On November 26, Shift Up published a gameplay video for Project Eve. The video showcases protagonist Eve locked in a boss battle against a monstrous beast. We learned multiple new details thanks to the video. Keep in mind this is still in-development footage.Project Eve is set in a post-apocalyptic future, where Eve battles against unknown invaders, NA-tives, to reclaim Earth. This is the very first time we're actually seeing Project Eve in action, one year after its announcement.First thing to note is that the gameplay gives us a first look at the game UI, which surprisingly has three different bars besides what seems to be HP. Moreover, none looks to be an endurance bar. Instead, the blue bar looks to be a shield, as Eve only looses some of her HP when hit after the blue bar was fully depleted. This second bar seems to be a charge gauge for the sword, which becomes enchanted with red lightning as you dodge and block blows. The number at the bottom right with the battery symbol is the number of times you can heal yourself.Plus, similarly to Bayonetta or Zelda BOTW, you can also trigger a The Matrix and Max Payne like Bullet Time by dodging at the last moment. Eve has a multitude of sword-based combos at her disposal. Bosses also have command grabs. You also have to press a specific button in a short timeframe to finish off the boss, which seems like a Shenmue inspired QTE mechanic.

Project EVE First Gameplay Reveal, Boss Battle

Project Eve was first revealed on April 4, 2019 with a teaser trailer. The action game is developed by Shift Up, a Korean studio founded in 2013 and led by Kim Hyung Tae. He's the character designer of Blade & Soul, The War of Genesis 3, and the Magna Carta JRPG series by Softmax. Kim Hyung Tae has a particularly recognizable style. Which disregards realistic anatomy even more than usual Japanese-stylized works, with a huge focus on cool, cute and sexy. Kim Hyung Tae also handles Project Eve‘s character design.

Shift Up also mentioned during the reveal in 2019 that Project Eve is influenced in particular by God of War 2018 and NieR Automata. Moreover, Yoko Taro actually praised Project Eve.

Project Eve is described as a Triple A console project, and is developed using Unreal Engine 4, high-density 3D Scan Systems, Motion Capture and Face Motion Capture. A new team part of Shift Up, called “Second Eve Studio”, is developing the game. It's mainly made of Blade & Soul staff.

Project Eve: Platforms

While platforms weren't specified, Project Eve is developed "to show maximum performance on various platforms including consoles". Moreover, Shift Up aims to be a "global multi-platform developer". As such, we can expect Project Eve to launch on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X.

Shift Up also makes mobile RPG Destiny Child, which is currently celebrating its 3rd anniversary. Moreover, another game, online TPS Nikke the Goddess of Victory, was revealed with Project Eve in 2019. Nikke is scheduled to launch on iOS and Android. The game's character designer is KKUEM, associate and spouse of Kim Hyung Tae. Shift Up is currently recruiting for both games.

Personally speaking, I'm far from being sold on Project Eve yet. Which is obvious as we haven't seen anything concrete yet. I'm the type who rarely gets impressed by action games like these. Hopefully I'll get a huge change of heart with it, similarly to what happened with Scarlet Nexus once it started going more in-depth and revealed its female protagonist. One thing sure though, is that as an anime otaku, I definitely want to see more of Project Eve just for the chara design.