Remember Project Awakening? If you don’t, nobody could really blame you. This massive, ambitious open-world fantasy action RPG was first revealed by Cygames a decade ago and was shown behind closed doors at E3 2018. However, it was seemingly cast into the Shadow Realm together with Deep Down, Beyond Good & Evil 2, and other hyped up vaporwares. But unlike those projects, Cygames insists Project Awakening is very much, well, awake and alive.
Speaking in Famitsu magazine issue No. 1955, Cygames President and CEO Koichi Watanabe offered the biggest update on the game in years. “Of course, the development is progressing steadily,” he said. “All I can say right now is that it’s starting to ‘take shape.’ All the staff is working every day with a strong sense of accomplishment and confidence.”
Watanabe admitted Project Awakening has evolved since its original reveal, but its core vision remains intact. “The base direction remains largely unchanged, but as development has continued, we’ve been brushing it up here and there by saying, ‘Let’s try adding this new element,'” he explained. Previously, the game has been described as taking influences from other titles where you fight gigantic beasts such as Monster Hunter and Dragon’s Dogma.
Cygames later revealed it as a PS4 action fantasy RPG directed by Junji Tago (Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes), with art direction by Ryosuke Aiba (Xenoblade Chronicles 2). It was pitched as an open-world RPG with co-op, part of Cygames’ push into the Western console market. Since then, however, updates have been scarce. Although CyberAgent’s 2024 financial report confirmed the game remains in Cygames’ future lineup — with its release date still listed as ‘TBD.’ Funny enough, at the time of writing, Project Awakening‘s official website still displays a PS4 logo, even as the PS5 already enters the latter part of its lifespan.
As for other long-dormant projects, Watanabe revealed that the Lost Order mobile game is entering its ‘climax’ of development. “Since the [2017] CBT, we’ve remade everything from scratch, including character models. Even this footage is still in development, so the quality will continue to improve from here,” he said after showing Famitsu new gameplay footage. Watanabe also briefly touched on GARNET ARENA: Mages of Magicary — or GAMM — Kenichiro Takaki of Senran Kagura fame’s upcoming action game. “This one is also progressing well. I think it’ll offer something quite different from our other games. It’s one of our major projects, and we should be able to properly reveal it eventually,” he closed.
While there is still no release window in sight just yet for Project Awakening and the two other games, for fans who’ve spent years wondering what’s next, this proves that Cygames is still working on delivering. For more gaming news and interviews, check out GameObserver.
