quinnman89
2014
Slow and uninteresting. This game doesn't feel like it's allowed to cuss. It's bad.
The corrupt save file thing is very real. I am BAFFLED that it ships like that, out of the box. I cannot access the save menu at all without it crashing. Blind Squirrel continuing their streak of terrible ports.
The corrupt save file thing is very real. I am BAFFLED that it ships like that, out of the box. I cannot access the save menu at all without it crashing. Blind Squirrel continuing their streak of terrible ports.
Somehow ... the best Danganronpa? Crazy.
The game outstays its welcome a tad, the arcade machines are too plentiful and the animations accompanying are too long.
Core gameplay is surprisingly fun! Turn that aim sensitivity to low as possible and it feels great to play on Keyboard/Mouse.
First playthrough was on "Despair mode" (hard mode) and it was a very nice time. Not all that hard at all. The only things I died to were getting knocked into bottomless pits or that one boss, so I got the QTE revive minigame tutorial near the end of the game!
Turns out, there are unique death animations for every enemy, I almost missed out on that detail entirely.
The limited ammo isn't really an issue either, as the game will throw out ammo pickups when you're out. Money is also a non issue on hard as you get increased coin pickups, making upgrades easy to get.
Switching to Toko right before an attack hits feels really good! Because she's invincible, she can tank some of the more annoying attacks on a whim. Collectibles are not that exciting, but harmless at worst.
One more bit about the arcade machines. They are so jank. There will be times where you have to kill all the enemies in one go. I'll shoot a dance bullet at a siren kuma that's in the path of a car. I wait for all kumas to gather. I shoot a move bullet at the car. It misses 1 monokuma. Wellllp. Did the intended solution and it just didn't work. Stealth missions are also complete hogwash with there being no clear view cones on enemies. At least you're allowed to move on without clearing the goal, but it does hurt the completionist/ranking angle.
Chapter 3 is so insane and probably why the game has a pretty terrible review average. It's uncomfortable. It's gross. But it's memorable? That was their intent and it worked. It'll stick with ya. Better or for worse.
Now, the final chapter? Amazing. My favorite Danganronpa chapter ever. I initially kept picking what I thought was the "bad" ending, only for the game to keep stringing me along with more pleas to pick the other option. It was so ridiculous. Loved every bit of it. The final boss was also a great use of most of my tools, with spectacle to boot. Fun stuff!
The game outstays its welcome a tad, the arcade machines are too plentiful and the animations accompanying are too long.
Core gameplay is surprisingly fun! Turn that aim sensitivity to low as possible and it feels great to play on Keyboard/Mouse.
First playthrough was on "Despair mode" (hard mode) and it was a very nice time. Not all that hard at all. The only things I died to were getting knocked into bottomless pits or that one boss, so I got the QTE revive minigame tutorial near the end of the game!
Turns out, there are unique death animations for every enemy, I almost missed out on that detail entirely.
The limited ammo isn't really an issue either, as the game will throw out ammo pickups when you're out. Money is also a non issue on hard as you get increased coin pickups, making upgrades easy to get.
Switching to Toko right before an attack hits feels really good! Because she's invincible, she can tank some of the more annoying attacks on a whim. Collectibles are not that exciting, but harmless at worst.
One more bit about the arcade machines. They are so jank. There will be times where you have to kill all the enemies in one go. I'll shoot a dance bullet at a siren kuma that's in the path of a car. I wait for all kumas to gather. I shoot a move bullet at the car. It misses 1 monokuma. Wellllp. Did the intended solution and it just didn't work. Stealth missions are also complete hogwash with there being no clear view cones on enemies. At least you're allowed to move on without clearing the goal, but it does hurt the completionist/ranking angle.
Chapter 3 is so insane and probably why the game has a pretty terrible review average. It's uncomfortable. It's gross. But it's memorable? That was their intent and it worked. It'll stick with ya. Better or for worse.
Now, the final chapter? Amazing. My favorite Danganronpa chapter ever. I initially kept picking what I thought was the "bad" ending, only for the game to keep stringing me along with more pleas to pick the other option. It was so ridiculous. Loved every bit of it. The final boss was also a great use of most of my tools, with spectacle to boot. Fun stuff!
2023
Cute Idea! really short, really cheap. That unreal engine sure looks pretty.
I think there's room to expand on this idea further, and could be expanded upon via VR, or other immersive additions, etc.
I think there's room to expand on this idea further, and could be expanded upon via VR, or other immersive additions, etc.
2016
I hope that when the time comes, I remember what the stars look like.
The cast is a downgrade from the first game. Music is also a letdown. Nagito is really cool, everything pertaining to him rocks.
Everything else feels like bloat. so many side games and minigames feel annoying to play. The post game hang-out mode is back from the first game. No thanks. Finished the Umami monobeast minigame to completion and didn't see any reward. Why is this here?
Ending stretch is verrrry silly, verrrry exhausting. I didn't hate it, but wasn't impressed either. I liked makoto better as a protagonist overall, but hajime's final moments were pretty cool.
Everything else feels like bloat. so many side games and minigames feel annoying to play. The post game hang-out mode is back from the first game. No thanks. Finished the Umami monobeast minigame to completion and didn't see any reward. Why is this here?
Ending stretch is verrrry silly, verrrry exhausting. I didn't hate it, but wasn't impressed either. I liked makoto better as a protagonist overall, but hajime's final moments were pretty cool.
The gameplay is as bad as VN gameplay goes. The truth bullet segments should've been a tad more forgiving in my opinion. The unlimited continues does help make any difficulty frustration go away. I got lost a few times, the map travel is terribly clunky. Music good. Story and characters were pretty fun! Not perfect, but it's goofy fun. Couldn't remember their names though, for a few of them. many times i had to ask myself "who is that??"
also, odd choice to severely limit "Free Time" segments. You barely get any!
also, odd choice to severely limit "Free Time" segments. You barely get any!
2007
The music carried. Iconic bop.
This review contains spoilers
it's a shame things had to turn out like this. This game is so painfully average.
Main Gameplay:
Good fun. An improvement over 7.
Though, heat actions are once again ruined. When they do happen, it feels like a jumpscare, with no clear confirmation that all prerequisites are met.
In previous titles, you react to a heat action prompt letting you know you're about to initiate some QTEs for damage, with the context of where you and the opponent are. You know where you are spatially and grabs/weapons helped set them up.
Now, in Like a Dragon 8?
Uhhh hope the enemy was in a desirable spot.
Hope there was a weapon nearby that has heat compatibility.
There's no real way to tell. Total crap shoot. It makes kiryu's blue style the least fun to use. Same with ichi's freelancer job. Both classes are also empty handed, so you miss out on the elemental benefits or exploiting enemy weaknesses in this turn based battle system.
Why did they bother bringing heat back at all.
To that extent, kiryu's extreme heat mode is just mash square till they die.
