The phrase “x story helped me out during a rough time” is used commonly to elaborate on how much a piece of media has helped someone out, but I can’t say that about Persona 3, primarily because it’s a story that has taken root inside me deeply and stayed with me throughout the years ever since 2021 when I first played it. It’s not like it helped me during a single rough time, it was more like an affirmative embrace and an acknowledgement of my struggles throughout all of these years collectively instead of just one period of time. Persona 3, much like Good Will Hunting, Evangelion, and Pandora Hearts, is a game that I like to revisit and reflect upon every time I feel like I’m in a rut and can’t figure out who I am and what am I supposed to do in this world. It’s something I’ve closely attached to who I am because of how much it shaped my mindsets towards life, “The meaning of our lives is something that we make but don’t see”, and, “You don’t need to save the world to find meaning in life” are quotes I internalised, reminded myself of anytime I felt myself falling down an existential crisis, and the long term effects it had on me throughout the years is not something I take for granted. In a way, Persona 3 is a symbol of my struggles during my adolescence, and so, it is that revisiting it through Reload that I felt like I was looking back on parts of myself from back then and getting in-touch with them again. It felt like a reflection of my past, of all the struggles I pushed through to make it this far to where I am today, and by the end of it, I realised that much of my own growth throughout the years was because of stories like Persona 3, growth due to me burning my dread and venturing in life while living in the moment.


When you’re faced with a crisis that you have no idea how will it end, or how you will resolve it, you have two choices, whether to believe that you’ll fail and fall into a hole of cynicism or to believe in your happiness and work towards that ideal in the moment by focusing on yourself and doing what you can until eventually, everything falls into place. This sentiment seemed too unreal to me because of how clouded my vision was with all of the negativity that I surrounded myself with back in 2020 because whenever I tried to resolve my issues, I half assed it and it backfired, whether it be my existential crisis due to the societal pressure I experienced that made me feel like I had to have a larger than life success story to be worth anything, my ever growing disdain towards the fleeting nature of bonds, struggles with navigating interpersonal issues due to my self pity and cynicism as a byproduct of my fear of abandonment, and fear of death due to religious doubts I had. All of this was too much for my 17 year old self to bear, but as I said, Persona 3 and its characters all reflected different intimate parts of who I am for a reason.


For a dumb teenager like me who couldn’t believe in himself, drowned in self pity and inferiority towards others, and had trouble seeing what was so special about myself, Junpei Iori represented my struggles with the indifference of the universe crucially. He’s someone who believes his own hype to subconsciously convince himself that he’s a hero destined to save everyone, when in reality that’s merely his coping mechanism with his deep-seated insecurity about his incompetence, and that shows in the dichotomy of his goofiness and feelings of envy and jealousy. It’s only later through meeting Chidori, someone who felt like her life held meaning due to her persona, much like he did, that he realized that he doesn’t need to be this impossible image of a hero that he created within himself and that if he kept on being true to his innermost self, the one who wanted to become a baseball player, he’ll have already become a hero to someone, like he did with Chidori. I said that Junpei’s insecurities and tendency to compare himself to others reflects a part of me in the past, but truth be told, I still have those tendencies lingering in from within me, yet in the same vein, over time I’ve learned to trust in myself, that whatever I do, it’ll result in something special. I learned that it doesn’t matter if there’s someone who’s better, smarter, more insightful than me, because no matter what, they can never be me, and so long as I pursue that self and see to it that its potential is met, everything will fall into place. It’s for that reason that I can look back on Junpei’s arc in P3 fondly and think to myself about how much it helped me internalise that self trust, because there’s nothing more real than pulling a mentally ill goth bad bitch by being funny and quirky.



