"The world once shaped by the great will has come to an end.
It was a foregone conclusion. All is preordained.

If in spite of this you still have the will to fight, now is your chance to prove it."

This is a particularly difficult game for me to write about because I want to greedily compare and contrast every ballhair with the first title’s, just so I can diagnose exactly where my issues with it lie - why a game that is functionally so similar in DNA to one of my all-timers doesn’t hit the mark. Personally speakin, the long & short of it is that Dragon’s Dogma 2 is something of a sidegrade to the original title that distances itself too much from what I found spectacular about it to begin with.

Possibly my favourite element of Dragon’s Dogma 2 is one that could be felt from the moment you first gain control of your character. There’s a palpable heft to character locomotion, complimented by the multilayered textuality of the land itself & the threats of wrong turns into the unknown or slipping off a slick cliffside to your untimely demise - it leans wonderfully far into the concept of traversal being a battle unto itself. As was the case with DD1, being tasked to travel from safety to a marker deep into the fog of war is never a simple request. Goblins, ogres, harpies, and whoever else decides to grace you with their presence are waiting in the bushes to act as regular speedbumps to be carefully considered and planned for accordingly.

Where DD2 slips at this for me is in how little it reciprocates for what it demands. This is a sequel that has ballooned itself in scale to a dizzying near 5x the original map’s size, but hasn’t developed the enemy roster nor the environmental design acumen to make use of it. Take for instance that DD2 has fifty caves strewn around its tectonic world map, and I don’t think a single one is as impressive as one that could be found in DD1. Where the caves/dungeons in DD1 were concerned, there would be special objectives relevant to the overall story, a person you were going there on behalf of who represented a town or group, they would unlock shortcuts for faster world traversal and upon repeat visits you’d notice the location’s role in the world change for the denizens. They would be densely designed so that every corner was worth being scanned to the best of your ability for pickups, shortcuts, levers, climbing points - lending to the almost DnD-esque adventure core followed passionately by the game’s design. Hell, the locales would generally sound and look different too, built to purpose so as to become plausible enough to justify their utility in the world and lend credence to exploring them.

Compared to that, DD2 has shockingly little of this. Its myriad nondescript caves wallhugging the world could scarcely be five prefab rooms tied into a loop to house a few potions, or some equipment you could find at a store. No unique gimmicks or trials, only populated by a handful of gobbos and maybe a midboss as a treat. I feel that Dragonsbreath Tower was supposed to act as something of a callback to Bluemoon Tower from DD1 - it being a perilous journey across a handful of biomes towards a crumbling hanging dungeon that houses a flying peril, but it’s so bereft of pomp and confidence. A truly memetic core routine that made me think less of adventures and more of waypoints and upgrade materials. I want to use a Neuralyzer to remove BotW shrines from the face of the earth. And god why is none of the new music good.

DD2 implies at a big story, but to me it felt like nothing came together. I had no idea who anyone was supposed to be beyond Brant, Sven and Wilhelmina. DD1’s progression from Wyrmhunt -> Investigate the Cult -> Kill Grigori -> Deal with the Everfall -> Confront the Seneschal was great, and throughout all of that you kept up with characters like the King and got to see his downfall. The writing and delivery of the cult leader and Grigori himself far surpasses anything in DD2, despite having very similar subjects. Outpaced by DD1 in setpieces and pop-offs and thematics. There's barely any antagonistic people in the game and once you get to Battahl it feels as though the game trails off like it’s got dementia.

It's a completely different kind of design that, sure, encourages player freedom - but communicates it in this really loose way that I just don't care about. I spent much of my playthrough having no idea what I was doing besides wiping off the blank smudges of world map. What expounds this problem is that quest discoverability is astonishingly low here, oftentimes made worse by restricting itself to AI astrology, time of day, relationship levels (??). The duke could stand to commission a farcking quest board imo!!! I won’t kid myself and say that the quests in DD1 were even a bronze standard, but they worked and communicated exactly what they needed to do while also leaving open ends available for interpretation. But in DD2, they’re just awful, I absolutely hated the experience of trying to clear up Vermund’s quests before pushing Main Story progression and at this point I wish I cared as little as the game does. What need is there for almost all of them to have a “return to me in a few days” component in a game with such limited fast travel, do you want me to throw you into the brine? Frankly the game is never as interesting as when you're doing Sphinx riddles.

