brosbeforecrows
This review contains spoilers
I'm not exactly a Yakuza veteran, having only played 0 and Kiwami when I picked up Like a Dragon on release.
Being a huge fan of the turn-based RPG genre, I was really interested to see how Yakuza would translate to the genre, and this game definitely didn't disappoint.
First of all, the combat is incredible. The button prompts keep a degree of activity to the combat aside from just selecting attacks, and the skills for each party member and job are mostly really inventive (Nanba's signature attacks are some of my favourites). The battles almost never dragged on for too long, keeping things short and satisfying like in the past games, which is definitely to be praised.
The new protagonist, Ichiban, might have endeared me to him more than Kiryu has (granted I've only played 2 of the Kiryu games). Why? Because his obsession with Dragon Quest is on par with mine if not greater. The new supporting cast are also excellent, and made Ijincho a setting on par with Kamurocho and Sotenbori for me. Speaking of which, the sub stories and other side content like mini games are just as fun as I've come to expect them to be and help add to the charm of this new setting. New to this game are the Drink Links and party chats, similar to the bonding systems other JRPGs use between their MCs and party members. These help to develop the party members and give them more fleshed out side stories, and helped especially to develop some of the later recruited party members who didn't get too much of their background explained or have their past explored in any great detail in the main story (Joon-gi Han's drink link was really good, and I wouldn't like the character as much if the Drink Links weren't a thing). I should also mention that the returning characters in this game were masterfully handled- Where it would have been easy for them to have felt forced into the game, not one of them did- Their appearances felt organic, and the game would have felt incomplete without some acknowledgement of what came before it. I think there was no better way to usher in a new era for the series.
The main story of this game is maybe one of my favourites in any JRPG, and it didn't have to be a tale about a fated hero setting out to kill a God to earn that title. All it had to do was have heart, and this story about an average yakuza grunt starting over from rock bottom turned into much more than that- A story about family, those you're born with AND those you choose, that could be inspiring and triumphant at times, but was full of twists and turns that could lead it to be incredibly shocking, thought provoking and even heartbreaking.
TLDR: This game was absolutely amazing, please play it.
Being a huge fan of the turn-based RPG genre, I was really interested to see how Yakuza would translate to the genre, and this game definitely didn't disappoint.
First of all, the combat is incredible. The button prompts keep a degree of activity to the combat aside from just selecting attacks, and the skills for each party member and job are mostly really inventive (Nanba's signature attacks are some of my favourites). The battles almost never dragged on for too long, keeping things short and satisfying like in the past games, which is definitely to be praised.
The new protagonist, Ichiban, might have endeared me to him more than Kiryu has (granted I've only played 2 of the Kiryu games). Why? Because his obsession with Dragon Quest is on par with mine if not greater. The new supporting cast are also excellent, and made Ijincho a setting on par with Kamurocho and Sotenbori for me. Speaking of which, the sub stories and other side content like mini games are just as fun as I've come to expect them to be and help add to the charm of this new setting. New to this game are the Drink Links and party chats, similar to the bonding systems other JRPGs use between their MCs and party members. These help to develop the party members and give them more fleshed out side stories, and helped especially to develop some of the later recruited party members who didn't get too much of their background explained or have their past explored in any great detail in the main story (Joon-gi Han's drink link was really good, and I wouldn't like the character as much if the Drink Links weren't a thing). I should also mention that the returning characters in this game were masterfully handled- Where it would have been easy for them to have felt forced into the game, not one of them did- Their appearances felt organic, and the game would have felt incomplete without some acknowledgement of what came before it. I think there was no better way to usher in a new era for the series.
The main story of this game is maybe one of my favourites in any JRPG, and it didn't have to be a tale about a fated hero setting out to kill a God to earn that title. All it had to do was have heart, and this story about an average yakuza grunt starting over from rock bottom turned into much more than that- A story about family, those you're born with AND those you choose, that could be inspiring and triumphant at times, but was full of twists and turns that could lead it to be incredibly shocking, thought provoking and even heartbreaking.
TLDR: This game was absolutely amazing, please play it.
This was my first complete introduction to the Trails series after trying Sky FC, getting through the Prologue and dropping it because of its slow start and the fact that I just wasn't invested enough in the series' world yet to get through that game.
Now here I am a few months later and I can definitely say with confidence that I now plan on consuming all the Trails content I possibly can, and all it took was this game.
