Take me to the Question of the Week Archive There are a few occasions every year that tend to blow the games industry's collective tops. The Tokyo Game Show--held twice annually--is one such occasion, and the announcements and unveilings that result from it are what arguably keep the industry going, until the next big show.
While there wasn't a great deal to see at this year's Spring TGS, there definitely was an awful lot to hear. It seems the Xbox was the show's theme, and Microsoft sure did blow a lot of smoke. And with Sega's support set in stone, it sure seems like Microsoft is serious about making a splash in Japan. But is it enough? Only time will tell
We asked our editors to go on about what went down in Tokyo, last week--Microsoft related, or not. It takes a great while to digest such an overload of information, so you're lucky that our editors have done it for you. But we still want your impressions of the show, as well as your suggestions for the feature! We value your input!
Discuss the Spring Tokyo Game Show in GameSpot's forums.
Enter the Dragon Instead of naming one game as the most impressive of the show, I'll take a little detour and name the most visually impressive, the best playing, and the game I'm personally looking forward to the most. Many who were at the event have said that DOA2: Hardcore, the environments were truly majestic. The beach level, which showed such subtle effects as the dull glare of the setting sun and waves splashing on the sand, looked like it was FMV quality.
Are you looking at my eyes? The best playing game at the show would have to be Silent Hill 2. Naturally, the game had the traditional survival-horror controls, which means that it was slow moving--perhaps even more slow moving than the original. However, the dark hallways and the deformed creatures in the demo gave us a feeling of claustrophobia and paranoia. And those are exactly the types of emotions that the developers of be Silent Hill 2 are looking to evoke from the player. Judging from the demo itself, be Silent Hill 2 should end up being a disturbing, scary and entertaining game.
Beware of the snake! Finally, the game that I'm looking forward to the most wasn't even shown at the Tokyo Game Show--it was only announced through a vague video preview. I'm talking about Xenosaga; Namco's pseudo-sequel to Square's epic-RPG Xenogears. The game is being developed by Monolith Software, which is made up of several key members from the Xenogears development team. I loved Xenogears, so in this latest game I'm looking forward to another epic story and massive mechs. One thing I do hope is that Monolith Software replaces the 2D sprites with actual 3D characters in the game. The game will be unveiled in a couple of months, so I can't wait to see more.
On the announcements front, Microsoft stole the show by revealing that Sega plans to release at least eleven games on the Xbox console. Some may think that Square has a lot of pull in the console world, but if one of the console manufacturers are able to secure Sega as the lead developer on its console it will have a considerable advantage. Unfortunately, for the console makers, Sega doesn't plan on supporting one console alone, so while you might see Panzer Dragoon on the Xbox, you'll also see Virtua Fighter 4 on the PS2 and quite possibly Sonic on the GameCube.
Features Editor
Can Microsoft afford to push boundaries like Sega did with the Dreamcast? If there's one thing that shocked me about TGS, it was Microsoft and Sega's big announcement. I had assumed that Sega would release some games on the Xbox, but I never dreamed it would support it with such fervor. Most shocking is the announcement of Panzer Dragoon. Dreamcast fans have screamed for this game ever since the console was released in September of 1999, yet Sega disregarded their cries and continued to release niche games like Jet Grind Radio on a console fresh out of the blocks. Didn't Sega learn its lesson with the Dreamcast version?
It's hard to beat a dog on inline skates. I was pleasantly surprised by Final Fantasy VII. Even so, until RPGs no longer feature turn-based combat (never), I won't be spending 50 hours playing/watching one.
Final Fantasy X stole the show. I was excited to see how Microsoft would attack the Japanese market, and after watching Bill Gates' keynote speech, I have to admit that I'm skeptical as to how much success the Xbox will have there. A slightly modified controller and a push for broadband gaming where there is no broadband just won't cut it. Microsoft should concentrate on the Xbox's software content first. Where are the mah-jongg games? Where are the horse racing games? Japanese consumers couldn't care less about first-person shooters and football games. Microsoft has to accept that there are some games that sell only in the US and some games that do well only in Japan. Trying to make sure that all its Xbox games are palatable in every territory is good way to make sure its console goes the way of the Dreamcast. It was also disappointing to see that Microsoft didn't show any games with revolutionary gameplay. Again, it was the same adventure/shooter/fighter scenario we've seen too many times already.
Gun Valkyrie might kick ass, but the Japanese couldn't care less. From a technical standpoint, the Xbox is starting to shape up nicely. The demos shown for Super Mario 64 for the first time, but if Microsoft is looking to take the industry by storm, then that's exactly the type of software that it needs for Xbox.
Will anyone be able to duplicate the groundbreaking nature of Super Mario 64? Outside of Final Fantasy X, Spring TGS 2001 was a bit of a disappointment. Nothing groundbreaking was shown. No new genres were invented. Software companies continue to perpetuate the status quo, and we can only hope that someone is working on something secret for the Xbox or the GameCube. Well, there's always E3.
