gamrReview Japan: Tokyo Game Show Edition - Article
by VGChartz Staff , posted on 17 September 2014 / 3,488 Views
Greetings once again from Tokyo, Japan. As you may or may not remember, last year during my first trip to Japan I introduced this series of articles to share my discoveries about Japan’s gaming culture and its most exciting hotspots for gamers. I took you inside The Pokemon Center, showed you what was on the menu at Capcom’s special video game bar, and shared insight on Japanese portable gaming habits while traveling on nearly every form of mass transportation. Due to the fact that my period of stay was only a short four months, along with some unforeseeable personal difficulties I encountered, I regrettably was only able to produce a paltry four articles.
That is until now. This summer I relocated to Tokyo with a much longer stay in mind of a year or more. The good news is that all of those unwritten articles and ideas for features are still fresh and viable. Through this revived series of articles I hope to give you my firsthand account of toying around with all of the fancy gadgets at Sony’s showroom headquarters, test out new videogames and hardware releasing in Japan before the rest of the world (hint: New Nintendo 3DS), and try to explain why Japanese gaming arcades are so awesome.
But first thing is first. The Tokyo Game Show! For the first time ever gamrReview will have someone on the inside at the biggest video game trade show event in Japan to preview the most exciting upcoming games. Tokyo Game Show takes place over four days with the first two business days being available for the press and the latter two being open to the public for the cost of an admittance ticket. In a year where I already attended my first PAX East Expo and returned to E3 after a year’s hiatus, the prospect of covering TGS 2014 is both exciting and daunting, fulfilling a dream I once thought of as extremely unlikely when I began studying Japanese about four years ago.
My Japanese language ability has improved a lot in the year since I left and returned to Tokyo but is still far from proficient or even competent. I think this will be one of the more challenging aspects of trying to cover the show—and living in the country in general—where I'll be playing demos in Japanese without always understanding the instructions or dialogue on-screen. However, I will try my best, or as the Japanese would say ganbarimasuyo (頑張りますよ).
Like last year I intend to remain an active part of the gamrReview review team. As yet, I only have access to the PlayStation Vita (thankfully region free) and Nintendo 3DS (regrettably region locked) that I brought with me from home, but through the magic of digital distribution I can keep up with the latest releases from America. I also intend on buying Japanese hardware, specifically a PlayStation 4, in the near future. Until that time, though, my Japanese-centric review output will be minimal.
I am posting this from the venue of the Tokyo Game Show (which really should be called the Chiba Game Show). I hope you will stay tuned for previews and my reactions to things I see on the show floor, which I will be posting over the coming week. I am eager to get my hands on Resident Evil Revelations 2, Bloodborne (which our very own Karl Koebke previewed here), and Sony's Project Morpheus (which eluded me back at E3). Beyond that I hope you enjoy my gamrReview Japan articles. Due to lack of funds, I have not had any crazy exciting adventures in Japan this time around yet, so I have instead included a photo from last year’s trip which is of me on top of Mt. Fuji.
Jya ne. じゃあね