To me it felt like a perfect blend of what I loved about some of my other favourite JRPGs in terms of gameplay and structure. The Persona games come to mind with this game's calendar, "bonding" system and the chapter structure in CS feeling almost equivalent to the story arcs in, for example, P5 (sorry to be THAT Persona 5 fan, and also I'm aware that this game was released first and that the other Persona games also have this structure, as do many other JRPGs), but this game isn't as heavily time-management involved, which worked in its favour. In short it uses these same elements but sparingly enough to work in the context of this game.
What I loved most about this game was its ever-moving narrative right down to the most minor NPCs. Every time a new story beat happens, the NPCs in the area it concerns have something new to say, which really made the world feel alive and made the events feel as significant as they needed to. Despite this game's hefty 75-80 hour runtime with a fair amount of use of its turbo mode, it never overstayed its welcome or felt like a chore (Note: I didn't 100% but I'd say I probably did most side quests, perhaps bar a few hidden ones I missed and one fishing-related one I didn't bother with)
The story itself was a lot of fun. Sure, there were some anime tropes, and sometimes certain things felt kind of rushed, but I absolutely loved the main cast of Class VII and seeing them become a close group of friends throughout the course of their first few months at Thors. Without giving too much away I also like how it steadily amped up the action and tension building up to its final hours, which were pretty crazy and left me more than eager for more.
I should also mention the soundtrack, too- The battle themes, particularly some boss fights', were amazing, and even some of the tracks that played in cutscenes and exploration etc. are probably going to stay stuck in my head for a long while after the fact.
My only minor complaints were that certain stuff felt glossed over that could have been interesting had they been fully dealt with (although I'm told this was due to time constraints and the part in question is explored in an audio CD), and also the game's graphics felt kind of dated in places, although that's much less a complaint than a nitpick and didn't bother me at all most of the time.
Long story short, this is an amazing RPG, and if you're like me and struggled with Sky FC, this might be a better starting point. I now plan to play CS2 before backtracking to the Liberl and Crossbell arcs, to prepare myself for CS3 and 4, and eventually beyond.
Now here I am a few months later and I can definitely say with confidence that I now plan on consuming all the Trails content I possibly can, and all it took was this game.
To me it felt like a perfect blend of what I loved about some of my other favourite JRPGs in terms of gameplay and structure. The Persona games come to mind with this game's calendar, "bonding" system and the chapter structure in CS feeling almost equivalent to the story arcs in, for example, P5 (sorry to be THAT Persona 5 fan, and also I'm aware that this game was released first and that the other Persona games also have this structure, as do many other JRPGs), but this game isn't as heavily time-management involved, which worked in its favour. In short it uses these same elements but sparingly enough to work in the context of this game.
What I loved most about this game was its ever-moving narrative right down to the most minor NPCs. Every time a new story beat happens, the NPCs in the area it concerns have something new to say, which really made the world feel alive and made the events feel as significant as they needed to. Despite this game's hefty 75-80 hour runtime with a fair amount of use of its turbo mode, it never overstayed its welcome or felt like a chore (Note: I didn't 100% but I'd say I probably did most side quests, perhaps bar a few hidden ones I missed and one fishing-related one I didn't bother with)
The story itself was a lot of fun. Sure, there were some anime tropes, and sometimes certain things felt kind of rushed, but I absolutely loved the main cast of Class VII and seeing them become a close group of friends throughout the course of their first few months at Thors. Without giving too much away I also like how it steadily amped up the action and tension building up to its final hours, which were pretty crazy and left me more than eager for more.
I should also mention the soundtrack, too- The battle themes, particularly some boss fights', were amazing, and even some of the tracks that played in cutscenes and exploration etc. are probably going to stay stuck in my head for a long while after the fact.
My only minor complaints were that certain stuff felt glossed over that could have been interesting had they been fully dealt with (although I'm told this was due to time constraints and the part in question is explored in an audio CD), and also the game's graphics felt kind of dated in places, although that's much less a complaint than a nitpick and didn't bother me at all most of the time.
Long story short, this is an amazing RPG, and if you're like me and struggled with Sky FC, this might be a better starting point. I now plan to play CS2 before backtracking to the Liberl and Crossbell arcs, to prepare myself for CS3 and 4, and eventually beyond.
I'm one of those people who saw the "SMT x Fire Emblem" teaser back in the day and filled their heads with thoughts of how amazing a crossover between the two series could be, with the dark atmosphere of SMT mixed with the compelling heroes of FE.
