My Experiences At Anime Expo and Comic Con 2018

​​​​Hello, it's been a while since I've last posted a blog. I blogged for six years on gameinformer.com in their user blog section, but back in June the site had a massive overhaul that sadly removed my home on the internet. While I was definitely sad at the time, I am glad that the end of user blogs has encouraged me to establish my own website justinmikos.com which is where you should be reading this now. Since this is truly my personal home on the internet, the focus of my blogs here will not solely be on video games, although I imagine that will still be a good majority of them.

For my first blog on my new website, I wanted to share my experiences at the two conventions I attended last month, Anime Expo and Comic Con. This was my 7th Anime Expo and my 6th Comic Con. While I always get a badge for every day of Anime Expo, I only do the outdoor activities for Comic Con on the Saturday of the event. I am going to start this blog with the four games I played at these conventions and then share some highlights for each event. I'm excited to share everything I experienced so let's get right into it!

​Dragon Marked For Death (Switch, This Winter)

The first game I played at Anime Expo was Initi Creates' Dragon Marked For Death on Switch in two player local co-op with my friend Alex. Unlike a lot of Switch games, you do need multiple Switch's with multiple copies of the game to play together. While we played two player co-op, the final game will ultimately support four player co-op. We accidentally selected the hardest level in the demo and we only had ten minutes to navigate through the platforming gauntlet, fend off monsters, and ultimately take out the boss monsters to claim some loot for our quest. I can't tell you much about the story of the game from our demo, but I can at least describe the scenario. We had to infiltrate the inside of a monster to claim some herbs needed to make medicine. Various monsters dwelled inside the larger beast including hornets and a big crab boss and you had to jump over and dodge pools of stomach acid to proceed deeper within.

My friend Alex and I each picked the same hero, a girl with a sword and a dragonic arm that could shoot fireballs. Slicing enemies apart, dodging, and platforming all felt tight and intuitive so I didn't have any trouble tackling the challenges in front of me. You have a few different attacks with your sword including a flurry of blows and you also have access to your magic which gives you more flexibility because it slowly regenerates. When it came time for the crab boss, both of us charged up our spells and let loose a steady stream of fire that quickly decimated the boss. Though there was certainly room for improvement apparently we had a great time for the demo with four minutes remaining and most importantly we had fun. Typically I've enjoyed Initi Creates' 2D games, but with some reservations. With Dragon Marked For Death, I actually don't have any complaints from the demo so I'm looking forward to its release later this year.

​Dragon Quest XI (PS4 on September 4, Switch TBD)

There were two Dragon Quest XI demos available for me to play AX, a section early on in the story and one a few hours later where you finally have a full party of four and one guest character. I chose the second demo and while I could have explored the city and tried out horse racing I made a beeline straight for the boss. I began the demo on horseback and I appreciated that it let me soak in the beautiful environments and run right over smaller enemies. When I fought the boss, the big shelled monster with claws pictured above, I began by buffing my characters and pouring on as many debuffs and status effects on the boss as possible. By establishing a healing rhythm early and blocking after his big tells, I stayed on top of the most nasty attacks of the boss. After a solid five minutes of back and forth I was able to poison him to deliver the final blow. Nothing in this demo really surprised, but that's ok! Dragon Quest is a reliable series hesitant to change and the demo demonstrated it'll confidently offer the old school turn based RPG experience the series is known for with beautiful production values. As a nice bonus for playing the demo, I received a free t-shirt with the characters on the front and the logo on the back.

​Kingdom Hearts III (PS4 and Xbox One, January 29)

After anxiously waiting 12 years to play the next numbered Kingdom Hearts game, my brother Jared and I endured camping outside Square's AX booth and wandering around in a circle to ensure we'd get to play the demo and it was absolutely worth it. The demo was divided into two parts, a Toy Story level and a boss fight against the Rock Titan on Mount Olympus. At the start of the demo, we were encouraged to skip the cutscenes in order to finish both sections of the demo so after briefly confirming the Toy Story characters and Sora and friend's English voice acting was up to snuff I skipped through most of the cutscenes. My major takeaway right off the bat is that Kingdom Hearts III plays most similarly to Kingdom Hearts II which I'm ok with since we haven't had a game quite like it for over 12 years now.