When I said that P3 reflects different parts of myself from the past, I meant that because it’s not just my teenage years that it reflected but my childhood as well with characters like Ken. I could go into how characters like Mitsuru, Akihiko, Shinjiro, & Fuuka connected with me but I want to go with Ken not just because he’s my favorite among the aforementioned characters (I’m quirky, I know) but because of how he crucially reflected a part of me that no other character has, and it’s how Ken chooses to adapt to his situation to fit in in self deriding ways that I feel seen by. From the start, Ken is pushed into this dog-eat-dog world where only the strong survive, even in SEES, and that sudden change in his environment not only made him lose himself but a person’s most precious value, that being his inner child. Ken was forced to let go of his childish nature, gaslight himself into thinking that such notions would only hold him back, and proceeded to move solely through objective means because of how he was stuck in an adult world where if he doesn’t man up and throw away his childish needs and struggles, he’d be left behind, much like how his mother left him behind and so did everyone else, with their looks that were devoid of nothing but pity, yet even then, in his linked episodes, he couldn’t let go of his inner child and it shows sprinkles of his inner child peeking out due to his enthusiasm. It’s a heartbreaking accurate depiction of how much Ken struggles to connect with others and most importantly himself, because nothing has been the same for him since his Mom died. Many people, when looking at Ken’s character, view Ken’s arc as a revenge arc, and while that’s a valid reading of his character, to me, it felt like it was more so Ken reconnecting with his inner child, realising that he doesn’t need to put up this facade to “survive” and “fit in” with this cruel world, and that he doesn’t need to hold himself back emotionally so much because of others anymore, because while he may have lost his family, he gained another through SEES, and that’s what “living” means. Losing people, meeting new people, bonding with them, and doing simple things like practicing your hobbies, that’s what living really means, and that meant so much to me because back when I was a kid, I never had any friends of my own, could never really connect with them, and that’s because I always hung out with my older brother’s friends, which subsequently made me mature too fast for my good and didn’t allow me to live my childhood to its fullest. I could never connect with people my age, because I was so used to forcibly maturing myself to keep up with my older friends, I always felt like bottling up my emotions and needs in favor of a facade that could get me the closeness and sense of belonging I wanted out of their company since I was too awkward to make any friends of my own, yet on the inside I was too young and emotional to get along with my older friends, creating this unstable interpersonal problem I had that plagued my childhood. It’s funny, how I’m a grown person now, yet seeing Ken be plagued with this same issue I had and recovering from it through mundane means, almost had me tearing up because it reminded me of how much I hardened myself and designed a strong man to protect the hurting child inside me.




