430 reviews liked by Hannibalmick


😈😈😈The perfect video game for a maniacal psychology major such as myself 😈😈😈. Sigmund freud's theory of personality and carl jung archetypes in MY turnbased video game 😈😈😈a truly spectacular sight to behold..........................😈

Review from a day 1 player to the present day, scrutinizing a deep and complete analysis of Genshin Impact's world.
Undertaking this review to train my English a little bit

Touching on the drawbacks, Genshin can't be a solid game, and for that will never be respected by the majority of gamers. On account of being a gacha and ongoing, Genshin unfortunately hindered and camouflaged to the world its good narrative story. This subset of the population can't believe the game proposes such splendid story, and I think it's fair due to the beginning of this journey not being a very inviting one.
TL;DR: it's hated because it's a gacha, and would've been actually a very acclaimed game as long as it was released as a standard RPG.
Nonetheless, ironically, it wouldn't be a riveting and marvelous game whether it wasn't ongoing. In fact, in this day and age, the game continues progressing, getting better and better, and more creative due to having more development time. It's a double-edged sword.

Secondly, the side characters and predominantly their side quests. Even though it's a game that presents some gorgeous characters for pulling, the side characters will make you feel you're getting down to the abyss. They are basic and pedestrian, and yet some of them have long side quests. Like, it's not that the content of the side quest is bad, I just I cannot care enough for random characters around the world that in majority I will never see them again. Also, off and on, the side characters' design are all the same, having overall a lack of creativity and effort. It's a point that they could do better.

Continuing with its flaws, Genshin Impact is a game that has hindered its true potential for some time. It's time now to salient a little about the negative point the narrative has.
I appreciate it being an ongoing game, as the narrative would never be as good as it is in case the developers had no time.
Thus, the narrative does not start strong or captivating, but minimally attractive in my opinion. I felt comfortable in the first two regions, and although the third was horrible, as long as you weather the storm, the final door you'll open shall present bloom of cherry trees. That is to say, the game took a time to stop being inconsistent, so you need to have patience when trying it.

Furthermore, the fact that extremely important events that beautifully characterized certain characters will never return to the game. Anyone who has to experience the development of certain characters would have to watch it on YouTube. There are characters who had their development completed or one who revealed their entire background through these events... This is a huge waste that the game offers itself.

Particulars that make the difference negatively: besides being a gacha game and too much time to release new story and region content, the fillers update are a knife in the chest, as you spend 1, 2 or even 3 months doing pointless events. I don't even lose my time, lol.

Lastly, you need at least IQ 150 to fully capt all the plotline for the first 3 chapters. Genshin's story is good since the beginning (with the exception of the Inazuma region). However, throughout the first three regions (until Sumeru), many things are left between the lines. They are in-depth, yes, but the player will need to understand it on their own, or even research it to have all the nuances on the tip of their tongue. This is a problem and that's why you find people saying that Genshin's story is shallow. It never was, the problem is that they left heaps of things ambiguous for a while.

Therefore, Genshin Impact is a videogame that will not convince you to like it, rather, unfortunately, it has to come from the player, who needs to have fun playing and feel pleasure in participating in this journey.

So why is it good? Why do I like it so much?
These are questions even I ask myself. Defending a controversial game like this is like being a lawyer trying to defend a guilty person in court.

Let's start from the basic: think that Genshin Impact is more a RPG than a gacha game.
Focusing on exploring the Teyvat, meeting its characters and furthering into the secrets of that world gives me a fabulous feeling, one I rarely encounter in any other game.
In this game, the exploration is not pointless. Every place you go, there is a tale behind those beautiful mountains and flowers. The world is alive, and everywhere you set foot, there was an "once upon a time".
It's not repetitive as they say, it's not boring,
it's experience. It makes me over the moon.
If you focus on this instead of trying to pull for characters, you already increase your own happiness in 80%, get your stress down in 120% and savor the game.


First virtue, the narrative.

The game starts with a riveting theme in my opinion, and it's even more provocative to realize Genshin follows the label of a generic RPG. Though, what differentiates this game from others is that it transformed everything generic into something unique, radiant and well written, which when looking closely doesn't even seem like it uses the same things as an average RPG (island in the skies, abyss, lost technology (wow, JRPGs love this) and the same biomes that we know adventure games offer).
Featuring an extremely ambitious plot, Genshin Impact has a beautiful worldbuilding, and heaps of characterization.
It brings an enthralling dynamism between villains, in this case, there is not just 1 villain, but 2 or more, and they all have their motives and reasons for such chaos.
I don't know much what to say about this worldbuilding topic, frankly, as it's a game that portrays everything we can imagine.

