camanda
BACKER
2017
The whole, you know, Ubisoft thing makes this more of an annoying chore to set up and get going than I would like it to, but the game itself is always fun. Will never forget the time one of my friends built up a hand of like 30 cards before swapping it to one of my other friends, who then quit both the game and the Discord call. (He came back eventually!)
2018
Hilarious game and the fun multiplies when your friends are screaming at each other to chop some goddamn onions and please stop throwing fish into traffic.
A little better than its reputation, but not by much. It wants to move like Sonic, but other than the actual movement speeds, it's just not designed to be played that way. Everything kills you in one hit and other than repeatedly dying and replaying you have no way of preparing for what's coming when the screen scrolls. Not good!
But we rented this frequently when I was a kid and I have fond memories of playing it with my mom after school. Looking back on it I can't believe she had the patience to suffer through it with me, but suffer we did. I'm 35 now and "MKBRLN" and "STGRTN" just appear in my head sometimes. There really were some good elements to this game! Just not enough of them.
Banger soundtrack, too, I'll give it that.
But we rented this frequently when I was a kid and I have fond memories of playing it with my mom after school. Looking back on it I can't believe she had the patience to suffer through it with me, but suffer we did. I'm 35 now and "MKBRLN" and "STGRTN" just appear in my head sometimes. There really were some good elements to this game! Just not enough of them.
Banger soundtrack, too, I'll give it that.
2018
docked a half star because Yagami just FOUND TIGER DROP WITH A QR CODE??? do you know what I had to go through to get old man Komaki to teach me that??? curse you Yagami!!!
This game feels unsure of itself when it starts -- it's depending a lot on the Yakuza formula and identity. But once it gets going, it's goddamn good. I think Lost Judgment is more polished, but this game is still better to me. You can't go wrong with either of them.
This game feels unsure of itself when it starts -- it's depending a lot on the Yakuza formula and identity. But once it gets going, it's goddamn good. I think Lost Judgment is more polished, but this game is still better to me. You can't go wrong with either of them.
2019
I do not love Yakuza 4! It is my least favorite of the mainline games. I skipped it when I began replaying the series on PlayStation and while I know I should give it another chance, I do not want to. I think all I will say is, it feels like it was a prototype for Yakuza 5. There's still a lot of good things in here, it's just really rough and a lot of it was done again later, and better.
2019
It's reeeeeally close but I think I might have to give this the edge over 0 as my favorite game in this series. Yeah, this one is kind of batshit and sprawling, and I need to finish my second playthrough to see if I can get a better grip on the story. But it's so much fun and I loved how much variety there is.
Kiryu's combat feels as good as ever, then you've got the beastly strength of Saejima, Akiyama's lightning-fast legs, and Shinada's deep respect for baseball bats. Haruka's bit does kind of drag on and get repetitive, but I enjoyed hanging out with her and seeing her through her problems. (Even if they then got worse in 6.) Also, just saying, as someone who was bullied as a kid, T-Set triggered me waaaaaay more than the kids in Lost Judgment did.
And kudos to RGG for giving my boy Daigo Dojima something to do. He knows before the game even starts that everything is FUBAR and by god is he going to do something about it. That one moment -- you know that one moment -- is chef's kiss so good.
Kiryu's combat feels as good as ever, then you've got the beastly strength of Saejima, Akiyama's lightning-fast legs, and Shinada's deep respect for baseball bats. Haruka's bit does kind of drag on and get repetitive, but I enjoyed hanging out with her and seeing her through her problems. (Even if they then got worse in 6.) Also, just saying, as someone who was bullied as a kid, T-Set triggered me waaaaaay more than the kids in Lost Judgment did.
And kudos to RGG for giving my boy Daigo Dojima something to do. He knows before the game even starts that everything is FUBAR and by god is he going to do something about it. That one moment -- you know that one moment -- is chef's kiss so good.
I'll get this out of the way: I don't like the combat. I have never liked this kind of combat. That said, RGG did an amazing job translating the flow and vibes of the brawler combat into the turn-based format. It very much feels like an old-school Yakuza game despite being completely different. Kudos for that.
My only other real complaint is I thought Isezaki Ijincho was weirdly empty, especially compared to Kamurocho in the older games. Otherwise this game owns and I am so excited to see where things go from here in this franchise.
My only other real complaint is I thought Isezaki Ijincho was weirdly empty, especially compared to Kamurocho in the older games. Otherwise this game owns and I am so excited to see where things go from here in this franchise.
I know this was a lifesaver for many in the early days of the pandemic, but the magic wore off pretty fast for me. It's too different from New Leaf in too many ways that I don't like. Unfortunate.
This felt more like a true Paper Mario game than the last couple of entries did, but the battle system wore out its welcome pretty quickly (although I had so many coins it wasn't hard to just pay-to-win my way through it when I didn't feel like engaging with it). The story and world are really good, though, and I liked the characters, new and old, a lot. And it did retain the old Paper Mario humor which I appreciated.
2022
Yes, five stars. No, not ironically. Five stars. This thing prints serotonin. I want to get a cheerful "ding!" every time I complete something IRL. And it is the absolute perfect game to play while listening to a podcast or watching a show -- I played this while I rewatched M*A*S*H last year and during my recent deep dive through the back episodes of It's Christmastown (great podcast, highly recommend). And eventually I will pick it up again and play it while I binge something else and I will enjoy every second of it.
This was both my first R&C game and my first PS5 exclusive game, and good lord did it blow me away on both counts. So much fun, so colorful, great characters, and the platinum was enjoyable too. Made awesome use of the PS5's features, especially the adaptive triggers. I recommend this to everyone, especially now that it's coming to PC as well.
2021
docked a half star because they tacked some weird detective story onto my dance club rhythm game???
This game is Judgment again but way more polished and feeling less reliant on its ties to the main Like a Dragon series. Superb game. I didn't like the story as much as in Judgment but I think it felt a little more whole and well-rounded here, availing itself more of the characters and fleshing things out better.
This game is Judgment again but way more polished and feeling less reliant on its ties to the main Like a Dragon series. Superb game. I didn't like the story as much as in Judgment but I think it felt a little more whole and well-rounded here, availing itself more of the characters and fleshing things out better.
Fun to spend a few hours with everyone's favorite loud-shirted big lug Masaharu Kaito. The story's enjoyable, nothing to write home about, a little predictable, but not without heart. All in all it's what you expect from one of these games and that's not a bad thing.
2023
This review was written before the game released
Not rating this one mostly because I just think it's not for me anymore. I tried, I really did, but the magic went out of OW1 in early 2019 for me and the 12 hours I spent on OW2 told me it's never coming back.
2012
There's a lot to unpack here and I don't think I can do it in a quick review. It does feel a bit of its time in many ways, but it's a truly unforgettable experience.
It's short and if you can grab it for cheap, do it.
It's short and if you can grab it for cheap, do it.