Well, I played games, cause I was the only one that went out of our fearsome foursome (we have an “as yet to post” silent contributor). Anyway, Let’s recap PAX!
Final Fantasy XIV
I did the Valigarmanda (normal) challenge with a group of friends and a couple randoms, we had to carry a few people because they were either new to the game or lapsed players. It took us three attempts to down the boss but we managed to get past the DPS check that was befuddling us and claim glory and loot and victory photos.
DRAGON BALL: Sparking! ZERO
It’s another fighting game in the Dragonball franchise. You pick three characters and you fight a battle. Simple, basic concept. Hardcore Dragonball fans will probably pick this up, but casuals might give it a miss. I still like last year’s Dragonball game with the survival mode better.
Street Fighter 6
It’s Street Fighter, with more new characters and new costumes. Not sure why CAPCOM felt the need to promote it here (especially since EVERYONE wanted to play Monster Hunter Wilds), but it was here for those that hadn’t gotten a chance to try it yet (and I just answered my own question). I am unfortunately no good at fighting games so I just button mash, but Street Fighter fans… I mean, its been over a year, you have this game already.
Ys X: Nordics
This game came out last September in Japan but I’d only heard about it this PAX, so I tried it out. Unfortunately the NIS America booth was having intermittent power fluctuations Friday morning, so my game time was interrupted. Fans of the Y’s series and Anime style JRPG fans will like this game, for the casuals, again, the anime style might entice them in. The combat style is such that you will be swapping between 2 (or more) of your characters constantly in battle. The Worldwide release is set for October 24th for PS4, PS5, PC, and Nintendo Switch. (Sorry Xbox Fans).
Pokemon TCG
My once yearly try of the Pokèmon TCG came with a little twist. Instead of simply picking a deck and fighting, the wrinkle this year was that we had to “capture” wild pokèmon first before than battling your opponent. Made the game longer than expected but I supposed every game has its wrinkle. Still fun to experience something different though.
Slitterhead
Honestly, I think Slitherhead sounds better, but this Survival Horror game set in Kowloon (called Kowlong in the game apparently), had me intrigued. Now, I don’t usually play these type of games, in fact I play them even less than fighting games. But the concept has me intrigued. You play as an entity, or a spirit, who possesses human bodies to fight monsters that pop up in the city. Now, Human bodies are weak in this game, so you are able to transfer your spirit, or jump bodies, in order to finish off monsters. There’s a greater story that’s only alluded to in the demo but I would take a chance on this if my games backlog wasn’t huge already, or at least watch a stream of it.
Path of Exile II
I guess this game is good and popular enough that they needed to make a second one. While I generally like RPGs I’m not a huge fan of “dark” RPGs. (I wasn’t enamored with Diablo either, which this reminds me of.) While I did spend half an hour on the demo, that’s really all I needed. Path of Exile ended up being one of the more popular booths at PAX, so there seems to be enough demand for it. Early access launches November 15th on Steam, PS5 and Xbox X/S.
Infinity Nikki
This game had a display booth with a chandelier (who brings a chandelier to PAX?). Anyway, this “fashion genshin” game… well its way more polished then I expected it to be. This comfy cozy game is expecting 30+ million pre-registrations and honestly, it might hit it. Obviously the name of the game is fashion, and aside from your usual wardrobe options you can also equip…. hair braids? backpacks? pendants? Accessories to the max. Considering you can play it on mobile, the PC versions they were displaying looked really good and hints at a storyline that’s deeper than you would think given the main point of the game is fashion. As far as I can tell the game is free with microtransactions with a to be determined release date, but honestly, it looks ready to go now. For me, it might be something I futz around with on mobile while waiting in line for coffee or something, but you just know that lots of people will be playing this at launch.
Arknights: Endfield
From what I could tell playing the demo, this is an anime style combat JRPG with built in base building. While there is no release date yet, it looks like it plans to release later this fall for PS5, PC and Mobile. The character designs are a big part of the game as evidenced by the Cosplayers they had at the booth to promote it, and the story, or at least the grasps of it I could tell from the demo and trailer is trying to evoke shades of the Nier video game series. This one is a maybe for me.
