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Studio Japan is the kind of development factory that keeps me playing games, year in and year out.  The strange, oddball, and unique output of the company is always interesting, at the very least, even when the results don’t quite come together in the way you wished they did. Whether working as producer on something like Demons’ Souls or outright developing Ape Escape or LocoRoco, Studio Japan’s creative nature always shines through. It’s hard to say much bad against a company with the creative patience they’ve shown with Team Ico’s third game, Half Life Episode 3 The Last Guardian.

With Gamescom underway, Sony is throwing the spotlight on several new goodies, such as Rain. Everything anyone knows about the game is contained in the video below, but for the purposes of a brief summary — a boy wakes up in the middle of the night and sees, outside his window, the silhouette of a girl outlined in the rain.  As he chases after her, he becomes invisible too. Now he’s being chased by the same creatures she is, and he’s trying to both catch up with her to, most likely, find out what on earth is going on here.  He’s only completely visible in the rain, at least in silhouette form, but when under an overhang you can still see his wet footprints, or the results of walking into things.  Any special abilities invisibility offers aren’t being shown, but he can climb on things, and one very brief section shows him running under an awning to avoid the gaze of a dog-monster.

The adventure part is promising enough, but the real draw of the trailer is the mood it evokes. The light piano and constant rain, combined with lovely watercolor illustrations at the start, set the mood perfectly for a downbeat, soggy nighttime adventure.  It’s a lovely trailer for what should be an equally lovely game, but all we can do now is wait for more info to arrive.