Combat’s good enough, I do enjoy how the interplay of systems would present the player with all sorts of unique situations, but even these can and do begin to feel samey when a very slim enemy pool on shuffle. What makes these emergent conflicts even less impressive to me is how I can't help but feel as though the ogres, trolls and chimeras in particular have had their difficulties neutered. The hardest time I had with the chimera was during a sidequest where you had to get the poison-lover to be doused in chimeric snake venom. They're barely a threat otherwise, and can either be chain stunlocked with well-placed shots or slashes, or get too lost in their own attack animations to really hit anyone. Comparing these enemies to DD1 where climbing was far more effective at dealing damage encouraged the player to get real up close to them and it felt like their AI knew how to deal with that. Like when I fought the Medusa it felt like they didn't have any idea where the party even was. I think if the hardest encounters the game has to offer is Too Many Goblins we have a problem. (Dullahan is very cool though)

I’m not miffed no matter how miffed I sound. When do people like me ever get sequels to games they love? I’ll tell u dear reader it’s Never. Dragon’s Dogma 2 is full of wonder & delight and I think anyone less fatigued by SCALE and SANDBOX than me has a home in it. I feel a little left behind, having spent 12 years wasting away in the waiting room rotating in my head the concepts DD1 confidently wields, and its further potential as a foundation for a sequel. A game that was absolutely 'for me', course correcting into sick-of-this-already airspace. I’ll be excited to see whatever news, expansions or the like the future holds for DD2. Right now, though? I think DD1 has a stronger jawline.

"I want to show you the truth, so you'll know how beautiful I am, and I'm trying to show you in a subtler way."

--- 我要大---

To play as a tribe warrior and a mysterious weirdo, adventuring in the world of gremlins.
You can have amazing experience in a fresh style.
It uses only excellent graphics for a new generation who seeks for the best taste enjoyment.
Good quality and great satisfaction guaranteed.
A new type of modified Unity-based product!
Don't hesitate to buy.
It will bring you happiness of gaming.

ᴹᴬᴰᴱ ᴵᴺ ᵀᴬᴵᵂᴬᴺ

Subnautica is one of those games.

A game that you think about even when you're not playing it. A game that takes over your brain and lives there for a bit. A game that makes you feel you're actually accomplishing something. A game with a purpose. A game that actually lets you discover things, wonderful things, terrifying things, all by yourself instead of forcing them on you like most other titles.

Subnautica is a game worthy of your time. It's a game that will last the ages. It's beautiful.

Play Subnautica.

There's really no other way to put it. This game (and possibly franchise) is morally and creatively bankrupt. Between the shallow depictions of mental health whether there's dramatic zooms of the protagonist self harming or even going as far to have chapters end with you jumping off a building and the following interludes flash a suicide hotline message until the level loads or the awkward anime dub tier voice acting berate you with insults or commentary on your surroundings because Konami needs to remind you this is in a fact a serious game and they're afraid of leaving things to interpretation, I fail to see how the 2 hours I spent with this tech demo can leave me anticipation of the upcoming Silent Hill 2 remake or "missing the point".

This whole experience ends up feeling like a parody of the thing it's trying to comment and I don't think that's the takeaway someone with diagnosed BPD should be feeling.

> A New Silent Hill game which is Free 2 Play!

Ok but What's the Catch?

> It's Shit and Unsubtle

Oh.

(Logged as a shoe-in for both the base Monster Hunter: World game, and the Iceborne expansion.)
Lavish & deathly exciting at practically all times - varied and expressive social MMO tissue connecting its numerous multi-layered terrariums of gorgeous arenas and silly monsties.

I do have some background with the series, with much history on Freedom Unite, and far less with the fantranslation of Portable 3rd + 3Ultimate at various points through highschool, and hit the credits of Rise. Freedom Unite came packed with FMV cutscenes that demonstrate how the monsters lived in their downtime - characterising the monsters to assure the player that they weren't merely thoughtless models with movesets to memorise, but individual links in the food chain with roles that keep the world biodiverse & strong.
It was always my favourite part of the game, and what felt like the series' missing hook to really sell me on the core conceit was in how this aspect is somewhat downplayed or unexplored.

By God's grace this was the kind of ecological focus MH:W absolutely relishes in. An interlinking tapestry of ecosystems ticking away, living & interacting in countless ways to make the New World feel so gd raw. And it's not just pageantry either, it plays into behaviours and environment interactions from traps to turf wars. So so so good to head out for a simple hunt to watch it blossom into a scrappy mess of tooth & claw, so so so good to go on aimless expedition to a zone and notice a new handful of behaviours from their endemic life. I’d not be able to sleep at night if I didn’t compliment the chefs on all of this, every monster in every zone is given so much purpose it’s inspiring.