Which, is just like the previous titles, yes. But I've always found extreme heat very boring.
Do you know how many legacy heat actions you guys have at your disposal, developers???
Extreme heat started getting interesting in gaiden because it amplified all of kiryu's spy gadgets in a goofy way. I went from sending 10 drones one by one, to an absolute swarm. That was cool!
It made doing what i was already doing more fun.
In 8, I'm let down. From previews and hype leading up to it I assumed id get all the old controls back, resulting in a really cool fusion of Yakuza and Like a Dragon gameplay. No.
You can't guard, enemies don't attack back, there are no combos.
Let me walk around picking up shit off the ground or carry an enemy over to another to get some free heat actions off
We don't even get that. There's no strategy. There's no depth.
Combat as a whole is a bit... Less strategic than id like. The green area markers are a SUGGESTION.
The enemy is clearly in my fanning green area, I hit accept. My character runs up, and the opponent jumps aside to make room for me. The attack misses.
Alright, dude.
Knockback skills feel heavily underutilized. The 1 shark hazard is the only instance I can even think of where it really felt rewarding for using knockback skills.
Not to mention the plethora of BAD interactions I've had with the knockback skills. Enemies will sometimes just not go where the arrow says they will!
The "infinite symbol" tag team stuff is the worst with that. A lot of them show you a big zone that will eliminate multiple enemies in a line. Okay but if there's ANY obstacle around you AT ALL, the game will teleport you to a spot where the tag team cutscene isn't obscured. Okay well now the attack is pointed towards a random direction, only hitting 1 dude.
With how "random" fights feel, I don't feel fully engaged. This is a game where enemies will fall out of combos. Found weapons and team attacks are programed so only the final hit will kill. Welp! Thanks to enemies bumping into each other or the wall is at an angle, the final attack will just miss! Sometimes, on your way to an enemy during an attack command, there will be objects on the ground in your path. The attacker will kick the object towards the opponent for a free hit! This applies to enemies and yourself. It's a shame 80% of the time the object kicked misses entirely....!!!!!
Paralysis weapons are king
Get one of them bad boys and you've upped the chances of "enemy skips a turn" tenfold.
Then it's just about dumping skills and chugging coffee for MP refills.
I wish I could just hit the "analyze" button like in the persona games to see what all the opponent is weak to at a given moment. Let me open the Sujidex mid fight.
As it stands, you have to go down your list of skills, and selecting them one at a time to see how the enemy will react
"alright lemme pick them in order. Knife attack? Nothin... Gun attack? Okay they're weak to that, lets see, what element?
Ice? Nah.. what about this lightning skill? Hrm, nothing special. Fire? ohh okay yeah fire works too." Every single. Fight.
It's tiring.
Don't bother checking the fist icon attacks, either. No enemy is weak to blunt attacks. For .... Some... Reason
Again, making classes with no weapons really underwhelming and boring.
I wish battle skill descriptions separated the flavor text and what it actually does.
I wish it gave me the actual percentages for what the crit rate will be and calculate the enemy's evasion stat for my percent chance the attack will even land.
I wish I could filter my items down to "gives MP" ASAP. I HATE scrolling through my 1000 food items to find the one I need. Wanna pop a kiwami drink for one person to get a .2x exp boost? Have fun digging around for that shit. There is no explicit category for that one, pal.
It's right above the smoke bombs though, you know, for next time.
Outside of battle, give me the lowest MP drinks, during battle, I want some big MP drinks. It's only optimal, man.
Battle items in general? Never used them.
What a wasted concept.
Make them not waste a turn, lemme imbue them with my current weapon's element. Something.
Why would I waste a turn on a 100 damage flash grenade that has a non 0 chance to just not inflict anything.
Newly added members are unfortunately level scaled to the story. This means if you did a bit of grinding beforehand, they fall behind the curve and NEVER catch up, partly because of the way bond levels work. Ouch!
You're slowly gaining bond with every little activity you do together (including battles). Welp. New members start off at 0 bond. Building bond is so slow. By the end of the game I didn't even have Kiryu, the second main protagonist, at bond level 100! The party members I had the longest were at about level 75, with newer members hovering around 50. Congrats, you now have a new member that doesn't add anything new to your current team comp with way less inherited skill slots.
Some jobs are locked behind DLC. In a Role-Playing-Game. LOL. LOL!!!
Side content:
You're getting to see familiar faces as they do the same things, again, in HAWAII!!! All your favorites are here. You have big roomba scientist guy, the circus guy, sujimon master- so glad they made it back and are up to the same goofy antics. Well, maybe not the sujimon guy.
The big minigame this time around are the sujimon battles and I'm sorry. This is abysmal.
This is your big expanded side quest beside donda island. Ichiban confessions in 7 was fun, led to a lot of money, and unlocked a party member.
But this? Your sujimon summoner class gets better...
Okay
Listen here. There is no way I'm grinding up that shit to make this unarmed job viable. (You cant even transfer sujimon summoner skills over to other jobs. This is the only job that's restricted like this.)
It's not fun.
Having to load in and out of poor man's pokemon...
Where you have 1 attack and 1 super
The supers are so annoying and risky to use.
You better nail the roulette else you completely miss the attack entirely and all of your turn meter goes to 0!!
Not that it really matters. As long as you keep your sujimon at the appropriate level, you'll never lose.
Just mash 'A' on your middle dude till they all die
Sometimes you'll want to swap who the middle dude is, which doesn't have a downside or real risk.
It's dreadful.
Sidequests are okay, I enjoyed maybe 25%? The rest are predictable lessons with characters I'll never see again.
The Aloha links system is pretty cute. I enjoyed saying Aloha to create bonds with people around town. It's a nice way to incorporate crowds into something interactive. I always made sure to wave to any buddies I see. Though, if someone was in trouble and I already had our bond maxed out, I literally had 0 reason to help them out. A bit of unfortunate cognitive dissonance there.
I enjoyed the bond level system with the party as well. It was the only system in the game that you can't hard grind out with booster items. The drink links and walk-and-talk finales were both fun to indulge and were pretty rewarding.
The paradise island tycoon side game didn't really hook me. Swinging the bat feels awful and there's no animation canceling on the dodge roll so combat is very committal and awkward. Lining up a bug net swing with yakuza controls is pretty wack, I really wish holding the square button let you creep around with more precision (you know, like how animal crossing does it.) Crafting buildings, leveling up your town and doing your dailies is a staple loop but this game is already way too long as is. It's fine. Not offensive like the sujimon battles are.
Well, after completing this side game to completion: It's bad.
Sujimon battles ARE IN THIS TOO!!!
I was finishing my daily tasks before nightfall came. You cannot sleep/end the day till sunset. WELP. Time to stand around waiting!
