2020
Really cool game barring some issues that come from trying to adapt Dungeons and Dragons into a video game!
Playing through this game I was repeatedly impressed by the level of creativity I could use in my approach to nearly (NEARLY) every aspect of the game and in narrative situations the game was prepared for what I did, dialogue included. It feels like playing through a tabletop campaign (for the most part) with great visuals and the world feels lived in instead of in service to the player.
Gameplay wise its a great time. I love turn based strategy games and the different ways I can approach combat situations makes each one feel unique. Sure I can just charge into battle, cast spells, and kill everyone. Or I can fly up to a high vantage point and use arrows that push everyone away to throw 4 guys off of a cliff. Everyone's seen the clips of bosses getting nuked by 500 exploding barrels or whatever those are fun BUT that's just part of it, the world is your oyster. I do however wish that the game better prepared you for all of the BIG Act 3 encounters. Each of them has a gimmick attached to them that, up until your first one, has not been something you've exposed to in previous encounters. They're not too difficult to figure out, especially if you've done big raid fights in games like World of Warcraft but the spike in difficulty does feel a bit out of nowhere. The fights are a lot of fun though, even if the Cazador fight was horribly frustrating until I figured out how to cheese it. From a roleplay perspective the gameplay didn't really open up for my character, a bard that was not combat focused at all, until Act 3. I had opportunities before to talk characters into and out of things with my high charisma but being able to busk on the streets of the Lower City was a lot of fun, even more fun when it was just a distraction for Astarion to sneak away and steal something that I couldn't steal by myself.
The game's narrative is (mostly) good. The first act establishes the Origin characters well with their own lives and stories that really feel like they existed before you came along and the big battle at the grove feels like a major turning point for your character with the subsequent party being your characters last real moment before things really kick in. Act 2 does a great job at establishing Ketheric Thorm as the big bad guy of the area, while fleshing out the conflict as you continue your journey. Act 3 is where things really feel open as you get a sprawling city packed with people, stories, and resolutions to most of your party members stories. I liked a lot of these! people confronting their abusers, learning the truth of their reality, coming to terms with their life and choices. All great stuff! I just wish the actual ending of the game held up in that regard.
The overall writing of the game is impressive as well, I was regularly surprised at what was actually put into the game and voice acted as a response to my actions. Whether its causing a mess in a store, beating people up, OR stealing an item that a character is supposed to give you and they actually notice its gone and then react accordingly. Small details that most people would look over and wouldn't make the game worse if they weren't there but they're there!
Hey the negative, its not a totally perfect game. It's limited by the system it uses and is further limited by development time and the scope of a video game. Most of my gripes come from times that I wished I could do more than the game had in it. I didn't like that if I wanted to save the Tieflings, I had to side with the Druids. I did not care about the druids but they had a big set piece that I was railroaded into, and while the later segments that also did this weren't as frustrating to me it still hurts as someone who likes to play non-combat focused characters in D&D. Skills like Disguise Self are mostly useless as you just turn into a character of a different race. Good for not taking the blame for theft or talking to a dead body but not much else. Fighting people with Non-Lethal damage rarely has any practical use beyond a handful of encounters or if you're fighting off people you stole from otherwise the game just counts them as Dead. A lot of the game does fall apart in Act 3 even if it's the most interesting act of the game. Quests that don't have real resolutions, softlocking out of certain areas that you have to look up guides on how to get to. They've fixed some stuff and hopefully the post-launch support fixes those issues. Lastly that ending is a dud, following a giant battle you get a few lines of dialogue from all the origin characters in your party that are relevant to the outcome of their personal quest and then it rolls credits. It doesn't feel like a conclusion for anyone! I got the patched in Karlach cutscene but like, Let me have a party with everyone? let everyone enjoy a final night together before they go separate ways? really odd. Hope its patched in or DLC or something? I would like to feel like my time with them is over or a new adventure is just around the corner instead of like. The DM realizing they have to work earlier than they thought tomorrow and we'll finish the conclusion next session (that keeps getting rescheduled)
Great game though! recommend it to anyone even slightly curious about it!
Playing through this game I was repeatedly impressed by the level of creativity I could use in my approach to nearly (NEARLY) every aspect of the game and in narrative situations the game was prepared for what I did, dialogue included. It feels like playing through a tabletop campaign (for the most part) with great visuals and the world feels lived in instead of in service to the player.
