Was just curious what everyone thought about the games they played at the convention! Especially since I don't see a whole lot of centralized discussion of those who went online. My whole day was Thursday, but I on a whim snuck in with an evening ticket for the last two hours of the night before mostly to get a lay of the land. In the end I played:
Anyone else have any big takeaways?
- Final Fantasy 7 Remake
- Honestly in some way this probably makes the show worth it alone. When your turn came to enter the booth each batch of players would first watch a Shinra propaganda video about how great it is to live in Midgar - which featured some nice city B-roll cutscene footage that I had never seen before - before Jessie hacks into the broadcast to brief you on how to play FFVII. Then after a recreation of the opening (also hype) you play the bombing mission run through and boss battle shown at E3 with more dialogue and traversal on the edges. I really enjoyed the combat, but like it seemed to me watching E3 something is off about that boss battle. Either you are just loaded with too many items and everything charges to fast for the demo or they have dragged out the fight too long or something, but the fight goes on too long for the little threat it poses to you. But overall, very excited!
- Catherine Full Body
- Two big things from my experience with Catherine FB, the update of my favorite game. The first is that the way they are incorporating the new story beats into the existing structure is interesting
. The second is that the gameplay really has been improved, with a blue line showing you where you can shimmy to while hanging and the camera moving itself to the back when you climb to the tower's backside. I felt these two mechanics improved my play from the start.Astaroth presents you with flashbacks of the early days with Katherine and the gang and provides commentary afterwards in the confessional booth segments.
- Also it seems like Astaroth's voice actor has been changed :(
- Two big things from my experience with Catherine FB, the update of my favorite game. The first is that the way they are incorporating the new story beats into the existing structure is interesting
- Roller Champions
- Maybe the biggest inspiration for me making this thread. Did ya'll play this game?! I thought it was so much fun. Just as a reminder it is the Ubisoft roller ball game where you want to score a ball through a small hoop on the wall and how many points you get depends on how many laps around the ring you are willing to risk before shooting. There are times where it really feels like playing Jet Set Radio, and this alone is all I could ask for.
- Concrete Genie
- Playing this game finally game me more of a feeling of what the gameplay is like. At least in the level present at Gamescom, it is going around the town avoiding bullies to illuminate lightbulbs hanging from the buildings with your graffitti. What you will draw on the wall comes from an expanding inventory of shapes/patterns, and while it is very easy to just paint the same grass all over, once I started to experiment for a little bit I had more fun with the results and the game does reward your creativity with a camera pan of the section when you are finished painting. Alongside this there seems to be some puzzle solving to get special creatures to certain walls that are otherwise un-paintable. Add in some light collectables and platforming and this could be up with the best of those late PS3 indies that made me fall in love with Playstation last gen.
- Sayonara Wild Hearts
- This is the best designed Universal Studios "sit in the moving car on a track and watch the screen" ride I have experienced in game form. That's all I could think of as I watched the person in front of me play it. When I got my hands on it I found the gameplay simple but fun. So freaking stylish.
- Luigi's Mansion 3
- Turns out I was rusty at Luigi's Mansion gameplay... As a result when I got to one of the hard rooms near the end of the demo I was having the over eager booth volunteer trying to tell me what to do and I got distracted by him and died. At which point he said "sorry man" and pointed to the exit. That's right, no retries or checkpoints for this demo. Whatever, the game seems great.
- Besides that it was just a few indies that maybe I will write about later and watching some games over people's shoulders. I have to say that I was even surprised by the gym I saw for Pokemon as someone who has been skeptical about Sword and Shield. The game looks great in person.
- The show itself was quite the experience. The people were right to warn me that it is super overcrowded though, and because of that I am not 100% sure I would return. Maybe the best way to experience it is to go two or three days just for the evening tickets (the last 4 hours of the day) where things really clear out. You miss out on some "goodies" probably, but the lines get so much shorter in those final 2 hours or so. But there is just so much going on there that as someone who has never attended a con it was quite the thing to see.
Anyone else have any big takeaways?
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