However, slowly, as each region passes, Genshin Impact's story becomes prettier, denser, and better written.
It remained as a promising game for a LONG TIME, leaving many questions unanswered that some of them even looked like pretentious (bro, like, there was way too much, they weren't answering at all). However, at a certain point, the answers began to surface, and new possibilities emerged. Following the events in Fontaine, the game ceased to be a mere promise and transformed into a tangible reality, solidifying its status as having definitely a great plotline.
Genshin initially generated a lot of hype surrounding Inazuma, the third region, but ultimately proved to be a significant disappointment in terms of its story. Following this, Genshin Impact's narrative trajectory seemed uncertain, I was honestly ready to drop the game if Sumeru was bad. Thankfully, it was the region of Sumeru that emerged as the most captivating thus far, stepping up a gear. However, despite its strengths, Sumeru left many questions unanswered, leaving the game's potential still as only a promise. That finally ended in Fontaine, which I consider to be the climax of Genshin Impact, that the answers finally began to materialize.

The game's characters are generally good, with some being astonishing and others even more fabulous. One of the enchantments of this game lies in its expansive world, known only to a select few who are familiar with its 'underworld' or 'dark side'. These special characters possess deeper insights into the truth of the world of Teyvat, making them particularly intriguing to me. Yet, aside from a few minor or filler characters (including overrated ones), the overall quality is positively commendable.


Now, I'd like to talk about the heart of Genshin Impact as a game, and there are two of them: the world/side quests and the soundtrack.

I mentioned earlier that side characters pose a problem, but this stems more from the lack of attention to detail and the perceived 'laziness' on the part of developers in creating them more thoroughly. However, this does not extend to the world quests, which significantly expand upon the vast narrative landscape. These quests are so integral that the gaming experience feels incomplete without them. Playing Genshin Impact solely for the main quests would result in a far from complete experience, as these world quests not only complement the main storyline but also add depth and richness to it.

The soundtrack of Genshin Impact breathes life and atmosphere into the game, serving as the perfect complement to its greatest propose: an immersive adventure. It truly is the icing on the cake of this exceptional gaming experience.
Genshin Impact is undeniably a professionally crafted game, with its creators assembling top talent from various fields and professions to deliver their best work. This concerted effort has borne fruit, evident in the game's quality and success.
The game's soundtrack stands out as my personal favorite in fiction. Drawing heavy inspiration from classical music, its vast variety is truly remarkable, offering a memorable and diverse selection of compositions crafted by brilliant composers. There are not only compositions that help with immersion, yet exorbitantly well written ones, more so than currently even the most famous composers on the market, featuring extraordinary complex tempos and chords, and creativity. For example, there is a song whose rhythm is made using a pocket watch. Or another where, literally, the composer of the song created his arrangement and even sings it. Unfortunately, owing to being ongoing, it never won an award at The Game Awards or was even mentioned for OST, although it should've been if that award was really serious.

For all this, it's not a game for everyone and I'm swimming against the tide. Genshin is long, heavy and easy to burnout. However, it's the only game that I never stopped playing, and I wish it was a little more loved by society for all the strengths it presents. Unfortunately, its bad side overshadows its good side, and I think it's relatively deserved.
For everything it presented, it's already a great game. Although its ending is not yet known in our time, it is expected to happen in 2 years. In case it concludes horribly (like Inazuma), it'd easily be the biggest disappointment of my life, but otherwise, it'll become an unforgettable journey for me, one that I shall remember for the rest of my life.

I just got so burnt out from the terrible gameplay of Innocent Sin, when I tried to play this right after I just straight up gave up at the boss because I was fed up. Going to come back to it, but it's probably a bad game like Innocent Sin.

Pretty much the same as IS but with a really forgettable slog of a middle section that peaks at the start and end. The dungeons are more varied this time around but are somehow more annoying in my eyes. Also it shares the same problem as IS of having a party member from the Persona 1 crowd and they feel like a 3rd wheel to the narrative experience compared to the rest of the main cast

Jumping straight into this game after finishing Person 2: Innocent Sin more or less ruined it for me.

Ik it’s only the start but frankly it’s not good in any regard so far, not surprised. Hoyoverse managed to use the name of their best project, and turned it to boring slop like the other 2+ IPs they have. It’s a completely new game I really just don’t get the point of the “Part 2” (money reasons yes I know). Incredibly boring/bad designs, nothing of note or of interest to take away from the story so far. Boring storytelling and dialogue, since end of part 1 they’ve shifted the writing style to something w a lot of filler words, words of nothing, and it’s so much more evident here. Panders to a new fanbase but not to a returner player at all. How I wish I could see the downfall of this company, I need a money laundering scandal to pop up or something, I’ll be the first person to be there

A one of a kind experience - amazing story, but lackluster game-play. Possibly the strongest cast in all of persona and yet also nearly the worst game-play wise. The fact the story keeps a 1/5 game-play experience at a 4/5 is insane.

