Sad news, guys. It’s the last day of Tokyo Game Show 2024. PC Gamer has been at the show for the last three days and, as detailed in previous reports (see links above), it’s been a good show for PC gamers and PC gaming. After analysing the latest trends at TGS 2024 in both our Day 1 and Day 2 reports, we’ve then moved on to key Japanese game publisher booth deep dives. Yesterday, in our Day 3 report, we covered Square Enix, Sega, and Bandai Namco’s offerings, while today we’re going to focus on Capcom, Konami and SNK.
Capcom is probably the strongest Japanese game publisher at the moment thanks to the continuing success of its evergreen IPs, which include Street Fighter, Monster Hunter, and Resident Evil. The latest games in these series, all playable on PC I might add, such as Street Fighter 6, Monster Hunter: World, and Resident Evil 7: Bio Hazard, not only have been critically acclaimed but have sold really well, too, and that’s kept momentum at the Osaka-based gaming software house high.
Enter Capcom’s big push at Tokyo Game Show 2024, Monster Hunter Wilds, which builds on the success of Worlds with a variety of improvements. This open-world game is produced by the son of the founder of Capcom, Kenzo Tsujimoto, and Monster Hunter Wilds introduces a more casual approach and ‘social’ element to the franchise.
It is still possible to play the game purely in solo mode (as it was when it launched on PSP) but there is a big focus now on co-op play, so if you play solo then the co-op is simulated by AI. The real way to play, though, is in multiplayer, with other real players joining the monster-hunting fun.
In general, the way to describe Monster Hunter Wilds, though, is ‘more’, as it just delivers more or expands on everything in Monster Hunter: World. For example, you can now bring multiple weapons on any hunt, and those weapons can now be modded, too, adding layers of customisation.
More, too, in that all the NPCs are fully voiced, adding to the production values and immersion. There’s obviously far more open world to explore and hunt in this time around, too, and large group spaces designed to appeal more to casual gamers.
Lastly, in Japan at least, Wilds is delivering more in the sense of its collector’s edition, too, with the ultra version offering a literal Monster Hunter bike to ride around on (see above image). The cost to you and me? $1250! Crazy. Monster Hunter Wilds is still a ways out, launching on 28 February, 2025.
Over at Konami’s booth, there are two games being pushed, and both of them are remakes. As I noted in our Day 1 report, remakes and remasters are being favoured a lot right now by Japanese publishers as they are cheaper to make than a brand new AAA game, and also considered a safer bet, which is something that keeps shareholders happy. That means we’ve got big pushes on Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater and Silent Hill 2 at Konami’s Tokyo Game Show 2024 booth.
One of the most highly rated games in the entire Metal Gear saga, even now without its original creator at the wheel, Hideo Kojima, this remake has still drawn huge crowds at the Tokyo Game Show 2024. But, being honest, despite just being a remake of a previous game, I can see why it has been so popular.
This new remake will not only be just as it was when was released in 2004 (it’s a very faithful remake tonally), but also—and this is for me the real big news—it is introducing upgraded gameplay mechanics and camera techniques that were introduced in later games in the series. This means Snake now handles and looks better than ever.
Now look, there’s arguably only so far a remake can go in terms of maintaining interest in a series, but my feeling is that if Snake Eater is a big hit (and it looks like it will be at this point), then I feel it could be the ideal vehicle to rekindle the Metal Gear fires for fans in a post-Kojima world. The game is loosely slated to launch in 2024, but I’ve got a feeling it might slip into 2025. Let’s wait and see.
Then there’s the Silent Hill 2 remake. Interestingly, the game isn’t being developed by a Japanese studio but a western one, the Poland-based Bloober Team. What will please fans of the original game, though, is that Bloober is approaching this remake with an eye to make it very authentic and similar to the original experience. Faithful for sure. Clearly, Silent Hill 2 will not be as large as the recent, very successful, Resident Evil 2 remake, but personally I think that as we never got a proper sequel to this game, it is a good point to start. If this remake sells well then it might be enough to get one greenlit.
