Paige FTW: The Rest Of The Best Of TGS
Now that we’ve gotten the big guns out of the way, let’s talk about some of the other promising titles from Tokyo Game Show 2019 that got overshadowed by the juggernauts of Kojima and Cloud.
Nioh 2
Lovers of rigorous, exacting and hardcore combat will be pleased to know that Nioh 2 hopes to continue that tradition and expand, adding customization options and a yokai system that offers … animal companions, of a sort. It remains, as the first was, a PS4 exclusive, and is expected to drop next year.
Tales of Arise
After a long hiatus, Tales is back and looking simultaneously shiny and new (running on Unreal Engine 4) and somehow disconcerting with its classic anime looks not quite matching the backgrounds. That was my main takeaway from the trailer, at least. We’ll see if the longtime RPG juggernaut recaptures its old magic. It’ll be a multiplatform 2020 release.
And, uh, that’s kind of it! Nintendo and Microsoft do not traditionally attend TGS, and Sony (though it did have a presence there) seems to prefer managing its own hype events now (it had a State of Play presentation this week that majorly hyped The Last of Us Part II, which looked amazing, natch), so third-party developers dominated, and the majority of that domination was … Kojima Productions and Square-Enix.
So here we are.
The internet has truly changed the way we consume our gaming hype and propaganda. Why should Nintendo invest in an appearance a trade show like this, after all, when a Nintendo Direct gets the same info across to the same media outlets with zero competition? I would not be surprised if the traditional gaming conferences — E3, Gamescon, Tokyo Game Show, etc. — all disappeared within the next few years.
It’s a brave new world out there, and our traditions are dying before our eyes, for better or for worse.
