Tokyo Game Show 2024 has come and gone like the whirlwind it is. And there are a lot more stories that I’d like to share, which unfortunately we just don’t have time for right now. So let’s just compile the important details here, and to make it more complete, I’ll throw in the two other videos I made for the ones I had time for.
For the rest, we’ll be going through SNK’s Fatal Fury City of the Wolves, Level 5’s Fantasy, Life, Khazan and Bandai Namco’s games which are Dragon Ball Z Sparking Zero and Sword Art Online Fractured Daydream.
Let’s get to it with SNK’s Fatal Fury sequel. Though the game is still quite a ways away from the finish line, we already have a playable demo with a good amount of characters to try out. I didn’t have a choice in the sort of control scheme I would get, so I didn’t realize until some research that I was using the “Smart” controls, which is the equivalent of “Modern” controls if you’re thinking Street Fighter 6. I had about 30 minutes to sit down with this one, which was enough time to at least try out the characters against AI opponents. Some moves will auto-combo, and specials are commanded much like how you would play Smash.
Honestly, there were things I couldn’t quite figure out, how cancels worked and what some of the resource bars were about. So I did some online research after, where I discovered that they’re taking notes from the SF6 and other newer titles. Where you can freely do enhanced moves and be able to cancel them from the get-go, but overusing them will put you into “overheating” which gives many disadvantages. You can also choose where at what point of your lifebar you’re allowed to be more active. City of the Wolves also brings back defensive options that let you challenge aggressive play, that is if you’re willing to take the risks involved in it. It’s clear to me that the new Fatal Fury game is taking on the challenge of trying to bring in new people while keeping the core audience satisfied, and I think the current direction is the best one to take. There should be still more news coming with the release quite a ways away, being April 2025.
Next, let’s take a look at Level 5’s Fantasy Life. Which I was able to play for a little bit. The demo version pretty much put you in the middle of an open area, where you’ll quickly learn how to do combat as well as freely switch between modes of gathering. Mining and logging became the majority of what I did when I wasn’t busting up some random mooks on the map. And they all had a simple mechanic of finding weak spots to be able to gather more efficiently. Clearly, given all the activities we were doing on the open map, there would be some form of crafting and building. Given the simplistic approach towards all these varying activities, I think this is the sort of game you’d like kids to play. Going on small, manageable tasks, and probably following quests along the way. Fantasy Life will be released in April 2025.
Now let’s move on to Bandai Namco’s offerings. Let’s take a look first at Sword Art Online (SAO), Fractured Daydream. The game they offered up to play on the TGS (Tokyo Game Show) floor would be a 5 party raid, totaling 20 players each. It’s been a while since I’ve played any SAO games, so I figured I’d give it a try.
After taking my time to be seated, I was brought to the lobby where I would select a character. I then picked Alice because I’m sure it would be a more forgiving class to pick when I have no idea what I’m doing. It’s been a while since I played any SAO games, forgive me. Getting to the actual raid was a bit surprising with the sheer size of the dragon monster we had to take on, it wouldn’t fit on the screen at all once I was in striking range. And it was generally chaotic, we could see where projectile attacks would land. But when it came to dodging melee attacks, we sort of had to guess since we couldn’t see the motions the dragon was making when we were too close. It wasn’t that difficult though, since we were mostly wailing on the monster whenever we could.
Some things mixed it up, like doing a switch combo with other players, and how well we strung together our big attacks would contribute to how effective the resulting knockdown would be. Where we were free to attack the monster as much as time allowed. The dragon would also fly around, forcing us to reposition against it, and even summon out minions mid-fight. Another interesting mechanic in the raid was how you level up during the fight, where you unlock more skill slots allowing you to do more moves. You get to pick which skill you unlock as well, meaning you’ll want to plan how you progress your skills as the raid boss progresses the fight.
It appears to be a fairly low-stakes game as well since getting KO’d only means you’ll be respawning after a short while, should your allies fail to rescue you in time. I’d like to see more of what the game is planning to be since all we really got out of it was this raid. SAO Fractured Daydream is already out, and available on Steam.
Moving onto Dragon Ball Sparking Zero, well the game’s already out and the public does have the verdict out on it. The gorgeous look and how it’s able to carry nearly 200 characters into the roster for an arena-type fighter is a wonder in itself. The many characters included and the modes you’re allowed to play them with is a clear sign that this one’s for the fans. I got to play it for about 15 minutes and what I’m personally happy about is how they decided to keep the character strengths lore-accurate. Meaning when I whipped out Mr Satan he never really stood a chance against anyone I would pit him against.
Still, Bandai-Namco has been nice enough to hand us a review copy recently, so we’ll be looking into it in more detail and will be sharing our thoughts on this soon. Look forward to it!
Now last but not least, Khazan. A game that goes down the path of being soulslike. While the art style draws strong inspiration from the likes of Berserk. Which was more than enough for me to get interested.
The play session allowed me to either take on the actual start of the game or go on to fight a big bad boss. The design is very familiar once you’ve played any sort of Soulslike, alternate paths, taking enemies on one at a time, surviving ambushes, managing your stamina bar, and the list goes on. If I were to name any close relatives to Khazan, it might be Lies of P or Code Vein, since the visual aesthetics make it look like an edgy anime game, while there seems to be a big reward for knowing when to parry attacks.
The level design is kinda what you expect it to be, to the point that I rarely got caught by surprises and knew when it was time to explore. But the prepared high-level boss fight showed a very different game. Having to decide the best approach to whatever attacks the boss would use against me, I could only manage to get him to about half health. Maybe I’ll learn better strategies later when the game is fully released. But it was safe to say that I found the combat pretty engaging with the many tools and moves at your disposal. For those interested, it’ll be released in the early half of 2025.
And that concludes all of the major titles I was able to put my hands on for Tokyo Game Show 2024, it’s not everything, yes, but there’s simply too much to cover. I also have to revert to regular duties and continue to review and talk about games, but we’ll definitely be covering more of this next year. So thank you again to the people of Japan and TGS 2024 for everything, I miss it already.
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