Cygames’ Project Awakening: New Updates After a Long Silence

After a long bout of no information about Project Awakening, Cygames has posted something that acknowledges that the fantasy RPG game has not been binned. It has been a while since we got any information at all about this game, so it would not be surprising if it slipped your mind.

I certainly can say that happened to me, especially since this year has been stacked with incredible releases from both established and indie developers. Shadow of the Erdtree, Dragon’s Dogma 2, Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess, and Balatro come to mind. Let’s not forget Cygames’ own Granblue Fantasy: Relink either.
 

 

In case you aren’t aware of Project Awakening, an epic trailer was shown off back in 2018 for the PlayStation 4. Developed by Cygames, it has strong vibes of Monster Hunter, and Dragon’s Dogma and somewhat appears to draw some inspiration from Souls games, although this part is merely speculation based on a cinematic trailer on what is presumably going to be the combat of this game.

Cygames has described it as an all-new action RPG featuring cutting-edge graphics and a high-fantasy setting. The announcement and trailer garnered a ton of attention, but information has been scarce. The developers aim high to meet these expectations, assembling their dream team. Under the accomplished direction of Gunji Taga, and Ryosuke Iba the art director, it will be interesting to see how Project Awakening will turn out to be.

As for what has confirmed the continued existence of this project, Cygames’ parent company, Gematsu, has released a slide with their financial report. It that the released games have been updated with Granblue Fantasy ReLink and Granblue Fantasy Versus the fighting game and Project Awakening and their upcoming games under future plans are mentioned as well. This is hinting that the game is still likely in production even though it hasn't been talked about for quite a while.

There was a report of a Cygames employee confirming this fact via a tweet, however, it was later proven to be a fake account. Still, the fact that Project Awakening was featured in this slide is proof enough that it has not been canceled.

Cygames has solidified its footing in the gaming industry with Relink despite coming from developing mobile games. There is certainly a stigma when it comes to mobile games and the fact that Cygames has overcome that is quite significant.

However, Granblue Fantasy: Relink and Versus are not as popular as they could’ve been because of the lack of review codes being shared for coverage. Relink was kind of overshadowed by Monster Hunter World because of this.

This is a shame since the game has had some insane collabs like with Nier Automata. There was a lot of potential to bring together a bunch of anime to collaborate with here. Having said that, the sales figures are still impressive despite being a new IP.
 

 

Back on the topic of Project Awakening, it is going to be an open-world game which sounds like it will be a lot of fun. With Monster Hunter Wilds on the horizon, it will be interesting to see how Cygames prepares to stand out from their inspiration. Another thing that especially caught my attention is that this game is going to feature co-op elements, meaning you will be able to team up with friends. Personally, I can’t try the co-op out given that I have a hefty number of hours in Dauntless.

High fantasy is also a big component of Project Awakening. I’ll be expecting to see some references of parallels with Lord of the Rings and Game of Thrones. The more I look into this game, the more it feels like it is going to be a mix of Monster Hunter with the lore and themes of Elden Ring which has me pretty excited.

The craziest part about this game is that Cygames is aiming to allow up to 12 players to play together at the same time. This is giving me huge World of Warcraft raid vibes. I’m stoked to see what sort of monsters Project Awakening is going to have that would allow for a dozen players to collaborate.
 

Ahnaf Tajwar
Editor, NoobFeed