If I had a nickel for every time I was lukewarm on a Yakuza game until the really well made final chapter, I'd have two nickels, which isn't a lot but it's weird that it happened twice.

So, Gaiden, or Yakuza 6.5 (or 7.5 depending on who you ask) meant to tie up loose threads in Kiryu's story and god damn does it do it well. While the main story is just kind of okay, Kiryu himself and the wrapping up of his arc was phenomenal. It's about Kiryu trying his best to help with THAT THING from Y7, all while exploring key moments from his past under a new identity. Most of the new characters are cool if somewhat standard by Yakuza standards, except Akane. She's great, especially as the game progresses. Her whole thing is a network that small side activities stem from, as well as Substories. This is one of my gripes with the game. While I saw a map of smaller quests and by brain jumped to 'this is like a Xenoblade expansion holy shit let's goooooo' I quickly got bored of all quests leading back to the network instead of letting Kiryu stumble on wacky scenarios himself, even if most of the substories are good once you get into them (the 6 month dev time allowing for ChatGPT references of all things being especially neat)

And the next thing is the combat, because holy shit, the dragon engine got refined. It's back to every move feeling impactful and brutal, with satisfying heat actions. At least in classic Dragon style. Kiryu also has a new fighting style focused on gadgets, but due to these gadgets taking a while to get doing in dealing damage, I didn't feel much of a need to use it. But all the things I like from this apparently come from the judgment games, so I'm looking forward to that.

Overall, it's a great finale and love letter to Yakuza, with the only issue being that Kiryu doesn't get a goodbye fight with Majima at the end (HE WAS RIGHT FUCKING THERE) with another ending that almost made me cry. And now, it's time to finish what I started. Onwards, to Yakuza 7!

AND NOW I FINISH!!!

Yakuza like a dragon (which from now on I'll just call Yakuza 7) was a game I had for a while but never got around to finishing. It was actually my first Yakuza game I got on PS4, and I went in assuming it was a spinoff due to the new cast, setting, battle system, and the fact it wasn't a numbered entry on the box. So a reveal 2/3rds into the game that it did in fact tie into the main series combined with that part having an insane difficulty curve meant I never finished it. But that changed, and god damn, this might be one of my all time favorites.

The game ditches it's main cast for a new character, Ichiban Kasuga. And this man is an absolute legend. He's a bombastic goofball ready to help out anyone regardless of their current reputation, seeing the world as a Dragon Quest like fantasy for the hell of it, as he comes into his own with the help of a team of great characters as he uncovers the mystery behind a set of betrayals in his life.

And the main story is great. The new Yokohama setting and it's unsteady peace between rival factions leads to a lot of interesting conflicts, especially as more and more secrets collapse into a final conflict that had me greatly emotional by the end, even if the story falls into the usual Yakuza writing traps like giving a hint certain villains will redeem themselves only for them to die later (you know the part I'm talking about, and it's possibly the worst example in the series) and having themes of standing up for oppressed groups only to have you fight against the homeless people you stood up for ten minutes ago. The game also leans into the Yakuza wackiness in it's main story much more than in previous entries, and for the most part it pays off, managing to be serious when it needs to be with some real emotional gut punches. The other party members are also great, with all of them having great arcs (even if one gets resolved in a post credits cutscene) minus the optional party member who's just a real nothingburger of a character.

And one of the big things about this entry is the turn based combat, which is...fine. The moves all have the impact they need to feel satisfying to land, but the game is insanely easy minus the massive curve I mentioned, and another fight later on (although that one is also really easy to exploit) as well as the fact I didn't really feel the need to experiment with the job system, just picking a job for each character and sticking with it for the game. Also, finding decent weapons for some jobs (enforcer) is really obnoxious. And it's not long before you have a party and just spam the same moves through every fight (turns out all those villains could have thrown darts until they took over crime syndicates this whole time, who knew?)

But what I think this game does better than any Yakuza game is side content. The main way to get money like the Y0 real estate is a business management sim, which is pretty in depth as well as really fun, especially the part where you bring a chicken to a shareholder meeting and it becomes the MVP of the whole side campaign. And the game also has the best substories in Yakuza. The Korean actor, the ghost one, the Baby formula one, all amazing. Especially due to the new summon system allowing you to bring these characters back in really fun ways.

