I’m long overdue getting back to this. I outlined my reactions back when Summer Games Fest aired but I didn’t get a chance to finish my reviews of both it and the Nintendo Direct.
Overall, Summer Games Fest had a whole lot of nothing as per usual, but the highlights were very good. The highlights make this probably the best Summer Games Fest ever, though that’s not really saying much. That said, I always try and rate it based on variety moreso than things that appeal to me specifically.
Resident Evil Veronica
I’ve known about Code Veronica for years through watching leaks and rumors a lot. I’m not really into horror games, but this one seemed to be a strong and popular reveal.
The game releases in 2027 and is the latest in a long line of Resident Evil remakes.
Mighty Cuphead Adventures
The next main entry in the Cuphead series is in early development, but they didn’t really provide any new details here.
The biggest announcement for Cuphead is Mighty Cuphead Adventures. This very much resembles a classic Game boy style of game while also still closely looking like Cupheads prior art style as well.
Cuphead is a gorgeous looking game, but it wasn’t for me because the boss gauntlet style of extremely difficult bosses just was too much for me to deal with.
Headlines 1
- Alien Isolation 2
- genAtlas
- Latest “Ico” franchise game, “Project Robot.”
- Not that interesting overall to me but still cool to see.
- Blood Message
- China 848 AD, 24 Entertainment
- Stranger Than Heaven
- RGG Studio
- Featuring Tupac guest star
- 1/15/2027
- Tupac is dead, so IDK how that’s going to play out
- Haex
- New Studio in Sweden, Dead Astronauts Studio
- 2027
- Super generic sci-fi style puzzle game
- Dead by Daylight 10th Anniversary, June 14th
- Mortal Shell II
- Weird guitars as gore themed game?
- I thought it looked like a medieval fantasy game at first.
- Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced
- Rumored for years. I’ve seen this around a TON.
- Coming July 9th, looks pretty okay I guess
The Last Ronin
Said to “Reunite Best action Game Developers in the world!” I saw everything leading up to the proper reveal and it just looked like more “ultra realistic slop”, just more of the samey stuff. Still, Geoff claimed it was from a legendary franchises.
Then we see the turtle and its from Paramount Games Studio. Okay, I admit, TMNT was not what I expected here, and it looks decent even though they didn’t really show much.
I know I heard of “The Last Ronin” before. Apparently it was originally a 2020-2022 miniseries. I didn’t realize it was a miniseries. Kinda reminds me of “Old Man Logan.”
By default I assumed it was Leonardo because Leonardo is the classic sword-wielding ronin type. However, it wasn’t actually Leo in The Last Ronin, and they left it ambiguous who it was here as well.
Headlines 2
- Fortnite
- Featuring “The Visitor” played by Ben Starr
- New season, blah blah
- Gundam Rogue Orbit
- Bandai Namco Sci-Fi Franchise
- Seems to be Gundam I think?
- Yup, its Gundam, 2027
- Egg Stremely Hard Game
- Another Physics Puzzle co-op game
- don’t drop the egg, kinda reminds me of goose game
- Crossfire
- That’s No Moon
- Another sci-fi shooter war game
- Control Resonant
- Just another shooter sci-fi game blah…
- Guild Wars 3
- Next game in storied franchises
- Summer Games Fest Exclusive
- fantasy designs, modern evolution of MMO
- Looks like Guild Wars to me?
- Slightly more stylized, but still ultra realistic
- Huh I guessed correctly, it was Guild Wars
- Star Wars Galactic Racer
- Its classic star wars pod racing style game.
- Coming October 6th, 2026
- End of Abyss
- Epic Games, Section 9 Interactive
- another Sci-Fi game, top-down?
- Still a dark realistic style, but at least its slightly different from usual.
- October 1st
- Last Harbor
- Tinybuild Presents
- Fishing Boat Scenario?
- Survival horror with fishing?! …and zombies
- Virtua Fighter Crossroads
- Sega’s plans for classic franchises
- RGG Studio
- mostly CGI, finally gameplay
- still ultra realistic, 2027
- Runescape Dragonwilds
- lolwut?!
- early access
Switch 2 Third-Party Ad Reels
Several Switch 2 ad reels showed up, but these just focused on third-party games. These clearly seemed to be the equivalent “Switch has games!” ads.
Among them included:
- Adventures of Elliot
- Orbitals
- Starseeker
- FFXIV Online
- Turok 2
- Armatus
Headlines 3
- Soulframe
- Digital Extremes, Pre-Alpha
- Grounded 2
- Obsidian Entertainment, Eidos Montreal
- Update Coming to All Platforms, August 11th
- Mafia the Old Country
- Man of Honor, Story Expansion, Aaugust 14th
- 1666 Amsterdam
- Panache Games
- Looked like Assassin’s Creed Hexen?
- Nope, new IP, but still seems to be about Salem Witch Trial style witches
- Saw Genesis
- Billy from saw?
- No idea what this game is
- Bloober Team, Lionsgate
- I guess its not the Switch 2 Bloober horror
- Steam only
- Lords of the Fallen 2
- another fantasy epic?
- Coming to steam
- Star Wars: Zero Company
- Brand new game from Bit Reactor, EA
- Star Wars Tactics game, Anakin appears
- Blood of Dawnwalker
- Dark Fantasy & vampires
- AD 1349, modern day
- September 3rd
Among Us Story: On Guard
Brand new project, highly stylized. It actually stands out for a change.
