The Eight Games I Played At Anime Expo 2019

After I journey to Anime Expo every year, I enjoy writing and sharing a blog detailing all of my experiences at the show with a focus on the games I played. While I typically lead these blogs discussing the games, I’m actually going to start with detailing my other AX experiences since I had an unusual year that is brief to summarize.

I was having a great time at this year’s show until I suddenly became ill and sadly had to leave both the Aqours concert I was attending and Anime Expo as a whole. I was very disappointed since I was only able to hear three songs in full before I was too sick to continue, but I’m glad I was at least able to hear my favorite song Aozora Jumping Heart live again. I sadly also missed out on a Judgment themed escape room I was planning to tackle with a friend and a movie premiere on the final day (though I learned that one was ultimately capped for premiere fans only).

​Thankfully I still had many good memories and great successes while I was at the show. I was able to get all of my shopping done on the first day (see the above pic) and I was able to attend some very awesome panels, three of which I’d like to highlight here. The first one I especially enjoyed was the Trails of Cold Steel III voice actor panel which featured seven of the game’s voice actors including Sean Chiplock (Rean Schwarzer) and Carrie Keranan (Sara Valestain). I should have known by the high quality voice acting from the first two games that the panel would be super entertaining because everyone on stage clearly cared about the series and thoroughly enjoyed hanging out and talking together. The voice actors performed some cold line readings on stage and shared some of their favorite voice lines. I also thoroughly enjoyed Kotaro Uchikoshi’s panel for Ai The Somnium Files. Uchikoshi was joined by the character artist for Ai, Yusuke Kozaki, who is best known for his work on Fire Emblem Awakening and Fire Emblem Fates. It was obvious that the two are good friends and I enjoyed hearing their insights on the creation of the main characters. During the panel Kozaki did a live drawing of two of the characters and it was amazing how much he got done since he was still answering questions and a fire alarm even interrupted the panel halfway through. Perhaps my favorite moment of the panel occurred after Kozaki shared he keeps trying to sneak an SD (very cartoony) character into all of his projects, but he has thus far been rejected. His character morphed into Ota in this game, but if Ai gets a sequel you can blame this panel if an SD character is included as the audience and I cheered Kozaki on to keep pushing to include a cartoony character in a realistic setting.

​My favorite panel turned out to be the Magia Record panel. Magia Record is the new Madoka Magica mobile RPG that is a side story to the original anime and the sequel movie Rebellion. Madoka remains my favorite anime of all time so I really enjoyed that the first fifty minutes of the panel were strictly focused on the voice actresses of Homura and Kyubey, Chiwa Saito and Emiri Kato respectively. The two shared interesting insights into acting as their characters. Chiwa Saito for example tunes her voice for each of Homura’s distinct personalities by practicing saying how she says “Madoka” as each one. Emiri Kato shared her favorite part of voicing Kyubey came during the Rebellion movie as she actually gave over forty different line readings as the various Kyubey that appear in the movie. I really want to finish my latest rewatch of Madoka Magica and Rebellion after hearing them share all of their memories voicing their characters. When the game developers eventually joined the panel, it became fairly standard for a bit, but there was a surprise appearance by the president of Shaft who brought along an in-development trailer for the anime adaption of Magia Record which was very cool to see. The most exciting surprise however was when Chiwa Saito shared a new mainline Madoka anime is coming soon and she will return to voice Homura. It’s been six years since Rebellion, so it was especially exciting to be in the same room as the announcement of the third Madoka story.

​This blog is an excellent opportunity to talk about Magia Record, so I’d like to do so briefly. I had finally stopped logging onto Kingdom Hearts Union Cross after logging in over 1,000 days since it served its purpose of giving me more Kingdom Hearts while waiting for Kingdom Hearts III and since it had evolved into purely auto-battling which is boring. While I had dabbled in other gachas, essentially any game with a prominent lottery component, none ever hooked me as much as KHUX. It’s only been about a month, but Magia Record very much has its hooks in me. As I said earlier, Madoka remains my favorite anime, so Magia Record already had a strong avenue for connecting with me, but it helps tremendously that the writing, story, and combat in Magia Record are all quite good. Unlike Fate/Go, which is also handled by Aniplex, the translation is error-free and enjoyable to read. I really like Iroha, the main character, who is searching for her missing sister Ui and I’ve met some other standout characters like Yachiyo and Tsuruno. There are two gachas in Magia Record that let you pull characters, Memoria (accessories), and materials. There’s surprisingly only a small amount of characters, but it’s neat since each one matters more in battle and because each one has their own multipart character episodes. Battles in Magia Record are simple, but it’s fun building your party and coming up with the best moves for each turn since you have to consider enemy positioning and managing your special attacks and buffs while also hopefully preventing enemies from triggering theirs. Combat shines in the indirect PVP mode, which at least four weeks in is still regularly offering good match ups. I’m eager to keep following the main story (I’ve already cleared all of the launch content) and dive further into the second campaign that follows the five original Madoka characters.

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With all of that said, I’m now ready to talk about the games I played at AX this year. I ended up playing eight games this year. One actually just came out, but the rest are mostly coming out in the near future. The games certainly ranged in quality so I have a good deal to cover.

Umihara Kawase Fresh (Switch, out now!)

