Thinker_J
2018
My favorite game of 2020. The story didn't hit me quite as hard as Transistor, but the gameplay loop is the best Supergiant has ever done.
2020
The best VR experience I've ever had. If you love Half-Life, I really cannot overstate how it feels to enter this world and interact with it. Ending gave me literal goosebumps, and I cannot wait to see what comes next.
Loved this game.
I think the storytelling had some flaws, but it's so much more ambitious than pretty much any game story I've come across. Still, a few too many plot contrivances for my taste.
I think the storytelling had some flaws, but it's so much more ambitious than pretty much any game story I've come across. Still, a few too many plot contrivances for my taste.
2020
The best Assassin's Creed game in a long time. The story is pretty generic, but is buoyed by great performances. You're a little OP by the end for my tastes, but I still found the gameplay loop super satisfying.
2020
There are some inherent flaws simply from how old the original game is, but my goodness does it still rule.
2020
The game has some major flaws, but I just really loved the story and characters I got to interact with along the way. I'm hoping when I come back in a few years and the DLC is out, I'm looking at an even better experience with mods/patches.
2015
The underlying game is just old, and there is no way around it. That said it's so awesome to play this piece of history and see it's fingerprints everywhere in the future of games.
Pure nostalgia. It shocked me how much I knew every map and how I knew almost every song by heart. Please follow up with THPS 3 + 4, as that would also be fantastic.
Over before it gets going, but as a results never overstays its welcome. A few story beats could've used another hour or two to breathe, but swinging is so fun and the combat is fantastic.
2015
The Good: The 80s Japan vibe is so incredible to take in. Goro Majima's arc is one of my favorite in recent memory.
The Bad: Each character has one fighting style that is easily their strongest and makes experimentation kind of pointless. A bit heavy in fetch quests.
The Ugly: These elderly Yakuza sure have insanely shredded bodies.
The Bad: Each character has one fighting style that is easily their strongest and makes experimentation kind of pointless. A bit heavy in fetch quests.
The Ugly: These elderly Yakuza sure have insanely shredded bodies.
2016
The Good: Kazama Kiryu is a great character, and is really carried by his voice actor. The final boss fight is a blast. The Majima Everywhere system is pretty fun.
The Bad: Way too many annoying fights heavy with guns near the end of the game. Combat has been nerfed from 0, which makes it less fun to slog through. The overall story is not great, and is mostly carried by the threads from Yakuza 0.
The Ugly: A couple of deaths in this game feel unearned and border on tasteless.
The Bad: Way too many annoying fights heavy with guns near the end of the game. Combat has been nerfed from 0, which makes it less fun to slog through. The overall story is not great, and is mostly carried by the threads from Yakuza 0.
The Ugly: A couple of deaths in this game feel unearned and border on tasteless.
2017
The Good: The best looking Yakuza game and best combat system so far. Great collection of mini-games in this one. Ryuji Goda is a very fun villain. The few Yakuza 0 connections are great.
The Bad: The story has about 50 plot twists too many. The game is also way too easy, you'll walk through it, even on hard.
The Ugly: Something tells me it's going to be rough to do Yakuza 3 after this one.
The Bad: The story has about 50 plot twists too many. The game is also way too easy, you'll walk through it, even on hard.
The Ugly: Something tells me it's going to be rough to do Yakuza 3 after this one.
2018
This review contains spoilers
Rikiya :(
2019
The Good: Massive gameplay improvements from Yakuza 3. New protagonists are great additions, especially Shun Akiyama.
The Bad: Story has way too many unnecessary plot twists, a Yakuza tradition at this point. Annoying traversal issues for one of the characters.
The Ugly: Did they seriously write Sayama out of the series?
The Bad: Story has way too many unnecessary plot twists, a Yakuza tradition at this point. Annoying traversal issues for one of the characters.
The Ugly: Did they seriously write Sayama out of the series?
2023
The Good: Fantastic atmosphere and vibes. Second only to Kojima in its ability to genuinely feel like a singular vision, even if that sometimes entails the game feeling a bit flawed. The "We Sing" chapter.
The Bad: The gameplay is pretty simple and often mediocre. The few times you face more than 2 enemies your character can start to feel unwieldy. Waiting 13 more years to get to some of these story threads left hanging would be a bummer.
The Ugly: I just genuinely really miss Lance Reddick, and I'm sure he would've had a great and prominent role in this new Remedy shared universe.
The Bad: The gameplay is pretty simple and often mediocre. The few times you face more than 2 enemies your character can start to feel unwieldy. Waiting 13 more years to get to some of these story threads left hanging would be a bummer.
The Ugly: I just genuinely really miss Lance Reddick, and I'm sure he would've had a great and prominent role in this new Remedy shared universe.