Babylon's Fall

 Is this the scheduled bad game?

There's a supposed formula, or more appropriately a curse, when it comes to Platinum Game's titles. (One which doesn't hold up to even the slightest scrutiny, by there it is.) Essentially people like to say that the quality craftsmanship behind their talented games sort of does a leapfrog, one year it's a bad game, the next year it's a good game. (Except, obviously, not sequential years because that would be a simply insane level of output on the studio's part. I mean, they at least took 2018 off) One release might be the heavily undercooked Legend of Korra video game, cause of many heartbroken Avatar fans over the world, whilst the next would be Bayonetta 2, a classic sequel to a classic slasher. Some other year you'll get the almost iconically terrible 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutants in Manhattan', which somehow managed to take something as simple and well documented as an action-combat title and make it boring. (I don't know how you manage that.) Of course, then that game would immediately be followed up by a literal masterpiece in 'Nier: Automata'. So is there something to the Platinum curse?

Of course not. The Wonderful 101 was rather well received by all outlets and that game was sandwiched between the aforementioned Bayonetta 2 and 'Metal Gear Rising: Revengence.' (Which, for the record, absolutely slaps) But we like to conjure up these folk lore tales and weave 'curses' because it sounds more exciting and feeds into our desires for some supernatural in our mundane lives. I get it, sure I'll bite. But then, wasn't the very last game to come out of Platinum's doors the lauded remaster of 'Nier Replicant'? Well... I guess we're in for a stinker in this next game... Except no again, because technically that remaster was handled by Toylogic, Platinum Games proper were far too busy for any of that nonsense. Yet still, it paints a air of foreboding around the new Babylon Fall that was recently shown off during the E3 conference for Square Enix, and even if that 'curse' I just debunked is nothing more than ill-informed guesswork, all the writing is on the wall for this next game to be a miss.

Now let me assure that I love Platinum Games at their best, to the point of absolute adoration. I will argue till I'm blue in the face that Automata was robbed of the widespread recognition it deserved because of a relatively mundane and trite android-story competitor in 'Detroit: Become Human'. 'Metal Gear Rising: Revengence' makes me tingle just to think about, and pray that somehow Konami gives them the MG licence if Kojima's definitely never getting it back. These Platinum guys are like urban heroes of game design to me- so if their latest title has even me throwing up my hands and going "Woah there, buddy, I've think you've had a little too much to drink and should really rethink this whole doomed venture" Then maybe we all need to sit and have a talk because seriously, what are these guys thinking?

Well, I know what they're thinking. It's the same thing that every company thinks when they latch onto this most lamentable of trends. Ah, but I'm getting ahead of myself; what is this Babylon's Fall anyway? Well that was the question that many were asking when they saw this rather vague teaser reveal all the way back in 2019. It was just another curious little hack and slash game, but being fronted by a studio renowned for being the Hack-n-Slash guys. This title would feature a high fantasy drape over it's world and seep it's world with an almost Souls-ian colour palette. It received decent interest but didn't have people frothing out of the mouth for the next two years until a proper reveal like Elden Ring did. Well this E3 trailer actually lines up as an extended version of that trailer from all those years back, but it has a rather suspicious dislike ratio on their official Youtube upload. What is the problem? Several fold, actually, but it starts thusly; this game is a live service.

Alas, all the robins have fallen out of the trees, the fairies have lost their wings and the princes have turned to frogs; Platinum games have fallen into the Live service trap! Why god, why? I think that we, as a society, have moved past given the live service model of game delivery the benefit of the doubt by now, because at this point anything resembling success and a solid game in this genre is rarer than a two-horned unicorn with wings that can do the Hustle. We know this dance so well now; the developers will put out a weak title that pales in comparison to the other blockbusters they're known for, they'll beg players to stick around and keep paying money whilst the game is buffed out, basically treating fans like a secondary investment stream, only to pull all developers onto making actual games except for a skeleton crew that can hardly keep the servers online, let alone get around to adding new content. The game will struggle, less and less people will play it, and two months after launch you'll be looking at a multiplayer-only game with an average player count of less than a thousand. At which point the only question is how long they want to drag this decaying carcass behind them before doing the humane thing and cutting it off, pronouncing the thing ultimately dead.

There, I just pulled that synopsis out of my crystal ball for you and saved you having to invest yourself in this sorry affair to see it for yourself. But railing against the actually cursed business model is one, arguably beside the point, approach; what about the game itself, what does that hold? Visual disappointment, oddly. I'm not sure what it is about some accomplished developers coming out this E3 and showing us trailers that look fit to be rendered on a PS3, let alone a PS5; I mean what is this? The art of the game is slightly, almost imperceptibly, stylised; but it really doesn't save a game that just looks boring. Look, not every title needs to be Bluepoint's Demon Souls, I know that, but surely you can spare a bit of processing power towards rendering some better textures, maybe some atmospheric particulates, definitely some better animation.

Can I- Can I talk about the animation? It's going to be a rant, but I need to. In-combat slashing looks great, same standard of quality that Platinum has been hitting for over a decade now, I've got not gripes there. But there are a couple of shots of cutscene action and it looks so clunky I can't stand it! Well, that is to say it looks as clunky as you'd expect any other developer attacking a cutscene sword fight to put out. But this is Platinum, their cutscene fights are Legendary! This- This was an embarrassment. And thrown atop of the mundane scenes of online players chipping away at some bargain bin-looking boss enemy or platforming over basic frog-hop lava pits, (and maybe I'm feeding the bias here) but it just looks bad. There's none of that Platinum heart we love, I don't even find Babylon's Fall's world exciting, I just want Scalebound. (How did that reveal trailer look better rendered than this modern game does?)

For a new IP, Babylon's Fall is doing a wonderful job of putting everyone off before the home stretch has even begun, making this as yet another Square Enix product that hardly seems worthy of the studio's doors. Those guys are renowned for some of the most creative looking designs outside of FromSoftware's offices and yet they deliver something so soulless that even Platinum diehards like myself are left retching. I wish it made more sense to me, because then I'd at least be able to swallow the fact that this low-effort cash grab is yet another series that Deus Ex is being sidelined for. (Why do you hate my money so much Square Enix? I'll give it to you if you'll just make a Deus Ex game!) I'm going to cut myself off before this blog descends into something it's not, so in wrap up I'll say: Babylon's Fall, looks like generic trash, everyone involved is capable of leagues better and they belittle themselves with this whole project. And with that, Adieu.