The Tokyo Game Show is a yearly trade show where the who’s who of the gaming industry come together to show off what they have in store to both the public and their shareholders. While there were plenty of announcements to get excited about, such as the Japanese PS4 price drop, or Kingdom Hearts 2.8, there were plenty of things to get salty over as well.
Person 5 being pushed back to 2016, or the 0.2 difference in the Kingdom Hearts title we were hoping to hear more about, to name a few. Though, instead of just rehashing the top stories that you can read anywhere, I want to give you my take on some of the games I got to see and play this year.
Star Ocean: Integrity and Faithfulness
The latest installment in the Star Ocean franchise seems to be shaping up quite nicely, beings as it was only just announced at E3 earlier this summer and is already slated for release on February 25th 2016. I got to play a 15 minute demo that showcased the game’s combat and found that, well, it is pretty much the same as its predecessors. You have two attack commands and the attacks will change for each button based on the range of your target.
However, in previous games you would encounter an enemy in the over-world and then transported to a combat zone. In “Integrity and Faithfulness” all combat takes place in the over-world in real time. While streamlining how we interact with enemies is all well and good, it seems to have created some new problems with the camera. Fighting in tight corridors and cave environments lead to me getting a really nice look at the sweet texture mapping of the walls, or an extreme close-up of my protagonist taking a nap in the grass after being blindsided by a massive fireball. However, the environments seem open enough and I am sure with more time one can gain a better handle of the camera during combat.
Phantasy Star Online 2 (PS4)
The console port of this popular MMORPG surprised me. When I think of an MMO I tend to picture slow, in both pace and character speed, methodical combat where the player spends more time monitoring their ability cool-downs then looking at what they are using them on. PSO2 takes a far more action heavy approach to combat. In fact, the game plays more like action RPG rather than your standard MMO, and the button layout on the PS4 controller reflects that.
After a few minutes I found I could chain together large combos both on the ground and in the air, activate my special abilities, and dash all over the battlefield narrowly avoiding enemy attacks without so much as a glance at the button map. PSO2 felt right at home of the PS4 and I am sure I will be adding it to my collection as soon as it is out.
Dragon Quest Builders
As a huge Dragon Quest fan, I have to say I find the entire concept of this game less than exciting. When you boil this title down to its elements, it is Minecraft doused in Dragon Quest sauce. Sure, it is expected that when that when a certain style of game finds success in the mainstream, other developers and publishers will follow in suit to try and get a slice of the pie.
However, Minecraft came out in 2009, so DQ Builders is REALLY late to the party. The game plays out in third person so I can only imagine performing simple tasks such as descending a steep hill one block at a time, or braking the exact patch of dirt you want will become exercises in frustration after only a few hours… I still love the music though.
Guest Contributor: Caleb Bryant
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