Our coverage of Tokyo Game Show 2026 continues. For this round, I’d like to thank Bandai Namco Entertainment for giving us access to the game demos they had available. The ones I chose to try out are Ace Combat 8, Dragon Ball Xenoverse 3, and Gundam Rogue Orbit. Let’s cut to the chase here and bring you to the action.
Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve
Coming from Ace Combat 7, I thought I wouldn’t be dealing with anything that new. And I think I was mostly right on this one. Piloting the Tomcat wasn’t a struggle, but it still required you to know what you were doing. Having a rough understanding of the plane’s limitations and the area you’re flying in will serve you well. I ended up crashing into the water, seeing if all the near-misses I made with it were simply the game saving me from failure.
Apart from that, preparation was actually what struck me as the more pronounced difference with the demo. You’re now deciding a full-on loadout, including tuning parts that will change your craft’s performance. Yes, I know, that’s exactly how it was in the past game, but this also includes deciding what your wingman will be flying. Basically, you’re deciding not only for your own craft, but also your formation for each mission.
Combat is as exhilarating as it was before. While to a spectator dodging missiles and lining up shots doesn’t feel that exciting, knowing that I’m always just one bad decision away from having to restart the mission is great for keeping the tension up the entire time. The ship fleet destruction mission also felt like it had dynamic events going on; taking too long to destroy them all will have you dodging more anti-air fire, along with enemy fighter reinforcements that are out there to make sure you don’t finish your mission.
Originally, we knew what we were in for, and a lot of people were simply excited about the appearance of Tasha, but with some of the game being played by these hands. I can’t wait to fly those strange skies again!
Dragon Ball Xenoverse 3
This game feels a lot like a further refinement of the Jump Force strategy. Regardless of my opinions on the game, it found success when it was released. Sticking with relatively simple controls allows for contextual reactions that smooth the flow of combat. Knock away an enemy and chase them with the triangle button. Time your directional stick just right while guarding with R1, and make a perfect vanishing counter.
You play as what I would call “John Dragon Ball,” not really as a jab at the character, but as a completely new being within the Dragon Ball universe. From what I can tell, these were pre-made characters for you to play, but you will ultimately be able to customize how your character looks when the full version arrives.
We start out in a room and immediately move on to some tundra to accomplish a mission. This generally involved moving through an area and beating up whatever decides to fight us. By ‘us,’ I mean the small squad assigned to the mission, totalling four characters. This hints that cooperative multiplayer would be available in this game since every other character I was with looks like a randomized set of attributes from a character creator.
While the movement, guarding, attacking, and other reactions felt generic, they also fit well for the game it was trying to be. Imagining the sort of chaos that would ensue with friends as people race for targets to fight sounds exactly like the kind of shallow gameplay I would like to have with them.
Given the Jump Force system that looks like was applied here, you can likely customize your moveset as well, allowing you to use whatever types of super moves you have available. There’s also a part here where I can get Trunks to assist me during the fight if the resource bar is ready, and opposite that is a function that allows me to go up to SSJ3. Going Super Saiyan (SSJ) is literally a childhood dream, so I can imagine kids wanting to have their customized characters look like them, and then hitting this button as soon as they’re able. I mean, I was.
Dragon Ball Xenoverse 3 is going for that simple combat arena, where digital action figures can be bumped against each other for fun.
Gundam: Rogue Orbit
The simplest way I can describe this is Code Vein but with robots. Actually, not really; the movement and combat for the mechs you get to pilot actually feel more nimble than anything I’ve played in Code Vein, maybe even lighter than the ones in Armored Core 6. But they really do look good and the flow of combat felt natural.
Our demo allowed us to play one of three units through the same mission; one looked like your traditional Gundam protagonist, while the two others reminded me of a Zaku and Vayeate but with a lance instead of its original weapon.
There wasn’t any obvious way to guard in the game, but I was able to deploy a shield to take cover in and to shoot safely from (ideally, but everything was attacking as melee fighters, so it’s useless). The other optional weapon was having shooting bits freely move around you and support you as you dodge and attack enemies. Dodging, jumping, and cancelling attacks into more combos involved exhausting your boost gauge, which sounds a lot like Gundam VS mechanics at play. You also had a stock resource that allowed you to use other specialized moves that could vary in function. The three we were given focused on attacking surrounding enemies, making a concentrated attack against one target, and an ability that felt like it functioned as instant movement.
Aside from the game looking rather impressive, combat was really just for demo purposes at best. Enemies were either helpless or very predictable; we have yet to see if Rogue Orbit has any interesting fights in store for us down the line. But given how easy it was to move and attack with the current setup, I’d take it that if you got hit, that was your fault. Here’s to hoping that they have many interesting set pieces for us to play through as well as bosses to fight when the game comes out.
For now, that’s what we were able to get out of Bandai Namco Entertainment’s attractions. And I have to say I’m pretty excited about flying planes and piloting robots. Thank you again to their helpful staff for making sure we got to share these experiences with you.
Our Tokyo Game Show features aren’t quite done yet, though, so make sure to watch this space!