One thing that Unicorn Overlord excels at when nothing else can is a sense of scale; during combat, the feeling of traversing these huge lands and fighting armies at immense disadvantages is sold very well. Outside of combat, traversing the world and rebuilding it is always a fun inbetween.

Unicorn Overlord also falls apart when examined in more detail. Individual characters are extremely basic and the story behind each continent are as interesting as the characters, with an exception that Bastorias has interesting concepts that are also never really reckoned with. Team building feels shallow; not that "anything works", but there feels like there's very little real variety in individual classes. I'm also not a fan of gambit systems but that's more me than an issue with UO, but it definetly didn't convince me otherwise.

And I can't really say that it's more of the sum of its parts because the scale also works against it; by the time I reached Bastorias I was already tired because nothing really changes. The overworld aspect is repetitive, the secrets aren't really secrets and are just basic things to get good equipment, and the gameplay never really felt like it got difficult. Even in the final quest where all of these characters and nations unite, it doesn't end up making up for how the past 40 hours of Unicorn Overlord continued to be tasteless oatmeal, with a story and concepts done in much better fashion. Calling this Fire Emblem Awakening for the Switch is lowkey an insult to FE.

It doesn't have the soundtracks...
It doesn't have the style...
It doesn't have the gameplay...

but it has the best storytelling, fr. If they make a proper remake of this someday, it could become the best Persona.

No special protagonist because yes, no repetitive pacing; story's just linear and follow its plot elegantly. Good character development and solid cast of characters that features good interactions.

This review contains spoilers

it's a shame things had to turn out like this. This game is so painfully average.

Main Gameplay:
Good fun. An improvement over 7.
Though, heat actions are once again ruined. When they do happen, it feels like a jumpscare, with no clear confirmation that all prerequisites are met.
In previous titles, you react to a heat action prompt letting you know you're about to initiate some QTEs for damage, with the context of where you and the opponent are. You know where you are spatially and grabs/weapons helped set them up.
Now, in Like a Dragon 8?
Uhhh hope the enemy was in a desirable spot.
Hope there was a weapon nearby that has heat compatibility.
There's no real way to tell. Total crap shoot. It makes kiryu's blue style the least fun to use. Same with ichi's freelancer job. Both classes are also empty handed, so you miss out on the elemental benefits or exploiting enemy weaknesses in this turn based battle system.
Why did they bother bringing heat back at all.

To that extent, kiryu's extreme heat mode is just mash square till they die.
Which, is just like the previous titles, yes. But I've always found extreme heat very boring.
Do you know how many legacy heat actions you guys have at your disposal, developers???
Extreme heat started getting interesting in gaiden because it amplified all of kiryu's spy gadgets in a goofy way. I went from sending 10 drones one by one, to an absolute swarm. That was cool!
It made doing what i was already doing more fun.
In 8, I'm let down. From previews and hype leading up to it I assumed id get all the old controls back, resulting in a really cool fusion of Yakuza and Like a Dragon gameplay. No.
You can't guard, enemies don't attack back, there are no combos.
Let me walk around picking up shit off the ground or carry an enemy over to another to get some free heat actions off
We don't even get that. There's no strategy. There's no depth.

Combat as a whole is a bit... Less strategic than id like. The green area markers are a SUGGESTION.
The enemy is clearly in my fanning green area, I hit accept. My character runs up, and the opponent jumps aside to make room for me. The attack misses.
Alright, dude.
Knockback skills feel heavily underutilized. The 1 shark hazard is the only instance I can even think of where it really felt rewarding for using knockback skills.
Not to mention the plethora of BAD interactions I've had with the knockback skills. Enemies will sometimes just not go where the arrow says they will!
The "infinite symbol" tag team stuff is the worst with that. A lot of them show you a big zone that will eliminate multiple enemies in a line. Okay but if there's ANY obstacle around you AT ALL, the game will teleport you to a spot where the tag team cutscene isn't obscured. Okay well now the attack is pointed towards a random direction, only hitting 1 dude.

With how "random" fights feel, I don't feel fully engaged. This is a game where enemies will fall out of combos. Found weapons and team attacks are programed so only the final hit will kill. Welp! Thanks to enemies bumping into each other or the wall is at an angle, the final attack will just miss! Sometimes, on your way to an enemy during an attack command, there will be objects on the ground in your path. The attacker will kick the object towards the opponent for a free hit! This applies to enemies and yourself. It's a shame 80% of the time the object kicked misses entirely....!!!!!