The Toy Story demo begins in Andy's room and you have to fight through a swarm of Heartless in order to leave. The base combat with swinging your keyblade around and launching spells mapped to your shortcut menu all felt great. I'm glad the double jump and dodge were all active in the Toy Story demo (in the Olympus demo they were not), because Sora had satisfying defensive and traversal options. I'm not sure if this will apply to the final game, but after swinging your keyblade for a combo or two various special moves begin to rapidly pile up in a queue that can be triggered with the triangle button. Some of these moves transform your keyblade or character to give them different moves while others have you summon Disneyland attractions like the spinning teacups or team you up with your partners such as riding a wild rocket with Woody and Buzz. While the transformation attacks are fine, the devastating and flashy attraction and team up attacks tend to break up the flow of combat so I hope their frequency gets tuned down in the final game.

After running up the wall in Andy's room (you can run on any shiny surface in Kingdom Hearts III) I was able to jump out the window to get onto the streets and explore around Andy's house. The space was definitely vast and very well detailed by Kingdom Hearts' standards, but I was hoping you could interact and explore more of it since you can't explore the yards of any of Andy's neighbors. While I was fighting on the streets, I made sure to summon Wreck It Ralph and Ariel and both summons were very spectacular. At least with these two summons and Meow-Wow in the Olympus demo, you actually get to directly control each summon which is pretty cool. The final part of the Toy Story demo takes place in a vast toy store and begins with you inside a giant robot. By shooting and punching the enemy robots, you can disable them and take them over when your robot takes too much damage. While the robots have a different flavor than normal combat, I appreciated how seamlessly you can transition between fighting inside one and normal combat.

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​While I liked exploring the combat more in the Toy Story demo, I most enjoyed conquering the Olympus demo. The Olympus demo begins with the Rock Titan throwing boulders at Sora from atop Mt. Olympus. You have to run up the side of the mountain while dodging these boulders, which is easy, but looks pretty cool. When you nearly reach the top a storm kicks up and a small amount of Heartless appear to slice through. It isn't long though before you have to climb the final stretch and have to target the Titan's feet. He'll try to stomp on you, but as presumably the first boss in the game he has easy tells. The fight becomes more exciting when you take out both legs as you get to climb up to reach his two heads. After you deal enough damage you can summon Disneyland's Thunder Mountain Railroad and launch fireworks at the Rock Titan. I was confused at first so I had to repeat the cycle, but basically he'll try to punch you and you have to push him back with your firework gun to keep circling around him. Eventually you'll vanquish him to complete the demo.

I really enjoyed the Kingdom Hearts III demo. While I always believed in the Osaka team responsible for both Birth By Sleep and Dream Drop Distance, the demo fully sold me on just how close we are to finally playing the full adventure. The controls and combat both have the proper feeling of Kingdom Hearts and all the tiny details are captured in stunning HD. While it can never fully live up to the impossible standards placed on it, I think Kingdom Hearts III is going to be worth the wait.

​Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (Switch, December 7)

The only game I played at Comic Con was Super Smash Bros. Ultimate and because the line moved so fast I was able to get in line for it twice to play a total of four, two and a half minute matches. I played four different characters, Ridley, Inkling Girl, Ganondorf, and Cloud and was able to play on the new Breath of the Wild and Splatoon stages. I'll discuss the stages first since there isn't much to cover. The Breath of the Wild stage takes place on one of the pillars in Breath of the Wild's overworld. Aside from parts of the roof of the tower crumbling to reveal a Battlefield-like level, it isn't terribly thrilling. The Splatoon stage is much more involved with multiple floors to climb up and down. I have a feeling it will shine much more in eight player Smash since you could easily run away from the action in a four player battle.

I was most excited to get my hands on the new characters and I'm happy to say Ridley is awesome! I've never really been a big fan of the heavier characters in Smash aside from King Dedede since they often didn't feel powerful enough to make up for their slow speed and massive size. Ridley, who is probably the largest character yet, is fast and deadly. When I played him in a four player fight, it felt like I was setting the pace of the match with how aggressive he is. I especially loved grabbing people and dragging them across the floor as it feels unique and brutal in Smash. As for Inkling Girl, the other brand new character, I wasn't really able to get a good feel for her moveset in one fight. I like that her A-Moves incorporate some Splatoon weapons like Inkbrushes and Rollers, but I couldn't tell if the ink gauge affected them or not. I also want to briefly discuss Ganondorf, as I really welcome his new A-Moves incorporating his sword for once though I'll forever question him still using Captain Falcon inspired B-Moves like the Warlock Punch when Black Shadow could exist as an echo fighter.

