This game surprisingly rules. I loved the Dark Souls-esque approach to the combat and the game peaked so hard with boss fights like Trilla, Ninth Sister, and Malicos. The force abilities here feel so good to use as well and the double bladed lightsaber was so fun to whack around enemies with. I did wish there were more unique combat and force upgrades and abilities besides the basics like pushing and pulling, but everything that's here was still cool.

The story is just here, pretty by the numbers with a crazy character appearance in a final "fight". The level design of the planets are slightly interesting with some exploration that's undercut by endless ponchos and cosmetics that are neat but felt underwhelming to get 90% of the time.

Adding more insult and some humor are the bugs: textures popping in and out occasionally in the environment, performance slows down during exploration, Cal passing through random walls, and enemies getting caught in the level geometry. Nothing game-breaking, but the state of this game is real rough and absurd even four years later with the sequel right around the corner.

Edit: Just remembered, but this game also needs fast travel or some other way to travel faster across the maps. Felt exhausted trying to make my way across and off Zeffo way too many times.

Also Jedi Survivor chugs lol. Glad I'm not too into these games

The “end” of the Kiryu saga ends on a…mixed note.

The story here is so much better than 4 and 5 yet I was pretty bored with it for most of its runtime until the last third. Most of the story takes place in a new place in Onomichi with new characters rather than Kamurocho. Many of the new additions are fun and help explore the themes of the game and Kiryu, but the different focus here feels strange as a last note for Kiryu’s journey as many of his pals are excluded or barely given screen time. Doesn’t help that this feels like a severe rehash of Yakuza 3 without the kids, except the villains here are really good. There are some other weird things about the story that rubbed me the wrong way like Kiryu’s motivations and characterization, weird politics and surprise twists of Koreans and Chinese like Kiwami 2, Haruka’s characterization, and some other things. Still glad RGG cut the bullshit by making this game so much shorter and focused than 4 and 5, though the story itself was still very flawed to me.

Gameplay is different, similar to Kiwami 2 with some differences like the extreme heat mode and lack of weapons, style switching, and heat moves. It’s not bad persay, but Kiryu feels awkward and weak to fight with until you get close to filling everything up for him. Not really a fan of the combat here as it excludes so much progress made with it in 0 and Kiwami 1.

Just a strange note to end Kiryu’s saga on with this game considering that this isn’t the last time we’ll see and play as him given his appearance in LaD and what he’ll do in Gaiden later this year and LaD 8 next year. Still a decently good game given the last few entries.

It's great, it's really great for real. It improves on the already excellent God of War II in every single way and ties up the original trilogy's story of Kratos and his path of vengeance very nicely. Combat is still exceptional and more varied with the new weapons available here, with the Cestus fists even rivaling the Blades with how much I used them. The levels here feel like the peak of the series as platforming, combat, and puzzle solving work so fabulously in tandem with one another without any bad apples for puzzles in the mix this time. One aspect I really enjoyed was the interconnectivity of the levels and revisiting them with new upgrades, making the areas in this entry feel more connected with each other rather than places to visit once and check off and never come back to again. The game is so drop dead gorgeous even in the original more than ten years later, highlighted especially in the sections climbing up on the titans like Chronos. Nothing else to say really, GOW III was just a fantastic game from start to finish.

Losing my mind again at this game having possibly the strongest Kiryu section and characterization in the entire series, but everything after it, respective to the parts, goes to terrible to underdeveloped to unnecessary to finally unsatisfying. The villains are just as and even worse here compared to the last entry. The overarching mystery and unraveling it is dead stopped with the start of part 2 and barely progresses until the finale. The general pacing with the game is awful with each succeeding character part. The side stories for each character are really unique and add something to each protagonists, but this game just felt so overwhelming with its content by the halfway mark that I audibly groaned at the appearance of even more content and overly long cutscenes throughout the second half of Yakuza 5.

Of the characters, Saejima and Akiyama feel like afterthoughts here or even regressions from their past selves in 4. Haruka is a cool addition but she needed another chapter or two of development with her story, and I found her actions in the finale to be very questionable given Yakuza 5's message on dreams and Park's dream specifically. Shinada was cool, but I already felt burnt out by the time I got to him and wanted the game to end so bad. Kurosawa was a boring twist villain and Aizawa needed more screen time for me to even care about his final boss fight with Kiryu. The character interactions between each of the protags were still cool for the most part, but the culmination of each of them into the main, overall plot was not executed well. The finale was just bad, too long, and boring, and hammered down even harder on the game's theme on dreams to an unsufferable degree. This made me miss Yakuza 4's antics, despite the dire writing attached to it, because the individual moving parts at least were strong and interesting on their own except Kiryu's.

Yakuza 5 is very ambitious with its offering of so much varied content and gameplay styles available. The size of this game alone is an achievement for better or worse. I know people praise this game for its expanded scope and can see why this might rank at the highest of the series because it does feel like a culmination of every game before it into the most "Yakuza" a single yakuza game could strive to be. Yet, I see Yakuza 0 and LaD accomplishing this feat better without sacrificing the pace and development of their stories and characters, and even being more deep than 5 could be. Hate to end on such a negative note with this game and the 7th gen era of Yakuza, but I was just truly disappointed with my first experience with Yakuza 5 in the end. Here's to Yakuza 6 at least being something decent after trudging through the PS3 era.