Pretty miserable. I never understood how additional foot paths worked, the game will tell you when a building triggers a bonus near paths but it wouldnt say anything for the paths i built? So i was limited to using the basic paths. Which is plenty doable for an S rank in both satisfaction/popularity anyway. The game is really easy/forgiving with guest happiness. It was not worth waving hello or giving gifts to boost moods daily.
The online functionality is so weird and "why did they bother."
The top islands are what im assuming to be hackers on PC, with golden ichiban statues filling every blank spot on the island. The sujimon angle is as bad as i described earlier, but this is technically a way to do "online sujimon battles."
Story:
I've been playing Yakuza games since highschool.
Ichiban was a breath of fresh air, but if you think the story in 8 was anywhere CLOSE to 7's... Idk what to tell u.
90% of the side content is stuff I've already done, with characters I've already seen.
Remember this guy from the last game?? Well yeah, he's in Hawaii now, doing the same damn thing.
It's like nostalgia baiting for last week's dinner.
Everyone's motive for being part of the story is just... Silly. Adachi and Nanba call you up like "yeah we were bored, so we're in Hawaii now."
Majima and the gang will tell you "hell no. we are NOT joining your quest" only to show up during the final chapter as part of your quest anyway. Alright. Guess they were bored too.
When you present me with uninteresting answers, I'm going to file that along with 'boring'
Kiryus whole "imma die for real this time I better catch up on old memories" doesn't really land for me when kamurocho isn't nostalgic, I was just there in gaiden or whatever.
How are you nostalgic for pocket slot car racing, you did it just last week, buddy!!!
I do think the final 2 events with Date-san were pretty good though.
And collecting screenshots of old titles and memories is a cute idea.
There's this sarcastic or developer commentary air to it that I really enjoy.
"ahh yes... the kamurocho bridge. I loved fighting dudes on the bridge. I would toss dudes off it. I wonder why I have that strong desire to do that?"
Or the one about staminan X stuff, "this stuff is so good. Shame the naming convention sucks. Why did we do that."
I just find it hard to care that kiryu's trapped in this limbo where he cant see anyone he loves, because, the daidoji wont allow it!!
His whole plan was stupid. The disguise never works. People spot his ass as kiryu frame 1. The daidoji are pretty dumb thinking this plan was a good one.
And that was a problem I had with GAIDEN (and to an extent 6, with its ending.)
"oh shit... This plot point isn't sad enough... Idk, give him cancer"
I didn't care for the villains this time around. It's supposed to be all interconnected and part of some larger plot, but I don't care... 8's story just makes Arakawa-san look worse, a disservice to 7's great tale.
Yamai was surprisingly endearing. The best villain here. He's got a deeply buried softer side and his final scene was fantastic. Everyone else just felt generic/uninteresting. 0 redeeming qualities. Even Ei-chan. That dude is complete scum. Ichiban let him off wayyyy too easy. I'm a forgiving person, but that's unhealthily forgiving.
I like tomi! chi-chan is cute and adds a lot to the story. Good female rep is kinda rare in yakuza. (I mean, honestly, why do women STILL only get like half the job options that guys do?)
I uhhhhh didn't really enjoy the vtuber angle. At the end, she foils Bryce Fairchild's big plans by broadcasting his biggest secret to the whole world, then IMMEDIATELY apologizes to her whole audience that her channel was full of lies and deceit. ???
I get that you need to redeem this horrid channel, it caused a lot of grief to Ichiban AND Kiryu but NOW?? Right now? You just exposed the big bad on that very same channel, idiot.
Saeko is so unlikable here. Ghosting Ichiban and refusing to talk to him at all is just... cringe. This gets more depth in her drink link with Kiryu, but it largely doesn't matter. She was just mad Ichiban didn't say "I love you" before proposing. Okay..... man, It's implied. You really did him dirty for a whole YEAR because of that?? Wow! Stay single you miserable hag.
This is supposed to be modern times but when you present me the same kamurocho map from 2010... It doesn't feel modern.
Yakuza games are supposed to take place around the same year they release but I really don't think they made the jump to "modern day" very gracefully. It's a tad jarring.
Hawaii feels a bit better but it kinda feels like Japan 2 at times.
Ichi and tomi have a bit of "language barrier" interactions initially and I found that really cool. Ichi is in a new city and really wants to find someone who speaks what he speaks, thus finding tomi is really lucky! After the first cutscene together they dont ever bring that angle up again. I wish Tomi asked questions about certain japanese words or could be a middle man, translating for ichi at times. It woulda sold the globe trotting just a bit more. I just see missed opportunity there.
The endings of yakuza games usually go really hard- This was one of the weakest finales I've seen in a longggggg time. I sense a lack of confidence, too. The finale chapter is full of monologuing and last minute recaps of what the bad guys' motives even ARE. Both Bryce AND Ebina will talk your ear off before their fights. Just standing around, talking, for way too long because the game doesn't set them up properly!
I'm not interested in the hypothetical 9th entry of this story. Thank you RGG studios. It's been a long journey with lots of memories.
Rest in piece, Kazama Kiryu.
Went for the New Game Plus run for the final achievement-
beating the game on "Legend" difficulty does NOT unlock the achievement for "Hard" difficulty as well. So i had to redo the final dungeon on a lower difficulty. This design for difficulty achievements just irks me. It's a waste of my time.
Not a very difficulty 100% achievement list. probably the easiest in the series?
Main Gameplay:
Good fun. An improvement over 7.
Though, heat actions are once again ruined. When they do happen, it feels like a jumpscare, with no clear confirmation that all prerequisites are met.
In previous titles, you react to a heat action prompt letting you know you're about to initiate some QTEs for damage, with the context of where you and the opponent are. You know where you are spatially and grabs/weapons helped set them up.
Now, in Like a Dragon 8?
Uhhh hope the enemy was in a desirable spot.
Hope there was a weapon nearby that has heat compatibility.
There's no real way to tell. Total crap shoot. It makes kiryu's blue style the least fun to use. Same with ichi's freelancer job. Both classes are also empty handed, so you miss out on the elemental benefits or exploiting enemy weaknesses in this turn based battle system.
Why did they bother bringing heat back at all.
To that extent, kiryu's extreme heat mode is just mash square till they die.
Which, is just like the previous titles, yes. But I've always found extreme heat very boring.
Do you know how many legacy heat actions you guys have at your disposal, developers???
Extreme heat started getting interesting in gaiden because it amplified all of kiryu's spy gadgets in a goofy way. I went from sending 10 drones one by one, to an absolute swarm. That was cool!
It made doing what i was already doing more fun.
In 8, I'm let down. From previews and hype leading up to it I assumed id get all the old controls back, resulting in a really cool fusion of Yakuza and Like a Dragon gameplay. No.
You can't guard, enemies don't attack back, there are no combos.
Let me walk around picking up shit off the ground or carry an enemy over to another to get some free heat actions off
We don't even get that. There's no strategy. There's no depth.
