Sony has announced that SCE Japan Studio’s Puppeteer will launch for the PlayStation 3 as both a boxed retail product and digitally over the PlayStation Network on September 10, 2013. The announcement was made rather unceremoniously at GDC this week by the game’s art director Gavin Moore, who showed a promotional trailer for the upcoming title to Joystiq and then plainly stated, “So that’s our release date.”
Man, Sony’s marketing team is really going low-key with their promotional efforts lately.
For those who have not been keeping up with the game since it was announced at Gamescom last August, Puppeteer has players take on the role of a young boy named Kutaro, who is captured by the Moon Bear King and turned into a living puppet. The tyrant King becomes displeased with Kutaro soon after the transformation, and is forced to do the only reasonable thing that a bear can do. He snaps Kutaro’s wooden head clean off and eats it. After being tossed aside by the Moon Bear King, Kutaro’s body finds a pair of magical scissors that can cut through the game’s environment, and he sets off on a quest to recover his head and find his way home.
Puppeteer‘s catch is in the title’s unique presentation. The world that Kutaro travels through is displayed in the form of a puppet show, with pieces of the scenery flying into place as he moves through the game’s levels. The title seems to have a dark, yet whimsical, fairy tale feel to it and is definitely a visual treat worth checking out in the trailer embedded at the bottom of this post.
I’m extremely interested to see exactly how Puppeteer turns out when the game launches this September, as the game’s art style is quite a sight to behold. Here’s hoping the development team has thrown in the necessary gameplay to back up their artistic creation.