It was around Lost Judgment's release that I said to myself, "Man, I'll play these forever, but how long can they keep doing the same stories and the same cities?" I asked this as someone who has been playing this series since Yakuza 4 back in the early 2010s -- these are my favorite video games ever -- but at a certain point I wondered if RGG Studio was on its way to diminishing returns even with the gameplay twists in the Judgment games/Yakuza 7.

My fears were unfounded. Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth is a revelation.

I will start by saying I always played these games for their main campaign alongside a bit of side content sampling. Think 15-40 hours depending on the game. For Infinite Wealth, which came out two weeks ago, I have played over 80 hours, Platinumed it on PS5, finished every substory, bought $27 of DLC, and deleted it on my hard drive with the intention of playing NG+ on the hardest difficulty later this year when I get the itch. I obliterated this game.

As for why, there are numerous reasons. While it has some of the finnicky pacing of 7 -- cutscene-heavy intoductory hours, some grindy early Kiryu parts, and pretty long story sequences -- I think the game improved itself in so many ways as to compensate for these potential shortcomings entirely.

Mechanically, LaD: IW feels highly refined compared to its predecessor, with new position-based RPG gameplay and a renewed focus on its jobs system that gives everything a confidence and refinement the last game didn't have as much. Second, for as much extra content is in here, it all moves pretty quickly (Spider-Man 2 is not a bad comparison point) and there is not a weak link in sight. The Animal Crossing and Pokemon modes/parodies are both very good.

The introduction of Hawaii makes everything feel fresh, and wandering around the giant new city makes you feel like you're on a beach vacation.

The writing across the board -- humor and drama -- is jacked up to the point where I would argue this is the best-written game in the series yet. The antagonists feel like a threat with emotional resonance; the substories and goofy stuff made me laugh a lot; and, without saying anything, they land the plane on Kiryu's arc from 6-8 perfectly. Several moments in this game hit me like a truck emotionally.

For a franchise that has given us Kamurocho like 15 times now, Like a Dragon: infinite Wealth is a miraculous renewal that shows RGG at their most confident, their funniest, their most in touch, and I think, their best. They not only still got it, but they might have it now more than ever. Wow wow wow!

I gave it my 5 hours. Both from a JRPG and farming standpoint, this game failed to grab me. I wanted to like it, I heard a lot of great things, but the pacing is incredibly slow. I can forgive poor pacing if other aspects of the game can capture my interest, but sadly nothing does.

The combat is passable at best. It simply feels like a button masher, as avoiding enemy damage seems like a task. You don’t get a good sense as to where the hit boxes are or where you need to be to avoid damage.

The characters intrigued me slightly, but after 5 hours I would expect to have have built some kind of connection with them.

Anyways, if I was starved for games, I would give it a couple of more hours, but with a growing backlog of amazing games, I need to move on.

I was pleasantly surprised by this experience. While I wouldn't label myself as a die-hard Star Trek enthusiast, I do harbor nostalgic sentiments from my childhood, where I would watch the Next Generation faithfully with my dad each week. As the plot unfolded, I found myself recalling a specific episode that was cleverly referenced. Whether you're a fan of the Star Trek universe or have fond memories of it, I believe you'll find enjoyment in this title.

One of the highlights for me in the game was immersing myself in the narrative and feeling a sense of control over the characters through the dialogue choices. The performances of all the characters were fantastic, each convincingly playing their respective roles.

However, my sole gripe with the game lies in the scattered gameplay elements within the story that felt a bit cumbersome and outdated, such as certain stealth sequences. While these moments didn't linger too long to significantly detract from the overall experience, they might be a potential barrier for those less inclined towards gaming—like my non-gaming dad. Additionally, there were a few Quick Time Events (QTEs) that I engaged with, and I found these to be effective in maintaining my connection with the game.

In summary, I approached this game with skepticism, but it turned out to be the kind of experience I couldn't tear myself away from, providing a refreshing break from my time with Baldur's Gate 3.

My Rune Factory journey goes like this: I fell in love with Rune Factory 4 on the 3DS, but when the Switch version dropped, I caved and bought it. Sadly, I lost my groove in the game and never finished it. Then came Rune Factory 5, and I was excited for a fresh experience. But it fell flat. The transition to 3D killed the charm, and the world felt boring to explore. Fast travel was a Band-Aid on a poorly designed game world.


