The best part about attending the Tokyo Game Show is, of course, the games. But for my case, I always look forward to the indie games each year, and boy oh boy, there are hundreds of games to check out and one day dedicated to the indies isn’t enough. Another highlight for indie games at TGS is the Selected Indie 80 where 80 indie games will be selected and be given a free booth to showcase their games, and from the 80 games, eight of them will become finalists in the Sense of Wonder Night where they’ll present their games to the judges and the winners will take home cash prizes.
I’ve gotten the chance to try out most of the games from Selected Indie 80 and even had a chat with the developers, and all of the eighty games deserve to get a spotlight at the event, but of course, I could only pick a handful that I enjoyed during my visit, so I have chosen fifteen games that got me intrigued and impressed, with some that I’m not much of a fan of certain genres surprised me.
Do note that the list is in alphabetical order and in no way a rank of my top picks, so read on which games were my favorites.
Arisen Force: Vonimir
One of the games that attracted a lot of attention from crowds in the area. It’s an action RPG with 2DHD visuals that remind you of Octopath Traveler but more action-oriented where you can land combos, switch characters on the fly, and dodge and parry attacks. I am a sucker for games that are anything 2D-pixel sprites that reminds me of the 16-bit era, and visuals inspired by the likes of Octopath piques my interest. Despite still in its early development, the game feels like it’s almost ready to be launched yet the developers are making sure the game will be ready for an early access phase; hence they haven’t announced any concrete date for its release.
CASSETTE BOY
2D game in disguise, as you can move your camera angle to reveal that it’s the world is 3D. The visuals even have that classic Gameboy feel with greenish colors while the overall feel of the game gives you a reminisce of being a classic Zelda game with matching zone explorations and puzzle-solving tasks. The puzzles have that Schrödinger kind of experience where hiding objects by changing your camera angle makes them disappear. It’s an interesting concept and it looks promising. A demo for the game is available on Steam.
FINAL KNIGHT
Playing FINAL KNIGHT for the first time feels chaotic, but I can see what the developers are doing here. FINAL KNIGHT is a party-based Action RPG, and don’t let the flash games-like visuals fool you as the game is fun despite being chaotic with all the things happening on-screen. It borrows some concepts from other RPGS where you can issue commands to your party members where you can assign them to a location or instruct them to attack or defend. Its presentation may not be very appealing depending on your taste, but it feels like it’s going to be that kind of hack ‘n slash action RPG that you can enjoy without thinking too much, and that’s not a bad thing. If you’re interested in the game, a demo can be downloaded on Steam.
First Dwarf
Be a dwarf that rides a steam-powered mech as you survive, build and expand. This is a fun adventure game that mixes different genres for familiar yet engaging mechanics. We previously made some early impressions last year about First Dwarf and seeing them as one of the games in the Selected Indie 80 gives me some assurance that they’ll be able to accomplish their goals in completing the game. You can play the game in its Early Access phase on Steam.
Freaked Fleapit
Freaked Fleapit’s character artwork surely reminds you of those raunchy fan arts on Twitter, in a good way of course. But the gameplay was the main attraction, it just screams inspirations from music rhythm games and Crypt of the NecroDancer with electronic music and blending it with roguelite elements, and that got me hooked to the demo. The devs are also planning to add a romance system that leads to multiple endings. Oh, and if you try searching for Freaked Fleapit fan arts, you’ll probably see a couple of them now. You can try out the demo that is available on Steam.
Isles of Sea and Sky
At a first glance, I thought this game is inspired by Adventure Island since it features a caveman-like character with 8-bit-ish graphics. But turns out it got its inspiration from classic Legend of Zelda games, but it’s purely puzzle-solving. The idea of exploring an open word and just solving puzzles to unlock new areas seems great, especially when you have the choice of which area to explore first and backtrack any puzzles you haven’t finished to open more areas. This is something that surprises me as I’m not a puzzle game fan, but I had a great time with the demo of Isles of Sea and Sky, so I’d look forward to this when it becomes available.
