Shrouded in mist, in a limbo from which he has never shown signs of life again. Deep Down forged its own legend from a promising medieval rpg proposal, but was consumed by his ghostly presence in the industry. Capcom bet big and it seems that the result we will never know.
A new beginning
A new generation of consoles was coming and Sony had to hit the table. He found an ally in Capcom, a Japanese developer that embarked on the adventure of developing an exclusive title for PS4, back in 2013. The formula for victory sought to bring together the best of three unforgettable franchises: Dark Souls, Assassin’s Creed and Dragon’s Dogma.
Yes, an unlikely combination that was sponsored by a whole life insurance like Yoshinori Ono, father of the Street Fighter franchise. The oven in which all development would be cooked would be the Panta Rhei graphics engine, which would replace the MT Framework. Its main virtues would be to enhance lighting and fluid physics for Xbox One and PS4.
Dragons, horrifying creatures, medieval knights and everything set in the year 2094. How is it possible? As was the case with Ubisoft’s Animus, the plot would take place in New York City during the year 2094. However, a group called Ravens has the ability to recover memories of the past, thanks to artifacts belonging to an unknown civilization in the Czech Republic around the 15th century.
That would be the excuse for the entire fantasy universe to throw itself at us. Be careful, we would not be alone, but the real surprise would come thanks to the fact that we could choose to play alone or in multiplayer format up to four people. Also, Deep Down it would be totally free, which was a great gateway.
the deepest oblivion
Over the years the promises and advances came by the dropper. The dungeons would be procedurally generated, so each game would be completely different. It seemed that we were finally going to be able to get our hands on the work with the announcement that a public beta was going to see the light. It didn’t happen.
At the beginning of 2015, Kazunori Sugiura explained that Capcom’s vision for the title had grown exponentially from the initial idea, so the work had to be prolonged. A desert crossing began to be the usual tonic for Deep Downwhich only showed signs of life until three years later with the Japanese company renewing the brand.
Finally, the latest official information came thanks to Yoshinori Ono himself. “It has not been completely abandoned” was all that managed to share the creative who was already fully immersed in Street Fighter V. The nail in the coffin was unintentionally placed by Ono himself with his departure from Capcom in 2020.
Deep Down is in such an unknown state that not even Shawn Layden knows what has happened to him. The former president of Sony Worldwide Studioso is completely unaware of the future of the work. Not only has the Deep Down disappeared, but Panta Rhei did not even manage to establish itself as the main engine from Capcom, collecting its ashes to shape the RE Engine.
Interestingly, the official website in Japanese is still active, showing that the company has not completely abandoned the game. At least we got to see a good amount of gameplay of the game, so we do know how it would have played.
More than an hour of departure in which we can see many virtues and a few defects. On a graphic level, we find a really interesting title, taking into account the era to which it belongs and that we are not facing the definitive version. The boss battles are spectacularcombining team skills, ranged attacks and splendid sequences.
However, dungeons are far from the pinnacle of creativity. Excessively full of corridors, with very repetitive elements and encounters against monsters that can be improved. One-on-one combat feels clunky, with an unexpected zoom towards our weapon every time we attack and both character and enemy feel very heavy.
As has happened in other cases that we have reviewed such as Wild or Agent, it seems that the most likely fate for these games is absolute oblivion. Children of a bygone era, its reconstruction and fine-tuning for current systems seems like a task that developers do not want to carry out.