One thing this series has always been great at is its environment design - the world of Monster Hunter is a land of plenty, and everything is blown out of proportion to match. You're eating sirloin steaks the size of your head, oyster side dishes that can feed an army. The tooth you built your hammer out of can sink a ship. Zones and skyboxes that coil across different unique biomes rich in visual stimuli, adding heaps of context for the world and how things are as they are. Pan the camera up at any point and you can assuredly see a spire of choral, ice or crystal towering over you from what appears to be a mile away. Hoarfrost Reach is gorgeous I need to live there NOW.

Moment to moment combat is of course good as hell. I love that it’s slow and weighty enough to separate it from a more typical Capcom character action affair. Even with the amassing layers of QoL the series has glazed itself with, World still focuses on hefty player move commitment and punishment. Every weapon here feels great and each individually recontextualises your approach to any fight, but I found a home with the Dual Blades I’m afraid. I love these stupid ale blades man!!! Basically adored the progression right up until the Furious Rajang, where the game takes a very steep swerve into grind and Raid-like Design territory I find catatonic & diagnostic. The Fatalis fight is so much fun I wish I could solo it 😢

Yo what's up MTV, it's Lieutenant Commander Beach and I'd like to welcome you into my crib

There's nothing here to really sweep me off my feet, but I'm definitely taken by certain aspects of this game's presentation. Seeing a rudimentary 3d simulation from select viewpoints inside of your curated little 2d sprite cockpit is sick beyond actual belief in my humble. I would love to see the vignette captured in a new game with the incredible things we can now do with shaders on sprites.

Some cool tech & snappy gameplay trapped in Free-to-play hell. We talk a lot about games being tied to & shaped by their technology but little about how they’re shaped, and hollowed out, by their revenue model: GaaS “living games” are released (and shut down) before there is any life in them.

The Finals contains the movement & sugary energy of nu-battlefield (post-Battlefield 1) wrapped in the most horrid vibes: Forza Horizon-esque npcs at their infinite party, Siege/Valorant/Hyperscape-adjacent esports mush. Embark has managed to make Unreal resemble Frostbite, including impressive physics & destruction that echoes the chaos of bad company 2, but it’s all wasted here.

Even for a tight competitive shooter, this needs a more fleshed out setting, either leaning further into the surreal elements (bodies exploding into coins) or situating it in a world that is more than a watered down squid-game/mirror's edge/DICE's entire catalog. Feels like a very polished tech-demo and I refuse to play 100 hours to unlock interesting mechanics or outfits, which has led to every character running around in the default tracksuit/pyjamas. And don't get me started on the AI voices.

I am cautiously optimistic about embark’s other beautiful but empty sci-fi project, ARC raiders, which has seemingly transformed into yet another extraction shooter.

https://i.imgur.com/AbGZYCb.png
Game's heavier than a honey baked ham!!!
For every moment in Yakuza 5 that lead me into thinking I was playing an untamed vortex of passion and uncompromised vision, there were two-to-five other uncomplimentary moments that felt like spinning plates and taking the meandering narrative for walkies. Spreads its roots far & wide across so many ideas and gameplay concepts that, on paper, scans as a maximalist daydream I'd love to lose myself in, but all of it feels so perfunctory and checklisty. Fifty different minigames to micromanage and level up in individually to access Harder Levels of said minigames - - - Vidcon Gospel since time immemoria but my patience has limits :(

Haruka's chapter was probably my personal standout, if only with thanks to how vastly different her story played to any character to come before. The rhythm battles were so fun albeit with the game's slim tracklist, and her substories took on a refreshing dynamic too. The combat in these games has never impressed me but I'd much rather play an unimpressive rhythm game than a brawler I've lost heart in. From a narrative perspective, it is infuriatingly complacent with the practices Japanese idol industry in a way I find legitimately toothless in a series that tends to dedicate fisticuffs to rooting out corruption and it makes Haruka's characterisation weaker as a result.
When came the Shinada chapter I was desperately hoping the end credits would finally begin to roll, which is a shame because he and Koichi's dynamic is probably my favourite spark of character chemistry in the entire series.

I in complete honesty couldn't tell you a single thing that happened in the final hours. This was a game I had started months ago and it rather hilariously demanded for me to recall with perfect clarity a cloak and dagger conspiracy that happened in the initial chapters. The overarching story was a wash for me but I much preferred when the leading cast were locked in their own little bubbles, & exploring their own vignettes about dreams lost & worth aspiring 4. Truly believe that in another world, this would have been a younger me's One Playstation 3 Game For The Month and I'd have completely melted into it - but sadly, I had to play this in incredibly granular sessions that largely felt like clocking in for community service.

