Refreshing and engaging with new mechanics and abilities that always kept on being introduced throughout the entire game. Great OST, looks great, plays great and the story while a tad uninspired carries itself moreso with a genuinly likeable central cast and side characters you must protect!

Can't help stressing out how fun it is to play around with all the costume unlocks and alternate hairstyles, a rare treat to have this much cosmetic content actually as base content!

While at times difficult, the game is always generous with checkpoints and stocking up on consumables, this combined with how fun the mechanics are makes it a fun game to keep on mastering. Outside of combat there is a neat variation of different gameplay elements ranging from shooter sections, platforming and puzzlesolving to open world areas.

Still got new game+ to play through which apparently has a buckton of whole set of new unlocks and extra content.

In short, it's peak.

Before you buy this one at at full price, know that the story campaign is half the length of the series standard, I completed ALL of it in 40 hours to give you the gist of it. For what it is outside of that you have the same yakuza formula, fun sub stories and most of its true and done minigames out there up for another revisit, nothing new that hasn't already been introduced, except for a new combat style which is honestly the thing I enjoyed the most. Tossing people around with spiderman wires plus ragdoll physics goes a long way!

As the title entails it is a supplemental sidestory explaining the events of Kiryu between Yakuza 6 and 7 while tacking in another obstacle and supportive characters to fill in the extra shoe in between to make the game its own little piece.
The story is effective, some better moments than others, but likely nothing you won't see coming if you've played the series long enough.

For Yakuza and Kiryu fans it is a decent trip back to series, given you have the right expectations for its shorter burst of content and identity as an interlude weaving towards something hopefully bigger and stronger.

I occassionally revisit this one since its not a very lengthy game to play for the story and play around in the areas for some of the weird ass minigames. It's a very charming action adventure game with a very B plot styled storyline, a cozy little open world setting to play around with earning medals for clearing dozens of odd achievements, awesome music and a fun combat system, despite being a bit clunky at times.

A few plot thread were even left hanging for a potential sequel, though its too bad the game flopped so hard after all its anticipation during its delayed development that it never happened, with more polish this gameplay formula could've turned into something amazing.

Origami King is grand, fun to explore through an open-worldesque structure with events, minigames and collectables. When it comes down to the world design; towns, dungeons and overworld areas it is the cream of the crop accompanied by a sharp narration mostly hilarious and some other times even surprisingly dark, as a true staple to the series Origami King holds no slack in breaking conventions.

All in all, Origami King is for the most part a good time, it's not the faithful return old veterans would want, the battle system in particular will forever be a divisive factor, though the rest of the game carries the same creativity and wits that has run through most of the franchise.

There is no other words to shorten it down with Rebirth but calling it grand. Much more combat diversity, vast variation of challenges, free exploration and minigames. So many crazy minigames. The sheer content is staggering, even so if you just want to play for the story, the journey is massive even outside of the sidequests.

Rebirth feels like a proper midgame past Remake expanding everything already introduced, still at the same time being constructed entirely as its own installment, there's as much a prologue, midgame, late game and proper climax here to encompass more than just being a part 2 of 3 games.

The narrative has at its best fun with the moments and at its worst shares similar issues as remake with a few bad beats. What sells the better moments is the tongue in cheek directive supported by the cast of characters so masterfully portrayed through their small character quirks and fun banter interactions, which makes the worse moments really stick out almost like some parts were written by someone completely different and tacked into an otherwise wonderful adaption.

That being said, I found the irks here so minuscule compared to the sublime time I had with Rebirth. 150 hours through and I didn't get wearied out for a second!

Penny's Big Breakaway excels in constant speedy and momentum driven platforming through Penny's flexible yoyo abilities and awesome aerial mobility, seriously the midair controls is so perfect, even the most precise landings never felt unreasonable to pull off.

Each stage also has 3 scattered collectable coins and several challenges with differently timed objectives. The auto camera and overall flow of the game however didn't really add encouragment to stop on a dime to do scavenging, as well as the challenges were just not... fair at times with some extremely strict timers and trial and error wazo designs that even by the first levels felt almost immediately discouraging to deal with.

Personally by the time I decided to ignore the side objectives the more fun I had building up trick points and speeding through the courses.

PBB is a vibrant game with a lot of charm to it with each world carrying their own level gimmicks that never intrudes the game central mechanical flow, however while the game doesnt strive to go beyond its simplistic tube design the level aestetics blends together a bit much, and it honestly added some sense of monotony by the course of the game.
The soundtrack however is a bop that added some extra individual flair per world.

I overall enjoyed PBB and it is an easy revisit for its snappy main course, charm and awesome technical gameplay.

This old reboot initial pull lies in its cosmetic pop, strong celshading and appealing designs of our two main characters that makes for a promising premise with their sparkingly sarcastic personalities.

And really while the ingredients are all present here, the saturation often pales in dull monotony and predictability through the progressional structure and repeated use of similar assets, hurting the otherwise stronger merits that precides to engage.

The gameplay overall is fairly challenging but not unforgiving.
The platforming is fun, the puzzles do their job and doesnt overstay their welcome, while the combat is entirely like/dislike depending on whether you like half seconds reactionbased battles with spontanous qte prompt or not.
As long as you can be at peace with a predictable narrative pattern, some drawn out collectaton grinding and recycled everything you might find some good spots worth your precious time.