The most game of any game I've ever gamed... I mean played.
It kept surprising me with the sheer volume of content and side games with their own progression systems; and even full on Sega Master System games plus three fighting games, one of which you have to play in order to complete a side quest, that being Virtua Fighter 5 Final Showdown, yesforreal. AND you can play these fighting games in local multiplayer too, are you serious? Outside the "real games" you got a batting center, skateboarding, dating, photography, walking the dog, befriending cats, a dance rhythm game, a boxing game with its own fighting mechanics, drone racing with its own customization, gambling like blackjack, shogi, build-a-robot, a secret twin stick shooter, and even motorcycle death racing (which I didn't like at all).
This is all insane to me, but in my case, did it make me enjoy the game more? I would say... not especially. Before that though, I'm playing the PC (er... Steam Deck) version with all the game's DLC, minus the Kaito Files. So you have added items and features, the biggest one for me is the addition of the Brawler style. Not unlike Yakuza 0, your protagonist Yagami has different styles of combat that completely change how he plays. So normally Yagami has Tiger, Crane, and Snake. And adding an entirely new style, of course I want to use that. In order to unlock its abilities though you have to play the boxing minigame, makes sense now play the dancing game, Virtua Fighter 5, build-a-robot, and motorcross.
I ended up doing so, SO many minigames just to upgrade this stupid fighting style, plus having to fully complete the boxing side story itself. It takes so long, and frankly I was doing this for the wrong reasons in hindsight. I was rushing this process, trying to do everything as soon as possible which made everything I did to merely unlock this style to its full potential, feel like padding. The dangers of added content, I guess. Regardless of me acknowledging this was a bad mindset now, this caused me to get pretty tired of Lost Judgment just six chapters in.
I definitely had to push myself to play more after that mistake, but at least the combat itself was fun enough. I used every style more or less equally. Sometimes it was just for bonus exp that rewards using all three original styles, which I think is a good way of getting players to experiment, but I did find myself using each for different situations. Tiger was my go-to damage dealer, Crane was for crowds and mobility against more dangerous foes, Snake does grabs, disarms, and insta-kills on scared opponents, and Brawler became a beast of counter attacks and lighting-fast punches. The enemy and boss design though could still use some work. Some have attacks that are way too fast to react to, some can retaliate within your own combo, bosses can have multi-button qte's that I could never get on a first try (one of which is a instant game over, though I found that more funny then annoying), getting hit by bullets or blades can have Yagami be completely helpless for way too long, healing is a clunky pause and scrolling through the menu to eat food, and so on. The combat feels best when your against many opponents, since more often then not these were enemies that wouldn't instantly escape grabs and your combos yet you still had to keep an eye on your other adversaries, in case you got too greedy. And making enemies pass out from fear never gets old
What about the story in this overall-package? I've said in other reviews that I'm not too keen on doing deep-dives into stories, since I don't feel too well-versed in storytelling analysis. So I'll say this: take the content warnings seriously. You will see some intense shit, and some people will be very uncomfortable, even upset. Does it justify these intense content and themes? I'd say mostly. Though this studio does still have a problem with the portrayal of women. Not as bad as their other games, at least from what I've heard, but still not anywhere ideal.
The mystery of this detective story does go crazy with its ever-increasing scale and twists, which I'm all for in these stories. You got twist, turns, betrayals, revelations, and those fun "oh shit!" moments. Certainly don't enjoy the characters as much as 'Yakuza: Like A Dragon', but the villains were definitely a highlight with their ideals and motivations.
I don't think I'll be playing this again for a very long time. This is a game that can last you for months, possibly even a year. I've come to realize that I much prefer more focused games in terms of gameplay, and it does frustrate me that this combat system is so close to being honest-to-god great. But combat only makes up maybe 30% of the runtime, even disregarding all the optional content. Though, I suppose their major focus wasn't combat but sheer variety, which that in itself is admirable.
Did I mention you can walk the dog?