SNK: Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves
Finally SNK is getting back to what was in the 1990s for all of us. I still own a Neo Geo AES, the white rental version in fact, as all the CD versions (included the CDZ never released outside Japan), so to see SNK back is beautiful. The once kings of the versus fighter genre are making new games and, yes, releasing them on PC on day one.
SNK’s booth at Tokyo Game Show 2024 is huge and, what’s more, the new Fatal Fury game actually seems good, with long queues of Japanese gamers lining up to get hands-on with a demo. I only managed to play it once today due to those queues, but it feels great to play. Whether or not it will go on to challenge Street Fighter 6 and Tekken 8, though, remains to be seen.
There’s some big news for this game, too. After talking with SNK’s people here at TGS 2024 they told us the game’s first DLC will see some Street Fighter characters like Ryu and Chun Li join the action. Suddenly I’m remembering past SNK versus Capcom fighters like SVC: Chaos.
Now, I realise that there has been some criticism of this new Fatal Fury by some purist versus fighter fans, and yes I can see where they are coming from to a degree. I don’t think City of the Wolves has been created though purely with the versus fighter purists in mind, though. It’s more about SNK, under its new ownership, trying to get back to the position it had in the Japanese gaming industry in the 1990s, and that requires games with broad appeal. As such, if City of the Wolves is a hit with more casual gamers, not just versus fighter enthusiasts, then that will be considered a win for the company. The game is planned to be out on 25 April, 2025.
TGS 2024 Indie Game of the Year: Nightmare Operator
Lastly, I’d just like to call out what I consider to be the indie game of Tokyo Game Show 2024, which is DDDistortion’s Nightmare Operator. Of all the indie games shown off at the show this year, of which there have been more than ever, this is the one that I think is going to be huge hit. Naturally, the game is coming to PC and will be playable through Steam.
Nightmare Operator is an action horror shooter about hunting Youkai (demons and spirits) in the haunted ruins of a dystopian Tokyo. Sounds neat, right?! It rocks glorious PS2-era-style graphics and delivers suspenseful third-person shooting action. What’s more, it has very low minimum hardware specs (Intel Core i5-2300 or AMD FX-4350, 4GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce GTS 450 (1GB) or AMD Radeon HD 6570 (1GB), 4GB of storage space), so I’m already eyeing it up for use on Steam Deck. There’s no release date, yet, but one to keep an eye on as we move into 2025.
Tokyo Game Show 2024 wrap-up
Ok, that’s it, the end of our four-day overview coverage of the Tokyo Game Show 2024. We really would like to talk about many other games here at the fair but, as you can imagine at the world’s biggest video game show, we’d be here until next year if we did. It’s been a good show, one that has really driven home to me (and plenty of colleagues here at the show) just how much PC gaming is on the rise within the Japanese gaming industry (where historically it has been more than a bit ignored).
PC gaming has always been there when it came round to having interest in games from big Japanese developers, like Konami, Capcom, Square Enix and Bandai Namco, but now those studios have finally dropped their console gaze and are looking at the PC as a priority, launching all their new games on it, and most of the time on day one and with strong ports. The days of never getting console exclusives or, if we did, them coming to PC years later and as a buggy mess seem to be over.
What’s more, this shift by the big Japanese publishers is being partnered by a big indie and smaller studios surge in Japan, too. Due to the spiralling costs of producing major AAA games, there’s now a greater influx than ever of games being made by smaller teams, such as Nightmare Operator and Platform 8, for example, that are also coming to PC day one. The result is an exciting explosion of Japanese gaming goodness coming to PC, and that’s great news for PC gaming.
For the moment that’s all, though. Remember though that if you like PC gaming news and reports from Japan about its video game industry, then you can always follow our section Made in Japan, which we publish every month in PC Gamer magazine. Our next issue, for example, comes with an exclusive interview with the director of Square Enix’s new RPG remaster, Romancing SaGa 2: Revenge of the Seven. Mata ne!
