Virtual Journal #9: Tokyo Game Show Digital World 2024
Tag: Virtual Journal »
Summary
A quick stroll through the virtual venue of this year’s Tokyo Game Show.
Content
Tokyo Game Show’s virtual counterpart has appeared once again this year, with a cool poster and a slightly different name: Tokyo Game Show Digital World! I went into the event on its first day, and there was a decent amount of people walking and laughing around, giving it a festive mood.
Last year’s locations were reused this time, with only the booths having new designs. I don’t know if this was also done for the previous years, or if the first one I went to was literally the first year of the event, but I wish they would have modified them a little.
The main area had different decorations at least, having a lantern festival kind of theme. The inside of the game tree at its center has changed though: Instead of a stage where you get to watch special pre-recorded videos with other people during set times of the day, only tables of merchandise which you can buy online were displayed.
In any case, each of the three booth-filled locations had a section that experimented with 360° sounds. I had half-working headphones, so I wasn’t able to appreciate them much. (I don’t think I missed a lot, since you can barely interact with them…)
There was also… an AI guide at the beginning area. You can at least turn it off before you go wandering about the various locations.
Despite my many small complaints, I still had a bit of fun with the event, haha. Collecting different avatars that you can use and gathering stamps from quests still resulted in an enjoyable experience.
Starting with the first area, Flint Peaks, I went straight into the empty-looking Square Enix booth. As a slime drew near and gave directions, concept arts and promotional materials for the Dragon Quest series appeared all around the booth, along with the iconic music from its games. I want to try the HD-2D remake of the first one sometime…
Trailers for Visions of Mana and Romancing SaGa 2 were also present. Watching both made me want to play them!
Walking along, Japan Expo had a booth which showcased their plans for a virtual expo in April next year, called “Yumeshima Islands in the Sky”. I’m not sure if you’ll need a ticket for it, but I hope it’ll be as exciting and educational as it sounds.
There’s also BeXide’s booth which displayed some of their games, like Hololive Treasure Mountain or The Fox’s Way Home. I’ve seen the former plenty of times, and the latter could be an interesting little game.
Meiji Yasuda was also back for this year’s event, with a friendly village of bunnies and penguins. I still barely understand what any of it means, but it’s cute, haha. The virtual avatars that you get from their booths are always fun to use.
The next location, Mystic Forest, started with a small booth for Dynasty Warriors Origins. It only had a giant model of one of the characters. It made me a bit curious, so I looked at the trailer in its website. I haven’t played a lot of Dynasty Warriors, but defeating lots of enemies with spears is always a plus to me, so this game is automatically good.
The booth for Sky: Children of the Light was also present last year, but this time, it appears that you can play the piano at the center! I believe other people can hear how you play, too.
QuantanoID appears this year as well, with a cool mecha-filled opening movie and a song by Isekaijoucho. I hope to see more gameplay soon!
Hebel Haus had a little cooperative mission to unlock their booth this time. From what I understood, it looked like you had to work with others to figure out the features of their housing solution that helps people in their daily life. You get an upgraded avatar from last year, which lets you kind of have Yu-Gi-Oh or Pokemon battles with others.
The final area, Desert Garden, says hello to you with a massive booth for Exit 8 VR. They recreated a small part of the game, and I accidentally entered it, haha. It had its own separate location to do some scary stuff. I’m glad I was able to escape quickly…
I recovered from the scares by looking at the best booth of the event, the Falcom booth. It had a similar booth design to last year’s Idolmaster booth; It even had its own calming town music!
They had a trailer for the recently-announced remake of Trails in the Sky, as well as standees for characters in the series that played voice lines when you walk close to them. I want to play the original before the remake comes out…!
Going further in, Card-en-Ciel had their own little booth with an energetic trailer. There’s never enough games with Megaman Battle Network mechanics! That aside… I wish the booth wasn’t as close to the sandstorm as it was. I could barely hear anything from the video…
Room6 had their own giant section, showcasing the booths of a few games that they’re publishing, like Kimekyawa Genkai Beat-chan or Pastel Parade. Both seem like fun casual rhythm games!
Near the end, finalists for this year’s Sense of Wonder Night, a game-pitching event, had their game trailers shown on small pedestals. I especially liked the ones with alternate control schemes like Hyper Wobbler, an interactive dodecahedron installation, and HoooPizza, a pizza-making game that uses a hula hoop.
Just like last year, completing the quests in all locations would unlock a hidden area, filled with concept art for the event world itself.
It felt like there’s less stuff in the event compared to before, but overall, it was still a good enough alternative for people like me who won’t go to physical events.