So yeah, one of the most enjoyable games I've ever played, and I'm so glad it started my journey through what is possibly my new favorite game series. Hopefully soon enough I can get a good deal on Judgment and IW, because once I do, I'll be ready.

Note: haven't done the second campaign yet, maybe that'll change my views, IDK

Hotline Miami is a game about violence. "Do you like hurting other people?" the game regularly asks you. It's meant to be a commentary on game violence itself, and separating the actions of the avatar from the player commanding them to do said actions. Issue is, I didn't enjoy hurting other people. Not because of the hyperviolence or intense pixelated gore or whatever, I just found the whole thing stressful rather than fun.

The game's premise is pretty simple. You're a nameless guy who keeps getting phone calls to go into random buildings and kill everyone there. The main method of achieving this is by going in guns blazing and dying. You die a lot here and then respawn instantly. And by dying, you eventually figure out the perfect route to kill everyone and move on.

Only issue is, the game is clearly trying to reward skill in planning and getting better through repetition, but a lot of issues arise in the execution.

Enemy AI is a main issue here, in that it seems completely random how competent it'll be in a given run. One run I'll walk into a room, shoot a guy, and the guy in that room doesn't react at all, the next run I shoot a guy and half the map seems to be alerted and ready to turn me into a fine red mist, and another run I'll walk into a room holding a knife, and the shotgun guy in the room will instantly rotate 180 degrees and blow my brains out. As well as the small chance everyone has to tank an attack, meaning I'll think I'm done only for the second guy I killed to actually be alive and now my face is splattered on the ceiling in a way that's probably just inconvenient for the cleaning staff, you prick.

It's about getting the perfect run after practicing a lot, only all these variables weren't leaving me satisfied at the end of a level and instead made me think I was just lucky this time around. Doesn't help that some levels spawn random weapons around that change each run. So sometimes it'll be the effective 6 blast shotgun, the less effective but okay 2 blast one, or the AR which felt more unwieldy and inaccurate. I was in the A- to B- range for a lot of the game, so maybe I was doing things right? I genuinely could not tell you. I won't lie in saying there's no fun in walking in and doing a good run, but those moments are fleeting amongst the mounting frustrations.

But everything else about the game does admittedly go hard. The story of whose calling you as well as what's real amongst the 80's aesthetic is really intriguing, as well as what kept me in the game. The downtime as you go to random locations in an infinite void around you is also well done, adding to the mystique. And I will praise the ending of each level having you manually leave the building and let you walk past the carnage you just caused. It's an effective way of driving the main game's theme home, I really like it.

So overall, I can't say don't play Hotline Miami. It's cheap, goes on sale for like a couple euro pretty regularly, and I seem to be one the few people who don't like it. It's good ideas and vibes hiding some really annoying gameplay.

Umurangi generation is a simple game. It's basically an FPS where you take photos of the world around you in different locations. Places like a rooftop and a military base with a simple goal. Take photos. The game gives you a couple objectives but allows you to take photos at your will otherwise, with the only penalty being a ten minute timer that you can ignore entirely. So off you go, roaming the environments and taking in the scenery. It starts off nice, but very quickly you learn about how the world has been fucked, and what's happening is something everyone will just have to accept. And at the start, it's amazing. The levels are open ended and you can achieve your objectives in multiple ways from multiple angles, encouraging you to explore the levels and take in the scenery and more of the story, with some really good satire on things like police, neoliberalism, youtube rantsonas, and life in the late 10s-2020 in general. One thing I will say is that the objectives can be kind of vague at times. The second level's 'sarcastic writing' part probably being the worst, but it also has the issue of asking you to take a photo of an animal, only for it to be a picture of the animal instead. But besides that, it's cool to experience a story only told through setting and no dialogue. Highly recommend if it goes on sale as the asking price is admittedly a bit much.

Well, guess I'll talk about it. Consider this a first impressions back more than anything.

I really liked the beta for Multiversus. Played it a ton back when it first dropped and even ended up a top 1000 Garnet player (look nobody played Garnet but IDK I was happy) and it's the first review I made on this website, so it's full circle now or something. So now that the full games out, it's time to give my views on it. Has the game improved since the beta?

Not really, tbh.