...I only ended up playing it 4 years after release and what I imagined wasn't exactly what I got, but TMS #FE Encore is an example of how sometimes being proven wrong is okay.
I immediately assumed the idol premise wouldn't be for me when the game first released and avoided it, but since giving it a chance I was really pleasantly surprised. The battle system feels really satisfying, especially pulling off long combo attacks by striking weaknesses (kind of like 1 more in Persona and press turn in SMT, but more powerful when used smartly and when you have the right skills and teammates).
It's also cool to see "Mirage" forms of both recent and classic FE characters alike- And the promotion system from FE lets you choose the final form of your party members' Mirages. There's also a wide range of weapons, levelling them up gives you new skills etc.
The story is... All right. The idol stuff isn't really my cup of tea, but I kind of found myself enjoying it anyway. While some of the leading cast are kind of bland, they're generally pretty likeable (Except Ellie. All my homies hate Ellie). The side quests are really fun little stories and some of them are pretty humourous.
All in all a really fun JRPG. I'm glad I played it, but part of me does kind of wish the project dubbed SMT x Fire Emblem had been something more... Well, representative of how both franchises actually are.
...I only ended up playing it 4 years after release and what I imagined wasn't exactly what I got, but TMS #FE Encore is an example of how sometimes being proven wrong is okay.
I immediately assumed the idol premise wouldn't be for me when the game first released and avoided it, but since giving it a chance I was really pleasantly surprised. The battle system feels really satisfying, especially pulling off long combo attacks by striking weaknesses (kind of like 1 more in Persona and press turn in SMT, but more powerful when used smartly and when you have the right skills and teammates).
It's also cool to see "Mirage" forms of both recent and classic FE characters alike- And the promotion system from FE lets you choose the final form of your party members' Mirages. There's also a wide range of weapons, levelling them up gives you new skills etc.
The story is... All right. The idol stuff isn't really my cup of tea, but I kind of found myself enjoying it anyway. While some of the leading cast are kind of bland, they're generally pretty likeable (Except Ellie. All my homies hate Ellie). The side quests are really fun little stories and some of them are pretty humourous.
All in all a really fun JRPG. I'm glad I played it, but part of me does kind of wish the project dubbed SMT x Fire Emblem had been something more... Well, representative of how both franchises actually are.
This review contains spoilers
As one of the few people who didn't really think too much of BOTW (I'm a huge Zelda purist, and the lack of traditional dungeons and progression, as well as the story just not clicking with me, meant I didn't enjoy it as much as seemingly everyone ever), this game surprised me in that it made me appreciate and care a lot more about BOTW's Hyrule and it's characters. On top of being a Warriors game, the likes of which I'm a huge fan of, there's very little to nitpick with this game. Sure, there's some frame issues here and there, and people might complain that it was "marketed as a prequel" (I don't remember them ever calling it that, instead saying it was set in the Hyrule of 100 years ago, which wasn't a lie), but the direction the game went with the story was great, or at least I thought so. It was cool to have the champions new and old fighting alongside each other. Plus, the Warriors-style combat is as satisfying as it was in the original HW game, if not more, and the range of characters and fighting styles this time was still pretty diverse despite being a smaller roster than the original game. Overall a very fun game which I didn't expect to give me as much of a new appreciation of the BOTW world as it did.
2011
Revisiting this 3DS gem was a lot of fun, and really got me hyped for the upcoming Super Mario 3D World+Bowser's Fury. The charm and pure fun of this game's level design and soundtrack is just as present even on what must have been my fourth or even fifth playthrough.
This would be my game of 2020, if Persona 5 Royal hadn't released that year. An extremely complex non-linear narrative spanning 13 different characters' stories that rewards you little by little with a greater understanding through completion of more and more events. But that's not all- The strategy mech combat was right up my alley too, and it felt extremely satisfying controlling the protagonists as they fight alongside each other in the culmination of what you see in the VN section. The art style and design of the game is also incredible (although that's to be expected from VanillaWare) and the soundtrack is great too. Overall, 13 Sentinels is a fantastic hidden gem of a game that really deserves more recognition.
