Yakuza 0 is a prequel to the original Yakuza game. I remember playing Yakuza 0 years ago and dropped it for reasons I cannot remember. With the newer Yakuza games (or Like a Dragon as they are called now) getting more attention with the switch to role-playing instead of action/beat ‘em ups, I wanted to give Yakuza 0 another chance. I have a lot to say.

Yakuza 0 is a story driven game. There are lots of cutscenes, dialogue, and the gameplay takes a backseat. I do not mind story driven games. The RPG genre is one of my favorite video game genres and they are known to be story heavy. Yakuza 0’s story is enjoyable, but I was not as invested as I wanted to be. People praise Yakuza 0’s story and I can see it has its moments, but it did not leave the same impact on me like it did for other people.

The story can get bloated at times. The first 4 chapters were a slog to get through. After Ch 4, the story and gameplay start to gather steam. However, like I mentioned earlier, I could not get as invested. I wonder if later games will get me more invested in their stories because Yakuza 0 did not do that for me.

The gameplay has you playing as two characters: Kiryu and Majima. Both have three different styles of combat. Brawler/Thug is your standard fisticuffs; Rush/Breaker have quick attacks, but the damage output is weaker; finally, Beast/Slugger is slow, but they can be strong. Besides your health bar, you have this heat gauge that fills up when you are doing combat. Once you get at least a bar of heat, you can perform heat actions. Think of it like a fighting game character’s ultimate or a Mortal Kombat fatality given how brutal some of these heat actions can get. The gameplay is solid and you can get new moves by spending your hard-earned yen on upgrades. The combat can get repetitive and you might need to grind to get more money. However, you can get more money by selling objects and spending Completion Points.

You explore Kamurocho and Sotenbori by foot as either Kiryu or Majima. The locations have tons of things to do. You can eat at restaurants, play at the arcades, do karaoke, or do the many substories. I am mixed on substories. They can break up the monotony of the main story and give you something different (mostly something wacky), but many of the substories I did were uninteresting. I am glad that the developers added these into the game to make the locations you explore more alive, but some of these substories I could live without. It does not help that some of the NPCs in the substories are of much lower quality compared to Kiryu and Majima. Kiryu and Majima look so detailed yet some of the substories have the NPCs looking like early PS3 models. It is jarring.

Speaking of looks, this game still looks good despite it releasing in 2015 in Japan and 2017 everywhere else. The music was also quite good. The song that plays when you boot up the game gets your blood pumping.

Yakuza 0 did not get me as invested in the story as I wanted, but the game is still good. Solid gameplay, nice exploration, and good visuals and music. I cannot wait to get into more of the Yakuza franchise.

I can see why GrimGrimoire is a rather obscure title in Vanillaware’s catalogue. GrimGrimoire was originally released on the PS2 to good reviews, but it was a commercial failure. 15 years later, it got a re-release under the title “GrimGrimoire Once More” for the PS4, PS5, and Switch. I played the demo of Once More and thought it was alright. I got the game on sale and dropped it later.

The game is unlike the usual Vanillaware title. There is no hacking and slashing or beating up in this game. GrimGrimoire is a real-time strategy game (RTS) where you summon different creatures to get mana and fight against enemies. You use a cursor to command your creatures to move, attack, guard, or defend. For RTS fans, this sounds right up their alley. For people who never cared about real-time strategy games like me, good God. This game is so boring.

I do not even hate the RTS genre. I thought since I played the demo, I would give that genre a chance. Maybe it can make me a fan. However, it did not work. GrimGrimoire Once More did not make me a fan of RTS. It is so boring that it makes me want to distance myself from the genre even more. That is going to be a problem if I ever get to 13 Sentinels.

I did not care about the story or the characters. It seemed like a standard time loop story, but I do not know if it will get better later. The characters were not that interesting either. They seemed cliched.

I do not need to go into detail about Vanillaware’s art because it is immaculate. As boring as this game may be, at least it looks amazing.

GrimGrimoire Once More is a boring game that did not change my opinion on the RTS genre. RTS fans can find enjoyment here, but this is a tough sell for non-RTS fans. It is a shame that I could not finish this game. I wanted to like it, but I found it so dull. At least it looks amazing.

Atelier Ryza is the first Atelier game I have ever played and completed. It was a toss up between Atelier Rorona: The Alchemist of Arland DX or Atelier Ryza. I went with Atelier Ryza because everyone said that Ryza’s personality is as big as her thighs. I am kidding; my reason for choosing this game is because it is considered beginner friendly for people wanting to get into the Atelier series and it is one of the more recent entries.

The game was enjoyable. I liked how it looked and the music was great. There is this free DLC pack that lets you download all of the songs from the previous Atelier games at the time of Ryza’s release and this franchise has great music.

This game’s combat system is real-time and I was overwhelmed at first. You have three party members and you control one at a time. Your other two party members will attack on their own. You can switch to a party member and manually control them by pressing R1 or L1 (assuming you are playing with a PlayStation controller like I was one on the PS4 version of this game).

In this game, you have Action Points (AP) to perform skills, a stun gauge that will leave you unable to attack when it hits zero, and a tactic level that increases if you sacrifice a full gauge of AP. The cool thing about the tactic level is that once it increases, you get benefits like stronger attacks and additional effects from your skills. You get AP by doing physical attacks and your whole party shares the AP. Once I got a hang of it, I grew to like the combat. I will always prefer standard turn based or action hack and slash in my RPGs, but this combat system is tight.

Another thing I was overwhelmed with was the alchemy system. Even with the in-game explanations, I was haphazardly making items in not the best shape. I know the bare basics of synthesizing because I played the Kingdom Hearts games, but I never heard of material loop or recipe morphing prior to playing this. After a few online guides, I somewhat got the hang of it. If this is your first Atelier game, I recommend looking up some guides to get a better explanation on how the alchemy system works. Also, I recommend you look up an item guide to know where to get certain items for synthesizing because there are some items that are required to make if you want to continue the game. One last thing: Make sure your alchemy level is high because certain creations are locked behind high alchemy levels like weapons and important story items.

Speaking of story, Atelier Ryza has an uninteresting story. It started off fine, but it got bland as it went on. The game’s story is divided by chapters and by the “Arid Lands” chapter, I stopped caring. I heard that the Atelier franchise is not known for its story, more on the alchemy and characters. The characters are alright. Some are one-note, but I do like all the main characters’ designs. All are distinct and their designs fit their personalities.

For my first game in the Atelier franchise, Atelier Ryza was enjoyable. The combat and alchemy were overwhelming at first, but I got the hang of it eventually. I could care less about the story and the characters were alright. Another RPG franchise off my bucket list.