Cygames’ Project Awakening, Lost Order, and Garnet Arena: Mages of Magicary still in development

Cygames‘ action RPG Project Awakening, real-time tactics game Lost Order, and fantasy action game Garnet Arena: Mages of Magicary remain in development, company president Koichi Watanabe said in an interview in the latest issue of Weekly Famitsu, which features a cover story on Cygames’ 15th anniversary.

“Development [on Project Awakening] is, of course, steadily progressing,” Watanabe said. “What I can say at the moment is that it is ‘really starting to take shape.’ Everyone on the team is working each day with a real sense of confidence that things are coming together.”

Project Awakening was announced in 2016, and resurfaced as a PlayStation 4 title at PlayStation LineUp Tour 2018. A demo titled Project Awakening: Arise was rated in 2019, but never released. The game resurfaced in 2021 as part of a Cygames Tech Conference session showcasing the Cyllista Game Engine. And while Cygames hasn’t shared anything since, Project Awakening has continued to appear in the game business software outlook of almost all of Cygames parent company’s CyberAgent‘s quarterly financial presentations.

Asked if the world and style of the game as showcased in the 2018 trailer has changed at all, Watanabe responded, “If you’re asking, ‘Is it exactly the same?,’ I’d say it’s a little different. The overall direction remains largely the same, but as development has progressed, we’ve continued polishing it by adding new elements here and there with the thought of, ‘Let’s add something new like this.'”

On the topic of Lost Order, which was also announced in 2016, Watanabe said, “This one is also deep in development, and is now entering the final stretch.”

Watanabe then showcased some new footage of Lost Order to Weekly Famitsu, which impressed Famitsu with its “astonishing quality,” adding that “it’s a bit unbelievable that this is possible as a smartphone app.”

Watanabe said, “We’ve rebuilt everything from scratch since the closed beta test [in 2017], including the character models. It’s still in development, so the quality is only going to improve going forward.”

While Watanabe was unable to share anything specific, he did say that he is gradually beginning to see the path toward launch.

Watanabe also assured fans that, unless Cygames itself says development has stopped, a project remains in development. He added that the company prefers not to share information on new titles in a half-finished state, instead waiting until it is confident it can present something that will satisfy fans in its best possible form.

The Cygames president also said he feels the development teams are currently firing on all cylinders, with staff proactively making quality improvements on their own, without needing direction.

As for the 2021-announced Garnet Arena: Mages of Magicary, which is produced by Kenichiro Takaki, Watanabe said, “Development on that one is moving forward as well, and I think we’ll be able to deliver something unlike our other titles. It’s one of the major titles we’re developing, and I think we’ll be able to announce something in due time.”

Watanabe also shared new footage of both Project Awakening and Garnet Arena: Mages of Magicary with Weekly Famitsu. While discussing the company’s larger-scale projects, he also said Cygames has been able to take on “fairly new” gameplay challenges with them.

Finally, Watanabe said that while completing the titles announced at Cygames NEXT 2016 remains the company’s priority, it is also preparing additional new projects. He later added that Cygames is also developing several smaller-scale titles alongside its larger games, with fixed budgets and schedules, both to expand the company’s lineup and to give younger creators more opportunities to gain experience.

(Thanks, @HDKirin!)