The reason that I became interested in this game was because of the Baka Mitai meme back in the Summer. Now it is one of my favorite games of all time with one of the most gripping narratives I've seen.

The Story is so well crafted with plot twist after plot twist in the second half. The game starts with Kiryu out on a collection and roughing up a guy in an alleyway. Eventually it is learned that the guy took a bullet to the head and died in that alleyway. Kiryu is trying to clear his name but that is only one of the many dimensions of this story. Majima's story starts with one of the most engaging introductions to a character. He is a manager of a Hostess Club and there is a customer making a ruckus. He handles it with lots of dignity and respect for the customer, bystanders, and himself. Even when the customer tries fighting him. He then returns to his office to have a smoke and you can tell he'd rather being doing something else with his life and is stuck here by circumstance. Solid intros to the story and main characters here but once again, this story gets WILD.

The Gameplay is really solid and was always hype seeing Kiryu bust out an epic heat move. Both Majima and Kiryu play very differently so it really immerses you into the character you're playing as. Some of my favorite moments included some of the buildings you raid, it always had me at the edge of my seat. I absolutely understand if the gameplay gets repetitive for people who do a majority of the side-content and frankly I don't blame them. Personally I had a shit ton of fun.

The last major component of this game, the Side-Content. From the Substories, to equipment, minigames, and more, there was always something to do. The substories never failed to get me invested in a random ass character I just met, Or showing more of Kiryu/Majima personality, or just straight up hilarious. This game handles tone so well it's remarkable. One minute I'm really sympathizing with someone in a shtty situation and the next minute I'm protecting a Chad MoonWalking down the street. Also if you don't think Miracle Johnson is the best substory then Spoiler Alert: you're wrong.

Onto the smaller parts of the game that really define this as one of the best games I've played. The Writing is simply superb. The Voice Actors truly gave it everything they had and it showed. The music is just fantastic with bangers like Red Radical Rage or the more regretful Baka Mitai. All the characters, side characters included are so memorable and well written.

This game is truly a masterpiece and I implore you all to play it. The entire Kiryu Saga is currently all on Game Pass and is usually on sale on PSN so go give it a try. I don't usually like using this term but this is simply Peak Fiction.
10/10

This game was just a lot of fun from start to finish. The Narrative, Characters, Side Content were all crafted with a lot of passion. I beat this game a few days ago now and I'm still thinking about the ending, it was just so memorable. The amount of details in this game is simply amazing for a game of its time. The open-world was designed so intelligently and there are a million outcomes that make me wanna come back for more. There is a surprising amount of replayability in this game which I know I'm gonna love next time I pick this game back up. Gameplay wise it's definitely a bit dated now but it's nowhere near unplayable I still had a ton of fun with it. There was good balancing and weapon variety that would always keep it interesting. The Radio tracks in this game are great and remind me of how much I love that era of music. The Driving sections are solid but at times they feel a bit drawn out in comparison to the Mafia 1 Remake where you could have a companion there for company and the ride seemed much shorter as a result. Although I rarely ran into any problems with this game glitch/bug wise it did crash 3 times when I was in the middle of a mission so I had to completely restart so it was a pain at the rare times it actually happened. All in all if you like third person shooters with a great story I implore you to play this game.
9/10

This was a series that I had been wanting to try for a long ass time and boy am I glad that I played it. This is one of the most memorable and greatest games ever made imo. Just when you thought you knew everything there was to know about the game a earth shattering discovery is revealed. The plot twists are among the most memorable I've encountered in a game. The characters are all amazingly written and are given their fair share of the spotlight and even the weaker ones are still pretty damn good. The OST is phenomenal with some amazing tracks, "Engage the Enemy" in particular plays rent free in my head all the time. The newly updated graphics are a treat to look at. Lots of QoL changes that I very much appreciated. This is one of the best games ever made in my opinion and if you're a JRPG fan and you haven't played it then you're doing yourself a disservice.
10/10

