Saturday, I had an adventure.
I'm tired and my feet hurt, but I am yet still triumphant.
Saturday morning, I got up an at ungodly hour of the morning so that Tyska and I could head out by 7:20 to catch the train. We were meeting up with a bunch of folks we knew at the Japanese College so we could be on our way, for we had a long way to go. It went relatively smoothly--I bolted down breakfast, and was out the door by 7:20. We had to catch a train down the line two stops, and then bolt through this eiriely quiet and pleasant town to a very small local station to catch abother train to a major hub, Musashisakai Eki. There we could pick up the JR line, which goes through central Tokyo (and just about everywhere else). I'd never gotten on JR before, so I was wondering what the adventure would be like taking it.
Once we stumbled out the south exit, we spyed one of our party of adventurers--and just one. Then waited ten or so minutes for everyone else. XD Our speed turned out to not be so necessary, but I'm still glad we proved we could do it. We headed into the Eki and got ourselves some JR tickets, and proceeded on into the station to catch a train headed for Tokyo Station.
And then, we were on our way to the Tokyo Game Show.
The train ride was incredibly long, at least by my standards. Most of it was spent standing on a crowded JR train, and then an equally crowded Keiyou train, surrounded by people you could mostly tell were all going to the same place. It was massive. A man had a cape, though he got off at a stop about two places early.
The train ride is worth commenting on, if only because I went past places in Tokyo I've not gotten the chance to be to before. On the way we accidentally ran into another person from the Japanese College, and he helped us get our way there. Standing like I was, I could watch the landscape as it passed by--sitting, too many people in the way--and got flashes of Tokyo like a breif overview from a guidebook. There's one of the major rivers that runs into Tokyo Bay, there. There are huge buildings reaching for the sky. Over there, the carefully hidden buildings in progress in Tokyo Disney, as the arch for the main entrance slid into view as we stopped at a station right in front of the amusement park. A long time of seeing, distantly across Tokyo Bay, the huge and unreal shape of a humongous ocean liner that, even at such a distance, looked as big as my hand and had to be bigger then sky scrapers.
My feet were already hurting by the time we got off and pushed our way to the train fair adjustment machine--that had a huge line from all the TGS'ers on it--and then out into the sunshine. The main technique was to stay with the majority of people, because they were all pretty much going to the same place. Herding theory in action.
All I had with me was my Camera Phone. (Why? My camera is heavy, and I knew what kind of walking I was gonna be doing in what kinds of crowds and half the places have 'do not take pictures' plastered all over.)
Here was my first glimpse of the convention center.
If you look closely, you can see in Kanji and katanana "Tokyo Game Show" on the banner. There were a lot of walkways to go through just to get to the center itself--it's nestled pretty neeatly between some super major roads.
Then I spyed a building I thought was the convention center.
But it wouldn't be till we had walked passed it that I was proven wrong.
Then, as we rounded the bend above--
The crowd of people started to approach a low slung, curved building off in the distance, We passed a flight of stares, and I could barely make out that pink poster thing you can see int he corner. As we got closer, it resolved into one of the first hints of how close we were, other then the increasing crowd.
That sign there, the pink one, is a proud advert for the TGS at the convention center. We swung around a corner, and saw a massive line of people behind herded into columns. It could only be the line for the entrance. We followed the herd, diverted to get tickets, and was stuck in line for a little while as we were herded around.
Then we swung around a corner into something that almost looked like the back entrance, and passed into darkness--and blinding neon lights. My camera didn't caputre it well, but here it is:
The entrance to TGS.
Then we passed into an overdrive of sound and signs; like walking into Tokyo at night, where it seems day because of all the neon flat signs crowded together. KOEI were the first booth we say, a double-decker display that would be one of the largest.
Much to my delight I spied La Corda 2, one of the dating games int he vein of Angelique--my closet favourite--though no Angelique games in sight. Didn't get to the second floor, though--might've been there. It was hard to grab pictures--lots of no pictures signs, and there was just so much going on.
In a back corner, we spied a familiar sign--Gakuen Heaven! I was bemused, and explainded what it was, and we checked it out--and it was Gakuen Heaven for the cell phone. This was a theme everywhere--Softbank in particular seemed to be pushing Dating Sims on the phone, and many of the traditionally big sellers had been converted over. Makes sense, really. The phone is a good place to put games, because everyone spends so much time commuting. Even square was pushing their new cell phone game service.
In the nearby Softbank booth, we'd noted a sign earlier--it's easy to tell the dating sim games, because they always have harems and a certain look to them--with these men in long tailed costs host style.
Then I looked down.
