I'm actually genuinely so pissed I somehow missed out on this game back when it released and only just now found out about it, but this is one of the most fluid, fun, and addictive movement shooters I've ever played. The gunplay is super solid with lots of really fun guns to use, the sound design and feedback on all your actions is super crunchy and satisfying, especially once you get in the game flow state and are going for high ranks and it all starts clicking! The main story is very simple and over and done in about 3 hours, but that just means its extremely succinct and replayable, and in a game this mechanically solid and absurdly good feeling and fun to play, I'll be replaying it on NG+ a good many times, and I can tell its roguelike mode & its time trial modes are going to sap my life away, as I'm already beginning to dunk a fair bit of time into them!

I might update this review as that extra playtime goes.

An actual full blown masterpiece, genuinely a frontrunner for game of the generation in my eyes. I don't think anything else will even contend for the spot of my GOTY as strongly as IW will.

IW makes Yakuza 7 look almost quant in comparison in most aspects. It (somehow) utterly dwarfs it in content, and the side content and minigames on the whole are largely improved from 7 imho, it superannuates its gameplay to an extent so severe that I fear I'll never be able to go back, the pacing is far better and more consistent across the entire story, there's more and better choreographed cinematics, QTEs, dynamic intros and action sequences, more frequent and more enthralling boss fights, the continuity and connective tissue with all prior games in the series connecting the storyline in a way its never been up until this point, the soundtrack is so wildly improved over 7 having the weakest soundtrack in the series to 8 having one of the best, its a bigger, and in my eyes, better sequel in nearly every way. It somehow manages to fix every issue I had with 7, and improve upon everything I loved in 7, genuinely I'm blown away.

The gameplay in particular is absolutely fucking addicting. One of my favorite RPG combat systems ever now. The incredible feedback, the excellent implementation of the environment and how you account for you and your teammates positioning, using spacing and you and your enemies' placements/positions and accounting for all sorts of variables in combat makes the system so enthralling to use to where I almost always look at every aspect I can for any encounter. Its hard to put to words how massively improved Y8's gameplay is over Y7's, I genuinely would struggle to go back after. Even the series' usual expeditions into expansive side content manage to be more addicting than usual, with the game's signature Dondoko Island also being a completely addicting experience of its own, with its Pikmin-like day time management system really scratching a particular itch in my mind and making me try my best to maximize the amount of activities I could do within the timeframe, one of the best minigames in the series on account of being damn near an entire game of its own.

The story is also fucking incredible. It gets dogged on a lot online I've noticed, but I couldn't disagree further. I think it has some issues (spoiler note, I think Eiji needed more screentime, and Wong Tou was severely mishandled), but storywise I think the game was incredible. Ichiban's storyline was generally handled pretty damn well, with his villain being a fantastic foil to his entire way of life and how he choses to live. Kiryu's story however, was beyond all my expectations, his bucket list in particular delivering some of the most wonderful continuity, most poignant and emotionally devastating moments in the series, and some of the strongest emotional resolutions in the franchise for me. As a final, true last game in the Kiryu Saga, putting a bow on damn near every lose thread from his storyline, its everything I could've asked for and more. I also generally think on the whole, the villain roster was better than 7s. While nobody's quite on the level of Sawashiro and Ryo, the rest of 8's villains are significantly more interesting than every other member of 7's villain cast, who I generally struggle to remember much of and really didn't care for even while playing. 8's villains meanwhile generally stuck the landing more consistently for me, encapsulated the games' themes and foiled the protagonists better, and will likely become fan favorites going forwards, like the case of Yamai.

I do have some issues, I'm not a fan of the changed radius on buffs and debuffs in particular, I think the range reduction really hurts their usability and makes you less willing to use them in combat overall. But most of my complaints with this game are very minor nitpicks on small aspects like there not being a super boss quite as brutal as Super Amon in Y7 the caps off the game as well as I would've liked, the small story quibbles I mentioned above, the frankly really shitty dating substories that snuck in Persona-tier writing in my LaD story, I think that the lack of the Ryudo Family and The Florist are both a massive missing stain on the Bucket List as they really should have gotten something dedicated to them for topping off Kiryu's story, among some other very minor nitpicks, but these issues are so, so small in the face of a game of this fucking magnitude.

