Tokyo Game Show 2025 Previews #2: Professor Layton, Katamari Damacy, Marvel Tokon, and Nioh

We attended Tokyo Game Show 2025 and tried out some exciting new games! In this article, Brando shares his impressions of Professor Layton and the New World of Steam, Once Upon A KATAMARI, Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls, and Nioh 3. More previews are here (#1) and here (#3). All release dates and platforms are current as of October 10, 2025.

Professor Layton and the New World of Steam

Professor Layton and Luke face new puzzles in a fresh setting. Solve epic riddles as you progress through the story of this puzzle/fantasy adventure.

Releases in 2026 on Nintendo Switch and Nintendo Switch 2.
Official site: https://www.layton.jp/jouki/en/

Last year I said that “Professor Layton fans have waited a long time, but the new game is here…” Sorry for jinxing it.

On the bright side, everything I said last year holds for this year’s TGS demo as well. The town of Steam Bison is colorful and bustling with life, the 3D models stay true to the series’ distinctive art style, and the scale of the game seems to have expanded far beyond what the previous handheld entries contained.

This year’s demo shows an earlier part of the game than last year’s. After Professor Layton steps off the airship, he solves a few introductory puzzles and meets up with Luke, who’s frantically operating a two-legged machine to run from some pursuers. The puzzles weren’t too difficult, and they had a familiar balance of logical reasoning and reading between the lines.

The game’s release has been delayed to “2026”, but it might be worth the wait for Nintendo Switch 2 owners, because the main gripe I had with the game last year has been solved: pointing and clicking and dragging and dropping is so much easier with the Switch 2 Joy-Con mouse controls, instead of a controller with joysticks and face buttons! All the demo stations this year were set up for the Switch 2, with the Joy-Cons slotted inside a third-party mouse grip accessory.

You can just point and click like a computer game, and it works so well.

2026 isn’t far away now though, and it looks like all the time this New World of Steam has spent in the oven will be worth it!

Once Upon A KATAMARI

Let the good times roll! In this puzzle action/adventure game. The King of All Cosmos was fiddling with a scroll and accidentally destroys the earth and stars. Now The Prince must roll the katamari across time itself, collecting objects through stages in the Jurassic Era, Ice Age, historical Japan, and more to rebuild the glittering night sky.

Releases October 24, 2025 on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC (Steam).
Official site: https://en.bandainamcoent.eu/katamari/once-upon-katamari

The first completely new entry in the Katamari Damacy series in 14 years comes out in less than 2 weeks!

This demo was probably the shortest of all the demos I played at TGS this year. I chatted with The King (who has goofed up the cosmos once again), loaded into a historical Japan -themed level select area, loaded into a historical Japan -themed level, rolled around collecting rice farmers and sumo wrestlers, and then it was over, in just a few minutes.

The gameplay is the same as ever: roll up objects of increasing size within the time limit using the traditional joystick controls, or newer simplified controls, with a few special moves like charging up speed to dash forward. There are some new powerup items to be found out in the levels, like the rocket which temporarily boosts your speed, or the magnet which temporarily attracts similar items, but the main draw of the new game seems to be traveling to different eras, rolling up an even wider variety of Things through time and space. No big shake-ups to the formula, but they’re not really needed. Katamari is timeless fun, and this looks like a colorful and warmhearted return for The Prince!

Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls

PlayStation Studios, Arc System Works and Marvel Games have joined forces to realize the latest in tag team fighters, MARVEL Tōkon: Fighting Souls! Experience the Marvel Universe like never before with reimagined characters and stages, a heart-pounding soundtrack, intuitive gameplay mechanics, and jaw-dropping visuals that will keep you on the edge of your seat.

Releases in 2026 on Playstation 5 and PC.
Official site: https://www.marvel.com/games/marvel-tokon-fighting-souls

Speaking of color, Marven Tokon: Fighting Souls is popping with it. This game looks so good, it’s enticing even if you’re not a fighting game player. A lot of the UI elements and animations have comic book-like touches, and Arc System Works have added their own Japanese anime/manga-influenced spin on things here and there, like Iron Man’s Gundam-ish visor.

As for gameplay I could only play a couple rounds, but it seems like they’re trying to keep things approachable. There’s only 4 or 5 main buttons (light, medium, heavy, unique attack, and “assemble”). There are some other buttons for simplified controls like “quick dash” or “quick assemble” if you want to avoid motion inputs. There are autocombos, so you can pull off some flashy stuff just by tapping the same button.

It seems like the developers have tried to keep the systems from becoming too complex, despite being a “4 character” tag game. You pick 4 fighters for your team, but you can’t just swap between them or bring them all out at any time. Most interactions with the team happen during assists (“assembles”), where there’s a brief period you can tag in a new main fighter. The type of assist you get depends on who is in what slot on the team. Your team has a collective life bar, instead of 4 individual ones. You have one bar of “super meter” for doing special moves, though some characters also have their own specific systems and UI icons.

I was most definitely P1.

Overall the game is brimming with energy and seems to have the level of quality Arc System Works is known for, maybe similar to what they did with Dragon Ball FighterZ. This should be a fun one if you’re into fighting games, Marvel, or both!

Nioh 3

The protagonist, Tokugawa Takechiyo, embarks on a battle that transcends time to change fate and save Japan, which is ruled by yokai. Intense exploration in a vast open field, seamlessly switching between “Samurai” and “Ninja” in an instant. Encounters with a diverse cast of historical figures. Experience the uniquely gripping, high-stakes battles that only “Nioh” can deliver.

Releases February 6, 2026 on PlayStation 5 and PC (Steam)
Official site: https://teamninja-studio.com/nioh3/us/

After Rise of the Rōnin, it seems like a natural next step for Team Ninja to bring their open world souls-like experience to the Nioh series.

Nioh 3 feels instantly familiar if you’ve played past entries. The ability to jump is new, and the area I ran around in the demo was much more open than the tight winding levels of previous games, but the core feel is the same. Run, block, parry, find gear, use items, and cut your way through formidable yokai monsters and historical Japanese figures.

The main change Nioh 3 makes to the formula is the ability to switch between Ninja and Samurai styles at the press of a button.

Ninja style

Samurai style

You can change between the two at any time, depending on what you need in the moment, even mid-combo. Ninja mode gives you access to ninjutsu powers like faster attacks, dodge flips, throwing items, and increased damage from the enemy’s backside. Samurai mode plays a bit more “heavyset”. You get stronger, slower sword slashes, high/mid/low stances, and ki pulses, timed button presses that regain spent stamina and dispel yokai realm debuffs. I stayed in samurai mode most of the demo, as I was fighting mostly yokai enemies, but ninja mode was fun too. I’m not sure how “open” the open world will turn out to be, but if the world of Nioh 3 is as punishing as past games (or Elden Ring), I’ll probably do a lot of exploration runs as a ninja, looking for good loot in preparation for tough fights. It seems like enemy AI can still be ~~exploited~~ strategically led around to a similar degree as past games. That won’t help in the boss arenas though, and the one in the TGS demo was brutal!