Gameplay wise its a great time. I love turn based strategy games and the different ways I can approach combat situations makes each one feel unique. Sure I can just charge into battle, cast spells, and kill everyone. Or I can fly up to a high vantage point and use arrows that push everyone away to throw 4 guys off of a cliff. Everyone's seen the clips of bosses getting nuked by 500 exploding barrels or whatever those are fun BUT that's just part of it, the world is your oyster. I do however wish that the game better prepared you for all of the BIG Act 3 encounters. Each of them has a gimmick attached to them that, up until your first one, has not been something you've exposed to in previous encounters. They're not too difficult to figure out, especially if you've done big raid fights in games like World of Warcraft but the spike in difficulty does feel a bit out of nowhere. The fights are a lot of fun though, even if the Cazador fight was horribly frustrating until I figured out how to cheese it. From a roleplay perspective the gameplay didn't really open up for my character, a bard that was not combat focused at all, until Act 3. I had opportunities before to talk characters into and out of things with my high charisma but being able to busk on the streets of the Lower City was a lot of fun, even more fun when it was just a distraction for Astarion to sneak away and steal something that I couldn't steal by myself.
The game's narrative is (mostly) good. The first act establishes the Origin characters well with their own lives and stories that really feel like they existed before you came along and the big battle at the grove feels like a major turning point for your character with the subsequent party being your characters last real moment before things really kick in. Act 2 does a great job at establishing Ketheric Thorm as the big bad guy of the area, while fleshing out the conflict as you continue your journey. Act 3 is where things really feel open as you get a sprawling city packed with people, stories, and resolutions to most of your party members stories. I liked a lot of these! people confronting their abusers, learning the truth of their reality, coming to terms with their life and choices. All great stuff! I just wish the actual ending of the game held up in that regard.
The overall writing of the game is impressive as well, I was regularly surprised at what was actually put into the game and voice acted as a response to my actions. Whether its causing a mess in a store, beating people up, OR stealing an item that a character is supposed to give you and they actually notice its gone and then react accordingly. Small details that most people would look over and wouldn't make the game worse if they weren't there but they're there!
Hey the negative, its not a totally perfect game. It's limited by the system it uses and is further limited by development time and the scope of a video game. Most of my gripes come from times that I wished I could do more than the game had in it. I didn't like that if I wanted to save the Tieflings, I had to side with the Druids. I did not care about the druids but they had a big set piece that I was railroaded into, and while the later segments that also did this weren't as frustrating to me it still hurts as someone who likes to play non-combat focused characters in D&D. Skills like Disguise Self are mostly useless as you just turn into a character of a different race. Good for not taking the blame for theft or talking to a dead body but not much else. Fighting people with Non-Lethal damage rarely has any practical use beyond a handful of encounters or if you're fighting off people you stole from otherwise the game just counts them as Dead. A lot of the game does fall apart in Act 3 even if it's the most interesting act of the game. Quests that don't have real resolutions, softlocking out of certain areas that you have to look up guides on how to get to. They've fixed some stuff and hopefully the post-launch support fixes those issues. Lastly that ending is a dud, following a giant battle you get a few lines of dialogue from all the origin characters in your party that are relevant to the outcome of their personal quest and then it rolls credits. It doesn't feel like a conclusion for anyone! I got the patched in Karlach cutscene but like, Let me have a party with everyone? let everyone enjoy a final night together before they go separate ways? really odd. Hope its patched in or DLC or something? I would like to feel like my time with them is over or a new adventure is just around the corner instead of like. The DM realizing they have to work earlier than they thought tomorrow and we'll finish the conclusion next session (that keeps getting rescheduled)
Great game though! recommend it to anyone even slightly curious about it!
2022
glad that this wasn't COMPLETELY just "haha NEETs are cool"
you gotta be on too many unfortunate levels of Being Online for this to be legible but nice that, at least with the true(?) good ending there's stuff about wanting to work out of being stuck in that sort of life habit
you gotta be on too many unfortunate levels of Being Online for this to be legible but nice that, at least with the true(?) good ending there's stuff about wanting to work out of being stuck in that sort of life habit
2012
Tokyo Jungle might be the fastest I've ever been sold on a video game from just a trailer. An incredibly interesting and fun game that deserves some kind of update, port, or sequel.
It's a shame Sony's mission now is to just create cinematic third-person over the shoulder action adventure dramas because titles like Tokyo Jungle alongside the majority of Japan Studios library highlight what made the Playstation stand on its own instead of being THE third party console.
It's a shame Sony's mission now is to just create cinematic third-person over the shoulder action adventure dramas because titles like Tokyo Jungle alongside the majority of Japan Studios library highlight what made the Playstation stand on its own instead of being THE third party console.
went ahead and bought the upgrade to the Paid version, and the paid version opens this up from a fun little wrestling simulator to something truly special. Somehow they're able to replicate the "One More Turn" of Civiliazation or "After my next plot is finished" from Crusader Kings to keep me playing this for hours whenever I type the website into my browser.
also works on mobile so you can be the Bookerman wherever you go!
also works on mobile so you can be the Bookerman wherever you go!