Paralysis weapons are king
Get one of them bad boys and you've upped the chances of "enemy skips a turn" tenfold.
Then it's just about dumping skills and chugging coffee for MP refills.

I wish I could just hit the "analyze" button like in the persona games to see what all the opponent is weak to at a given moment. Let me open the Sujidex mid fight.
As it stands, you have to go down your list of skills, and selecting them one at a time to see how the enemy will react
"alright lemme pick them in order. Knife attack? Nothin... Gun attack? Okay they're weak to that, lets see, what element?
Ice? Nah.. what about this lightning skill? Hrm, nothing special. Fire? ohh okay yeah fire works too." Every single. Fight.
It's tiring.
Don't bother checking the fist icon attacks, either. No enemy is weak to blunt attacks. For .... Some... Reason
Again, making classes with no weapons really underwhelming and boring.

I wish battle skill descriptions separated the flavor text and what it actually does.
I wish it gave me the actual percentages for what the crit rate will be and calculate the enemy's evasion stat for my percent chance the attack will even land.

I wish I could filter my items down to "gives MP" ASAP. I HATE scrolling through my 1000 food items to find the one I need. Wanna pop a kiwami drink for one person to get a .2x exp boost? Have fun digging around for that shit. There is no explicit category for that one, pal.
It's right above the smoke bombs though, you know, for next time.
Outside of battle, give me the lowest MP drinks, during battle, I want some big MP drinks. It's only optimal, man.
Battle items in general? Never used them.
What a wasted concept.
Make them not waste a turn, lemme imbue them with my current weapon's element. Something.
Why would I waste a turn on a 100 damage flash grenade that has a non 0 chance to just not inflict anything.

Newly added members are unfortunately level scaled to the story. This means if you did a bit of grinding beforehand, they fall behind the curve and NEVER catch up, partly because of the way bond levels work. Ouch!
You're slowly gaining bond with every little activity you do together (including battles). Welp. New members start off at 0 bond. Building bond is so slow. By the end of the game I didn't even have Kiryu, the second main protagonist, at bond level 100! The party members I had the longest were at about level 75, with newer members hovering around 50. Congrats, you now have a new member that doesn't add anything new to your current team comp with way less inherited skill slots.

Some jobs are locked behind DLC. In a Role-Playing-Game. LOL. LOL!!!

Side content:
You're getting to see familiar faces as they do the same things, again, in HAWAII!!! All your favorites are here. You have big roomba scientist guy, the circus guy, sujimon master- so glad they made it back and are up to the same goofy antics. Well, maybe not the sujimon guy.

The big minigame this time around are the sujimon battles and I'm sorry. This is abysmal.
This is your big expanded side quest beside donda island. Ichiban confessions in 7 was fun, led to a lot of money, and unlocked a party member.
But this? Your sujimon summoner class gets better...
Okay
Listen here. There is no way I'm grinding up that shit to make this unarmed job viable. (You cant even transfer sujimon summoner skills over to other jobs. This is the only job that's restricted like this.)

It's not fun.
Having to load in and out of poor man's pokemon...
Where you have 1 attack and 1 super
The supers are so annoying and risky to use.
You better nail the roulette else you completely miss the attack entirely and all of your turn meter goes to 0!!
Not that it really matters. As long as you keep your sujimon at the appropriate level, you'll never lose.
Just mash 'A' on your middle dude till they all die
Sometimes you'll want to swap who the middle dude is, which doesn't have a downside or real risk.
It's dreadful.

Sidequests are okay, I enjoyed maybe 25%? The rest are predictable lessons with characters I'll never see again.
The Aloha links system is pretty cute. I enjoyed saying Aloha to create bonds with people around town. It's a nice way to incorporate crowds into something interactive. I always made sure to wave to any buddies I see. Though, if someone was in trouble and I already had our bond maxed out, I literally had 0 reason to help them out. A bit of unfortunate cognitive dissonance there.
I enjoyed the bond level system with the party as well. It was the only system in the game that you can't hard grind out with booster items. The drink links and walk-and-talk finales were both fun to indulge and were pretty rewarding.

The paradise island tycoon side game didn't really hook me. Swinging the bat feels awful and there's no animation canceling on the dodge roll so combat is very committal and awkward. Lining up a bug net swing with yakuza controls is pretty wack, I really wish holding the square button let you creep around with more precision (you know, like how animal crossing does it.) Crafting buildings, leveling up your town and doing your dailies is a staple loop but this game is already way too long as is. It's fine. Not offensive like the sujimon battles are.

