Since the breakout success of Genshin Impact a few years ago, Sony has slowly been encouraging developers to bring their hit gacha games to PS5, which has resulted in the amusing moniker GachaStation 5. But with Zenless Zone Zero and Wuthering Waves right around the corner, the platform holder may have discovered another gem, likely to explode in Asian territories.
Azur Promilia is being developed by Manjuu Network Technology, the Shanghai studio behind the enormously popular Azur Lane. For those of you who don’t know, this game is basically a side-scrolling bullet hell-type title, where beautiful ladies transform into giant warships. The game is so popular it’s spawned animes, books, and even a collectible card game. Spin-off Azur Lane Crosswave also launched on PS4 a few years ago.
But this new game promises a reimagining of sorts for the series, with a Genshin Impact-style open world and a Pokémon-esque creature companion aspect. While there’s no release date, pre-registrations are open now on the title’s official website. You can check out some gameplay, as uploaded by Gematsu, embedded above. Essentially, this looks like an open world RPG where you use your animal side-kicks to navigate the environment and solve puzzles, with even flying mounts available.
Details are limited at this stage apart from a ton of lore on the title’s official website, but you can probably expect this to absolutely explode – especially in Asia, where Azur Lane already has an enormous fanbase.
[source azurpromilia.com, via gematsu.com]
Comments 12
This looks amazing! I expect this will be big if it's as good as the demo seems!
@get2sammyb I;m Surprised the Tagline Didn't Say Something like Gotta Gatcham all or something like it.
@Areus Wow, that's very good. Stop coming up with puns that good or you'll take my job.
So is this a single player game? If so I might look into it. Although it would have been better had Sony of 7 years ago released it. Todays Sony and waifu games don’t really go together well.
@thefourfoldroot1 Seems to be single player, yes. May have some co-op options like Genshin, though, we'll see!
Azur Lane is the only gacha I play, so this interests me.
Their character design is the best amongst all the gachas too.
So Western gaming is dominated by sad dads, tales of anguish, bitter endings, "artistic" hero-always-dies scenarios, and grim apocalyptic settings. China meanwhile has cornered the market on selling harems via lottery, one magical girl at a time.
Are we still wondering why western devs are downsizing and closing at record pace?
It's ironic though that the source of all the all-consuming harem gatcha games is the same country cracking down on time spent gaming. You'd think they'd be celebrating the one and done 6 hour adventure rather than life-sucking gatchas.
@thefourfoldroot1 They're Chinese-made games, though, China's pretty strict on the censorship of suggestive content. It's very well aligned with modern Sony. One could say that's not a coincidence.
Was wondering what Manjuu/Yostar was cooking up over the years (other than Aether Gazer). Excited to see where this goes. Sad it isn't actually related to Azur Lane though.
And for what they have shown, this already look pretty damn polished. Im impressed.
Pokemon + waifus but will be gacha mechanic? Sounds ridiculous!
.
.
.
.
.
.
I'm in...
Love that other studios are taking pokemon like formula and bringing it to a wider audience. This and Palword for example. The last Nintendo game console I owned was an NES so I've never played Pokemon but always had a interest in it. Played Genshin for a bit and tried HSR but they didnt stick for me. Looking forward to giving this a go.
@NEStalgia
"Are we still wondering why western devs are downsizing and closing at record pace?"
No.
The west is using too much money on games and they aren't selling enough to keep the phase. The chinese games you talk about cost peanuts (in comparison). The topic of the games has nothing to do with the current situation of the industry. People love to use Elden Ring as an example of the best to make less a lot of games so using Fromsoftware as an example by your logic they shouldn't exist anymore but they do because they don't waste millions in graphics, they do just enough. Smaller japanese studios have said it before, the industry (the consumers) are expecting games that are just too expensive to make. The funny thing is that a lot of people who talk about the industry and what is bad with it will see Ronin in a couple of days and one of the main things they will criticize is how the game looks "dated" LOL. They want a better industry but also want small studios to use all the money possible so the game looks "great" even when that move can kill the studio.
@gymratAmarillo Yeah, I know that, it was a bit of humor. That having been said though, if those $300M AAAA Western games featured harem magical girl lotteries they probably would make that money back faster than grim sad art games for emos 😂
Elden is an anomaly that sold on hype more than anything IMO. Not that it's not a great game, it surely is, I even enjoyed it and I hate soulsborne in general. But the actual game is just not mass market appealing on its own where you'd think it would sell like it did. But yeah Japanese devs budget accordingly for the real market. Western devs build what the want, no matter the cost, and hope it'll create a market that didn't exist before it, or just hope to be the next lightning in a bottle miracle story.
Show Comments
Leave A Comment
Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment...