The Yakuza series is a rare series that is unwilling to jettison its long winding story arc over 9 mainline games to make it accessible for someone new to the series. I know people want to play the newest and most current game, but I please urge you to start from Yakuza 0 and work your way through each game. If you do that, your reward will be all the greater as you fall in love with these reoccurring protagonists and side characters, as Kazuma Kiryu and later, Kasuga Ichiban. You love to see characters like Date, Yuya, Akiyama, Majima, Saejima, the Florist, Daigo, and other make their appearances and help Kiryu in some way. You love to see the villains appear and then exit as they come to realize that Kiryu isn’t just the biggest most beastly bare knuckles fighter in Kamurocho, but his strength comes from his own dedication to righting wrongs, fighting injustices, and dealing with a legacy of violence and warring between the Tojo clan and various other criminal groups. A word that I’ve come to use a lot because of Infinite Wealth is legacy: at this point you get to see the legacy of all the choices made by many people fighting for a small piece of Tokyo.

Infinite Wealth was an emotional experience for me because you are reminded of the legacy of the Tojo Clan and of Kiryu. You are reminded of many moments of Kiryu’s life, and you get to see first hand how his choices have affected the people he cared about. You get to know the bittersweet answer to the question, what will the world be like without Kazuma Kiryu. You get to see a new generation of heroes take up the burden that he carried for so long, and even though it’s their biggest and most dangerous adventure yet, somehow they will come through it.

It’s a big ask, I know, but I can assure you that if you play yakuza 0 and you love it, your reward for playing this series from 0 to 8 will be great indeed; you will get to see the life of Kazuma Kiryu, a life worth viewing and experiencing. You will get to see Kasuga Ichiban and his ragtag group of friends. And you will get to play some incredible games.

Infinite Wealth has its issues, but in my opinion it’s peak yakuza. It is unafraid to make major changes to the yakuza formula while retaining the heart of what makes all these games so great. I can’t think of a series that is more deserving of being experienced. It is not the Japanese Grand Theft Auto, it is something richer and more dramatic. It is a life well lived.

Frasier Fantasy is a gameboy color game made well past the original hardware life of the handheld it’s designed for. You play Frasier Crane, Seattle radio personality and psychologist, on a mission to hold an unveiling ceremony for your new mother of pearl luncheon set. You soon realize you have three tasks to make it happen: get the grape scissors back from Niles, do your radio show, and get your dad and Eddie out of the condo before the event.

It’s a short game but it’s lovingly set in the sitcom world of Frasier, making references that fans of the show will understand; but like the show, the situations and characters are ridiculous enough to propel the comedy for all audiences. I immensely enjoyed my time playing it, and I wonder how the developer will top this title with his next one.

Best enjoyed with tossed salads and scrambled eggs.

Incredible game, there were so many games of the year for 2023, but at this time, Baldur’s Gate is my game of the year. It delivers the true successor to the BioWare party of traumatized outcasts who band and fuck together to save the world from evil. Incredible amount of latitude to just approach problems and situations in ways that make you feel like the devs really took the time to consider all the angles. Plus there is lots of opportunity to cheese things, so much cheese. I cheesed the last battle and I won despite how difficult it was. Game of the year for 2023.

I gotta say this was a banger. It got overlooked and I think I got bogged down in all the various quests I picked up, but I was relatively close to the end, so I did some side quests and finished the main story, and wow, that last story quest is awesome! I mean all of the game is awesome, they really built on what was laid out in Horizon Zero Dawn and improved aspects, added new ways of traversing the open world, and put forth some cool environmental puzzles. I know some people aren’t into the climbing golden ledges sort of traversal but I don’t get tired of it. It’s sad that these games keep being overshadowed because they are solid games with beautiful environments and a lot of characters with their own stories running around, really rounding out the world and making it feel real despite all the fantastic elements.

I think the original Bayonetta, while a little clunkier than the sequel, has more charm and fun moments. There are definitely a lot of moments where Luka is a clown and I was missing some of that humor in the sequel. I don’t like how the color palette for this game is muted until you get to Paradiso, but they managed to do a better job of making a colorful game in the sequel.

Again, these games aren’t really made for me, I don’t like the challenges and I play on easy because I want to play through the story and prepare myself for Bayonetta 3, but it was fun and I’m glad to better understand what Bayonetta is about. Looking forward to Bayonetta 3.

I don’t know if the Bayonetta series is for me, but I’m glad I’ve played through them. The plot isn’t necessarily amazing, but some of the locales and battles you go through are amazing. I didn’t realize the smash bros stage for Bayonetta came from this game, definitely a super cool moment to come across in my game play 4 years after it was released on the switch.

The action is great, and I’m glad I played through the story, but I don’t know if I want to do more then that. I’m just not that good at these kind of endless combo action brawling games. The controls are great. All in all a great experience that takes pretty much 10 hours to get through.

I hard a real hard time finishing this game and I only finished it so that I could be current and go into Xenoblade 3 with the story knowledge. Played off and on since release and honestly I regret that instead of just finishing it. It isn’t a difficult game but it’s a long one and despite the hate it gets for depiction of the female characters, it has an interesting story and a great twist at the end that ties it to the first game. I think it’s the weakest of the trilogy but it’s a very solid and very good game.

The most charming platformer of 2017. For me, this was a triumphant return for Mario and the first 3D Mario platformer I ever played. I love this game, each kingdom was fun to explore and the moons rated easy to challenging, and the escape sequence at the end was awesome. The cappy capture mechanic was so unique and fun that I hope it makes a return in a future entry. This game kept me company when I had to leave suddenly and find a new apartment. It was such a comfort, it came for me at the right time.