Final Fantasy VII’s iconic PS1 art style gave players a tilt shift look to the game’s gorgeous overworld, and new indie horror game Crow Country aims to ape that aesthetic in an intriguing new way.
Revealed on Twitter to much acclaim, SFB Games’ Crow Country marries the iconic PS1 Final Fantasy look with pure horror. While certain sections of Square’s iconic JRPG could be quite spooky, it was nothing like this.
While all of the backgrounds are fully 3D with movable cameras, SFB Games has attempted to evoke the pre-rendered aesthetic of the classic PS1 RPG. Furthermore, the game’s character models follow the same primitive shape rendering style of Cloud, Barrett, Tifa and more outside of their higher-poly battles.
Set in 1990, the game tasks you with exploring an abandoned theme park called, you guessed it, Crow Country. You’ll be able to go into restricted areas, mess around in control rooms and explore underneath rides. Think of all those abandoned exploration videos on YouTube but with a PS1 aesthetic. Oh, also, creepy monsters.
Just like classic survival horror games, there’s no auto saving here. Instead, in the style of Resident Evil, you’ll have to a particular item in order to save your game. In this case, a cosy map by a warm fireplace is enough to keep your data safe.
Just like classic Resident Evil, you won’t be able to see your health while you play. Instead, you have to pause your game to see your health and, of course, manage your inventory. (Read more about the history of Resident Evil right here!)
In a world where Resident Evil is back with a vengeance and a remake of Silent Hill 2 is just around the corner, the era of classic survival horror is back and better than ever. However, Crow Country genuinely looks like one of the most unique games in the genre.
Still in active development, Crow Country doesn’t currently have a release date. However, a short demo is available to download over on Steam. The game is scheduled to launch on PlayStation 5 and PC sometime in the future.