Combat as a whole is a bit... Less strategic than id like. The green area markers are a SUGGESTION.
The enemy is clearly in my fanning green area, I hit accept. My character runs up, and the opponent jumps aside to make room for me. The attack misses.
Alright, dude.
Knockback skills feel heavily underutilized. The 1 shark hazard is the only instance I can even think of where it really felt rewarding for using knockback skills.
Not to mention the plethora of BAD interactions I've had with the knockback skills. Enemies will sometimes just not go where the arrow says they will!
The "infinite symbol" tag team stuff is the worst with that. A lot of them show you a big zone that will eliminate multiple enemies in a line. Okay but if there's ANY obstacle around you AT ALL, the game will teleport you to a spot where the tag team cutscene isn't obscured. Okay well now the attack is pointed towards a random direction, only hitting 1 dude.
With how "random" fights feel, I don't feel fully engaged. This is a game where enemies will fall out of combos. Found weapons and team attacks are programed so only the final hit will kill. Welp! Thanks to enemies bumping into each other or the wall is at an angle, the final attack will just miss! Sometimes, on your way to an enemy during an attack command, there will be objects on the ground in your path. The attacker will kick the object towards the opponent for a free hit! This applies to enemies and yourself. It's a shame 80% of the time the object kicked misses entirely....!!!!!
Paralysis weapons are king
Get one of them bad boys and you've upped the chances of "enemy skips a turn" tenfold.
Then it's just about dumping skills and chugging coffee for MP refills.
I wish I could just hit the "analyze" button like in the persona games to see what all the opponent is weak to at a given moment. Let me open the Sujidex mid fight.
As it stands, you have to go down your list of skills, and selecting them one at a time to see how the enemy will react
"alright lemme pick them in order. Knife attack? Nothin... Gun attack? Okay they're weak to that, lets see, what element?
Ice? Nah.. what about this lightning skill? Hrm, nothing special. Fire? ohh okay yeah fire works too." Every single. Fight.
It's tiring.
Don't bother checking the fist icon attacks, either. No enemy is weak to blunt attacks. For .... Some... Reason
Again, making classes with no weapons really underwhelming and boring.
I wish battle skill descriptions separated the flavor text and what it actually does.
I wish it gave me the actual percentages for what the crit rate will be and calculate the enemy's evasion stat for my percent chance the attack will even land.
I wish I could filter my items down to "gives MP" ASAP. I HATE scrolling through my 1000 food items to find the one I need. Wanna pop a kiwami drink for one person to get a .2x exp boost? Have fun digging around for that shit. There is no explicit category for that one, pal.
It's right above the smoke bombs though, you know, for next time.
Outside of battle, give me the lowest MP drinks, during battle, I want some big MP drinks. It's only optimal, man.
Battle items in general? Never used them.
What a wasted concept.
Make them not waste a turn, lemme imbue them with my current weapon's element. Something.
Why would I waste a turn on a 100 damage flash grenade that has a non 0 chance to just not inflict anything.
Newly added members are unfortunately level scaled to the story. This means if you did a bit of grinding beforehand, they fall behind the curve and NEVER catch up, partly because of the way bond levels work. Ouch!
You're slowly gaining bond with every little activity you do together (including battles). Welp. New members start off at 0 bond. Building bond is so slow. By the end of the game I didn't even have Kiryu, the second main protagonist, at bond level 100! The party members I had the longest were at about level 75, with newer members hovering around 50. Congrats, you now have a new member that doesn't add anything new to your current team comp with way less inherited skill slots.
Some jobs are locked behind DLC. In a Role-Playing-Game. LOL. LOL!!!
Side content:
You're getting to see familiar faces as they do the same things, again, in HAWAII!!! All your favorites are here. You have big roomba scientist guy, the circus guy, sujimon master- so glad they made it back and are up to the same goofy antics. Well, maybe not the sujimon guy.
The big minigame this time around are the sujimon battles and I'm sorry. This is abysmal.
This is your big expanded side quest beside donda island. Ichiban confessions in 7 was fun, led to a lot of money, and unlocked a party member.
But this? Your sujimon summoner class gets better...
Okay
Listen here. There is no way I'm grinding up that shit to make this unarmed job viable. (You cant even transfer sujimon summoner skills over to other jobs. This is the only job that's restricted like this.)
It's not fun.
Having to load in and out of poor man's pokemon...
Where you have 1 attack and 1 super
The supers are so annoying and risky to use.
You better nail the roulette else you completely miss the attack entirely and all of your turn meter goes to 0!!
Not that it really matters. As long as you keep your sujimon at the appropriate level, you'll never lose.
Just mash 'A' on your middle dude till they all die
Sometimes you'll want to swap who the middle dude is, which doesn't have a downside or real risk.
It's dreadful.
Sidequests are okay, I enjoyed maybe 25%? The rest are predictable lessons with characters I'll never see again.
The Aloha links system is pretty cute. I enjoyed saying Aloha to create bonds with people around town. It's a nice way to incorporate crowds into something interactive. I always made sure to wave to any buddies I see. Though, if someone was in trouble and I already had our bond maxed out, I literally had 0 reason to help them out. A bit of unfortunate cognitive dissonance there.
I enjoyed the bond level system with the party as well. It was the only system in the game that you can't hard grind out with booster items. The drink links and walk-and-talk finales were both fun to indulge and were pretty rewarding.
The paradise island tycoon side game didn't really hook me. Swinging the bat feels awful and there's no animation canceling on the dodge roll so combat is very committal and awkward. Lining up a bug net swing with yakuza controls is pretty wack, I really wish holding the square button let you creep around with more precision (you know, like how animal crossing does it.) Crafting buildings, leveling up your town and doing your dailies is a staple loop but this game is already way too long as is. It's fine. Not offensive like the sujimon battles are.
Well, after completing this side game to completion: It's bad.
Sujimon battles ARE IN THIS TOO!!!
I was finishing my daily tasks before nightfall came. You cannot sleep/end the day till sunset. WELP. Time to stand around waiting!
Pretty miserable. I never understood how additional foot paths worked, the game will tell you when a building triggers a bonus near paths but it wouldnt say anything for the paths i built? So i was limited to using the basic paths. Which is plenty doable for an S rank in both satisfaction/popularity anyway. The game is really easy/forgiving with guest happiness. It was not worth waving hello or giving gifts to boost moods daily.
The online functionality is so weird and "why did they bother."
The top islands are what im assuming to be hackers on PC, with golden ichiban statues filling every blank spot on the island. The sujimon angle is as bad as i described earlier, but this is technically a way to do "online sujimon battles."
Story:
I've been playing Yakuza games since highschool.
Ichiban was a breath of fresh air, but if you think the story in 8 was anywhere CLOSE to 7's... Idk what to tell u.
90% of the side content is stuff I've already done, with characters I've already seen.
Remember this guy from the last game?? Well yeah, he's in Hawaii now, doing the same damn thing.
