As a big JSR fan, I couldn’t be more happy. They absolutely nailed the aesthetic and soundtrack. Not only did they get Hideki Naganuma, I was surprised to see other names I recognized like 2mello and knxwledge. I love all the hidden secrets and unlockables you can find all throughout the stages. Really made me want to familiarize myself with every level. The only thing I’ll ding this game for is that I was a bit disappointed with the trick and combo system. While it feels great to control, I would have wanted some more depth and player expression like in THPS. There’s only two ways to add to your multiplier, with tricks only increasing your base score. Other than that, awesome game.

The fact that this game launched with more characters and content than a lot of other big name fighting games is hilarious to me. Very solid fighting game. The diversity in the cast and the simplified controls means that most people can pick up the game and have fun regardless of skill level. I’m no expert but the conversation mechanic seems like it has a ton of depth that’ll keep the game alive for a while. I was honestly surprised at the amount of single player content too. Every character has a 30 ish minute story mode with unique art and dialogue on top of Arcade and survival modes. Online has no frills (looking at you Strive) and is just solid match after match. This is going to be the fighting game I’ll be coming back to until SF6 comes out. I guess if I had any complaints it would be that there’s maybe one or two too many zoners.

Honestly the werehog stuff wasn’t nearly as bad as people made it out to be. It’s basically the most mid yakuza game ever made with standard puzzle platforming sections. My main problem with the game was the overworld and the medal system. The fact that you have to hunt down the levels is a supreme pain in the ass and led to me not playing all the levels I would have wanted. I would’ve much rather have had a standard stage select. With that said the daytime stages are absolutely stunning and fun asf, especially the last one. Also being able to play this game at 60 fps on series x is a dream come true and muted my frustrations a but since it wasn’t dropping frames and stages loaded almost instantly. Fuck the final boss tho.