A different kind of wrap-up.
Outside of the big booths like PlayStation, Bandai Namco, Capcom, and Konami, TGS has a huge emphasis on VR and mobile games. After checking out Monster Hunter World and Zone of the Enders’ new VR mode, I explored the rest of the show floor to see what this year’s TGS had to offer.
There were many cool – and disappointing – experiences. While most of everything I experienced was neat, there were some that stuck with me for wrong reasons. Below you’ll find the things on TGS’s show floor that impacted me most, for better and worse.
Happiness: Carousel’s Makeup and Ikemen
I excitedly teamed up with ladies from IGN Japan and IGN China to get our makeup touched up and pose with Ikemen, or handsome men. Every year TGS has neat booths specifically for promoting dating sims, and they usually involve getting cute photos with booth attendants. Last year I prioritized seeing all the VR romance games, but this year I couldn’t pass up getting my makeup touched up before getting back to work.
After a little bit of lipstick and powder from a kind makeup artist, a man guided me out of my seat, chatted with me about sushi and yakisoba, then we took a quick photo. The ladies before me stood next to their guy and did a little pose; I requested a kabedon, which my attendant kindly obliged. Au Yeung Yu Leung of IGN Japan also got to check out the other more intimate dating sim activities, which you can check out even if you don’t know Japanese.
Sadness: The Square Enix Merch Booth
Having just completed Final Fantasy Vii, I felt a deeper bond with Square Enix’s always wonderful merch booth at TGS. As you can see from the photos above, it’s almost like a museum. Beautiful, expensive goods live behind glass cases. I marveled at each, but none hurt more to look at than the beautiful Final Fantasy Vii Remake Cloud statue.
The Final Fantasy VII remake development shifted from developers like CyberConnect2 to internal back in May, and aside from some key art that was revealed early this year, we haven’t heard much about the project since. FFVII is special to me, and seeing that new statue of Cloud made me sad both because I’m worried for the project and because of the statue’s incredible price tag. Keep your fingers crossed that we hear something about the remake at PlayStation Experience in December.
Confusion: Anime Counter-Strike
Valve isn’t exactly known for showing games at gaming conventions anymore, so I was incredibly surprised and confused when I stumbled across a massive booth for Counter-Strike Online 2. Granted this game isn’t directly run by Valve; Counter-Strike Online 2 is run by Nexon with permission from Valve.
The free-to-play game has been around since 2013 and was specifically developed to cater to “the Asian gaming market,” as its website states. I took a seat and played for a bit. It’s not Counter-Strike, but it is a decent shooter on PC that’s reminiscent of Counter-Strike. This shooter also features super cute mascot backpacks and other anime designs. Check out the gallery above to see a bit of that.
Surprise: ThermoReal
Our very first appointment of TGS was at a small booth at the very back of the show. I wasn’t really expecting much from the VR peripheral, so I was all the more surprised to see just how effective the device this company was showing. The ThermoReal is a device that can be attached to controllers and other peripherals to have users feel heat, cold, or pain. It looks kind of like a black pad neatly wrapped or attached to different devices.
Both the heating and cooling features could activate almost instantly, or could gradually activate. I watched explosions for the hot Setting, saw a guy jump in ice water for the cold setting, and watched something that’d be played during VR rollercoaster that showed how both could work in one sitting. But the thing that really stuck with me was the pain setting. Using both the hot and cold settings, the ThermoReal would simulate pain. I nearly dropped the device I was holding a few seconds after the pain setting started. ThermoReal isn’t part of any games yet, but the company said they’re talking to many potential partners.
Frustration: Monster of the Deep: Final Fantasy XV
Prompto wanted to take a photo of a fish and I was happy to help him. By the end of the demo, I want to throw my Move controllers. The PSVR’s syncing with the motion controllers is wildly frustrating, and I advise anyone against playing with them. I desperately wanted to play this fishing simulator with a standard controller.
Even though the demo was in Japanese, it was easy enough for me to understand. After scanning the water I’d pull back my fishing rod with my right hand, cast my line, and reel in the fish with my left. Catching a fish was never that easy, though. The sensor kept losing the tracking of my Move controllers, so it just looked like my virtual hands were just floating off in the distance. Even though there was a huge, terrifying fish jumping at me by the end of my fishing trip, the most stressful part of this demo was just hoping that any of it worked. I ended up finishing it unlike the guy before me, but only after a lot of frustrating moments.
Determination: Assassination Classroom VR
Getting a chance to take on Assassination Classroom’s Koro Sensei was too good of an opportunity to pass up. Each TGS there are quite a few HTC Vive games, and this one featured a mini classroom to replicate the anime’s setting. Each player took a seat, put on the Vive, and used the Vive controllers to wield their weapons.
From what I gathered, we were trying to land enough hits on Koro Sensei to knock off his tentacles, but it’s not like he made that easy. His jabs at us made me all the more determined to take him out. All players were sitting in desks so we had limited movement, but we managed to shoot off a majority of Koro Sensei’s tentacles. It wasn’t the best VR game, but knowing the property and being immersed in its world made it much more fun.
Catch up on all of IGN’s Tokyo Game Show previews, news, and more with IGN’s TGS 2017 hub.
Miranda Sanchez is an Editor at IGN. You can chat with her about video games and anime on Twitter.
