As with many events, the Tokyo Game Show is a virtual event this year. The dates for the Virtual Tokyo Game Show were announced bac in June, and the four day show is rapidly approaching. Many companies will be making presentations at the show, on the business, tech, and actual game sides of the video game industry.
The schedule for the main events at the Tokyo Game Show have already been released, and the lineup shows a host of tech companies and developers both small and large. Companies like Tencent and Happinet have hour blocks set aside alongside companies like Level-5 and Konami’s showcases. It will be several days filled with games revealed for the first time, or with new information about already revealed games. There is a lot to look forward to, and at this point companies have begun telling people exactly what will be presented, revealing their lineups.
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Not all of the lineups are known yet, but some prominent games have already been confirmed. Resident Evil 8 will be part of Capcom’s showcase, although the majority of its showcase is not yet known. Square Enix, on the other hand, seems to have revealed the majority of its showcase. The lineup is not exactly what players expected, with major titles being absent and a distinct focus on mobile games taking center stage. While other announcements are no doubt coming, the ones made public at the moment have a definite mobile focus. There are a few games to talk about, and this may be the first time some western players are hearing about games that have already seen trailers, or the full game, released in Japan.
Several of the games slated for Square Enix’s lineup are Dragon Quest titles. This is hardly surprising, since Dragon Quest 11 S was enough of a success on Switch that preorders for it are now available for PS4, PC, and Xbox One. These are not mainline Dragon Quest titles however. Instead, they are several spinoff games for iOS and Android, including Dragon Quest: The Adventure of Dai Tamashii no Kizuna, Dragon Quest Tact, and Dragon Quest Walk. Tact is a tactical, grid-based Dragon Quest spinoff, while Walk is an augmented reality game in the vein of Pokemon GO. While its previous games have done reasonably well, Dragon Quest have never been smash hits in the West, so it’s uncertain how well the mobile games will be received.
Other games follow in the same vein, being mobile games aimed at audiences on the go. Several of them are free to play and have a corresponding free to play economy, including Final Fantasy Brave Exvius. This may be disappointing to some players who were hoping for a reveal of Final Fantasy 16. It looks like a Final Fantasy 16 reveal, if it’s coming at all, is further down the line for Square. That said, the show will not be without some big titles, as it looks like more details for Balan Wonderland will be released, as well as news about Babylon’s Fall, developed by Platinum Games.
While the big announcements will no doubt be nice, players may well be hesitant about the mobile games. One reason for this is the fact that not all of Square’s mobile endeavors have worked out in the past. While games for handheld consoles, such as The World Ends With You and Final Fantasy Tactics and its spinoffs have been well received, phone games have not been so fortunate. Final Fantasy: All the Bravest is considered perhaps Square Enix’s worst game, and it was similarly set up with a free to play economy.
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Source: Gamatsu