Codes Editor
Hey Rinoa, er, Yuna, wanna see my gunblade, er, water sword? This year's Spring Tokyo Game Show was chock-full of exciting news and announcements for the game industry. One of the biggest games we got a chance to check out was Final Fantasy X , which looked absolutely fabulous. Although I've had more than my fill of breathtaking Square FMV from the last three "Final" Fantasies, the screenshots we've seen trickling in from Japan for FFX are some of the most impressive yet. The quality of the artwork is astounding, nearly unbelievable. I haven't quite taken to the character design yet, however. The main character, Tidus, looks too much like a Squall/Cloud clone for his own good. Maybe I'm just being a jaded RPG fan, but where's the innovation? I like the idea of having the summoned creatures stay with the party, with commands of their own, but it'll take significantly more than that to sway the FF series back into my favor.
Umm, on second thought, I think I can hold it until the next stop... One particularly exciting announcement was made by Bill Gates and Sega of Japan COO Tetsu Kayama: Games like the sequel to Panzer Dragoon 2, Jet Grind Radio Future, Sega GT, and the Visual Concepts Sega Sports series are all headed to the Xbox. Sega is apparently throwing all it can into the Xbox launch, with a reported 11 games set for launch. Eleven games. Wow. While this is definitely a risky endeavor, I'm excited to see Sega jump headfirst into software development, which has always been its forte. However, the wisdom in releasing 11 games at launch for an unproven console is questionable. Perhaps someone at good-old Microsoft wrote Sega a big fat check?
Just one fix... Despite all these exciting announcements, I felt the coolest thing we got to see at TGS was the upcoming Silent Hill 2 for the Final Fantasy X and Final Fantasy X . A whopping seven-minute trailer is available at GameSpot Live, but be warned, watching it gave me a mad case of the goose bumps. Ah, there's just something magical about a franchise this depraved. While other survival-horror games like Final Fantasy X may make good use of zombies and monsters, Silent Hill 2 promises to take it a step further with its use of two of the scariest horror staples known to man: creepy little girls and filthy restrooms. This gritty, fleshy bits of face hanging off the meat hook that was just pulled out of an eye socket, gross you out and make you queasy kind of horror is what I've been craving since Final Fantasy X for the PS. The scenes we've been able to glimpse are disturbing, if only for the atmosphere you can feel just while watching. Getting the chance to immerse myself into this game is one of the moments I'm looking forward to most for this fall, and no amount of twisted masses of bloodied human flesh will stand in my way.
European Correspondent
For the last few months, it seemed as if TGS would simply be Microsoft's presentation of the Xbox. In the end, however, it turned out to be a very interesting show. To begin with, I was very curious about whether Microsoft would succeed in selling the console to the Japanese developers and the public, particularly because even during Gamestock, nobody in Japan really cared about the Xbox. I was interested in how Microsoft would make them listen up.
Click for full size image Dead or Alive 3 and the recent announcement that Namco is developing two games for the Xbox--as well as Silent Hill X looking really good--made people raise their eyebrows. Namco is being very careful, strategically--the company most likely doesn't expect the Xbox to be very successful in Japan. But by limiting the release of the two titles to North America and Europe, it's made a pretty sure bet without risking too much. And if those games come to Japan in the end, the Xbox will have its killer apps for that territory. Namco has so many fans that many will buy the games, regardless of the console, provided they're good. And judging from past Namco products, it's useless to question the quality of its Xbox efforts. Soul Calibur 2 would be a very glamorous name on the Xbox, but we'll have to wait and see whether that's one of the two games it will be showing at E3 in May.
Click for full size image Sega's involvement with the Xbox was a no-brainer--its multiplatform strategy had to include the Xbox by default. Nevertheless, I was surprised by the revival of Panzer Dragoon, although it has always been rumored to be headed to the PlayStation. Sega thankfully squashed those rumors, and you can bet we're looking forward to this game, as well as any others the company is working on.
Silent Hill 2 also amazed me. The seven-minute movie (which can be found here) really blew me away because of the stunning use of the flashlight. Shadows can now be generated by steel bars and smaller objects, which creates impressive moods in small rooms. I expect that we'll all need nerves of steel, if we plan on playing this game at night.
When looking back, this spring's Tokyo Game Show was a very interesting show with quite a number of interesting announcements.
Previews Editor
Though it's usually the fall TGS that boasts the hottest and most anticipated news and video games, I was pretty impressed by all the action that went down at this year's 2702043Sega developing for the Xbox and Enter the Dragon. Final Fight is one of the best examples of the glut of beat-'em-up games to come out of the '80s. I'm ecstatic that games like this can be perfectly ported to Nintendo's latest handheld, and games like this make me very optimistic about the future of the GBA .
