hellnight is such an intriguing game - its scarce distribution in the west coupled by the fact that absolutely no one knows who the developers of this game are makes me feel like i'm unearthing some ancient relic that's been sealed away for decades. seriously though, how does a huge company like konami publish a game everywhere except the two major countries that this game would have done way more well in, the us and the uk? did they think it was too weird for them? if so, why even publish it in the first place? there's way too much mystery surrounding this game and its development, and this along with the entire dev team just disappearing from the face of the earth piqued my interest in this game immediately.

hellnight's gameplay is very barebones, but this is its biggest strength since it helps to build its incredibly tense atmosphere. first person dungeon crawler navigating a labyrinth, coupled with the low draw distance and wonderful sound design adds to the fear factor a ton. it always feels like there's something waiting to jumpscare you beyond the black void ahead, and while this can happen unintentionally with npcs lurking around, there are no real threats other than the "hybrid" monster (that evolves every single floor, creepy) who's growls and snarls you can hear from a mile away - if anything, it's predictable when he arrives because he always makes noises when you're around him. the sound design is masterful though, any miniscule noise made in the environment, coupled by the eerie ambience gives the game so much charm . i genuinely dreaded my time playing this because the monster was so fast late in the game (even if its AI is simple) but the setting was really what kept me playing.

the tokyo mesh is one of the most interesting and terrifying settings for a horror game - a gigantic underground complex built during world war 2 that was meant to shelter the entire population in fear of a nuclear strike, but was immediately abandoned following the surrender of japan - the devs struck gold with this, but i just wish they would have built on its backstory a little bit more in-game, maybe through extra characters hiding throughout the mesh under the impression that the war is still going on, who would have provided us with some lore about the making of the place. it's great, but hellnight just decides to drop it in the latter half of the game by teleporting you into some freaky cultish otherworld - i don't mind it, but the mesh was a lot more interesting, and the game becomes way less interesting from that point on. the story (and the main cast by extension) is unfortunately where i think the game falls flat. these characters don't really have a lot of moments going for them to really shine (apart from some flashbacks near the ending, but it's too late at that point) and your interaction with them is minimal - usually only giving you a few sentences saying your objective or what their current thoughts are, but nothing too interesting. they do tie into the gameplay a bit though - the first companion, naomi, is a completely helpless schoolgirl who can't really do anything but run away with you from the monster. if you let her die and find another companion to take on with you later on, they all have the firearms necessary to stun the hybrid and buy you some time if he's too close to you. i beat the game with naomi initially and i really don't think it's possible without save scumming given how rarely you're given the option to save your progress (which is absolutely vital in the latter half of the game)i think this is supposed to make the endings worse for each companion you let die, but i can't really tell.
i'll keep the story stuff short, but it starts off pretty nicely. you desperately searching for a way out, with mysterious people like razzo, and the holy cult is some very cool stuff at first. but once you get down to the hive and find all the lovecraftian type demons i just wasn't very interested. it is cool, but it's complete total whiplash when they start doing some "you are the chosen one" shit along with the hybrid, who's now a god to this cult, acting like the player is connected to him, it's all very sudden and ditching the mesh feels like wasted potential. the endings really soured the game for me though - they are not worth it at all for how basic it is. even after watching the rest, they're all the exact same, with some slight variations. a fucking you're winner screen from big rigs would have been more satisfying than any of these.

although its plot isn't very well-thought out, this game is still a vibe and one i'd highly recommend. the atmosphere is so so fucking heavy, especially when the hybrid chases you - like i said before its very simple but that's what makes it so terrifying. i still want to know about the behind the scenes of this game though, how everyone working on this went under the radar entirely doesn't sit right with me :(

i'm pretty surprised the average rating is this low - sure, it doesn't perfectly replicate the atmosphere the original had, but realistically i don't think that's possible without retaining saturn-like graphics. it's not a complete downgrade though, it still contains the music and vibes that made this game feel so immersive in the first place. if anything, i think the graphics helped me see enemies more clearly, along with the easier difficulty making the entire experience a lot more enjoyable compared to the hellish difficulty spike in the og.
apart from that, it's very faithful to its source material, to its detriment. the og was painfully average to playthrough and unfortunately this game is too - same exact gameplay style, same story beats, and i don't think there's any new options in pandora's box either.
there's also no incentive to go back apart from difficulty or if you want to get the trophies, which aren't very interesting or anything that makes you go the extra mile ( apart fromthe 100 hour one, fuck that)

