Holy shit. God damn it they fucking did it again. Flawless fucking victory. They somehow managed to top the last game. I never thought I would give a turned based RPG 5 stars but here we are. This is also the longest yakuza game BY FAR. There was SOOOOO much shit they added. For starters, they changed the combat in such an impactful way that improves it in every single way. Allowing you to move and position your attacks so that combo strings can actually connect was like the ONE thing that the last game needed, and thats exactly what they added in this game. Being able to move around adds so much diversity in combat that keeps it from getting stale. They also managed to translate kiryu PERFECTLY into a turned based format. Making him being able to style switch is absolutely genius and makes perfect sense as a mechanic. Also for the first time, WE GO TO AMERICA !!! Hawaii is translated so perfectly into a yakuza game its actually insane. This is easily one of the most batshit insane set pieces we have had in any of the games, not to mention it looks fucking beautiful. Of course we can still go to Yokohama and Kamurocho, each of which still being absolutely jampacked with shit. The little small interactions you could have with your party members from the last game? Theres SOOOO many more of those and I fucking love them so much. I can get to know so much more about all these characters that I love. The animal crossing mode they added is pretty cool, I played with it for a little before I got caught up with other stuff. Theres like a weird pokemon mode that I didn't do SHIT for because i didnt care for it. A doordash mode that is pretty useless after the first 5 chapters. Splitting up the story into two different sections allowed for the 10 different playable characters in this game not getting mixed up or too bundled up. The new characters they added for this game are ALL hits, not one single miss. Even the villains they added were super fucking cool, specifically Danny Treijo as a dude named Dwight. ALSO SHOUTOUT YAMAI, he is easily one of the best new characters they added to the series and is def one of my favorites now. All these characters build such an amazing story. The story in this game is SOOOO good. Nothing spoiler specific but damn did it get me damn emotional. Ichiban is such an amazing character that could not be a better predecessor for Kiryu. They parallel off each other so well. Again no spoilers, but they have an interaction together late game that is easily one of my top 5 cutscenes in this series. In conclusion, I love yakuza, this game is so peak, and I hope the series continues to be peak.

What a very sweet and touching story. This is a very short game, equivalent to watching a short film. Obviously not much replayablity or like normal playability. But thats not the purpose of this game, its not trying to be something grand. It doesn't need to be anything grand. It knows it's purpose and the purpose is executed very well. You're not playing this for the gameplay you're playing this to watch a well crafted tale. Its more of an experience than a video game to play. This is more for letterboxd than backloggd. Story made me tear up tho, and it had a cute kitty.

SPOILERS AT THE VERY VERY VERY END OF THIS REVIEW:
An absolute fucking masterclass. What a fucking game man. This easily has become one of my favorite games not only in the series, but ever. Since this is like their 4th (I think) game in the new engine, this game looks god damn great. And the soundtrack in this game is great as well (which is common throughout the entire yakuza series so shocker). The fighting in this game feels SO good. They have definitely figured out how to make the fighting feel good in this engine to an absolute tea (t? idk what the right phrasing is). Both styles feel so good to switch between and use no matter the situation. Of course the spy style is better for crowd control, but it feels like such a good rush style. Brings me back to yakuza 0 and 1. The gadgets add just another layer of fun to the fighting. Its just fun to use go go gadget-rocket boots with the comically exploding cigarettes. Funny ragdolls are always welcome, and very funny when using the spider wrap grapple thing. Dragon style returns as well and feels way better than it ever did in kiwami 2 and 6. It all just feels fluid and fun to play. Like any other yakuza game, this shit is LOADED with side content even if it was reduced to 5 chapters. The castle is a cool new addition, the coliseum I didn't delve into too much but its a really solid addition. The cabaret club is uh...definitely something. The akame network was a really easy way to get money and made accessing substories so much easier to get to. Akame is a new character introduced in this game btw and I love her. She is awesome and I love her and she is 4 stars of this game alone. The other star is because of the story. Holy shit man what a way to wrap up Kiryu's story. It felt conclusive for his character and perfectly builds up the context for what happens in 7. SPOILERS AHEAD BTW

Holy shit man what an absolutely raw final chapter. Seeing all the 4 legendary yakuza gathered up like that fighting together one last time is just so raw. Seein them get shirtless everytime just makes me so damn happy. I also have never never ever ever ever cried while playing a game in my life. But that ending with kiryu holy shit. Seeing taichi grown up made me burst into tears man. Then seeing kiryu's snot filled sobbing face hurt even worse holy shit man. A buildup of like 6 games all climaxing there and what a pay off. Me sobbing as I watch that fucking ending.