2024
A pretty bog-standard Survival Crafting game that crashes every 20 minutes with anime critters tacked on for the crowd who wants a "Mature Pokemon game". If you've played Ark or The Forest or Conan: Exiles or Grounded or Valheim or any of the other 5000 games out there like it you've played this. The novelty of having the Pals around the world wears off pretty quick as you spend time chopping down trees to build fires and foraging for berries to refill that hunger meter. The Pals have some cute/interesting designs sometimes but the way you use them in the world isn't comparable to a
Pokemon game. Just a lazy asset flip survival craft game like Craftopia was
Pokemon game. Just a lazy asset flip survival craft game like Craftopia was
2023
Great piece about the importance of music and art.
Edit after I 100% the game: I abhore the notion of "post-game" in almost any game. There is no post game, the game is over when you're done with it or when the credits roll. Don't give me 5 more hours of narrative after the credits that I gotta do. The gameplay loop following the conclusion is better than anything its main inspiration has done or will do.
A really fun little game! Well worth the $20 price tag or checking out on Xbox Game Pass. I worked at a record store for 2 years so themeing everything around physical media and music is already enough to peak my interest, and hey the music here is great. The variation of music is nice and I really love how they bring in vocals to the score at times to make the piece feel really more impactful.
The biggest standout for me when starting this up is how this game addresses the problems I ahve with most games that take inspiration from Pokemon. So many Not-Pokemon Pokemon have the designs of "we have pokemon at home". The designs here are great! I enjoy seeing these little critters and watching them transform. It also deviates from Pokemon with how its typing system works. Instead of just creating its own rock-paper-scissors they opted to have types affect other types. Ever wondered why Charizard doesn't melt Ice pokemon? Why doesn't Blastoise make the Ice type bigger? This adds more to think about to the combat and you can approach things differently in a way that just casually playing Pokemon doesn't really let you do (no one's using trick room strats against gym leaders) but there's not just pokemon it draws influence from. Taking cues from SMT/Persona you're also leveling up your character separate from the monsters, leading to really fun quick battles where you obliterate their starter and ALSO the person transforming into the monsters. Fusion stuff is neat too though I'm not smart enough to truly use it to my advantage.
Narrative is light but fun enough, a run-of-the-mill isekai story where you're trying to get back home. All your companions have issues they're running away from and hint at through the adventure but is made more interesting as you start to realize that people aren't just from different time periods but alternate histories in general. It's fun watching as the absurdities of this world start to unravel more as you play, You can battle against a greek philosopher its great. They're romanceable as well if you're into that. I just wish there was more to the narrative to make the ending sequence have more impact.
Funny enough like the big problem I have with the latest entry in Pokemon is that following the tutorial segments the game sets you up with an implication that it's a large open world and you're free to explore however you want. With that being proven untrue pretty quickly by gating you off with monster levels and needing specific skills from catching specific monsters to progress past certain points. Really frustrating to find a quest interesting but have to wait awhile to even touch it because you can't catch a beast you need to get past the obstacles in the way. The other major issue for me is how Not Fun the main boss fights are. I have a big problem when RPGs let me equip my guys with a bunch of skills but the skills aren't usable against bosses. This is increased by the main big bad bosses not having any typing or visual indicator or heads up as to what might be helpful against the Archangels so more often than anything I'd just get destroyed the first attempt and be annoyed and go somewhere else until I wanted to try again.
I'm hoping the planned DLC gives me more fun adventures in this world and isn't just more monsters to record. I have a punk british gf I want to watch more movies with.
Edit after I 100% the game: I abhore the notion of "post-game" in almost any game. There is no post game, the game is over when you're done with it or when the credits roll. Don't give me 5 more hours of narrative after the credits that I gotta do. The gameplay loop following the conclusion is better than anything its main inspiration has done or will do.
A really fun little game! Well worth the $20 price tag or checking out on Xbox Game Pass. I worked at a record store for 2 years so themeing everything around physical media and music is already enough to peak my interest, and hey the music here is great. The variation of music is nice and I really love how they bring in vocals to the score at times to make the piece feel really more impactful.
The biggest standout for me when starting this up is how this game addresses the problems I ahve with most games that take inspiration from Pokemon. So many Not-Pokemon Pokemon have the designs of "we have pokemon at home". The designs here are great! I enjoy seeing these little critters and watching them transform. It also deviates from Pokemon with how its typing system works. Instead of just creating its own rock-paper-scissors they opted to have types affect other types. Ever wondered why Charizard doesn't melt Ice pokemon? Why doesn't Blastoise make the Ice type bigger? This adds more to think about to the combat and you can approach things differently in a way that just casually playing Pokemon doesn't really let you do (no one's using trick room strats against gym leaders) but there's not just pokemon it draws influence from. Taking cues from SMT/Persona you're also leveling up your character separate from the monsters, leading to really fun quick battles where you obliterate their starter and ALSO the person transforming into the monsters. Fusion stuff is neat too though I'm not smart enough to truly use it to my advantage.