Oh, its Innersloth that makes sense. Is this Among Us 2?
Seems like there’s a new Among Us story-based game. Its actually called Story: On Guard? I’m confused. Is this even a new game?
Maybe its based on an Among Us: TV Series? It does mention a Paramount+ TV series. However, after checking more closely, there’s both a game and an Among Us TV series. And there’s a tease for a future Among Us project as well.
Headlines 4
- 007 First Light
- More surprises to come
- Bawma Will Return
- Gothic Remake
- Medieval Fantasy game game?
- Available Now
- Aion 2
- NC Presents
- I love the character designs here.
- Atreia Awaits
- Apparently its a “Welcome to Atreia” expansion, September 2026
- Oh, its an MMO. Yeah that loses all interest for me.
- Wuthering Waves Edge Runnners
- another anime art style
- sci-fi modern game
- CD Project Red, oh its Cyber Punk?
- Yeah its just an Edge Runners collab with Wuthering Waves
- Monster Hunter Wilds
- Massive expansion, coming to a franchise on stage before
- Capcom
- Oh, its Monster Hunter.
- Monster Hunter Wilds: Ascendance, 2027
- Swords of Legend
- Realistic Chinese game
- Aurogon Shanghai
- Fantasy Epic RPG
- Hot Wheels: Infinite Rush
- Toy Car Magic
- Biggest Hot Wheels racing game yet
- 9/24
- Sonic Racing: Crossworlds Season 2?
- 35 Years of Sonic
- TMNT, Avatar coming
- City Escape, Godzilla
- Evangelion
- Sonic Pico Park
- Attack on Titan
- Koei Tecmo, July 1st
- Clutch
- Cinematic driving experience
- Maverick Games
- Spring 2027
- Medieval Chronicles
- Medieval fantasy epic AGAIN
- Raw Power Games
- Looks like strategy war battles
- Early Access, 2026
- Sea of Remnants
- Netease
- Neat stylized art style at least, I guess
- Capcom Collectibles
- Why do we care about this?
- Figurines, Capcom Sales, Street Fighter
- Palworld 1.0
- Couldn’t tell if it was Palworld or Digimon
- Its actually Palword 1.0, July 10
- Wolf Among Us 2
- Return of long awaited worlds
- Long, long 8 years
- Telltale Games
- 2027
- Wolf Among Us Remastered
- Holiday 2026
Stellar Blade: Blood Rain
New Cyberpunk game. Can’t really tell what’s going on. Kinda reminds me of Alita: Battle Angel.
After a bit it became more apparent it looks a lot like Stellar Blade. Yeah, it is Stellar Blade. Not bad looking. Stellar Blade was later announced for Switch 2, maybe I’ll try it out.
I really like Evie’s cloak, its really neat looking. I can’t tell if she’s a robot/cyborg or not. Personally I prefer longer hair. The action looks good, though.
Final Fantasy VII Revelation
They end off with Revalation, and honestly, I think people overrate this presentation specifically because of Revelation. Yeah it was a good reveal and excellent way to end it, but you have to wait nearly 2 hours of boring samey crap for the most part. Very few things actually stand out.
Street Fighter 6: Year 4
Before they delve into Revelation, they announce Street Fighter 6: Year 4. I’m tying this in because of Tifa being part of the reveal. Tifa had been rumored for months, so I wasn’t surprised she’s coming. The rest of the DLC “leaked” were wrong, but I don’t know why anyone was anticipating Tifa otherwise.
The other characters are Yasmine, Ar Jun, and Bosh. For Tifa, they adapted iconic FF elements to the experience.
During this reveal, it became pretty damn obvious they were ending on FFVII Part 3. I straight up called it out.
FFVII Revelation
As easily predicted, they ended on FFVII Revelation. After the Tifa reveal for Street Fighter, “final announcement.”
“Get ready for the final battle.”
We see the reunion as well as meteor. They confirm its FFVII Part 3. We see weapons, the title drop of Revelation. Its coming to all platforms. Then they do a deep dive.
Matthew Mercer is voicing Vincent Valentine. I’m sure he did in the prior game, but I didn’t realize that.
Not too long into the game you get access to the Highwind. Presumably these are after all the iconic Disc 2 elements at the start where the party reaches the Northern Crater and Cloud gives Sephiroth the Black Materia, falling into the Lifestream. After this, the weapons are unleashed and the party is kidnapped by Shinra at Junon.
Tifa becomes the lead for a bit and breaks out of Junon. Then you go find Cloud and Tifa stays by Cloud until he recovers, with Cid taking center point after that.
The deep dive skips all of that and we don’t really see any of the Northern Crater scenes at all. We barely even see moments with Cloud and Tifa absent from the party. I wonder if they set it up so Cloud comes back a lot quicker than he did originally.
On the Highwind you can fly all around the world and jump off the airship whenever you want, any time. The game feels like BOTW or perhaps even TOTK in that regard. They also introduced Class Changes, with Tifa having an incredible looking Black Mage outfit.
Obviously, they confirm Cid and Vincent are playable and Wutai is present. The game is set to release in Spring 2027.
Summary
Biggest highlights here were obviously Resident Evil and Final Fantasy VII Reunion. There were a handful of strong announcements, but still not that great. In my opinion, I think the presentation was a tad bit overrated, but the big highlights are still enough to give it an 7/10 for me. Way, way better than State of Play for sure.