Tokyo Game Show 2022 this year was full of surprising announcements of remasters, remakes and even trilogy returns while also putting out a multitude of gameplay showcases. We were constantly looking forward to each one of the announcements during the game show that ran from the 15th to the 18th of September, so here’s a compilation of the main highlights during the event.
One Piece Odyssey
Fellow fans of One Piece would be delighted to hear that the next addition to the game series is coming sooner than expected. The new title One Piece Odyssey will take players to Waford, an island shrouded in tales of mystery where the crew is introduced to Lim, a devil fruit user who can take away the abilities of other users. How will Luffy alongside his crew overcome this hurdle and get his powers back? We’ll just have to find out once the game releases.
The gameplay showcase featured elements of the main storyline and gave players a taste of the new turn-based gameplay rather than the action-adventure type that we’ve seen in Bandai Namco’s previous instalments such as the One Piece: Pirate Warriors trilogy. Alongside that, the developers also showed the extensiveness of the game’s open world that will include newly designed colourful and whacky enemy archetypes.
One Piece Odyssey is set to release on the 13th of January 2023 on all platforms with a Standard and Deluxe Edition that both have pre-order bonuses, as well as a Limited Edition Edition that features a figurine of Luffy and Odyssey’s newly introduced character, Lim.
The One Piece is REALLL!
Resident Evil Village: Winter’s Expansion (Gold Edition)
Resident Evil: Village returns with a new DLC titled the Shadows of Rose in which you play as Rose, the daughter of Ethan Winters, 16 years after the events of RE: Village exploring the mind of a Megamycete. Additionally, they’ve added new gameplay features and modes such as the Mercenaries Additional Orders mode which feels like a homage to the classic Resident Evil arcade era, and surprisingly includes new playable characters such as Lady Dimitrescu and Heisenberg.
Players will also get a third-person playthrough option which may be a nostalgia fest for those who played RE:3 and RE:4 back then when it was first released. On the topic of nostalgia, a remake of Resident Evil 4 was announced to be currently in the works and will be available on all systems both old and new. Make sure to stay tuned for more information regarding its release!
Winter’s Expansion will have a standalone release alongside the Gold Edition that includes the base game on the 28th of October 2022. Capcom’s initiative to make the franchise more accessible to players continues with the release of Winter’s Expansion on all platforms plus the Nintendo Switch, as well as an optimised version of the game on macOS now allowing it to be able to run on devices that have Apple silicon.
Returning Like A Dragon
Like A Dragon 8
The gem of a series Yakuza has returned! After a makeover, the announcement trailer now confirms the next game title is now Like A Dragon 8 completely removing the wording Yakuza but still featuring heroes from the original series such as the protagonist Kazuma Kiryu accompanied by Koichi Adachi and Yu Nanba. The announcement trailer brings back some familiar voices that long-time fans would definitely be able to recognise. Can you name every single one of them?
With the game set to release in 2024, RGG studios have outdone themselves with the hype and are bringing back the Yakuza series, better than ever with 3 big announcements in a row.
Like A Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name
A completely new spin-off game in the Yakuza series that will act as the bridge between Yakuza 6 and Like a Dragon 8, that is what Like A Dragon Gaiden brings to the table. Once again starring Kazuma Kiryu the Dragon of Dojima, as he vows to exact revenge on the injustice enacted upon him for the accused murder of his mentor.
The announcement trailer plays out at Daidoji Temple and instils a feeling of calm and serenity with its beautiful soundtrack, where we see Kazuma meditating and in the end, is tasked with another job where he will be working under the codename Joryu. The game will be launching in 2023 though the exact date is not yet known.
Like a Dragon: Ishin! Remake
Back into the shoes of Ryoma Sakamoto in 19th century Japan, the remake revitalises one of the classics from the Yakuza Series with the Unreal Engine treatment, tremendously improving graphics and cutscenes while also adding new animations for the hack and slash gameplay fans are accustomed to. The 10-minute gameplay showcase managed to display similar gameplay aspects that were close to the classic but also a fresh and modern take that is befitting of the word “remake”.
The remake releases on the 21st of February 2023 for anyone wondering, so if you are a fan of the Yakuza series, or you’ve played the 2014 version, this is definitely worth a pick-up.
Street Fighter 6
Coming in 2023, the announcement trailer for Street Fighter 6 showcased characters that’ll be in the game such as Ken, Blanka, Dhalsim and E. Honda. However, the trailer mainly focused on the degree of fully customizable avatars that players will be controlling throughout the game and gives a rough outline of the main story that’s set up in this new game.
From first glance, even from the initial announcements, it seems that Capcom is taking Street Fighter 6’s graphics in a completely new direction that fully focuses on the realism of characters and their expressions, showing a huge step up over the decades in game production from the pixelated characters we used to first control in 1987 up til this latest title.
A closed beta was also announced by Capcom, so for anyone interested in being one of the first people to experience it here’s the link!
Suikoden 1 & 2 Remastered
From Konami studios, Suikoden 1 & 2 released in 1995 and 1998 respectively, and got a remaster announcement trailer during Tokyo Game Show 2022. Judging by all the overwhelmingly positive response the trailer has gotten, the JRPG’s Remaster announcement is moving fans of the series and players who grew up with the game to tears, as the gameplay shown was masterfully done with Konami only having fans’ best interests in mind.
Get ready to relive the experience of Suikoden or experience it for the first time once it releases in 2023!
Sonic Frontiers
A new trailer for Sonic Frontiers was shown, giving us a deeper look into how an open-world Sonic game would play out. Initially, opinions were mixed since the game might suffer from an issue of being an overtly plain and empty due to how the landscape was shown in early trailers. Still, it seems like as we approach the release date, changes have been made to make the world feel more dynamic and 3-D feeling combat that has you on the ground and zooming mid-air.
Join Sonic in his journey to collect all the chaos emeralds and defeat titan-sized bosses as Super Sonic, which has now been confirmed to be in the game. However, while the reveal is great, players may be left wondering if they will be able to go Super Sonic during every combat scenario to easily clear rank-and-file enemies or if it will be a triggered event specifically for bosses. Guess we’ll only know once the game releases on the 8th of November 2022.
Overwatch 2: Kiriko
A surprising but very welcome announcement during the Blizzard showcase was Overwatch 2’s new character that will be accessible through the game’s upcoming battle pass as a part of Season 1. The new character Kiriko is a support-type character that can teleport out of dangerous situations and grant teammates brief invulnerability, which sounds insane. Her character design seems to be heavily inspired by Japanese folklore mainly having her abilities and attacks assisted by a Kitsune/Fox spirit as well as using Kunai as her main weapons.
Overwatch 2 finally comes out on the 4th of October 2022 and we can’t wait to see how Kiriko will fit into a new Overwatch 2 meta among the other characters from the original game.
What were your favourite announcements during Tokyo Game Show 2022 and what are you looking forward to the most? Make sure to let us know in the comment section!
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Very well written and easy to read! Can’t wait for more 🙂