It's like nostalgia baiting for last week's dinner.
Everyone's motive for being part of the story is just... Silly. Adachi and Nanba call you up like "yeah we were bored, so we're in Hawaii now."
Majima and the gang will tell you "hell no. we are NOT joining your quest" only to show up during the final chapter as part of your quest anyway. Alright. Guess they were bored too.
When you present me with uninteresting answers, I'm going to file that along with 'boring'
Kiryus whole "imma die for real this time I better catch up on old memories" doesn't really land for me when kamurocho isn't nostalgic, I was just there in gaiden or whatever.
How are you nostalgic for pocket slot car racing, you did it just last week, buddy!!!
I do think the final 2 events with Date-san were pretty good though.
And collecting screenshots of old titles and memories is a cute idea.
There's this sarcastic or developer commentary air to it that I really enjoy.
"ahh yes... the kamurocho bridge. I loved fighting dudes on the bridge. I would toss dudes off it. I wonder why I have that strong desire to do that?"
Or the one about staminan X stuff, "this stuff is so good. Shame the naming convention sucks. Why did we do that."
I just find it hard to care that kiryu's trapped in this limbo where he cant see anyone he loves, because, the daidoji wont allow it!!
His whole plan was stupid. The disguise never works. People spot his ass as kiryu frame 1. The daidoji are pretty dumb thinking this plan was a good one.
And that was a problem I had with GAIDEN (and to an extent 6, with its ending.)
"oh shit... This plot point isn't sad enough... Idk, give him cancer"
I didn't care for the villains this time around. It's supposed to be all interconnected and part of some larger plot, but I don't care... 8's story just makes Arakawa-san look worse, a disservice to 7's great tale.
Yamai was surprisingly endearing. The best villain here. He's got a deeply buried softer side and his final scene was fantastic. Everyone else just felt generic/uninteresting. 0 redeeming qualities. Even Ei-chan. That dude is complete scum. Ichiban let him off wayyyy too easy. I'm a forgiving person, but that's unhealthily forgiving.
I like tomi! chi-chan is cute and adds a lot to the story. Good female rep is kinda rare in yakuza. (I mean, honestly, why do women STILL only get like half the job options that guys do?)
I uhhhhh didn't really enjoy the vtuber angle. At the end, she foils Bryce Fairchild's big plans by broadcasting his biggest secret to the whole world, then IMMEDIATELY apologizes to her whole audience that her channel was full of lies and deceit. ???
I get that you need to redeem this horrid channel, it caused a lot of grief to Ichiban AND Kiryu but NOW?? Right now? You just exposed the big bad on that very same channel, idiot.
Saeko is so unlikable here. Ghosting Ichiban and refusing to talk to him at all is just... cringe. This gets more depth in her drink link with Kiryu, but it largely doesn't matter. She was just mad Ichiban didn't say "I love you" before proposing. Okay..... man, It's implied. You really did him dirty for a whole YEAR because of that?? Wow! Stay single you miserable hag.
This is supposed to be modern times but when you present me the same kamurocho map from 2010... It doesn't feel modern.
Yakuza games are supposed to take place around the same year they release but I really don't think they made the jump to "modern day" very gracefully. It's a tad jarring.
Hawaii feels a bit better but it kinda feels like Japan 2 at times.
Ichi and tomi have a bit of "language barrier" interactions initially and I found that really cool. Ichi is in a new city and really wants to find someone who speaks what he speaks, thus finding tomi is really lucky! After the first cutscene together they dont ever bring that angle up again. I wish Tomi asked questions about certain japanese words or could be a middle man, translating for ichi at times. It woulda sold the globe trotting just a bit more. I just see missed opportunity there.
The endings of yakuza games usually go really hard- This was one of the weakest finales I've seen in a longggggg time. I sense a lack of confidence, too. The finale chapter is full of monologuing and last minute recaps of what the bad guys' motives even ARE. Both Bryce AND Ebina will talk your ear off before their fights. Just standing around, talking, for way too long because the game doesn't set them up properly!
I'm not interested in the hypothetical 9th entry of this story. Thank you RGG studios. It's been a long journey with lots of memories.
Rest in piece, Kazama Kiryu.
Went for the New Game Plus run for the final achievement-
beating the game on "Legend" difficulty does NOT unlock the achievement for "Hard" difficulty as well. So i had to redo the final dungeon on a lower difficulty. This design for difficulty achievements just irks me. It's a waste of my time.
Not a very difficulty 100% achievement list. probably the easiest in the series?
2024
Teaches the dangers of gambling. I'm 20 hours in and am feeling tired of seeing the same jokers over and over and losing to boss blinds. A lot of card plays just aren't viable without some cracked buffs backing your team. In poker, 2 pair is kinda cool!
The payout here is dogwater. It's a last resort. It ends up feeling less like "Poker" and more like "Slots" as you reshuffle your hand over and over to nail the perfect play. Flushes forever.
I'm seeing way too many of the same runs.
But for the asking price- It's not a bad time. It looks and sounds fantastic. Love the subtle screen shake and "DING!" noises.
The payout here is dogwater. It's a last resort. It ends up feeling less like "Poker" and more like "Slots" as you reshuffle your hand over and over to nail the perfect play. Flushes forever.
I'm seeing way too many of the same runs.
But for the asking price- It's not a bad time. It looks and sounds fantastic. Love the subtle screen shake and "DING!" noises.
2024
As someone who put a lot of time into the first title, nobody expected the game to do this well. It's a sequel to a top-down co op extraction shooter released like 10 years ago.
Goes to show-
Gamers have been wanting a fun drop in/drop out co op shooter for a long time. What's here is pretty great and will only become greater as updates roll out with new content.
Launch was a blunder thanks to the aforementioned explosion in popularity. Getting to play the game at all for the first week or so has been an unfavorable experience. Now that patches have started rolling out, this will hopefully never be an issue again.
This game flaunts ragdoll physics, difficulty, and volumetric fog with swagger. It's the perfect blend of fun, challenge, and beauty.
Explosions are a-plenty and getting launched or knocked over are common occurrences. While sometimes frustrating and sometimes deemed "out of your control," ragdolling around adds a tinge of spice not often seen in games these days. Makes the game feel more loose- or dynamic, with a sense of flow.
Aiming feels really nice with a blend of first person and third person sights. Getting hit or moving around will affect your aim, making cover all the more vital to success. Going prone and lining up the perfect shot feels really rewarding.
Co op weapons are a nice idea- where one player does the shooting, the other player reloads. However it takes too much coordination to use on the fly and the second player doesn't get to do much.
It requires player 1 to call in the weapon, wait for it to drop, pick up the weapon. Player 2 has to pick up the backpack that dropped with the weapon and latch onto player 1 when needed. This means player 2 must dedicate their backpack slot to only assisting player 1. Player 2 also doesn't need to manually do anything once attached to player 1. There is no reload minigame or anything. Player 1 unlocks a higher rate of fire. That's it.