And saw real men in tailed coats with menus, talking to attendees in this red square furnished with delicate, high class furniture in utter Ouran Host Club style. Like the characters--dressed as the characters--
it took me a minute, but the thought filtered through and I immediately shared my discovery. Part of the pitch was people dressed up AS THE CHARACTERS, including one with dog ears and tail, and hosting people while telling them about the game.
...
It wasn't all quite like that, but I found that the most inspired advert I saw. XD
Some of the best parts were the huge posters--I wanted to cart some off, they were so pretty--like this one:
I have no idea who they are, but they had pretty looking adverts.
From a distance, we could see this:
--hanging above the crowd. And there's only one thing that could mean: Square Enix.
The Square Enix booth was huge and definitely awesome. There was much flailing. I circled around it like a shark, scenting the water--saw adverts for a Chocobo game that seemed to have traditional classes and cochobos and fighting. There was also a new Crystal Chronicles game for the DS, (a good shift of platform, consdeirng the Multiplayer) that looked fun and had nice music. We swung around the back, and spied a giant sign for two new Star Ocean games
as well as, unpictured: Crisis Core. It just came out in Japan, and Tyska and I jumped on the chance to give it a go in the demo line. After a good bit of waiting, I got my chance--and unused to how Japan flips the confirm button with cancel compared to Amaerica, ended up loading a saved game in the console. (???!)
Spoilar? Highlight to read: It was Zacks fighting Sephrioth at Neibilhelm!(sp) I was blown away. I want the game now, even if it's PSP--it looks great, the fighting system is awesome, and the Seph battle had a full chorestral version of the Sephiroth theme AND Sephiroth appeared to guitar riffs. :
Star Ocean also looks great. After that, we headed around the other side, hunting for KH3 material, and stumbled across this:
The statues were gorgeous, the poster was inccredable, and all the tickets for the screening of KH3 and FF13 were already gone. There was much sadness. We discouvered that if you stood back far enough from the closed theater you could see the top half of the screen, though, and now I'm really excited about FF13. It looks really lovely, and what I hear about the battle system sounds exciting. Hopefully there will be plot to back it up. Square's got a lot on their plate--I just hope they can deliver on all fronts. Nearby the Square Booth was Capcom--
and Devil May Cry 4.
I metnion it because I know it, and from the screens I saw, it looks like the graphics were really turned up a notch. It looks fun and rather pretty.
The other two halls, and the end of the day, shall come a little later today. (My today, anyway).
Saturday morning, I got up an at ungodly hour of the morning so that Tyska and I could head out by 7:20 to catch the train. We were meeting up with a bunch of folks we knew at the Japanese College so we could be on our way, for we had a long way to go. It went relatively smoothly--I bolted down breakfast, and was out the door by 7:20. We had to catch a train down the line two stops, and then bolt through this eiriely quiet and pleasant town to a very small local station to catch abother train to a major hub, Musashisakai Eki. There we could pick up the JR line, which goes through central Tokyo (and just about everywhere else). I'd never gotten on JR before, so I was wondering what the adventure would be like taking it.
Once we stumbled out the south exit, we spyed one of our party of adventurers--and just one. Then waited ten or so minutes for everyone else. XD Our speed turned out to not be so necessary, but I'm still glad we proved we could do it. We headed into the Eki and got ourselves some JR tickets, and proceeded on into the station to catch a train headed for Tokyo Station.
And then, we were on our way to the Tokyo Game Show.
The train ride was incredibly long, at least by my standards. Most of it was spent standing on a crowded JR train, and then an equally crowded Keiyou train, surrounded by people you could mostly tell were all going to the same place. It was massive. A man had a cape, though he got off at a stop about two places early.
The train ride is worth commenting on, if only because I went past places in Tokyo I've not gotten the chance to be to before. On the way we accidentally ran into another person from the Japanese College, and he helped us get our way there. Standing like I was, I could watch the landscape as it passed by--sitting, too many people in the way--and got flashes of Tokyo like a breif overview from a guidebook. There's one of the major rivers that runs into Tokyo Bay, there. There are huge buildings reaching for the sky. Over there, the carefully hidden buildings in progress in Tokyo Disney, as the arch for the main entrance slid into view as we stopped at a station right in front of the amusement park. A long time of seeing, distantly across Tokyo Bay, the huge and unreal shape of a humongous ocean liner that, even at such a distance, looked as big as my hand and had to be bigger then sky scrapers.
My feet were already hurting by the time we got off and pushed our way to the train fair adjustment machine--that had a huge line from all the TGS'ers on it--and then out into the sunshine. The main technique was to stay with the majority of people, because they were all pretty much going to the same place. Herding theory in action.