Narrative is light but fun enough, a run-of-the-mill isekai story where you're trying to get back home. All your companions have issues they're running away from and hint at through the adventure but is made more interesting as you start to realize that people aren't just from different time periods but alternate histories in general. It's fun watching as the absurdities of this world start to unravel more as you play, You can battle against a greek philosopher its great. They're romanceable as well if you're into that. I just wish there was more to the narrative to make the ending sequence have more impact.
Funny enough like the big problem I have with the latest entry in Pokemon is that following the tutorial segments the game sets you up with an implication that it's a large open world and you're free to explore however you want. With that being proven untrue pretty quickly by gating you off with monster levels and needing specific skills from catching specific monsters to progress past certain points. Really frustrating to find a quest interesting but have to wait awhile to even touch it because you can't catch a beast you need to get past the obstacles in the way. The other major issue for me is how Not Fun the main boss fights are. I have a big problem when RPGs let me equip my guys with a bunch of skills but the skills aren't usable against bosses. This is increased by the main big bad bosses not having any typing or visual indicator or heads up as to what might be helpful against the Archangels so more often than anything I'd just get destroyed the first attempt and be annoyed and go somewhere else until I wanted to try again.
I'm hoping the planned DLC gives me more fun adventures in this world and isn't just more monsters to record. I have a punk british gf I want to watch more movies with.
2023
PLAYED WITH A CUTSCENE RESTORATION MOD
I realize that comparing this to the other entries is doing a bit of a disservice to all of the games but I can't help it, sorry in advance.
Despite having just finished this game after 90 or so hours, I hope the rumored Persona 3 Remake is happening. There's a lot I liked about this game, and a lot I wanted to like about it but one thing or another got in the way. After Persona 4 Golden I wanted more adventures with the Investigation Team, I'd grown endeared to all the characters and the bond they shared going through the events of the game and the bright path forward they had realizing their true selves. After Persona 5 Royal I felt like my time with the Phantom Thieves had a nice ending, everyone figured out their plans for the future and felt like they'd do well on their own going into the future. After the credits rolled and I hit the title screen of P3P, I wanted to revisit the year spent in Tatsumi Port Island. I get the feeling a lot of the interactions hit differently after having gone through The Journey, and want to see what I missed or what ominious dialogue awaits. More than the others I played Persona 3 really feels like the one to be played through multiple times. I'd love to play it again. There's just one issue.
Tartarus fucking sucks.
Tartarus actively worked against my enjoyment of getting through this game. It was such a draining feeling getting through the month, spending time with social links, taking care of the shadow from the full moon, getting more story progression, and then realizing I had more floors to clear. While Persona 5's snappy combat helped me get through the parts of the story I felt were unsatisfying and did not care about. The combat here is fine, I really enjoyed the full moon set pieces like the Love Hotel which is where I imagine is what Atlus used to eventually design the palaces in P4. The boss fights in this are really cool, even the last boss which had me stressed through most of the fight. I'm not even a guy who thinks you have to rush through the palaces to get back to the social sim aspect of the game (I still do all of it on the first day just for efficiency but I do really like the combat in all the persona games). Tartarus is just miserable. Mementos from P5R makes more sense to me now having run through Tartarus and that was one of my least favorite things in 5. Uninteresting floor design, unresponsive strikes in the overworld leading to constant enemy first attacks that put you at a disadvantage immediately. Tons of enemies with no weaknesses besides Hama and Mudo which even if they're weak it still misses 75% of the time wasting tons of SP. Pseudo-Boss fights every 12 floors or so that are scaled horribly. I melted story bosses but every time I'd encounter one of these fights, even if it was the first one of a new block I'd usually get hit with some OTK combo for the first 3 or 4 attempts before getting some RNG that helped me live past turn one. I'm not even sure how they could fix it in a remake but it really outclasses every other issue I had, and by a lot.
I'm not sure how I feel about the story in this game either. I love December and January, they compliment the themes of the game perfectly. I just wish that April through November carried that same weight. October is where it starts to get there but the wheels didn't really feel like they were turning until the full moon in Dec. It might undercut the idea behind the social link system but I just wish I got more time spent with everyone in S.E.E.S. just getting to be teenagers. It's the same issue I had with the Phantom Thieves. Our cast is so preoccupied with the conflict presented that they don't get to enjoy their time together. Which, with the ending of the game I understand it's about how you use your time to forge those bonds but even then a LOT of the social links are lacking that I just want to hang out with everyone more than I really got to, even with what's there I didn't get enough with my teammates. Part of this is probably by design, and the other part is because half of the team's social links is locked behind a second playthrough as the opposite sex. I hope if that remake is real, I get more fleshed out social links. I would've cared more for the big moments with Ken, Shinjiro, Junpei, and Akihiko if they weren't locked behind a 2nd playthrough. Some of my other narrative gripes would require a restructuring of the whole story and while that would be cool I don't expect it and it's not really necessary. Those last two months are better than anything in 5, and the ending has hit me harder than the endings of both 5R and 4G.