I could blabber on about this game for hours, its incredible, I love so, so much of it. Its a game I'll be thinking of and unpacking and dissecting in my mind for years to come.

In fact, its so goddamn good that I"m about to start a Legend NG+ playthrough, even after having just spent 90 fucking hours playing the game through once. I am never a person to replay a huge RPG right after finishing one, and never one to replay a huge game right after finishing it, so if that isn't an indicator of quality, I don't know what it is. Please, please play this series so you can get the experience of a being able to complete a saga like this, and get such a beautiful, incredible conclusion like this. RGG Studios is on a flaming burning trailblaze right now, and I can't wait to see what else they can deliver, this series is at the best its ever been (:

More Ghost of Tsushima! I really like what it adds to the game's story and how it generally wraps up a lot of the threads relating to Jin's past, and how it serves as a completion of his arc. The gameplay is more GoT, and that's a mix of good and bad, as my playthrough was about 86 hours total and I completed just about every tale and side tale, and every objective on the map, and the repetition does start to settle in a bit. This is only really something I think you'd experience going for near full completion like I was. Also I loved the island itself was really fun to explore, I liked it way more than the final portion of the island in the main game.

I usually don't get super into major western AAA blockbuster games, especially open world ones that are rife with RPG elements or what have you.

Something about Ghost of Tsushima was different. While it didn't immediately catch me, everytime I'd boot the game up for another play session I'd find myself wanting to play longer, do more. In what I thought would just be a simple inbetween game to play after Spider-Man 2, but before LaD Gaiden, ended up becoming a massive adventure of an experience. What I initially thought would only be a simply play through of its main campaign, evolved into doing every single substory, liberating every single Mongol territory on the map, finding every health, resolve, or charm power upgrade I could, upgrading all of my equipment and getting every upgrade and so on. I got fully sucked into this game and its absolutely incredible world.

Straight up, this is likely the most beautiful game I've ever played in my life. Just bafflingly stunning art direction and visuals in every single second of gameplay. Every second is screenshot worthy and I was frequently left staring at the screen like an entranced idiot, baffled at the beauty they managed to capture. Its the only game I've used the camera mode in frequently, and just looked around in. Ghost of Tsushima lives and dies by its world, and how much you get out of it. Exploring its scenic beauties, seeing how its being ravaged by the war, running across the sad stories of the lives of the people of your home, and how the war has affected them, then doing your part to protect it, and how much you enjoy doing so will probably affect your enjoyment to a degree, but damn if

The story, while it initially didn't click with me, after the first act starts to ramp up into something much more interesting, and by the end of the 2nd act I found myself fully invested in Jin Sakai's journey and the development he'd undergo, and the change into the legend he'd become, and the people you come across, and the broken, shattered individuals they've become due to what the war's put them through.

The gameplay took a bit to click with me, but once I got used to the flow of parries, attacking, and swapping styles and weapons to most optimally cut through the Mongols, I came to really enjoy it.

I suppose the biggest thing I can knock against the game is that later on, the objectives and side quests can become a bit repetitive, and the combat can fall into the same trappings with how powerful you can grow while doing everything. The game starts out with some teeth, but definitely loses them as you get better and better.

Anyways wow this game got fucking snubbed in 2021's TGA's how the FUCK did TLOU2 beat this game in anythi-

I cried!

Anyways, this game is fantastic, another Yakuza banger. The best Kiryu has ever felt and controlled in Dragon Engine, it takes a lot of lessons from the Judgment games and executes them fantastically. The combat is very enjoyable, and the game has a great difficulty curve, and is actually rather challenging! The substories are fun, the music is great, the bosses are solid, the final boss fucking slams and is Y5's final boss if the final boss was actually a good character, the new Agent Style is fun to fiddle around with.

