To me, September means Tokyo Game Show. I’ve been covering Japan’s biggest gaming expo as a journalist every year since I went to Japan in 2006, but this year’s show was something really special.
Until the pandemic hit, TGS had been growing steadily for decades, to the point where in 2019 the show invited some 262,076 attendees to check out games by 655 exhibitors. I watched the program develop in the confines of the eight halls of Makuhari Messe’s main building. It spread over three additional halls in an annex building and amphitheater such as the Makuhari Messe Event Hall, became as famous for its cosplay area and rib-crushing crowd as it was for its games.
And then 2020 happened, and personal events were dead everywhere.
An event for gamers
This month’s TGS was the first edition since 2019 to be held with a public audience.
To avoid becoming a super-spreader event, several anti-COVID measures were taken. The show had low visitor capacity, with 138,192 attendees over four days, nearly half its pre-pandemic figures.
Admission was limited to junior high-schoolers and older, meaning that young families could not attend. And, by extension, the usually adorable children’s play area was gone.
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And while cosplay wasn’t banned per se, no one bothered with an outright ban on photographing cosplayers, as well as the provision of changing rooms.
Similarly, several major game publishers decided to forgo an event stage, allowing them to dedicate their socially distanced booth space to avoid unnecessarily overcrowded crowds and show more games.
Daniels prepares for a day on the battlefield at TGS 2022 (© Daniels Robson)
And while not related to intentional changes to regulations by TGS, there were fewer than usual overseas exhibitors, for a variety of reasons, including tighter border controls in Japan and tighter controls in China.
Because of all of the above, the TGS audience that had been growing more and more due in previous years was replaced by a more dedicated hardcore gamer crowd.
Focus on Console and PC Games
The hardcore gamer crowd, in turn, drastically reduced the number of mobile games on display. Over the years, mobile games had occupied a significant amount of the show floor, so their absence this year was noticeable.
It all resulted in a more focused, more focused version of TGS.
For the above reasons, there was an overwhelming emphasis on console and PC games in 2022.
Also, after a slightly awkward 2021 edition, which was limited to invited media and influencers only, with an infinitesimal show floor that mostly fits in a single hall, TGS 2022 will see a separate “Go Big or Go”. Home” vibe.
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Major publishers all over Japan brought their A game.
Sega Legends
The Sega Atlas booth at TGS 2022 was dominated by a giant effigy of Sonic the Hedgehog (© Daniel Robson).
Sega stood out with a large booth housing games from two of its biggest franchises: Sonic the Hedgehog and Yakuza.
After a strong public reception at Gamescom in Germany a few weeks ago, a demo of Sonic Frontiers could be played in Japan for the first time.
Sonic is huge in the West, but not so much in Japan, where Sega’s consoles from the 1990s and early 2000s couldn’t really compete with Nintendo and Sony — but Sonic Frontiers appears to be different. Maybe it’s because of the Sonic film series reaching new audiences (the hit sequel just arrived in Japan in August).
Or maybe it’s the game’s bold new “open zone” direction and clear inspiration from The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. But IGN Japan audiences have reacted strongly to this new Sonic outing, and the long lines in front of the giant inflatable Sonic statue at Sega’s TGS booth proved it beyond a doubt.
Meanwhile, yakuza has always been big in Japan, and more recently in the West. Ahead of TGS, Sega announced that it was renaming the English version of the series to Like a Dragon, in line with the Japanese title Ryu ga Gotoku.
At its booth, Sega gave fans Like a Dragon: Ishin! Invited to Play, which is a beautiful remake of the 2014 spin-off title set in feudal Japan. The game was originally only released in Japan, so this remake will mark its first overseas release in January 2023. We published some gameplay videos on IGN Japan’s YouTube channel and they became the No. 1 and No. 2 most viewed videos for TGS 2022 for us.
Capcom Fighting Games
Capcom brought in some serious artillery for the TGS, too. Street Fighter 6 is the most awaited latest game in its beloved fighting franchise. And the game’s mesmerizing visual style, welcoming new control system and dynamic e-sports-style in-game commentary made a deep impression with those who joined the long line to play.
