Finished awhile ago but sat with it before typing stuff up.

A fun followup to Like a Dragon! Fixing all my issues with the combat to really bring the transition to a turn-based RPG. A fun continuation of Ichiban's adventures and a final closing(?) of Kiryu's. Though the games narrative struggles with problems that haven't been around since the PS3 trilogy.

From the start its a delight being able to see all my friends in Ijincho again. The decision to make the first few hours of the game be low stakes slice of life is great, we rarely get these kinds of moments in games and when we do they're relegated to side content. It's nice to see everyone hanging out and see how their lives are going since the last game ended and it works as a great setup for getting the franchise out of Japan for the first time. Down on his luck, jobless, not getting a text back from a girl, canceled by a VTuber we've all been there. Why not go to Hawaii to reunite with your long lost mother? Where, even with the looming threat of the Hawaiian underworld surrounding the cast, the general tone is nice thanks to Ichiban's unwaivering spirit and optimism. Though when the stakes start to ramp up, a bit too late for me like in Yakuza 3, the narrative starts to suffer. Splitting the lead roles between Ichiban and Kiryu because they're STILL too scared to keep Kiryu out of the spotlight, and it really makes the ending feel flat because both of them confront the antagonist they have less conflict with and neither are built up in a way that feels cathartic to finally take down. Though I appreciate the time given to Kiryu to pay tribute to his nearly 20 years of adventures we've been along with him, it really takes away from time that could've been used to flesh out Ichiban's adventure and troubles. Though more about that in a bit.

The new additions to the cast with Tomizawa and Chitose are great, Tomizawa feels very American in contrast with the rest of the cast and Chitose's rich upbringing helps her stand out coming from a completely different world as everyone else. Seonhee being added to the group is a lot of fun, finding out she's just as much as a weirdo as the rest of the cast is great. Her helping Saeko and Nanba with Kiryu's bucket list is very sweet, and the three going from Ichibans quirks to Kiryus quirks creates some real funny moments. Adachi, Zhao, and Joon-gi feel tacked on but learning more about them is still nice. Kiryu, as a supporting character, is fantastic. His cancer bringing him out of his element and making him rely on others creates really funny and heartfelt moments, and as previously mentioned leads to my biggest problem with the game. Splitting Kiryu off from this supporting role hurts the game and hurts his growth on screen. Kiryu's journey here is that he has to learn to accept help from others instead of taking everything on by himself and Ichiban is the EXACT person he'd pick that up from, and he SHOULD be learning that by seeing how Ichiban lets everyone help him at the big ending of the game! Instead it's just kind of implied and you can draw the conclusions but it's not great, but enough of this.

Gameplay is fantastic, they fixed the biggest glaring issue with the combat in 7 being that you couldn't position the characters making the attacks that hurt in a row or a cone in front of the character making combat a blast. The positioning makes it so you can do really cool team combos and knock guys against the wall making the fights feel like a rad shonen battle. The monkey's paw with this change is that the fights are way too easy now. I'm sure its nice for people who are still struggling coming from an action game to a turn-based RPG but without any difficulty settings it feels like I'm slepeing through the fights. There's maybe 4 fights that are tough and 2 of them are because of annoying mechanics and less because you have to be creative. Kiryu's turn based breaking special is a blast though, loved how they used that during the Old Man fight.

Side content might also be the best it's ever been. Substories are a lot of fun, especially the ones that really focus on contrasting America with Japan. The trilogy of substories involving movie directors is great. Miss Match might be the funniest use of FMV in the series yet, Sujimon is the best Pokemon knock off this year (take that Palworld) and fills the itch I've wanted for a Gacha game that doesn't cost me money for rolls, Dondoko Island got old quick for me but I know people like that one. Using substories to wrap up loose ends with characters from Kiryu's past was nice (though I think he could've done this while also working alongside Ichiban too). I agree with most of the choices for people to come back into his life one last time and despite some inconsistencies like I'm pretty sure Kaoru fell for a guy in America and not that she just got too busy with work, It was great to see a lot of the people again. I missed Akiyama and will continue to miss him (I also miss Shinada why did he have to be relegated to just a quick memory bring him back). Confirming that the spinoffs are canon as dreams Kiryu had are a nice touch too.

Overall a great game! Well worth playing, I just wish it had more emotional weight and development for Ichiban. Maybe months out I'll feel differently.

Also fuck you RGG for teasing out the fucking cabaret club minigame with Yuki and Koyuki asking Kiryu to be a manager one more time for old times sake. Don't do that shit to me.

