ESGS 2023 has a mix of both old and new exhibitors in a bigger venue for this year: The World Trade Center in Pasay City, Manila. Familiar faces like Asus ROG have returned with shiny new toys like the ROG Ally and ROG Phone 7. Our friends at SEGA were there too, with upcoming games set to be released next year! In our SEGA Booth Review, we’re here to give a rundown on 2 new games we’re excited for: Persona 3 Reload and Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name.
The SEGA Booth
In every ESGS, there’s always a booth with upcoming games ready for review. This year, it was SEGA, and they didn’t disappoint.
Xbox and PS5 consoles featured their top titles and upcoming game demos, all ready to play. Among these were Sonic Superstars, Persona 5 Tactica and Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth. We really could’ve spent majority of our time there, but the lines were pretty long. Just goes to show how many people were itching to get a taste of what these games had to offer.
Persona 3 Reload Review
One of 2 games we were here for. The title infamous for misheard lyrics was finally getting a remake and boy were we excited for that nostalgia trip.
The Persona 3 Reload demo dove straight into the action, with the SEES crew taking their first steps into Tartarus, a mysterious tower where Shadows hide. Longtime veterans of this game need no introduction to the main cast: Makoto Yuki, Junpei Iori and Yukari Takeba.
It was honestly fun using these 3 starting party members again. Takeba thankfully hits her targets more frequently this time around too, unlike in the Persona 3 Portable version. The new summoning animations are somewhat reminiscent of Persona 4 and 5, and the updated graphics somehow give that same vibe of those games.
As for Tartarus, it still had that familiar feel but this time around, there were far more breakable items that yielded mats. This wasn’t something the old game had, but something common in P5. The difference was that there were a lot more of them now.
Lastly, the game also had a language option. So, if you really miss hearing the voice of the Japanese cast, this was definitely a welcome addition.
Definitely looking forward to finally playing this game on its release in 2024.
Like a Dragon Gaiden Review
We also had a good ten-minute playthrough of the game Like A Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name on the PlayStation 5.
The demo had the players explore “The Castle“, a huge neon ship that is floating off the waters of Japan. It was a nice way to break in some players into the Like a Dragon series of videogames. We will have more info on this and the game on Sakura Index’s future review of Like A Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name.
Overall thoughts
This SEGA booth review was a great experience. Getting to try the previews of these upcoming games gave us a better idea of what to expect once we get around to reviewing them in detail. Big thanks to SEGA for letting us in for a sneak peek at these new titles!
And here’s a shoutout to The SlickMaster’s Files for getting us amazing shots for the event! Check out his official website and Facebook page here.
Also, here’s hoping for bigger and better things on next year’s ESGS.
