Started to play this with a group of friends and, in typical D&D fashion, we could never decide on a good time where we’d all be available to play together again.

Aside from that, Baldur’s Gate 3 is a genuine masterpiece, although I don’t need to tell you this since it won like. every game award ever in 2023. I don’t think I can do this game justice with one of my own reviews so I suggest you just give this one a go yourself. Let the 50,000 trophies on Larian’s shelves for this game be a good reason to give Baldur’s Gate 3 a shot.

the best RGG game, and I genuinely mean that.
like a dragon: infinite wealth follows on from yakuza: like a dragon (and, to a lesser extent, gaiden: the man who erased his name) and follows dual protagonists Ichiban Kasuga and Kazuma Kiryu, the Dragon of Dojima, on their journey to uncover a mystery that spans decades and continents, from japan to hawaii. as the story progresses, the characters deal with some pretty rough issues, such as coming to terms with Kiryu’s cancer diagnosis and his fight with his own health and reputation in an effort to help Ichiban achieve his dream of giving the yakuza a real future, all the while fighting wave after wave of nameless thugs, local hawaiian gangs, an ancient cult and even danny fucking trejo. while this sounds stupid (which is pretty typical for an RGG game), this story can REALLY get to you emotionally (again, typical for an RGG game) and I caught myself crying multiple times. this game especially doesn’t hold back on the emotional bits too, it being Kiryu’s final game of course, and it even features a side-quest called the ‘Bucket List’ separate from the main story that will leave you unreasonably upset and nostalgic for the series’ past. essentially, Kiryu wants to make amends for everything he’s done, and what better way of doing that then travelling Japan and reminiscing on events from previous games and meeting up with friends from his past. it’s a great addition to the game, and really has its moments where you’ll be soypointing at the screen or sobbing at your desk. of course, to counter the waves of tears that Kiryu’s side-story will inevitably flood any player’s room, Ichiban is given a fucking animal crossing minigame. and it’s really fucking good too. Dondoko Island is a silly little side-story / minigame / fully-developed-island-management-game-with-its-own-story-that-both-stays-separate-from-the-main-game-while-tying-into-the-shitty-pokemon-knockoff-minigame-which-I-didn’t-do-because-it-sucked-sorry. it’s incredibly fun, and really satisfying to see your own island come together as you progress to larger areas, craft more attractions and invite more people to take a vacation on your island. as of writing, I still haven’t completed dondoko island in it’s entirety, but I’ll 100% be coming back for more since finishing the game.

as for the gameplay, oh my god I will never be able to go back to yakuza 7. the improvements that infinite wealth makes to the turn-based combat are immense, even if they’re completely normal things for other turn-based RPG franchises (but I’ll give RGG a pass since 7 was their first experience with turn-based). new additions include, the ability to move in combat, situational attacks depending on a character’s placement such as proximity and back attacks that do extra damage and combos when next to other characters who’ve had their relationship bond levelled high enough. again, this might seem like the bare minimum for a turn-based RPG, but it is a vast improvement from 7’s combat and its tendency to reward players for spamming the same couple skills each fight (looking at you, head trauma). in addition to this, infinite wealth adds new job classes which really spice up the gameplay by giving the player entirely new playstyles by mixing and matching classes to suit their own preferences, like having each character specialise in a certain elemental damage or having some characters be heavy hitters with support characters that heal and give stat buffs. also, this game has a skill inheritance system which allows you to use any skill from any job as long as you’re a high enough level on that job, which can lead to some very… broken combos.

overall, like a dragon: infinite wealth is a fantastic game, with some of the best writing the series has seen yet topped off with great turn-based combat and several other various minigames to spend hours on.


also yutaka yamai thank you for being the character in the series I love you babygirl

this might just be the best mainline kiryu game in the RGG franchise. it’s writing is some of the best in the series, managing to create such a dense and enjoyable plot while taking place alongside yakuza 7: like a dragon, and it never lets go of your attention for a second, unraveling twists and plot beats that you could never see coming. that’s all without mentioning how emotional this game can be, RGG have always been about writing human characters that you can emphasise with, and this might be their best work at that yet. these characters feel real in almost every way and if I’m going to be completely honest, some scenes had me sobbing like a fucking baby.
the gameplay is a huge improvement on kiryu’s past combat in the dragon engine.i’m sure you know what i’m referring to if you’ve played yakuza 6 or kiwami 2. in the most basic way i can say this, they made dragon engine kiryu fun. the yakuza fighting style, literally the DoD style from 6 and K2, is back. only this time your attacks feel smooth and impactful and there’s hardly ever any interruptions to the natural flow of combat. plus, the new agent fighting style is like the crane to yakuza’s tiger. perfect for taking out large groups of enemies effortlessly and quickly with unique gadgets and abilities, or for whenever you want a break from the usual brawler combat the series is known for. on top of that, we have a bunch of returning fighting styles, or just fighters in general, making a comeback through the coliseum, where you can recruit fighters from previous games or brand new characters exclusive to gaiden to either fight on your side against hordes of enemies, or play as them with their own unique fighting style (personal favourite is sugiura, his style is broken lol).
overall, this might genuinely be RGG’s best work yet, even despite the game’s relatively small size. i can only hope that like a dragon: infinite wealth is anything like this, because if it is then that shit is getting an instant 10/10. anyways go play this game. but play 2 before it. and 5. and maybe 7. forgot to mention there’s a whole lotta callbacks in this one lol

Payday 3 is ALMOST everything I could’ve wanted from a sequel to Payday 2. It’s got more variety in gameplay, especially stealth. I remember reading that a developer said that one of the biggest influences for PD3’s stealth was Hitman, and that could not be more clear when you actually play the game. I cannot explain the feelings I had when I successfully completed stealth contracts almost entirely maskless, but GOD the stealth in this game is really fuckin good. In addition, the game has better graphics, thanks to the move from a literal ps2 racing game engine to Unreal 4, as well as a banger soundtrack by Gustavo Coutinho. Overall, this was just a really fun time - even when playing solo - and I am so glad I got to play this game in early access. That being said, the launch has proven for me that, unfortunately, I just cannot recommend this game in its current state.

The always-online aspect of Payday 3 is criminal (haha get it?), and it has caused so many issues since launch that it is almost impossible to get into a lobby, even when playing solo. You have to connect to the Payday 3 servers even when you are playing in a solo private match. I really hope Starbreeze reconsiders the jump to always-online soon and implement some kind of offline mode, because the game is literally unplayable right now. I worry that this game might suffer the same fate as Battlefront II, where a controversy at launch permanently ruins the game’s reputation even after the issues what caused the controversies in the first place are resolved. This game is genuinely brilliant and it is such a shame to see it be dragged through the dirt by server issue after server issue.

Edit (13/10/23): Three weeks after release, the game still isn’t patched, no communication from Starbreeze on anything and every dev stream consists of Almir regurgitating “uhhhh we have not confirmed [blank]”. Either fix your shit or at least have the dignity to be transparent to your playerbase, who have been so loyal to stick by this broken game for this long.