Cool Dlc that in this version has the same issues as Episode 5 but to the extreme. Regular points where the visual glitches keep me from understanding anything that's happening on screen

Fun tribute to the CD-i Zelda games that doesn't overstay its welcome. A casual spin on Metroidvanias and lots of goofy dialogue and animation. Bangin soundtrack too. If you're curious about it give it a shot its a good time and doesn't take too long to finish.

Would love to see more Arzette adventures in the future.

Despite being a soft-reboot, this entire game feels like you're dropping in on Season 2 of an anime that had a 5 year gap in production. The characters talk with each other like we already met them and know them.

I've wanted to play this game since it came out, at the time I did not have a PS4 and I was playing PSO2 which had a Sakura Wars collab going on despite the fact that PSO2 was only on Xbox and PC at the time. I know it was having the collab at the same time for JP players but still weird. Not sure what I expected going into this though. I think I was expecting something closer to the Saturn games than what I got here. What is here is a light visual novel with social elements crossed with a poor action platformer with musou combat. All equaling a pretty disappointing package with a lot of small things that are annoying but, all of it stems from two major issues I have with the game.

1. There's no real sense of progression. You have cool robots but you never upgrade them, save for an upgrade that's more so a narrative point than it is a gameplay thing. The cool robots never get new attacks, they never get new armor, they never get new weapons. I was able to use the same strategy the entire time and did just fine, the game doesn't even get harder making it feel even shorter than it is. The visual novel elements somehow suffer from this issue too. I never feel like I'm actually getting closer to any of the girls, or anyone else you have chat events with. In Persona and Fire Emblem you feel like you're getting to know the characters personally, separate from whatever revelations come from the narrative. Here it's very superficial casual conversations like you have with someone you work with. Even by the end of the game I didn't feel like my relationship really progressed at all with my choice from the main 5 girls.

2. The game giving most of its focus to Sakura, the most boring member of the Flower Division, made it really hard for me to care about what was going on at almost any moment. She gets so many featured moments through each chapter, even being featured in some way in the chapters where she ISN'T the focus it's distracting when it's a big cast of characters. I'm hoping that the saturn games don't have this issue, or at least that their Sakura is way more interesting. The ending feels really werid if you pick anyone else (which I ended with Azami and the PS4 trophy stats show that Sakura is the most common pick by a large margin, do gamers just have bad taste or something). The rest of the cast have stronger personalities and interesting quirks beyond being the MCs childhood friend and it would be nice if I could've replaced those moments with Sakura with them instead!

On the positive side the combat sections are pretty fun even if they're basic, hitting super attacks on a large group is satisfying. The music is great. I did find the trust sections to be funny even if they just made Seijuro seem like a predator.

Whenever I get to the English patched Saturn game I hope I like that one more.

liked this game as a kid so I checked out this version. fun remake of a ps1 platformer with some bad levels toward the end but worth a shot, dont pay full price. people should remember this game more fondly than they do crash bandicoot

2022

this game is like if the werid uncomfortable feeling i got while watching someone play Riven at 6 years old was actualized

Didn't know about this "pack in" game until I got my own Steam Deck. A fun little adventure showing off a bunch of functions on the Steam Deck. Really makes you wish for a new full game from Valve, they still know how to write good dialogue

Nate Bargatze is great as Grady, I immediately knew it was him. Cool to see one of my favorite comics in a neat little game.

a 2D platform fighting game similar to smash bros, but with one piece characters. Really stiff and not great, but it's worth a 10 minute session if you're a fan of the series.

The most interesting thing about the game is that it was brought over to Europe with English text over Japanese dialogue for the ps1 in 2003, 3 years after the release of the PS2 and a year before 4Kids first dubbed the show for western audiences.

oh and you can unlock and play as Pandaman

Its really cool that instead of sitting on a shitty flash website to play a game like this I get to support the developer with $3 and then get regular updates to an already really fun game

i am not immune to gacha games

This review contains spoilers

I wish I could talk about this game without just constantly comparing it to Persona 4 Golden but no matter what I try to say I just end up doing it. I'll do my best to just keep the comparisons where it's relevant. Also doing my best to keep this coherent I ramble a lot.

It didn't take very long for me to figure out why this game resonates with so many people. A story about teenagers being fed up with the mistreatment happening in the world by corrupt people in power so they're taking matters into their own hands. It's something that honestly has just grown more personal for a lot of people in the last few years because of all the uh, bad stuff that's happened in the world that more and more people are waking up to. It's not subtle either, like no attempt was made to provide metaphors or subtext here.

The game itself is good, every aspect of gameplay is an improvement over P4G, benefitted by being the extended edition of a PS3/PS4 game and not a sort of port of a PS2 to a handheld console. Visuals also improved (it would be fucked if they didn't) and I'm a big fan of how stylistic navigating menus is and how combat is presented instead of stale menus. Music is good too whatever everyone knows this already. The narrative aspects of this game are really what doesn't work for me.