END SPOILERS:

Another absolute banger from the yakuza series. Shorely this is the end of the series and it won't have another entry in the series soon. Shorely it won't emotionally break me as well. Regardless what an absolute blast this game was and cannot wait for future entries.

Well I'll be damned. I enjoyed a turn based RPG. I REALLY fucking enjoyed a turn based RPG. This game is DAMN good. Let me preface this entire review by saying I am the biggest anti-RPG guy in the world. I hate the concept of waiting my turn to attack and having to be patient during combat. Basically my attention span can't take it. However, this game does a lot to keep my goopy goblin gamer brain interested. For one this is a yakuza game, which means it is the silliest, goofiest, not-serious thing in the world. The absurdness of the attacks happening and animations just kept me entertained. Button-prompts to block damage or amplify attacks also made it so I would actually have to pay attention and care about what i'm doing (yes I know thats in a lot of RPGs but idc it just worked well in this game for me). The actual core combat isn't anything that insane. It just mixing in with a lot of other factors kept me enthralled and not getting bored. What also helps is me playing on normal. I kinda breezed through this game without having to go out of my way to grind. There was really only one boss that made me actually had to sit for like an hour and grind a dungeon and I think that's when I enjoyed this game the least. I might've stopped there, if there wasn't another thing that kept me going. The story and characters. I didn't think it was possible for this series to make me get attached to an entirely new set of characters we have never seen before. Yet here I am, enjoyable every bit of dialogue the party members exchange. There's little spots you can find while free-roaming that have your party members share funny interactions that increase bond level. When you increase this bond level to a certain limit you can have a drink with each individual members who share unique backgrounds and substories. And I love each and every second of it. The fact each member also gets their own karaoke song is fucking awesome and I love it. Speaking of characters, we have to talk about the main man himself, Kasuga Ichiban. What a phenomenal character. I fucking love this man, honestly I might enjoy him more than I do Kiryu (maybe just maybe). He's not the same stoic, high-mighty, and wise guy kiryu is. He's just a cocky dumbass who loves his friends, and I love that about him. The fact that all the crazy RPG elements and animations are ENTIRELY in his head due to him playing dragon quest as a kid (also schizophrenia) is the funniest thing ever. If Ichiban dies in battle, you instantly lose the fight because that means his illusion ends. Which from a story standpoint, I fucking love and is hilarious. But from a gameplay standpoint, I hate and think is dumb. The ending to this game is one of the most emotional endings to any yakuza game and that is purely because of how attached I got to Ichiban and the members of this game. I could go on and on about the story but I gotta wrap up. At the time of writing this review, I have finished all mainline yakuza games (A spinoff came out an hour before I wrote this). This entire series is an absolute treasure and I think it's a series everyone should experiences. I am incredibly glad to have played these games and I can't wait to play more future installments. Also this is NOT a shoutout to my friend London who did NOT kind of motivate me to play these games. (In all honestly I started playing these games cause Mang0 played 0 on stream and never finished it which pissed me off cause I got attached to the story)

