Welcome to next generation. Final Fantasy 7.

It's a game where one of the best journeys you can get and still is. A goofy one. A serious one. A sad one. A happy one.

A one big adventure that is.

I was expecting a overrated but fun game. But this game... This game managed to bring me the old lighthearted feelings back to me. I liked 4,5 and... first half of 6 but HOLY MOLY. Ff7 the Best one when it comes to the Journey yet for me.

To the point I even went as far as to get gold chocobo and take down Emerald weapon I was that committed to it (If you know you know).

When it comes to story, I wasn't expecting to get shocked because the spoilers everyone knows about. You know it. I know it. (Do not worry I am not gonna go into detail even if you don't know it)

But I was wrong. It shocked me it emotionally gripped me and kept me smiling with every conversation.

Story wise it's a bit messy to understand. But in it's core it's about two broken people. A person that wants revenge from the world and an another person that wants to take revenge from him. Sephiroth and Cloud. And just like that, both of them is the main characters of the story. Oh also, there is an another empire(it's called mega corp this time) to fight of course

But just like ff6, Empire are the Reason. Sephiroth is the Cause. And Cloud is the Solution.

And I loved that it's sticks to this to the end.

And side characters wise, they were fun. Are they the best side characters tho...? It's hard to say. There is a lot of good ones, Barret is awesome with a story of how a man can get angry to the point becoming a terrorist, Tifa and Aerith is awesome with their stories of coping with loss in their own way and seeing the romance blooming is just heartwarming, Cid is awesome with the story of a man can't let go of his past and turn into a rude as##ole but that's because how much he cares people around him even tho he sucks at showing it. There is also Turks, an opposite agent group that tries to takes us down but with every clash we slowly come to a respectable rivalry with them. There is Rufus, Big part of the Empire, even tho he is not much shown in the story, his sticking to his ambitions somehow manages to make him admirable(also I kinda wanted to see him more because of that even if he is a side character). There is also Cait Sith, he doesn't have a story arc like others but just for his clash with Barret and the argument of what is terrorism or not kinda made him good in my eyes.

There is also others... Vincent. Edgy word personified just like Shadow from ff6. Also Yuffie, same empty as Gau from ff6 but maybe with a little more personality. Shinra council members... Goofy but forgettable villains they are. Also Professor Hojo... The most despicable scientist there is... And couple more I forgot.

But when it comes to moments... This game really shines. Midgar plate event... The forgotten city... And the "Reunion". It's... Single-handedly enough to make this game better than all of my previous experiences. That's all I can say.

Unfortunately it's not perfect.

Because this game does not have a epilogue.

Why it's a flaw you ask? Because for me. The epilogue, the celebration, the aftermath is one of the most important things in a story and this game does not do that unlike every ff game I had played. It ends ambiguous. I can see why people like it but for me every ff's epilogue parts are best ways to cap a story down. But I guess it's never meant to be... ಠ⁠︵⁠ಠ

Gameplay wise it's the game I wanted ff4 to be. Classes but with customizable skills/materias. It's actually ff6's Relic system but expanded exponentially. You don't learn a strong magic and called it a day like ff6. You customize and select whatever skills you need. But you can't go overboard like ff6 because you are limited of what you can select. Then the real part kicks in. You strategize and prepare beforehand. Make some people healers, some of them physical attackers, some of them supporters, some of them magicians etc. I really enjoyed this part of it.

But for some reason class specific skills turned to something called "limit breaks" that is one shot hard hitting last defence kinda skills. While I understand that they want to make it not spammable skills like ff6 did(ehm sabin super combo attack ehm), it was kinda disappointing for me because they take too long to kick in and when they don't, character differences gets lost. I don't know why they did it tbh for example a dragoon joined on our party. But not being able to "jump" command freely kinda disappointed me.

It looks like ff5 gameplay is still is superior to all.

But one super duper nice thing is other team members still can level up with getting 1/2 exp from the main party unlike ff6, also at least there is no forced create teams part(I mean there is but it's not forced) like ff6 bc Fu#kin piece of sh#t grinding it gave me for the last dungeon still in my nightmares.

Also this game requires no grinding as long as you have the necessary skill/materia. You can rush the story without fighting once in the overworld. Heck yeah. Tho, most of the bosses have so little health, I kinda wish more balanced bosses so I didn't kill them in 3 minutes including the finale boss.

Also this game have minigames. How many you ask? A modern yakuza amount I would say and I am not frickin kidding. Be it timing minigames to even submarine or motor riding minigame in it to play. It's damn insane that HOW MANY minigames in this game that somehow works in the little puny ps1. It's insane.

Oh also using fmv videos on the background while characters on the screen running around is one of the greatest ideas ever.

Anyway that's all for the gameplay. I liked it but I would prefer highly nerfed but openly usable class skills rather than limit breaks next time. But really enjoyed the customizable skill/materia system so it's more on the plus side.

So yeah that's Final Fantasy 7. A wonderful game that if you still have your child in you, you will still enjoy it full percent. Think it like the goofy but heartful adventure you watched countless times in cartoons but still wish to see it again and again. This is what final fantasy about after all. A story of a friendship that borns from an adventure.

And no I don't recommend starting from remake. I haven't played it but what I heard is story is not the same.

Finished today.... I think I should stay away from mainline titles from now on. Because surely their badly paced jrpg nature is not for me.

Gameplay wise it's a huge improvement. Now you have combo attacks, you can move, you can use environmental objects and there is grapple required enemies now. So they solved almost every problem of mine from 7.

For example If you stay in the right position and attack from right point you can send enemy with knockback attack(the ones with arrow pointing where the enemy gonna fly back) at places and if you can knock them to other partners you initiate a combo move and it's mad fun(when the physics doesn't screw up that is). I can even go as far as to say when it works it's the best jrpg gameplay I had played currently. You can get so creative with knocking that it's INSANE.

For example knock an enemy like a bowling ball to other enemies or bounce them like a ball between party members or punch them to walls again and again to stun them to hell. Gameplay choices are almost endless.

Also substories comes back and this time they are not just spam dialogue buttons anymore, some of them include minigames or a bit more interactive now! That's an awesome upgrade. Not just that, fan service inside of them is simply insane and impossible to make you dissappointed.

Also we have new major minigames that is dondoko island and sujimon fights. I haven't played dondoko because I don't care that much about town simulation games but played sujimon hell of a lot and I recommend you because it makes good amount of money when you arrive to it's last point(also you will hecking need lots of money in this game). So, It was fun.

And that's where my praise ends.

I don't want to talk about story nor the boring villains nor the awful... AWFUL PACING. But I will with talk about it briefly as possible. First things first is I can say story itself actually made me miss 7's Arakawa storyline. Because I couldn't care about Kasuga's mom storyline and so all the emotional baggage went to garbage. That means the whole main campaign.

There is nice suprises I am gonna give you that, for example that Yamai dark clothed guy from the trailers was pretty interesting, or new party members really had interesting stories about them. But spending with side characters isn't the main point right?

What is the main emotional core of this story? It's mom I guess... I mean it's suppossed to be I assume? But then why the heck she have just 15-25 minutes in the whole 70 hour GODDAMN MAIN STORY AND I AM EXPECTED TO EMOTIONALLY CONNECT TO HER? I don't know.

Maybe it's Kiryu's story huh?... No. Kiryu is only here to help Kasuga to finish his adventure and support him from the sides with making his own search. He doesn't have emotional connection to anything going on and he is like, I don't care I am deathly cancer anyway, so... I WILL FINISH THIS FOR KASUGA and act pissed of like always. He makes damn good fanservice moments there is no lie for that. Especially last chapters gonna give you a lot with familiar faces. But funny enough, fanservice is still mostly in substories and their time just 5 minutes or close to that, so try to engage as much as you can with the old characters you love in that 5 minutes because it's just that. A substory. Nothing more.

Kiryu have only one objective and that is just helping Kasuga. So he just does that. (Also both of their finale bosses sucks ass and they straight go to my own most boring top 10 yakuza villains list, they are that boring. Maybe they could even rival with y4 villains when it comes to cliche B movie forgettable types who knows)

Also remember I said gameplay is fun? Yeah they mess this as well. With grind of course. What I mean is just like 7, finale part suddenly boosts enemy levels up to ROOF. AND OF COURSE I AM PISSED OFF.

Surely, it looks like like A dragon soft reboot titles isn't for me nor their pacing with spending 3 times longer on side characters and stuff rather than the main story. But it looks like new type of fans having a lot of fun. I see 5/5 everywhere. What can I say, have fun. I am not here to take that. But maybe it's best for me to stop here for like a dragon other than maybe spin off titles.

Anyway that's all I will say. Bon voyage or whatever.

Kill the past, Or embrace it. Choice yours and yours alone.

This game is about people that couldn't move on their pasts and their solutions to "dealing with it". So, we, the players, see these events from own eyes and make our own judgment. For the question, the ideology of the "Past". You, the player that seen everything. What do you do with your past? Embrace it? Or kill it? Or move on from it?

Choice is yours and yours for truly. Game is here for one thing and that is giving you multiple perspectives for this ideology and every case is here to support that fact.

I wish gameplay itself was cool as it's concept tho. Since trying out the ps1 armored core games, I didn't thought I would felt this feeling of "just looking of the cover brings me pure FEAR of playing" again.

Because movement sucks ASSSS. Puzzles sucks ASSSS. Mail reading sucks ASSSSS. Sorry, I went a bit rude at there, but really... I have a lot of problems for this game's mechanics and maybe I have even more things to count.

Yes I know the existence of holding skip makes everything go faster but even with that, exploration so damn annoying with tank controls with the inclusion of hard to see interaction symbols also with the combination of finicky interaction mechanics, playing this game feels like a chore to me.

You know, just for this reason I thought about leaving this game couple of times. Especially near the end where every mission just wants you to go around and rub your face to every goddamn wall to find and read trillion amounts of documents or finding millions of interactables to progress.

Excellent character writing stopped me from doing so... Sumio and Kusabi's daily friendly fights... Morishima's anger about his poor life conditions... Hachisuka and Morikawa's unending discussions and How red goes "..." And then goes "....." Really fun dialogues to experience dare I say. Also murder filled detective cases and journalist cases are cream on the cake too with how these two different segments support each other with the "question" part and the "answer" part of it.

But in my opinion, reading a pure visual novel format of it sounds to me more fun experience than playing itself ever again unfortunately.

The most vanilla "Metroidvania experience".

Started with this game to metroid franchise and all I can say that this game is... exists. It's not a full hate or love situation. It's the kind that after you played it kinda goes away (except it's epilogue part that I am going explain at the end) kinda similar to my zelda ocarina of time experience.

So this game is the Remake of Metroid 1 From Nes with the abilities that included from Metroid fusion with some little tweaks from what I understand. Not just that it does have new expanded areas and new bosses. It's a great look at first glance.

But problem is this is the remake of Metroid 1. What I mean is new additions really doesn't change your experience entirely most of the time. For example fusion's added powers rarely used for main progression, they are mostly for side collectibles (that demands pixel perfect timing from you for some reason? And that makes me unable to fully complete this game).

Even the added bosses feels... inconsequential. The bosses are like... here I am I guess? Then you obliterate them in seconds because they really are not balanced for your new power ups for some reason.

Not just that map feels a bit uninspired. Here is your lava zone, grass zone, sand zone etc. I barely remember any of them except the epilogue and that's not a good sign in my opinion.

Also it's quite linear. Not as much as the fusion but it's still is with the chozo statues marking your map so you can progress (I know you can get past them with some glitches but I am talking about the vanilla experience). I guess that's because they do this to make sure people on the right path because sometimes that marked locations can be completely opposite part of the map that you can't have any idea to check. But they could make it more organic rather than this... easy way out.

After beating the mother brain with almost sleep walking throughout in the whole game suddenly a new part kicks in that is exclusive to this game. The "epilogue".

It's a quite a linear part that challenges you with "stealth" after taking all of your powers. But unlike the main game it actually does something different and it's certain that all of the development went to this part because there is actually things to get excited about and getting actually challenged.

Just for this epilogue part reason I don't give this game 2 stars with the comment that you can skip this one, I mean you can still skip it if you want with looking up the epilogue but it's your decision. Anyway even with the epilogue I can't say I had a fully good time as a whole and for that reason I ended up with this thoughts.

But I can say this.. next remake that I had played created by a fan includes much more interesting things than this game. That's all I can say.

You see samurai. One day you will be the at the top of this Night City.

But today is not the day.

When this game was first revealed, like everyone I was hyped, not as much as everyone else but still I had a desire to see the game. But when they announce the delays and especially the last delay after it gone gold made me hesitant. Because that meant "gold" wasn't the finished version.

And I was right. It was a mess of a game and I stayed away from it for a long time.

Then why did I play it? To be honest I don't know why I played this game even tho I am not big fan of Witcher 3. I guess I believed the lie of 2.0 fixes everything to the point it makes it a pure masterpiece.

At least I had a little bit more fun than witcher 3 so that's what it's counts right? Fun?

Anyway if you want me to go delve into deeper you can read my Witcher 3 review. It's gonna be essentially the same review anyways.

Overbloated world with copy paste enemy camps that kills the entire exploration curiosity? Check.

Main story is not much other than it's beginning and ending? Check.

Weak villains that isn't even remotely interesting? Check.

"Rpg choices" that only big change you can do is the last 20 minutes? Check.

A side mission collection with fun characters that sometimes can better than main story? Check.

I said I had a little bit more fun than witcher 3 because unlike Witcher 3, this game actually have rpg classes to choose be it melee, be it hacker, be it gunkata etc. And being able to mix and match them actually made me enjoy this game a bit longer.

But of course even that thing comes to an end when I realized how idiot the ai of this game and just taking a silent sniper or sticking a corner with shotgun enough to conquer an entire area that deletes the entire challenge of this game even in HARD mod.

Not just that this game's main story is a giant mess. It's filled with hundreds of side quest like character stories that nothing to do with this game and If you remove the forced side quests from this game what do you left with? 5 hours? 6? Really? And in that time only thing you engage properly is just an angry samurai looking man called takemura and his revenge missions for Arasaka? That's it? That's the story? What the hell that's even more disappointing then badly paced witcher 3...

So yeah that's witche... Sorry Cyberpunk 2077. A game where priorities lie on being everything and also nothing. There is no focusing on one thing and expanding on it to push it's limits.

Look I am gonna admit one thing and it does one thing good and that is it's sidequests and the reason that makes this game better than most of the ubisoft junk. For example sinner side quest that comes to my mind first and showed to us the grim reality of how religious people get used by the media and I can say I got invested more than the main story and that is one example.

But you see, I am a main story person and always is. So I am not happy with this... Badly paced... Disappointing... Feeling both too damn short and too long... Main story.

You will probably say what expectations did you had with the story tho? Witcher 3 was like this too isn't it? And I will say they managed to satisfy me with their main story actually before. With the Witcher 2. But it wasn't an open world game so maybe that's why.

Anyway I am mixed against this game with it's clashing highs and lows but if you do love it, I can do nothing but respect.

But when it comes to people that finds this game perfect I just don't understand. You are either blind when it comes to glitches (my game crashed 2 times and one time a quest completion glitch resulted forcing me to return to an older save just like witcher 3, I don't even want to talk about countless of stutters or visual or combat glitches) even in the later 2.12 update. Or you are just a weird hardcore cd project fan that believes everything they will do is equals gold.

What can I say then nothing I guess. But even with they somehow "redeeming" themselves on most of the people's eyes, you can be sure that their next game also gonna have a rocky launch and more so with them using unreal engine and it's " Shader Compilation issues ™ " that plagues every game it's made with. You can count on that.

A mario game that tries to reconstruct what is a mario game for better or worse

It's interesting to see that a sequel change the rules already what it's groundbreaking previous ancestor established.

Surface wise it's actually not so different. There is an hub world. There are levels to jump into and stars... No... Sunshines to collect to unlock next part of to adventure. But everything changes when you look at it more deeply.

Before explaining these changed mechanics and rules it's hard not to touch the subject that is this game's reputation. Because the things it changes make this game for some people one of the worst mario experiences has to offer, but for some it brings mario even further.

Which is right? In this case it's not so white and black. That's because both of them are right in their own way.

So, with playing this game which side of the discussion you choose, actually can deduct what is the most important things in a game for you. Or to be exact. What is the meaning of a GOOD game for you rather than everybody else. Also this discussion is a proof that why there will never be a perfect game for everybody. Everybody's values for a PERFECT game is different after all.

Anyway without broading the subject on hand too much, let's return to mario sunshine. What do I think? Where do I stand on this discussion?

I think it's my favorite mario game and think it's the one that resonates with me the most.

But there is a reason it's 4 stars. Not 5. Because this mario game... it's the most flawed one.

Now let's remember what mario 64 established beforehand.
-You go into other levels from the hub world with jumping into paintings in the castle
-Every level have their own atmosphere, own enemies and own stars to collect and even after selecting the objective from the level, let's you collect another star rather than your objective one if there are in the level
-Power ups works as a rule changers like changing mario's weight/invisibility/air time etc. And they are hidden in the levels and they are timed and mostly used for hard or impossible to get without the necessary power type of stars
-You are only required to get some number of stars to finish the game so most of the game is optional content.
-Other than some bullshit levels, most of the game's challenge is platforming and consistently goes up, also world stays consistent and even when levels teleport you somewhere else, it's somewhere with the similar atmosphere

But mario sunshine changes them into
-You go into levels from hub world with not jumping into paintings but using something in the overworld that carries you into the level. Be it a pipe, a mirror, a cannon, a ship etc. Not just that, most of the levels visible from the outset rather than be a painting or an image.
-Every level have a island/tropical atmosphere, have their own enemies and own stars to collect, but every selectable objective have only one star that can be obtained(aside from the 100 coin stars)
-Power ups not timed, also they work as a modifiers of sort that changes how the mario's water pumpers work. They are also used for sunshines that is hard or impossible to get without the necessary power type
-You are required to finish every level's 7 objectives no matter what, rest is optional.
-Most of the game's challenge is a gimmick related to that level's tropical concept be it diving deep in the water, be it cleaning hidden interactables, be it riding boats etc. Also difficulty stays consistent and stays similar throughout in the adventure until levels teleport you into a secret courses with completely different and a vague atmosphere and difficulty that is with focusing into pure platforming with taking your water pump away.

