The PlayStation Report: Dragons, Derbys, and Dreams
Welcome back to The PlayStation Report! We’re spending some time running our way through Sony’s list of IP to determine how they’re doing these days. This time, we’re going to be diving into the letter D. There’s a decent number of games in this category, so here’s hoping some of them are still around, right? I mean, PlayStation has to have SOME brands still active, don’t they? Let’s find out in The PlayStation Report!
Dark Cloud
Dark Cloud is that game that everyone thought was The Legend of Zelda on PS2. After all, its box art featured a closeup of an elven kid with pointy ears and a green hat that looks suspiciously like Link as long as you don’t zoom the camera out, right? Whether or not that cover art choice was a coincidence, the game was pretty well liked. It’s an action RPG developed by Level-5, a company probably known best these days for their Professor Layton series and Yo-kai Watch games, both of which are strongly tied to Nintendo. Weird. Anyway, it’s about a kid named Toan trying to stop an evil genie.
Health rating: Basically Dead
Apparently this game underperformed in Japan, but sold like gangbusters in the US. Having worked in the video game retail market during that time, I can say that the Zelda similarity played no small part in that. Regardless, those sales led to the game getting a sequel, or at least it looked like one in the US where it was called Dark Cloud 2. Elsewhere in the world it was called Dark Chronicle, as it had little to do with the original game’s plot or characters. There was chatter about a potential third game in the series as recently as 2017, but nothing has ever come to fruition. It’s possible we’ll see it again, but I wouldn’t hold my breath.
Demon's Souls
Demon’s Souls is a FromSoftware joint and is basically the game that led to Dark Souls, a multiplatform series that effectively spawned the Soulslike genre of games. Demon’s Souls though, I believe is at least partially owned by Sony, if not completely. If you’ve ever played Dark Souls, Demon’s Souls is a lot like that. It’s an action RPG that’s super hard, looks cool, and is very fun.
Health rating: Okay…
Demon’s Souls hasn’t gotten any official follow ups, but it was remade back in 2020 by the team that eventually became Team Asobi, the folks behind the excellent Astro Bot. It was very well received, and with Dark Souls becoming an astronomical success, the game’s legacy is, at the very least, tangentially just fine. But an actual follow up to the game has continued to elude fans. Maybe that remake was just a good way to get the team used to making this kind of game. We’ll see.
Destruction Derby
This is one of those old longbox PlayStation games that everyone seemed to have at one point or another back in the day. As you can probably guess from the title and box art, it’s a vehicular combat game where you drive around trying to bust up other cars. The original game was actually released on Sega Saturn as well, but since PlayStation now owns Psygnosis, I’m pretty sure it’s theirs now.
Health rating: Basically Dead
Destruction Derby had a pretty good run. It got two sequels on PlayStation, and one original iteration on the Nintendo 64, leading to 2004’s Destruction Derby Arenas for PlayStation 2, which was the last original entry in the series. As far as I know, none of them have been re-released on any digital distribution services though, making it reasonably well dead in the water. Again, anything is possible, but I suspect we’ve heard the last of this brand.
Doko Demo Issyo
It’s likely that if you’re reading this, it’s entirely possible you’ve never heard of this series before. But you’ve probably at least seen its main character, Toro. That white cat that tends to show up in various Sony-related things? This is where he’s from. Having never played it myself, I can’t speak to its gameplay all that much, but it’s my understanding that it’s a virtual pet of some sort. Weird.
Health rating: Okay…
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There have been well over a dozen games released in this series on PlayStation, PSP, Vita, PS3, and PS4. The most recent release was actually a mobile game called Toro and Friends: Onsen Town from 2019. Its service ended in 2021, which really wasn’t that long ago, so it’s likely this brand is just chilling until its next release, but I don’t know, it seems like it’s been going through some pains in its last few releases. Before the mobile game was Japan Studio VR Music Festival for PS4, and before that was Toro's Friend Network on Vita. I’m not entirely sure this game has what you could call “mainline” entries, but those smell like spinoffs to me. We’ll have to wait and see how this one’s going after its next release.
Downhill Domination
This was a pretty neat bicycle racing game with some light combat elements in it. Almost like Road Rash, but without the engines. You choose a racer, and ride your bike as fast as you can to win a race. Not much else to say about it, really.
Health rating: Very dead
Downhill Domination had exactly one release in 2003, and that's it. It hasn’t been seen or heard from since. It was a pretty decent game though, garnering solid reviews across the board, and selling relatively well. The problem was, it didn’t really do anything all that special, so while it fit the niche of the time, what with Extreme Sports still being pretty popular, it’s not a game folks tend to go back to. I feel confident in saying this one’s gone for good.
Drakan
This is another one of those games Sony acquired with Psygnosis (I think). The first game was originally released on PC back in 1999. It’s a 3rd person action game where you control Rynn, as she hacks and slashes her way through various Wartoks to defeat the evil Navaros! How very Tolkeinian! There are even cool dragon riding bits. Neato!
Health rating: Very dead
Drakan got one sequel, Drakan: The Ancients' Gates for PlayStation 2. It reviewed pretty well, but unfortunately, that was the end of it. Which is a shame because any game that includes hand to hand combat in a fantasy setting coupled with dragon riding I feel is full of enough potential to be super cool. Alas, Drakan hasn’t been seen in over 20 years. I think it’s dead.
Dreams
Media Molecule caught the gaming world’s attention with LittleBigPlanet back in 2008. And once they had a few of those games under their belts, they moved on to something even more ambitious, Dreams. See, LittleBigPlanet was a charming game on its own, but it was lauded most for its level editing tools. Dreams aimed to take that stuff even further into full on game creation. It went through a lot of iterations during its long development (I think its first demonstration was back in 2013), but they finally got it figured and it’s been out there, fulfilling players' dreams since 2020.
Health rating: Good
4 years is hardly a long enough amount of time to declare this IP as anything other than Good. It reviewed well, and players seemed to like it just fine. It won a bunch of awards, too, so that’s cool. It didn’t really take off the way I suspect Media Molecule hoped it would, but gamers are a fickle bunch when it comes to games that let you make your own games. Regardless, I think this brand is going to be just fine.
DriveClub
DriveClub is one of those games that kind of baffles me. Sony already has Gran Turismo, THE premiere hyper-realistic racing game. Kicking off a brand new racing IP seems like a weird move to me, but whatever. I’m not the CEO of a multi million dollar corporation, so what do I know? As you have probably guessed, DriveClub is a realistic racing game. Neat.
Health rating: Basically dead
DriveClub was a success for Sony. It moved over 2 million copies, regardless of its mixed reviews. Its online servers ran until March of 2020, so it had a good few years on the market, too. So, why is it basically dead? Because if Sony is going to try something like this again, I’d bet dollars to donuts they’d come up with a whole new IP for it. There was some cool DLC made for the game, including a VR mode and Bikes, but I think this club is closed down forever.
And that wraps up another PlayStation report. On one hand, it’s crazy just how much stuff Sony owns that they aren’t doing anything with. On the other, at least this time around, some of it really does make sense. I don’t think the world is craving a new Downhill Domination, and it’s not like there’s a shortage of games in the world that do what DriveClub did. Still, I’m hoping that our next Report is a bit more chipper. We’ll be hitting up both E and F, so here’s hoping those two letters have a few things in the works. Until next time!