Kriegsfront Tactics
Watching the trailer at their booth makes you realize that this is a love letter to the Front Mission series. Right with the visuals, it leaves that PS1 nostalgia that any fans who started with Front Mission 3 will be going to enjoy. All the familiar mechanics are present, like damaging limbs that can cause status effects, terrain bonuses and unique weapon and mech types. The demo is already available on Steam but I still managed to try out the game at the event and despite being like Front Mission games, it has that level of challenge and new features that’s unique to the title.
Let’s Build a Dungeon
From the same team behind Let’s Build a Zoo, in this version, you get to create your own MMORPG, all from planning your initial concept to creating your towns and dungeons and how your quests work. It’s a fun simulation game that also teaches you the basics of how MMORPGs work and how things behave in those virtual worlds. I used to work in an MMO publishing company and a lot of the mechanics were familiar when I tried their demo, and this is a day-one buy for me when it becomes available.
MECHA MACHO
There are two things Mecha Macho has; Luchadors and Mechs, and I like both. Mecha Macho mashes these two together for a fun platforming action game. You wreak havoc on enemies with a baby luchador riding a mech that does signature wrestling moves while jumping around platforms to reach the end part of the level. It’s still in its early stages but I love how the developers’ love for wrestling and robots goes well in this game, so I’m rooting for them for this to get a full release.
Neko Odyssey
If you love cats and love taking photos of cats, then you’ll love this game. You go around in town and encounter different kinds of cats that you can take photos of and build up more followers for your social media page. Different encounters depend on the time and since the game is still in early development, there are few areas to explore, but there are tons of cats to see, and maybe some secret cats that you might accidentally meet. It’s a cozy game to play and a demo is available on Steam if you wanna try it out.
Rose and Locket
A stylish narrative action game is what I can describe to Rose and Locket, and it looks promising. You’re an outlaw who travels to the spirit realm to rescue your daughter’s spirit, the level design is impressive, and it goes well with the gameplay of platforming and shooting and how the narration of the story goes. It’s a great game for those who love creative art direction and if you’re into sidescrolling shooters. Oh, and the demo is also available on Steam.
Rustil: Eternal Labyrinth Castle
Waifus and Action RPGs go together all the time, and Rustil isn’t too shy to admit it. It’s a dungeon-crawling action RPG with some mix of roguelike elements. You clear out monsters as you progress through each level that’s sprawling with traps and treasures, you’ll get a power-up each time you clear a level that will give you an edge as monsters and bosses will get tougher on higher levels. There are other mechanics introduced such as monster capturing but they aren’t polished at the moment, and more features are being added in future updates, it’s currently in Early Access and I’m hoping that they’ll able to release this in a complete state soon.
The Crazy Hyper-Dungeon Chronicles
A classic top-down dungeon-crawling roguelike RPG with unique combat. Each run will be randomized, making every playthrough you take play differently, with the combat system taking the turn-based with a twist where you must face the direction of the enemy to attack it, and some enemy attacks behave differently that you may have to be quick in reacting to evade them. It’s refreshing to see this kind of dungeon crawler that you’ll sink in hours, and not to mention the developers love to put a ton of meme references in the dialogues, so if this is your kind of jam, you’ll enjoy this game. There’s also a demo available on Steam as well.
While Waiting
As the title suggests, the game is all about waiting. A wacky game where players must be patient at each level or try tinkering around stuff that may lead to some surprises as you wait to finish your objective. It’s a nice casual game that’ll be a great gift to anyone, or even to yourself. If you can’t wait for the release, there’s a demo available where you can test your waiting skills.
Yolk Heroes: A Long Tamago
It’s Tamagotchi but you’re raising an RPG hero, it’s an idle game with a blend of RPG stat-building simulation. You raise your hero from a hero up to a full-blown warrior that will fend off the Dark Lord, so you must watch over your hero-in-development, you can help them out in some mini-games that can develop your hero faster. It’s the kind of game that you’ll leave open while you’re doing something else or run another idle game while takes less work to manage and enjoy watching your hero grow. It’s already out on Steam if you’re curious about the game.
I’ll definitely come back to Tokyo Game Show next year and see what new indie games will be selected, and hopefully, all of the featured games even from the previous years have theirs released already to the market.
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