Square Enix brings two surprising RPGs to Sony State of Play

By Andrew Zucosky March 9, 2022

Square Enix revealed two new titles, The DioField Chronicle and Valkyrie Elysium, to close out the Sony State of Play event on Wednesday. Both games will be released sometime in 2022.

The DioField Chronicle is a tactical RPG that is very reminiscent of fan-favorite Final Fantasy Tactics. However, The DioField Chronicle boasts more modern 3D graphics as opposed to Final Fantasy Tactics‘ 16-bit style. The trailer showed off some gameplay, as well as some story elements. One interesting takeaway from the trailer is that the game does not have a grid-based movement system, but something more akin to the XCOM series.

An army travels to a misty city in The DiofieldChronicle. — Image used with permission by copyright holder

The DioField Chronicle will be released this year on PS4 and PS5, and will also be available on the Xbox family of systems, Nintendo Switch, and Steam. The release windows for these systems have not been confirmed.

To end the State of Play showcase, Square Enix showed off Valkyrie Elysium, a new action-RPG that is connected to the Valkyrie Profiles series. During the trailer, we saw hints at some of the story beats for Valkyrie Elysium, as well as some gameplay. It seems that players will be allowed to explore this fantasy world and execute combo-based attacks in real time. Valkyrie Elysium will be coming to PS4 and PS5 this year, as well as PC.

Two upcoming Square Enix games were also highlighted earlier on in the State of Play. Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin has a new playable demo that is available today. We also got to see some new high-octane gameplay from Forspoken. The trailer comes after a recent announcement that the game has been delayed to later this year.

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Everything announced at the September 2023 State of Play

Venom in Marvel's Spider-Man 2.

September's State of Play presentation finally happened, and it gave us a clear look at what is coming to PlayStation 5 and PlayStation VR2 between now and early 2024. While the show was mainly third-party -focused, with games like Resident Evil 4, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, Foamstars, and Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, we also got new looks at Sony-published games like Marvel's Spider-Man 2 and Helldivers 2.

It wasn't quite as good as last September's State of Play, which was a spectacle that featured games like Tekken 8 and Like a Dragon: Ishin! That said, it had plenty of announcements that PlayStation fans should be keeping on their radar. If you missed out on watching this State of Play live, we've recapped every announcement from the September 2023 State of Play right here.

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State of Play September 2023: How to watch and what to expect

Key art for the September 2023 State of Play.

There's more than one major gaming showcase to look forward to tomorrow. Sony has announced that it will be holding another State of Play presentation on September 14, just hours after Nintendo holds its third Direct of the year. While Sony says the focus will mainly be on third-party games, exclusives like Marvel's Spider-Man 2 are also right on the horizon, which should make any new PlayStation 5-related showcase exciting for Sony fans. This State of Play will air live, so if you're wondering when and where to tune in, as well as everything that you should expect from the show, we've rounded up all that information here for you.

When is the September 2023 State of Play
The September 2023 State of Play begins at 2 p.m. PT on September 14. Sony has not stated how long the showcase will be, but in the past, they've ranged from 20 to 40 minutes.
Where to watch the September 2023 State of Play
State of Play | September 14, 2023
Sony has confirmed that it will stream the September 2023 State of Play across its official YouTube, Twitch, and TikTok channels. The YouTube premier is already set up, and we've embedded it above so you can watch the State of Play right from this page.
What to expect from the September 2023 State of Play
In terms of what to expect from the show, Sony gave the following description: "This State of Play broadcast will focus on updates to previously announced games coming to PlayStation consoles. From indie and [PlayStation VR2] highlights to major upcoming titles from our third-party partners, our latest show has something for everyone."
That's pretty vague, but notable upcoming third-party PS5 and PSVR2 games include Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, Journey to Foundation, Alan Wake 2, Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, the Star Wars: Knight of the Old Republic remake, Helldivers 2, Little Devil Inside, and Tekken 8. If we're lucky, Marvel's Spider-Man 2 will rear its head here one final time before launch too; that's just speculation, though.

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Sony’s cloud handheld, the PlayStation Portal, will only stream certain games

Astro's Playroom booting up on the PlayStation Portal.

Sony has unveiled the price for its upcoming cloud gaming handheld, as well as an official name for the device: PlayStation Portal. However, one significant caveat to its functionality might sour people's interest in the handheld: It only supports PS4 and PS5 native games that the owner purchased.
PlayStation VR2 games can't be streamed to PlayStation Portal, which does make sense. More bafflingly, though, is the fact that the PlayStation Blog post states that "games that are streamed through PlayStation Plus Premium’s cloud streaming are not supported." That means you shouldn't pick up PlayStation Portal expecting to stream some PS3 and PS4 games available through PlayStation Plus Premium to the device. That's certainly an odd omission when it's currently PlayStation's most notable cloud gaming effort.
Although Microsoft is more closely associated with cloud gaming, Sony beat it to releasing a dedicated cloud gaming device. PlayStation Portal was first teased as Project Q during May's PlayStation showcase, but now, a PlayStation Blog post more clearly explains what we can actually expect from the handheld. Most importantly, we learned that PlayStation Portal will cost $200, which puts it underneath the cost of a Nintendo Switch, Xbox Series S, and other cloud gaming devices like the Logitech G Cloud Handheld.
As for what you're getting for that price tag, it's essentially a decent screen attached to two halves of a DualSense controller. The controllers on each side share all the functionality of the DualSense, including things like haptic feedback and adaptive triggers. In-between is an 8-inch LCD screen that streams games over Wi-Fi at up to a 1080p resolution and 60 frames per second. All in all, that's fairly solid for a cloud gaming handheld that is this cheap.
Sony confirmed that the PlayStation Portal will have a 3.5mm audio jack, but also used the same blog post to unveil two new wireless audio options. There's the Pulse Elite wireless headset that features a retractable boom mic and a charging hanger and Pulse Explore wireless earbuds that offer similar audio quality in earbud form.
None of these products are available for preorder or have a specific release date just yet, but they are all expected to launch before the end of the year.