My big takeaway from the Smash Ultimate demo is that it really feels like Smash 4 which is currently my favorite Smash game to play. I'm glad to see so many characters and stages return, but I'm most eager to see brand new content which I'm worried we won't see a ton of at least at launch. Smash Ultimate seems like a very safe bet, so I hope we will see more new content in the lead up to launch.

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That covers all the games I played at Anime Expo and Comic Con so let's move on to my highlights for each show. I'll start with my other Comic Con highlight aside from Smash Bros. Ultimate which was a VR experience for a television show I hadn't heard of called Mr. Mercedes. Despite being in the Mr. Mercedes Experience for an hour and a half, I honestly can't tell you anything substantial about the show other than it is based on a Stephen King novel. We were mainly there for a "VR Escape Room Experience" which sounded really cool on paper. My friends and I love escape rooms and I always try to get in a VR experience at conventions so we decided to check it out. The Mr. Mercedes VR experience was played on the Vive with the touch controllers, neither of which I've used before. The scenario was that you were in a creepy basement and a bomb would explode in 15 minutes if you didn't enter the correct password on a computer. I was very let down by the escape room aspect of the experience because the actual puzzles involved picking up the only colored objects in the room and filling in the blanks for very simple sayings like "I scream for ice CREAM" or "an apple doesn't fall FAR from the tree." I still thought it was worth it though because the interactions in the room were novel for me. I hadn't tried "teleport movement" in VR before where you use a cursor to teleport around an environment. Oddly I didn't feel sick as when I've moved with a controller in VR. The other thing I thought was cool was that you frequently had to bend over to pick up the objects in the room. I've done that before in VR, but it felt very natural here.

As for Anime Expo I have three main highlights to share: the Kotaro Uchikoshi panel, the Jojo's Bizarre Adventure Escape Room, and the three Anisong World Matsuri concerts I attended. I'll start with the Kotaro Uchikoshi panel I went to which was really the back half of the Spike Chunsoft Panel. I've been to all four panels Uchikoshi has been featured in across the last three years so there was no way I was going to miss this. Uchikoshi was on hand to formally unveil his new game/visual novel, Ai: The Somnium Files. I was one of the first people in line for the panel, so I ultimately was able to sit right in the front. In his new game you play as a detective, Kaname Date, who is tasked with solving gruesome murder mysteries. Date is equipped with a special eye that lets him enter strange dreamscapes linked to the people he is questioning to understand their memories. In addition to sharing the concept of the game and two trailers, Uchikoshi also shared some themes of the game and some of his inspirations for it. His presentation was great, but what made his appearance extra special this year for me was that I was given a ticket to go to his signing session. This caught me completely off guard so I didn't have anything for him to sign besides my AX program, but it was awesome being able to briefly talk to him personally and get a picture with him.

​​The next major highlight of AX I want to share was the Jojo's Bizarre Adventure Escape Room that I tackled with my brother Jared and my friend Alex. I won't share any of the major puzzles here, as that would spoil it if it ever is available to be played again, but I will share a rough idea of it. The Jojo escape room is similar to the Zelda and Final Fantasy XIV escape rooms SCRAP ran last year. You aren't trapped in a small room, but instead are in a large room together with multiple teams and you must solve sets of puzzles at your table and then travel to stations to advance through the game. The coolest part of this game is your team of six each takes the role of one of the characters from Part 3 of Jojo's Bizarre Adventure. I picked Jotaro Kujo, the main Jojo of Part 3, and suited up with his fingerless gloves. At various points in the game, I had to strike his signature pose, shout "Star Platinum!" and unleash a flurry of punches. My teammates all had their own signature poses, abilities, and attacks to trigger which injected a ton of character into this game.