You see, with the somewhat detailed description I gave to you is enough to make you understand what makes mario sunshine different I assume.

It's acts more like an adventure game rather than focusing on being a platformer with incorporating level gimmicks more, also it's commitment to it's tropical atmosphere makes the world more immersive, in fact it goes even one step more and makes the obstacles a part of the world rather than making them a vague flying platforms or objects unlike every mario game did it before. Mario 64 or other mario games did this before yes but never to this degree.

Be it, being able to see other levels from the distance, or be it interacting with the levels gimmicks itself or be it having enemies that completely different looking than what mario games uses often or be it even going into the levels with using the hub world's own tools that uses that level's concept like a cannon for a level filled with cannon enemies, using a pipe for a cleaning level, cave entrance for a volcano level etc. It feels like an tropical journey throughout and that what I love about it.

But when it comes to platforming it's rarely fully used. Also It's not a good collectathon because number of level completion is required rather than the number of collectibles for main progression. Also it's sudden change of difficulty and atmosphere at the secret courses feels like a slap in the face also a big indication that is the game's unfinishedness with forcing player to go for them. Also being forced for those secret courses with breaking it's consistency is the reason why this game can't get a 5/5 stars for me.

But you see, like I said it's immersiveness, it's surprises and focus on world is enough to make it a superior game for me. I didn't even went into the movement that is joy to experience and super enjoyable to use with it's instantaneous input response even with it's questionable physics.

So even with it's shortcomings that's why it's my favorite in the franchise. It's because it's dedicated to one thing. Being a tropical vacation adventure and does that with pushing it's ideas to the max.

"Yoko Taro milks his loyal customer base edition"

"You wouldn't touch or even get near it if it didn't had the "nier" in the title".

Played until the "sun and moon" last chapter and my review gonna be according to that.

Let's start with the obvious question. Why did I start a gacha game and even had expectations for it? It's because yoko taro considers this game the third nier game from what I understand. He tweets about it and even add elements from this game to nier automata anime. So I had thought maybe there is important things going on in it? Also people was saying it's best time to go in because of the rewards they give before servers gets closed. So I jumped in and 15 hours torture started.

"Main story? What the hell is that? Here is 80 different no connected mini stories. Have fun".

In a franchise that is known for it's emotions and unrelenting drama, yoko taro choose to make a game that is just about "random mini sad story collections". And wastes a lot of the promising concepts just to fill the gacha content quota with making them less then 20 minutes that makes you unable to connect in any emotional form whatsoever.

Now I am gonna say there is small hopeful lights here and there, for example if you look at act 1's story seperately from ministories and just look at it as a "poor girl Fio's sad adventure" you can actually feel it's nier emotions at it's core.

It's too bad that you have to seperate %75 of the game to see that core tho.

And that's the problem. You can throw %75 of the main story to garbage and nothing would change. No... Actually maybe main story would be even better without all those unnecessary cut ins with forgettable mini stories.

But that's not all. This game have the worst gameplay in the entire yokoverse. Even worse than drakengard 1 with it's awful camera. Yeah imagine that.

Why? Because drakengard 1 had a point to give at least. This game has not. You can delete all the combat moments of the game and you would lose NOTHING. Yes. That means you can convert all of the game into a visual novel and nothing would have been lost. It's just a auto battler after all. And an uninspired and a timewasting one.

"But you didn't finish the game!" Yes I didn't. Maybe it actually gets important? Or not. I don't even care anymore. I am not even sad for it's servers closing. This game loves to waste your time with all those mini forgettable stories and GRIND moments. Because it's just an another "gacha game" not an another proper "the game".

"What do you mean with grind? Didn't you say game rewards a lot right now?" Yes. And you can level up everyone from the moment you started to 60. But after that? Ohhh it wants you to waste your time with getting bazillions of materials to unlock it's second and third rate for unlocking next level rate requirements. So essentially you are locked into playing daily missions and one by one level up every goddamn weapon from the SLOWEST goddamn menu ever that makes you think if it's designed to make you go CRAZY with every single upgrade have UNSKIPPABLE ANIMATIONS.

Then why should I care after all if itself dedicated to waste my time? I don't think I would lose "anything" with watching a summary video before next nier comes out. Because in it's core I am essentially playing a visual novel with forced grinding. A really badly paced, no... a nonexistent paced one.

And lastly if the next nier or whatever is even slightly similar to this game yoko taro is just no more to me.