It kept surprising me with the sheer volume of content and side games with their own progression systems; and even full on Sega Master System games plus three fighting games, one of which you have to play in order to complete a side quest, that being Virtua Fighter 5 Final Showdown, yesforreal. AND you can play these fighting games in local multiplayer too, are you serious? Outside the "real games" you got a batting center, skateboarding, dating, photography, walking the dog, befriending cats, a dance rhythm game, a boxing game with its own fighting mechanics, drone racing with its own customization, gambling like blackjack, shogi, build-a-robot, a secret twin stick shooter, and even motorcycle death racing (which I didn't like at all).
This is all insane to me, but in my case, did it make me enjoy the game more? I would say... not especially. Before that though, I'm playing the PC (er... Steam Deck) version with all the game's DLC, minus the Kaito Files. So you have added items and features, the biggest one for me is the addition of the Brawler style. Not unlike Yakuza 0, your protagonist Yagami has different styles of combat that completely change how he plays. So normally Yagami has Tiger, Crane, and Snake. And adding an entirely new style, of course I want to use that. In order to unlock its abilities though you have to play the boxing minigame, makes sense now play the dancing game, Virtua Fighter 5, build-a-robot, and motorcross.
I ended up doing so, SO many minigames just to upgrade this stupid fighting style, plus having to fully complete the boxing side story itself. It takes so long, and frankly I was doing this for the wrong reasons in hindsight. I was rushing this process, trying to do everything as soon as possible which made everything I did to merely unlock this style to its full potential, feel like padding. The dangers of added content, I guess. Regardless of me acknowledging this was a bad mindset now, this caused me to get pretty tired of Lost Judgment just six chapters in.
I definitely had to push myself to play more after that mistake, but at least the combat itself was fun enough. I used every style more or less equally. Sometimes it was just for bonus exp that rewards using all three original styles, which I think is a good way of getting players to experiment, but I did find myself using each for different situations. Tiger was my go-to damage dealer, Crane was for crowds and mobility against more dangerous foes, Snake does grabs, disarms, and insta-kills on scared opponents, and Brawler became a beast of counter attacks and lighting-fast punches. The enemy and boss design though could still use some work. Some have attacks that are way too fast to react to, some can retaliate within your own combo, bosses can have multi-button qte's that I could never get on a first try (one of which is a instant game over, though I found that more funny then annoying), getting hit by bullets or blades can have Yagami be completely helpless for way too long, healing is a clunky pause and scrolling through the menu to eat food, and so on. The combat feels best when your against many opponents, since more often then not these were enemies that wouldn't instantly escape grabs and your combos yet you still had to keep an eye on your other adversaries, in case you got too greedy. And making enemies pass out from fear never gets old
What about the story in this overall-package? I've said in other reviews that I'm not too keen on doing deep-dives into stories, since I don't feel too well-versed in storytelling analysis. So I'll say this: take the content warnings seriously. You will see some intense shit, and some people will be very uncomfortable, even upset. Does it justify these intense content and themes? I'd say mostly. Though this studio does still have a problem with the portrayal of women. Not as bad as their other games, at least from what I've heard, but still not anywhere ideal.
The mystery of this detective story does go crazy with its ever-increasing scale and twists, which I'm all for in these stories. You got twist, turns, betrayals, revelations, and those fun "oh shit!" moments. Certainly don't enjoy the characters as much as 'Yakuza: Like A Dragon', but the villains were definitely a highlight with their ideals and motivations.
I don't think I'll be playing this again for a very long time. This is a game that can last you for months, possibly even a year. I've come to realize that I much prefer more focused games in terms of gameplay, and it does frustrate me that this combat system is so close to being honest-to-god great. But combat only makes up maybe 30% of the runtime, even disregarding all the optional content. Though, I suppose their major focus wasn't combat but sheer variety, which that in itself is admirable.
Did I mention you can walk the dog?
AlphaOne2
1 year ago