PART 4: KAZUMA KIRYU COMPLETE

Yeah I kinda had an urge to binge this part. No particular reason or anything, none at all.

I feel like this worked to a similar effect that Tanimura's part did, being the point where all of the stories really come together. This one leans into that quite a bit more into that, with all of the characters meeting up and having their stories intersect. They even have a "looks like fate brought us together" moment at the start of chapter 4. I also really appreciate how it gives Akiyama a stronger motive to fight, since I was worried that it didn't feel like much was at stake for him in this finale.
I'll be honest, the main reason I binged through this chapter in particular today was because of how overjoyed I was to play as Kiryu again. He maintains a ton of his fundamentals, but also has a lot of interesting mechanics right out of the gate, most notably red heat from 3, which I didn't really get a chance to explore in that. I also really appreciated that Kiryu has a lot of abilities unlocked right out of the gate. It shows his experience and how he hasn't gotten rusty, and gives a chance to get excited for all of the other upgrades he can get. That long segment at Kamurocho Hills, despite some annoying segments, was a blast, especially as I leveled up throughout it. I probably took a bit longer than I should have just because I wanted to try getting Tiger Drops and Heat Moves just right. The final part where you fight all the minibosses was especially great.
Despite what you may think from me finishing this in a day, I did go out of my way to do a good amount of the substories. (I REALLY wanted the Tiger Drop) My favorite part of going through them was seeing the returning characters and callbacks to the previous games. They were really fun doses of fanservice that I always wanted to look around for.
The main story of the part was also pretty strong. Like I said, its man goal is to serve as build up to the finale and I think it does that mostly really well. The ways the main cast intersects were really cool to see, (ROT13: Frevbhfyl, svtugvat Nxvlnzn naq Gnavzhen ng gur fnzr gvzr jnf VAFNAR) and it's making me really excited for a full-on team up for the finale. I also think that Yasuko is probably my favorite non-protag new character in this game, her relationship with Saejima and the way she comes to terms with the things she had to do made her really compelling. Great stuff all around.
BUT I do think that it ends up highlighting a problem that has me a bit worried for the impact the finale will have: the main villains kinda blow. They aren't really that entertaining or compelling as characters, in fact I'd even call them rather boring. This made the part of the final cutscene where the villains encountering Kiryu devolved into "I betrayed you!" "No, I betrayed you!" "NO, I BETRAYED YOU!" even more of an eye-roller than it would've been otherwise. This isn't an end-all be-all issue for me, since one character that's involved on the villains' side does have me interested.
I'm really glad that I've made it up to this point in Yakuza 4. I'll wait until I finish the final chapter to decide whether or not this will be my last journal entry, to see if I want to dedicate an entry entirely to it or just save my thoughts for a final review. Either way, this chapter of my Yakuza journey is coming to a close soon.

CHAPTER 5: REQUIEM COMPLETE

Yeah I love this game.

As a way to get refreshed on the series, since a close friend of mine is working on a fangame, I decided to join a replay of the Danganronpa series. It's a trilogy that, in spite of all the obstacles with talking about it, is fairly close to my heart. It's been a long time since I've gone through a full unbroken experience of the game, so this'll probably be a good time to re-examine it.
We decided to go with the Japanese dub of the game this time around, as a way for it to be more refreshing than the english voices we usually stick with, and it's nice to see that the JP voice cast is really strong. They went pretty hard with some casting, with a surprising amount of VAs I recognized from One Piece and Naruto.
I think the prologue does a pretty stellar job of setting the tone for the game. Even after the insane opening cutscene, it still tries to lull you into a false sense of security with its standard VN introduction before things start to go wrong.
The way everything is introduced is really good. It informs us of everything we need to know about the concept in a way that ends up feeling organic and adds to the building sense of dread of the class's situation.
The art direction and OST already show their strengths, even before most of the game's best tracks kick in. They both work together really well to create a surreal atmosphere that permeates throughout the whole game.
Also a funny thing was when Monokuma spoke in Japanese, my friend was actually scared by his voice. Pretty funny to consider.