LogLadyLand
2018
After enjoying Yakuza Kiwami, I knew the next game I jumped into in the series would be this. Everything I read about it made it seem like it would be tailored directly to my interests by being a detective game set within the open world of Yakuza. However, I have a lot of gripes with this and feel like it could have been so much better with a few changes. Maybe it's pointless to critique a 6 year old game that has a sequel that got universally higher acclaim but video games are weird and I have a lot to say because it's a game I really wanted to love.
First, the good. The story is really engaging and the friends system is super simple but rewarding. Absolutely demolishing rooms full of furniture never gets old. The characters are strong and there's character moments that are genuinely heartfelt and tragic.
Now, as much as I enjoy the combat it can feel very separate from the narrative at times which is fine. It is easier to excuse in Yakuza than when you're a private detective but the random encounters are torturous in this. They're so repetitive and boring and feel like filler.
The first chapter is like a 5-6 hour tutorial and you're not really let loose fully into the open world until some time through chapter two which is disappointing and probably turned a lot of people away before they got to the great stuff.
Unfortunately, the detective mechanics feel very out of date. As much as I love LA Noire, the mechanics in this should feel close to a decade more refined and they just don't. The tailing and drone missions are too manufactured, there's no freedom in the playing. The running sequences with QTE are frustrating. If you let me run free in this environment with options in how I pursue someone that would be really fun but pressing the stick to the left to dodge a group of people gets old after the first time. The overreliance of QTE in action sequences made this feel like a gorgeous graphical update of a 2013 game.
Even with all those gripes I enjoyed a lot of this game and am excited to play Yakuza 0 with the hopes it is more in line with what I would have loved this game to be. Similarly, I still really want to play Lost Judgment.
First, the good. The story is really engaging and the friends system is super simple but rewarding. Absolutely demolishing rooms full of furniture never gets old. The characters are strong and there's character moments that are genuinely heartfelt and tragic.
Now, as much as I enjoy the combat it can feel very separate from the narrative at times which is fine. It is easier to excuse in Yakuza than when you're a private detective but the random encounters are torturous in this. They're so repetitive and boring and feel like filler.
The first chapter is like a 5-6 hour tutorial and you're not really let loose fully into the open world until some time through chapter two which is disappointing and probably turned a lot of people away before they got to the great stuff.
Unfortunately, the detective mechanics feel very out of date. As much as I love LA Noire, the mechanics in this should feel close to a decade more refined and they just don't. The tailing and drone missions are too manufactured, there's no freedom in the playing. The running sequences with QTE are frustrating. If you let me run free in this environment with options in how I pursue someone that would be really fun but pressing the stick to the left to dodge a group of people gets old after the first time. The overreliance of QTE in action sequences made this feel like a gorgeous graphical update of a 2013 game.
Even with all those gripes I enjoyed a lot of this game and am excited to play Yakuza 0 with the hopes it is more in line with what I would have loved this game to be. Similarly, I still really want to play Lost Judgment.
1986
This holds up surprisingly well and has the foundation of future Zelda games already established. Beating Dungeon 6 was so rewarding. However, halfway through dungeon 8 I closed the game without remembering to save and went back to before beating Dungeon 6 and I am not ready to deal with those ghost guys again so I'm shelving this but I'd like to beat it one day.
2014
Super disappointing after loving Bastion. The gameplay is tedious and just not very fun to me and I know I'm close to the ending but I honestly don't want to keep playing just to beat it despite the things I do like which is almost everything except the combat.
2020
The puzzle mechanics are nothing new but it's a cute and inviting world on the surface with a darker atmosphere the deeper into it you get. It's about keeping trying to maintain light in a world with widespread hopelessness and it's hard not to get on board with that idea.
2011
I judged this by the cover and it looked to me like something I wouldn't like but wow was I wrong. This thing is just an absolute blast for a few tight hours and doesn't overstay it's welcome. The narration and music and sound design all add so much to the experience, I can't wait to play another Supergiant game and return to this in the future.
2017
It's incredible but I've hit a wall and am shelving it for a while with definite intention to return to it and beat this thing eventually. I made it doubly as long as I did in my first playthrough and loved every new bit of the world I got to see but I gotta take some time away
2016
It took a while but it eventually clicked and became a very enjoyable loop. Maybe there's a world where I could put in 100 more hours but I'm calling it now as I feel like I've accomplished everything I was hoping to. Maybe in a few months I'll return to my farm or start over when the Switch gets the new update.
Really enjoyed this for about 20 hours then it was incredibly frustrating and tedious for 20 more. The idea of playing this with motion controls on the Wii sounds like torture. Still, even if it's lesser Zelda it's still really good and while I'll never replay it I'm glad I did play it.
I was hoping returning to this would be like when I returned to God of War. Unfortunately I still find the controls and movement so janky and awkward it overtakes my enjoyment of the story and world, which are great. The voice acting isn't great and I'm not a combat person but it feels pointless and would be more enjoyable without it. I've tried and tried but it feels like a chore to play and that's not why I play games. Maybe I'll try again one day but I just haven't been able to get on board and I really wish I could because the world and story seem fantastic. Maybe I'll just read the books.
This really feels like a buried Wii Sports spin-off that Nintendo licensed out and had nothing to do with.
2018
I just wanted to play some tennis but GTA V genuinely has more fluid and satisfying tennis gameplay.
I was going to try to beat it on grounded difficulty before Part II but I didn't make it and I had to delete the file to make room for Part II.