Rune Factory 3 has unexpectedly claimed the title of my favorite in the series, even though it lacks the bells and whistles of its newer counterparts. The timeless appeal of its visual style, the endearing characters with their charming dialogue and unique personalities, and the captivating environment graced with a delightful color palette make it an absolute gem. Despite its age, I found the experience of exploration in Rune Factory 3 to be truly enchanting, and it has cemented its special place in my heart.

My second final fantasy with the first being 16 just a month or so ago. What a whiplash. This is an rpg so much variety in combat and lots of strategizing. Love taking advantage of enemy weaknesses and figuring out ways to optimize stagger and damage. Very unique combat with the real time and turn based. Story was very engaging and very excited for Rebirth. I never played original so I’m sure I am missing out on stuff but this was a fun ride. Difficulty was tough but fair usually. Until the second last boss for me which had egregious checkpointing such that I had to knock down to easy which made it trivial I wish that was ironed out in playtesting. Also I really like the materia system but wish we had pre-sets for characters. The game was great but felt it could have been like 25 hours and accomplished the same thing. Fun game

Stray is one of most impactful expierences i've had in a long time. The feeling this game gave me was euphoric.
The way you connect with the cat you play as is genuinely powerful. Video games tend to encourage a dissconnect from humanity. You do things because the games tells you to. Achieve goals because the game rewards you for it. But Stray has this unbelievable confidence that it's world and story is what you will want to explore for.
There aren't abilities to unlock or a distracting progression system. You do what you do in this game because you as a player want to, which feels almost dehumanizing to a point.
We're built for that constant dopaline loop. But it fits so well when you're playing as a cat.
You feel as if the moments of humanity or concern for the people you meet, are genuine. Not only for the player, but in turn, for the cat as well. Creating a wonderful connection between you and your animal persona. (Took a lot of strength not to type fursona)
There are these moments where you can stop and drink water from a puddle or sleep while listening to some music. It isn't to refill an HP bar or unlock something. You do it because one, it's cute, and two; you want the cat you're playing as to listen to some music and take a second to rest. I remember thinking "huh.. he's probably thirsty huh. I'll go over to that puddle." Not many games make me instinctually do that. It's just such a potenet connection it had with me. It may come down to how real the cat looks and feels to move around with.
Regardless, it's a powerful aspect of the game that elevated it a lot for me. I tried to explain it the best I can, but it's something that I felt and could have been totally exlcusive to me.
The Kowloon inspired setting is so rich in detail. Exploring feels good and everything has this human touch. While the music and sounds just gave me the extra kick, completely transporting me into the world itself.
While the game's pacing can be a little slow at times, I can already imagine people writing this game off as "boring". Or describing it as a "nonvideo game". Man, what a lame way to look at this artistic medium. A game that tries to break conventions and supply an expierence outside the realm of what people demand out of a video game. Rebelling against the "standard" we hold games to. Games like this are so damn healthy for the industry. Content, little expierence, doing its own thing and doing it well. It's supposed to be a little "boring". It helps elevate the atmosphere it's going for and the connection it creates with the player.
Can't stress how much this game means to me now.

tldr; Cat game with a meow button.

My first final fantasy. Won’t be my last! But despite I think this combat being fairly one note and repetitive without much incentive to change strategy other than boredom, it still kept my attention to do all the side quests etc. active time lore was a treat though I think they kinda phoned it in by the end or mine glitched not sure. Overall I see the issues with it but still had a good time. Also game designers cannot leave it to the player to find the fun and just from a strategy that is effective, my combat loop almost never changed cause it was always working I wish there were situations or something forcing me to change strategy in combat.

I've just beaten Captain Skyhawk, a scrolling shooter with vehicular combat, developed by Rare (Battletoads, Conker's Bad Fur Day & Sea of Thieves) and released for the NES in June 1990. It was also released for Arcade machines.

In this game, you are Captain Skyhawk, pilot of the plane "F-14VTS" and have to fight back against an on-going alien invasion. You never really see any aliens, nor do their spaceships and ground weaponry look very alien. If the game wouldn't have told me, I would have thought that we're simply fighting human terrorists or shooting up space stations for the fun of it. This is where I always crack up when I read reviewers of the time try to hype up the game's setting before diving into the gameplay. The Good Witch for GamePro Magazine's 13th Issue for example writes: "Imagine the ultimate parasites, creatures that suck the very life out of Earth and leave her a useless hulk spinning in space. This is the problem you, as Captain Skyhawk, must face." And then it's just you flying over 3D terrain and shooting at very normal looking planes and ground vehicles. Of course I admire the effort of trying to immerse potential players from the start and I doubt I would have done it differently back in the day, but that doesn't make it less funny to me reading it today, but in a good way.