huge spoilers ahead, so reader discretion is advised!
im really mad with how this game turned out, especially considering how much hype the game garnered before release (and even after with all the meat riders). that's not to say it's bad, far from it - it's just got some glaring flaws that really did this game dirty, and i don't see anyone talking about them.
let me start with the good. gameplay is objectively a huge improvement over 7's. combos, moving around your enemies in battles helps so much since you can now get critical back hits if positioned right, wonky foreground objects that would mess up your attacks in the last game can now be picked up as weapons, and grappling attacks that break guards - it's solved almost everything i didn't like about 7's gameplay and i'm very glad they put more thought into it, the potential of 7's system has finally been realised.
one big issue that pained me in the last game is still glaringly apparent here though. enemies and bosses are piss easy up until chapter 10 i'd say, all being able to be done with in 3 or less turns. after that, the game has a difficulty spike (annoying, but a lot nicer than 7) which forces mandatory grinding. granted, one run of the mystery dungeon will give you enough XP to fight the final boss with ease, but the fact that it never hits the sweet spot in difficulty is very annoying.
also, the new characters added are an absolute treat - they never feel out of place with the gang and i'm glad they're written well. easily the greatest part about the ichiban games are their bonds together.
this game is also filled to the brim with content, and not in a bloated way like 5. the bucket list is an absolute tearjerker (even though i think it should have been part of the main story) and the substories are pretty developed this time around, even better than they were previously. that, and the quality of life genuinely make me scared to see how 7's features pale in comparison to this. an auto-win button for low-level encounters, finally being able to choose a taxi location from the map, and especially the electric scooter - one of my complaints in 7 was that the city was way too big to traverse on foot, and i had to rely on opening the phone menu and selecting taxis way too often. it's a blessing and i'm glad they've done this much.

this is where the praise ends, and story spoilers start.

i don't need to say much about the ng+ dlc, but it's shameful considering that this was a thing with 7 in japan - but the backlash got so bad that it was included with the game in the english version. just an earthly reminder about how scummy companies can get. if not for the emotional kiryu stuff that was heavily advertised with this game, i don't think i would have got it. but if there's some extra dlc content that is worth getting, it would probably make the dlc worthwhile.

the story is easily the worst part about this game. there's so much about it that genuinely pisses me off, but i'll try to summarise it in the best way i can. they had so many chances to do some wicked shit but ultimately pulled a lot of its punches and played it safe for reasons i can't really grasp. the first half of the story is genuine filler - the gang was really just running around looking for akane - the game does a good job and hyping her up (she's his mom - obviously learning more about this goat protagonist is interesting) and lani as well (even comparing her to haruka in y1 - kiryu's reason for helping out) and when we do find them, they contribute absolutely nothing to the story afterwards. I don't even think kiryu and lani had a scene together, given how much he wanted to rescue her.
in addition to this, there's a lot of shit that just gets glossed over for seemingly no reason at all. the whole daidoji thing with kiryu could have been expanded on given how much of a tight grip they had on him in gaiden, but nahhh, he's just able to live after being exposed because he's "important for the mission". we're also gonna forget about eiji, the man who literally fucked up ichiban and gang's whole careers, fuckin disappears after we get back lani, and now he's gone back to japan and is now looking homeless? how the fuck did that all happen within the span of a few days???? and don't get me started on ebina. his whole backstory just makes the arakawa family fiasco in 7 even more confusing, and the fact that ichiban isn't even made aware of it is just ??????
people wack on 5's story for being ridiculous but at least it was a good time. this genuinely feels lazy.