All in all, the spring TGS this year was pretty fat. Although I would have liked to seen the show firsthand, it's still pretty exciting to hear what was going down in the land of the rising sun. Now I just can't wait until E3 this May.
A/V Producer
Going into the Spring TGS 2001, I was anticipating some overly large announcements from at least a couple of companies. It turns out, however, that only one developer made an announcement that I truly wanted to hear. The best part about it is that this was an announcement I never expected to be made at the show. The announcement? Xenosaga.
Xenogears! For those of you who don't know, I am a huge fan of Xenogears , the epic RPG by Square that was released on the PlayStation in 1998. The game, in my opinion, is the second-best RPG on the PlayStation platform, close behind another RPG from Square, Chrono Cross. The main difference in Xenosaga is that it's being developed by Namco's subsidiary company, Monolith Soft, and not Square. Luckily, though, most of the team consists of ex-Square employees, mainly those who worked on Xenogears, which should allow Xenosaga to retain the same visual style and feel as Xenogears. Yasnuri Mitsuda, who composed the music in Xenogears, will also compose Xenosaga's music. Yasnuri Mitsuda is also well known for his work in Chrono Trigger and Chrono Cross.
Weltall from Xenogears! Just knowing that Xenosaga is in development wasn't exactly enough for me to go gaga, but once I heard that it would be following the same path as Xenogears in many ways, I was overjoyed. If you by chance beat Xenogears and watched the credits, you may have noticed that it said "Xenogears: Episode V" in them. Square's Xenogears follows the fifth episode of a six-part story, and it looks like Xenosaga will take us to the very beginning of it all by covering the first episode of the storyline.
Another epic journey! Another game I have been waiting to hear about and am really happy to see positive reports on is Xenogears . The Final Fantasy series is my favorite RPG series, but I must admit that it needed some major gameplay enhancements. One of the biggest complaints I and many other people have are that the summons become tedious after a while. But it appears Square is addressing the problem by allowing the player to have full control over the summons. I still am not sure exactly how I can control summons, but I am anxious to find out. The graphics are on par with, if not slightly better than, the visuals found in The Bouncer, which pleases me, although graphics are by no means the main feature I look forward to when it comes to RPGs. I'm pretty sure the storyline will be well above average, and I can't wait to see what Nobuo Uematsu can synthesize using the PlayStation 2's sound chip, which is far superior to the one found in the PlayStation.
Sega! Microsoft announced several key Sega games that are in development for the Xbox, but I'm not personally a huge fan of any of the titles mentioned. To be honest, I have never really had the chance to play any of the Panzer Dragoon titles, so I will have to play some of them to see if I can get excited to the Panzer Dragoon game coming to the Xbox. People are flipping out with excitement since Jet Grind Radio Future was announced for Microsoft's console, but I personally think the original is overrated. Sure, the game introduced cel-shading to the mass market, and it had some fairly innovative gameplay elements, but I found myself completely bored, if not frustrated, with the game after playing it for three or four hours. The cameras are horrendous, and the gameplay became very repetitive, which caused me to lose interest in the game. Sega GT is an above-average game, but it doesn't come close to touching the quality found in the Gran Turismo series. Unless some drastic changes are made to the sequel, I don't think it will be up to par with Xenogears . I haven't seen much of the fourth Sega game announced, Gun Valkyrie, so I can't really comment on it.
Other than a few other things at the show, it was pretty uneventful. Hopefully, developers and publishers are waiting for E3 to bring out the big guns and make some huge announcements. I guess we'll have to wait.
The prospect of finally playing Final Fantasy in fully rendered 3D is exciting. Graphically, I can't think of many games that look much better. In fact, just about everything about FFX is pretty exciting. I wonder what role the enigmatic blitzball will play in the game.
| Silent Hill 2 . Ever since I saw the first trailer shown at last year's fall TGS, I was blown away and couldn't wait to see more. I don't think I've ever been as scared by video game as much as I was by Silent Hill. But no matter how much the game frightened me, I kept playing. There was just something about it that made me fall deeper and deeper into the story. Maybe it's a little too early to say, but I think that Silent Hill 2 will be everything that the first game was and more. Again, we were able to take some video of the new trailer, and it's positively amazing. Take a look and tell me what you think.
