is Toshihiro Nagoshi the most 'having fun' director in Japanese game development? I think its a tossup between him, tetsuya takahashi (achieving ultimate power with xenoblade 2), and yoshi p (who gets to live out his dreams as a matsuno protege by being a really good office manager).

I say this bc outside of the wonderfully charming character writing, sort of uneven but shows promise combat and dragon quest flourishes I don't think you can create a protag like Kasuga Ichiban and a game like this without really loving what you're doing (i think theres a limit to this tho, the context of what happens in the story does lend itself to the Everyone Is Here!!! mentality but it gets a bit much, or doesnt go far enough. like at least do some silly fanservice stuff with zhao and majima interacting or something. Have fun with it!)

Recontextualizing the Hero's Journey typical of DQ games as a new yakuza building himself up from being completely destitute and near death echoing themes of camaraderie, lineage, and destiny is honestly brilliant. Kasuga is such a fun foil to Kiyru, the Spiderman to his Superman. I don't think I've been into the physics engine of a turn based game this much since Shadow Hearts: From the New World.

Tho there are so major problems too, like how the 2x EXP enemies don't try to run away from battle when you encounter them. Nanba doing the whole 'leave the party but comes back' thing with a new move but no new clothes. C'mon man! not even some flavor text about him liking his homeless guy clothes more??

also the hard cut at the end to 'ichibanka' was just cruel. fuck you nagoshi you freewheeling bastard