Originally I had dropped this game cause my PC was garbage and I just didn't get it. It was too hard for a dumb younger version of me (16 years old). But when I had upgraded my PC and matured a little more (18 years old), I realized just how fucking good this game is. Turns out, this game is honestly kinda hard (maybe I just suck). But there's despite how many times I had to retry the same segments over and over, I still wanted more. Sure I got really angry sometimes but it was the joy of finding a different route or eventually perfecting that one route i've been trying for an hour that didn't make it stale. This is allllll thanks to the movement (and combat ig) of this game. Ohhhhh my god is it fucking fun to move in this game holy shit. Once I learned how to super slide glide or whatever the tech was for this game, it became so insanely fun. Zooming around slicing dudes in half just feels so fucking good. This might make me sound like a dork but the abilities the game lets you use made me feel so badass while I just cleaned house. Of course I only cleaned house on replay, the first playthrough I would be zoom only to be completely stopped by 1 annoying segment. The joy of running around can def be haulted by the difficultly of this game sometimes. However, there's extra time trial modes and whatnot that can get that itch out. This game definitely has a story and futuristic environments. Okay in fairness I stopped halfway through and stop playing for like 2 years, so thats probably why I did NOT care for the story. Same thing with the environments, they all just kinda mesh into one futuristic pile of mush. Lets see uhhhh what else. The upgrade system is kinda neat, its like a little tetris block puzzle system that makes you have to choose certain upgrades over the others. Enemy types are super diverse and that keeps gameplay fresh and cool, collectables are certainly in the game, dont remember anything else. Overall, this game can be challenging but once you learn it man is it fucking fun.

I have never played any of the jet set radio games so I had literally no idea what I was getting into this movement wise and gameplay wise. Needless to say after watching this games development for years I am happy. This game is funnnn man. It just feels good. Thats it plain and simple. It feels GREAT actually to just continue combos and move around the world. Most of the time I would stumble into areas accidentally while just trying to keep a combo going and it just felt good. The character design in this game is sick too, each character just fits perfectly in this world. Red specifically is such a simple yet peak design. Also Bel <3. Ofc I gotta complain because I am a hater at the end of the day. The game's story is kinda uninteresting and I really didnt care cause the twist was super duper obvious. The game is also really short which is kind of a bummer but small indie team blah blah I get it. The combo system itself also isnt super complex which isnt inherently a bad thing but sometimes I just wished there was a little more to them. Lets see uhhhh music is really catchy and good, but there isnt too many tracks altogether and it overplays just a weebit near the end. Overall this game is super worth playing if you're looking for an enjoyable experience.

Let's start positive here. This game has got some fun ideas. It has super wacky weapons that are fun to use and its really satisfying to just absolutely shred through massive hoards of zombies. This game is really really good at that. Just letting you go absolutely ham on SO many zombies. Its also got cute little capcom references here and there. Andddddddd thats all I got positively. I didn't play the games before this so many I would care more about the story if I had, but MAN did I really not care for this game's story. Very predictable, forgettable characters, not very engaging. The voice acting is also just not very good. The game also def looks like a launch xbox one game so take that for what you will. Navigating the overworld is also a massive chore because missions are usually across the entire world and you have to get there in a poorly controlled car slowly from point A to point B. Playing this game with a friend also makes is incredibly fucking easy. You just jump the shit out of zombies and bosses. Side quests and stuff really aren't worth noting. This entire game is just sort of okay at best. Im pretty sure the only reason I enjoyed it is because I played it with a friend, but I would be lying if I said I didn't have some sort of fun with it. If you are going to play this game, play with a friend and just turn off your brain.

This game is fucking HEAVY on the wario land 4 influence. I mean I understand that's the whole point of this game but its VERY apparent. The way the music sounds, the goofy level transformations, the sounds, the level format, the gameplay. All of it combines to be an incredibly fun and enjoyable game that keeps you on your toes the entire time. This entire game is just so charming. The artstyle is wacky n goofy, the music is so fucking good, the humor of this game is great. The actual gameplay is so enjoyable. When you're going fast has an actual sense of like "Oh shit im going way too fast oh shit oh shit oh shit". My only real gripes with the game is the secrets are annoying as shit to find and its really short. But I mean the shortness can be forgiven a little because it's an indie game. I've followed this game for such a long time and to finally see it come out see how well its doing and how good it is makes me incredibly happy.