The base game is still fun. It's a fun, more constrained platform fighter compared to smash bros, with this version being much less floaty than the beta. And despite what a lot of people thought about it, I liked it. Feels more action packed and less dodge focused than what came before. The new stages they added are good, and Jason Voorhees is a good edition (I'd talk about Joker but he's twice the price of every other character for some reason, and fuck that)
As well as that, every character now has a default perk setup that can be customized once the character hits a certain level, which allows for more experimentation with new characters. This gets rid of my main issue with the beta, of characters taking a while to get up to speed, leading to you getting bodied by the level 20 Superman the game keeps matching you with. But overall, the old characters remain unchanged, meaning Iron Giant and the people who play him can still go royally fuck themselves.

but while the gameplay has more or less stayed fun, a lot of shit changed that didn't need to. First off, the Camera is more focused on the player, and it zooms in very close. it's simply not as good a system and it's getting a lot of complaints, so hopefully PFG gives the option of the old camera. There's also the fact training mode only let's you play characters you already have. Training mode in the beta was a great way to test if you liked a character before dropping your (grindy as shit without paying) currency on, so removing that option is just straight scummy, especially for new players who don't have the hindsight of the old characters. Really hope that gets reverted soon.

And after that is the new rift mode, the big PvE mode the marketing hyped up...and it sucks. It's just a series of AI fights with a minigame sprinkled in there. It's basically the Smash Melee adventure mode but less fun, and also has an equipable gem system that you also need to grind at if you want to play the harder difficulties and unlock checks notes Agent Smith from the Matrix? Really feel like the reward should have been Joker but okay.

And also, it's a live service, with all the shit that comes with it. Microtransactions, FOMO, multiple grindy currencies, battle passes, the works. Also doesn't help that you don't get a little EXP for every match you win now, it's exclusively daily/weekly/monthly challenges that contribute to the battle pass. A lot of it reeks of corporate fuckery, especially that 20 euro Joker pack I'm not paying for that.

But there's definitely heart underneath the layers of corporate bullshit. I can tell the team behind this game really wants to make something great, and I hope this is a rocky start to something amazing (And with Mordecai) so if any devs are reading this for some reason, I hope you make it a little easier to get character currency, give a little XP after each fight, fix the camera, and add the following characters I want specifically:

1: Mordecai from Regular Show
2: Chris from Total Drama
3: Goku from Dragon Ball
4: Ice King from Adventure Time
5: Mob from Mob Psycho 100
6: Jolyne from JJBA
7: 2D from Gorillaz
8: Dick Dastardly from Wacky Races
9: Ace Ventura
10: Sheldon Cooper from Big Bang Theory

K thanks :)

K I finished.

Digital Devil Saga 2 is excellent. After the first game ends with you in a different location and back to square one, you're once again on the run with your old party (and one omission) to try to find your savior and the truth about your existence. The games setting is actually pretty small, being set in one big city that contains what's left of humanity. Pretty much every major character here is fleshed out, and I know it sucks to do the whole 'oh heehee you need to play to find out what I'm REALLY saying' but you kind of do. Just know all the characters are great and all the locations are cool, got it?

And then there's the gameplay, and it's peak...if you pick the exact party the game wants at the beginning, or else you're fucked. Basically, the game lets you customize your party members to an absurd degree, letting every character fill out a cool niche. But the game has all but two party members (Gale and Cielo, use them for the whole game for the love of god) leave for a long while, so if you don't just guess who'll be there for the rest of the game, you'll end up INCREDIBLY underleveled to the point you might as well restart because the game doesn't give backup EXP. It gives backup Mantra for gaining skills, but not EXP.
But aside from that, it's classic press turn gameplay with all it's perks, with some great boss fights that make the most of the mechanics. And it's classic blocky PS2 graphics, helped by Kaneko's amazing PS2 era art and killer cocteau twins inspired(?) soundtrack (seriously, Pitch the Baby sounds perfect for this game)

So it's peak fiction. Loved the ending as a perfect sendoff, so if you're one of those people who request a DDS3...why exactly? Anyway, play this while the roms are out there lmao.

For a licensed PS2 game, it's pretty good.

I think the JoJo games I played(so this and All Star Battle) have an issue where they're great JoJo products, being filled with loving homages and panel perfect references to the source material, made by people who clearly love and were inspired by JoJo (Capcom made an entire engine dedicated to making the characters look more manga faithful that was only used in this game. If that's not loving a piece of media IDK what is.) but then you get a controller in your hand and it begins to fall apart.

