Rocko
2017
Yakuza Kiwami 2 is an 8-bit era game on steroids, it features a 100% badass gameplay full of of people to beat the shit out first and ask questions later. At some point you will be surprised when you meet characters that don't give you an excuse to violently bash their skulls against the wall.
Unlike it's predecessors, Yakuza 0 and Yakuza Kiwami (Or Like a Dragon Zero and Like a Dragon Kiwami), this entry does not feature multiple battle styles so it might anger some people, but on the good side, upgrading abilities it's much simpler now and you don't need to updgrade your health 8 times before getting higher levels of damage like in the previous entries. The Dragon Engine also makes transitions way more smooth than previous engines so no more loading when entering buildings or getting into fights. If you see a thug you don't like you can punch them faster this time around.
The story is, as Mike Stoklasa put it once, "Elegantly bad". Good characters that are actually evil, evil characters that are actually good, and good characters that are actually evil except ¡NO! they're actually good. It's totally self-aware of how much shit it's throwing in the pot at the same time with it's constant twists to fall into the common narrative trap of turning into a pretentious self-wankery like it happens with a lot of "auteurs" in gaming (Won't name anyone but you are probably thinking of somebody you hate). What matters are feelings, emotions. Who cares if it is a little stupid? all people should be a little bit stupid.
I can see Yakuza Kiwami 2 being in lots of people's "Best games of all time" lists.
Unlike it's predecessors, Yakuza 0 and Yakuza Kiwami (Or Like a Dragon Zero and Like a Dragon Kiwami), this entry does not feature multiple battle styles so it might anger some people, but on the good side, upgrading abilities it's much simpler now and you don't need to updgrade your health 8 times before getting higher levels of damage like in the previous entries. The Dragon Engine also makes transitions way more smooth than previous engines so no more loading when entering buildings or getting into fights. If you see a thug you don't like you can punch them faster this time around.
The story is, as Mike Stoklasa put it once, "Elegantly bad". Good characters that are actually evil, evil characters that are actually good, and good characters that are actually evil except ¡NO! they're actually good. It's totally self-aware of how much shit it's throwing in the pot at the same time with it's constant twists to fall into the common narrative trap of turning into a pretentious self-wankery like it happens with a lot of "auteurs" in gaming (Won't name anyone but you are probably thinking of somebody you hate). What matters are feelings, emotions. Who cares if it is a little stupid? all people should be a little bit stupid.
I can see Yakuza Kiwami 2 being in lots of people's "Best games of all time" lists.
2016
After Yakuza 0 comes Yakuza Kiwami, the extreme remake of the original Yakuza for the PS2.
Since the first entry in the series was pretty barebones (in in hindsight obviously) aside from remaking the story and adding some bits to bridge stuff that happened in the prequel, they tried to "Zero-fy" this game with hit-or-miss results. The Majima Everywhere mechanic while funny and "fanservice-y" was a mistake and it renders the Dragon style useless until pretty much the late game, not to mention it undermines Majima Goro's weight in the story quite a bit.
All that said it's a great game but obviously not on par with Yakuza 0 which had a lot of room to breathe both story and gameplay-wise.
Bring that shit Kazuma!
Since the first entry in the series was pretty barebones (in in hindsight obviously) aside from remaking the story and adding some bits to bridge stuff that happened in the prequel, they tried to "Zero-fy" this game with hit-or-miss results. The Majima Everywhere mechanic while funny and "fanservice-y" was a mistake and it renders the Dragon style useless until pretty much the late game, not to mention it undermines Majima Goro's weight in the story quite a bit.
All that said it's a great game but obviously not on par with Yakuza 0 which had a lot of room to breathe both story and gameplay-wise.
Bring that shit Kazuma!
This game is so forgettable that I totally forgot to log it. I played it sometime around the beginning of the year.
It's the most dissapointing game of 2021 for me easily, another horrible original game in the franchise released by Microids. The only saving grace are the graphics, the rest from the music to the gameplay is bad. Being a fan of Asterix if rough when you're also a gamer, we had a good thing with the XXL games (until 3) but Microid is really missmanaging everything.
For people who really want a top-notch Asterix & Obelix beat-em-up, just pop the classic Konami arcade.
It's the most dissapointing game of 2021 for me easily, another horrible original game in the franchise released by Microids. The only saving grace are the graphics, the rest from the music to the gameplay is bad. Being a fan of Asterix if rough when you're also a gamer, we had a good thing with the XXL games (until 3) but Microid is really missmanaging everything.
For people who really want a top-notch Asterix & Obelix beat-em-up, just pop the classic Konami arcade.
1996
What is Harvester? Harvester is a huge piece of sh¡t. Seriously! what's up with people pretending some of these kusoges are actually "underrated" gems? This barely passed as a game when it was released and it sure as hell does not meet the standards today.
