This year’s Tokyo Game Show (TGS), Japan’s largest video game event, spans from Thursday, September 21st to Sunday, September 24th, the first two being business days and the last two open to the public. Anime Corner had the opportunity to attend the event, so here is a short recap of the second day.
TGS is utilizing more of the Makuhari Messe space, returning to its full size after having had a much smaller event last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Gamers had been waiting with anticipation to see how TGS would expand since regulations were fully lifted.
At the time of this writing, the Tokyo Game Show’s second business day on Friday, September 22 has been closed for a few hours. This morning, hundreds of business people and members of the press eagerly lined up for entry to the exhibition halls in order to play the industry’s newest games. At 10 am sharp, the doors opened, and people flooded into the halls.
The Sega booth, perhaps the most eye-catching in its area, was easily accessible from the entrance and required no wait for those who made haste after doors opened. Sega’s booth featured 20-minute demos for Sonic Superstars and the newest installments in the Like a Dragon series. For everyone who plays their demos, Sega is offering goodies such as Sonic the Hedgehog character masks mini manga, and Like a Dragon phone straps.
The Atlus booth, sharing space alongside Sega, featured Persona 5 Tactica and Persona 3 Reload; both of which gathered long waits at 45 minutes even within the first hour of the second business day. Later in the day, the wait would reach 75 minutes, but hopeful Persona fans continued to line up twice to play the demos of both games. After completing the demo, fans were rewarded with acrylic keychains featuring the Persona 5 Tactica characters or sticker sets of the Persona 3 characters.
Square Enix’s most popular demo was, of course, Final Fantasy 7 Remake: Rebirth–one of the most anticipated games of the Tokyo Game Show. Square Enix also had decent lines for their other upcoming games such as STAR OCEAN THE SECOND STORY R and Infinity Strash: DRAGON QUEST The Adventure of Dai.
Koei Tecmo and Bandai Namco had huge booths this year featuring cosplayers dressed as iconic characters in their respective upcoming titles.
Level 5 games had an impressive amount of upcoming games available for demo including the highly-anticipated FANTASY LIFE i: The Girl Who Steals Time, which gathered enough people in line to require a 45-minute wait. Level 5 character pin buttons were given out to players.
TGS had an exciting line-up of anime games for avid otaku, including Yohane the Parhelion – NUMAZU in the MIRAGE -, BIRDIE WING -Golf Girls’ Story-, Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – Sweep the Board and Genshin Impact. We’ll be updating Anime Corner with more news about these and other anime games, and in the meantime, you can check out some of the photos.
Tokyo Game Show 2023 ends on Sunday, September 24th. Tens of thousands of people are expected to attend over the weekend. The event has so much to offer by not only hosting gaming’s biggest names but also giving a chance for indie game developers to showcase their titles. Anime Corner will continue to report on TGS through the weekend.
