I struggled to rate this game. A part of me wanted to give it five stars as it has a great story (when they decide to move the plot forward) and some fun combat. Ultimately, I decided to give the game four stars because the side content is rather lackluster and the story takes the longest pause.

When the writers move the plot along, the story is great. It nicely ties up with Yakuza: Like a Dragon. The ending is one of the best in the series. The new cast of characters it introduces is also great. However, the number of things they added to pad the runtime was ridiculous. Padding the runtime is nothing new with this series, but this game just pauses so it can introduce all the side content all at once.

The side content was also rather disappointing. There were some highlights: the new karaoke song is great, I loved the Coliseum, and it's always nice to have pocket circuit racing back. However, that's all the noteworthy things for the side content. Most of the substories were rather dull (with a few exceptions) and I wasn't a big fan of the live-action hostesses. Props to the team for trying something different, but they missed the mark with that decision.

RGG did finally manage to nail Kiryu's combat in the Dragon Engine. In the past titles, Kiryu's combat was a bit rough with this particular engine. Now it's very smooth. I also like the Agent Style they introduced in this game. It was fun and the gadgets were neat.

All in all, Gaiden is an enjoyable title. While not the best Yakuza/Like a Dragon game, it's definitely worth checking out.

This being my first ever Resident Evil game, I must say it was a mighty fine introduction. The gameplay was excellent. The controls were very responsive and all of the characters felt great to play as. The story was pretty good too (I must say, I preferred Claire's story over Leon's, but both were good). The characters were great. All these elements are great, but the game's atmosphere steals the show. My goodness, it's phenomenal. It sucks you in from start to finish. The lighting and sound effects drive this point home. This remake was a nice introduction (for me anyway) and a great game all the way around.

Sonic Superstars is like the Devil May Cry 2 of Classic Sonic games. The game is unforgivably dull and so poorly designed that it often overshadows the few highlights it does have. Only one or two levels stood out to me. The rest felt rather generic (props to the team for creating new zone locations instead of reusing old ones though). As for the design, this game likes to blindside you all the time. They'll hide enemies behind a wall with the sole purpose of screwing you over.

Nothing demonstrates the game's poor design more than the boss fights. These are easily some of the worst boss fights in the series. The amount of waiting around you must do (in a Sonic game mind you) is ridiculous. Also, some boss fights in the past allowed you to attack the boss multiple times given the chance. Not here though. That aspect is completely gone. If you have the chance to attack the boss again, it will not do any damage. Moreover, the attacks the bosses throw at you are quite frankly stupid. I'm fine with difficult boss fights, but these are borderline unfair in many regards.

I'll keep this section brief but the special stages are another thing that's poorly designed. It wouldn't be as bad if the lock-on system was good, but it's not. You could be right beside the Chaos Emerald and it will not pick it up. Instead, it'll lock on one of the blue orbs that is far away. Some work needs to be done with these special stages.

I've seen a lot of people complain about the game's soundtrack and yeah, it is rather disappointing for the Sonic series. Since many people have discussed this topic, I want to focus on another aspect I think is going unnoticed: the sound design. This game made me fully realize how good sound design usually is in Sonic games. Even the more lackluster titles have some nice sound effects. I can't say the same with Sonic Superstars. Yes, it has some of the iconic sounds fans have come to know, but then there are some questionable decisions with the sounds.

There are some positives to this game. Sonic and the gang feel great to play as. The physics feels like the classic games (mostly). I also enjoyed playing with the different characters and trying out their abilities. Trip was a nice addition to the cast though I didn't bother that much with her unlockable story after beating the game. I just played the first level and stopped when I realized it was going to be the same thing again, only with slight changes in the level design that fit her abilities.

The one thing I'm the most conflicted about is the new Emerald Powers. For the record, I think this is a great idea in concept. Exploring more powers of the Chaos Emeralds will always be a welcomed addition. However, the game doesn't properly utilize the new abilities. Not once did I ever feel like I needed to use these powers during the stages. I know this game has a lot of mixed opinions, but Sonic Colors handled its new powers well because I felt like I needed to use them in one way or another. I can't say the same about Sonic Superstars.

