Hello everyone, Tokyo Game Show has had its 2025 run, and as promised, I’m going to give you a rundown of the games I got to try out. There’s already a video version of this out there, but in this edition, we’ll be adding a few more titles that I was able to play, but for one reason or the other, couldn’t put in the video. So look forward to a few other titles included in this list!
You can watch the video right here
Let’s cut to the chase. There’s quite a bit to cover!
Pragmata (Capcom)
I saw the trailer and wasn’t too confident in the gameplay. But upon playing the demo, my opinion slowly changed. Basically, playing two games at the same time. One side is an Action shooter, and what looked like a simple puzzle mini-game.
However, as I played on. I was seeing that there’s stronger potential in the synthesis of this gameplay. It oddly reminded me of how 9S would hack mid-fight. Only this time you’re doing both game modes at the same time rather than in sequence. The simple slice of this game showed me that there was not only progression in the action gameplay, but also in the puzzle side of it. The fixed grid you move around as Diana ‘hacks’ your enemies grows with some complexity, as you can optionally add more debuff effects to the hack. While your fighter, Hugh, has to manage his positioning and attacks with his various, but limited options. Only the primary weapon has infinite ammo; however, it takes time to replenish even that, making it ideal to switch between shooting and hacking alternately.
So color me surprised, I think this game is showing more promise than initially expected!
Resident Evil Requiem (Capcom)
This game has reminded me that I’m actually quite terrible with horror games. My initial reaction to any potentially scary action, like walking into the dark. Was not to do it. I hesitated on doing anything, every time, to my own detriment. Even when I decided to go through with them, I did them so poorly or just made bad decisions in a panic that I either got attacked or was killed and had to do the puzzles all over again.
What really honed it in for me was the very subtle touches they made to make it conducive to the scare. The distortion of the walls around me as I slowly walk down the dark corridor, the flashing of a figure that gives me pause as I doubt if it’s anything good, the little sounds that break the silence, which just feed my growing paranoia.
When forming the correct atmosphere for horror, RE9 or Resident Evil Requiem seems to know exactly what’s needed to make things work. And making you the kind of character that’s completely helpless in fending off the horrible monster in hiding, is completing this vision quite well.
Nammo (Guild Studio)
This indie title seems to be an attempt to be something between Blasphemous and Sekiro. It basically plays out as a 2D soulslike with simpler graphics and a bit more investment in being able to parry your foes.
The standard gameplay felt right at home, with being able to reasonably dodge or parry attacks after observing enemies for a bit. The little twist they added here is the ability to see another realm and interact with it, something I recall from Soulreaver and maybe Lords of the Fallen.
Not only does using this ability give you new terrain to use, but it also exposes weak points on enemies and particularly bosses. Seeing as attacking and parrying are the best ways to charge this ability, the risk-reward management starts becoming pretty apparent. The bosses were nothing too flashy in their demo, but they were also good enough to consider a challenge.
Morbid Metal (SCREEN JUICE)
Fighting Robots, roguelike elements like running into a room to bust everything up, then proceeding to pick from a random set of upgrades, and also finding a bunch of secrets through the stages down the line? Yep, that’s my cup of tea. The game was still in its early stages when I got my hands on it, so they asked me particularly not to record anything. But I do remember what I played through. Attacking and dodging still felt quite basic, and the level of gameplay it was allowing you to do didn’t quite match up well with what you were fighting against in my opinion. However, I do see the potential of being able to perfectly dodge enemies from pure instinct and proceeding to make yourself look untouchable.
It’s going to need some work in allowing you to keep track of enemy attacks and such, but it leaves me with a system that allows me to freely swap between characters to quickly change up my moves and the strategies that come along with that. Based on these experiences, I’d like to see where they take the game, maybe in a half a year from now. Like if they’d come up with interesting encounters, or a progression system that works well with the character swapping system they have presented.
2XKO (Riot Games)
Okay, I finally had my hands on this game, and I’d like to say that it does feel pretty natural to play, though I did have to use hitbox-style controllers for the first time, and that did play a role in my cluelessness with the move list. But finding a handy button and figuring out how to do specials didn’t take too long.
There’s clearly more nuance to the tag mechanics here. You can call your partner in and dynamically swap with them as they’re still on screen. This is actually a fairly standard function now; I’ve at least seen this since BlazBlue Tag.
Characters and the pace of the game seem fine, but this is the sort of game I’d like to lab up for a while before saying anything more definitive about it.
Azur Promilia (Manjuu)
From the same makers of Azur Lane comes what, at the time I played it, feels like an open-world gacha game.
The demo was completely in Japanese and it was hard to follow the written instructions as they left my hands as soon as I was on a playable unit. What I did observe though, was that they had a bunch of ideas already figured out. A set of characters, their unique moves and roles, as well as a pet system that helps augment each character differently. Most of my time in the demo was spent just checking out characters and seeing how they played in random combat. They didn’t choose to reinvent the wheel here, so anyone who’s played something similar will feel right at home.
That’s not all that’s here though; there appears to be some level of gathering and crafting involved here as well. So, walking around grinding and looking for fights might not be the only thing to do here. I am, however, a little worried about the scope of what this game is trying to achieve, as broad and ambitious projects like these can easily fall into the trap of making a set of mediocre mini-games stitched together in a gacha game, desperately trying to keep your attention.
Honestly, I have similar concerns for another game aiming to release globally, Sword of Justice, if not more than Azure Promilia. But I’ll cover that another time.
Full Metal Schoolgirl (Yuke’s)
This title comes from the same people who are responsible for your campy action game, Earth Defense Force. And I’d say that the controls are somewhat similar to before. However, this is a completely different game that feels more like a roguelike 3rd person combat game, where you go from room to room and decimate anything you see. You get to pick an upgrade for every room you clear. It’s not really something you haven’t seen before. However, the style and writing that the game presents itself with is what sets it apart from the rest. It’s what makes it memorable to me.
It’s lacking in depth or any real message behind its jokes; it’s only interested in making puns and poking fun at the corporate world, as mechanized schoolgirls wreak havoc through a towering office building.
And it’s for this reason that I will likely be buying this game on release.
Digimon Story: Time Stranger (Bandai Namco Entertainment)
Digimon has always been a turn-based RPG kind of game. And I think this is the first time I’ve seen them show such a realized world and update itself with more modern mechanics for interacting with it.
It reminds me of other RPGs I enjoyed over the years, like Persona and Trails of Cold Steel, given how you can control how encounters work, and that you are initially guessing on the weaknesses of the enemies you encounter.
The demo jumps me into a point where I already have several Digimon at the ready, being able to swap them out as needed depending on the situation. They spiced it up a little bit by giving the protagonist a sort of ultimate ability that can be triggered at any point, where the effects can seem to vary, but I’m not entirely sure how it works yet.
Ananta (NetEase Games)
This title is something we’ve been looking forward to since last year. Its presentation, style, and the content it appears to promise definitely piqued the interest of many.
And while the demo was fun enough to watch, I couldn’t shake off the feeling of how it borrowed (to put it lightly) ideas from popular titles like Arkham Knight, God of War, Spiderman, Grand Theft Auto 5, and more. Still, you can’t say they’re not trying to become their own thing.
The time I had with that demo, and what it showed me, was actually not much in my opinion. I can see the concepts and executions it had taken inspiration from, but I had a hard time seeing what it really has planned for content or what you will be doing for most of the game. It is a nice surprise to hear that it will be abandoning the usual gacha mechanics to play this game, but we all know that they plan to make their money back one way or the other. Which is something I plan to come back with another time after I’ve shaken enough info from the people at NetEase.