The game is so chaotic at times, good luck having your player 2 ready to STOP firing their weapons and come latch to you instead. It's just not happening. Player 1 is better off using the weapon while wearing the backpack themselves.
What's here at launch are two enemy factions, the robots, and the bugs. Plenty of strategems that range from air strikes, special weapons, or backpack support items. Ship upgrades that require pickups found during missions. A "warbond store" that require mission completion medals to fill out. There's just enough variety and unlocks to give players who love a grind something to do. A good grind paired with easy drop-in co op makes for a really good formula.
"Super credits" are this game's premium currency and there's a shop that rotates every other day or so. This sounds pretty cringe at first glance, but there are ways for you to earn them for free. You can either redeem some credits via the warbonds store using mission completion medals- or find stacks of 10 super credits out in the field at places of interest littered around the maps with no implemented cap on procurement. Grind for as many as you like!
Allowing the player to earn this premium currency at all is a really nice gesture and makes the, let's be honest, "required" monetization pill a tad easier to swallow.
What didn't make the transition between titles quite yet are the alien faction and vehicles, with vehicles already announced as "coming soon." Once those get added and we reach a point where brand new stuff is added into the HellDiver-verse, the game will truly blossom into an all-timer must play. With Sony backing this thing hard, we can expect support and servers for a long time.
Goes to show-
Gamers have been wanting a fun drop in/drop out co op shooter for a long time. What's here is pretty great and will only become greater as updates roll out with new content.
Launch was a blunder thanks to the aforementioned explosion in popularity. Getting to play the game at all for the first week or so has been an unfavorable experience. Now that patches have started rolling out, this will hopefully never be an issue again.
This game flaunts ragdoll physics, difficulty, and volumetric fog with swagger. It's the perfect blend of fun, challenge, and beauty.
Explosions are a-plenty and getting launched or knocked over are common occurrences. While sometimes frustrating and sometimes deemed "out of your control," ragdolling around adds a tinge of spice not often seen in games these days. Makes the game feel more loose- or dynamic, with a sense of flow.
Aiming feels really nice with a blend of first person and third person sights. Getting hit or moving around will affect your aim, making cover all the more vital to success. Going prone and lining up the perfect shot feels really rewarding.
Co op weapons are a nice idea- where one player does the shooting, the other player reloads. However it takes too much coordination to use on the fly and the second player doesn't get to do much.
It requires player 1 to call in the weapon, wait for it to drop, pick up the weapon. Player 2 has to pick up the backpack that dropped with the weapon and latch onto player 1 when needed. This means player 2 must dedicate their backpack slot to only assisting player 1. Player 2 also doesn't need to manually do anything once attached to player 1. There is no reload minigame or anything. Player 1 unlocks a higher rate of fire. That's it.
The game is so chaotic at times, good luck having your player 2 ready to STOP firing their weapons and come latch to you instead. It's just not happening. Player 1 is better off using the weapon while wearing the backpack themselves.
What's here at launch are two enemy factions, the robots, and the bugs. Plenty of strategems that range from air strikes, special weapons, or backpack support items. Ship upgrades that require pickups found during missions. A "warbond store" that require mission completion medals to fill out. There's just enough variety and unlocks to give players who love a grind something to do. A good grind paired with easy drop-in co op makes for a really good formula.
"Super credits" are this game's premium currency and there's a shop that rotates every other day or so. This sounds pretty cringe at first glance, but there are ways for you to earn them for free. You can either redeem some credits via the warbonds store using mission completion medals- or find stacks of 10 super credits out in the field at places of interest littered around the maps with no implemented cap on procurement. Grind for as many as you like!
Allowing the player to earn this premium currency at all is a really nice gesture and makes the, let's be honest, "required" monetization pill a tad easier to swallow.
What didn't make the transition between titles quite yet are the alien faction and vehicles, with vehicles already announced as "coming soon." Once those get added and we reach a point where brand new stuff is added into the HellDiver-verse, the game will truly blossom into an all-timer must play. With Sony backing this thing hard, we can expect support and servers for a long time.
2024
Survival craft. Hunger meter. Not pokemon. Decent with friend group.
2024
One of the best fighting game launches ever, up there with Street Fighter 6. Game balance is really impressive. Sure, you'll have some characters at the top, but what else is new.
Heat mode is the new addition to the Tekken formula this time around and I think it's brilliant. Bye bye Rage Drives. We will not miss you. Making Heat a universal tool that everyone gets and functions pretty much the same way between the roster results in playing multiple characters way easier.
In the previous game, Tekken 7, you had to memorize what each character's specific rage drive inputs were and when to use them. They only came into play when health was low and many of them were useless.
Now, you have access to heat at any time, every round, at the press of a button. Heat activation mid combo can give you a second to assess your situation ("where is the nearest wall? how much health does my opponent have?") and convert off some really weird air juggles. This results in a game with way more combos happening on screen, more often, even at lower skill levels. Really nice change.
Another big change is the lack of infinite stages. Every stage has walls now. Some stages are so massive- good luck reaching the walls in a real match. Still, a really bold decision that I agree with completely. Loading times are also a massive improvement, with instant rematch being an absolute BLESSING. Getting right back into the action is addictive. Best addition by far.
This game is a looker. Unfortunately, this only shows how broke the FGC is. A lot (i mean a LOT) of players struggle to run this game at a stable 60FPS. Playing ranked will have you encounter a lot of slow motion or heavy frame dips during stage transitions. The game even has a Green/Red symbol during matches telling you who's setup is struggling.
I know it's unfair to game developers to keep handicapping their games to accommodate people with gaming laptops behind the times- But for a fighting game specifically... I think bandai should've put in the effort to let more players run the game consistently, without making the game a blurry mess via resolution scaling.
Modes:
Story mode this time around is the best Tekken has ever had! This is a story about Jin, taking about 1 to 4 game sessions to complete. I really like the final few chapters most. Really cool music set pieces and visuals. "Hard mode" is a bit of a disappointment. The hardest parts were the "Tekken Force" segments where you battle hoards of enemies on a war-torn battlefield with a zoomed out view. Controls are a tad clunky and the forced button assignment for "switch target" happened to overlap my throw button, making things a tad awkward to play. (Every time I went to change targets, i would whiff a throw, for example.)
Character stories were hit/miss for me. Getting fully animated CG endings is a nice treat! However, the audio mix seemed really quiet and some characters don't really get to do anything interesting. Thus leading to a "well... that just happened!" conclusion.
Arcade Quest is ... both really slow and over too fast. You can complete the "story" in 1 sitting. It's the tale of "someone going to locals but dreams of EVO." The characters are whatever, I found myself mashing through the dialog to keep things moving. I'd read just enough to get what the character archetype is going for and move on. Max, your guide through the game, will give tutorials and missions to do in each arcade. This was my favorite part of the mode. Having a cheat sheet onscreen telling me "suggested moves" and some quests like "perform a 70 damage combo" really motivated me to learn more! I quickly turned off the in-game commentary though. I get it, Max, you're proud of me. Thank you Max.