There was a lot of potential in this game and it didn't live up to it. Some good ideas aren't executed properly and the negatives outweigh the few positives that are present.

It's rather impressive how RGG Studios can consistently think of gripping narratives for their games. Judgment is a detective spinoff of the Yakuza/Like a Dragon series, and like those games, it delivers a gripping and emotional narrative. This is easily one of the best stories they have created yet. All the new characters the game introduces are great additions as well. However, while I thoroughly enjoyed the story, the pacing was abysmal. The plot would start moving only for it to take the longest pause for you to complete a mandatory side case. That's fine as long as the side cases are at least entertaining, but more often than not, they're rather boring. It felt like filler for a game that honestly doesn't need it.

The combat in this game allows you to switch between two styles: Crane and Tiger. Crane Style is more for a group of enemies while Tiger primarily focuses on one. The combat is fun but needs some work. A great song to listen to while playing this game is Tubthumping by Chumbawamba. Yagami gets knocked down, but he gets up again. The enemies will never keep him down (only for Yagami to get knocked down again). It's all too easy for enemies to knock Yagami out during combat sections.

This being a detective game, there's going to be investigations and trailing missions. The investigation missions are harmless, just look around the crime scene for clues. Nothing major. The trailing missions on the other hand are a different story. They're not annoying or overly frustrating, they're just boring. I also found the camera angles during these sections to be pretty bad. You could be hiding behind a wall to avoid being spotted, but the way the camera is positioned might prevent the target from being seen. Because of that, a countdown will start saying you're losing the target (even though they're right there). You would either have to stay there and hope the target starts moving before the countdown reaches zero or leave the hiding spot and hope you don't get spotted. It's a lose-lose situation.

The side content is okay at best. None of the minigames caught my attention, except for the VR one. The majority of side cases are rather forgettable. I found the friendship system to be rather tedious after a while. All in all, they could have done a lot better.

Judgment is a great introduction to a new spinoff series. The characters are great as well as its story despite some pacing issues. The combat is flawed but fun. Definitely check this game out if you are a Yakuza fan.

Lost Judgment is a vast improvement over its already great predecessor in every aspect except for the story. The combat and side content are far more enjoyable this time around. And while the story isn't as good as Judgement's, it's still pretty good.

This game easily has the best combat in the series to date. It's very fluid with little to no delays between switching among the different fighting styles. Besides that, the attacks feel great to lash out against a horde of enemies (and pretty fun too I might add).

What steals the show for me is the side content. While it is imperfect, Lost Judgment's side content is much better than Judgement's. The side cases are a bit more memorable this time around. Many of the mini-games are also excellent, like the dance club one. It's far from perfect, the robotics club could use some work, but the side content here is top-notch.

The only thing that Lost Judgement could work on is its story. Again, it's not bad, but it's weak compared to Judgement's. They did fix the pacing issues, but I can't say this game's story captivated me the same way the previous game's did. I kind of zoned out of it after the midway point. I will say it does send a good message to its audience.

Lost Judgment is a great game with some of the best gameplay RGG Studio has developed. While the story isn't amazing, it's still good.

Oh yeah, the Kaito Files expansion is so good. Go play it.

Never have I felt so conflicted over a game more than this one. On one hand, when you solely focus on the gameplay aspect, it's fantastic. The combat is fun and the side content is enjoyable. You can easily make the argument that this is a game-of-the-year contender. On the other hand, the story is horrible and easily bogs down an otherwise great game.

Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth vastly improved its combat system over its predecessor's, Yakuza: Like a Dragon. While it was fine for a first attempt in the last game, it was rough around the edges. This game smooths over the edges and adds some nice additions to the combat. You can move the characters around in combat, strategically placing them so you can deal extra damage to enemies, do combo attacks with party members, and use the weapons that are lying around. All in all, it's a great system. There is only one thing I can complain about. Admittedly, this is mostly a nitpick but characters still have some pathfinding issues during combat sections. It's an improvement over the previous installment, but characters getting stuck behind objects happened often enough to be annoying.

