And now it’s time for the lightning round. A slide or two each for a bunch of games I played at the Tokyo Game Show. Several are multiplatform, but they’re all coming to at least one of, if not both, the PS4 and/or the Vita.
Whew! And that’s it! The written stuff is finally all done! The TGS podcast will conclude and serve as an awards type thing, but as far written posts go, that’s the last of Tokyo Game Show 2015. You can see longer previews of the other PlayStation games I played right here.
Right now I need to like, I don’t know, spike a football because it feels good to have all that done.
Short Impressions TGS 2015
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Exist Archive (PS4, Vita)
The battle system has a lot of potential in Exist Archive; its similarities to Valkyrie Profile are no coincidence, as it's made by tri-Ace. Each button corresponds to a character in battle, making for cool combo possibilities.
(Continued in next slide...)
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Exist Archive (PS4, Vita)
The problem with Exist Archive was the stupid platforming. There were neat tricks which at no point became fun, and the main character jumps like a balloon that got punched-- fast, but then falls heavily and directly. It's weird. The battles were nice, but in a super easy demo on baby mode, it's hard to tell if the final product will be much fun.
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Thumper (PS4, PC)
This game is fricking awesome. It's a racer rhythm game where you play a bug riding along a track into an infinite psychedelic hellscape. You have to tap, hold and lean into turns with the music and pounding drums to slowly descend into higher levels and further madness. The experience is sublime with a good pair of headphones. Described as "Rhythm Violence," though, so it's probably like Dragon Quest Builders.
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Tokyo Xanadu (Vita)
Falcom's action RPG Tokyo Xanadu let me select a team of two people and take them into a dungeon. I could switch freely, which would be a good idea due to elemental differences and attack styles of the various enemies.
You'll need to evade and combo the shit out of things if you wanna survive.
Comes out Sept. 30 in Japan but no international release date.
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Pavilion (PS4, Vita)
In Pavilion, you manipulate the environment in a way that will allow the dude to run through it. Use the rules and tools and your hero's fear of the dark as ways to make him go right where he needs to. Sound simple? It is, for a few stages. 😉
It's a great balance between not being too easy but not being insurmountable with a little bit of thought and maybe just a moment of trial and error. It felt rewarding, looked beautiful, and was overall a fantastic game.
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Pavilion booth shot
This is one where people tended to stick around for long play sessions. I've thought about this and concluded that this might be because the game was fucking good.
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Phantasy Star Online 2 (PS4)
This made me remember my Phantasy Star Online days. The TV might be where PSO belongs, in my heart.
Combat felt great, though of course it was on super easy mode because it's a demo, so perhaps it's a bit misleading. The graphics looked good, but not amazing; it is, after all, a port. I suppose it's not getting as much of a touch-up as Gravity Rush.
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Miracle Girls Festival (Vita)
Almost exactly identical gameplay to the Hatsune Miku Project Diva games. Icons and types of notes are exactly the same, the only difference is who's on stage. You play girls from a variety of small-time series like Uta-Kumi 575 and YuriYuri and perform in a concert. Great for either fans of these characters, or fans of Project Diva-like gameplay who hate Vocaloid music, probably not super exciting for anyone else.
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Super Rude Bear Resurrection (Vita, PS4, X1, Steam)
Super Rude Bear Resurrection makes a point that game development takes a fucking long time. I played this at TGS last year and loved the hell out of it, and this year it's... back again, somewhat fitting of a game with "resurrection" in the title.
Alex Rose has been tweaking things this whole time though, as well as improving the graphics. "Soon" is all we know for launch dates.
If you didn't know: In this platformer, you try to guide Rude Bear through a world of deadly spikes and swinging axe blades. If you fail, you can always use the corpses you leave behind as platforms. This way, it's accessible to both hard core and casual players alike. And fun all the while.
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Rude Bear: Yoshida approves
Shuhei Yoshida (right) shares his approval of Rude Bear. Here he is with developer Alex Rose.
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Zodiac (Vita, PS4, Tablets, Phones)
I played the Vita version last year, but only the tablet version was available this year (because of course). The controls on Vita, IIRC, were snappier than the tablet version, which felt slow. It's a pretty game, but there's something sluggish about the movement, the time in between command and execution, and other transitions. Something's just a half-second too long that feels wrong. (Continued in next slide)
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Zodiac (continued)
Like here. This thing takes just a hair long to get finished.
The developer told me the Japanese version might get a physical release, but it's not a sure thing yet.
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Criminal Girls 2 (Vita)
...I ah... I see.....
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The New Vita Colors
Hey, let's toss this in. Most Vita games at Sony's booth were on the new Vita colors, which looked snazzy. My own feet are still firmly on Team OLED, but hey, these babies are still their own type of awesome.
