Tokyo Game Show coverage should start showing up on PSLS in the next, oh, 12-18 hours, depending on how lucky I am catching the proper buses and things. Until then, here’s my account of a lunch and a dinner at two cafes of particular interest to gamers: the Final Fantasy XIV Eorzea Cafe and the Gundam Cafe.
For the full step-by-step, photo-by-photo digital tour and diary of sorts, I captioned nearly 50 photos for you in this slideshow:
In honor of the Tokyo Game Show, I felt it only appropriate to spend my time in nerdy cafes.
Gundam and Eorzea Cafes
Final Fantasy XIV Eorzea Cafe and Gundam Cafe in Tokyo, Japan.
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In honor of the Tokyo Game Show, I felt it only appropriate to spend my time in nerdy cafes.
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The first was a Gundam Cafe. Uh...I didn't eat any main courses there, because the food wasn't looking awesome. Right off a plane, for whatever reason, I wasn't feeling like pasta, Gundam or no Gundam...
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...though I did take some shots of the sweet merch!
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Merchandise at the Gundam Cafe in Tokyo Station.
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Merch at the Gundam Cafe in Tokyo Station.
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More merch at the Gundam Cafe in Tokyo Station.
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Merch at the Gundam Cafe in Tokyo Station.
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Yet more merch at the Gundam Cafe in Tokyo Station.
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My lunch was instead from a place across the way, which served me some steak without sauce or a proper knife, bread that wasn't properly sliced, and fried potatoes without any kind of butter or sauce. Maybe I should've gone with the Gundam pasta after all.
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After that disappointment, we slipped over to the Gundam Cafe for dessert, which was a melon-flavored cake roll modeled after Gundam Seed's "Haro." (Side: "Haro" is actually how the Japanese are taught to pronounce "Hello" in elementary school.) The flavor was prefect and cold cream in the middle was pleasant.
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This is just in case you need to like, you know, reach for your armor and stuff in the middle of lunch.
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Gundam Cafe stuff.
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Can't spell Gundam without GUN!
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That's my waifu.
She's standing next to some human.
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TVs at the Gundam Cafe.
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TVs at the Gundam Cafe.
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MORE MERCH!
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AND MORE MERCH!
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YET MORE MERCH!
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For some reason, I don't picture Gundam pilots finishing a day of blowing up robots and like, drinking a Budweiser.
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Dinner was at the FFXIV Eorzea Cafe. Luckily, this one was arranged by Square Enix.
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I'd thought about going on my own, but it turns out, people draw tickets at 10:30am to see who is allowed to go in, and at what times. Yeah.
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Art at the Eorzea cafe.
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The menu cover at the FFXIV cafe.
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More art.
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"My name is Moogle, and I have a problem..."
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"Put more Moogle stuff around."
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The atmosphere was impressive. According to Square Enix, members of the game's own art team were on hand during the cafe's creation, to make sure everything looked authentic.
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For hunting.
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ALCOHOL! I love the celebration here. The character's like "ALCOHOL!"
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Some shots of the menu in Eorzea.
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Some shots of the menu in Eorzea. Titan Burger on the left, Leviathan Ramen up top, Ifrit Pizza on the right.
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Blue ramen, served cold, with seafood. I didn't go for it, because I'm not into shrimp and not into cold noodles. No thanks.
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Desserts.
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Tasty.
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Some shots of the menu in Eorzea.
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Some shots of the menu in Eorzea.
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Drinks.
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More drinks.
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Thematic drinks.
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There were potions, X-potions, and other thematic drinks.
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There were potions, X-potions, and other thematic drinks.
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A potion. 600 gil.
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An X-potion, 630 gil.
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I went with the Ifrit Pizza, which proved popular at my table. It's like a regular pizza, except the crust is burned to a crisp. It tastes better than it sounds, somehow.
I also got to sample a Titan burger, which was decent, but my minor pineapple allergy probably holds it back from reaching greatness in my own eyes.
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Desserts where awesome. Some people at the table had a scoop of Mooglicious ice cream on top of sweet bread, while I had...
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...this Meteor Cream Puff. The sauce around it and the shards of chilled chocolate really complimented the cream puff.