on top of that, the villains are boring. bryce is some cult guy who isn't even remotely interesting. his backstory is lame, and we're supposed to care when we don't see him AT ALL. until his boss fight i'm convinced he only appeared to ichiban at least 3 times max. eiji is a bitch boy - his blackmail with chitose was honestly great, a very good motive to do all the shit he did, but there's no real resolve or one-to-one convo with him about it. only at the very end do we see he's sorry, and even though the ending went insanely hard, it just wasn't convincing enough because we didn't see any development from himself beforehand. i already talked about ebina, he's basically a "daddy issues" villain but his speech at the end highlighted the yakuza being a necessary evil, that will always linger in japan despite the dissolution. couldn't care about it less about it by that point but it made kiryu cry (something that hasn't been done since y3) so it gets extra points.

i've left the bucket list for last, cuz it's the best and worst part about the game. seeing old important characters really just made me appreciate for wonderful all these characters are. i genuinely shed a tear when i saw taichi and kaoru - such a heartwarming section and i'm glad they've done this. being side content really hurts it however, haruka's part is a very good example. you think there would be some insane cutscene where they both start bursting with tears while being the sweetest shit ever, but nah, we get edged and kiryu leaves halfway through. the daidoji is their reason for this i think? you'd think kiryu would go through some tough shit because of this but he just gets away with a simple fight since he knows that he has plot armour 😭 you can't make this shit up
if the bucket list took up the first half of the game, with the lesser important people being side content, i think that would have been perfect.

but as great as it was, the worst offender of the story is the ending, simply because it just leaves way too much unexplained. very lazy to leave this much "to interpretation".
for starters, ichiban and saeko's shit could have easily been the cherry on top, with him finally getting the proper words to say to her. but they just had to ruin it with some weird fuck ass shit - even for ichiban this was out of pocket, especially since the whole team was building ichiban up to this moment (especially saeko's speech in the final boss, was that all for nothing????) ofc it'll be resolved in the other game, but it really feels lazy.
we don't even see how any of the characters are actually doing, just short summaries. chitose and lani not being seen at all was very disappointing considering that they've both taken on some big roles.
but the final cutscene with kiryu was easily the worst. honestly thought kiryu's final moments would have been well spent - and him being killed off in a either badass or heartwarming way, but nahhhhh, he lived. with him with cancer you'd think he would go (or be finished by the daidoji after completing the mission) but fuck what we've previously established am i right?
to end it all off, haruka and haruto are waiting for him by his hospital bed while he's out for an inspection or whatever. here he reveals his name, supposed to be a big deal, but why should it be when there is no reasoning behind it? why would the daidoji let him do this????? the bucket list moment felt like it was leading to this, but of course we don't see what happens at all...... haha
just hype the end of kiryu up for it not to be the end of kiryu. this should have been the dlc that gaiden was supposed to be to this game.

even past all that, i did have some good fun thanks to the quality of life and improved gameplay. maybe i will go back in premium adventure because looking at the completion list, there's a LOT of cool shit i missed. hard to do that when the entire game was essentially a big blueball.

it's honestly amazing how cf managed to flip the entire franchise on its head. backpedalling on what made wild world so great while shoehorning in gamecube features that were missing from wild world doesn't make for an interesting game unfortunately. while it does do some good things, like a consistent 60fps and giving us the holy grail that is the city music (all are genuinely wonderful tracks) however that doesn't excuse the terrible grass deterioration, complete dumbing down of the villager system (which had a surprising amount of depth in wild world) removing all the special character episodes and their memoirs, and making them a LOT nicer (which, in turn, hurts their original personalities a lot) thankfully i don't need to go into detail since everyone knows about them by now, but man did that hurt the sales of the game by a long shot back then.

the city deserves its own section. i absolutely love the vibes, but when you get down to it, it's really just the special shops crammed into one place, and it hurts the game’s replayability a lot. special characters in wild world would pop up in town and do something fun each week, and for me, that was a big motivator to come back to the game every day - there’d always be something new to find, or unlock - and if not, they would at least be interesting to talk to. but now that people like Redd, Katrina and Harriet are always in the city, there was no real reason to come back, since they’d always be there, doing the exact same stuff. gracie’s shop made returning furniture sets from gamecube way too expensive, the auction house is pretty much useless now that wifi’s gone, and kicks would be better if he had his own building. it would have been so much better if they had made new characters to replace these old ones, but that’s what new leaf is for.

