cottonsocks
This review contains spoilers
man, it's been over a week since i finished this game and i'm still having a hard time trying to parse my feelings on it. yeah sure i could talk about the gameplay and shit but really i've just been struggling to digest the story,,, like thinking about the parallels between the things haruka does in this game and the shit kiryu's done in the past makes me want to start clutching my head in AGONY she really takes after her dad huh,,,,,,
so much of the game made me so upset but like. (usually) not because the writing made me mad but just because you can really tell they were planning on ending kiryu's story here, and the whole thing is just one bittersweet farewell to this,, stupid, stubborn, horribly-emotionally-repressed-and-dense-but-somehow-still-lovable-in-spite-of-it mf we've been stuck with for so many games now. the shots of haruto taking his first steps in the very last cutscene interspersed w kiryu walking away from the orphanage for the last time made me actually start crying like a baby, no lie,,, like damn it's such a sad way for things to end but with this asshole's track record of running away from things it sure is in-character,,,,,,,
knowing he's gonna come back later does perhaps diminish the effects of an ending like that a little bit, but still, like. damn. i think i'm kinda rambling at this point and this is definitely wordier than probably every review i've posted so far but AUGH i just have so many THOUGHTS about this GAME!!!!!!!!
(i AM going to say as a last word that the only thing in this game that made me absolutely fucking FURIOUS was kiryu's bum ass writing that bullshit letter to daigo about how he always viewed himself as a father to him IN THE HOSPITAL ROOM WITH HARUKA RIGHT FUCKING BEHIND HIM!!!! YOU DID ABSOLUTELY NOTHING FATHERLY FOR THAT MAN AT ANY POINT EVER AND YOU HAVE THE GALL TO SAY THAT WHILE YOUR ACTUAL DAUGHTER WHO YOU HAVE RAISED ON YOUR OWN SINCE SHE WAS LIKE 10 JUST WOKE UP FROM A COMA AND IS SITTING LESS THAN 5 FEET AWAY FROM YOU!?!?!??! YOU FUCKIGN DEADBEAT MORON AOUUUUUGH I HATE YOU)
so much of the game made me so upset but like. (usually) not because the writing made me mad but just because you can really tell they were planning on ending kiryu's story here, and the whole thing is just one bittersweet farewell to this,, stupid, stubborn, horribly-emotionally-repressed-and-dense-but-somehow-still-lovable-in-spite-of-it mf we've been stuck with for so many games now. the shots of haruto taking his first steps in the very last cutscene interspersed w kiryu walking away from the orphanage for the last time made me actually start crying like a baby, no lie,,, like damn it's such a sad way for things to end but with this asshole's track record of running away from things it sure is in-character,,,,,,,
knowing he's gonna come back later does perhaps diminish the effects of an ending like that a little bit, but still, like. damn. i think i'm kinda rambling at this point and this is definitely wordier than probably every review i've posted so far but AUGH i just have so many THOUGHTS about this GAME!!!!!!!!
(i AM going to say as a last word that the only thing in this game that made me absolutely fucking FURIOUS was kiryu's bum ass writing that bullshit letter to daigo about how he always viewed himself as a father to him IN THE HOSPITAL ROOM WITH HARUKA RIGHT FUCKING BEHIND HIM!!!! YOU DID ABSOLUTELY NOTHING FATHERLY FOR THAT MAN AT ANY POINT EVER AND YOU HAVE THE GALL TO SAY THAT WHILE YOUR ACTUAL DAUGHTER WHO YOU HAVE RAISED ON YOUR OWN SINCE SHE WAS LIKE 10 JUST WOKE UP FROM A COMA AND IS SITTING LESS THAN 5 FEET AWAY FROM YOU!?!?!??! YOU FUCKIGN DEADBEAT MORON AOUUUUUGH I HATE YOU)
2012
OHHH WE'RE SO FUCKING BACK BABEY!!!! kiryu's deadbeat ass had me so mad for pretty much the entire game and that 11th hour twist w the final boss was INSANELY stupid but like that's just yakuza!! if there's not at least a few plot points that i find incredibly dumb/irritating then it's just not the same!! as far as i'm concerned, this game was mf PEAK!!!!!!!
