Eyes was the winner of the game of the year in 2006, which never achieved the sales success consistent with critical acclaim. So it’s fitting, while still completely insane, that there’s a sequel The Legend of Zelda-The inspired adventure game will be announced at this year’s Game Awards. A musical medley on stage revealed that we were getting Eyes 2 from its original director nearly two decades later.
What made players love the original game back in the days of PlayStation 2 and Nintendo Wii was its evocative graphics inspired by Japanese folklore and novel painting mechanics that allowed players to emulate brush strokes across the screen to solve puzzles and fight enemies. There has never been anything like it since then, maybe until now.
It was directed by Hideki Kamiya under Clover Studio. A Capcom veteran, he also directed before Resident Evil 2 AND The devil may cry. After the game’s release, he and other developers at the company left to found Platinum Games, where he created Bayonetta series and other action games. At the Game Awards, Keighley revealed that Kamiya had returned to Capcom to lead a up-to-date studio called Clovers that was working on the sequel.
“One thing I would like to make clear is that I did not leave PlatinumGames to develop a specific game elsewhere, nor that I left the company to work with a specific partner on better terms.” he said IGN in an interview last year after leaving his previous company. “I hear unfounded rumors that I will be working with this or that person, but nothing has been decided yet. When I left PlatinumGames, I didn’t really have any other plans. After I quit smoking, I lay around for a while and watched movies and TV shows. But when I started thinking about it, I discovered that I already had a clear idea of the game I wanted to create. I can’t start putting these ideas into practice yet, but I’ve started thinking about how I could potentially make it a reality. That said, game development rarely goes as you imagine, so I want to explore my options and find the path that works best for me.”
In the years since its premiere, Eyes received a spiritual successor called Okamiden for Nintendo DS, and later an HD port, which is currently available on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Switch and PC. We still don’t know much about Okami 2, and it looks like this is just the beginning. The original game was so special that fans waited so long that I’m sure they’ll be elated to patiently wait a few more years to play the sequel.