Ever since I beat Yakuza 0 about 2 months ago I was itching to dive back into this series. I knew this game is much shorter in comparison to the others but I still had a blast with it. The story and themes are very strong, Voice Acting is as good as ever, and the gameplay felt much more refined and polished. Add a solid Soundtrack and some great Writing and you have yourself a damn good game. There were many places in the story where I almost began tearing up and people who know me know that I'm not a super emotional person. The ending is one of the most satisfying feeling I've felt in a video game before. Onto something a bit more controversial though, the Majima Everywhere System was very fun and makes a ton of sense. Although it makes Majima's appearances throughout the story a bit less meaningful considering we find him every few streets. Although it's still a small price to pay for a solid mechanic. The Main Villain of this game along with some other important characters are superbly set up in 0 and led me to feeling a strong emotional connection with them regardless of the path they chose. I simply cannot imagine playing this game without the context of 0 because there will be many characters you won't give a shit about without that necessary context. Overall this is a very solid entry in the series and another reminder that everyone interested in Yakuza should play 0 first.
8/10

I have never played the original FF7 (I'm working on that) and I got this since I know how revered it is and the demo was pretty fun. The Story never fails to intrigue, the characters are full of life and are so compelling, and one of my favorite aspects of the game, Midgar. They put so much time and effort into immersing you into the world and there are so many memorable places like Wall Market, Seventh Heaven, Shinra HQ and I could go on and on. This is one of the best worlds I've ever immersed myself with. The Gameplay is also really fun and polished, they introduce a lot of mechanics that spice up the battle and keep it engaging. The only two knocks I have against the gameplay would be the Air Combat not being fully realized but it's hardly an issue since there isn't very much but it does make Air Combat very awkward. The second thing would be the AI it's serviceable but it's nothing too special and whenever you switch characters the enemy always targets you which was very annoying when I played as Aerith or Barret. The Music is always a jam courtesy the legend Nobuo Uematsu. You'll never hear the same remix more than a handful of times and is remixed in very good and unique ways. I really appreciate this since most JRPGs often use the same battle theme in normal battles which lead to them getting very old very fast. You'll enjoy the ending a lot more if you know at least a fair amount of the first game and when I was going through the ending it simply blew my mind to pieces. If this game is anything to go by this will be a very entertaining Remake series.
10/10

This is a series I've always admired for afar for many years now. The only reason I even had a chance to play this game was thanks to a friend of mine giving me his copy of the game since he already had it via MCC. Man, this was one of the best gifts I've gotten. This game is really special. The Story, Setting and Music give you the vibe of what it would be like actually fighting on Reach. Then the game also brings some solid characters eternally fun gameplay and some great level design. The final level is something that has stuck with me for over 6 months since I beat the game and I don't think I'll forget it anytime soon. If you haven't played an FPS game before or always wanted to try the legendary Halo series before, please play this game first it will not disappoint you.
10/10

This game was a big reason why I decided to buy a PS Vita and for the most part left me satisfied. While I still personally prefer Persona 5 Royal, this game is still very good and I understand why this game left such a big impact on so many people. While the themes in this game don't personally effect me as strongly as some other people you have got to admit these are very strong and are very intricately woven into the story. One disappointing thing I found with the game was the gameplay and level design. After playing Persona 5's palaces that were always a ton of fun to play through along with some very memorable tracks. Here I found the level design of just finding the next set of stairs very boring and bland compared to the really engaging design of Persona 5's. While the combat is a lot more fun, I'm gonna be honest I prefer the QoL and just not having the need to grind so often. That last part is more of a nitpick and really just my personal preference. However the Characters in this game are some of my favorite in a video game. Kanji and Naoto especially standing out. The Story and the Villain are also very engaging and well written. I won't spoil the villain of this game but looking back it's super obvious but everything is in hindsight. Nevertheless I really love the villain in this game. Story suffers from a handful of pacing issues with too many random events that can last days for no real reason. It really leans into the anime tropes, while it's not a bad thing necessarily it got a bit annoying by the the 5th or 6th time. However, whenever the focus was on the story I was engaged and I was looking for anything and everything in the dialogue. This game has strong story and characters, but is a little bit bogged down by the level design and gameplay mechanics. This is still a game any Persona fan or JRPG fan in general should give a shot however.
8/10

