I spent lots of money to go a far away city to see games! It was pretty damn awesome!
Now, Tokyo is no Osaka. I did spend some time in the city, and even hit up Akihabara, but I don’t think Tokyo will be where I spend a lot of time in the coming years. But, I digress.
I made a conscious effort to play games that got less attention. My reasons were twofold. First, less waiting in lines. And second, something to write about that not everyone else would be. So, while these may not be the top of your “GODDAMN I WANT TO PLAY THAT” list, enjoy!
Kingdom Hearts Coded
The line for this was short, but they funneled you into a random part of the game. Apparently there is a, get this, hearts mini game. Clever, ain’t they? I didn’t see any rules so I had no idea what some of the special cards did, but it was pretty much just hearts with a Kingdom Hearts spin.
Hanjuku Hero Mobile
I had no idea it was the 20th anniversary of Hanjuku Hero! That is awesome! I really have to go and get some of these games and get to it now that my Japanese is better. I think this is pretty much a remake of the first game for cellphones? The map I played felt just like the one from the first game, but it has been a long time. Even if it is an entirely new game, it is entirely Hanjuku Hero.
Arc Rise Fantasia
Marvelous had a nice showing and I am actually a bit interested in this game now. They dicked me over, though, by changing one of the booths I was waiting for to a separate line. Madness! I couldn’t even chose to move to this new line, which was battle system only. Oh well. I got a bit of the story, which was nothing special at start, but the battle system was fairly fun. You have a set amount of action points to spend and can divvy it out between the different characters. Then you just tell it to go and they all run and do their actions. It was pretty fast paced and I think I’ll pick it up when it comes out.
Space Puzzle Bobble
This line was short so I jumped in to get my Puzzle on.
I haven’t played a Puzzle Bobble game in years so I have no idea what is totally new, but it felt fairly normal. Still addicting as hell. What I had never seen before was a boss fight. Like I said, no idea if this is new to the series or not but it was pretty awesome. You had to take out a set of bubbles that were rotating every few shots, all while the guy kept throwing down more bubbles for you to clear out. It was pretty tense but enjoyable Puzzle Bobble fun.
Tatsunoko vs Capcom
A fighting game person I am not, but I found this to be enjoyable. I know practically nothing about Tatsunoko and the anime that they produce, but the characters picked for this fighting game seemed zany enough to balance with the Capcom characters. I thought some of the animations for the super moves were a bit excessive, but I can see myself throwing down in this game if someone else were to buy it.
Demon’s Souls
Apparently this was announced just last week? It’s a medieval fantasy themed action RPG that I was not happy to play. TheTrin and Budokai seemed to enjoy it so perhaps it was just my choice of class? I picked the mage which limited me to using magic and poking at things with a tiny stick. To use magic properly you must lock on by pressing the right stick. There is a hitch to it, though. If you kill an enemy who was standing near another enemy, if the distance meets some requirement you auto lock on to that one. Great, but sometimes you don’t autolock on. So I often found myself unlocking my aim and shooting my balls of fire at nothing. It was a bit weird.
The art style felt bafflingly generic for the segment I played. The frame-rate, something I normally pay no mind, was stutteringly distracting. Sure, this was a TGS build, but show your best or nothing at all. This is getting a big pass from me.
The Last Remnant
My surprise of the show.
I have been mostly ignoring the Square-Enix 360 efforts, waiting for price drops to get my taste of it. I mean, I have been hearing bad things about these games.
But The Last Remnant was awesome. First, they gave you a choice of story or battle. I tried a boss and got my ass kicked. So I picked a more exploration based battle option.
I loved it.
The battle really feels almost like a Warhammer 40k RPG. Each character has some others with them and you issue commands to them. The thing is, the commands you can order seem to change based on what remaining Action Points you have, what your party’s HP is, and if they are in certain formations. I’m not too sure on the last one, but when an enemy unit and player unit hit each other, there are different formations announced on the screen. What these exactly mean I did not have a chance to get into, but it was exciting enough.
Unlike Warhammer you cannot move your units around freely. You pick what they attack and they get into it. Still, I couldn’t help but feel the comparison was there.
Battles were huge, but shockingly fast. There were some tense moments in some of the more enemy packed battles. I liked it.
Oh, and similar to Blue Dragon, you can get enemies to come together and fight more at once. But unlike Blue Dragon, this felt more sensical and put together.
Day one purchase.
Ryu Ga Gotoku 3 Trailer
While I didn’t get to play anything, I did get an armband and a “Ryu Ga Gotoku 3 OFFICIAL SUPPORTER” sticker.
The trailer was a bit long, I thought. They really didn’t need the section of showing which voice actor is doing which character. But the rest of it was complete and utter badassery. This I am going to be getting without a doubt.
Suikoden Tierkreis
I feel awful saying it but for some reason this reminded me of Suikoden 4, but in the good ways. Now, Suikoden 4 was lemon juice on dick lacerations bad, but this did not feel bad. It felt like Suikoden, albeit with a four character party. I have not yet gotten to Suikoden 5, but this really made me want to. I also look forward to this release.
And finally, a sum up.
Grand Award Ceremony for Awesomeness and Shamefulness
The Good Idea Award!
Kudos to SEGA for having the video outside the RGG3 booth looping a long video of interviews with the VA folk for the game.
The You are Stupid Award!
A big fuck you to Capcom for having a 15 second video of Resident Evil Degeneration looping. Holy shit did that drive me nuts as I was waiting for Tatsunoko vs Capcom.
The Surprise of the Show Award
The Last Remnant. Seriously. I am so excited about this game. I have not felt this excited about a game in a long time.
The Won’t Someone Think of the Children Award
As Level 5 being a company that primarily releases very kid friendly games, I was kind of surprised, albeit pleasantly, that they had the most amazing looking girls handing out their pamphlets. The outfits they were wearing were amazing as well. I mean, if you can consider what they had on to be an outfit. Gattdayum!
The Damn That Was Cool As Hell Award
In celebration of the forthcoming Chrono Trigger DS, Square-Enix had a little museum showing off artwork for the game. It was gorgeous.
And finally
The Holy Shit I Can’t Believe I Didn’t Know About This But It Is Amazing Award
Kingdom Hearts HEARTS game? HAHA!
Okay folks, I think I am done. It was a good show, but we’ll see if I am up for it next year.
Thank you, and good night.
