NYCC ’25 Reflection: Ragiroth’s Journey in Movies and Games
I always look forward to New York Comic Con more than any other convention I attend, and while these last couple of years felt a bit lacking, I can happily report that 2025 has been the best since ‘22. That could be due to having more IPs I’m interested in and wanting something to share around this time. I, of course, cosplayed every day, being Wolverine on Thursday, The Punisher on Friday and Sunday, and Sentry on Saturday.
There were also three panels I attended, followed by three game demos that I was able to play there as well. Let’s get started…
Thursday: Welcome to (Alien) Earth!
The first panel featured the new installment of the Alien series on Hulu, Alien Earth. This show had just finished its first season and while I only caught a bit of one episode, I figured this would be a good opportunity to learn more considering the Alien franchise is one of my favorite sci-fi franchises.
The majority of the Alien movies take place in space, so this is a prequel series that explains how things were on Earth, before the first Alien. You may know the Weyland Yutani corporation from the movies, but this focuses on other corporations that were never mentioned in prior films.
The panel played the first episode of the season, which was great for me and a lot of other people (It was a solid episode). The whole idea of transferring a sick or dying child’s conscience to an adult android body seems interesting and makes me curious that it’s an entirely new concept to the Alien franchise. It was also interesting seeing other dangerous creatures in this universe, since we’ve only seen xenomorphs as the prime threat (Predator crossovers withholding of course!).
The producer, David W. Zucker and four of the lead actors, Syndey Chandler, Babou Ceesay, Alex Lawther, and Samuel Blenkin all grew up as massive fans of the Alien films and discussed how awe-inspiring it was being on a set similar to the original 1979 film, as well as being consulted by Sigourney Weaver herself. Most of the movie was shot in Bangkok, and the stars mentioned how insanely hot it was, but it pushed them to bring their best effort to their performances.
SideNote: Season 2 was verified, as the show seems to be a roaring success, with a Ridley Scott seal of approval.
Friday Panel: Capcom Presents
Friday was more video game centric, with the Capcom panel showing a few of their upcoming games: Monster Hunter Stories 3: Twisted Reflection, Pragmata, Onimusha: Way of the Sword, and Resident Evil 9: Requiem. First up was Monster Hunter. Here, they demonstrated some turn-based battles and new monsters they were adding to the game. Next, was Onimusha: Way of the Sword. This one I was more invested in, since I loved the Onimusha series since the PS2, and I’m just happy to see Capcom give some love to a classic IP that isn’t Street Fighter or Resident Evil. Presented by FightinCowboy (FC), the demo takes place in an early section of the game, where Miyamoto Musashi (the protagonist) infiltrates a village that has been overrun with demons. FC focused a lot on parrying mechanics and Issen mechanics, since this skill set has been exclusive to Onimusha since the first game. FC couldn’t pull it off for the audience, but I’ve seen it in trailers.
SideNote: Issen is the ability to perform a fast evade and counterattack, also known as Critical hit landing. The player does a white flash strike, if the attack button is hit right before taking damage.
Pragmata, the third game shown off, was a brand-new IP for Capcom that was announced awhile back. You play as a man in an astronaut like suit, with a little AI girl on your shoulder that has hacking abilities. One shoots and the other hacks. The demonstrator went through what I’m suspecting is an early part of the game and fought a boss. The electronic music, however, did catch my attention.
Last but certainly not least, they showed off the demo for Resident Evil: Requiem. The content creator that discussed this section was Suzi Hunter or better known as The Sphere Hunter.
She hosts a lot of videos related to Resident Evil, Devil May Cry, and other horror-themed games. She also mentioned that she’s from New York, so this was a full-circle moment for her. For this demo, they turned off all the lights for the atmosphere. One of the great things about Requiem is that it allows you to choose between first or third person at any time.
SideNote: Now Suzi, I, and most other people in the room prefer third person, but first person does bring a scarier experience, so she went with that view.
The demo takes place early in the game, where Grace Ashcroft (the new protagonist), is kidnapped. There’s no combat in the demo, only exploration and running from a new stalker enemy (think Mr. X, Nemesis, Lady Dimetrescu, etc.), but Suzi manages to get through it, with some close encounters. They announced that the game will be pre-orderable, with an already announced release date of February 27th, 2026.
Overall, it was a fun panel, but I wish they showed off more about these games that we didn’t already know and while some of these demos have been shown previously and are playable at the event, my recurring concern with video game news at NYCC is that there is often a lack of genuinely “new information.”
Saturday Panel-MORTAL KOMBAT!
