzle game, will also be available in this slate–so I expect it to leave Game Pass within the next two batches of departures. 

The announcement of Tekken 3 coming to the classics catalog was one of my favorite pieces of news to come out of the whole show. I’ve only ever played it in arcades and the backrooms of pizza restaurants growing up. I’m looking forward to having an accessible way to dive into one of the best fighting games from the original PlayStation’s  library.  

I’ll probably be a Yoshimitsu main. What does that say about me?

Marvel’s Wolverine 

Other than Batman, I’m not much of a superhero person–but this is going to have all the excess and flash of a PlayStation AAA title so you better believe I’ll be playing it. 

I like that we’re getting at least some of the classic yellow Wolverine. I also love the emphasis on graphic violence. His motorcycle appears to be featured prominently (told ya we were going to come back to this) and that’s pretty cool, as well. 

How open do you think the final game will be? Is there a chance that the exploration elements will play like Days Gone? Because that would legitimately excite me. 

OD

I’m happy to report that my initial feelings so far seem to be correct–this is poised to be a spiritual successor to PT. 

Yes, it’s still downloaded on my base PS4–and yes, that’s a brag. 

From the card, to the candles, to the squeaky door, the flesh faces, and the blacked out text–I’m enamored with everything on display here. My only minor concern is that I hope that there’s some actual GAME to it. This is JUST a teaser and I have all the faith in the world in Kojima in this regard, but if it turns out to just be a haunted house simulator where you walk from room to room and spooky things happen, I don’t doubt it will be the best one of those ever developed. 

So, in the most predictable move I’ve ever made, I’m going to slide it right to the top of my most anticipated list. 

Will Guillermo still be involved? Will Junji Ito? 

And what about that really cool Physint promo art? When will we see more?

I told a friend yesterday that Hideo’s frequent updates about his celebrity crushes might be the only good thing on the internet and I think I believe that. 

Given the sporadic nature that I outlined in the opening about how news is dispersed this week, this probably marks the end of my 2025 Tokyo Game Show specific coverage. Had I known that Xbox was going to hold a kinda sorta structured show, I would have stayed up past my bed time to take a closer look at that. 

Maybe next year. 

I lost a bet to one of my middle sisters, and as a result, I had to make a vampire themed video game. I ended up creating a small point-and-click adventure about trying to find something sturdy enough to act as a weapon in a legally distinct IKEA. It’s titled Everything Must Go and I released it on my itch page yesterday if you’re looking to kill 10 minutes. It has 7 endings! With my modest dev skills buzzing, it made me want to participate in another game jam in early October (and I imagine I will). 

I’ve also recently received a couple indie codes that I can’t stop thinking about. I figure championing the small, strange, and forgotten corners of the industry is one of the reasons I started Tactical Reload, so I’m going to do my best to make time for them in my, frankly, horrifying schedule. 

Of course, none of this is relevant to my feelings about the State of Play. I just wanted to give some context for where I’ve been and where I’m hoping to go in the immediate future. 

In case I don’t have anything else for you in the next 24 hours, have a spectacular weekend.