Just watch the summary of it on youtube and done with it rather than wasting your precious time with it. So you can experience the worthwhile ones without all the timewasting.

Edit: I found a big playlist: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vGa4JvuGzOs&list=PLsZ-WzLIqahy4Vmlt7sHh01HyLWeXbS0G

And with this game, we can see how Kojima: The man never shuts up born...

Joking aside, this game is a beast in itself. Unlike the previous game snatcher, in this one Kojima put world details to the MAX. What I mean is in this one, we have lore conversations in almost every goddamn single clickable pixel a game console can support and I am not kidding about that.

Also this is gonna be the deciding factor in your enjoyment for playing this game. Let me ask you this: Do you like mgs's radio conversations? If yes, then you are gonna have a hell of a good time.

But if you don't, then I would say try Snatcher, because it's pacing is lightning fast unlike this one.

So if we return back to the game, was it good? For me yeah. But unlike Snatcher, I like it for the opposite reasons.

What I mean is, this game is slow, conversation heavy and less on action. This sometimes makes the game slower than a turtle unfortunately, but also unlike snatcher, this slow pacing is the reason that made me connect to the characters more.

It's still a quite predictable story like snatcher (until it isn't), but hearing characters argue between themselves and open themselves more was extremely fun to watch for me. I even go as far as clicking every single thing in the environment just to hear more of them and I somehow find myself invested in this cliche buddy cop characters and when the epilogue came, I realized I was actually get a bit emotional for them. I would say it was enjoyable as much as metal gear 2, the characters that much enjoyable for me.

But will this be that much enjoyable for any of you too? I don't know about that, because this game just like snatcher, have a lot of pervy conversations and it's extremely nonsensical romance could make a lot of eyebrows rise. But for me, sometimes it's best to not think about it too much just like back to the future 2's plot. But if this sounds not good to you maybe it's best to be stay away from it.

For me I liked it, only thing was a bit of a letdown was it's soundtrack and atmosphere wasn't as energetic as the snatcher one. But other than that, both of them almost match with their positives and negatives. Both of them fun, a bit cliche...

But full of heart.

Not sure if I can finish this tbh.

If I describe my feelings, this game feels like a artsy and experimental game that tries it's hardest to keep you engaged with it's strange and interesting combat system and mysterious world. Like most of the japanese small budget AA ps2 game to be exact.

It looks beautiful and atmosphere is simply amazing to the point I can say it's just mesmerizing, there is nothing quite like it. Just look at the screenshots, all of them have the quality of a arthouse painting!

Unfortunately it's also quite restrictive with being too linear other than hyrule style hub world and only interaction with the world you have is talking and doing combat.

But that's not the big problem. The big problem is how it structured and it's combat.

This game's combat is about assigning summons to face buttons then using them against to enemies. When I saw this I expected something similar to zelda like puzzles with how every summon have it's own attack and element. Unfortunately that's not the case, you can just spam buttons to get past most of the encounters(at least this is the case for the first half I had played) other than some specific enemy(bosses and mini bosses) types so it's not puzzle combat. If we look at from the action side, summon attacks moveset is hecking limited and also clunky and slow so it's also not a good action combat either. So what is it actually then? It's a button masher, that's what it is.

This wouldn't be a big problem at first glance right? After all as long as mission and world variety entertains you it should be enough right? Normally Yes, But that's where the second problem comes in. This game requires you to play 2 characters that feel similar to each other, to go to the same levels again with slight differences to beat it. Literally. Same. Levels. Again.

I know this game is a budget title but for what damn reason you would choose to mess your pacing with forced replay in your already small budget game I really don't get it.

Unfortunately this repetition managed to beat me tho as of now. Even tho my one side wants me to continue exploring to see how crazy, extraordinary and abstract the world gonna get with progressing (because like I said it's art is almost god level), my other side just gets nausea with the thought of forced replay of every level with a second character. I wish they didn't do that.

As the Yakuza 6's biggest fan. My biggest fear going in was them to mess up it's ending. Suffice to say I was wrong. And I am glad I am wrong. (this part written before INFINITE F##### WEALTH)

Because They continued the Kiryu's story in the best way they could after all.

This is a story about a broken man getting tortured both physically and mentally 10 hours straight. He goes unbelievable amounts of pain more than any previous yakuza game just to keep his promise he gave at the end of 6 and he just does that with pain and all.

And when Kiryu started crying after all he sacrificed my tears started flowing like a river as well..........

Gameplay wise it felt unfortunately unbalanced. Felt like they put every crowd combat moveset in this one that feels damn amazing to clear millions of goons, especially more in this one because physics doesn't suck like k2 or 6(if you don't collide with objects that is), but unfortunately that resulted with one-on-one feel really unsatisfying in my opinion.