This game is sort of a reverse of yakuza 4. Cause while I thought the story of 4 was incredible, I thought the gameplay could be a better. This game is the opposite. The 5 characters are actually fun to play as (except 1), and the side content of this game is actually the best in the series. The 1 character that isn't fun is just lame and doesn't have very much depth to his style. Saejima actually feels good to play as in this game. I'm not sure if they just changed how he felt or I did something wrong in 4 but he's cool now. Akiyama and kiryu are akiyama and kiryu so they're obviously fun. Hakura was vey unexpected. I mean its a rhythm game breaking up an action beat em up game yet honestly it works pretty well. The side story minigames were pretty cool (especially kiryus) and a welcome addition, although I didn't do them much because this game took me FOREVER. I would've liked to do them more but I was growing impatient and just wanted to finish the game. The story in this game is just okay at best. 4 does the split paths crossing into one much better and all the different stories were just kind of tiring me out at that point. There were some really sweet heartfelt moments here and there but it wasn't enough to make me 100% invested like other games. The music also wasn't as strong as the last game, which isn't a dig at this games music it's still good. Just not AS good. So while the story was a little too long and convoluted for my liking, the gameplay was enough to keep me hooked on this series. Another yakuza banger.

This is the most fun I've had in any sports game ever. It stomps any madden game out there. The realistic boring gameplay that takes forever in madden is just gone. It's quick and nonstop. You just gotta go or you will DIE. Of course this game has SO much jank. You WILL fumble for no reason, drop the free-est passes on earth, intercept random things, AI will just absolutely not help or defend whatsoever, CPU will throw to ghost recievers. This one specific time I had the ball DESPAWN after my player caught it, didn't drop it, just straight despawn. But despite all the jank, its so much damn fun. A super face-paced janky arcade football game that every football fan should try.

This game honestly really surprised me. It has some of the coolest world and level designs in any mario game. Yet it's on the fucking Gameboy. The world's are only like 3 levels each but each one of those levels fit the theme of the world so well. I particularly liked the balls level in the toy mario zone. The enemies are also very unique and don't show up in like any other mario game. The thing is this is a Gameboy game and it can only do so much. There's only 2 power ups not counted the mushroom and star. It has like 3 songs and 6 total zones. This game has lots of potential but is ultimately held back by the fact its a Gameboy game.

And just like that this series bounces right the fuck back. I'm so glad this game doesn't play like absolute dogshit. It's actually fun to play! Well. Let's back up a second. Yakuza 4 means there are 4 playable characters for some reason. Akiyama is an incredibly fun start to this game with his fighting style being fun to control. Then it goes to saejima who is just sort of okay to play as. Who leads into Tanimura who is also just okay to play as. Which ends as kiryu who is always fun to play as. 2/4 characters are fun to play as while the others are just okay. So it loses me in the middle gameplay wise. But all my issues from 3 are gone. Enemies don't block as often, it actually feels like im powerful this time, and heat actions actually feel like they do damage. The story as always in these games is just spectacular. You would think having 4 characters would make it all over the place but no they actually managed to make it all intertwine very well. This games story is just twist after twist so thats pretty fun. This music this time around has a lot of jazz for no reason but it fucking rocks. Overall, a very good bounceback after 3 but still lacks a little in the gameplay.

Another one of the greatest games of all time. What can I say about this game that hasn't already been said. The things people have made for this game are beyond whatever the creators of this game intended. This shit you can do in this game is fucking insane. It's always an absolute blast to hop on this game. That is after you download like 30 gbs worth of mods and it takes 50 years to load into a game and even boot it up, all while the game tells you 500 things are broken. But besides those slight issues from old age this game is a masterpiece.

One of the greatest games of all time. No other skateboarding game comes even close to how good it feels just to skate. This game doesn't need an over the top style, any shoehorned gimmicks, or any other random thing like that. This game is just pure skateboarding at its finest. Sure there's the hall of meat stuff that's equally as fun. Jumping off of cliffs and breaking all your bones is always a blast, but it didn't even need it. The places to skate all feel like natural places to skate and all flow into each other incredibly well. None of these places feel like they were designed specifically for a dude to skate (except the skateparks obviously), they all feel like we are taking advantage of the landscape to skate. Of course you can always spawn in a couple ramps and rails to help you get the biggest line possible. The soundtrack is also fantastic with copyrighted songs that perfectly fit the mood. Of course the game is glitchy as hell, but it honestly adds to the fun of the game. Obviously a 23 year old game is bound to get stale but it's always just to pop in and play whenever you need to just sit back and relax.