Tokyo Game Show – Preview

Tokyo Game Show is Japan’s biggest annual consumer video games expo. Beginning on Thursday, September 21st at the Makuhari Messe in Chiba and running through to September 24th, there’s a lot going on at this year’s event. The first two days are comprised of business meetings and the second two are open to the public.

As in previous years, Sony plan to hold a press conference prior to the event (19^th September), which will be streamed online. Last year, they announced the release date for Nioh and revealed the Final Fantasy XV Luna Edition PS4 – similar announcements are expected this year. They will have 21 playable titles at their booth on the show floor, including Call of Duty: WWII, Code Vein and Dissidia Final Fantasy NT. Some PlayStation VR titles such The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim VR will be playable as well.

Capcom plan to show Monster Hunter World as well as having Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite, Dead Rising 4: Frank’s Big Package, Monster Hunter Stories, Resident Evil 7: Biohazard Gold Edition, Resident Evil Revelations and Revelations 2 for Switch playable at its booth. And according to Gematsu, Square Enix will have Final Fantasy XIV Online, Dissidia Final Fantasy NT, Final Fantasy XV, Itadaki Street Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy 30th Anniversary as playable titles at its booth.

Square Enix are planning to show the Secret of Mana remake with opportunities for fans to get their questions answered by the development team during the event. Fans can submit their questions in advance via a thread on Reddit. Degica also have a lot to get fans excited, including plans to show the first playable version of Game Tengoku CruisinMix and appearances from the game’s original designer, Masahiro Arai, Naomi Kazaana (the director of the Sega Saturn version), and voice actor Mike Kanai during a live stream of the title from Tokyo Game Show.

Vaqso, a company which recently raised over half a million dollars to design what amounts to smell-o-vision in VR, will have an event stage with a bunch of very cool collaborators and guest speakers, including the one and only Palmer Luckey, co-founder of Oculus and inventor of the Oculus Rift. Luckey and the other speakers plan to “share their thoughts on the future of Virtual Reality”. Other notable speakers include GOROman, the President & CEO of XVI Inc. and Prof. Takuji Narumi from The University of Tokyo.

They will also be demonstrating the aforementioned “smell-o-vision” technology (or as they like to call it “scent experiences”), including an “experience” created by Square Enix in collaboration with HTC Vive, called Kai-ri-Sei Million Arthur VR. This is an RPG action game with the scents of the ocean and fresh earth in an attempt to make the experience seem more “real” for players. Other titles showcasing the “scent technology include Counter Fight, a food prep title which players can smell cooked ramen noodles, sizzling gyoza and, if (when) they mess up, burnt food.

Check out Gematsu for a detailed listing of all of the planned livestreams from Tokyo Game Show 2017.