The social links in this game with the Phantom Thieves cast feel incredibly shallow compared to anything with the Investigation Team, and those aren't exactly GREAT but here it feels like nothing is happening. Everyone on your team in P4G is struggling with something related to their identity or something that at least feels heavy to deal with for anyone regardless of age while half of the Phantom Thieves just have some frustrating interpersonal issues that are rough as a teenager yes but don't really feel like a big deal. Ryuji reconciles with the running team, Makoto realizes shes a stick in the mud, I still don't understand what Ann's whole arc is supposed to be besides being sad about her friend, Yusuke's arc of struggling with his art is closer to something worthwhile at least. Futaba, Haru, and Kasumi/Sumire have some more real struggles. I'll give them credit that the social links outside of the group are a huge improvement over P4G, with some of the characters like Hifumi Togo being much more interesting than Ann and honestly would've made a better partner. The other confidants also having much more interesting arcs over their social links.

Dedicating a small section to Akechi because I really don't get the praise for his character, the "heel turn" doesn't have any impact because FROM THE JUMP he's saying passive aggresive weirdo shit to Joker and similar to Adachi it's not really surprising that he's involved in some capacity because there's only so many voiced characters with unique illustrations. Him having a troubled backstory doesn't get sympathy from me for being a total freak even before the Royal exclusive story content and while he's more enjoyable by being an unhinged freak he's also not redeemed by sacrificing himself working to stop Maruki, it doesn't seem noble that he wouldn't want to live in a false reality like that it's just... him. Maruki's motivations make him more interesting because he's gone through so much hardship he thinks he's truly in the right but he's doing about it the wrong way but I can't tell if the game truly wants me to reconsider it. Final Fantasy Tactics Advance does this kind of message better, and Yakuza: Like A Dragon does the final fist fight confrontation in a JRPG much better as well.

The story is servicable, as I put earlier I understand why it resonates with people. I just wish I got to spend more slice of life casual time with the crew. Maybe I'm looking back with rose colored glasses but I felt like I got to goof around with the Investigation Team more than I did with the Phantom Thieves. The game isn't subtle at almost any point but it ramps up when navigating Shido's palace and the dialogue doesn't even try it's just an evil politician saying "yes I asked shido to help me to a fucked up evil thing... and I'm happy about it! >:)" and one of the thieves going "man this is fucked up, we gotta stop them its bad that people could be this evil!". The third semester is talked up similar to Gen 2 pokemon having all of Kanto where, not really as big as they made it out to be even if the driving force behind it is more interesting. That too falls flat though as this is the perfect opportunity for the Phantom Thieves to really look inward and determine if their actions leading up to that point were justified. I don't at any point think that the Phantom Thieves are in the wrong but man, there's plenty of opportunity for them to have extended legitimate doubts leading up to this final confrontation and not once do they think "are we any better than Maruki?"

The peak moment of the story really is the swerve following Sae's palace. I wasn't completely fooled because it felt like it dragged on way too long to be a bad ending, but having played P4G and getting one of the bad endings I appreciated them going through an incredibly long sad sequence before flipping it around to reveal that everything went according to plan. I wish all the heists also felt this intricate.

the early half of the game when they're solving smaller issues is more my speed and is where I realize what doesn't work about this story for me personally. The scale of it is so big that I'm just kind of floating through it as opposed to the Investigation Team solving a series of fucked up murders and kidnappings that have happened in this small countryside town. Taking down the man who's presumably going to become the Prime Minister, Then Fighting God, Then Fighting God Combined With A Guy Who's Reshaped All Of Reality is so much that I feel like my time with the Phantom Thieves is complete having finished the game. All the characters are moving on too and I don't feel like I need to see anymore adventures from them. I feel bad for Futaba (also because she's the one I made my gf) but the rest of the cast is going into adulthood or working towards their own personal independence which is totally fine. I just felt the bond between the Investigation Team was much stronger.

Hey the game is still real good and I think people should play it if they're interested in it. Left me with a lot of thoughts from just how hyped up it is.

Wonderful game front to back. Touching story, creative environments, puzzles that are simple but don't feel condecending, regularly adds or switches around gameplay elements so nothing gets stale. What other game is a 3rd person shooter but also an ARPG but also a rhythm game? It's fun to take breaks in the game to just explore your surroundings and find all sorts of cute things laying around to just mess around with. Really a must play for everyone.

Hazelight knows how to make a video game damn.

incredible beat up that deserves a home port