What Happened at Hoyo Fest 2023 in the Philippines
This year's Hoyo Fest is different from the 2 previous events of the same title and everyone is curious if this will become successful. Otakucosplay PH team went to Hoyo Fest 2023 at SM Megamall here in the Philippines and we would like to share our thoughts and experiences.
We went on the 3rd day of the event, which was on a Tuesday afternoon. As soon as I spotted the event venue, the booths were noticeable and it was amazing to see all these Hoyoverse games in one event. What caught my attention was the line since is pretty decent compared to what I've read from event attendees who came on the first day of the event.
I first had my lunch and I spotted the line for the merch and it's definitely short. I lined up twice. My 1st lining up took me around 10 minutes to be accommodated (this is where I bought some merch for myself) and the 2nd time took me around 5 minutes (I bought some merch for my friends). I like the idea that they have a real-time database (excel sheet) where they update all the goods that are still available for purchase. The staff assigned to the merch area will give you a stub number and a notepad where you have to indicate the SKU, item name, quantity, and price of the certain merch that you want to purchase. They limit buyers to only purchase 2 pcs of the same kind of item.
After that, I lined up so I could enter the event area and check the booths. It took me around 10-15 minutes to finish all the booths (except the last booth which is the photobooth area). Each booth, from Honkai: Star Rail, Honkai Impact 3, Tears of Themis, Genshin Impact, and their upcoming Zenless Zone Zero will give you freebies such as flyers, stickers, postcards, and other paper merch that I think are worth collecting.
Activities vary depending on the booth that you visit. For some, you need to follow their social media pages while for others, you need to at least present your UID (screenshot this before coming to the event since some may experience a slow Internet connection). Booths like Genshin Impact and Zenless Zone Zero allow you to experience playing the game and check the game characters.
Personally, it's nice to have all the Hoyoverse games in one event, unlike the previous Hoyo Fest where you can only come on specific dates for specific games and reservation is a bit tricky. For me, it's more appealing for me to experience a cafe-type setup like the previous years. But well, I have noticed that Hoyoverse has been doing offline collaboration events more often so this year's Hoyo Fest is definitely a change of phase.
It is worth coming to Hoyo Fest 2023? For me, definitely yes! You can meet lots of gamers as well and in my experience, most of them are pretty chill and easy to talk to. I can't ignore the fact that the merch every Hoyo Fest is their exact price compared to when buying them in stores online (I usually buy my merch every Hoyo Fest, especially Genshin Impact character acrylic standees).
From us on Otakucosplay PH, we would like to express our biggest CONGRATULATIONS! to all the people behind the Hoyo Fest 2023. We are already excited for next year!
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