Koei Tecmo 2024 Game Overview
Koei Tecmo has been playing it safe with their content for the last few years showcasing a familiar blueprint within their Tokyo Game Show live programming, but meanwhile the whole world is waiting for them to finally pull the trigger on a new game from a classic Team NINJA franchise. Regardless of what their collective fanbase and the rest of world would prefer to see, they do have a solid lineup of games including a reboot of Dynasty Warriors and the latest Atelier Saga, but will this be enough to please fans of the publisher?
They open up their show with Romance of the Three Kingdoms 8 Remake, which has been in the works since last year, and while it's not the most exciting game to watch from a visual perspective, it has remained a popular game franchise to engage with that sustains YouTube viewership and a primed based in Japan. Koei Tecmo's yearly TGS program typically lasts 3-4 hours so they utilize every last bit of hands-on gameplay that they can out of the games they advertise.
Koei Tecmo also highlights merchandise throughout TGS and that includes items also sold on the KT SPOT website among some exclusives made just for the event. This website is only available to customers in Japan, and NA players continue to hope that one day it will be made available to more countries as they sell exclusive Dead or Alive merchandise that rarely makes it to eBay. When these items do popup on eBay they are sold for exuberant amounts of money; especially if you want autographed Dead or Alive Xtreme Venus Vacation pieces.
Atelier Yumia is the latest installment of the Atelier Saga, and Gust appears to be going outside of their comfort zone to spice the series up a bit. For starters, the game series is arriving to XBOX for the first time. Yumia also appears to be targeting Westerners with a bigger budget, a more modern approach and the largest landscapes and best visuals we have seen with the series history. Most of these female characters are also edgier in appearance, largely straying away from the more innocent approach seen in past titles.
Fairy Tail 2 was also presented at Koei Tecmo's conference and while most people were at first skeptical due to the age and questionable relevancy of the anime in today's age it does appear to impress by following an older viewpoint of a turn-based RPG while also giving it a great modern look. Attractive female characters such as Lucy appear to be a staple of Koei Tecmo's program while also remaining a company signature.
Koei Tecmo showed off some official DOA merchandise including a very cool Marie Rose T-Shirt sporting her signature blue one-piece swimsuit. Official DOA T-shirts are hard to come by and while I'm still rocking a DOA2 Dreamcast shirt and a Christie T-Shirt from the old Free Step Dodge shop; I haven't seen many for sale outside of the typical "I'm a Fighter" design.
Dynasty Warriors Origins has been displayed in great detail over the course of TGS and even prior to the event. Omega definitely observed Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty and decided to step up their visual flair because this is unquestionably the largest graphical leap in the series history. It would seem like the gameplay is also changing dramatically considering that you only play as one officer. Now there is a bigger focus on weapons and flashy combat without negating elements that you would normally enjoy from this franchise.
Dead or Alive Xtreme: Venus Vacation Prism Announcement
The new Venus Vacation project has been revealed as Dead or Alive Xtreme: Venus Vacation Prism. Early comments and translation state that the game will release Q1 2025 on DMM, PS4, PS5 & Steam. This game is focused more on "adventuring" and "dates" than DOAXVV. Also features a wider range of graphical capabilities for outstanding 3D viewpoints and emphasis on taking better looking photos than DOAXVV. The first featured Venus is Misaki who was also billed as the poster character for Venus Vacation. Only 6-8 Venus are planned to launch with Prism.
While Misaki's image might throw some people off at first with all of the new details, please also entertain the fact that these are brand new graphics for DOA which could be used later on for a new fighting game (that DOA6 deserved). The two series have always shared engines and Team NINJA is well known for squeezing all the money they can out of new graphics whenever they are deployed. So, let's give a little bit more time for interesting developments to unfold.
Koei Tecmo is calling this an adventure because in comparison to what we've had with only our imaginations, storytelling and menu selections - players have never had the chance to explore Zack Island with a 3D viewpoint until now with the announcement of Prism. This will allow for the most interactable DOA experience to date. We've come a long way from gambling with character portraits to a more engaging and fleshed out world that you can perhaps explore with your favorite Venus.
The game is expected to have an early trial before release but will likely only be available at first for the Japanese region. More updates on this will be made available once the translation has become clearer on what to expect for region release dates. Rest assured all of these recent Gacha/Steam titles have been translated due to sheer popularity in North America and this one will likely be no exception.
While the wait for Team NINJA's next game continues it becomes abundantly clear that this will be the longest gap between newly announced mainstay titles in the 25-plus year history of the studio. With that being said new graphical capabilities are being showed off for almost every new title including: Prism, Atelier Yumia & Dynasty Warriors. Koei Tecmo is rebooting and redesigning the way that they deliver content to players, and they are starting off very strong with some outstanding looking games. Let's allow them proper time to bring back our favorite franchises as they reconfigure themselves for a new era of titles.
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