Story:
I've been playing Yakuza games since highschool.
Ichiban was a breath of fresh air, but if you think the story in 8 was anywhere CLOSE to 7's... Idk what to tell u.
90% of the side content is stuff I've already done, with characters I've already seen.
Remember this guy from the last game?? Well yeah, he's in Hawaii now, doing the same damn thing.
It's like nostalgia baiting for last week's dinner.
Everyone's motive for being part of the story is just... Silly. Adachi and Nanba call you up like "yeah we were bored, so we're in Hawaii now."
Majima and the gang will tell you "hell no. we are NOT joining your quest" only to show up during the final chapter as part of your quest anyway. Alright. Guess they were bored too.
When you present me with uninteresting answers, I'm going to file that along with 'boring'

Kiryus whole "imma die for real this time I better catch up on old memories" doesn't really land for me when kamurocho isn't nostalgic, I was just there in gaiden or whatever.
How are you nostalgic for pocket slot car racing, you did it just last week, buddy!!!
I do think the final 2 events with Date-san were pretty good though.
And collecting screenshots of old titles and memories is a cute idea.
There's this sarcastic or developer commentary air to it that I really enjoy.
"ahh yes... the kamurocho bridge. I loved fighting dudes on the bridge. I would toss dudes off it. I wonder why I have that strong desire to do that?"
Or the one about staminan X stuff, "this stuff is so good. Shame the naming convention sucks. Why did we do that."

I just find it hard to care that kiryu's trapped in this limbo where he cant see anyone he loves, because, the daidoji wont allow it!!
His whole plan was stupid. The disguise never works. People spot his ass as kiryu frame 1. The daidoji are pretty dumb thinking this plan was a good one.
And that was a problem I had with GAIDEN (and to an extent 6, with its ending.)
"oh shit... This plot point isn't sad enough... Idk, give him cancer"

I didn't care for the villains this time around. It's supposed to be all interconnected and part of some larger plot, but I don't care... 8's story just makes Arakawa-san look worse, a disservice to 7's great tale.
Yamai was surprisingly endearing. The best villain here. He's got a deeply buried softer side and his final scene was fantastic. Everyone else just felt generic/uninteresting. 0 redeeming qualities. Even Ei-chan. That dude is complete scum. Ichiban let him off wayyyy too easy. I'm a forgiving person, but that's unhealthily forgiving.

I like tomi! chi-chan is cute and adds a lot to the story. Good female rep is kinda rare in yakuza. (I mean, honestly, why do women STILL only get like half the job options that guys do?)
I uhhhhh didn't really enjoy the vtuber angle. At the end, she foils Bryce Fairchild's big plans by broadcasting his biggest secret to the whole world, then IMMEDIATELY apologizes to her whole audience that her channel was full of lies and deceit. ???
I get that you need to redeem this horrid channel, it caused a lot of grief to Ichiban AND Kiryu but NOW?? Right now? You just exposed the big bad on that very same channel, idiot.

Saeko is so unlikable here. Ghosting Ichiban and refusing to talk to him at all is just... cringe. This gets more depth in her drink link with Kiryu, but it largely doesn't matter. She was just mad Ichiban didn't say "I love you" before proposing. Okay..... man, It's implied. You really did him dirty for a whole YEAR because of that?? Wow! Stay single you miserable hag.

This is supposed to be modern times but when you present me the same kamurocho map from 2010... It doesn't feel modern.
Yakuza games are supposed to take place around the same year they release but I really don't think they made the jump to "modern day" very gracefully. It's a tad jarring.
Hawaii feels a bit better but it kinda feels like Japan 2 at times.
Ichi and tomi have a bit of "language barrier" interactions initially and I found that really cool. Ichi is in a new city and really wants to find someone who speaks what he speaks, thus finding tomi is really lucky! After the first cutscene together they dont ever bring that angle up again. I wish Tomi asked questions about certain japanese words or could be a middle man, translating for ichi at times. It woulda sold the globe trotting just a bit more. I just see missed opportunity there.

The endings of yakuza games usually go really hard- This was one of the weakest finales I've seen in a longggggg time. I sense a lack of confidence, too. The finale chapter is full of monologuing and last minute recaps of what the bad guys' motives even ARE. Both Bryce AND Ebina will talk your ear off before their fights. Just standing around, talking, for way too long because the game doesn't set them up properly!

I'm not interested in the hypothetical 9th entry of this story. Thank you RGG studios. It's been a long journey with lots of memories.
Rest in piece, Kazama Kiryu.