Tokyo Recreation Present takes place on the Makuhari Messe, a sequence of cavernous halls in a suburban complicated about 45 minutes east of Tokyo metropolis centre, and given its late September slot within the calendar, it’s all the time both horribly sizzling or pouring with rain. Both approach, it’s humid as heck, and there are numerous hundreds of individuals crammed in, creating what can solely be described as a suboptimal sweat scenario. Nonetheless, I’ve all the time had a mushy spot for TGS. I attended my first one in 2008, and so the expertise of taking part in video games in packed halls whereas understanding little or no about what is going on has grow to be powerfully nostalgic.
And I certainly wasn’t the one particular person feeling nostalgic in Tokyo final Friday, as a result of the halls have been stuffed with sequence and characters from 15 years in the past. Silent Hill 2 was again on the Konami stand, together with Stable Snake’s grizzled face for the upcoming Metallic Gear Stable: Snake Eater remake. Capcom had two enormous areas given over to Monster Hunter, a sequence that was unbelievably well-liked in Japan all through the 00s and at last broke by means of to the world with Monster Hunter World in 2018. Sony was additionally again on the present in an enormous approach for the primary time in 5 years, displaying off the PlayStation 5 Professional, and its particularly gorgeous-looking PlayStation thirtieth Anniversary particular version. The Japanese-made Astro Bot was additionally in every single place on the present – I hope its gross sales have mirrored how good it’s.
Sega, in the meantime, had given over most of its floorspace to 2 upcoming video games: Persona-like medieval fantasy RPG Metaphor: ReFantazio, and the fantastically, gloriously ridiculous Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii, during which one of many notorious antagonists from the Yakuza sequence, Goro Majima, loses his reminiscence and dosses round in Hawaii on a pirate ship. There have been different newer video games round, too: Palworld’s builders had splashed out on an enormous stand adorned with extraordinarily Pokémon-like creatures and costume mascots, making an ostentatious displaying regardless of the current information that the corporate is being sued by Nintendo over alleged copyright infringement.
Namco Bandai was there with Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero, out subsequent week, a beat-em-up that’s positive to promote hundreds of thousands. And Infinity Nikki, a dress-up on-line journey sport from Chinese language developer Papergames, additionally had an elaborate presence with numerous frills and hot-air balloons. I’m delighted to report that after 10 minutes of dressing Nikki up and operating round a fantasy metropolis earlier than leaping down a properly to discover a crowd of sad frogs, I nonetheless don’t know what this sport is about.
The final time I used to be at TGS, 10 years in the past, a lot of the floorspace was devoted to smartphone gatcha video games, because the console-centric large builders and publishers light into the background. It was dispiriting: once I was rising up, Japan was the video games trade, and the diminished state of corporations corresponding to Sega, Atlus, Konami and even Nintendo for a lot of the 2010s felt fairly unhappy. This yr it seemed and felt as if the entire Japanese video games trade was in good well being.
Xbox, which has all the time been weak in Japan, additionally had an unexpectedly giant presence: in a information broadcast late final week it introduced that the venerable Starcraft and Starcraft 2 have been coming to its Recreation Move subscription service on PC, and confirmed off a number of new video games from Japanese builders. Amongst them was Tanuki: Pon’s Summer season, which was certainly one of my private favourites, made by DenkiWorks in Kyoto. You play a lazy tanuki who has to get a job as a supply boy to repair up his shrine in time for an necessary pageant, driving round a quaint, small Japanese city delivering packages to individuals with unusual hobbies and pulling off sick methods in your little BMX. It’s received super character and cartoonish enchantment, and even within the area of a 20-minute demo there have been playful nods to about 15 completely different video games, from Tony Hawk to Animal Crossing .
That’s one other factor I observed at Tokyo Recreation Present this yr: lots of of indie video games within the quieter halls, from all around the world however loads of them homegrown, one thing that you just undoubtedly didn’t discover 10 years in the past. One in every of them was known as Rolling Macho: Tumbling to Earth by Serialgames. “There isn’t any time to fret about why macho is in area or why he does facet rolls,” reads its description on Steam. “All you could perceive is that he’s in area and should return to Earth.” Isn’t {that a} online game premise we will all get behind?