Because of every move we have is a wide slow attack, fighting with boss fights feels like uncontrollable chaos in a not so good way. It felt like your only options without getting damaged are using quickstep attacks or agent's rush combo with drones. They have a band-aid solution and that is heat actions do 10x more damage for some damn reason so I felt it was unsatisfying to fight with bosses compared to the lost judgment's careful strategic combo system.

But still I have to say I really enjoyed crowd combat and even the "new recycled" coliseum but with "clan creator" activity gave me immense fun to the point I finished almost every one of them just in chapter two and maxed Kiryu. Because new crowd control skills that comes with gadgets simply that much fun.

But still... like I said it's not perfect and couple of things bothered me a lot and those are... Why Dragon's Finishing throws exclusive to extreme heat mod??? Or why Agent's heavy attacks slower then a grandma crossing the road??? And lastly why the f... There is no speed upgrade??? That actually can improve the one-on-one combat you know.

Also new amon felt like more annoying version of Juzo from lost judgment ಠ⁠_⁠ಠ . What was I expecting anyway at least there is still an amon in this side game maybe I should be grateful.

Btw before I forget I want to talk about how crowded the expanded sotenbori in this game feels. I don't know if it's a pc thing but there are more npcs on the street like the older games and some of them even have unique animations. After the lost judgment's and y:lad's disappointing low number of npc count in Yokohama, this felt good and gave more of that alive world feeling.

If we look at everything again, like I said combat unfortunately felt like limited as Kaito because of the issues I told but even with this I still left the game with lots of enjoyment. After all they said it's just a little bit bigger then Kaito Files and because of that I didn't have big expectations and get what I expected.

But one thing I really can't accept and that is the fact that there is no new game plus... And NO! Premium adventure doesn't equal new game plus, it equals free-roam why the heck people think like that I really don't get it. This game have more long battles than lost judgment(hellll yesss). I just want to replay them with all of my abilities unlocked dammit!!!

Even with all of my complaints I still felt satisfied immensely. Especially because of the emotions this game gave... So only thing I can hope now is Like a Dragon 8 to be this good after all.

Edit: it didn't. It didn't even come close. Disrespect is real.

I didn't know breakout games could be complex?

Anyway it's from my childhood and I didn't replay it so I am logging it from my memory. This game's ui and robotic sfx reminds me ps2's and whenever I did an oopsie or a lightning exploded on the last block, it's harsh sound effect almost made me piss myself. But also it does have so many damn power ups and how the floor gets lower everytime you clear it's surface of it always managed to captivate me for some reason. Still a great option if you just want to energize yourself with a quick and nice 5 min session

Note: Date has nothing to do with this review.

And this is where the samurai shines the most.

So, after the disappointing main story that is the main game, is the dlc of it worth it?

Yes. %100 percent yes.

And actually right now watching the credits of my 3rd ending playthrough and writing this with a mostly satisfied feeling.

It's focused, not bloated, even the forgettable enemy camp clearing missions feels more interesting. Just like hearts of stone dlc from Witcher 3 that I find better than the main game.

Just like how I find more fulfilling this dlc's main story than the main story of the base game.

"Welcome to night city's own Texas where wild west never ended"

The Dogtown.

Gameplay wise it's not a big upgrade, you get more weapon variations and 9 more skills to choose but I don't think it needed that anyway, like I said in my base game review, game's combat was already varied enough anyway other than it's messy enemy ai problems that can't be easily fixed without redoing a lot so I can say it's a nice bonus at least.

But story is where the game shines. It's about the president's agents that is the hacker Songbird and her officer Reed and the big conspiracy going on that includes the president and her agents.

Where we are in this equation you ask? Of course it's the reward that interests us. "The promise of getting saved". But it's not simple of course because this is a big conspiracy and who you are gonna side with and who is gonna be your enemy is what changes everything.

And it's a fulfilling story with 2 alternate routes with also 2 more alternate endings in the inside of it. They are not just who you side actually, it changes a lot with different main mission concepts, boss fights and unlocked more story pieces for each characters past(and I recommend you to experience both of them for this reason) just like witcher 3's dlc choices in that regard and not just that, it can even can unlock a new ending to the base game depending on which ending you got.

It's not perfect tho and compared to the Hearts of stone dlc of witcher 3 one thing felt weird to me, My criticism is other than the main leads Songbird and the Reed, everybody else feels really underused like the president or the dogtown's commander Kurt or the agent Alex. I kinda expected missions or special side missions that expands on them but there is not much about them unfortunately.

