11/10 - Tokyo Game Show

This is what everyone's been waiting for - the Tokyo Game Show! The doors opened up for the public at 10:00 in the morning on Saturday. By then, the convention had already been going on for two days, but those were closed to people in the business only.

We got to the convention hall Makuhari Messe by around 11:00, it wasn't terribly packed but you could still see where the stream of people were heading towards. Some of us hadn't gotten any tickets yet, and had in mind to buy them at the site. But while we're heading towards the venue, this guy came up to A and M (or T?) gave them his tickets because he said he couldn't stand the crowds! Talk about luck. :D

And you wouldn't believe the how long the line to enter the hall was! I filmed a little video of a tenth of it, or less. It was at least a several hundred meters long and at first I though that the huge building we saw when we first got to the grounds was where TGS was housed, but it was actually located some place totally different than that. With this said, it didn't take long at all to get enter (20 minutes of line-standing?) because the line moved pretty quickly, which came as a surprise. Lines in Tokyo, at least in the subway, is a hell to go through because you move at an ant's speed. This was more like a normal pace walk.
1. Huge TGS billboard!
2. What was with this yellow ranger guy? No one really cared about him...
3. This was not the building we headed for. To the left, on the steps, you can see the tail of the end of the line. To the right is the same line, but after a couple twists and turns...

When we entered the venue, we were knocked by the incredibly loud volume of music and announcements and presentations. Every booth wants to overpower the other, so it's no wonder that the volume was so high.

As for the event itself, it wasn't as packed as I had imagined it to be, but that doesn't mean it wasn't packed at all! The hall was kept dark and there were people walking everywhere. Our group decided to split into two to have some free time to walk around. A, S, E and I originally headed for the Square Enix booth at first, but then we saw Mirror's Edge at the EA booth and decided to stand in line to try it out. It turns out that S has a friend who's working as a programmer at DICE! Cool. So anyway, the line looked pretty small but it still took at least half an hour before we actually got to enter the booth! And by the way, TGS was filled with cheerleader-looking girls wearing short short skirts who tried to reel attention to their respective booths. Also, they had an earthquake simulation platform (very similar in structure to the one I experienced a couple of weeks ago) and apparently there's a series of disaster-prevention games. Wow... I heard from the others that you could try the simulation with two cute Japanese girls with short skirts and low cut shirts so you could see some juggling action. <_<> Tokyo.

1. Flashy lights and screens everywhere. That screen over there was running trailers over and over again. We could barely hear each other talk! Sign to the right: Mirror's Edge Taiken Corner (Experience Corner).
2. You can't see the booth very well but it was something like this.
3. Guess which "booth"! It was more like a field of Square Enix's products. I got their Event Book and it's as thick as a magazine. They had a toy's corner, glass display cases with various goods, their OWN SCREENING THEATER and several Taiken Corners!
4. Zoom in of two of the most well-known Squenix mascots. I wonder if the porings from Ragnarok Online were inspired by the Dragon Quest blob? But then again it isn't that unique of a shape so it's probably a coincidence. Want to bring back the Chocobo home though!

1. Gyakuten Kenji!!! It was packed with people all the time so even though I really wanted to try it I didn't get to. It was so crowded that I couldn't even see inside. Read some reports later and it turned out that the booth was decorated as Edgeworth's office! ;___; Gaaah I should've gone! Damn you TGS for closing so early!
2. More Capcom stuff. :D
3. A small part of the Squenix hood. The two new Kingdom Hearts games and Final Fantasy Dissidia. As expected from Square Enix, even their booth is cool!
4. One of the display cases with assorted goods. That box with Amano Yoshitaka's art looks yummy. Also, note the Sora figurine to the left! Waaaant!
5. DISSIDIA FINAL FANTASY POTIONS! They go on sale on the 19th of December, dammit. Urghh. I'll be back in Sweden by then. 6. Limited Dissidia PSP. *__*

1. The World Ends With You cosplayers! The cosplay section part of TGS was held semi-outside, in the space where you have to walk to get to the other part of the venue. We didn't check it out that much, the games were more important!
2. A small part of the convention.
3. More people. The crowds were alright as you can see.
4. The Level 5 booth! :D A, E and I went there to try out the latest (and last?) Professor Layton game, even though the second one hasn't even been released in English yet... We stood in line for another 30-40 minutes and got 15 minutes playtime or so. Oooh, I hope the second game gets released soon, I can't wait! Layton is as charming as usual, mysig design! (By the way, I think we should substitute lagom with mysig, or does anyone have a good word for it in English?) Grabbed Level 5's brochure and there's this other game that looks so lovely and wonderful as well. No wonder because it is a collaboration with Studio Ghibli!
5. Probably someone important.
6. Presenting a new console. It was so whacky at the end when they played a video showing how this console transformed into a robot and flew to space or something along those lines. Huh?

1. Laaayton!
2. Little Big Planet. :D
3. Can't wait to play Dissidia.
4. The cosplay grounds.
5. At Taito's booth (which was really cute, to tune in with the Cooking Mama feel I suppose), they had these small round tables placed everywhere with four DS:s each on top. You could try the new Cooking Mama and Space Puzzle Bobble (Bubble Bobble over here) games. I want to play more Bubble Bobble! It's one of those games you easily get addicted to.

After some more walking around, we decided to go home. There was still an hour before TGS would close for the day, but we decided to leave earlier to avoid the worst train rush.

So, my impression of the first TGS; Huge and grand. But most of the time was spent waiting in lines so we didn't get to try as many games as we would have wanted to. It wasn't a "oh my god I'm actually here?!"-feeling but in the end it was good fun with good company! There's a lot to see and hear and experience, I certainly felt that a second day was necessary in order to try everything. Maybe next year!