Earlier, I described Persona 3 as a meditative experience that gives me space for my feelings whenever I need a haven to express myself within, or feel seen within, and so, there are parts of it that are timeless to me, parts of it that help me see myself in a better light and enable me to look at myself more positively, one such part is Yukari’s character and how much of an embrace it feels to me. Truthfully speaking, my aim with my media experiences is to either escape the real world, or for edutainment purposes, but it is so rare for me to engage myself with a story that can help me discover positive, strong traits within my character that makes me love myself. It’s hard for a story to do that, since what I look for in fictional characters are parts of me that I and others around me struggle to accept, more often than not are negative parts, but that’s why Yukari means the world to me, since not only does her character give me a safe space to feel seen and accepted for my contradictory feelings of love and hate towards intimacy, but she also embodies a trait of mine that helps me accept it, that being kindness and empathy. Yukari’s premise is that she struggles with the internal conflict known as the hedgehog dilemma, where she craves intimacy but disdains contact with others, because she wants to be loved, but doesn't think she's worth loving because of the self pity, sense of weakness/inferiority, & self hatred she internalised as a byproduct of being "abandoned" by both of her parents, at least emotionally. I say emotionally because her dad died so he didn’t abandon her technically, and her mother simply clung to other men for emotional support, so she didn’t consciously abandon Yukari, but at least on an emotional level, Yukari felt like she had the deepest craving she had was taken away from her, forever a wish beyond her reach, and that affected how she perceived herself and others and based her moral compass around her disdain for her Mother who abandoned her and what she represents. Following that, Yukari would disassociate with anything that resembled the escapist coping mechanisms her Mother did through either self-denial or self-isolation from others. It’s why she despises being helped out, because not only does she blame and hate herself for what happened to her parents but because it resembles her Mother’s helpless state of feeling like she needs to be saved, it’s why she was mad when Makoto helped her out during her s. Link, it’s why she tries to present herself as this being who towers above the concept of weakness to feel a sense of leverage and derive self-worth from that, but at the same time, she’s a highly emotional person who wears their heart on their sleeve, and so bits and pieces of that need for emotional support and insecurities about her self image come out. An example of this would be her jealousy and fixation over Mitsuru, she’s so fixated on Mitsuru because deep down, she wants to be like her, someone who’s unfazed, looks powerful and is the exact opposite of her Mother. A toxic sense of admiration, you could call it, since she never recognizes this jealousy, how wrong it is since even Mitsuru’s flawless demeanor was fake and a byproduct of societal expectations, and how much it contradicts Yukari’s conscious desire to present herself powerfully, and whenever she recognizes that, it’s in self-loathing, like how she did in Yakushima, because of how much she gaslights herself into thinking that she’s strong and doesn’t need help, even if it means ignoring herself and wrongly seeing others. Despite those insecurities getting in the way of how she interacts with others, she's a very kind person who has all the love to give to others, yet when it comes to loving herself, that ''love'' she has for others is devoid of any love for herself. Time and time again, in various instances Yukari shows how much empathy and kindness she has for others, even from the start of the game, like how she was the first SEES member who bothered to reach out to Makoto and connect with him instead of spying on him, how she was the first to defend Makoto when Junpei lashed out at him, how she made insensitive jokes about Junpei but then apologized to him and considered his feelings, or with how she helped other SEES members navigate their problems like Fuuka who struggled with people pleasing habits during her final s. link and Mitsuru who struggled with self-acceptance and existential dread. Additionally, if you spend enough time with her during the night events, there's a moment where she talks about how inspiring the main female character is, how she wants to be just like her, someone who's there for everyone around her and is capable, and that puts into perspective how kind Yukari is and how much she empathizes with others. Yet, she has moments where she’s a tease and makes fun of others, sometimes in a tone-deaf way, and why is that? The majority would chalk it up to her being a quirky mean white girl, and while I get it and understand how appealing that is since I’d love for a pretty white girl like her to call me racial slurs and deride me my right to live, I think that Yukari’s need to prove her toxic self image right to justify her self hate and rejection of help to disassociate from her Mom is what causes her to be such a tease and to be so slanderous, because while she's quirky and mean in her own right, it's also valid to infer that about her character. It doesn't help that being bullied due to her father's failure influenced her perception of social interaction more aggressively and might've added to that if anything. In a sense, she has the most amount of kindness out of anyone, but the dichotomy she has where she pushes everyone away while craving their love and attention, is what clouds that trait of hers and makes it harder for her to express that, and it's why whenever she gets praised for her kindness, she denies it. She's a perfect example of how someone's personality can be so dynamic, where she's a mean teaser on the outside, but would be the quickest to be there for someone else, and that part of her helps me embrace the idea that I'm a kind person, or at least, try to be because I'm similar to that aspect of her and it feels very validating. It's especially relatable because there are moments where I went out of line and lost friendships due to that, due to unhealthy tendencies and mindsets I had, and that made me reject my kindness in favor of self-loathing, yet through Yukari, I was able to see that part of me, admit to it, and love myself more authentically because of it.