The story is non-sensensical, it keeps adding stuff as it goes on to pretend being "mysterious" when it's actually the laziest writing you can come across. The NPCs are quirky and kinda interesting but most don't have any real weight in the story and the funny factor wears out after 10 minutes of roaming around with this game's ugly controls. Some people say the game is strong until you get access to the endgame but that's bullsh*t, the game is crap since you press play on the Steam app.
Visually this is repulsive. Not only it features bad FMV and hilariously noticeable green-screens, also all the scenarios are flat and you can barely tell what's interactive and what's decorative, not to mention the cursor's area of effect is so small you sometimes have to be pixel perfect while clicking to activate or grab something.
To top it off this game has combat, which mostly revolves around being lucky with the horrible hit detection and landing more blows than the enemies. Sometimes you can be hit while being away from whoever is attacking you at the moment, which can trigger frustration levels you never thought possible.
If you're a real masochist (like me) or have real interest in edgy games that tried to push some boundaries while drowning themselves in their own liquid farts, suit yourself. Otherwise don't waste your money.
The story is non-sensensical, it keeps adding stuff as it goes on to pretend being "mysterious" when it's actually the laziest writing you can come across. The NPCs are quirky and kinda interesting but most don't have any real weight in the story and the funny factor wears out after 10 minutes of roaming around with this game's ugly controls. Some people say the game is strong until you get access to the endgame but that's bullsh*t, the game is crap since you press play on the Steam app.
Visually this is repulsive. Not only it features bad FMV and hilariously noticeable green-screens, also all the scenarios are flat and you can barely tell what's interactive and what's decorative, not to mention the cursor's area of effect is so small you sometimes have to be pixel perfect while clicking to activate or grab something.
To top it off this game has combat, which mostly revolves around being lucky with the horrible hit detection and landing more blows than the enemies. Sometimes you can be hit while being away from whoever is attacking you at the moment, which can trigger frustration levels you never thought possible.
If you're a real masochist (like me) or have real interest in edgy games that tried to push some boundaries while drowning themselves in their own liquid farts, suit yourself. Otherwise don't waste your money.
2015
Yakuza is the closest thing to a 3D River City Ramson game and I loved every minute of it. I don't know why some people consider it a spiritual sucessor to the borefest that it's Shenmue.
2022
Another game from the amazing Cosmo D in his "Off-Peak City -verse", though this time the walking simulator gameplay is replaced by a point & click adventure with Tabletop RPG elements including the dice-rolls. For people who suffer with videogames RNGs I have good news, this game has options to tone down the difficulty (or make it harder if you are a masochist), and having beta-tested this game I can assure you it was harder.
2005
A bit short compared to other VNs I have played but the quality is top-notch, it has 3 endings and a few animated scenes that spice up the content.
The story could be intersting but all the lore and characters are underdeveloped, and there's no sense of humour (at least not self-aware) or anything of the sort to keep it interesting. Basically an excuse to have Lewd-scenes, which I guess might be fine with the specific target audience but for somebody just midly curious the shock value loses steam pretty fast, not to mention it's tiring to read 500 lines that can be summed up to "If you do X I will go crazy".
The story could be intersting but all the lore and characters are underdeveloped, and there's no sense of humour (at least not self-aware) or anything of the sort to keep it interesting. Basically an excuse to have Lewd-scenes, which I guess might be fine with the specific target audience but for somebody just midly curious the shock value loses steam pretty fast, not to mention it's tiring to read 500 lines that can be summed up to "If you do X I will go crazy".
I played this for my sister when she was like 5 or 6. Eventually I think she managed to beat the game herself but who knows.
Pretty ok game for really little kids who were just getting started with games. It's based on one of the Sesame Street skits, just get the order and avoid all the shaenanigans happening on the kitchen.
Pretty ok game for really little kids who were just getting started with games. It's based on one of the Sesame Street skits, just get the order and avoid all the shaenanigans happening on the kitchen.
2021
Imagine if some game dev stared at a piece of shit for 5 minutes and said "What if it had gameplay", he would probably make Buddy Simulator 1984.
This piece of shit is not scary, is not fun, it's a chore to get through the dialog, and it railroads you into doing stuff in the most boring way possible.
I guess people are really impressionable these days or something to get "enthralled" by the first hour, or maybe life got me too cynical? I don't really care, I lost precious hours of my life in this crap and even more writing this.
Play this game if you wish you to be annoyed.
This piece of shit is not scary, is not fun, it's a chore to get through the dialog, and it railroads you into doing stuff in the most boring way possible.
I guess people are really impressionable these days or something to get "enthralled" by the first hour, or maybe life got me too cynical? I don't really care, I lost precious hours of my life in this crap and even more writing this.
Play this game if you wish you to be annoyed.