I didn't mind the visual novel presentation of it, I did install a mod that restores cutscenes but otherwise it was fine. I never felt like exploring Inaba or Shibuya added much to the experience, though ymmv. Maybe it is more limiting and affected my enjoyment of it.
If that remake doesn't get announced over the summer at any point I'll be playing The Answer later this year when I can handle hearing BABYBABYBABYBABYBABYBABYBABY again. I also plan on watching the movies to see if I prefer the story presented that way, after sitting with this ending some more. I want to like this game more than I actually did, but that could change with time. Maybe this game would've hit harder if I played it at a different time in my life.
I realize that comparing this to the other entries is doing a bit of a disservice to all of the games but I can't help it, sorry in advance.
Despite having just finished this game after 90 or so hours, I hope the rumored Persona 3 Remake is happening. There's a lot I liked about this game, and a lot I wanted to like about it but one thing or another got in the way. After Persona 4 Golden I wanted more adventures with the Investigation Team, I'd grown endeared to all the characters and the bond they shared going through the events of the game and the bright path forward they had realizing their true selves. After Persona 5 Royal I felt like my time with the Phantom Thieves had a nice ending, everyone figured out their plans for the future and felt like they'd do well on their own going into the future. After the credits rolled and I hit the title screen of P3P, I wanted to revisit the year spent in Tatsumi Port Island. I get the feeling a lot of the interactions hit differently after having gone through The Journey, and want to see what I missed or what ominious dialogue awaits. More than the others I played Persona 3 really feels like the one to be played through multiple times. I'd love to play it again. There's just one issue.
Tartarus fucking sucks.
Tartarus actively worked against my enjoyment of getting through this game. It was such a draining feeling getting through the month, spending time with social links, taking care of the shadow from the full moon, getting more story progression, and then realizing I had more floors to clear. While Persona 5's snappy combat helped me get through the parts of the story I felt were unsatisfying and did not care about. The combat here is fine, I really enjoyed the full moon set pieces like the Love Hotel which is where I imagine is what Atlus used to eventually design the palaces in P4. The boss fights in this are really cool, even the last boss which had me stressed through most of the fight. I'm not even a guy who thinks you have to rush through the palaces to get back to the social sim aspect of the game (I still do all of it on the first day just for efficiency but I do really like the combat in all the persona games). Tartarus is just miserable. Mementos from P5R makes more sense to me now having run through Tartarus and that was one of my least favorite things in 5. Uninteresting floor design, unresponsive strikes in the overworld leading to constant enemy first attacks that put you at a disadvantage immediately. Tons of enemies with no weaknesses besides Hama and Mudo which even if they're weak it still misses 75% of the time wasting tons of SP. Pseudo-Boss fights every 12 floors or so that are scaled horribly. I melted story bosses but every time I'd encounter one of these fights, even if it was the first one of a new block I'd usually get hit with some OTK combo for the first 3 or 4 attempts before getting some RNG that helped me live past turn one. I'm not even sure how they could fix it in a remake but it really outclasses every other issue I had, and by a lot.
I'm not sure how I feel about the story in this game either. I love December and January, they compliment the themes of the game perfectly. I just wish that April through November carried that same weight. October is where it starts to get there but the wheels didn't really feel like they were turning until the full moon in Dec. It might undercut the idea behind the social link system but I just wish I got more time spent with everyone in S.E.E.S. just getting to be teenagers. It's the same issue I had with the Phantom Thieves. Our cast is so preoccupied with the conflict presented that they don't get to enjoy their time together. Which, with the ending of the game I understand it's about how you use your time to forge those bonds but even then a LOT of the social links are lacking that I just want to hang out with everyone more than I really got to, even with what's there I didn't get enough with my teammates. Part of this is probably by design, and the other part is because half of the team's social links is locked behind a second playthrough as the opposite sex. I hope if that remake is real, I get more fleshed out social links. I would've cared more for the big moments with Ken, Shinjiro, Junpei, and Akihiko if they weren't locked behind a 2nd playthrough. Some of my other narrative gripes would require a restructuring of the whole story and while that would be cool I don't expect it and it's not really necessary. Those last two months are better than anything in 5, and the ending has hit me harder than the endings of both 5R and 4G.