This mode is also where "offline rank" is integrated. This is a huge stepdown from previous Tekken titles imo. Grinding to "Tekken God of Destruction" rank in this game amounts to grinding the same ghost over and over and over again. I could back out and re-load in against a lower rank ghost, but why do that? That only slows me down and is less challenging! Treasure battle from Tekken 7, how I miss you so.
Ghosts. It's a CPU that learns player habits and levels up in skill the more you fight them. You can download ANYONE'S AI Ghost off the leaderboards. The concept is really cool on paper. "I get to play against my favorite streamer/friend even when they're offline!"
Unfortunately, bots will be bots. You can cheese the AI just the same. The only difference here compared to arcade quest opponents, for example, are the moves used in neutral and combos they go for.
I don't really understand the "point" past novelty. Even fighting against my own ghost in a mirror match didn't really teach ME anything other than what moves I go for too often, I suppose. Then again, I'm going to play different against a bot than a real player. So it still loops back around to being questionable at best.
Tekken ball IS BACK. I wish they just let us swap over to tekken ball while in a private room, instead of having to walk around the chibi lobby beach for matches- but that's a minor complaint all things considered. This mode is JANKY. Rage works as an AOE, grabs are hard to land but help shift momentum back in your favor. There are some tactics/characters that have full screen projectiles that can make this mode a headache but that's part of the goofy fun of it all. There's several balls to pick from, with some being unlockable. Cute mode. Better than last installment's bowling.
Character Customization is both REALLY COOL and super duper limited. Picking a color that looks right is way more annoying than it needs to be. Rotating props to look right requires putting up more of a fight than any game of ranked I've endured. You cannot rotate objects freely. The "rotate left/right" bar maxes out too early and it makes zero sense. I wanted to make a cross on a character's forehead- You want to rotate a horizontal bamboo stick to point straight down? too bad. it can only go about 70 degrees left or right. Not a full 90. Are you kidding me?? WHY!
Don't get me started on the available hairstyles either. Your choices range from bald, Drake, or bob cut. Clothing looks terrible unless they are the full piece outfits made for each character. Common outfit attire is missing. No hoodies or jackets, closest you get is a plastic biker jacket. great. guess i'll put on a T-shirt and some jeans. Want a bandana or hat? Gotta switch to the default hairstyle!
Online:
Netcode good.
I think they kinda fumbled the cross-play implementation making online tournaments needlessly slow and cumbersome. I've seen some players prefer walking around in the Chibi arcade lobby and meeting up via matchmaking cabinets. They avoid making private rooms because room search is a total crapshoot.
Replay mode has never been better. Both the counterplay tips and replay takeover make this the most impressive learning tool officially implemented by a major fighting game developer ever. A few bugs here and there, like the game telling you "oh, you'll want to do this move to punish this." but the move that happened in the replay was buffed by heat mode, thus making the suggestion null- the move was safe and could not be punished the same way. Even hiccups like that don't hinder the experience too much though, as you are able to take over any 10 second segment you like and experiment in real time.
Having replays save automatically with 0 manual prompt after each match is a blessing. Being able to filter through large lists of replays is nice too! I can check out what my friends are doing and download their Ghosts effortlessly.
The "TEKKEN SHOP" is way more respectable than the battlepass thing SF6 is doing. Way more affordable. Will that change? Will they do cross-over promotions that jack up the price? Will they be limited to lobby avatars?? Time will tell.
Heat mode is the new addition to the Tekken formula this time around and I think it's brilliant. Bye bye Rage Drives. We will not miss you. Making Heat a universal tool that everyone gets and functions pretty much the same way between the roster results in playing multiple characters way easier.
In the previous game, Tekken 7, you had to memorize what each character's specific rage drive inputs were and when to use them. They only came into play when health was low and many of them were useless.
Now, you have access to heat at any time, every round, at the press of a button. Heat activation mid combo can give you a second to assess your situation ("where is the nearest wall? how much health does my opponent have?") and convert off some really weird air juggles. This results in a game with way more combos happening on screen, more often, even at lower skill levels. Really nice change.
Another big change is the lack of infinite stages. Every stage has walls now. Some stages are so massive- good luck reaching the walls in a real match. Still, a really bold decision that I agree with completely. Loading times are also a massive improvement, with instant rematch being an absolute BLESSING. Getting right back into the action is addictive. Best addition by far.
This game is a looker. Unfortunately, this only shows how broke the FGC is. A lot (i mean a LOT) of players struggle to run this game at a stable 60FPS. Playing ranked will have you encounter a lot of slow motion or heavy frame dips during stage transitions. The game even has a Green/Red symbol during matches telling you who's setup is struggling.
I know it's unfair to game developers to keep handicapping their games to accommodate people with gaming laptops behind the times- But for a fighting game specifically... I think bandai should've put in the effort to let more players run the game consistently, without making the game a blurry mess via resolution scaling.
Modes:
Story mode this time around is the best Tekken has ever had! This is a story about Jin, taking about 1 to 4 game sessions to complete. I really like the final few chapters most. Really cool music set pieces and visuals. "Hard mode" is a bit of a disappointment. The hardest parts were the "Tekken Force" segments where you battle hoards of enemies on a war-torn battlefield with a zoomed out view. Controls are a tad clunky and the forced button assignment for "switch target" happened to overlap my throw button, making things a tad awkward to play. (Every time I went to change targets, i would whiff a throw, for example.)
Character stories were hit/miss for me. Getting fully animated CG endings is a nice treat! However, the audio mix seemed really quiet and some characters don't really get to do anything interesting. Thus leading to a "well... that just happened!" conclusion.
Arcade Quest is ... both really slow and over too fast. You can complete the "story" in 1 sitting. It's the tale of "someone going to locals but dreams of EVO." The characters are whatever, I found myself mashing through the dialog to keep things moving. I'd read just enough to get what the character archetype is going for and move on. Max, your guide through the game, will give tutorials and missions to do in each arcade. This was my favorite part of the mode. Having a cheat sheet onscreen telling me "suggested moves" and some quests like "perform a 70 damage combo" really motivated me to learn more! I quickly turned off the in-game commentary though. I get it, Max, you're proud of me. Thank you Max.
This mode is also where "offline rank" is integrated. This is a huge stepdown from previous Tekken titles imo. Grinding to "Tekken God of Destruction" rank in this game amounts to grinding the same ghost over and over and over again. I could back out and re-load in against a lower rank ghost, but why do that? That only slows me down and is less challenging! Treasure battle from Tekken 7, how I miss you so.
