Following last year’s upbeat showing, Tokyo Game Show 2025 was even busier and bustling with lots of people. I also played more games than I thought possible.
Like last year, the return of console games has been a big change over the mobile-focused shows of past years. There were some mobile booths, with ostentatious layouts, but no one was really playing any of those games.
The only sad aspect of the Tokyo Game Show is that there were no really big game announcements to speak of, so much of the fun of finding new games to play was somewhat diminished.
It was also really busy, busier than I’ve ever seen the business days before. Once I got home, the news was covering the show’s turnout, so it seems to have been a uniquely massive number of people that showed up.
That said, the games that were on show and that I did get to play were thoroughly great. Bar one game, with an odd embargo, here are the games I got my hands on, as well as my impressions for each.
Monster Hunter Wilds and Final Fantasy XIV Crossover
The demo was set up against Omega Planetes with every armor, weapon, and 50 of each decoration unlocked, giving you a little time to prepare a build prior to going into battle. You could also cast Final Fantasy magic, with a cooldown for each casting. There was also an event-specific protective shield, which appeared to negate most damage when inside. The boss marked most attacks with red targeting areas on the ground, giving you a chance to avoid incoming attacks. The boss also seemed more manageable than the Behemoth, but it does feature a DPS check. At a certain point in the battle, Omega creates a clone of Nerscylla. It has lasers added to its attacks, but while fighting it, you can see Omega charging a massive beam in the background. If you defeat the Nerscylla in time, a special barrier is created that protects you from the incoming team wipe. Opening the map allows quick access to the camp, and the battle takes place in Iceshard Cliffs, potentially a new section crafted for the battle, but a lot like the Jin Dahaad battle, with the boss flying to successive areas deeper inside.
Once Upon A Katamari
This had a level set in ancient Japan, where you could roll up houses and trees into an ever-increasing lump. The controls from the old PlayStation 2 games are also still very much in effect, with flipping the analogue sticks to make you boost forward quickly. As always, there were lots of fun items hidden away to pick up, and lots of dialogue from the disgruntled people on the ground being rolled up into a ball. What was also interesting was that despite this being a brand new Katamari Damacy game, the visuals still have that retro-PlayStation 2 feel, even in HD. I think the charm of the original games has definitely been retained here. In any case, it’s nice to have an all-new Katamari Damacy game to look forward to.
Panzer Dragoon Zwei: Remake
After the remake of the first Panzer Dragoon, which I thought was pretty good (after all the patches), this is the much-anticipated remake of arguably the better game of the two, Panzer Dragoon Zwei. Visually, it looks very nice and properly faithful to the Saturn version, but I did prefer the new optional modern controls. These make the reticle move more manageable on an analog input and are closer to how Orta felt to play. The demo had the first level of the game and the ability to switch between two types of dragon. The firing and lock-on are also the same: hold to lock-on and tap to fire. It will be nice to finally play this properly once it’s out, as the original Zwei was a fiendishly paced on-rails shooter, and we always need more of those.
Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment
This is the Hyrule Warriors set before Tears of the Kingdom and features characters like Rauru and Mineru in their own timeframe. The game was running on Switch 2 and was buttery smooth with it, with no frame rate drops to speak of. You could play as Zelda, Mineru, or Rauru as you navigated the depths. Characters could be switched between on the fly, and Zelda was more of a technical character, with a manually aimed bow used to stun enemies. Whereas Rauru is just a monster that can devastate large groups of enemies at will. You also have the team-up attacks with their own animations, which looked cool. The game is also clearly using the same engine and assets from Tears of the Kingdom, so it looks very faithful to that as a result.
R-Type Delta HD Boosted
This was a very barebones HD upscale version of Delta and plays identically to the PlayStation original. Obviously, as the original game is an astonishingly good shmup, that’s no bad thing, but my only gripe is that this could have been so much more with a studio like M2 handling the porting. Especially, as the original polygonal warping you see on old PlayStation games is still present here. That said, the fact that this will be widely available again is great, but there’s not much more here over the original version. There was also a demo of the Game Boy Color R-Type DX, called Music Encore, which seems mostly unnecessary but played accurately enough to the original.
Double Dragon Revive
The wait for this has been pretty sizable, but the final game is playing great. Very smooth frame rate and some great combos you can execute, as well as special attacks. You have multiple characters to choose from, and the music is the same as the original. I grew up playing the old Game Boy version of Double Dragon, so this feels like a modern take on that. Also, the various weapons that enemies drop are also in full effect, with a counter displaying how many attacks you have left.
Dragon Quest I & II HD Remake
Following the amazing HD remake of Dragon Quest III, this release covers the first two games in the series as one package. The reason for this is that the first Dragon Quest has you play as Erdrick on his own, so it’s pretty short, as Erdrick is a one-man walking army. The second game introduces more characters to your group, but it is still nowhere near the size of the third game. This remaster is easily as good as the last one I reviewed, and Artdink is still handling its development. Even early on in the game, your characters feel very powerful, but that may be just the settings used for the demo. The second game also has a fun underwater section now, too, and that looked lovely.
Psyvariar 3
Being a longtime fan of the Psyvariar series, I was suitably elated to see a new game as a playable demo. With multiple characters and abilities to choose from, it seemed that no one knew how to play these games, as nobody was rolling their ship. In any case, I played through the first level as Naomi and buzzed my way through enemy fire. I really hope the mecha from Psyvariar 2 makes an appearance, as that was one of my favorite games on the Dreamcast. The only downside to the game was that it didn’t seem to have the same visual production quality as the prior games, but it still played wonderfully.
Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls
This feels like a modern Marvel vs. Capcom through the lens of Guilty Gear. You can choose four Marvel characters per team, and I really dig the new Iron Man design. The art and animation look amazingly good, and give each Marvel character a proper anime vibe. I wasn’t able to dig too much into the combat system, but it seems that this will be a suitably involved fighting game.
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