2010
went into this one wondering why i'd never heard anyone talk about it like... At All outside of the rubber bullets thing, turns out the reason for that was just because it's really mid! i liked all the new protags, but the story just took TOO damn long to come together and there were too many details that just felt. really dumb and unnecessary, tbh! like i said, not really a bad yakuza game, just super mid!
2019
this was such a silly little game!! short but sweet, got a few good chuckles outta me, and the visuals and soundtrack are SOOOOO good dude, half the fun of meeting new characters was seeing what kinda fun animations they were going to have :D
honestly my only real complaint is that the Big Twist didn't really land for me but i think that might be because i accidentally spoiled myself on it from a walkthrough like. 5 minutes before i actually got to it lmao
honestly my only real complaint is that the Big Twist didn't really land for me but i think that might be because i accidentally spoiled myself on it from a walkthrough like. 5 minutes before i actually got to it lmao
2021
ok sure the fact that they're all cookies is kind of goofy, but idk i think they're silly! also maybe i just have stockholm syndrome but the gacha doesn't feel that bad to me for once? anyways the story is weirdly good sometimes and i like the character designs, which is really about all i could ask for from a gacha game! almond cookie and royal margarine cookie my beloveds :D
2005
if i want the rewards of showing my favorite game of all time to my friends i have to submit to the mortifying ordeal of the meat circus
fun little game! art style is cute! jenny is a very fun protag! i'm gonna need that sequel to come out soon though bc there's waaaaay too much that didn't get resolved and that cliffhanger ending gave me actual psychic damage!
interesting, albeit a bit disjointed at times- i felt like the two protagonists' stories barely tied into each other, sepulchre just feeling kind of awkwardly jammed in the middle of alex's storyline or vice versa with inhale/exhale being rather out-of-place bookends. despite the occasionally awkward writing the spooky vibes were sooo good and a few moments did make me genuinely uneasy, if augur peak ever makes it out of development hell i'll be really glad because i'm honestly super interested in seeing what these writers can do with a longer game! for now though all i can do is look at the 2016 release date at the end of the credits, laugh, and then get kinda sad immediately afterwards
2023
vertin and schneider have been tormenting me for weeks and i can't keep suffering in silence like this. the translation is pretty janky sometimes and the english voice acting can be hit and miss but boy howdy if you love doomed yuri then this is the gacha game for you
yknow, despite some general glitchiness and occasional difficulty spikes, i absolutely loved midnight suns. "marvel RPG with friendship mechanics and character customization" is a game concept that's laser-focused to my tastes, and even if the final product suffered from a decent bit of jank i can't even begin to dislike it. fingers crossed that a sequel does end up happening someday, because i'd love to see how they could expand some of the mechanics here and there was such strong plot teasing at the end there that it'd be a shame for nothing to ever come of it :(
2015
some fun environments but a pretty incomprehensible story even by HOG standards, also i got softlocked right at the end of the game bc it just wouldn't let me go back to a previous screen, which was pretty mf dumb
would've liked to make it further in this one just to hear more of the godawful voice acting, but for whatever reason the game bugged out so badly the second time i launched it that i was straight up unable to interact with anything onscreen! i absolutely was Not about to try and play through this game in one straight shot so that's all she wrote for this one lmao
2010
this game hands-down has to have the most creative explanation for a hint mechanic in any game i've ever played, straight up what the hell was up with that weird omniscient hobo
2020
quite possibly the most baffling game i have ever played? i don't even know if i can parse any thoughts about it the whole thing was just so. Strange
just super unremarkable, really? i love a good murder mystery but this was too short for there to really be any real investment or intrigue about who did it. there were a few nice areas and the super janky 3d models in the cutscenes were kinda funny but that was about it, i'll probably have forgotten everything that happened here by tomorrow lmao