I've tackled many escape rooms ever since SCRAP came out with their Zero Escape themed escape room, but my brother, my friend, and I didn't know our Jojo's Bizarre Adventure very well. Thankfully our three teammates, who all had never done an escape room, all had extensive Jojo knowledge so we complimented each other well. Together we made it to the final section of the game before running out of time. This was one of the most difficult escape rooms I've tackled yet and I had an absolute blast every step of the way. Since tackling it earlier this month, I've seen both Part 1 and Part 2 of Jojo's Bizarre Adventure and I'm hooked for life. Jojo is awesome!

Finally, I'd like to share my concert experiences this year. I attended Aqours' first standalone US concert with my friend Alex, Japan Super Live by myself, and I took my brother to Japan Kawaii Live after buying him a ticket since the Jojo Escape Room followed Kawaii Live. I first encountered Aqours at last year's Japan Kawaii Live and of the four performers there, Aqours was my clear favorite. Following the concert last year I bought a handful of their songs on iTunes and began watching their anime Love Live! Sunshine! which together cemented my love for them. After sharing the anime with my friends, Alex wanted to attend this year's concert with me.

​​Aqours opened this year Mirai No Bokura Wa Shitteru Yo, the awesome high energy opening song for the second season and continued with Kimi No Hitomi Wo Meguru Boken, Kimino Kokorowa Kagayaiterukai? (one of my favorites), and Mirai Ticket. At this point there was a minor intermission and a cartoon played from a prior concert. When the concert resumed each of the Aqours subgroups composed of three of the nine members sang two of their songs each. I didn't know there were subgroups until they appeared, so all the songs in this section were fresh for me. My favorite group by far was Guilty Kiss, composed of Yoshiko, Riko, and Mari. They just had a ton of energy and if I wasn't in the process of getting a new desktop, I'd already have downloaded their songs on iTunes. 

By far my favorite part of the concert was when Aqours sang Yuki Wa Doko Ni? Kimi No Mune Ni! because prior to the concert a group of fans were handing out flyers suggesting the audience coordinate their glowsticks to form a rainbow during the solo. Depending on where you were sitting you'd set your glowsticks to a particular color when the solo started and hide it until your singer re-entered the song. There was absolutely no guarantee this would work given it was just people handing out flyers, but as the solo played out it proved to be a huge success as a rainbow gradually lit up across the audience. When you looked on stage, you could see Chika in particular was so touched she was tearing up which made it absolutely worth it.

(As a minor aside, it was the Fourth of July that night and when I drove to my brother's on both sides of the freeway fireworks were constantly being shot off right next to me which was absolutely amazing. I want to drive through fireworks every Fourth of July now!)

​I'm happy to say each set of four performers at both Japan Super Live and Japan Kawaii Live were all pretty awesome this year. Japan Super Live featured May'n, Sanketsu Girl Sayuri, Aimer, and Yuki Kaijura, while Japan Kawaii Live featured The Idolmaster Cinderella Girls, IRIS, AKB48 Team 8, and Shoko Nakagawa. Walking in, I was most excited to see May'n, Aimer, and Shoko Nakagawa and all of them were especially spectacular. May'n opened with my favorite song of hers, Chase the World, which brought the hype right from the start. When Aimer sang, she was only accompanied by a pianist and she sang slower versions of her songs including my favorite song of hers Brave Shine. Shoko Nakagawa sang a lot of songs I knew including the Saint Seiya theme song, A Cruel Angel's Thesis (Someone has to cover it every year!), and my favorite song of hers Sorairo Days. Of the rest, I also really enjoyed Sanketsu-Girl Sayuri and the Idolmaster Cinderella Girls. I didn't know walking in I actually knew one of Sanketsu-Girl Sayuri's songs as she sang the ending theme for Erased as just Sayuri. She played the guitar herself for all of her songs, which were all pretty upbeat, so I'm interested in checking out more of her songs down the road. As for the Idolmaster Cinderella Girls, they were actually my least favorite of the acts at last year's Japan Kawaii Live, but they really won me over this year with their renewed enthusiasm.

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This is the end of my first blog on my new website. Thank you for reading all the way to the end and I hope you enjoyed it! I'll be posting here regularly from now on, so I hope you are looking forward to more of my writing soon! If you want to contact me, feel free to on my twitter @JustinMikos. Until next time!

- Justin