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[PSX 2017:SEA] Exclusive First Impressions On Games Showcased at PlayStation Experience 2017: South East Asia – Indie games rule the floor
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[PSX 2017:SEA] Exclusive First Impressions On Games Showcased at PlayStation Experience 2017: South East Asia – Indie games rule the floor

by Syed Hassan AlgadrieAugust 7, 2017
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PSX 2017:SEA; What an experience

So PlayStation Experience 2017: South East Asia happened on Saturday over in Kuala Lumpur (KL LIVE to be exact). When PlayStation Asia announced on their Facebook page last month that PSX 2017:SEA would be held in August in KL, gamers and PlayStation fans around the country couldn’t believe their luck (me included!). We were finally getting a major gaming event of this high calibre!

PlayStation Experience 2017: South East Asia is the first PlayStation centric show in South East Asia and it is modeled after the original PlayStation Experience, which is usually held annually in the US since 2014. Sony and PlayStation Asia promised a lot of game demos of highly anticipated PS4 and PlayStation VR games would be on display on the PSX 2017:SEA show floor for everyone to test out and get a feel of how these games play.

[PSX 2017:SEA] Exclusive First Impressions On Games Showcased at PlayStation Experience 2017: South East Asia - Indie games rule the floor 26

Some of these people have been waiting in line since 5 o’clock in the morning!

Some of these games range from anticipated heavy hitters such as Ubisoft’s Far Cry 5, Sony and Quantic Dream’s Detroit: Become Human, Square Enix’s Dissidia Final Fantasy NT and Sony’s own Gran Turismo Sport to more modest indie titles such as Stifled, a Singaporean developed horror game for the PS VR, Masquerada: Songs and Shadows made by another Singapore-based studio and Matterfall, a side scrolling shooter game by Finnish Game studio, Housemarque. Just to name a few.

[PSX 2017:SEA] Exclusive First Impressions On Games Showcased at PlayStation Experience 2017: South East Asia - Indie games rule the floor 27

The Gran Turismo Sport demos have their own special booths

I played through a few of the game demos on display and here are my impressions of those games. Unfortunately I couldn’t play through all of the available demos during the PlayStation Experience 2017: South East Asia as there was just too many people. (Sad reacts only)

Far Cry 5

[PSX 2017:SEA] Exclusive First Impressions On Games Showcased at PlayStation Experience 2017: South East Asia - Indie games rule the floor 28

To be honest, I didn’t enjoy Far Cry 5’s demo at all. I quickly stopped playing after my first death. The gameplay was a little unpolished and the frame rate was all over the place. It got so bad that at times it felt as though I was playing the game in slow-mo. Not to mention the unbearably long loading time.

This is just a demo mind you, and we only had like ten minutes to go through as much as we can in the game before we had to stop and let the next guy have a turn. So hopefully the finished product would play a lot better.

Masquerada: Songs and Shadows

[PSX 2017:SEA] Exclusive First Impressions On Games Showcased at PlayStation Experience 2017: South East Asia - Indie games rule the floor 29

Now here’s a game I had no idea of prior to me testing it out during PSX 2017:SEA. Developed by Singaporean based game studio, Witching Hour Studio, Masquerada: Songs and Shadows is a tactical action RPG with an interesting enough story and beautiful Venetian-inspired environment and character designs. Also, big names like Mass Effect’s Jennifer Hale and Overwatch’s Matthew Mercer are part of the game’s casts. Impressive feat for an indie game.

Combat is a mixture of simple melee attacks, ranged attacks and skill moves. You can also pause the combat in real time if you’d prefer to employ a more tactical approach during fights. Ten minutes went by annoyingly fast as I totally lost myself playing Masquerada. Will definitely give this game a try when the full game eventually releases on the PS4.

