Tokyo Game Show is one of the biggest video game conventions in the world, located in the country that brought you Final Fantasy, Mega Man, and everything Nintendo. Literally, everything from Nintendo. Let that sink in for a bit. Held in the birthplace of so many video game icons, Tokyo Game Show 2018 was an incredible event showcasing the highest level of game development and publishing. On such a grand scale and with only four days to make your mark, eye-catching booths are key to attracting press and public alike. Unfortunately, overshadowed by even bigger video game giants some triple-A titles and big names in gaming couldn’t produce such a large showing. Here are the top 3 games we wish had bigger booths at TGS 2018.
3. Persona Q2: New Cinema Labyrinth
Atlus is one of the biggest Japanese video game companies and Japanese-English video game localizers and publishers in the world. Perhaps their most famous IP, Persona, is an even bigger and more recognizable name than the company itself.
Knowing that it came as a huge shock to me when I saw their incredibly small booth for Persona Q2 at TGS 2018. While the game is set to release only on the Nintendo 3DS, I expected a much larger booth and demo area for such a well-known title and big company.
The booth design and art displays were incredibly beautiful and definitely stood out from the rest of the crowd. However, the size of the booth allowed for only five players at a time to demo the game. As one can imagine, this made the waiting time for the booth incredibly long and during peak times, fans stood in line for hours at a time.
2. The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel 4
While there are bigger JRPGs out there, the Trails of Cold Steel saga from The Legend of Heroes series is very dear to my heart. The games that were localized for English release did incredibly well with Trails of Cold Steel 2 scoring 10/10 on Steam, 90% from Gamespot and 80% from Metacritic.
When a JRPG is big in North America, it is even more successful in Japan. With all this in mind, I was astonished that one of Nihon Falcom’s most successful IPs got such a small booth at Tokyo Game Show this year. Again, just like Persona Q2, the art display for the booth was amazing.
However, the booth had only eight consoles available for demoing. While the demos did have a time constraint, with around ten people ahead of me in line, I still had to wait around 45 minutes to an hour on Press Day. The lines during the public event must’ve been at least two to three times as long. On the plus side, all players who demoed the game were given a free glass tumbler printed with beautiful graphics from the game. If you haven’t played the Trails of Cold Steel series yet, it is one of the best JRPGs to come around in decades. All JRPG fans should definitely pick up a copy.
1. Fortnite
Perhaps one of the top three biggest games in the world right now, it’s unbelievable that Fortnite had possibly one of the smallest showings out of any game in the entire event. Unlike PUBG Corporation, Epic Games does not yet have such strong roots and branches in Asia, which may have been a factor in their lack of presence at Tokyo Game Show 2018.
PUBG, on the other hand, took up one of the biggest areas in the entire convention. With giant live screens and giant signs, PUBG overtook the hall it was placed in and towered over every other developer and game in the vicinity.
Being in constant competition with PUBG for the title of Battle Royale King, I thought Fortnite would’ve made at least a moderate showing at the convention. However, in the entire arena, there were a measly four booths set up in the Playstation area and another four set up to show off the HP Pavillion’s gaming capability. As you can see in the photo above, the number 10 denotes the waiting time in minutes to play the game. As well, the amount of playing time allotted for each demo was twenty minutes which was twice the amount time given for most games at TGS 2018 and thus was likely one of the shortest lines in the entire venue.
What game from Tokyo Game Show 2018 are you most excited for? Let us and our readers know in the comments below!