Ghosts. It's a CPU that learns player habits and levels up in skill the more you fight them. You can download ANYONE'S AI Ghost off the leaderboards. The concept is really cool on paper. "I get to play against my favorite streamer/friend even when they're offline!"
Unfortunately, bots will be bots. You can cheese the AI just the same. The only difference here compared to arcade quest opponents, for example, are the moves used in neutral and combos they go for.
I don't really understand the "point" past novelty. Even fighting against my own ghost in a mirror match didn't really teach ME anything other than what moves I go for too often, I suppose. Then again, I'm going to play different against a bot than a real player. So it still loops back around to being questionable at best.
Tekken ball IS BACK. I wish they just let us swap over to tekken ball while in a private room, instead of having to walk around the chibi lobby beach for matches- but that's a minor complaint all things considered. This mode is JANKY. Rage works as an AOE, grabs are hard to land but help shift momentum back in your favor. There are some tactics/characters that have full screen projectiles that can make this mode a headache but that's part of the goofy fun of it all. There's several balls to pick from, with some being unlockable. Cute mode. Better than last installment's bowling.
Character Customization is both REALLY COOL and super duper limited. Picking a color that looks right is way more annoying than it needs to be. Rotating props to look right requires putting up more of a fight than any game of ranked I've endured. You cannot rotate objects freely. The "rotate left/right" bar maxes out too early and it makes zero sense. I wanted to make a cross on a character's forehead- You want to rotate a horizontal bamboo stick to point straight down? too bad. it can only go about 70 degrees left or right. Not a full 90. Are you kidding me?? WHY!
Don't get me started on the available hairstyles either. Your choices range from bald, Drake, or bob cut. Clothing looks terrible unless they are the full piece outfits made for each character. Common outfit attire is missing. No hoodies or jackets, closest you get is a plastic biker jacket. great. guess i'll put on a T-shirt and some jeans. Want a bandana or hat? Gotta switch to the default hairstyle!
Online:
Netcode good.
I think they kinda fumbled the cross-play implementation making online tournaments needlessly slow and cumbersome. I've seen some players prefer walking around in the Chibi arcade lobby and meeting up via matchmaking cabinets. They avoid making private rooms because room search is a total crapshoot.
Replay mode has never been better. Both the counterplay tips and replay takeover make this the most impressive learning tool officially implemented by a major fighting game developer ever. A few bugs here and there, like the game telling you "oh, you'll want to do this move to punish this." but the move that happened in the replay was buffed by heat mode, thus making the suggestion null- the move was safe and could not be punished the same way. Even hiccups like that don't hinder the experience too much though, as you are able to take over any 10 second segment you like and experiment in real time.
Having replays save automatically with 0 manual prompt after each match is a blessing. Being able to filter through large lists of replays is nice too! I can check out what my friends are doing and download their Ghosts effortlessly.
The "TEKKEN SHOP" is way more respectable than the battlepass thing SF6 is doing. Way more affordable. Will that change? Will they do cross-over promotions that jack up the price? Will they be limited to lobby avatars?? Time will tell.
Looks neat. I never went to school so this was too hard.
The more I play the less I like it.
Waited for the dub patch before playing. Yong did a fine job. The writing in this title is really well done and keeps scenes mostly interesting. Music is decent. Game looks good. Loved the customization and dress-up, even if it was a tad limited.
Ultimately, I found this game to be pretty empty and full of meandering. I don't see myself ever playing it again and will be forgetting everything that wasn't in a marketing trailer within the week.
New "Agent style" is whatever. Giving Joryu a grapple hook wire sounds cool, but it's so lame. It's a crap-shoot if the wire even works. The best tactic for large group fights is to get some drones out to distract while you lay explosive cigs around the arena.
"Yakuza style" is a bit more fun and the charge moves work well enough to combat the constant kneeling and heaving most grunts do. Them hunched over would mean kicks fly right over their head- they are immune to throws as well. Not a fan. The best strat for the little guys is to mash light punch while they're down and tank damage with yakuza-style for the big guys. A certain part of me misses the old style of gameplay. Pop an energy drink, try to see as many unique heat moves as possible. New heat moves in this title are few and far between. Really lacking in that area.
Akane is a pretty neat addition, offering most of the "side content" and adding an additional currency to manage. Though, I gotta say, I did not like a single side-story. The best optional stuff to me was recruiting fighters for the coliseum- but even that side of things got old quick.
If this was a launch title for a new console generation, I could see some merit here. A little taste of what makes this series good in a cheap package. But that's not what we got. What we have is a story that could be summarized in 2 sentences, stretched out to make us feel like it was "worth more." That brings with it all the implied padding as well. I could see players who are new to this franchise liking this a bit more than the die-hards.
Now, why do I dislike this more than ground zeroes?
I think it's because Ground Zeroes was NEW. It was a bold taste of the next generation of metal gear. It was something to be excited for.
I was going to be excited for 8 because 7 was good. Not this mini adventure.
Just watch the cutscenes online if you really wanna know.
(This game also destroyed my entire SSD. The game crashed and caused the entire drive to fail. It's hilarious. I promise that had nothing to do with my score.)
Ultimately, I found this game to be pretty empty and full of meandering. I don't see myself ever playing it again and will be forgetting everything that wasn't in a marketing trailer within the week.
New "Agent style" is whatever. Giving Joryu a grapple hook wire sounds cool, but it's so lame. It's a crap-shoot if the wire even works. The best tactic for large group fights is to get some drones out to distract while you lay explosive cigs around the arena.
"Yakuza style" is a bit more fun and the charge moves work well enough to combat the constant kneeling and heaving most grunts do. Them hunched over would mean kicks fly right over their head- they are immune to throws as well. Not a fan. The best strat for the little guys is to mash light punch while they're down and tank damage with yakuza-style for the big guys. A certain part of me misses the old style of gameplay. Pop an energy drink, try to see as many unique heat moves as possible. New heat moves in this title are few and far between. Really lacking in that area.
Akane is a pretty neat addition, offering most of the "side content" and adding an additional currency to manage. Though, I gotta say, I did not like a single side-story. The best optional stuff to me was recruiting fighters for the coliseum- but even that side of things got old quick.
If this was a launch title for a new console generation, I could see some merit here. A little taste of what makes this series good in a cheap package. But that's not what we got. What we have is a story that could be summarized in 2 sentences, stretched out to make us feel like it was "worth more." That brings with it all the implied padding as well. I could see players who are new to this franchise liking this a bit more than the die-hards.
Now, why do I dislike this more than ground zeroes?
I think it's because Ground Zeroes was NEW. It was a bold taste of the next generation of metal gear. It was something to be excited for.
I was going to be excited for 8 because 7 was good. Not this mini adventure.
Just watch the cutscenes online if you really wanna know.
(This game also destroyed my entire SSD. The game crashed and caused the entire drive to fail. It's hilarious. I promise that had nothing to do with my score.)