As this is my first trip to Japan, I really had no idea what to expect. With a cultural knowledge based on anime and Yakuza games, that’s probably made me ill-equipped for the safe, respectful and utterly down-to-earth culture I’ve found in Chiba. Nobody has run up to me on the street demanding a brawl, nobody has screamed about an incoming Kaiju, and it’s almost like the real world is not like video games and TV shows. Except that Tokyo Game Show isn’t normal.
I interviewed a man in a rubber mask today. While I’ve been here, Let It Die: Inferno has been the focus of lots of my time – see yesterday’s electrocution – and Gungho and Supertrick Games conducted the interviews for it with one of the development team embodying the iconic Uncle Death from the series. This didn’t so much derail my brain as it sent it charging down a side track into a disused station, but it was surprisingly informative, even if I wondered whether I was about to embark on my own journey into hell.
Today was the day I didn’t get lost. Yesterday I tried to make sense of the Tokyo Game Show’s layout, and I came out utterly lacking. If you enter the show floor, you become trapped in the seventh circle of video games, unable to leave, but unable to move, and I started to see the same landmarks – the Nioh 3 demon, the Wizardry cosplay, the Inazuma Eleven stand – over and over again. Perhaps it was the copious amounts of free Red Bull, but I was utterly stuck yesterday.
Thankfully, Friday showed that I still have the ability to learn, and I was able to make sense, and make headway with the show floor. In fact, I probably got a bit too carried away, whizzing through neon booth after neon booth, and then couldn’t escape as they seem to have a wonderful habit of closing half the exits. Still, I have made it out, but I have now developed a severe case of Stockholm Syndrome, longing once more for my captor.
Day two was more about discovery, and I bumbled across a bunch of games, starting with the impressive lineup in the Devolver Digital section. They’d created a setup like a traditional Japanese street with lanterns and wooden shutters – overall, I have to say that the stands here took what I’ve seen at EGX and Gamescom to a new level – and nestled amongst them I got to play Ball X Pit and Skate Story, both of which left me thoroughly impressed.
I then happened upon Tiny Metal 2, a sequel to a game that tried to fill the void caused by Intelligent Systems and Nintendo basically giving up on Advance Wars – let’s forget that in the meantime they vaguely remembered about it with Advance Wars 1+2. Tiny Metal 2, though, is what should happen to this genre, and it’s ramped up the grid-based tactics with a modern makeover and… well, that seems to be about it, but who needs anything more than that?
Once again, TGS has proved the best place for catching up with folks in the industry, and I happened on a friend at the Polish games stand who’d led our cultural exchange mission to Digital Dragons in Krakow earlier this year. TGS isn’t just about Japanese development – far from it – and it’s attracted exhibitors from across the globe. It would be interesting to know just how well imports perform in Japan, since this is a nation at the foundation of the modern game development scene, but the exhibitors I talked to all agreed how positive, dedicated and enthusiastic the crowds were.
Based on the number of free bags I saw, the star of TGS 2025 has been Ananta. This upcoming free-to-play game certainly looks cool, but it’s also hard to argue with a giant, neon green rucksack, emblazoned with an anime rabbit girl. It was so big, I saw plenty of punters struggling to know what to do with it, and I swear I caught people in the act of trying to get in there themselves. Oversized bag aside, Ananta is one to keep your eye on, especially as it’s covering all bases with mobile, PC and PlayStation releases.
The importance of mobile to the Japanese gaming scene has surprised me, and there were a host of mobile-only titles with big, main hall stands that have clearly got the budget and the backing to make a serious dent in other people’s wallets. It feels far more like a legitimate part of the gaming landscape here than it does in Europe, and it’s well worth remembering that gaming doesn’t start and stop with consoles and PC, especially when our phones can pump out things like Infinity Nikki and Zenless Zone Zero without breaking a sweat.
The end of yesterday produced one further surprise in the shape of the canned goods bar. This is a bar where you grab a tiny shopping basket – like one you’d give to a three-year-old to play shopkeeper with – fill it with canned goods, and they’re then dispensed cold to you as a bar snack while you drink a craft beer. This was weird enough, but the fact that Spam sat happily amongst the bespoke produce as a culinary delight was the point I decided it was probably time for bed.
The Tokyo Game Show has proved to be an incredible celebration of the Japanese and international game development scene. The end of this year, and then on into 2026, looks like it will bring a cavalcade of great releases, and, as ever, Japan remains at the centre of that. I can only hope that I get to cover TGS again in the future, as I’ve never found a safer, more welcoming and more engaged show in all the years I’ve been writing about games. If you get the opportunity to go, make sure you take it!
AloJapan.com