i would go into more things like the terrible golden axe fountain rng, the fact that multiplayer is virtually unchanged from ww (and you can't go to the city), the weird exclusion of classic controller/gamecube support and ultimately harder to play for longer periods of time due to the lack of portability, but i don't want to be too harsh considering i have had some fun memories of this game with good friends. the goofy wii speak, pro patterns, and the whole hacked villagers and dlc item fiasco years ago are always a fascinating part of animal crossing history in my eyes. still, for every improvement it introduced, it adds 3 more problems, while also being way too similar to wild world and trying too hard to fill in the gaps it left behind.

even with the QoL and new features that the other games bring to the table, i still find myself coming back to this one the most. while it definitely isn't perfect, there's a lot to love about this one, and it has a lot of cool features that i think a lot of people overlook when playing this game blind.

for starters, the villagers. i don't need to say much about them, but they're near perfect in this game. they all have the perfect balance between nice and rude, with a lot of wild and unpredictable lines thrown into the mix to give every villager life, and enough dialogue to last a lifetime, without getting stale. their chores, villager photos and gossip about other villagers really does help to make you feel included with this fictional town, but not to the point where they flatter you for doing anything. on another note, the special characters are easily at their best in this entry - each one is very distinct from each other, and while we don't see them interact with each other often, the many stories they tell (which have a surprising amount of depth to them) about their experiences with other characters in your town just makes these characters feel more relatable and realistic in some ways (sable's episodes are a real good example of this), and does a good job of linking the whole world together.

gameplay wise, i will admit it is pretty basic on the surface, but the desire for more things to do is designed to make you think outside the box and discover many hidden secrets. customizable patterns can allow for some really creative town designs (if you're willing to spend the time designing them) along with flower breeding, golden tools, (the golden axe sequence may be tedious, but i just think how they went about it is so interesting compared to city folk) unlocking hairstyles at nookington's, and a whole lot more. there's even features that i'm still finding out recently, e.g. tapping on your villagers across the riverside will make them wave at you, wtf
also while it's not officially up anymore, i also want to state that multiplayer is a reallly big part of this game, to the point where whole ass item sets are locked behind them somehow. while the multiplayer is pretty barebones and doesn't allow 3 people inside the same building for some reason, there is quite a lot of potential with this form of online that could have been utilised better, but was still very innovative and interesting for its time. the funniest thing to me is that hackers used to have whole gangs that would break towns by spamming buildings everywhere, or "seeding") as its called

as perfect as i want this game to be, there are obviously some issues. the game runs like ass, even for a ds game. it's playable and easy to get used to, but framedrops when every villager is out and about is unacceptable. it's definitely not a ds issue either - games like Mario Kart and Metroid Prime released around the same time as this, and they achieve a stable 60/30fps while looking a lot better. must have been a hell to make this game, considering how it's optimised poorly as well. i also don't mind the removed holidays, but they could have at least thought of cooler ones to replace. i'm not a fan of la-di-day or yay day, they seem really lackluster in comparison to the bright nights and acorn festival.

there's a lot of other stuff i love about this game that just goes under the radar in many people's eyes. celeste and the constellations, wishy the star,, the "Talking to Myself"/ "Message of the Day" posts on the billboard, blanca, katie/kaitlin, but at the end of the day, i still think this game holds up extremely well in comparison to the other games. most people may think i'm nostalgia blinded, but realistically we all are in some way, can't blame me for it :)
if you're a fan of other games in the series, don't miss out on this one, there's definitely something to be loved here - just play for more than a week!

kiryu's last outing is such a sweet finale - while it definitely has some story flaws that can't be overlooked, the final result of a 6 month game that was initially meant to be DLC is very impressive, and i'll admit it left a much better taste than Yakuza 6 did.

