The lift of the bans on gaming consoles in China is already garnering results, as Sony announced that it’s bringing the first Chinese developed game to PS4.
Although, the Chinese gaming market has been on a steep rise since few years, it is mostly attributed to PC gaming. The almost decade long ban on video gaming consoles in China was initially intended on preventing the children from being too caught up on video games.
Developed by Tianjin based studio Dotoyou, Koi is set in the backdrop of a small pond, navigated through the lens of a tiny fish separated from its owner. Koi basically is the name of a common carp of a large ornamental variety, originally bred in Japan. According to the storyline, the fish has to clean the water body that was devastated by the mankind. Thus, it sets on a journey to purify the pond from all its atrocities. The player as ‘the Koi fish’ will have to dart his/her way around the unknown streams of the lotus pond in an attempt to cleanse the pond by making flowers bloom, releasing light fishes, solving puzzles and much more.
The surroundings are tastefully designed to provide the players with the experience of an enchanting pond and its small yet vibrant ecosystem, along with dark and murky parts of the pond.
The game rests less in action and looks to provide a gleeful and introspective stance to the player. It intends on teaching lessons about never giving up. Just to add on to this pristine experience, the piano-based background score by Chinese artist Zeta might be the best thing to complete this sweet and crisp underwater experience.
Although, the Koi gathered poor reviews with its mobile version last year, we can expect some additions in the PS4 version to make it better.
Oasis Games, a Chinese studio that started in 2011, plans to release Koi for the western PS4 market on 19 April making it the first company in China to ever release a PS4 game for players in Europe and the United States.