This game is a vertical scrolling shooter and you fly around mountainous 3D terrain and try to dodge both enemy projectiles (which all look like the same "ninja star"-esque projectile) and the mountains off to the sides. There are 9 levels of that, with three different types of goals. In between, you have a little mini game where you have to line up your plane to be able to dock it perfectly into your station, plus a 2D mini level where you look at your plane from the rear, dodge incoming bombs and shoot up enemy ships that otherwise don't offer any resistance to gain some bonus points, which are then used to buy equipment at your station.

The gameplay loop is enjoyable, and especially the more fast paced segments were really fun, but what this game offers is limited, and it's not a looker (which is fine) nor a "hearer" (which was not fine).
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STORYTELLING
Within the video game, there is the littlest of environmental storytelling and that's it. And even that doesn't occur until the final objective of the game. Apart from that, there is no mention of where this game is set in, what your ultimate goal is or who you are. It just says "Alien Fleet destroyed" when you beat the game.

The real plot you will find in the game's manual, but apart from the final objective, it doesn't really translate to the full game. If you don't care for a story in a scrolling shooter like this, this is a non-issue, and I would guess that most of you do only care about the gameplay and about pretty much anything but the story. Still, it is worth mentioning that the game has no storytelling.

According to the manual, Aliens have invaded Earth and have built bases to drain Earth's energy. The end goal is to use this energy as fuel to vaporize Earth with a laser blast. You have to stop them by destroying their stations on Earth and ultimately destroying their space station.

As I mentioned, the ludonarrative dissonance makes the choice of an alien invasion story an odd one but since it is barely present, I didn't really think about it much further than that.

GAMEPLAY
You control a plane over simulated 3D Terrain. You can move your plane from side-to-side whilst the display scrolls vertically at an automated speed. You can also adjust your plane's altitude, and I found that reaching the highest possible level was the best strategy in order to avoid crashing into mountains. There doesn't really seem to be a reason to fly low. You can't crash into enemy planes or anything else besides those mountains that either are small and placed in the middle of an area or stretch out from the sides and at certain points only leave a very small opening for your plane to fit through.

In this vertically scrolling 3D part of the game, you use your "Cannon" to shoot. I found myself holding the A-Button throughout a level since your ammo is unlimited and enemies can show up at a moment's notice. There are also three other weapon types that you can stock up on whenever you finish a mission and manage to dock into your station.

There are "Phoenix Air Intercept Missiles" for air-to-air combat and "Maverick Air-to-Ground Missiles" and "Hawk Bombs" for air-to-ground combat. Over time you also get upgrades to your Cannon to make it fire quicker.

Enemies fire back with the same projectile pretty much. It's a small gray-and-white colored square shape and only one of these is fired individually every few seconds. Unfortunately, its effects are devastating, as one hit destroys your "specially designed plane" that was made specifically to combat the aliens. These projectiles and their hit boxes were a mystery to me throughout, as I never really could accurately say when it would hit my plane when I would fly past it and when it wouldn't. Figuring that out and maneuvering past it is really the key to success in this game, which apart from the final boss is pretty straightforward otherwise.

There are 9 total missions and they all go pretty similarly. There is the vertical scrolling section first, then a 2D section where you shoot down enemy planes to collect extra points and a docking mini game. The vertical scrolling section has one of three goals until the final missions: (1) Destroy enemy station, where you have to destroy four of its circled bases to make it explode, (2) Find scientist, where you have to destroy a prison holding a scientist in similar fashion to free him and grab some plane upgrades and (3) Drop supplies, where you have to drop supplies into holes that are placed somewhere in the map. You have to do that two times to win the mission.

The 2D section has the ships come from out of screen and become smaller as seconds pass until they disappear. If you hit them, you get points, if you don't, you don't get points. There are only bombs to dodge, which sometimes the ships carry with them. And if they spawn right where you are, you can be hit with it without even seeing the bomb, which results in instant-death. Annoying.

