The Summer Game Fest had many new announcements and highly anticipated titles in trailer format. There was suspiciously often new content for anime fans among the games – and that’s exactly why the event was a great success for MeinMMO author Jasmin Beverungen.
After the last Summer Game Fest had a few small highlights, I was looking forward to this year’s event. Still, I tried to lower my expectations a bit, so that I wouldn’t end up disappointed. But the show from Friday night had so many great trailers that I could hardly look away from the screen.
Especially as an anime fan, I was excited about new insights into cool games. It is no secret that I am a huge otaku. I am particularly fond of the shounen genre: Whether it’s Dragon Ball or Naruto, as long as there are intense battles with flashy effects! I was all the more surprised that there were numerous titles this year that I liked.
The big highlight for me was the trailer for Metaphor: ReFantazio. Every video snippet is a true feast for the eyes. What was especially pleasing was that there are 40 archetypes for the party members! That gives me enough choice to design the group the way I want.
Of all the animes that have been turned into video game formats, Dragon Ball has done it best so far. Both Budokai Tenkaichi and Xenoverse were the anime universes in which I most enjoyed fighting. So it’s no surprise that I was thrilled about a trailer for Dragon Ball Sparking! Zero. And anyone who doesn’t find the action-packed trailer overwhelming probably didn’t pay attention!
As an anime fan, the obsession for the Japanese landscape is closely linked. I was all the more pleased about the Sakurajima update for Palworld. It’s just easier to catch in bamboo forests and among cherry blossoms.
Just because of these titles, it was worth it for me to watch the first presentation of the Summer Game Fest live. But there were also other exciting highlights that might appeal to lovers of Japanese comic series.
More Anime Highlights for Gamers
There were more games that might appeal to anime fans, but didn’t personally excite me much. This is partly because I can’t find anything appealing about mechas and tend to avoid series in which they appear – with the exception of Code Geass, the coolest anime with mechas.
Other games that you should keep an eye on as an anime or Japan fan are the following:
- Phantom Blade Zero
- Mecha Break
- Battle Aces
- Honkai: Star Rail
- Kunitsu Gami: Path of the Goddess
- Battle Crush
- Street Fighter
- Hyper Light Breaker
- … and Monster Hunter Wilds, simply because it’s cool.
Even The Finals, which I had never touched before, is getting a Japanese twist in the new season. I may be easily influenced, but it’s precisely such settings that lure me into a new game. Here I just feel comfortable.
It felt like 50% of the trailers shown were somehow related to animes or Japan. With so much new game fodder, the presentation was a complete success for me – though I can understand that shooter fans were disappointed. My colleague Dariusz Müller did find a highlight, but it wasn’t a shooter at all.
Even apart from the anime trailers, there were definitely highlights that excited me. The new Lego game in the Horizon universe looks fantastic, and a TV series about Among Us sounds just like the distraction I need between a few episodes of One Piece and Frieren.
The Summer Game Fest was truly a feast for me. There were many titles that I have already added to my wishlist and whose release I am looking forward to. My colleague Benedict Grothaus, on the other hand, couldn’t stop shaking his head: The Summer Game Fest was a “feast for anime fans” and that’s why… boring
