First and foremost, this is a game for Dragon Ball fans. I don’t think it’s enough to make someone care about Dragon Ball who didn’t before and I don’t think it’s enough to change the mind of someone who doesn’t like Dragon Ball. Fanservice is the aim here and it can hit that very well in places but some express disappointment at certain moments not given the treatment.

This is from CyberConnect2 so I definitely got ahead of myself hoping for a fun video game to play. I don’t like saying it but I think the gameplay here is actually worse than Xenoverse. You’re not going to find a whole lot of depth here given the bottom left corner of your screen is saying “press circle to fight” for the combat portions of the game. The best you’ll see when it comes to any depth or variety is choosing your super attacks, which are split fairly simply into ranged and melee attacks and they behave very similarly to the others in its category, alongside some simple dodging and blocking. Enemies are often very annoying to deal with, most just being unflinching brick walls where the only test of your skill is if you were smart enough to buy or earn enough healing items and if you found the right gaps to charge your Ki, if there’s any challenge at all. And my heart goes out to you if you ever have to fight more than one enemy at a time without any other characters in your party to help you, it’s mind-numbingly frustrating. Shout out to Krillin and Tien though, Solar Flare is by far the best assist in the whole game, teaming up with them made what could have been really infuriating fights bearable. The side missions, one thing I was looking forward to so we could see more of the relationships between characters that aren’t highlighted in the series proper mostly boil down to monotonous fetch quests that felt more like work than a game. I also had this ridiculous bug where Goku’s “Unbridled Power Aquire” training mission at Capsule Corp was completely bugged. There were no sound effects, I couldn’t charge ki, and if I got stunned the stun was permanent. That training mission could be avoided though, what couldn’t be avoided was constant frame drops and hitches that could leave the game frozen for a full 3-4 seconds. I’m baffled the game never fully crashed in my time with it.

What I was not disappointed with was the real reason to play a CyberConnect2 game in great display throughout my playtime. I’ve said it since they were making Naruto games that CyberConnect2 really needs to realize their true calling is making animation because in Ninja Storm and Dragon Ball Z Kakarot the cutscenes are gorgeous. Enough to keep me playing a game I wasn’t really enjoying is how pretty these games are, even if the character models in this particular game can look pretty awkward if they’re standing still.

If you’re a big Dragon Ball fan like myself and you’re willing to slog through a mediocre game and a couple of bad takes of voice acting used by accident to see some really beautiful renditions of not just the key moments but surprisingly some unnecessarily faithful subtleties, I actually recognized some of Goku’s landings after a flight in some cutscenes as directly out of the manga, you just might get some value out of this.

I enjoyed Persona 5 for the most part, and the same is true here. The new systems in Royal add more depth to the Persona gameplay but if you play your cards right and fuse smart the game (besides one particular boss) is an absolute breeze. If power fantasies are your thing the last 20 or so hours of Royal felt like a total power trip so have at it and enjoy yourself. Persona games tend to be divisive when it comes to their stories but I hope the new additions like Persona Traits do return because a Persona game designed from the start with those in mind could create a Persona more fun than any before it regardless of whether or not it's story and characters prove as contentious as the other entries.

Yakuza 5 is perhaps the game I'm always most excited to see new fans get to. The amount of stuff there is in this game is staggering, 5 protagonists sharing 4 different areas and extensive multi-hour side stories along with all the other activities you'd expect at this point in the series. One of my favorites here is the new character Shinada, which ignoring my bias as a baseball fan has a fighting style focused on weapons and grabs that brings a new fresh flavor to the combat and makes the weapons more than just gimmicks and portable heat moves. Compared to Yakuza 4 in other areas, from visuals to animation and how seamless different parts of the game can connect together it's a wonder the magic they were able to pull out of the PS3.

From as soon as I finished the demo, I knew this would be very high on the list of my favorite Musou games, if not my #1 favorite. There's something about Omega Force where when they get their hands on another IP they put their all into honoring the source material and making it feel familiar to any fans coming over from that other audience. The injection of mechanics from such other franchises can sometimes mesh so well it results in gameplay rivaling or surpassing Omega Force's own IPs and I think for some, Age of Calamity could be one of those. I found it a blast from start to credits. In my own experience Impa and Urbosa are already high on my list of favorite playable characters in a Musou game. This game can be pretty difficult from time to time as well. One oft-repeated criticism of Musou games I'd like to see go away is the idea that they're all mindless button-mashers. Age of Calamity will kick your ass if you don't go in prepared or you aren't putting thoughts into your actions.


For the sake of providing my few criticisms, the frame rate can really chug sometimes in this game, mostly when there's a lot of action and effects on the screen. You do everything outside of the battles by choosing it on the map screen from Breath of the Wild but long before the end of the story that map will start to feel cluttered and you might have a difficult time if you're looking for something specific. Lastly, and I don't find this one too serious but it could be a point to know for some just like the Hyrule Warriors before it Age of Calamity has a solid roster but if you looking for one in the size comparable to Dynasty Warriors or Samurai Warriors you might feel a little shorted.