I know this game's story gets a bad rep, but overall this is easily one of my favourite entries in the series.

Everything from Yakuza 3 is improved, with better visuals, more protagonists, better combat and just general better everything for me.

However, Kiryu and Daigo should not have been in this game at all, they do absolutely nothing and feel as if they are there just to be on the front cover. If anything they make the story worse because of that, Kiryu should not have appeared outside of that minor cameo in Saejima's section. He's also just dumb in this game, why the fuck does he forgive Hamazaki? And how the hell did he not know who Saejima was?

The worst part of this game's plot is the obvious rubber bullets thing, which was only done so we don't play as a murderer and yeah it's dumb, like Joji Kazama levels of dumb.

I still love this game though, everything about it is great barring the previously mentioned points.

FUCK THE FINAL MUNAKATA BATTLE!

Ok let me just start by saying, this game's combat isn't bad, it just sucks to play with no upgrades. I love this game.

On my 3rd replay, I realized this game's pacing is awful. I love the stuff with Kiryu and his orphanage but it really comes at the expense of the main plot which is pretty short and just feels off. The first 5 chapters are nothing with 2 oddly long ones.

Good game overall, 4 improves on it in every way though IMO.

UPDATE: I have since beat this game and yeah, outside of the art style and music, it fucking sucks.

I would like to congratulate Persona Q for being the only video game to actively give me a headache whilst I am playing it. There are so many issues with this game that resulted in me dropping it during Inaba Pride Festival Floor 3 or whatever it was called, please bear in mind I don't know anything about Etrian Odyssey so maybe my complaints extend to that franchise and aren't just unique to this game.

For a starter, why is everything so expensive and why do enemies do such damage? And why is the SP cost for literally any skill so fucking high? After you defeat 2 enemies you practically have to go home and refuel by using a Goho-M.

In general, dungeon puzzles are mind-bogglingly poorly designed, there is only ever 1 incredibly specific and hard way to do them to the point you will just look up a guide and don't even get me started on the FOE puzzles. Those things are just down to RNG and fucking suck, and later in the game it becomes impossible to fight them as some of them regen 9900 health!

And why do people who aren't in my party NOT gain XP? With a game with this many party members it's impossible to mix and match like normal games unless you grind them or just stick with one party (PS, Use Naoto and Aigis).

Props to the music and unique style though, that's really all the positives I can say for this game.

As previously mentioned before, I'm quite nostalgic for this game as I used to play it co-op with my dad and after revisiting it I can say this game has some good ideas but it is terribly executed.

This might be the worst feeling TPS game I have ever played, the camera zooms in too much when ADSing and your bullets do not go straight.

The story is an interesting concept but none of it is explored properly, the villains are forgettable and our protagonists hae the depth of a puddle. This game should be remade, like there is straight up untapped potential here.

I have had an urge to replay the Hitman games recently for some reason, and this is the first time I have replayed this game in about 4 years since the HD Enhanced Pack or whatever they called it on PS4. I originally played this sometime between 2012-2014 on the Xbox 360 before then as my dad got it the year it came out.

Whenever the question of, "what is a bad game that you personally like?" is asked to me, this game is always my answer to that question ironically alongside IOI's own Kane and Lynch 1 & 2.

I'm unsure as to why it has stuck with me and I have a nostalgaic feeling for it, this game is awful on so many levels and here's why.

First and foremost, the disguise system is completely useless as in Absolution unless you use your already sparse Instinct to 'blend in' whilst walking, everyone wearing the same disguise as you will be suspicious of you. This makes the game one of two things for the player.

1. It is actively punishing them for using the most iconic feature of Hitman, and so they should go guns blazing which genuinely works most of the time
2. They should stick to cover 24/7, playing it like Splinter Cell Conviction, still not like a Hitman game.

As a TPS, this game is fine, but it's not a TPS and this is Hitman. The original vision for this game was to have an even more streamlined game than what we got in the finale but due to negative reception at E3 they had to course correct and the final game suffers from it, originally assassinations were only in cutscenes, and so the few targets the final game has don't really make any sense. Why am I killing this random scientist in Dexter's Lab? It has no plot relevance and is just shoehorned in, some levels STILL don't even have targets and are just A -> B.

The rating system is also just terrible, you will get docked points on anything and everything, from slightly trespassing to being spotted, I'm not even sure why these exist aside from leaderboards as they don't seem to have any effect on Silent Assassin ratings, again shoehorned in after the fact.

The plot itself that the game focuses on is just very nonsensical and stupid, it makes 47 out to be this depressed lunatic who all of a sudden has feelings for Diana, then proceeds to feel guilty the entire game about killing her, only for the end to reveal she was ok all along! Even though 47 in private seemed beat up about it, it's just dumb.

But why do I enjoy this game? I honestly don't know, I hate every mechanic of this game yet I enjoy it.