I had fun with it, and it's a unique and interesting action game, but it definitely doesn't match up to other Platinum games, at least for me. The writing and dialogue was fun and the boss fights were pretty great (the combat as a whole is great once you get used to it and it begins to click) but there were some segments I found very annoying (for example, button mashing. I'm not usually one to complain about button mashing since I like the Naruto games but this game's was annoying as hell and took away from my enjoyment of the game overall, as well as some parts of some levels where I literally had no idea where to go/what to do next since the game didn't really make it clear). Still, not by any means a bad game- As I mentioned, its combat is really awesome once you get used to it.
Played on PS4 as part of DR 1+2 Reload
After loving the first one but being left disappointed by it at certain points, this one offered a mostly better experience, particularly with its very interesting island setting and more of the same great writing as the first game had. Like DR1, this one's third case was pretty bad, but the rest were mostly incredible, especially those in the later half of the game. I also liked this one's cast just as much as if not even more than the first game's, which came as a surprise to me (even Hajime, who I didn't like as much as Makoto, was still a decent protagonist). Overall, this was a great one, and I'm excited to eventually play V3.
After loving the first one but being left disappointed by it at certain points, this one offered a mostly better experience, particularly with its very interesting island setting and more of the same great writing as the first game had. Like DR1, this one's third case was pretty bad, but the rest were mostly incredible, especially those in the later half of the game. I also liked this one's cast just as much as if not even more than the first game's, which came as a surprise to me (even Hajime, who I didn't like as much as Makoto, was still a decent protagonist). Overall, this was a great one, and I'm excited to eventually play V3.
A very welcome improvement from Isle of Armor and the base game, Crown Tundra offers a greater wealth of content than Isle of Armor, involving the raid dens which are so much more fun than the base game and Isle of Armor's raids, and a bunch of cool new legendaries. While still not fully representing a return to form, Crown Tundra is definitely a step in the right direction and will make me remember Gen 8 a bit more fondly.
2007
It was great to revisit this timeless classic, and I was happy to find the charm hasn't worn off from it since I was a kid playing the Wii original. Great level design, one of the best OSTs I've ever had the privilege of hearing, and controls that have translated exceptionally to Switch. This will always be one of the best platformers to me, and having it on Switch now is an added bonus since it will be much more accessible in terms of replaying whenever I want to.
Much like the base game, it was just all right. Seeing more Pokémon return was cool, and the open-world area the DLC is set in was a big improvement on the base game's Wild Area, but it still lacked a lot of the charm old Pokémon content had. The new legendary Urshifu was very cool, but it bugged me to have to grind for candies to level the Kubfu up to progress with the story. Not much to say about this one but it was passable.
2014
Bayonetta's second outing is more of the same in terms of impressive and stylish fast-paced action combat, epic boss fights and setpieces, but it's story surprised me after not thinking all that much of the first game's. While I get that story isn't too important in games like this, I value story a lot in every game I play, and I enjoyed Bayonetta 2's a lot more than I expected to, diving even deeper into our heroine's past and introducing some very cool new faces. Overall a very fun, action-packed game, and now, like the rest of the fanbase, I'm eagerly anticipating news on Bayonetta 3.
A fun little expansion to the base game, although since the entire party were part of what made the base game so special to me, it was kind of a bummer that most of them were absent for this. Still, Melia got some much-needed love and a story arc, and Kino and Nene, while nowhere near on the level of Reyn and Sharla, were fun to have around. The combat and side stuff were great, as can be expected from any Xenoblade content.
Played on PS4 as part of DR 1+2 Reload
My first real visual novel experience, and man what an experience it was. A great cast of characters (my favourite of whom was sadly one of the first to die), and a lot of great murder mysteries (except for case 3, we don't talk about case 3 here). Overall, I'm beyond glad I picked this one up, as it was a lot of fun from start to finish.
My first real visual novel experience, and man what an experience it was. A great cast of characters (my favourite of whom was sadly one of the first to die), and a lot of great murder mysteries (except for case 3, we don't talk about case 3 here). Overall, I'm beyond glad I picked this one up, as it was a lot of fun from start to finish.
2016
While this game didn't quite reach the heights of its prequel, Yakuza 0, I didn't expect it to, considering this is a remake of a PS2 game, and also because I loved Goro Majima so much and he sadly won't be playable again until I reach Kiwami 2 (and that's only in a side episode sigh). However, this game is great, with similar satisfying beat-'em-up combat, fun side content and a story that, while not as good as 0's in my opinion, is still really entertaining and enjoyable, especially since a lot of the plot elements and character relationships it deals with are contextualised in 0, which I luckily played first which made for a better overall experience with Kiwami.