Undisputed
With EA no longer producing their “Fight Night” series, someone had to step into the ring with a new boxing game. Developed by Steel City Interactive and published by Deep Silver, this game has a solid roster of boxers from various eras and an easy to grasp control system (unless you get knocked down, so don’t get knocked down). There is a character creator so you can create your own fighter in the game, and also a career mode so you can fight your way to the top. This game releases October 11th for PS5, Xbox Series X and S, and PC. Time and Money depending, I’ll be giving this one a shot.
Kingdom Come: Deliverance II
I want to like this game, I feel like the story is pretty layered, but I couldn’t get past the first fight. Obviously it could have been me, I didn’t pick up the right tools, or I missed something, but the mouse and keyboard combat was not all that intuitive. Maybe a controller would be better. If a demo came out I would love to play around with that, but right now this is a “watch someone stream it” at best. This game releases February 11th 2025 (Civ VII also releases around that time), and is available on PS5, Xbox and PC. Also, I thought this was titled Kingdome Come II: Deliverance. I think that sounds better, anyway.
Yield! Fall of Rome
The best part of this game is that it looks and plays like a Civ game. The worst part of this game is that it looks like a slightly more cartoony version of a Civ game. There’s a free demo out on steam so you can try it for yourself. For me, I got what I wanted out of it when I played it at PAX. Maybe a good game to pass a bit of time once in a while. I will give credit to the devs though, cause there’s only 2 of them. I hope this becomes successful for them.
New Cycle
This game came out in early access at the beginning of the year and is another one of those “build a city and survive” games. Honestly there’s nothing too different here that separates it from the other games in this genre, but it does what it does… well. The hook here is that you’re trying to build a city in a post-apocalyptic world, some technologies have been lost, etc… You can currently try it on Steam for $29.99. There’s some potential here.
Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers: Rita’s Rewind
This is the Power Rangers game we should have gotten in the 90’s alongside the X-Men arcade game. This is the game that’s going to be party staple, a get together with friends staple for years to come. The concept of the game is that Rita Repulsa sends herself back in time to try and stop the Power Rangers. This game is available for 5 players, and for Power Rangers fans, multi-player co-op fans and fans of having a good time this is the game for you. Just goes to show you that a nostalgia kick done right can outshine newer, flashier, more graphic intense games. To be released on all platforms sometime late 2024.
Astro Bot
Playstation only gave people three minutes with the demo, but playing it confirms that you’re getting an improved version of Astro’s Playroom that shipped with every PS5. Currently out (for Playstation 5, obviously), Astro Bot is already getting Game of the Year consideration. It is definitely different than say, Black Myth: Wukong, another GOTY candidate. This love letter to platformers and Playstation history also has people pining for other, older first party playstation games to make a comeback.
Other observations
Monster Hunter: Wilds was by far the most popular booth, with 4 hour lines starting mid-Friday afternoon. (Honestly, CAPCOM should have just promoted Monster Hunter). What was also wild was that they had a signing with the lead developer, but instead of giving out tickets, they had everyone zerg rush the line at a time near-ish to the signing, and if you didn’t get 1 or 30-ish spots you were outta luck.
I only attended one panel which was the Final Fantasy XIV Panel, with lead UI designer Kei Udagiri. Some interesting tidbids were shared including who plays on gamepad vs keyboard and mouse? (Japan prefers the gamepad, North America and Europe the Keyboard and Mouse) and which view you prefer (Standard or Legacy). While all three regions prefer legacy, Japan prefers it by a whopping 97% while NA and Europe are split about 66/33. Other things the UI team is working on is having chat bubbles appear on screen, and having a shareable chessboard-like map layout for boss fights, trials and raids. Please look forward to it.
While I didn’t get to attend the Final Fantasy 7 Remake Voice Actress panel, I did attend one of their autograph sessions. Which they (PAX) promptly separated into three separate lines, one per talent. I understand the talent is there to make money (they were all selling merch during their autograph session), but for people simply looking for an autograph, having to line up three separate times is INSANE. In the end I managed to get Britt Baron’s autograph, but it should have been easier (and the autographs should have been held in a bigger room.)
Speaking of things that should be in a bigger room the freeplay arcade. Yes, it was in a nominally bigger (and better ventilated room) than last year, but considering the same group also runs the Sakuracon freeplay arcade, in which they have tons of space, this seems like a massive oversight from the folks at PAX… sorry Reedpop.
Ultimately, this was still the best and most organized post-covid PAX, for the most part video game and hardware exhibitors were in the main expo hall while tabletop, TCG and Panels were in the new Summit building.
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