By now you understand how much Persona 3 means to me, how much of a solace inducing experience it is for me, and how much it helps me to love, to feel loved, to express my earnest desires, and to be there for everyone around me, but in contrast, oddly enough, when I was playing through Reload, a certain part of it re-stimulated my fear of abandonment, my disdain for the fleeting nature of relationships due to past experiences, and my desire for everything to stay the same way, thinking about how worthless something is if it’s destined to never last, that certain part being the front and center of the game, Aegis. A few years ago, during the pandemic, I’d say I was at my worst mentally, and it’s not because of the experiences I went through by that point, but it was more so because of how I dealt with those experiences by willingly surrounding myself with negativity, choosing to be miserable instead of fighting, and preferring victimhood over the pursuit of happiness. It led to loads of perceptual issues I had, and that only piled up more on the issues I already struggled with at the time. You see, I grew up in an environment that shunned sensitivity and emotions and saw them as a sign of weakness, and so, a feminine guy like me who was highly emotional and sensitive, was essentially born and raised in the wrong environment because of how much that aspect of it contradicted how I was at my innermost core. In an attempt to fit in, I discarded myself, drowned myself in an endless hell of facades, and over time, forgot who I even was, becoming something of a colorless broken puppet unable to discern my emotions and convey them, forever emotionally stunted and ignorant of how it feels to “live” because all I did was exist. For that reason I’ve had my complications with loneliness and love, feeling like I couldn’t feel it or even deserved it. So, it is that through Aegis I was able to see a picture of my past self, a grotesque portrait of how I was 4 years ago. It was as eerie as it was comfortable, seeing a character frustratingly and confusingly try to navigate their place in the world and getting shredded by it. It felt validating, because Aegis had the same misconception that I did, and it was that I thought I had to do something larger than life itself to justify my existence when that wasn’t the case. It was very comforting for me to see a character that represents how I was a few years ago, that’s how it was at first anyway. It later dawned on me that after Aegis decided to live, she started struggling with something that I struggle with nowadays, and it’s maintaining relationships, or rather, thinking that they’re worth maintaining anyway since they all end. I’ve always had this thought that yeah, sure, all bonds end, that this is an absolute, but it always pained me whenever I met someone, because I knew deep down, that at some point they’re going to leave me behind and we’ll part ways. Even if we reconnect, it might not even be the same as before and that made me oftentimes crave a reality where time could be halted. But upon revisiting Aegis’ social link, there’s a piece of dialogue that reminded me why I cherish the people I cherish and why I’ll never stop loving the people I’m with.

“Life is both short and finite. That’s what makes it so invaluable, and why one feels that it must be cherished… When you think about it, it’s a miracle that two given people are able to ever meet in this chaotic flow of time and space.”


It’s a simple line, something that’s hard to miss, but that's the case with most ideas in life and is what makes it connect with me because of how Makoto’s dynamic with Aegis resonates with that sentiment and embodies it with the stark contrast of how they live. Their differences made them feel complete because, on the two opposite spectrums, they struggled to understand life and the worth of the process that goes within it that inevitably leads to death, yet through something simple, like knowing and understanding each others' emptiness, they felt the elusive taste of connection and yearned for more from it. Makoto is a human who tries to be a machine, while Aegis is a machine who tries to be human, yet despite their differences, they connected because they both yearn for the same thing, to stand with one another atop Gekoukan’s rooftop and gaze at the city that gave them a taste of that elusive connection. The shortage of something is what makes you fear losing it. Yet, in the same vein, it makes you want to appreciate it and make use of it to the fullest so that when it ends, you can look back on it with no regrets and cherish your memories of it because it’s the memories that make our experiences with one another flow through all eternity. And so, even if I fear losing the ones I love, even if I lived a life of an emotionally stunted puppet, even if I lived in existential dread, even if I thought at times that I didn’t deserve to be liked, or that I was of less worth than others, none of that matters, because regardless of what happens, I’m human, I have feelings worth conveying, I will always have people I love, and I have something to live for, it may not be monumental, but the small ripples caused by the day to day things I do will surely produce a result worth living for in the long run because no two days are the same. It’s funny, I talked about my time during the pandemic as the worst time in my life, yet when I look back on it, I can’t look at those days as an unhappy time. To me, they’re a sign that I’m alive, a backdrop for me to push forward from, a pat on the back telling me how much I’ve changed, and a signal to dash forward and follow my heart, because I now know that rejecting it is the most painful of all. Maybe that’s how I feel about them because over time, I’ve slowly subconsciously implemented the feelings and lessons that Persona 3 made me feel and taught me into my day-to-day life, and now looking back on it, after everything has been said and done, I feel nothing but pride and love towards who I became and who I was. Through remembering my mortality, I remembered to live, and so I did.

No game is perfect but this is the type of game I've wanted out of the JRPG genre since the PS4. It feels like everything FF XV was supposed to be.

