Announced at the PS5 June Showcase, not much has been revealed for the Square Enix and Luminous Production’s newest IP, Project Athia, outside of teaser gameplay trailer. Earlier today, Gematsu verified that the president of Square Enix, Yosuke Matsuda, confirmed the genre of the project in an interview with Weekly Tokyo Keizai Plus. “Our game Project Athia (title subject to change), releasing on the PS5, is an open-world style game in which users can freely move around the game world,” he said. Described by Square Enix, Project Athia is a “thrilling story-led, action-packed adventure,” with elements of platforming and fantasy-styled combat familiar to other Square Enix titles.
Not much is known about the title, other than the confirmed nameless protagonist and her magical abilities that include using large vines during combat to trap and defeat enemies. The original trailer only gave us a brief glimpse of the game, showing off some of the open-world platforming players will use to travel throughout the world. The trailer also gave a look a the dynamic combat, as the unnamed protagonist uses magical powers to defeat some of the demonic enemies shown.
During the interview, Matsuda also spoke on some of the reasons why Project Athia will be the “perfect” fit for the next generation Playstation 5. Praising the visual capabilities of the PS5, Matsuda said, “The PS5 dramatically improves video technology, such as with the implementation of light-reflecting Raytracing technology,” he says. “Compared to what you see on PC, it is nearly identical. By utilizing these special traits, we’re able to create incredibly precise imagery.” He also said that while the company intends to keep working on smartphone and cloud-based titles, their primary focus is on utilizing the PS5’s hardware to make the best next-gen games possible. No release information has been confirmed for Project Athia yet, but the adventure fantasy title will be coming to next-generation Playstation and Xbox consoles, along with a PC release.