If there's one thing that PlayStation's recent showcase certainly didn't lack, it's variety. Though there weren't quite as many first-party reveals as fans had hoped for, PlayStation's Showcase was still packed with plenty of announcements, albeit from some smaller developers. And, rather surprisingly, these announcements came from a wide variety of different genres, from action-adventure games like Marvel's Spider-Man 2 to 2D Metroidvanias like Ultros to ambitious open-world Indie titles like Towers of Aghasba.

Another brand-new IP from a first-time studio, Dreamlit's Towers of Aghasba is an open-world action-adventure game with a unique twist in that it's also a city-builder. Though it's coming from newcomer, Towers of Aghasba had one of the most breathtaking trailers in the entirety of PlayStation's Showcase, showing stunning graphics, beautiful environments, and capturing a sense of adventure that's only really present in AAA games like Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. But Tears of the Kingdom isn't Towers of Aghasba's only influence, with a good few of its environments looking eerily similar to those found in James Cameron's Avatar series.

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Towers of Aghasba Puts Pressure on Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora to Finally Release

Avatar Frontiers of Pandora Ikran

Over the course of its brief minute-and-a-half-long trailer, Towers of Aghasba showcased a slew of gorgeous environments, some of which look truly ambitious for a studio's first game. And while Towers of Aghasba clearly has a wide range of influences, its environmental design clearly owes a lot to the Avatar franchise. The biggest example of this comes about a minute into the trailer when the protagonist is paragliding their way through a forest of brightly-colored, tall plants gradually stretching their way to the sky. A few seconds later, Towers of Aghasba's trailer shows the main character swimming underwater, again surrounded by bright foliage. The trailer then ends with Towers of Aghasba's player-character gliding through the air, passing floating mountains and landing on top of a huge flying whale-like creature.

Along with these Avatar-like environments, Towers of Aghasba also shows a brief glimpse of archery gameplay, with the main enemy type seemingly being hostile creatures. The Avatar parallels don't stop there either, as according to a recent post on the PlayStation Blog, Towers of Aghasba will revolve around the titular island's complex and ever-changing ecosystems, and how they impact the protagonist's tribe, just like Pandora and its effect on the Na'vi people in the Avatar movies.

Though Towers of Aghasba has enough of its own identity to stand apart from Avatar, its presence at such a high-profile showcase does naturally bring up questions about the whereabouts of Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora once again. Officially announced all the way back in June 2021, Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora is the long-awaited open-world game from Ubisoft that's gone practically radio silent since that first reveal. According to some reports, Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora has allegedly been in the works since 2017, meaning that it's been in development for six years now, and if that is the case, then it's about time that fans got to see more from it than just a pre-rendered CGI trailer.

Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora has already had a multitude of opportunities to take the spotlight over the last few years. Most recently, Ubisoft could have timed some kind of Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora news to coincide with the release of Avatar: The Way of Water, a movie that has continued to perform outstandingly well at the box office. And while Towers of Aghasba probably won't scratch the same itch that a true licensed Avatar game will, it shouldn't be the Avatar-like game that fans are talking about right now.

Towers of Aghasba will launch for PC and PS5 in 2024.

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