A big budget, open world game that knows when to buckle down and go linear for a while to tell its story.

And there's actually fun activities to do in said open world too! I did all the intel for Chadly, did every sidequest bar the last one, played Queen's Blood, spent time with the plethora of mini games (most fun, minus the RTS ones)

Felt like I was doing something different each time I turned on the game. And thats FUN. Even putting the story aside, I was a little sad when I ran out of content. Its just all so damn fun. I didn't want this game to end.

I also love that they embraced how goofy this game could be and turned it up to 11. There's so many hilarious, spectacle moments, but it still knows when to take its story seriously.

The battle system is just Remake's but better. Not much to discuss there.

I will say the ending i'm a little mixed on. If it sticks the landing this might be one of the coolest gaming trilogies of all time. Its giving big Rebuild of Evangelion vibes and that could either go to an amazing place, or mess up big time at the end. Rebuild stuck the landing, hoping the same happens for FF7.

Either way, holy shit this game is spectacular. THIS is the direction I want FF to go in. I was disappointed in XVI for a number of reasons. The battle system in Remake and Rebirth is perfection and I want them to continue to expand and spin-off on it.

For the longest time, I’ve always delayed this review for a specific reason. When I first finished FFXVI, I wrote down a 6 paged long review for FFXVI and while I am proud of the passion I poured into it, it just…lacked “something”, a main integral part of it was missing. It would only be a few months later that I’d realise the reason why, and it’s because while I did absorb the motivational and inspiring themes about accepting reality for what it is and resisting your predetermined fate to shape the reality you want, I didn’t apply that to my life like I thought I did and that faint, vague thought that slept in the deepest crevices of my mind would be the sole saviour of my mind when I was forced to confront a personal, subconscious part of who I am that I kept locked away for my own comfort when I had a painful self realisation about my darker subconscious traits. Trying to verbalise the vehement disgust and sheer sense of discomfort I felt towards myself when I made that self realisation was too much for me at the time, and so, in a way, writing this review at this state in my life about a game that was the catalyst to this realisation I made was like going through the different parts of myself that I hated and denied for the longest.


It was like picking the scattered shards of a broken glass, trying to reconnect them one by one from the past into one integral piece to feel a sense of peace. But the more shards I picked, the more they hurt, and that sensation of wanting to throw it all away and replace the broken shards with fake ones that barely fit just to indulge in self denial was what made me connect with the leading protagonist, Clive Rosfield. What I’d been ignoring my entire life, my own shadow and subconscious reactions, have been what were causing me most of my strife in life, yet I always averted my eyes from the truth when it was staring right into my face and blamed another for it to spare myself the guilt that I always feared would destroy what little was left of me. It set me on a long journey that tested my perseverance, self love, outlooks on life, my relationships, and most importantly myself, causing me to re-evaluate everything that I was, with beach walks by the full moon at night being my only temporary relief in an otherwise overwhelming time.

FFXVI isn’t just a game, it’s about taking responsibility towards others but most importantly yourself, it’s a fiery, blazing yet a gentle and a warm reminder that while choosing to be the victim is easy, becoming the hero of your own story and turning tragedy to triumph is a continuous arduous path that’s full of suffering and fear. FFXVI pushes the generic idea that embracing the truth makes you stronger, but what sets it apart is that it emphasises how accepting the truth is only a part of the equation and isn’t the be all and end all. Accepting the truth is part of it, but applying that truth, etching it onto your heart, and wearing your heart on your sleeves as you’re burning a roadless path ahead without running away is what matters. It doesn’t show that the acceptance of truth is a one time event, it’s an ongoing process that takes as long as our lives do, and it does that with how it characterises Clive’s contradictions because when he accepted the truth, trying to apply it on his journey was just as arduous as ever and that’s what truly touched me, because there is no escape nor a solution to it, it’s an endless treadmill with moments of bliss sprinkled every now and then. Whether it’s Clive’s own struggles to live up to his father’s ideals and his fears pertaining them, Jill’s inability to shake off her self deprecating views about herself from her experiences with abuse, Joshua’s need to prove his own self because of his inferiority complex, & Dion’s need to obsessively pay everyone he unintentionally hurt back when he doesn’t need to, I felt like I was seen and validated by each and everyone of them. It’s when a piece of art can speak to you so spiritually and forms such an intimate connection with you that its characters feel like real people and integral parts of who you are, that it stops being just a piece of art and something deeper than that. It becomes a safe haven and that’s the most accurate way I can describe FFXVI.


