TGS 2009 - Square Enix Booth: Live and In Color

On the fourth and final day of the Tokyo Game Show, I made some more rounds at the Square Enix booth and took a bunch of pictures.  It is no secret that everything is a secret with Square Enix - you need an armband to identify yourself as press and photography of any screen was still strictly prohibited.  I think even catching just the Square Enix logo on their Open Mega Theater screen there is grounds for a paddling.  Still, I was able to take a little tour around the area and check out most of what was offered.  There were a lot of demos too, but on the public days, getting to play more than one or two seemed like an exercise in futility.  Square Enix was definitely hot to trot this year, with a massive setup that generated an immense amount of excitement.  The crowds in some areas would dwindle as the day pressed on, but this place was jumping from start to finish.  Let's take a look at some pictures.

In general, the Square Enix booth was divided into two main areas.  You had Dragon Quest on the left, marked with a giant slime, and Final Fantasy on the right, marked with a giant Chocobo.  As you can see on the provided map, there were a fair number of other games mixed in each area.  However, there were some obvious stars of the show, namely Final Fantasy XIII and Dragon Quest.

Along the side wall of the Final Fantasy XIII area was a banner with all the main characters pictured.  On press days, people were lined up to play, but public days required you get a ticket.  You can check out my writeup on the demo here.  There was also a new addition on the fourth day, which you can faintly see off in the distance.

What's going on here?  Is this a ticket booth or something?  A lot of people have their cell phones out and are trying to take pictures over each others' heads.

It's the new Final Fantasy XIII Lightning Playstation 3!  Along with the new Elixirs and figures, it was featured in a glass case on the side of the demo area.  You had to line up just to get a shot, and as you can see, people were waving their phones every which way trying to collect as many pictures as they could.

Weighing in at a full-figured 250 gigs, this is one sexy machine.  With the redesigned slim model and the upcoming release of FFXIII coupled with this beautiful beast, the Playstation 3 must feel like it has reached a heavenly oasis after years wandering through a desert of relative otiosity.

Oh yeah, and there were some soda cans next to it or something.

Here's a video of the whole package.  I can't wait until Final Fantasy XIII hits at the end of this year.

 


 

There was also quite a bit of excitement going on around the Dragon Quest area - in fact, too much.  The people you see above were all roped in an area where they could download exclusive additions to DS games.

The bonus data available for Dragon Quest IX was ハッサン Hassan, a guest character; a treasure map with the boss 大魔王デスタムーア Great Demon King Destamoor; and a treasure map with the boss 大魔王シドー Great Demon King Shidoh.  There were specific times set up for when players could access this data.  On Sunday, the signs indicated that Destamoor was available from noon onwards, but the other two had no time set.

Now, if you needed anymore proof Japanese gamers are insane about Dragon Quest, let this picture stand as a testament to that fact.  Dragon Quest VI is being ported to the Nintendo DS and there was a playable demo at the Tokyo Game Show.  試遊 is a combination of the characters 試 (test) and 遊 (play).  最後尾 is the 最後 (last) å°¾ (tail), or the tail-end of the line to get in.  So what's that scribbledy-gook underneath?  A 5-hour 100-minute wait to get in.

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Chi vs. 5
# Sep 27 2009 at 2:56 PM Rating: Good
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3,530 posts
I don’t think that's a 5-hour, 100-minute wait, I think it's just a 100 minute wait, and that's the kana ち in 待ちます:

Ma chi (wait) ji kan (time) 100 bun (minutes)
待  ち       時  間       分



Edit: failed to make the kanji line up properly

Edited, Sep 27th 2009 6:58pm by KaneKitty
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