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Capcom also showed off a VR version of its 2021 smash hit Resident Evil Village. What really brought the crowd in was the fact that it was the world’s first hand with PlayStation VR2, Sony’s new system due for release in 2023.
I got to play it, and the PS VR2’s massive spec upgrade brought incredible attention to detail to the Resident Evil Village world that made for a truly immersive experience. If you thought the 9’6″ giant Lady Dimitrescu and her terrifying daughters were scary on your TV screen, wait until you go to blood-soaked faces with them in VR.
TGS. on Square Enix
Square Enix chose TGS as the first event anywhere in the world to allow players to try Forespoken, an upcoming RPG adventure from their Luminous Productions studio, whose previous game Final Fantasy XV breathed new life into that franchise. took.
Forspoken is set in a similar world of fantasy, with terrifying creatures roaming its dangerous open world. But the protagonist is a transplant from modern New York, who is suddenly working magic in this strange new land.
Before TGS, the game was getting mixed attention. Hands-on demos at the show, however, and the glut of coverage from publications around the world just before TGS showed that forespoken might be a lot better than those skeptical.
I personally enjoyed it a lot, from the fish-out-of-water interloper setting to the deep and interesting combat system in which you have a combination of offensive and defensive magic spells in real time.
Koi Tecmo’s New Offering
Koei Tecmo also had a tremendous presence. In a Nintendo Direct presentation a few days before TGS, it announced Atelier Ryza 3: Alchemist of the End and the Secret Key, the third and final entry in its popular Ryza series.
With spinoffs like Atelier Sophie, Ryza Games has a passionate fan base in Japan, offering a smart RPG gameplay system based on the mysteries of alchemy. It was a welcome surprise to have the game playable on the show floor despite the reveal only a few days back.
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Also at Koei Tecmo’s booth was a bastard-tough demo for Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty, the latest soul-like action game from Nioh developer Team Ninja. It’s been a long time since game fans can be repeatedly beaten by rock-hard bosses in front of their teammates at a game expo, that alone makes it worth lining up.
Konami’s Classics
Meanwhile, Konami announced a remastered package of its hugely popular RPG classics Suikoden I and II, which is quickly entering the trending charts on Twitter and setting the internet on fire.
While the set is officially titled Suikoden I & II HD Remaster, the games are closer to a remake, with a subtly enhanced HD-2D art style that looks gorgeous.
four hard days of fun
For us at IGN Japan, as an official media partner of TGS, we broadcast approximately 35 hours of live video programming over four days from our private studio on a balcony in front of the show floor.
We had dozens of game developers bring us their games together to play them live on air, including many of the games mentioned above, as well as impressions of our team’s standout titles from the show.
A highlight was Phil Spencer and Sarah Bond, two of Xbox’s top dogs, coming to our studio for a live interview in front of a room of Japanese Xbox fans – a way to welcome members of the public to our studio to meet the two. Rare Opportunity Authentic Gaming VIP. You can watch the full interview here.
Organizing it all was a huge task, of course – I won’t bore you with the details, as I already did in my August column from BitSummit. But I love TGS’s festival atmosphere, and this year felt like there was a lot to celebrate, from the return of public appearances to the wealth of amazing games on the show.
Our readers and viewers on IGN Japan were obviously excited too, as we had the largest readership and viewership of any TGS to date.
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With the rush of summer events finally coming to an end, I took a break for a few days before heading back to the field.
As Game Expo season ends, TV season streaming is in full swing, and since we cover that stuff on IGN Japan as well, I’m now on Endor, House of the Dragon, She-Hulk, The Rings of Power, Cyberpunk. I’m Neck Deep in: Edgerunner and more. It’s a tough job, but someone has to do it!
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Author: Daniel Robson
Daniel Robson is the editor-in-chief of the videogame news site IGN Japan. read his series gamer’s world On Japan Forward, and find it twitter here,
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