The side content was fantastic in this game. There is so much to do here that one can easily get overwhelmed by it. The new mini-games they introduced were great. I especially liked the Dondoko Island game. The substories were thoroughly enjoyable here. The karaoke selection was also amazing. Bringing back fan favorites and introducing some new (and great) songs easily makes this the best karaoke selection in the series to date. I did have some problems with Kiryu's bucket list side quest, but I'll discuss that later.

I must say, I enjoyed the Hawaii map they introduced. Admittedly, I was skeptical about having the game set in America (mainly because I wanted them to explore other Asian countries before coming to the US) but they handled it well. Hawaii would have been my first choice for the series to take place in America and the Honolulu map was great. The atmosphere was so cheerful despite some plot points.

While I did enjoy all of those things, there's no dodging the game's story. It's a huge mess. Many plot points were seemingly forgotten, only to be brought back up again at the last minute. There were so many odd decisions/plot holes in this story. While I admit there were moments that I enjoyed, they mainly involved Kiryu. It feels like Ichiban got sidelined in his own game. Perhaps the reasoning behind that was the game was trying to be two things at once: a grand, emotional adventure for Ichiban while simultaneously being an epic sendoff for Kiryu. One was going to overshadow the other. Maybe handling the dual protagonists similarly to Yakuza 0, where you switch between the two near the start, could have helped prevent that since Ichiban and Kiryu don't split off until the midpoint of the game. Then again, other plot points in this game left me scratching my head. Were they making stuff as they went along the writing process (which wouldn't be the first time RGG did something similar) or were there a lot of script rewires? Either way, it's not a good look.

As I mentioned, one thing that bugged me was Kiryu's bucket list. I love the concept of it but the execution was so odd to me. It wouldn't bother me that much if most of them happened before a certain plot point in the game, but they happen after it. It's such an odd decision since these moments feel so disassociated from the plot because of their placement. I don't get it.

Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth certainly is a game. It has some fantastic gameplay and side content, but the story left a lot to be desired.

If you liked Insomniac's first Spider-Man game, you'll like this one as well. The gameplay is essentially the same as the first and the Miles Morales spin-off. Web-slinging across New York still feels great and as an added bonus, they expanded the map. They also included a new web-glider ability and switching between that and the web-slinging was so fun while traversing. I have no complaints about the open world, it was a joy to explore.

The side content isn't that noteworthy (if anything it can be a bit repetitive as some of the activities can be a bit similar). I will admit I do like the detail of how some of the activities are exclusive to Peter or Miles. It encourages the player to play as both Spider-Men while also ensuring they both get activities related to a specific character (for example, Miles gets activities related to Uncle Aaron and Peter gets activities related to the Emily-May Foundation).

As for the game's story, it's alright. Whenever it focused on Peter and Venom, I enjoyed it. Seeing Peter succumb to the symbiote and then having to fight it was so cool. I also enjoyed the slice-of-life bits with him, MJ, and Harry. It was nice seeing them reconnect. As for Miles's part of the story, I couldn't care less. It's not that it's bad, I just found it uninteresting compared to Peter's. It honestly felt like the writers didn't know what to do with Miles in this game as it feels like he would get sidelined a lot or plot points would be forgotten until the end. Mild spoiler ahead, but in early the game, Miles's mom is talking to another guy after the death of Miles's father. You would think this specific point would be brought up more considering Miles is still struggling with his dad's death, but it is seemingly forgotten until a mid-credit scene.

What further solidified this feeling for me was the mission structure. Many missions Miles was in were often shared between Peter or MJ. I'm not saying there can't be missions where you would need to play as both Spider-Men, but I felt like Miles would often get the short end of the stick. I took note of this: there were two missions in a row you played as Peter. After that, you got a single mission with Miles and then you went right back to Peter. The next time you have a mission with Miles, you have to share it with Peter. I would've loved for the missions to be evenly split between the two, but unfortunately, it is not.

The combat is fine. Both Peter and Miles have unique abilities to help keep combat fresh for both of them. Outside of the inclusion of new abilities, the combat isn't that much different from the first game. If you enjoyed it there, you will enjoy it here.

If you liked the first installment of Insomniac's Spider-Man games, then you'll like this one. Traversing through New York and the combat is still fun. The side content is a bit bland and while the story is not perfect, it can still be enjoyable.