Chief Game Designer of PlatinumGames Hideki Kamiya has come out with a blog post detailing the origins of Sol Cresta, his sequel to the classic arcade shooter Terra Cresta from the 1980s. The director behind Bayonetta and Astral Chain announced the existence of the project in April with a short reveal trailer. Sol Cresta will arrive on Nintendo Switch, PS4 and Windows sometime later this year.
There has not been a new entry in the Cresta series since the release of Terra Cresta in 1985, the sequel to the original game, Moon Cresta. Japanese gaming company Nichibutsu developed the games, which became known for their unique mechanic of docking: players kept their space ship alive by docking it next to ally ships, earning greater firepower and an extra life. The lives of the player were intrinsically tied to the upgrade system for the ship. Since its ownership under Nichibutsu, the rights to the Cresta series have come into the possession of Hamster Corporation, where it is being developed by Kamiya. Thankfully for Bayonetta fans, PlatinumGames is continuing to work on Bayonetta 3 as well. While notably absent at E3, Nintendo’s Bill Trinen said development was going well, and they simply were not ready to share any new details.
A PlayStation Blog post from Kamiya details the designer’s childhood history playing games like Terra Cresta, and also adventure and RPG games of the time. These influenced him to become a game designer. However, as the market and hardware for gaming evolved, it became financially unfeasible to work on the kinds of games from his childhood. This led him instead to focus on titles like Bayonetta and The Wonderful 101, the latter of which received a remastered version in 2020. But as the games of Kamiya’s childhood transitioned to classic status, his fondness for them eventually led to the idea of a new vertical shooting game with a new “dock-and-split” mechanic. This eventually turned into Sol Cresta, a sequel 36 years in the making.
The PlayStation YouTube channel released a new video highlighting the docking and formation mechanics. Sol Cresta remains on track to release this year as a “Neo Classic Arcade” game. The reveal trailer and most recent video thoroughly communicate this label; the graphics strike a fine balance of 8-bit era nostalgia and an updated, vibrant palette of colors. Following the announcement of beta dates for Babylon’s Fall, PlatinumGames likely hopes to continue building hype for its games with this unexpected throwback to the arcade era. Kamiya says he feels a great weight of responsibility making sure Sol Cresta lives up to the memory of its preceding games.
Kamiya and company may have an opportunity to appeal to a new audience of gamers depending on the success of Sol Cresta. Other companies have already tapped into this market, often in the form of vintage game suites like the NES online app for Nintendo Switch or the well-received Capcom Arcade Stadium, which released earlier this year. But a full-on sequel to a classic, 30-year-old game is a novel idea, and likely to entice fans who are nostalgic for the days of those older titles. If PlatinumGames exceed expectations with Sol Cresta, perhaps other series will see a similar revival.