And my nitpicks are, map layout kinda sucks to ride around and new car stealing randomized events are not that fun. But that's it.

if you are planning to play cyberpunk I certainly recommend this dlc because surely it will satisfy you ten times more with it's focus. It's sure as heck satisfied me to the point my cyberpunk playthrough didn't felt like a waste to me. So that's a big thing for me.

I hope their next project would be this focused but I am not hopeful about that. I hope I would be proven wrong tho.

I assume it doesn't get better than here when it comes to n64's pure action games

As a person that tried to get into the starfox and find myself not engaged with it's energy then shelving it 15 minute later, this game did what I expected from starfox singlehandedly.

Nonstop action, relentless explosions, new enemies stages levels challenges in every 5 seconds back to back to make the game pacing Godddaaaamnnnnn awesome and of course it does have a fun gameplay to back it up with shooting enemies and parrying with a sword.

Oh also it does have a story too that is probably got inspired from eva. But I think compared to eva, it's only purpose is just to give you shocking imagery and nothing more. It's not a negative for me tho, I wasn't expecting a groundbreaking story mod for an arcadey game to begin with so I can even say this part can be a plus

My only problem with it, is an outside factor that is the piece of shit wii u's input delay for n64 games that makes aiming 2 times harder.

Other than that this game is fire and it's short runtime (2 hours) is enough to make your life more positive for a while.

The dark edgy "Spiderman 3" sequel of Twilight Syndrome franchise is what I would describe this game with.

This is purely written by Suda from what I read and yeah it's evident that it's a different product entirely from what come before.

Forget the old cute cliche taste of let's go on a ghost hunting adventureee!! And put the new feeling of murders, serial killings, psychos and suicides. While the old series touched a bit of these subjects they never went that deep and often hold it with in the respectable boundaries, but this game does not give a f.

Incest? Here. Yandere psychos? Here. Child suicides and deaths? Here. Rape? Here. Body horror? Here. Garbage adults that use children? Here. Deaths? Here and More.

To the point I think just only 3-4 people just leave this game alive.

What I am getting at is I think Suda used every no no no subject ever and filled in this game. Does this make it a good game? Certainly a shocking one and probably scarier than any what come before. The uneasiness it gives is on entirely an another level than any other syndrome game. But it does this with taking away the unique style from what came before and that's a damn shame.

Story is on the other hand about two sides and Also with bunch of other filler cases.

One is about some student named Ryo that lost his sister a short while ago to a suicide?(game doesn't make it clear) and also gets bullied everyday, one day sees Mika and realizes her similarity to his own sister and stalks her throughout in the journey.

Other is rumor addicted Mika and her search to save herself from a powerful evil ghost that tries to torment and haunt her.

Story structure looks fine enough at first glance but when you play the game, you realize that only first and last couple of the chapters tries to progress the story and middle parts are just about Mika's variety of troubles or cases a bit like the older games.

Is this a bad thing? Not exactly. I would say filler cases feels full of content and dark stories to interact with and long ones(half of the chapter count to be exact) is full of thoughtful and philosophical ideas in it. Be it about the struggles of kids or be it bad teachers that torment students from behind the scenes and more. Also easily the best part of this game.

It looks like I am happy with the game right? Not exactly actually.

I said filler parts are the best parts right? Because When it comes to overarching narrative, game drops the ball at the last chapter so hard that not even the any bad case from old games can get that level. I really really don't know what happened at there but finale chapter feels really rushed and poorly written to the point makes you wonder all the build up was worthless?

Was it all for the edginess sake to the point it feels like Suda's revenge for getting forced onto this franchise or just a state of rushing the game out? I don't know but unfortunately that case really really soured my enjoyment on this game. Funny enough it's a really short case too! So that makes me wonder if it really rushed? I don't know and probably never will.

Also my other reason of not liking that much is like I said, it butchers the style from what came before in my opinion.

For example new sprites for characters suck and less detailed from what came before. Also old game's characters Yukari and Chisato looks unrecognizable. Also 3d scenes didn't aged good and I wish they use 2d cgs like the old games. Lastly compared to what came before, environment looks uninspired and lifeless even, probably because again it uses 3d objects more rather than 2d.

So yeah, it's a polarizing game for me. I enjoyed the shock, surprise and the uneasiness it gave me with nonstop forbidden subjects. Also enjoyed the filler cases that delves into a lot of different variety of dark subjects. But also it's ending disappointed me so I really didn't left this game happy also it's style wasn't to my tastes too.

Still it's just a beginning and I heard this case will connect to silver case somehow... So see you later at there hopefully. And let's hope that it does have a less rushed narrative progression then this one.

(I played while syncing up my gameplay with the translations. First half with izzeybee's text translation, second half with paradise hotel 51's video translation)