This was a game I've heard a ton of good things about but I personally wasn't expecting a whole ton from it considering this was one of my first forays into the FPS genre. This game has a memorable story, great characters, and really solid and varied combat. The combat was always a ton of fun with just about a million ways to play this game. The story has possibly the biggest and most memorable twist in all of gaming and is still insane when I think about it. Andrew Ryan is a fantastic Villain with an immortal line "A man chooses, a slave obeys". The artstyle is simply timeless. The Music is also very solid and the audio logs give some great insight and are a great storytelling device. This game is great and is among the greatest games ever made. If you're a fan of FPS games or are looking for an entry point into the genre, this is a great starting point.
9/10

This was a game I would constantly hear was a "Pokemon ripoff" and I only found out about it due to the Anime being shown on Disney XD. I can assure you that this game is very much its own thing and it's amazing. The story is great with some solid characters. The monster collecting system is as good as ever here. The gameplay is very fun and has a lot of depth to it. The music is really good and memorable. This game was a blast to play through and I only hope that Level 5 decide to port Yo-Kai Watch 4 to the west soon. The Yo-Kai Watch games are terribly underrated and I hope more people play this wonderful franchise.
9/10

I'm one of the few heathens that enjoyed Mario Party 10 on the Wii U. This was a half step in the right direction bringing back some classic systems. The biggest problems for me was the fact that there are only 4 MAPS. Nothing for DLC absolutely nothing, which leaves this game getting bland very quickly and on top of that the maps are short and boring to begin with. Another major issue is that you cannot play online boards with friends, only minigames, which is a baffling decision. This game is a good amount of fun for the first few hours with all the systems they brought back, but is heavily bogged down by its lack of content. This does not get deserved to be called the "Super Mario Party"
5/10

This is probably the greatest fighting game ever made. The only real knock I have against this game is the story mode. It quickly gets repetitive and boring fighting the same few gimmicks in slightly different ways. That mode aside, the game is stellar. The game is balanced incredibly well, tons of great and fun modes, and eternally fun gameplay. Everyone is truly here and more are on the way. This will be the biggest Smash game in existence and will not be topped. This is a game I will return to for many years to come.
10/10

This game is painfully mediocre. Kirby games aren't supposed to be hard, I know that, but this is so mindless I was playing this as I was watching my friends play Minecraft and didn't die a single time (maybe I should've played minecraft). I beat this game in one sitting taking around 6 hours and was boring for the most part. There is no interesting theme or gimmick like Planet Robobot it's just a super generic game you wouldn't expect from Kirby considering the team always has unique and intriguing ideas up their sleeve. Boring game, gonna go play Planet Robobot now.
5/10

Min Min: Unpopular Opinion but I enjoyed Arms and I felt this was deserved. Would've preferred a third party rep but this is one of the best 1st parties we could've got. 7/10
Steve: One of the most deserving characters 10/10
Sephiroth: One of gaming's most iconic villains and definitely deserved. Also adds another Villain which Ultimate is short on. 10/10
Pyra/Mythra: Don't care much for them as character as I've yet to play Xenoblade 2. But more Xenoblade Attention is pretty epic. 8/10
Kazuya: Tekken is one of the greatest fighting games and I'm also a very big Tekken fan so this was mindblowing 10/10
Sora: An ending that is simply too good to deny. Phenomenal trailer, fun character, and one amazing Smash history finally resolved. 9/10

The end of an era to say the least. I will look back fondly on these years as this was the Golden Age of Smash.