After many-many months of grinding (though the game is not as grindy as I made it to be) I beat the first game. Gameplay and leveling system it's pretty neat, the best in the franchise (though I have not played Survive yet).
The things that sadly keep this game from being fully awesome are the uninteresting dungeons and crappy story.
The extra content on the original Cyber Sleuth also has a truly insane difficulty (might be a bit easier on normal, I played on hard). The last few optional bosses became so infuriatingly cheap that I just dropped everything and went straight to the ending.
EDIT: Not that a lot of people (let alone more than 0) read my reviews but I just learned that Digimon Story is a "sub-series" not attached to the Digimon World sub-series which I didn't knew run parallel to it and also focuses more on the breeding/raising part of the digimons rather than battles and strategy.
I also don't know if Survive is part of a sub-series or a thing of it's own so...whatever.
The things that sadly keep this game from being fully awesome are the uninteresting dungeons and crappy story.
The extra content on the original Cyber Sleuth also has a truly insane difficulty (might be a bit easier on normal, I played on hard). The last few optional bosses became so infuriatingly cheap that I just dropped everything and went straight to the ending.
EDIT: Not that a lot of people (let alone more than 0) read my reviews but I just learned that Digimon Story is a "sub-series" not attached to the Digimon World sub-series which I didn't knew run parallel to it and also focuses more on the breeding/raising part of the digimons rather than battles and strategy.
I also don't know if Survive is part of a sub-series or a thing of it's own so...whatever.
Best TMNT "Beat 'em up" game so far. All the characters feel more unique than in past times, the additions of combos is great and the level of difficulty has been spiked up a little which is welcome. I have a few gripes regarding the lack of invincible frames but the game has balanced this by having a lot of exploitable abilites like the taunting that refills your ability bar (you can even taunt without enemies on screen to do refill, great exploit).
This is what Microid's "Slap them all" wish it was.
This is what Microid's "Slap them all" wish it was.
There are a bunch of guys and they fall. I think there were also gals, but maybe they were guys in drag since the game it's called "Fall Guys" and not "Fall People", unless it's like an X-Men case where they have female, gender-fluid or non-binary members despite the team's male name.
Why do the Fall? They're competing in a tournament to get crowns. Why do they compete though? Are they forced against their will to compete? is it a long going tradition? or are they adrenaline junkies who can't live without the thrill of falling at high speeds?
So many questions left up to interpretation of the players. It might seem like a cutesy title, but this game is far more deep than your average battle royale.
Why do the Fall? They're competing in a tournament to get crowns. Why do they compete though? Are they forced against their will to compete? is it a long going tradition? or are they adrenaline junkies who can't live without the thrill of falling at high speeds?
So many questions left up to interpretation of the players. It might seem like a cutesy title, but this game is far more deep than your average battle royale.
It could use better music (something easily fixed by turning the music down and playing your favourite music in the background) and have a little bit more aggresive gameplay, but as it is, those are the only things keeping the game from getting 5 stars. The whole strategic will is really well implemented and most is self explanatory.
Play this instead of whatever Konami and EA ared dumping.
Play this instead of whatever Konami and EA ared dumping.
2001
The late 90's/early 2000's seems to be when the Looney Tunes games hit their sweet spot. Sheep, Dog 'n' Wolf is another fun game the catalogue the PS1 along with games like Bugs Bunny: Lost in Time.
This game is far more puzzle oriented, having a lot of pretty brutal levels nearing the end, though no moon-logic is necessary to pass the game.
Where this games truly shines is in it's graphics style, being pretty accurate to the background art and enviroment of the classics cartoons serials.
My only gripes come from the games age, the cameras and control are a perfect example of devs back then not knowing how to give you good controls and view. Still, it's not even close enough to making this game feel bad.
An underrated classic.
This game is far more puzzle oriented, having a lot of pretty brutal levels nearing the end, though no moon-logic is necessary to pass the game.
Where this games truly shines is in it's graphics style, being pretty accurate to the background art and enviroment of the classics cartoons serials.
My only gripes come from the games age, the cameras and control are a perfect example of devs back then not knowing how to give you good controls and view. Still, it's not even close enough to making this game feel bad.
An underrated classic.
What were they THINKING?! This is a disgrace to the XXL series! Asteris & Obelix XXL 1 and 2 were great games and Microids managed the conversinos pretty well, but this thing it's like they were not even aware of the games they remastered.
I might change my mind around not finishing this game If I ever find myself not having any good game to play, but it will not be soon.
After this turd and the bad rap the last Asterix & Obelix game got I finally understand why people shit on Microid so much despite the good work they did with the previous remasters.
I might change my mind around not finishing this game If I ever find myself not having any good game to play, but it will not be soon.
After this turd and the bad rap the last Asterix & Obelix game got I finally understand why people shit on Microid so much despite the good work they did with the previous remasters.