I’ve returned dwelling feeling pleasingly reassured that the sorts of Japanese video games I grew up with are nonetheless alive and kicking, having performed a bunch that piqued my curiosity. The primary of them, Metaphor: ReFantazio is out in simply over every week from Studio Zero. There’s a demo out there now, if a classy medieval-fantasy JRPG appears like one thing that may improve your life.
What to play
I felt massively uncomfortable taking part in Condo Story, a brief Sims-esque life-management sport a few broke twenty-something video games journalist, made by Glaswegian developer Sean Wenham – as a result of it’s so … intimate.
Confined to a small flat, you may shave, rearrange your meagre belongings, snoop into your housemate’s room, do the dishes, stare despondently into the fridge and, uh, take the protagonist to the bathroom, all within the low-poly model of a PlayStation 2 sport. The story goes off the rails fairly fast, however this sport is simply £6 and a few hours lengthy, so it’s value a shot anyway. Earlier than it turns right into a far-fetched thriller, it’s higher as a grimly fascinating portrayal of the mundanity of recent life.
Accessible on: PC
Estimated playtime: 1-2 hours, a number of playthroughs attainable
What to learn
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Ubisoft has delayed Murderer’s Creed Shadows into February subsequent yr. The sport has been embroiled for months in a contrived culture-war controversy, prompting an (in my view) ill-advised apology from its builders just a few months again for having “induced concern”. It’s laborious to inform whether or not this delay is a present of religion on the a part of Ubisoft, or injury management. The French writer’s inventory value is at an all-time low after its Star Wars sport, Outlaws, bought worse than anticipated.
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The Simpsons: Tapped Out has been a cell sport mega-success for 12 years, however it’s going to lastly be faraway from app shops in January. When you have been ever a participant, you may play a ultimate farewell quest in case you return to the sport this month.
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After taking part in the brand new Yakuza sport, Pirates in Hawaii, and spending most of my demo time taking part in a Mario Kart-esque minigame, I got here throughout this insightful breakdown of the sequence’ characters’ tattoos and their symbolism on Twitter. In the meantime, the Amazon Prime Yakuza TV sequence is out this month, and has a new trailer.
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What to click on
Query Block
Reader Man furnishes us with this week’s query:
“I’ve by no means been a PC gamer however need entry to video games that both by no means or belatedly make their option to consoles. I’m subsequently all in favour of a Steam Deck, however am involved I will not be sufficient of a tinkerer to get pleasure from it. I’ve examine the necessity to modify a number of settings to get a playable expertise on all kinds of video games. Given the not-insignificant monetary price, is a Steam Deck [a good choice] for plug-and-play people like me?”
Valve’s Steam Deck, designed to be a conveyable PC, ranges in price from £349 to £569 relying on whether or not you go for an OLED or LED display and the way a lot storage you need – so it’s not an insignificant price. It’s, nevertheless, a lot simpler to make use of than a PC. I’m such as you, Man, in that I’m allergic to the troubleshooting and settings-fiddling that has all the time been a part of PC gaming.
I play a variety of video games on my Steam Deck, from indie PC stuff like UFO 50 and Dredge to Elden Ring, and I discover it actually good as a plug-and-play gadget. I’ve encountered one annoying drawback with Elden Ring that required a small quantity of tinkering, however because of the blessed nerds of Reddit, I mounted it shortly. There’s all the time going to be a small likelihood {that a} sport received’t work completely on the Deck, because it is a conveyable PC, however most PC builders are taking Deck gamers under consideration as of late and delivery video games with particular settings profiles. And in case you do purchase a sport that doesn’t work completely on Deck and you may’t be bothered with the tinkering, Steam affords no-questions-asked refunds inside two weeks of buying a sport in case you’ve performed it for lower than two hours.
When you’ve received a query for Query Block – or the rest to say concerning the e-newsletter – hit reply or e-mail us on pushingbuttons@theguardian.com.
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