The PlayEatSleep team this time had the opportunity to participate in one of the largest game exhibition events in the world, Tokyo Game Show 2024 (TGS 2024). During the event, which was held at Makuhari Messe, Chiba, Japan, the PlayEatSleep team visited various well-known game publisher booths, indie developer booths, and gaming device innovation booths.
Here is our two-day experience at TGS 2024.
Testing an Unreleased Game
TGS 2024 is a place for game developers and publishers to show off their latest games, even those that haven't been released yet. There are several new games that we've tried at TGS 2024, one of which is Phantom Blade Zero.
For 20 minutes we were given the opportunity to try out a souls-like game set in a dark Chinese legend. It's very similar to Black Myth Wukong. The difference is that this game offers action, which we think is more exciting. This is because Phantom Blade Zero has a different mechanic where there are many types of weapons used.
The various weapons in Phantom Blade Zero make the movements and actions in this game look more fluid and agile. Of course, as a souls-like game, this game is also quite challenging with various types of bosses that are worth learning their movements.
The second game we tried at TGS 2024 was Like A Dragon: Pirate Yakuza. Like the previous game series, Pirate Yakuza returns with its absurd theme. During the approximately 20 minutes we tried this game, there were at least two things we liked the most about Pirate Yakuza.
First is the combat system, which although quite absurd, is very well executed. Absurd is already a part of this game series so this is a plus.
The second thing is that this game seems to be coming back with a lot of in-game activities. This can be seen from the open-world design that is quite complex with many places that can be visited even though what we tried was still a demo version.
The next game we tried was Fantasian Neo Dimension, a turn-based combat RPG from Square Enix. Although we only tried this game for about 15 minutes, we were very impressed with its fresh combat system.
The turn-based combat system in Fantasian Neo Dimension is a little different. Instead of just taking turns attacking one by one, in this game you can attack creatively by utilizing attack directions to attack multiple enemies simultaneously.
For example, let's say you're facing an enemy whose formation is 3-3-3. You can use special skills to target the enemies in the first row at once. The characters in Fantasian Neo Dimension come with a lot of AoE skills as explained earlier, making this game require you to strategize more deeply.
Small and Indie Game Developer Festival
TGS 2024 is not only a showcase for big-name game developers and publishers, but also small and indie developers. There are tons of small game developers like Amuzio who developed Knight vs Giant: The Broken Excalibur, a roguelike game with unique mechanics and Indonesian language support. Yes, games from this small developer have dared to present games that support Indonesian language interfaces.
In addition, we also met various indie game developers from various countries such as Skoota Games from Japan who developed the game Thighs Crash, a rhythm game with a slightly "odd" but unique gameplay.
There was also Sellagate, an action puzzle game with a unique mechanic involving teleportation. Developed by indie developer traP from Japan, this game attracted quite a few visitors to TGS 2024.
There is also Pricolage -IDOLIZED-, a puzzle adventure game with unique pixel art graphics. This game tells the story of an idol's disappearance that was allegedly caused by a stalker and his biggest fan. As one of his fans, you are tasked with uncovering the identity of the perpetrator by conducting an in-depth investigation. This game has also been released on Steam at a very affordable price.
The PlayEatSleep team also met the team from Toge Productions, an Indonesian developer who also participated in TGS 2024. They introduced their latest game, Kriegsfront Tactics, which will soon be released on Steam. This game could be the first military and mecha-themed turn-based game from Indonesia so it's worth the wait.
Lastly, we met the Drecom development team who developed Tokyo Stories, an adventure game with the most unique graphics that combines pixel art with 3D. While trying this game for about 10 minutes, we can conclude that Tokyo Stories will be one of the most promising indie games to come because it has a very innovative story premise and gameplay. Unfortunately, the game still doesn't have a release date.
Merchandise Hunting
TGS 2024 is a place to hunt for official merchandise that is rarely found elsewhere. TGS even provides a special hall for merchandise sales and various game studios and publishers participate in the hall, ranging from Capcom, Square Enix, PlayStation, to Kojima Production. Yes, Kojima Production opened a special booth to sell its exclusive merchandise at TGS 2024!
The most expensive merchandise we found at TGS 2024 so far was at the Kojima Productions booth, which was a watch worth approximately Rp32 million! Of course, the watch is a limited edition merchandise specifically for the sultans who worship Hideo Kojima.
An important lesson for us was that visiting the merchandise sales section should be done at the beginning, not the end. This is because the merchandise hall gets very full after noon.
Not only that, the influx of TGS 2024 visitors overwhelmed the merchandise sales staff, including the staff at the Konjima Production booth who had to continue selling until 6:30 pm while TGS 2024 closed at 5:00 pm local time.
See you at TGS 2025?
There were so many exciting things at TGS 2024 that we plan to return for TGS 2025. Tokyo Game Show has opened our eyes that the global game industry has huge potential, even bigger than other creative industries. It's no wonder that so many countries set up special booths to support their local game developers at TGS 2024, such as Germany, Singapore, South Korea, and Malaysia.
So what about Indonesia? Don't worry, Indonesia also has a booth at TGS 2024... Although it is located in the corner of hall 8 which is rarely visited by people. Unlike Germany, South Korea and Malaysia, their booths are in prime locations in the middle of the hall near the big publishers. Hopefully Indonesia can open a bigger booth at TGS 2025 later.
