Sony has revealed the PlayStation Plus Essential August 2022 lineup just after it had leaked. This lowest tier of the service will be getting Yakuza: Like A Dragon, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 + 2, and Little Nightmares. These titles will be available from August 2 to September 5. The company also went one step beyond and spoke about some games coming to other tiers of PlayStation Plus in August and the coming months.
Yakuza: Like a Dragon will be up for PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 users. The title was acclaimed during its release in 2020, where many applauded the series’ bold switch to a JRPG format. But despite the gameplay change, its story, characters, and world were all still highly acclaimed. It originally didn’t launch on PS5, but that upgrade brought two modes that yielded a higher frame rate or resolution.
Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 + 2 is the other title that will be on both PS4 and PS5. This remake was also received incredibly well for its faithful but updated rendition of those first two Tony Hawk titles. Like Yakuza, the PS5 upgrade came out much later and brought a 120 frames per second mode or a higher resolution, depending on what players choose, and faster loading. And despite selling well and being critically beloved, Tony Hawk himself claimed that Activision canned a remake of the third and fourth entries.
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Little Nightmares is the lone PS4-only release. This cinematic platformer came out in 2017, with users citing its horror-tinged atmosphere and unique visuals as its biggest strengths. The sequel came out in 2021 and was even more highly regarded.
While it took longer than usual, the three games did leak just before Sony’s announcement from the usual suspect: Dealabs user billbil-kun. Said user has leaked almost month of PlayStation Plus for quite some time.
And even though it isn’t the middle of the month, Sony went and confirmed that most of the Yakuza games are coming to various levels of PlayStation Plus. As noted on the PlayStation Blog, Extra and Premium members will get access to Yakuza 0, Yakuza Kiwami, and Yakuza Kiwami 2 when the lineup refreshes in the middle of August. The full lineup of Extra titles will likely be listed around that time, too.
Yakuza 3 Remastered, Yakuza 4 Remastered, and Yakuza 5 Remastered will all come to PlayStation Plus Premium members sometime later in the year. Yakuza 6 also doesn’t have a specific date, but will be on PlayStation Plus Extra and Premium. While obviously different in execution, many of the Yakuza games have been on and off of Game Pass, but the full slate is finally on the service.
