After years of near-total silence, Cygames has confirmed that three of its most anticipated projects — action RPG Project Awakening, real-time tactics game Lost Order, and fantasy action game Garnet Arena: Mages of Magicary — are all still in active development. The confirmation comes via a Weekly Famitsu interview with Cygames president Koichi Watanabe, published as part of the magazine’s 15th anniversary cover feature on the studio behind Granblue Fantasy and Granblue Fantasy: Relink.
Project Awakening Is Alive and “Starting to Take Shape”
Of the three titles, Project Awakening has the longest waiting list. The action RPG was first announced at Cygames NEXT 2016, resurfaced as a PS4 title at the PlayStation LineUp Tour in 2018, had a demo rated in 2019 that never released, and then went almost completely dark — save for appearing in parent company CyberAgent’s financial reports. That makes Watanabe’s words here genuinely welcome.
“Development [on Project Awakening] is, of course, steadily progressing,” Watanabe said, as reported by Gematsu from the Famitsu interview. “What I can say at the moment is that it is really starting to take shape. Everyone on the team is working each day with a real sense of confidence that things are coming together.”
Asked whether the 2018 trailer still reflects the game’s direction, Watanabe clarified: “If you’re asking, ‘Is it exactly the same?’, I’d say it’s a little different. The overall direction remains largely the same, but as development has progressed, we’ve continued polishing it by adding new elements here and there.” Cygames also shared new Project Awakening footage directly with Famitsu during the interview — none of which has been made public yet.
Lost Order Enters Its Final Stretch
Lost Order — a real-time tactics smartphone game also announced at Cygames NEXT 2016 — actually had a closed beta back in 2017, raising expectations that a launch wasn’t far off. It then disappeared. Watanabe now says it’s closer than ever: “This one is also deep in development, and is now entering the final stretch.”
The rebuild has been extensive. “We’ve rebuilt everything from scratch since the closed beta test [in 2017], including the character models,” Watanabe explained. “It’s still in development, so the quality is only going to improve going forward. We are gradually beginning to see the path toward launch.” Famitsu’s editors, who were shown new footage during the interview, described the results as being of “astonishing quality” — “a bit unbelievable that this is possible as a smartphone app.”
Garnet Arena: Mages of Magicary Confirmed Active
The third title, Garnet Arena: Mages of Magicary, was originally announced in 2021 as “Project GAMM” before receiving its full name in 2023. The fantasy action game is produced by Kenichiro Takaki, who joined Cygames after his long tenure at Marvelous. Watanabe confirmed it remains in development and that Cygames shared new gameplay footage with Famitsu during the interview, though none has been released publicly.
A Studio Built for the Long Game
Beyond confirming the three titles, Watanabe gave a broader read on the company’s health. He said Cygames prefers not to share news on projects while they are still in a “half-finished state” — which explains the long silences. He also noted that teams are “currently firing on all cylinders,” with developers proactively chasing quality improvements on their own initiative. Completing the Cygames NEXT 2016 slate remains the company’s top priority, but Watanabe also confirmed that entirely new projects are in early preparation.
For Singapore and Southeast Asia gamers, this is significant news. Cygames built its regional fanbase through Granblue Fantasy — which still runs regular events and is widely played on mobile across SEA — and last year’s Granblue Fantasy: Relink (which recently brought its Endless Ragnarok expansion to Nintendo Switch 2). Project Awakening and Lost Order have been on the radar of this audience for nearly a decade. No release windows or platforms were announced, and no new screenshots have been released publicly yet — but at least these games are confirmed alive and apparently looking the part. We’ll be watching Famitsu and the Cygames official channels for the next update.
