Friday, September 24, 2004

TGS 2004 Preview: Everything old is new again
WHAT TO EXPECT
To the legions of videogame otaku who live in the greater Tokyo area, late September means only one thing. It's time to take the train out to the Makuhari Messe hall in Chiba prefecture just outside Tokyo and wait in line for hours and hours, queued up with their fellow gamers, until the doors of the world-famous convention center open and they can stream into the annual Tokyo Game Show.

Some arrive in elaborate costumes, dressed as their favorite game characters. Some arrive with thousands of dollars worth of camera equipment to photograph the cosplayers (those who dress in character). And some are there for the swag--not only the cheap freebies, but the expensive goods as well, like Final Fantasy jewelry at the Square Enix booth or S.T.A.R.S. police outfits at the Capcom stand. But they're all there to play the games. Just like E3, the Tokyo Game Show features elaborate booths with playable versions of games that won't be out for months. But unlike E3, which is an industry-only show, two out of the three days of TGS are open to the public.

It is a mixed blessing. Sure, you can get in… but the lines to play the popular games can be unbearably long. The two-hour waits at E3 to watch the Halo 2 demo or to play Nintendo DS are legendary. These sorts of waits are commonplace in Makuhari. Waiting to play Final Fantasy Tactics Advance in 2002 was like waiting to get on Space Mountain at Disneyland in July.

THE BOOTH CRAWL
As is the case most years, Square Enix's booth will be one of the most visited on the show floor. And the reason why doesn't have much of anything to do with Final Fantasy Tactics or anything called Final Fantasy. It's all about Dragon Quest VIII. Not only is this long-awaited sequel to Japan's most popular game series (which releases in November) going to be playable at TGS, there's the added bonus that the game looks stunning--the cel-shaded graphics engine brings famed manga artist Akira Toriyama's creations to life far better than the clunky 3D engine that powered the last Dragon Quest title. Two hour wait? Try four.

That's not to say that Final Fantasy won't have a commanding presence, however. The three Final Fantasy VII spinoffs unveiled thus far--Advent Children, Before Crisis, and Dirge of Cerberus--will undoubtedly draw crowds; the FFXI expansion Chains of Promathia, probably less so. And Final Fantasy XII will be shown--if, surprisingly, only on video.

Kingdom Hearts 2 and Chain of Memories will both be playable, as Square Enix and Disney attempt to build up the series as a "third pillar." Other series getting sequelized entries include Front Mission and Hanjuku Hero; among the company's entire console lineup the only new title is the PS2 RPG Radiata Stories.

But it's not just "Squeenix" falling back on old favorites. Practically everywhere you go on the floor of the Messe, you'll see mostly sequels, remakes, and ports. In an industry where revenues are shrinking--from about $6.8 billion in 1997 to about $4.5 billion in 2002--publishers want to weather the storm by producing games with proven returns.

Another extreme example of that strategy would be SNK Playmore, who recently abandoned their NeoGeo home and arcade systems to create more original games for contemporary hardware. Of the ten games that the company has announced for the show, four will be Metal Slug titles and four will be King of Fighters games. The only "original" game on the roster is NeoGeo Battle Coliseum, a fighting game featuring the characters from Metal Slug and King of Fighters.

Next, take Sega. Of the whopping 24 titles that will be shown at the company's booth at TGS, only three-- Shinsengumi Gunraw-den, Chaos Field, and Kimishine--are original titles. That leaves 21 sequels, ports, remakes, and licensed titles. This is not to say that none of those games will cause a frenzy--new entries in the Shining Force and Sakura Taisen series are sure to excite fans.

Microsoft, whose TGS booth is often the preferred meet-up place for the few American game industry types who make their way to the hall, continues to push the Xbox in Japan although the system could not be considered anything more than a pronounced flop in the Land of the Sinking Yen--the console has yet to break the half million units sold threshold even, and its unlikely to ever hit that milestone (the 3DO sold better there), but the Xbox isn't dead.

In fact, Microsoft will be showing off 31 titles at its booth. Most are third-party titles, and many have been brought over directly from the West and thus have little appeal to the Japanese gaming mainstream no matter how popular they are at home--Halo 2 and Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow being major examples. Only a few are Japan-developed, like Blinx 2 and Phantom Dust. Industry analysts expect only expect one to break 100,000 units sold--Dead or Alive Ultimate.

HARDWARE ALERT
And then there's the PSP. If E3 was the christening, TGS is the coming-out party. The PSP games will be playable for the first time at TGS, and Sony will bring a lineup of third-party heavy hitters into the PSP section of its booth. Capcom, Koei, Hudson, Namco, Bandai, Konami, Sega, Taito, and From Software, among others, will put their products up for playable demonstration in the booth as well. Many are, again, sequels or ports, but one of the most anticipated titles is completely original--Lumines, the "sound and light action puzzle," by Rez creator Tetsuya Mizuguchi.

Finally, it's tough to ignore that the PSP will have serious competition in the portable-gaming realm at TGS. It's not the Nintendo DS--Nintendo never shows their wares at the TGS, preferring to host their own events later in the year. The competition on the show floor this year will be from mobile phones. The Japanese as a nation are years ahead of the curve in the cell-phone market--both in user base and technology. Dragon Quest creator Yuji Horii is one of the most successful designers in the industry. Ask him what he considers his primary competition, and he'll talk about cell phone gaming.

Japanese are still spending lots of money on entertainment, but a lot of it is now being diverted to gaming on mobile handsets. So of course NTT DoCoMo, the wireless giant, will have a massive presence at TGS. And every publisher worth a damn is jumping on the bandwagon, eager for a slice of the ever-growing pie. NTT's booth will include upcoming games based on Metal Gear, Resident Evil, Final Fantasy, Street Fighter, Mega Man, Phantasy Star, and Gundam.

If the "importance" of the Tokyo Game Show has been declining in recent years, it's mostly the fault of E3. Even though the Electronic Entertainment Expo takes place in Los Angeles and is focused on products that will ship to the US market, it's still viewed even by the Japanese media as a global event--the biggest stage for the whole world to crowd around and bear witness.

The reality is that Tokyo Game Show is created for one territory, a territory that remains in great part, cut off from the rest of the world. Even though Japanese publishers are making the effort to be more international in their outlook, the fact remains that plenty of TGS titles shown are ones that Americans will clamor for information on, but will likely never get to play.

Still, the event is fascinating and important--and GameSpot is dedicated to bringing you all the news and excitement showcased in the annual event. For the latest news on hardware and games, check out My's TGS coverage, coming soon.


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