RedRobot
PoR's great, but also every horse unit is stupid busted. You actually get so many busted units that snowball into murder machines so early on that the game becomes a bit too easy to just steam roll through. The skill system also destroying skill scrolls if you take them off of a unit also kinda sucks
2018
Dusk is a fantastic shooter that manages to also be as unsettling as a good horror game. The only issue I really have with this game is that the weapons are very "safe", but they all still feel good to shoot, and that's really what matters most
Really fun Fire Emblem sandbox. I just wish there were more differences between routes and that maps weren't recycled so often.
2011
Dead Souls isn't an awful game, but there's so much that could be better about it. The story's a fun amalgamation of various zombie tropes featuring some of the Yakuza series most popular characters, but the gameplay ranges from alright to bad, with framerate dipping so low that the game is almost unplayable. The charm of the Yakuza games is even still in Dead Souls, with some alright substories, but I can't recommend playing Dead Souls unless you play it on easy and can put up with the framerate.
Yakuza 6 is weird. It has some things I like, but also a lot of things I just can't stand. This game also is the debut of the Dragon Engine, which I'm not a huge fan of. It looks real nice, it lets you explore Kamurocho with very few loading times, but it also runs really bad (sub 30 fps on a standard PS4), which is really jarring coming off of 0 which ran great, and the revamped combat for the Dragon Engine is very janky and slow. Enemies block a lot more often compared to other games and break the combat flow, as getting blocked essentially halts your combo, and getting knocked around by the will of the physics engine is a lot more common and feels closer to how Kenzan implemented physics way back on the PS3.
The story is silly throughout, but I don't have much to say about it other than the ending unexpectedly hit me really hard.
It kinda sucks that Kiryu's last game was more of a tech demo for a new engine than an actual game, but hopefully the Dragon Engine does better in the future.
The story is silly throughout, but I don't have much to say about it other than the ending unexpectedly hit me really hard.
It kinda sucks that Kiryu's last game was more of a tech demo for a new engine than an actual game, but hopefully the Dragon Engine does better in the future.
Had to play this game with a translation guide constantly open, but I still ended up spending over 100 hours in it despite not knowing any Japanese. Ishin's combat is so fun that I would spend hours just walking through streets and beating up people. You have 4 different fighting styles with their own sphere-grid type leveling system: hand-to-hand, sword, gun, and sword AND gun. There's also other weapons like two-handed swords, spears, and cannons, but they're not as fleshed out as the main styles.
Ishin does have a crafting and farming system, the latter of which I barely interacted with so I can't comment on it, so you may need to end up grinding a bit if you want to get some of the better weapons, which can be a downside for some.
I wish this game would get localized so I could go back and fully enjoy it, but it was still a great time regardless
Ishin does have a crafting and farming system, the latter of which I barely interacted with so I can't comment on it, so you may need to end up grinding a bit if you want to get some of the better weapons, which can be a downside for some.
I wish this game would get localized so I could go back and fully enjoy it, but it was still a great time regardless
Sadly, I don't know Japanese, so having to constantly cross reference translated cutscenes and guides really impacted my enjoyment of this game, however Kenzan's still a good time.
It helped pave the way for some new ideas in the series, such as physics being implemented more in combat, although the game feels kinda clunky at times. If you like the Yakuza games, but still want more, this is pretty good.
It helped pave the way for some new ideas in the series, such as physics being implemented more in combat, although the game feels kinda clunky at times. If you like the Yakuza games, but still want more, this is pretty good.
2015
Yakuza 0 is one of the best games in this series. Narrowing down the playable cast to two characters and constantly switching between them every two chapters helps keep both characters constantly relevant in the story until the very end. 0 also manages to make up for the smaller playable cast compared to previous games by giving Kiryu and Majima 4 different fighting styles to use, helping vary up gameplay significantly.
The game also has a lot of fun and memorable sidequests, and is part of the reason the series is so popular nowadays. Yakuza 0 is the culmination of all of the ideas of the previous and executed at their best.
The game also has a lot of fun and memorable sidequests, and is part of the reason the series is so popular nowadays. Yakuza 0 is the culmination of all of the ideas of the previous and executed at their best.
2012
Yakuza 5 is essentially Yakuza 4-2 in a lot of ways. More playable characters, more places to explore, more stuff to do. The plot is also more of a mess with antagonists that end up not being very interesting or memorable. The game also has a lot of content. Maybe even too much content at some points to the point where it stretches itself too thin at times, but there's still a lot to enjoy about Yakuza 5, even with its shortcomings.
2010
Yakuza 4 introduces a bunch of new gameplay styles to the series along with having a lot of fun side content and enjoyable characters, although the story becomes more of a mess the longer it goes on.
Its another good step forward for the franchise and one of the better games in the series, despite its flaws.
Its another good step forward for the franchise and one of the better games in the series, despite its flaws.
2009
Yakuza 3 is a good example as to why pacing is crucial to telling a good story. The orphanage segments absolutely take up too much of the story and kill all momentum the story has whenever to focus shifts back to it. The gameplay has some slight improvements from 2, but nothing incredibly drastic. I still find Yakuza 3 is still enjoyable despite its issues, and perhaps some people will enjoy what I see as issues, but Yakuza 3 feels like a step back compared to Yakuza 2.
2006
Essentially the basis for the entire series' gameplay up until Yakuza 6, improving greatly upon Yakuza 1, along with having some of the best characters and story in the series
2005
The somewhat rough start of the now incredibly long running Yakuza/Ryu ga Gotoku franchise. Some stiff beat-em-up gameplay, and an absolutely amateur English dub prevent this game from being great, but leave room for sequels to improve upon
2020
Ultrakill is essentially a Devil May Cry-style action game disguised as an FPS, and it feels fantastic. The only real issues with the game so far are that it's not finished currently, certain weapons such as the shotgun's grenade launcher are not up to par with the rest of your kit, and King Minos being an unenjoyable boss fight
2010
Deadly Premonition is an incredibly ambitious game with some glaringly obvious issues, such as some strange voice acting, graphics that only look okay by the previous generation's standards, lots of technical issues, and pretty bad gameplay. What Deadly Premonition does well definitely outweighs the bad for me at least, with great characters and a story that's intriguing all the way to the end. If you just rush through Deadly Premonition's story, you'll definitely miss out as a large amount of the enjoyment of the game comes from interacting with the weird people of Greenvale and the sidequests they give you.