Though I did the most I could to embrace the shadow and subconscious traits from within me, to forgive and accept that part of me instead of rejecting it by doing inner child work, patching up my hostile relationship with my parents, reconnecting with my siblings and friends, going out of my comfort zone to do things I always wanted to do, and internalising a new way to look at everything as I knew, even as I’m writing this, I can feel those dark habits pulling me back and my fear of the truth from within me breaking me apart, but it’s why I’m able to connect with Clive so much, who tries to be an unstoppable force while being barely held together by thin rope that could break at any moment & believing in the truth of his being. The truth is a feeble concept, one formed and changed by the narrow mind’s singular perspective in an attempt at self preservation, but that’s what helped me explore a deeper meaning to my life because the truth isn’t what’s before you, it’s what you make of it and work towards realising that. We can’t choose who we are, but we can choose who we become on the morrow and strive towards that self. It’s less about changing who we are as much as it’s about exploring who we can become and getting comfortable with that. In this piece in which I impart an integral, personal chapter of my life, I leave a mark that maybe someone can learn from or be inspired by, the same way this piece of art inspired a transformative stage in my life. Years from now, I likely won’t be able to recall the exact feelings I felt writing this piece, but I know that they will impact me forever after, as little as they are, just like how the few blissful moments I spent walking by the beach and gazing at its endless horizons with the full moon’s light illuminating the ocean did.

Penny’s Big Breakaway, to me, feels like a holy conglomerate of Super Mario Odyssey, Pizza Tower, and Sonic Mania. To anyone even remotely familiar with any of these games, this is a huge note of endearment. It hits the nail on the head with how it prioritizes the momentum based flow that Sonic Mania and Pizza Tower mastered, the “maintaining your speed while weaving around to find secrets without losing your combo” of Pizza Tower, and the open-feeling level structure and more nuanced moveset of Mario Odyssey. It exceeded my already lofty expectations in spectacular fashion that, while lacking the polish and finishing touches to be placed in the unabashed masterpiece department, offers moment-to-moment gameplay of such high caliber that its all too easy to ignore its few shortcomings.

Similar to 90% of people interested in this game, my own interest stems from the development team being the same as Sonic Mania’s. Let me lay out something really quickly: Sonic Mania is one of the definitive, tangible examples of proof we have that beings of divine ordinance do, in fact, exist. Everything from the game’s presentation to how its levels are constructed to take advantage of your momentum-based toolkits feels so meticulously and lovingly sculpted. Its one of my all time favorite games, period, and as someone who grew up playing the Genesis era of Sonic games I can’t even begin to describe how satisfying it was to see a group who was not only able to capture that magic again, but surpass it.

So naturally, I was stoked for Penny’s Big Breakaway. I had absolutely no reservations about picking it up just from the names attached to the work. To my complete lack of surprise, they hit it out of the park again with another immensely satisfying gameplay experience that scratches an itch that many other games aren’t really trying to hit on.

This is a 3D platformer, yes, but I think limiting it to that is honestly deceptive towards where it’s true strengths lie. In actuality, Penny’s Big Breakway is the Momentum based experience, with all of the moves and your arsenal and the winding paths wanting to take advantage of the fact that you rarely ever need to slow down. I will note that there’s absolutely a learning curve here, a bit more harsh than most modern platformers which have begun to gravitate towards more simple control schemes, but once it ‘clicks’…it really clicks. You realize that everything in Penny’s arsenal flows into every other move in her arsenal and then, before you know it, you’re chaining together longer and longer unbreaking combos and completely demolishing stages in record time. At times, you even feel “smarter” than the game, especially on repeat visits to stages where you start discovering shortcuts and how to get through that part that gave you trouble more efficiently. But the truth is that all of these “I’m so smart” moments are baked into the game’s design philosophy of making a level that initially feels very disjointed and confusing into something with a very clear, connected flow. It’s great stuff.