All I had with me was my Camera Phone. (Why? My camera is heavy, and I knew what kind of walking I was gonna be doing in what kinds of crowds and half the places have 'do not take pictures' plastered all over.)
Here was my first glimpse of the convention center.
If you look closely, you can see in Kanji and katanana "Tokyo Game Show" on the banner. There were a lot of walkways to go through just to get to the center itself--it's nestled pretty neeatly between some super major roads.
Then I spyed a building I thought was the convention center.
But it wouldn't be till we had walked passed it that I was proven wrong.
Then, as we rounded the bend above--
The crowd of people started to approach a low slung, curved building off in the distance, We passed a flight of stares, and I could barely make out that pink poster thing you can see int he corner. As we got closer, it resolved into one of the first hints of how close we were, other then the increasing crowd.
That sign there, the pink one, is a proud advert for the TGS at the convention center. We swung around a corner, and saw a massive line of people behind herded into columns. It could only be the line for the entrance. We followed the herd, diverted to get tickets, and was stuck in line for a little while as we were herded around.
Then we swung around a corner into something that almost looked like the back entrance, and passed into darkness--and blinding neon lights. My camera didn't caputre it well, but here it is:
The entrance to TGS.
Then we passed into an overdrive of sound and signs; like walking into Tokyo at night, where it seems day because of all the neon flat signs crowded together. KOEI were the first booth we say, a double-decker display that would be one of the largest.
Much to my delight I spied La Corda 2, one of the dating games int he vein of Angelique--my closet favourite--though no Angelique games in sight. Didn't get to the second floor, though--might've been there. It was hard to grab pictures--lots of no pictures signs, and there was just so much going on.
In a back corner, we spied a familiar sign--Gakuen Heaven! I was bemused, and explainded what it was, and we checked it out--and it was Gakuen Heaven for the cell phone. This was a theme everywhere--Softbank in particular seemed to be pushing Dating Sims on the phone, and many of the traditionally big sellers had been converted over. Makes sense, really. The phone is a good place to put games, because everyone spends so much time commuting. Even square was pushing their new cell phone game service.
In the nearby Softbank booth, we'd noted a sign earlier--it's easy to tell the dating sim games, because they always have harems and a certain look to them--with these men in long tailed costs host style.
Then I looked down.
And saw real men in tailed coats with menus, talking to attendees in this red square furnished with delicate, high class furniture in utter Ouran Host Club style. Like the characters--dressed as the characters--
it took me a minute, but the thought filtered through and I immediately shared my discovery. Part of the pitch was people dressed up AS THE CHARACTERS, including one with dog ears and tail, and hosting people while telling them about the game.
...
It wasn't all quite like that, but I found that the most inspired advert I saw. XD
Some of the best parts were the huge posters--I wanted to cart some off, they were so pretty--like this one:
I have no idea who they are, but they had pretty looking adverts.
From a distance, we could see this:
--hanging above the crowd. And there's only one thing that could mean: Square Enix.
The Square Enix booth was huge and definitely awesome. There was much flailing. I circled around it like a shark, scenting the water--saw adverts for a Chocobo game that seemed to have traditional classes and cochobos and fighting. There was also a new Crystal Chronicles game for the DS, (a good shift of platform, consdeirng the Multiplayer) that looked fun and had nice music. We swung around the back, and spied a giant sign for two new Star Ocean games
as well as, unpictured: Crisis Core. It just came out in Japan, and Tyska and I jumped on the chance to give it a go in the demo line. After a good bit of waiting, I got my chance--and unused to how Japan flips the confirm button with cancel compared to Amaerica, ended up loading a saved game in the console. (???!)
Spoilar? Highlight to read: It was Zacks fighting Sephrioth at Neibilhelm!(sp) I was blown away. I want the game now, even if it's PSP--it looks great, the fighting system is awesome, and the Seph battle had a full chorestral version of the Sephiroth theme AND Sephiroth appeared to guitar riffs. :
Star Ocean also looks great. After that, we headed around the other side, hunting for KH3 material, and stumbled across this:
The statues were gorgeous, the poster was inccredable, and all the tickets for the screening of KH3 and FF13 were already gone. There was much sadness. We discouvered that if you stood back far enough from the closed theater you could see the top half of the screen, though, and now I'm really excited about FF13. It looks really lovely, and what I hear about the battle system sounds exciting. Hopefully there will be plot to back it up. Square's got a lot on their plate--I just hope they can deliver on all fronts. Nearby the Square Booth was Capcom--
and Devil May Cry 4.
I metnion it because I know it, and from the screens I saw, it looks like the graphics were really turned up a notch. It looks fun and rather pretty.
The other two halls, and the end of the day, shall come a little later today. (My today, anyway).