I didn't mind the visual novel presentation of it, I did install a mod that restores cutscenes but otherwise it was fine. I never felt like exploring Inaba or Shibuya added much to the experience, though ymmv. Maybe it is more limiting and affected my enjoyment of it.
If that remake doesn't get announced over the summer at any point I'll be playing The Answer later this year when I can handle hearing BABYBABYBABYBABYBABYBABYBABY again. I also plan on watching the movies to see if I prefer the story presented that way, after sitting with this ending some more. I want to like this game more than I actually did, but that could change with time. Maybe this game would've hit harder if I played it at a different time in my life.
You know how shonen movies are just an arc condensed into a 90 minute format? this is the video game equivalent of that. A quick adventure with your pal Joryu thats a great sendoff for Kiryu in a leading role, assuming we don't get more in the future.
The majority of the games in the franchise are written in a way that you can pick up any of them as your first one and have a good time and know whats going on. This might be the only one that isn't that way. It's a short parallel story to Yakuza: Like A Dragon, with so much dialogue calling back to things you should already know about and so many substories and side activities paying tribute to all the adventures Kiryu has gone through over the years it's a bit refreshing that the game isn't scared to acknowledge the history. After all he is a Multi-Decade Pocket Circuit Champion.
Gameplay wise this is the best the dragon engine action combat has ever felt ( I played Lost Judgment on an Xbox One S so that could be better on a system that runs it at 60fps) Kiryu's Dragon stance is back with the Yakuza style and feels better than ever while his new Agent style is a flashy style that's similar to his old rush style but with some fun gadgets thrown in. Kiryu is also really strong from the jump, there's still upgrades to grab but it doesn't feel like nearly as much of a slog as it did in the past to get this legendary former yakuza back to his strength. Really filling in the gamer power fantasy with this one.
Towards the end of Yakuza: Like a Dragon I felt that it was a really poor decision to have Kiryu pop-in and have a "Passing of the Torch" moment with Ichiban, especially with how much he went through in 6 considering he was done with the Yakuza for good and had to live in hiding to protect the kids at Morning Glory. I think it would've made more sense for him to lay low for awhile and MAYBE make an appearance in 8. It felt like they didn't have confidence in their writing of their new protagonist at all. After playing The Man Who Erased His Name? I still think that it was a poor choice but I'm glad they fleshed out what got him there to make it a little more palletable. It's a quick journey that explains what lead to him being at the dissolution of the Omi Alliance and Tojo Clan, and sets the stage for Infinite Wealth being in Hawaii. It's a perfectly servicable LAD story, if it was dragged out to a usual games length it would've overstayed its welcome but here it's great. Love a good parallel between Kiryu and his antagonists and this game might also have the best one yet. Really though the shining moment of this game's story is the ending, one that couldn't work without the characters near twenty year history at this point and it comes close to making up for a lot of the gripes I've had about Kiryu's stories since Yakuza 3. Genuinely I think its the most emotional moment any of these games have ever had. Can't wait to play 8.
The majority of the games in the franchise are written in a way that you can pick up any of them as your first one and have a good time and know whats going on. This might be the only one that isn't that way. It's a short parallel story to Yakuza: Like A Dragon, with so much dialogue calling back to things you should already know about and so many substories and side activities paying tribute to all the adventures Kiryu has gone through over the years it's a bit refreshing that the game isn't scared to acknowledge the history. After all he is a Multi-Decade Pocket Circuit Champion.
Gameplay wise this is the best the dragon engine action combat has ever felt ( I played Lost Judgment on an Xbox One S so that could be better on a system that runs it at 60fps) Kiryu's Dragon stance is back with the Yakuza style and feels better than ever while his new Agent style is a flashy style that's similar to his old rush style but with some fun gadgets thrown in. Kiryu is also really strong from the jump, there's still upgrades to grab but it doesn't feel like nearly as much of a slog as it did in the past to get this legendary former yakuza back to his strength. Really filling in the gamer power fantasy with this one.
Towards the end of Yakuza: Like a Dragon I felt that it was a really poor decision to have Kiryu pop-in and have a "Passing of the Torch" moment with Ichiban, especially with how much he went through in 6 considering he was done with the Yakuza for good and had to live in hiding to protect the kids at Morning Glory. I think it would've made more sense for him to lay low for awhile and MAYBE make an appearance in 8. It felt like they didn't have confidence in their writing of their new protagonist at all. After playing The Man Who Erased His Name? I still think that it was a poor choice but I'm glad they fleshed out what got him there to make it a little more palletable. It's a quick journey that explains what lead to him being at the dissolution of the Omi Alliance and Tojo Clan, and sets the stage for Infinite Wealth being in Hawaii. It's a perfectly servicable LAD story, if it was dragged out to a usual games length it would've overstayed its welcome but here it's great. Love a good parallel between Kiryu and his antagonists and this game might also have the best one yet. Really though the shining moment of this game's story is the ending, one that couldn't work without the characters near twenty year history at this point and it comes close to making up for a lot of the gripes I've had about Kiryu's stories since Yakuza 3. Genuinely I think its the most emotional moment any of these games have ever had. Can't wait to play 8.