This is a boss rush game taking you through the plot of JoJo part 5, with several scenarios taking you through the manga's story, removing the ones that wouldn't work as well (R.I.P Soft Machine fans the three of you must be devastated) And it's a pretty good adaptation, all things considered. This was sixteen years before the anime adaptation, and the voice work here is pretty good all round (minus Giorno being voiced by a woman I never got used to that) the cutscenes have good direction and the manga panels recreated fairly well. Great job on presentation.

But then the gameplay itself is fairly mediocre for the most part. The one thing I think hurts the game the most is how tanky the bosses are. I feel like they'd be much better if they all had a solid 20% health reduction. And on top of that is a pretty cool idea in theory, secret factors. If you recreate something from the manga itself, such as staying still when Secco's underground to bait and punch him out, you get bonus points and extra content for doing so. This is cool, as a great homage and a way to feel like the JoJo character you're playing. The issue comes when a lot of the fights rely on them, being borderline mandatory instead of a cool bit of fanservice (seriously, have fun doing the Grateful Dead fight without them)

The game also struggles with a couple other issues. Like in All Star Battle, characters can switch between normal and stand mode, switching to normal when you get knocked down. It's still annoying, especially since stand mode is the only way to access lock on, which you'll always want as all the fights are 1v1. Also I swear dash attacks have a way smaller hitbox than they should, I phased through half those fuckers I swear.

So as a piece of JoJo media, it's great. It's a really interesting look at the pre-davidpro days and an interesting look at the one of the firs major adaptations of a JoJo arc. As a game it kinda stinks. But if you like JoJo enough to track down a ROM and get this running, you'll probably find value in it.

I think this is another Portal 1 situation where I totally get why this game is so beloved and influential, but I came out of it thinking 'yeah, that was pretty good'

At a time where GTA was trying to have nerd shit like 'stories' with 'relatable characters' and 'thought provoking social commentary' Saints Row dared to ask "what if you were a menace to society trying to take over a city? As a guy with bright magenta hair and green womens booty shorts?"

And it's fun as hell. If you've ever played a GTA game, you know the score. Cause mayhem (like an agent dedicated to it, perhaps? IDK a game with that title has potential) drive vehicles, and shoot anything because you feel like it. The minigames also add to this, my favorites being 'mayhem' where the whole point is having unlimited ammo and dealing as much damage as possible, and the one where you have a small four wheeler and a path littered with explosives. And also the really funny COPS parody where you literally just maim people for TV footage (me watching police brutality at 5 years old because the theme was a bop) The games quite frankly amazing soundtrack adds to this, because it's cool to do the mentioned things, but randomly getting into a car only to now be doing it to Teenagers by MCR? That's a peak gaming experience right there.

And while the side content is superb, the main missions are...mostly decent. The story is pretty simple, just taking out rival gangs for control and ending with stopping a small conspiracy, with all rival characters being unique variations on the theme of 'utter bastard' and some serious scenes that do manage to hit hard (RIP that one guy you didn't deserve that) But the actual missions themselves are pretty repetitive. Mostly just going around a base and shooting a wave of dudes to progress, or chasing down a moving target trying to escape your wrath. And while fun, they do have an issue with (sometimes literally) throwing things at you when you think you're in the clear (the amount of times I think I'm done only for a car to swerve in and take 75% of my health only to get the rest shot off as I'm trying to stand I swear to god)

But the worst part is probably anything requiring partner AI. From the mission where Pierce drives opposite the helicopters you're supposed to shoot down, to some guy in your recruitable gang having an RPG they just really gotta show off in an enclosed space, leading to them blowing you up, it definitely shows off a lot of 360 era jank.

And the final issue, the godawful PC port. Why is my less than a year old 1k+ rig randomly dropping frames in a large building? Why are the objects characters are supposed to hold in cutscenes floating five feet away from them? Why does a game with a large focus on driving seem to have a 10% chance of crashing whenever I try to get into a car?

But at the end, it's a fun GTA-like, probably better than GTA 4 (IDK I haven't played it since I was eight and even that was just fucking with my uncle's completed save trying to find the funniest ways to kill myself) and I'm hoping this is like Portal 1 where I see the first (okay it's the first one people care about and can actually easily go back to) one as a good jumping off point, and then adore what came after it. So with that said, off to Steelport!