I was a huge fan of Sayonara Umihara Kawase on 3DS, Vita, and PC so even though I had the game ordered and on the way to my house I still wanted to dabble with it when I saw an empty line. I haven’t gotten my hands on it since, but the game controls just as tight as its predecessor. You once again play as a girl, Kawase, who is armed with a fishing rod that serves as a grappling hook. My demo was from the opening area so it wasn’t too tough yet for a veteran of the series. I often describe the learning process of Umihara Kawase as going about as smoothly as a normal person attempting to be Spider-Man and that will still be true here for new players. I’m curious how the switch from distinct, short levels to a large 2D open world will affect my enjoyment of the game, but the brief demo couldn’t really answer that aside from how easy it is to get lost. I wanted to get in trouble quickly so I initially went in the opposite direction of the arrows placed in the world itself, but then I found I couldn’t find my way back to the objective easily. Still, I’m super excited to dive into my copy soon.

​Azur Lane Crosswave (PS4, 2020)

By far the oddest game I played at AX 2019 was Azur Lane Crosswave. I had time to kill and there was no line, so I decided to give it a try. Azur Lane Crosswave has you assembling a team of three anthropomorphic battleship girls from a selection of thirty to battle actual battleships and airplanes and other battleship girls. Your three characters glide across the surface of the ocean and by locking on to your targets you can strafe around them while shooting them with all manner of bullets and explosives. Aside from basic machine guns, all of the larger attacks are on cooldowns, so it pays to swap between your party members regularly to deal the most damage. I always enjoy dodging in and out bullet hell so I had more fun than I was expecting.

Granblue Fantasy Versus (PS4, 2019)

The tightest game I played this year was certainly Granblue Fantasy Versus, the latest 2D fighting game from my favorite fighting game developer, Arc System Works. I stood in line twice to play two rounds to try to get a good feel for it. I first played as Katalina who I’m familiar with from the anime. Her attacks were fairly straightforward and hit pretty hard. I also played as Charlotta, who was quite short, but moved around fairly quickly. The most interesting mechanic that I avoided is that you can use your special moves easily by pressing a button and a direction (like Smash Bros) instead of using traditional fighting game inputs with the trade off that they have to cool down and will not hit as hard. If I had more time, I would have loved to play more rounds.

Luminous Avenger iX (Switch, PS4, PC, September 26)

I always enjoy checking out what Inti Creates brings to AX every year (I even attended their panel this year) so I was excited to try the new Gunvolt spinoff. Luminous Avenger iX stars Copen, Gunvolt’s rival from the previous game. Copen is an unusual hero for a 2D action game, because in order to deal the most damage you first need to dash into your foes so your drones can lock on and strike them no matter where you are on screen. If you get hit you lose your lock on and if you then fire bullets you’ll dip into your ammo and will be forced to take time to reload. While I blazed through the level I chose thanks to Copen’s amazing mobility, the boss crushed me twice before I ran out of time.

Code Vein (PS4, Xbox One, PC, September 27)

I’ve never been a fan of From Software’s Souls games, but the character design for Namco Bandai’s Code Vein always struck me as cool so I wanted to give it a try. The game is quite a bit faster than Demon Souls (the only Souls game I’ve played) and it seems you have a ton more abilities and healing options readily available which I appreciated. I feel like I played ok during my first two attempts since I was playing as carefully as possible, but my other three or four tries quickly ended in tragedy. My AI partner was a big help, but whenever she died, I’d soon follow. Code Vein is not for me, but I’m glad I was able to try it.

Trails of Cold Steel III (PS4, October 22)

My Trails of Cold Steel III demo flew by. A good deal of it was taken up by excellent voice acting and the rest was primarily filled with combat tutorials. Trails is my favorite modern RPG series, so Trails of Cold Steel III’s combat felt very comfortable to slip into. The menus are much faster to navigate now since every action is tied to a button like Super Mario RPG or Persona 5. I was intrigued that one of the new characters, Juna, had a weapon that could transform to give her more flexibility in combat. Between the demo, the voice actor panel, and the art panel, I’m incredibly excited to dive into the game in October.

Kill La Kill IF (Switch, PS4, July 26)

I was skeptical of Kill La Kill IF walking in since arena brawlers are often very clunky. While the graphics and animation look amazing and capture the energy of Kill La Kill, movement, targeting, and attacks feel sloppy. I tried out one of my favorite characters, Gamagoori, and even though my character was huge, I had trouble reaching my opponent. When my opponent or I would land a hit, we often became trapped by basic combos over and over again, since we didn’t seem to have the tools to escape. Maybe my own fight was a bad match up, but watching others I saw more clumsy fights unfolding. I can’t recommend checking out Kill La Kill IF after trying it myself.

River City Girls (Switch, PS4, Xbox One, PC, September 5)

River City Girls was my favorite game I played at Anime Expo this year. This game stars the girlfriends of the original two River City heroes, who spring into action when they get a text message saying their boyfriends have been kidnapped. I was able to play co-op with a friend and I had a blast kicking and punching all the punks who opposed us. In the demo we played we had to break out of detention and escape the school. The two main characters constantly remarked on their situation, along with some of our foes, and a lot of the dialogue was often very funny. My favorite detail was apparently the character I was playing as, Kyoko, didn’t even attend the school she was currently breaking out of. While we didn’t get to check out the upgrade system, we still learned new moves as we leveled up including a stomp move that hurt downed enemies and hilariously help us kick each other awake if we got knocked out. We also were able to recruit some of our defeated enemies to call them in for clutch assist attacks which especially helped during the tough boss battle. I can’t wait to play the final game, so I’m glad it is barely a month away.

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That concludes my latest blog! I hope you enjoyed it! If you have any questions about my AX experience or the games I played this year be sure to reach out to me on Twitter @JustinMikos. I always enjoy hearing from my readers!