Finished just in time for Zelda. Overall a fun little rhythm game. I'll be 100% all of these again if they're ported to Xbox or Steam ever.
I still miss the dancing themed narrative from 4 dancing but the social links in this helped satiate what I wanted more out of in 3 Portable. Despite the "you'll forget everything from this dream" framing there wasn't any frustrating moments that are undercut by it. Just nice chats between characters and getting more interaction with them. Also Makoto gets to regularly be an asshole which is still really funny.
I wish there were more song options, it felt even shorter than 5 dancing which is a shame because I think the song selection here fits the Dancing theme the best out of the 3 spinoffs and the actual Dancing seen in this game is better than the other games too.
Hopefully I can find some time between tears of the kingdom and street fighter 6 to get through all the story in P4AU.
I still miss the dancing themed narrative from 4 dancing but the social links in this helped satiate what I wanted more out of in 3 Portable. Despite the "you'll forget everything from this dream" framing there wasn't any frustrating moments that are undercut by it. Just nice chats between characters and getting more interaction with them. Also Makoto gets to regularly be an asshole which is still really funny.
I wish there were more song options, it felt even shorter than 5 dancing which is a shame because I think the song selection here fits the Dancing theme the best out of the 3 spinoffs and the actual Dancing seen in this game is better than the other games too.
Hopefully I can find some time between tears of the kingdom and street fighter 6 to get through all the story in P4AU.
Didn't think Nintendo could get any better at platformers but somehow they did. Controls so good you can use the thumbstick and feel perfectly in control. Incredible visuals. Fun level gimmicks. Great game.
As a kid whenever I'd play Super Mario Land 1, I felt something was off. Even at 5 years old I knew that it was a poor imitation of Mario. Whenever I'd be at someones house and I saw the label I'd hope I was putting in Super Mario Land 2. Great portable Mario experience that's still fun 30+ years later, Really easy to speed through as well when you're not a kid who's bad at video games and borrows the most interesting things about SML 1 which are the creative liberties with making a mario world. Big fan of all the themed zones.
2022
I'll get back to this game eventually. too many times softlocked to want to go through it. Wish it could've released in a better state.
2018
I just wanted to be the first to review this game on this site
man this game is hard
man this game is hard
A polished up PS3 port that is an alright time.
Pretty soon after I got into the Yakuza franchise (thanks to the PC Port of 0 in 2018) I learned that there were two spinoff games that take place in the real historical japanese past, with characters from the franchise filling in like actors of real historical figures. Immediately I wanted these two games to come out in the west. Reading up on them some people consider Ishin to be one of the best stories done in the franchise. But hey now that one of them is here (Hoping for Kenzan to get some kind of re-release as that one sounds more interesting from a narrative standpoint, Miyamoto Musashi was quite the character) does it live up to the hype? Eh, sorta.
Immediately I just viewed this game as all my friends from Kamurocho putting on a play, it's much funnier that way and I don't know enough Japanese history to be able to draw comparisons to the actual accounts of this period so anything crazy there is lost on me. It's fun seeing which characters appear and what roles they have in the story. I'm aware that a decent portion were recast to give parts to characters from Y:LaD and Y0, not a huge loss as I don't think I remember most of the people replaced when I looked them up. Some of the choices felt odd like Shibusawa being the sworn brother to Kiryu's Sakamoto Ryoma, or Adachi being the head of the Shinsengumi. However on the other end I'm glad that Mine plays a major role in this story as Hijikata who stays a close ally of Sakamoto. I felt that his character was underdeveloped in 3 and had the building blocks of someone who could've really been great. Majima also goes method and is himself even in 1800s japan. My view of it being a play is reinforced by the directors statements on the lack of Kasuga Ichiban being that joining a murderous samurai group would be against his morals. All the historical theming is fun really, I enjoyed the historical renditions of karaoke songs.
The narrative is fine enough, even if its based off of history its also just the usual Yakuza story but with samurai. I wasn't ever wowed or super engrossed with the story but there are some interesting moments and cool creative decisions along the way.
The combat is probably the best it's ever been for the traditional RGG game, even better than Lost Judgment. Each fighting style has its Pros and Cons, it feels necessary to switch between them depending on the situation, and they all feel great to use. It's especially funny to pull out a gun and blast down bandits with a 45 combo like the modern day Kiryu would. Equipment also matters for the first time in the franchise! Even if its tied to a pointlessly in-depth Monster Hunter crafting system that the game really doesn't need with how not varied combat really is. Different weapons have different effects and you can customize your weapons if you really get into it! probably helpful for harder difficulties/side content/Samurai Amon. Not a lot to say about Trooper Cards, I just equipped the celebrity guest ones and forgot about it, used the abilities but didn't worry about the intricacies too much.