There's fighting. It may really sound like I'm trying to downplay the recent announcements, though, and nothing could be further from the truth. It's no secret that the Dreamcast was my favorite console system last year, and it's pretty dope to know that, despite its eventual dissipation, many of the legacies it founded will continue. The fact that Sega is creating another Panzer Dragoon is enough to drive some heads into a frenzy. If you doubt this, check out some of the more-populated forums on the web--you'll see that a bunch of kids are going nuts. And with good reason--the Panzer Dragoon shooters were among the most visually impressive games of their time. Remember the first time you saw game-shops running the demo? Even today, their visual executions are very impressive, if not from a technical standpoint, then from a design and conceptual standpoint. The idea of what a next-generation Panzer Dragoon will look like is insane. This is no doubt one of the games whose existence makes me very happy to be a part of this scene. Finally, though no less importantly, the confirmed existence of Xenosaga is definitely something to get excited about. Thought it was no real secret that it was in the works, Namco's subtle presentation at the show dispelled whatever insignificant doubts fans of and Xenogears may have had, regarding the game's lineage. Xenogears was the last Square RPG that I cared about, and it really did draw me in like none before it--Chrono Trigger excluded. While I have fears that I'll be turned off by the game's systems, I sure hope I'm wrong. Xenogears was one of the few instances when a game's narrative is what kept me playing it--I hope the same can happen with this prequel.
Assistant Reviews Editor The spring TGS was fast and furious this year, with more big announcements and showings from the major players than years past. Sega is showing that it really wants to be taken seriously as a third-party developer, with the bevy of Xbox titles announced at the show. None of the Xbox games shown so far have really blown my hair back, but with Sega's commitment to at least four Xbox games, it definitely has my attention now. *Yawn* Final Fantasy X --if a young boy has to fight against all odds to save the world and falls in love along the way, you can count me out. Look out, donut dog! Run! One of the smaller TGS showings that really got my attention was Poinie's Poin , winner of Most Insane Japanese Game That Will Never See the Light of Day in the US. I'm not sure that I can accurately describe the game, as I'm entirely confused and bewildered by the video footage we have of it. All I know is that the majority of the video consists of the main character running around a happy little town, eating maple-bar-shaped dogs left and right. Insane. I'll definitely be keeping my eye out for this one. Mike Haggar: Part-Time Mayor, Full-Time Player. There was some pretty cool stuff shown at TGS this year, but I'd say the thing that left the biggest impression on me was the lack of Nintendo-related wares at the show. Capcom had some GBA titles, and while Poinie's Poin looks more incredible every time I see it, I'm still left wondering: "Is Nintendo keeping quiet because they want it all to be a great big surprise or because they don't have anything to show? Will the GameCube suffer the same delayed fate of the N64?" Hopefully some of my questions will be answered at E3.
Readers respond:
What games are you looking forward to this year?You read about the games we're anxious about, this coming year, and you diligently wrote in about yours. Check out the games you're all expecting! Look. We Sure Hope So... Do you know if there will be devil signs in Silent Hill 2, like there are in Silent Hill? Thank you. --Peter And Guns and Cars... There's one helluva good lineup coming out this year. It's hard to choose which I want more, but my top three are Twisted Metal Black, MGS2, and GTA3. Cars and guns--isn't that what life's all about? --Luksifer Someone's Got to Do It I think that we all know that perfection in a game will be achieved when Soul Calibur 2 comes out (for PS2, I hope!). The first one is the undisputed king of all fighting games, and the sequel will change the way we think of fighting games. How deep and involved can a fighting engine get? Certainly not any deeper than my Soul Calibur! I actually feel sorry for those fellas at Namco programming that game now...that job must be so damn hard! -Ike Lists Are Tidy Known games I'm looking most forward to: Metal Gear Solid 2 Devil May Cry Munch's Oddysee Final Fantasy X Silent Hill 2 Unknown games I'm most looking forward to: Naughty Dog's "secret" PS2 title...please unveil at E3! Insomniac's next game. All three Spyro titles are on my all-time favorite list. Miyamoto's first GameCube release. Rare's first GameCube release. First console FPS to ship with powerful, flexible, easy-to-use level-building tools. -kev You Know We Will! My excitement lies with the upcoming Dreamcast games. With the ship sinking on the system itself and Sega's stock rising, it will be interesting to see if they can keep the public's attention for a while before they abandon the system altogether. I am also excited about the release of the GameCube to see how Nintendo handles its first disc-based consoles. Keep me posted (I know you will!). --Name withheld Almost Touching Imagine playing this with another person. My husband and I got hooked on playing games together when we bought Diablo. We've searched forever, looking for more games we could play together at the same time--on the same screen!! Most games are split-screen, and it's not much fun. We liked beating each other up every once in a while whenever we got stuck. Gauntlet was another favorite of ours to play. We are not into the boring boxing/wrestling/fighting multiplayer games. We enjoy the mystery games and the "let's get the big bad creature by killing all its minions first" type of games. We've often complained about how hard it is to find games we can play together on the same screen. It's so much fun playing a game with people you love, friends, and family. So if you know of any old games like Diablo or Gauntlet Legends, let us know. We will even buy a new system just to be able to play together. That's how important multiplayer games are to us. --Name withheld Check out the Question of the Week archive. Comments
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