Also of note is that it’s a great example of a platformer that retains its consistency in quality from start to finish. There’s no fall-off with some of the later stages which a few of my favorite platformers have fallen victim to in the past and, in fact, I would go as far as to say that the later levels of PBB are where the game really shines.

The game’s shortcomings are relegated pretty strictly to things that all fit under the umbrella of “it maybe needed a couple more months in the oven”. The fixed camera (a bold choice for a modern 3D platformer btw, but it works) can cause some issues sometimes and leads to a few risky jumps that really shouldn’t be that risky. Collision with certain objects and platforms is just super janky and lead to more than my fair share of completely unjust deaths, including a few instances where I just straight up fell through the bottom of the map for no reason. Presentation wise I think the game flip-flops from being charmingly inviting and whimsical to…sort of ugly (but it’s clear that this is more of a budget issue and it doesn’t impact gameplay so I don’t care much). Honestly my biggest little nitpick that’s not technical is that there’s so many little dudes all over the map who are constantly saying things to you, and I want to stop and hear what they have to say but I also really don’t want to stop my zen mode constantly to let a textbox finish. It’s a really minor detail but it was a genuinely conflicting issue for me.

Thankfully, a patch can resolve most of these technical issues and they don’t really detract from how great the game is overall. Platformers have been killing it recently and I really want to continue communicating the message that “yes, we want more games like this. please.” Super excited to see what this talented team has in store for their next project!

This was the most unexpected I have ever felt after a game.

I first played The Last of Us back when in launched in 2013, when I was 13 years old. I saw the marketing for it, a bunch of YouTubers hyping it up, great review scores and I became interested. I was trying to expand my gaming pallet at the time and ended up getting it. To say I was disappointed at the time would be an understatement. I don't really remember exactly why I didn't like it initially, it has been 10+ years after all, it just didn't click. I didn't even finish the game.

Of course this game would go on to not only be one of the most acclaimed games of not only the generation, but of all time, and I didn't get why. For years I refered to this game as "mid" and was uninterested when it came back up in discussions, and laughed at the drama regarding its sequel as I assumed I'd never play it so why would I care? Well I'll worry about Part 2 when I get to it later.

So now all these years later, coming into a copy of the remaster on PS4 when I got a bulk game lot, and deciding to try it again on a whim as I wait for Final Fantasy VII Rebirth - I had one of the best gaming experiences in recent memory. Memories I forgot I had came back into my mind when playing the early bits, and then even knowing some of the end game story beats as of course with a game this popular you end up getting spoiled one way or another... I loved every second of it. The pacing is perfect as I never once felt bored and my play sessions went for hours longer than I intended as I was that sucked in. The gameplay gave me the tense and harsh moments to match the scenes, the story I was engrossed in, and the characters I fell in love with. And before I knew it, it was over, and I was crying. Confused tears, sad tears, happy tears - I just played a masterpiece.

I think at the end of the day I was just too young to get into this game, when I thought of shooting games I thought Call of Duty, Halo, guns blazing high action. So maybe the slower, methodical, and survival horror like gameplay put me off. Maybe the story I couldn't connect with because I wasn't paying enough attention, was zombied out coming off being obessed with the walking dead around that time. These are all just my reflections as to the possibilities of why I didn't like this game back in the day, as I previously said I don't remember exactly why. A representation of how much I've matured and grown as a person, I'm no longer that little kid me, and that's okay. But what's important is now, because now I love this game.

Wasn't expecting to write an essay but felt inspired, if you read all this you a real one, and thank you.