Finally, there is the docking mini game. There is a very small hole in a docking station in front of you. You have to align your plane on its level, wait for the right moment and press B to see a little animation where your plane circles toward the station. If you aligned it correctly, you enter the station and progress with the game. You can buy ammo there. If you fail, you crash against the station and lose a life. It's not really difficult once you understand it but I guess it's there.

There are 3 continues throughout the game, so if you're playing this game without save states, it can be tough to beat and will be pretty frustrating. If you use save states like me, it'll still be frustrating but becomes much more beatable until the final boss, which took me so many tries and almost made me rage.

Controls of the plane where alright but only because you really didn't have too much to do. Dodge a bullet if you can and then just fly from west-to-east whilst shooting your cannons, pretty straightforward throughout. Some missions for some reason had your plane flying 3x the normal speed for some reason, which meant having to somehow manage to anticipate where those valleys between the two mountains would show up, because otherwise you'd crash to your death. That was frustrating but at the same time, if you did it right, these missions would flow really well.

MUSIC/SOUND/VOICE
No voice acting. The music was good, nice to listen to, no complaints there. But the sound design was bad. The sound of the cannons firing was annoying and nothing cannon-like, so I'm not sure why each individual bullet you fired got its own sound, especially when having to auto-fire was almost a necessity. The sound of hitting enemies was unpleasant as well. There are some good parts about it, like the sound of enemy planes being destroyed or the sound in the 2D sections of far-away planes approaching. But overall, it wasn't good to listen to. Music would only play during boss fights or in the menu.

GRAPHICS/ART DESIGN
Maps were all the same (more on that in "Atmosphere") and at no point did it feel like I was fighting aliens and their advanced technology. I've seen some comments on YT videos saying that "the game is one of the best graphically for the NES", but I don't really see it, it just looked bland and very simple.

ATMOSPHERE
I'd say the 2D sections were the ones that made me feel the most like I was flying a plane in the sky. Dodging bombs, hearing enemy planes approach from a distance and having to align just right to destroy them was an extremely simple task truth be told, but it was still able to draw me in the most. The docking mini game added a little bit to the immersion as well I guess, but the 3D vertical scrolling section just didn't make me feel like I was fighting back against an alien invasion in this super-plane that was specifically constructed to fight them. There was no music playing, the sound design was mostly bad and it was enough for one tiny projectile to kill me and destroy the flow of the attempt.

CONTENT
There are 9 same-y missions and very little variety to approach them. It doesn't have filler however and having less missions works in the game's favor. I'd definitely rather have 9 than 18 missions if they are going to be similar. There still is a lack of content overall.

LEVEL/MISSION DESIGN
The 9 missions almost all play out exactly the same. The only ones I would call slightly different are the "supply drop" missions, which have no boss fight but rather just require you to time the drop of a package correctly. Other than that, you'll be doing the same thing over 9 missions in maps that pretty much are all the same. The only difference is that the placement of environmental obstacles is likely slightly different with each and that maps can have different colors. The terrain does only carry one (1) color (green or blue or orange), but it does change from mission to mission.

CONCEPT/INNOVATION
I have never really played scrolling vehicular combat shooters like this one growing up, so this is almost entirely a foreign genre to me. Therefore I can't really judge this, but reviews I have read of the time don't mention this game excelling at any part or moving the needle in any way either. There is also no story component, very little adjustments you can make to your plane, the same maps with a different one-color terrain and very straightforward action.

REPLAYABILITY
There isn't really any variety here, so the only reason for replaying this after winning would be to beat your high score, which is as the devs intended it I'd assume.

PLAYABILITY
The game worked well at all times.

OVERALL
It's the first game of this type I've played in probably 15 years, and even then I might have tried a vertical scrolling shooter with vehicular combat once or twice, so I have little experience to compare this to other similar games. On its own, it doesn't really seem to do anything particularly well, but its core gameplay loop and the challenge it provides is fun enough for a couple hours, if you're into this genre of games. But all of its features are very basic, which maybe is how these games were back then. I could also see this being more feature-poor than games that came out before or shortly after it, that is still be found out in the process of this project of mine.

WHAT THEY SAID AT THE TIME
- The Good Witch for GamePro Issue 13 (Aug 90): "Captain Skyhawk features a good combination of different game action [...]. Although the shoot-em-up action may not be challenging enough to keep an expert gamer busy for long, it's more than tough enough for the average player"
- ? for Nintendo Power Issue 16 (September-October 90): "Each level on this action packed flight simulation is fun and challenging"