But man, the story is stellar. Some of the most interesting writing and exploration of Kiryu as a character, an absolutely jaw dropping finale and some of the most beautifully emotionally resonant moments in the entire series are right here. If you've been a fan and have played everything, you will be rewarded for it.

I love this fucking series man.

Honestly had a complete blast with this game. The gameplay was just fully evolved from both Miles Morales and especially the original, this is some of the best and most fluid movement in any open world game period, and the combat was significantly improved, with more complexities and options for both characters and for all types of enemies. Its amazing how the simple addition of a parry can improve the combat so much and help deal with enemies that could otherwise be a lot more obnoxious.

The story is overall very solid and well told. I've heard some issues from friends in regards to how some things were adapted from the comics (I'm not the most fond of this version of Venom, even if it works very well within the framework of the story, he feels more like a Knull-type figure), I think the story on the whole was very enthralling, with a very fast pace. When the story gets going, especially later on with Peter's tenure with the Symbiote, things move a mile a minute with insane setpieces and awesome plot moments and really fun action.

The gameloop was honestly just addicting, I usually don't complete open world games fully, but in this game I was just entranced, going from side quest to side quest to collectible to collectible simply because it was just a fun thing to do.

If I have any major complaints, the game is buggy. I suffered a multitude of crashes, a few major bugs, issues that required a checkpoint restart, and multiple instances of bugs so major that they required a full game restart. Most of my other issues with the game are rather minor, but I feel a 70 dollar product should absolutely not ship with consistent crashing issues like this. There's no performance issues, and I didn't run into consistent minor bugs that made the experience on the whole an issue, but severe bugs like these were definitely a detriment. Luckily I never lost much in terms of progress.

Honestly had a fucking blast with this game. Honestly some flat out incredibly designed levels that are a total blast to replay through and get faster and faster at playing, with different characters having different ways to go about tackling them. Egg Fortress Act 2's time reversal gimmick was an especially high point for me personally.

The music in places is pretty weak, some of the bosses definitely fumble the bag, are way too reliant on OHKO moves, and last way too long with no checkpoints to soften the blow, but a majority of the other bosses are honestly rather fun and designed pretty decently. A couple of stages in the Extra Mode are definitely kind of bad, Golden Palace Act 2's redo definitely being a low point in the game.

But asides from those fumbles here and there, this game's an absolute blast for me and I can definitely see myself replaying it, and cant wait to give the multiplayer a shot. Definitely ranks above Sonic 1, 2 and CD on my Classic Sonic list, but below 3&K and Mania I think.

No idea how I ever dropped this game way back when I first played it in 2017. The usual addicting gameflow of the inFAMOUS games is here in full force, the different abilities you can utilize are all generally fun to use one way or another (though I think overall Neon is probably the best and most fun to use in totality), the story was pretty decent overall, beating back an oppressive regime is always a good basis, and the side objectives are, in usual inFAMOUS affair, incredibly addictive to the point that I actually 100% completed everything in my Good Karma playthrough. Just overall a really good time that I enjoyed far more than I was expecting, that kinda rekindled my love of this franchise. I hope we get a new entry sometime.

Feels like one step forward, two steps back the video game. It seems like in an attempt to streamline a lot of mechanics, they made them either less fun to use, or feel less fluid and enjoyable as they did in the original. Side missions are also somehow less fun than they were in the original game. Some control changes are also flat out confusing and just feel worse, like swapping the glide and air dash buttons, or making charge attacks be a single heavier attack rather than being able to charge every attack of a combo for greater effect.

Despite everything though, its still Prototype, and thus, is still a very fun to play and control open world experience, even at its weakest its still much more enjoyable than its contemporaries. Heller is a fun character to watch even if his writing is weird at times, and while not as compelling to watch as Alex, is still fun to follow. Not a fan of Alex's character assassination though, even with the details given in the Prototype comics it still feels like an odd transformation with how its handled. Final boss is pretty sick though.