I had no clue that one of the creators of Mortal Kombat (Ed Boon) would be the moderator, and that Karl Urban (Johnny Cage) would be there as a guest. So, this was a pleasant surprise. Ed interviewed Karl, as well as the actors for Kitana (Adeline Rudolph), Jade (Tati Gabrielle), Shao Kahn (Martyn Ford), and Simon McQuoid (director), on what their experiences were like working on the film.
Some highlights included Karl explaining how it felt going from one family to another, moving from the set of The Boys to this movie’s set, and how he played an older, washed-up Johnny Cage while still injecting the cocky humor of the standard Cage into the performance, especially later in the film. Adeline discussed how she had to learn different forms of martial arts, as well as how, by the end of it, her fans (the weapons she uses) felt like an extension of her body. Martyn mentioned with his Kahn performance how he does everything with a purpose and does not really react to anyone else other than himself. Ed mentioned multiple times how he is the nicest guy ever, the complete opposite of Shao Kahn.
Karl Urban @ NYCC’25
For the most exciting parts of the panel, they showed a clip of the encounter against Baraka. Liu Kang challenges Baraka, but he refuses. Then Johnny Cage mocks Baraka, resulting in Baraka wanting to fight him instead of Liu. The fight seemed well done from what was shown.
I liked how Baraka knocked Johnny out of a hut in a similar way to how stage transitions would happen in the old games, when you’d uppercut a character into a whole other arena. It was a small detail too, but I also liked how Johnny (despite being out of his element) already acknowledged a respect for Liu Kang, that he’s the strongest fighter of Earthrealm. Lastly, they showed a new trailer, probably the best one so far, with a new remix of the Mortal Kombat movie theme. It’s great to see my favorite character, Noob Saibot, get a name drop in the trailer as well (though the announcer just calls him Bi-Han in this interpretation).
I didn’t mind the MK movie that came out back in 2021; it wasn’t amazing, but still enjoyable. This one seems like it will blow it out of the water in terms of the look and feel of Mortal Kombat, and the fact that it doesn’t appear to be focusing on a bland, newly made-up character like the first did (Cole Young, played by Lewis Tan). It unfortunately was supposed to come out in October but got delayed until May due to them thinking the positive reception may make it worthy of a summer blockbuster (thankfully, it has been moved up a couple of weeks since writing this).
Demo City
One of my favorite things about NYCC used to be trying out demos for games that weren’t released yet. Lately, it has been lacking a bit in this department, but this year it came back swinging, mainly from Capcom and Bandai Namco. Here’s my mini review.
MY Hero: All’s Justice
I first tried out the demo My Hero: All’s Justice, from the My Hero Academia fighting game series. It felt like an eternity since we got a new entry in the One’s Justice franchise, so it took some time understanding how the game played, especially with the new features such as being able to tag in and out with a team of three characters.
The team I used was Hawks, and my boys Tokoyami and Dabi (in his white clad final form). Although it’s been a while, I want to say the game felt tighter and a bit less floaty. I also enjoyed the new moves the characters received as well. This game drops in February ‘26, so keep an eye out for it!
Moving into the Capcom area, I tried the demos for Onimusha: Way of the Sword, and Resident Evil 9: Requiem, which were the same demos shown off at the Capcom panel previously discussed.
Oni: Way of the Sword
I played Way of the Sword twice, due to my friend wanting to try it once. Overall, I really enjoyed it; the game feels exactly like a modern Onimusha should feel, with it being a middle ground between Resident Evil and Devil May Cry. My only complaint was that it did feel a bit too easy, and this is more of a hope rather than a complaint, but I hope there are more weapons than just the katana in the game that can be used regularly. This game has a release date of 2026, month pending.
RE:IX
With Resident Evil 9, it had the longest wait of the three demos (no surprise there), but it was certainly worth it. Despite preferring third person, I did the demo in first person, just because the ambience with the room and headphones made that feel more inviting. It was intense and played just like the more tense parts of RE7 and 8. I felt embarrassed that I couldn’t finish it in time, despite seeing it on full display. Getting on the box to grab that pesky screwdriver while trying to avoid the monster threw my game off.
Final Thoughts
Overall, NYCC ‘25 was a fun and successful visit. I just wish that these game companies would allow brand-new info to be shared like they have in the past, but that may not be the convention’s fault. It’s good to see NYCC getting back to the hype levels it had in the late 2010s, which suggests to me that the transition back to normal from “the virus” perhaps just threw its game off, or, perhaps, they started listening to fans, observing the shift in pop culture, and responded accordingly.