I love Kiryu

It's been an insane journey going from Yakuza 0 to now and I've enjoyed every moment of it, I've enjoyed all the time I spent with Kiryu and this game is a love letter to all those memories, and a love letter that pays respect to the legend himself without being cheap or sloppy. The entire game is beautiful in its execution and I'm so so happy I got to spend time the series again and more now than in a long time look forward to the future

We'll see each other again you Dragon of legends

As someone who started with Like a Dragon 7, hearing from long-time fans that the series generally didn't focus on being all that interconnected despite having its overarching narrative blew my mind.
You're telling me they knocked it out of the park like this, in a way I've hardly ever seen before on essentially their first try? Holy shit dude. It's incredible.

Not only does it follow up on LaD7 incredibly well, by the time the protagonists split up and form their own parties, it manages to be such a fantastic love letter to Kiryu's entire journey as well.
And sure, this might seem like it doesn't mean much coming from someone who didn't witness any of it; but honestly, that's exactly what makes it so impressive for me.
Without feeling like an overblown or elongated trip down memory lane, it manages to make him reminisce about just about everything he's been through so damn well at such a critical point in his life that it left an impressively emotional impression despite me not having much knowledge of these events, because he's such a ridiculously charismatic character.
That blends into this game in many ways; even newly introduced characters have so much respect for his legacy that it shapes their entire story influence in ways you wouldn't expect, impressing you even further.
It making him this endearing for me already, I can't imagine how it'd be for long-time fans. Gotta be some of the most cathartic fanservice I've ever seen, and it's done so damn well.

Ichiban continues to be the absolute best aswell; the story starts off pretty slow and meticulously, focusing more on the two new party members, Tomizawa and Chitose; and the effect he has on them, much like with the original cast - is yet again colossal. He's the best, man. Nothing but good in his heart, and it makes you fall in love with him all over again.

The impact both of these characters have on the story is phenomenal, and this.. might just be the best implementation of dual protagonists I've ever seen? Genuinely can't think of any examples where it amazed me as much as this game did.
They're both so involved that it doesn't feel like either's ever left out, even when you're ping-ponging between two different parties. The stakes mean so much to both of them, and that's done so damn well. Really impressive stuff.
Much like LaD7 (and previous entries, I'm sure!), this game manages to balance the inherent goofiness this series love to have with an incredibly poignant and emotional story that I absolutely adore.

On a gameplay front, it's also a major improvement from it's predecessor - which is great to see. I didn't mind it's gameplay all that much, but it was definitely a little stiff and janky in some ways.
Adding movement during to turns to allow you to angle AoE attacks or group up with your party to get in range for buffs and healing is SUCH a welcome change. Not only that, it plays around with said movement options in a lot of fun ways - like adding combo attacks if you're close to teammates (both in bond levels and combat range), or back attacks that are guaranteed crits. It allows you to line up your abilities so much better, and gets you thinking what angle's best for your regular attacks too.
You can even knock back enemies towards allies and have them follow-up on it; so yeah, there's a lot to do with it and it adds so many layers to the combat as a whole. Makes for one of the most fun turn-based games I've ever played, honestly.

All that to say - this game is fucking incredible. Genuinely can't think of things that remotely bothered me during my playthrough, it's been such a blast.
As I mentioned, it is a bit on the slow side - but exploring Hawaii as the most endearingly goofy protagonist I've ever seen known as none other than Kasuga Ichiban more than makes up for that, so I didn't mind that at all myself.

I get the feeling there'll be plenty more Like a Dragon games in store for Ichiban even if Kiryu understandably bows out; and I'll be there for them no matter what. But man, I'm gonna be impressed if they ever manage to top this one for me.
It's such a fantastic story that implores you to live on, no matter how deplorable you think you or the world might be - because the only way you can change that is to keep going.
You'll always worry about things you can no longer change - you might regret them or be angry at yourself about them; that's life.
But as long as you keep going, life will always throw a few open doors your way.
And so I'll gladly do just that.

Thank you Yakuza, Thank you Like a Dragon. For everything. For whatever may come, for whatever passed. This series has left a mark of the highest significance in my heart after this despite being an immense fan for quite a few years.

I'll probably make a more deep-diving review someday but this is all I can write in the flooding tears and emotions I have right now.

I wrote about it a little, spoiler-free on here
https://twitter.com/ldealAndTheReal/status/1752357474663903677