The Tomb Raider reboot was one of TechnoBuffalo’s choices for best games of 2013, so you can bet we’re excited for a sequel. Crystal Dynamics Senior Art Director Brian Horton spoke about a possible sequel stating that it would bet he next chapter of Lara Croft’s reimagining. We speculated that the sequel would be called Tomb Raider: Reflections based on a filed trademark application and the horribly generic sequel-worthy subtitle.
But, we were wrong.
Tomb Raider: Reflections has been revealed to be an iOS collectible card game from Smile-Lab, Square Enix’s mobile development studio. The game has popped up on both the New Zealand and Australian iOS stores, and it is free to play.
The game stars Lara Croft as she collects weapons and power-ups to fight enemies, and she can even team up with other players to take on live boss battles.
It might not seem like too much to see here, but there are a few standouts. For one, the artwork is pretty fantastic, looking more like the Tomb Raider I grew up with or even better, the recent sleeper-hit Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light. Second, this marks the first time that Square Enix has given one of its Eidos properties to a Japanese studio.
Today’s trends see Japanese studios giving away their properties to B-level Western studios to make games out of them. I can’t think of a vice versa situation before this one. Where could this lead, I wonder?
Of course, Square Enix is up to its neck in development on Final Fantasy XV and most likely won’t take on any AAA franchises on their own, but the mobile squad tinkering with Eidos could be interesting. In the meantime, we’ll wait for the sequel from Crystal Dynamics.