Disclaimer: There's no Spoiler tag on this, and while I'll refrain from spoiling story details for Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name, I will be discussing spoilers for Yakuza 6 and 7, and would recommend avoiding this review if you haven't played through those games


I wasn't sure what I was getting into here. I'd avoided pretty much every piece of coverage after the initial teaser trailer. I was expecting something of a Ground Zeroes. A little Yakuza to present a few new story threads and warm us up for 8. I was also very willing to skip it entirely. I didn't like the idea.

I felt Yakuza 6 left Kazuma Kiryu with a perfect out, and he'd more than earned it. He'd been through more than his share of hardship. It was enough to make The Dragon want to retire, man. We saw him as a new grandparent, making friends at his new local, joining in with the baseball team, and finding happiness in his peaceful new life. He was going to be alright, and it was a lovely way to say goodbye to a character we've all grown so fond of. I knew he'd be back eventually, but I had hoped they'd work a little for it. Like when shit got really real, and more than our new protagonists could handle, he'd emerge from the shadows to bring back justice. Kazuma Kiryu was the nuclear option. When he appeared in 7, I wasn't thrilled with it, but as a means of passing the torch to Ichiban Kasuga, and tie us back to the old side-characters, I accepted it. And I've seen a lot of fans take issue with 7's gameplay, but the game did terrifically well both commercially and critically, and Kasuga wasn't a Raiden. Most people actually seemed happy with him. I had faith that they wouldn't run back to Uncle Kaz to do another game.

It's a shock that Gaiden justifies this seemingly cynical decision. It was naive to suggest Kazuma Kiryu could live a life in peace and obscurity. The people who were securing his identity and the safety of Sunshine Orphanage would want him to do something for them. Like beat up a bunch of guys. To the yakuza, he's as recognisable as Elvis Presley, and even fewer of his fans believe he's dead. It's very in-character with Kazuma's sense of honour and ludicrous, straight-laced forthrightness, that he wouldn't do more to hide his face than wear a pair of sunglasses. He didn't even change his shaving pattern. Gaiden risks disrespecting the fans who bought the Song of Life After Hours Edition who wanted to toast the man's departure with a dram from an officially licensed glass, but there's a genuine reason to keep his story going. We didn't really know him well enough.

Gaiden is a shorter Yakuza game. That still puts it around 20+ hours, and it hasn't lost any of its interest in side-content. There's five whole late-nineties Sega arcade games to play, for a start. Gaiden mainly takes place in Yakuza 2's Dotonbori Sotenbori, it's one of the series' smaller maps, though it's becoming increasingly comparable to Kamurocho-levels of familiarity. It's long worn off its novelty, but it's a decent location to structure a more modest entry around. Side-missions are dished out by new character, Akame, and has you carrying out favours all across town. It gives them a bit more structure and narrative justification than nebulous experience point systems, and I welcome the change. Akame's a lot of fun, and I don't think she's leaving the series anytime soon.

Another surprise - I think Gaiden has the best fights. Maybe it's the shorter length of the game to thank, but it's nice to have an entry where Kazuma doesn't start the game feeling far crapper than he did at the end of the prior one. And now he's got a bunch of spy bullshit to play with. It's inherently silly, and there's a couple of big laughs when he pulls out the Spider-Man shit during otherwise serious fight sequences, but it's a lot of fun to play around with.

I think the relief of playing a somewhat breezier entry (particularly after the overstuffed Ishin) has a lot of fans giving the game maybe a little too much credit. I am pretty tired of the Osaka map, and I was hoping to spend more of the game in any of the series' other locations. Yakuza really benefits from tighter pacing, though. I'm quite used to playing a thrilling Act 1, and then spending a full week trying to get to the exciting stuff again. I dropped out of Judgment before the hypothetical "fun bit" started. I'm, again, avoiding all the pre-release 8 coverage, but I have heard it's intended to be the biggest game in the series, and that's making me quite weary.

Anyway. He's back, and they've convinced me that's the right decision. If you're new to the series, perhaps annoyed that I keep calling it "Yakuza", I don't think you really need this one. It's a side-story for the Kazuma Kiryu fans, but also one that pays off on some recent plot threads that 7 merely glossed over. If you started these games multiple console generations ago, and you're still willing to continue, this could be the thing that brings back the passion. It is more than a prologue for 8. Sega are kind of taking the piss with all the money they're getting out of us, though.