On the other end of things this game is so clearly a weird inbetween of a remaster and a remake of a PS3 game. The combat is tightned up, areas are combined, and the visuals look nicer than the Yakuza Remastered Collection BUT the maps are bafflingly laid out+annoying to navigate and the story has the same pacing issues I feel plagued all 3 of the PS3 games with short chapters and rushed developments. I don't have any huge huge complaints but I ust felt underwhelmed with the game by the end. I don't see myself going back and finishing any of the side stuff here either, none of it feels all that compelling to visit.
Not a bad time by any means but it's so average it didn't feel like it was a super necessary play to me. If you want to get into the franchise but see that there's 8, soon to be 9 main games with 2 handheld spinoffs, a zombie what if, 2 samurai spinoffs, a whole side franchise in the same city, and a recently released side story for the main character of the first 7 games and start to feel overwhelmed OR you're on the fence. You can probably skip this or wait for a sale.
Pretty soon after I got into the Yakuza franchise (thanks to the PC Port of 0 in 2018) I learned that there were two spinoff games that take place in the real historical japanese past, with characters from the franchise filling in like actors of real historical figures. Immediately I wanted these two games to come out in the west. Reading up on them some people consider Ishin to be one of the best stories done in the franchise. But hey now that one of them is here (Hoping for Kenzan to get some kind of re-release as that one sounds more interesting from a narrative standpoint, Miyamoto Musashi was quite the character) does it live up to the hype? Eh, sorta.
Immediately I just viewed this game as all my friends from Kamurocho putting on a play, it's much funnier that way and I don't know enough Japanese history to be able to draw comparisons to the actual accounts of this period so anything crazy there is lost on me. It's fun seeing which characters appear and what roles they have in the story. I'm aware that a decent portion were recast to give parts to characters from Y:LaD and Y0, not a huge loss as I don't think I remember most of the people replaced when I looked them up. Some of the choices felt odd like Shibusawa being the sworn brother to Kiryu's Sakamoto Ryoma, or Adachi being the head of the Shinsengumi. However on the other end I'm glad that Mine plays a major role in this story as Hijikata who stays a close ally of Sakamoto. I felt that his character was underdeveloped in 3 and had the building blocks of someone who could've really been great. Majima also goes method and is himself even in 1800s japan. My view of it being a play is reinforced by the directors statements on the lack of Kasuga Ichiban being that joining a murderous samurai group would be against his morals. All the historical theming is fun really, I enjoyed the historical renditions of karaoke songs.
The narrative is fine enough, even if its based off of history its also just the usual Yakuza story but with samurai. I wasn't ever wowed or super engrossed with the story but there are some interesting moments and cool creative decisions along the way.
The combat is probably the best it's ever been for the traditional RGG game, even better than Lost Judgment. Each fighting style has its Pros and Cons, it feels necessary to switch between them depending on the situation, and they all feel great to use. It's especially funny to pull out a gun and blast down bandits with a 45 combo like the modern day Kiryu would. Equipment also matters for the first time in the franchise! Even if its tied to a pointlessly in-depth Monster Hunter crafting system that the game really doesn't need with how not varied combat really is. Different weapons have different effects and you can customize your weapons if you really get into it! probably helpful for harder difficulties/side content/Samurai Amon. Not a lot to say about Trooper Cards, I just equipped the celebrity guest ones and forgot about it, used the abilities but didn't worry about the intricacies too much.
On the other end of things this game is so clearly a weird inbetween of a remaster and a remake of a PS3 game. The combat is tightned up, areas are combined, and the visuals look nicer than the Yakuza Remastered Collection BUT the maps are bafflingly laid out+annoying to navigate and the story has the same pacing issues I feel plagued all 3 of the PS3 games with short chapters and rushed developments. I don't have any huge huge complaints but I ust felt underwhelmed with the game by the end. I don't see myself going back and finishing any of the side stuff here either, none of it feels all that compelling to visit.
Not a bad time by any means but it's so average it didn't feel like it was a super necessary play to me. If you want to get into the franchise but see that there's 8, soon to be 9 main games with 2 handheld spinoffs, a zombie what if, 2 samurai spinoffs, a whole side franchise in the same city, and a recently released side story for the main character of the first 7 games and start to feel overwhelmed OR you're on the fence. You can probably skip this or wait for a sale.
1990
A perfect video game. Went and played this after beating the GBA version and man. Still great 33 years later.