Super TGS News 2012

Tokyo Game Show 2012 is wrapping up.

Everyone is playing Borderlands 2, but I'm looking forward to some new Japanese releases for this upcoming year.

Here are some highlights:

New PS3 model: 

The rumors were true. News had been circulating about this new model, and sadly it isn't a PS4, but it looks like SONY will try to cash in before it debuts the next generation console. It's a slimmer version of the current model, which will ship in white and black later this year.

Let's take a look at some of the software news:

Metal Gear Rising: Revengence

Here's a new trailer for the next installment of the Metal Gear Solid series. Warning: This trailer is kind of gory.

Looks awesome. I'll be honest when I admit that I haven't really played any of the Metal Gear games, besides the 8-bit ones that came out in 1987. So I've got some catching up to do if I want to be ready for the movie that has started production. Looks incredible though. 

Soul Sacrifice

Not much info on this dark fantasy game, from Keiji Inafune. It's heading to the Vita in 2013. It looks really good, and gives me hope that SONY would port a Dark Souls style game to their handheld. We'll see what happens as this game gets closer to completion. They complained that this game was "delayed" until 2013 because they need more time to work on it... So what happened to King of Pirates? That worries me, if Inafune is devoting all his resources to Soul Sacrifice. We'll find out more in the future.  

Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch

I've been really excited about this game. There are several videos that show more of the gameplay footage, but I could probably watch the cartoon cut scenes all day long. From what I've seen you can control various side characters and animal friends... supposedly up to 12 different individuals at once. The game play looks solid, something that Level 5 has honed from working on Dragon Quest and other games.

Wow. This game looks so beautiful and fun. The artwork for this game is designed by Studio Ghibli, and obviously looks like every Hayao Miyazaki film because of that. The cartoon style is really suitable for a kid friendly looking RPG experience, and from what I've heard about the story... they could have just made a feature length film with this. Level 5 is probably the best RPG developer making games these days. They did incredible work with DQ 8 and 9. This will hit North America in January 2013, which has me excited to see what people think about it. This looks like a game you could play with your kids, to get them interested in rpgs.

Here's another trailer. This game looks so great!

Project X Zone

And then we have this. Project X Zone is pure ridiculous. Words fail me, and thankfully this will probably stay in Japan. I just don't think there's an audience for crazy RPGish mash up games in North America. I could be wrong. This game includes just about every character from SEGA, CAPCOM, and Namco Bandai mashed into one game. It seems like a complete mess to me.


God Eater 2

This is one of the many popular Monster Hunter style games that have sprung up in the past few years. I've played a little of a previous title in the series, God Eater Burst, and found it to be fun enough based on what it was trying to imitate. This is SONY's action RPG for the Vita, a highly stylized anime post apocalyptic Monster Hunter game. The combos and moves are pretty interesting, and the graphics make it really... flashy. Which is a good thing. It should sell well in Japan, and maybe boost Vita sales? SONY's Vita needs a hope and a prayer to survive. 

MONSTER HUNTER 4

And... here's a big game from the show. A playable demo was featured during the show.

Monster Hunter 4 will be released for the 3DS in March in Japan, the same time as Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate hits North America. Interesting to note: MH4 will have online play, where as of now the 3DS version of MH3 Ultimate won't. That's a big bummer for gamers in the US, and something that CAPCOM should fix if they ever want this franchise to take off here. This game will be huge in Japan, and Nintendo scored big securing the rights to this series. With the added Wii U sales this December, it looks like CAPCOM will have two big hits, back to back.

3DS Circle Pad Pro XL

I knew it was coming... That large monstrosity on the top is the newly designed circle pad for the new 3DS XL. It's huge. It's going to make the system even bigger. Like seriously? This is a better option than actually including another analog slider? Totally stupid, even though I totally want one. 

Absent from the convention:

Any news about The Last Guardian. Is that game cancelled? Come on. Nothing? This is getting stupid.