Dusty: Raging Fist

[PSX 2017:SEA] Exclusive First Impressions On Games Showcased at PlayStation Experience 2017: South East Asia - Indie games rule the floor 30

Dusty: Raging Fist is a 2D side scrolling brawler with a style that hearkens back to the old school brawlers like Double Dragon and Streets of Rage. The gameplay is loud, fast-paced, colourful and absolutely fun with stylised cartoon characters that includes an anthropomorphic bunny, fox and a goat-like creature. No joke. The combat is also very simple with basic melee attacks, ranged attacks and special attacks against a range of other anthropomorphic animal thugs and gun-shooting flying robots.

I loved every minute of it. Even though I only got the chance to play the game for a little over ten minutes, I can tell that Dusty: Raging Fist is going to be a pretty fun ride.

Matterfall

Matterfall is a sci-fi side scrolling shooter and also a platformer. Matterfall kinda looks and plays like some sort of high-octane and futuristic hybrid of Contra and Metroid. Gameplay is simple enough, you play as Darrow who puts on a weaponised battle armour and fight against and control an alien substance called Smart Matter. Darrow can also create platforms using Smart Matter for exploration purposes. The controls are a little complicated though as it mostly utilises the R1/R2 and L1/L2 buttons rather than the usual gamepads which does take some getting used to.

Matterfall is colourful, fast and chaotic and an absolute ride and the ten minutes I spent playing the demo shows that Matterfall could be an indie title that is worth adding to your library.

Dissidia Final Fantasy NT

[PSX 2017:SEA] Exclusive First Impressions On Games Showcased at PlayStation Experience 2017: South East Asia - Indie games rule the floor 31

Dissidia Final Fantasy NT is the third addition into the fighting game series featuring many heroes across Final Fantasy’s sprawling franchise. Dissidia Final Fantasy NT is also a console port of the arcade version of the Dissidia series simply called Dissidia Final Fantasy.

The look and feel of Dissidia Final Fantasy NT is pretty much the same as the original PSP version but of course with better overall graphics and textures. The combat is very satisfying and packs way more punch than the original. DIssidia Final Fantasy NT added a new three-on-three combat where you can switch your active fighter between the three in a single fight with the others being controlled by the game’s A.I. While I find this new feature to be neat, oftentimes it gets very messy especially amidst the chaos of the fight and the limited time I had to play the demo. This is just a minor gripe however, as the game looks to be as fun as the previous Dessidia titles.

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Marvel vs Capcom: Infinite at PSX 2017:SEA

Marvel vs Capcom: Infinite

[PSX 2017:SEA] Exclusive First Impressions On Games Showcased at PlayStation Experience 2017: South East Asia - Indie games rule the floor 33

Marvel vs Capcom: Infinite’s demo is pretty much the same as the demo released on the PS4 last month, albeit with a more complete combat experience. Combat is more fleshed out with more move sets than what we had in the original demo and is probably more indicative of the actual game due out this coming September.

[PSX 2017:SEA] Exclusive First Impressions On Games Showcased at PlayStation Experience 2017: South East Asia - Indie games rule the floor 34

Gran Turismo series creator Kaz Yamauchi presenting Gran Turismo Sport

PlayStation Experience 2017: South East Asia; An amazing experience

PSX 2017:SEA was fun. It was everything I hoped for in a major gaming event and then some. Packed full of awesome game demos and fantastic exclusive PlayStation goodies to wrap your mits on.

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Exclusive PlayStation T-Shirts

[PSX 2017:SEA] Exclusive First Impressions On Games Showcased at PlayStation Experience 2017: South East Asia - Indie games rule the floor 36

Funkos of various PS4 video game characters

I’d say that PlayStation Experience 2017: South East Asia was a rip-roaring success among gamers and hopefully due to the overwhelming support from fans, this gets turned into a more annual affair, with a bigger venue and extended days compared to the one-day event we got.

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Gamers united at PlayStation Experience 2017: South East Asia

Who knows? Maybe rival brands would take notice of this and do their own con here in sunny Kuala Lumpur.

Fingers crossed!

About The Author
Syed Hassan Algadrie
Just a guy who loves Star Wars, Transformers, tech, 90s nostalgia and all things geek. Is in a constant battle with procrastination.

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