i'll start with the gameplay, since dragon engine kiryu was a literal middle finger to the combat systems of the games that came before it. it's definitely an improvement for starters, the devs took the solid foundation of lost judgment and put kiryu's k2 moveset over it. obviously that means it's not going to be as fun as LJ's but i wasn't expecting that anyway. no slippery ragdoll physics also allows for some cool tech like juggling to make a return, along with some very cool combo potential that im sure the community will take full advantage of eventually. Even though i played on professionaI mode, the difficulty was stupidly easy - i know yakuza games aren't known for being hard, but there was never much of a challenge at all. yakuza style does crazy damage to normal enemies, and bosses can be cheesed through with extreme heat and mortal reversals (such a weird thing to keep from LJ). since you use money to purchase skills instead of XP, it was a given that skills would be easy to max out, especially with how easy it is to make money thanks to the akame missions and coliseum. speaking of those things, i'm so glad they brought back the giant castle from y2 and did something with it - felt so out of place in that game considering how it just pops in outta nowhere. akame's a nice addition too.

the story felt kinda pointless at first, but the many twists that happened throughout were funny enough to keep me interested. the story really started picking up in the last 2 chapters, when the game starts to merge with 7's story. also im so fucking mad that we never really see an emotional side of kiryu until now, apart from yakuza 3 (and i guess 5?), he never really had any heart-to-heart moments that made his character stand out, which is why the last cutscene, along with its references to y3 and 5 just hit so hard.

apart from me wishing the story was a bit more fleshed out, i'm definitely satisfied with this ending for kiryu, hopefully 8 is just as good, or even better.

i was really surprised when i saw most mixed or negative reviews about this game. i can understand why, but to me this game is such a blast to return to every time. the artstyle in this one is such a pleasant vibe with the best robot master designs (and music) in the classic series the new action sections are hit and miss, but enjoyable for the most part and does wonders for the classic formula, which was getting stale since 4 on the NES. of course the bad voice acting is as bad as everyone says, but it's really funny and this game wouldn't be the same without them. additionally the weapons this time around are pretty fun to use, on top of them all having situational uses, weapons like the mega ball and the ice wave can be used to exploit the level design in some very cool ways, and it made me appreciate these levels a whole lot more, and motivated me to find all the bolts, which are well hidden for the most part.

my only real complaints are that mega man moves a lot slower than the NES games? this was a thing in 7, and it was made worse by the bigger sprites which fucked you over in some platforming sections - this game makes it a little easier with more forgiving jumps, but it's easy to get used to.
the level design in some stages are a bit off as well. they're fine for the most part, but search man's stage is such a clusterfuck to go through with its weird layout, and astro man's stage having TWO whole ass mazes inside it. I appreciate the variety, but man those stages could have had a lot more polishing. the item shop's cool in this one, but the fact that you can't even get all the powerups in one playthrough doesn't sit right with me.

apart from all that, it's a big breath of fresh air from the previous entries, and while not all of the new ideas hit the mark, it all culminates into a solid experience that's definitely worth a try.

there isn't much to say that hasn't already been said about this game.
I went into it expecting it to be a mediocre experience but i was surprised by how interesting the characters and worldbuilding are.
the main cast is charming and are all full of backstory to give them life, every part of the world has some interesting dialogue to give every NPC some variety, the overall plot had me hooked for the majority of the time, and sephiroth is such a goated villain, easily one of the best in an rpg.
the gameplay's alright though. not sure how it compares to other ATB games but i did enjoy the fast pace of the system, i'm just not a fan of the game being batshit easy until one random boss that has a crazy difficulty spike, especially that final boss, which took me at least 2 hours to beat. super nova is such a cool watch the first few times but they should have implemented a skip for that move alone.
other than that, i definitely understand why everyone loves this one now, its awesome

great game, but as a big fan of the og games i feel like it could have done more. as the spiritual successor to jsrf it picks up where it left off and improves on it quite a lot. tricks have more substance to them (exp multipliers and more than one trick button), game feels a lot more fluid and easier to control, and they even added combat (and some bosses). unfortunately all these mechanics seem pretty surface level (multiple skates to use with no differences, combat being shallow af and the disappointing bosses), and as a modern game it's kinda sad that they didnt expand on this stuff to be even bigger than its spiritual predecessor.

but this is a godsend comparing it to jsrf. weak combat is miles better than however you fought the police in jsrf, you can actually control your camera in this game, slides and manuals to keep your combo streak going is amazing, and the game actually has a decent story that feels finished! they absolutely killed it with the character designs and world, along with the music too. on top of the many references, the entire game feels like a modern day jet set radio, and it's definitely worth it