Played the two hour demo for this since I’ve been craving more SMT content and had some decent fun despite the budgeted nature of this game. Music kinda slaps at least and the characters were cool. Baffling that Atlus is still selling this for full AAA price and being disappointed it’s not selling well. I’d probably pick it up if it was $30 and the overpriced premium edition wasn’t the only thing on sale for 50 bucks right now.

Also Atlus, I just want to play more of your SMT games on switch or PlayStation that aren’t nocturne or V. Open up that extensive back catalogue you clowns.

What a weird game Yakuza 3 is.

At first I did not plan to play this entry and the rest of the Kiryu saga since I was slightly underwhelmed by Kiwami 1 and especially 2, coming off the near perfection of a ride that Yakuza 0 was. The fanbase is also real vocal about this game not being good, so I was a bit cautious going into this old entry that only got a remaster rather than the Kiwami treatment of 1 and 2.

The story here, while miles ahead of 2 and slightly less trope-y than 1's efforts for me, is really good but very underdeveloped in some parts. Honestly, the Okinawa sections were the highlight for me the entire story, only dragging a bit when trying to leave Okinawa the first time. The setting was so chill and a nice change of pace from the always busy and dingy streets of Kamurocho, and I'm definitely gonna get more out of it in premium adventure. I know people have gripes with the kids and Okinawa taking away from the usual, balls-to-the-wall, yakuza story, but I love dad simulator and chapter 11 made me cry! The energy here is definitely more lowkey compared to the others and I respect what the devs were going for with it, even if the results are real convoluted in the end.

The combat is....not great. I've seen the memes of enemies always blocking in this game, and they were real true for sure! The first half is brutal without having a lot of Kiryu's combat unlocked and it gets better once you get there, but man it sucked. To cap it off, enemies just straight up run at you randomly and you can't run from them either. It's not the absolute worse as I had some fun later in the game, but I was going through the motions in most enemy encounters despite the upgrades.

Also in this game are chase and pseudo stealth sequences in the main and some side stories. I didn't encounter much of the latter, but the former has a few spread throughout the main story. The execution isn't bad but feels way too loose and strangely hard at some points. I feel like the NPCs were just tripled whenever I did them and you cannot upgrade your run meter until almost near the last third of the game, where only one sequence is left and it's not meant to be won. Definitely almost ten years too early since the judgment series nailed these mechanics later on.

The villains here are pretty weak, except for Mine. Kanda and Hamazaki, despite his role in the next game, were a real drag as they didn't really amount to much in the game. Mine has some shine in the last half, but his motivations were messy to say the least. Wish we got more of him. The CIA is real random too, but I enjoyed Richardson at the end. He really was coked up on Metal Gear Solid vibes and added more absurdity to the last chapter. I also loved Rikiya and liked Mikio and Nakahara as additions to the cast, besides just having the kids who I also liked.

As for the side stories, they were pretty enjoyable and some very satisfying. A few did get repetitive with the same premise of Kiryu getting tricked by someone and then fighting them to get money back. Regardless, there were a cool set of side stories in the game, even the weird couple one.

Back to what I said at the beginning, Yakuza 3 is just a very weird game to me. It kept me in way more than Kiwami 2 and didn't get too ridiculous as Kiwami 1, and when this game hit me in the emotions, it hit hard. The core of a Yakuza game is still here despite the change of pace, but the game is brought down hard by its gameplay and a few undercooked plot decisions and directions. Definitely not as bad as many people say it is, it's a good time.

Edit: In thinking back on this entry after playing through the rest of the Kiryu saga and....not having that great of a time, I think this and his section in 5 might be where I find Kiryu to be his most interesting. Idk, the ruminations on brotherhood, masculinity, trust and relationships, and other relevant topics just hit hard here and in 5 for Kiryu. Makes me want a Kiwami 3 even more to fully flesh out this game because damn the rushed production undercuts so much of the good shit here.

Now this is what I'm talking about.

GOW1 was some decent fun and engaging with its combat and story, it left much to be desired with its execution of platforming and puzzles. God of War II not only builds on the foundation that the first uniquely had, but fundamentally improves on every single aspect of the original I had a hard time dealing with.

Plotwise, it takes place many years after GOW1 with Kratos as the God of War, and we continue on his journey of revenge against the gods, especially against Zeus who betrays him in fear of Kratos killing him. The story here was pretty good and it's crazy how much worldbuilding was done here in this entry. The development of various legends like the Sisters of Fate and the Titans and appearances of other Greek icons like Prometheus, Icarus, Jason, Perseus and others. These storylines really added a lot to the game and levels we explore all the way towards the end.

Gameplay wise, it resembles much of the original while adding in more sub weapons and magic. The Barbarian Hammer got much playtime for me as it becomes incredibly powerful and versatile to one shot many common enemies and even two or three shot some others that sometimes give me trouble. The blades as usual are great and the spells were decent this time around, with the Atlas Quake getting a lot of use in the final fight against Zeus. Kratos also has the ability to grapple things, control and stop time with an Amulet, and can briefly glide with wings, which all added more dimensions and intrigue to the puzzles and general level design of the worlds we explore.

While there were a few moments of frustration with the game, I really enjoyed my time with God of War II. It's an excellent ass action game and my favorite game in the series as of right now. Hate that it's stuck on the ps2 and ps3 (and also to the highest tier of PS Plus as a streaming only option), I'd be down with a re-release or new collection for modern consoles.

Is it controversial to say this is the worst game of the year for me? Maybe not worst, but at the very least the most disappointing game of the year.

Bizarrely enough, my feelings towards the gameplay itself really took a turn. While it's still fun to combo and rip and tear through baddies, the Demon Masquerade system radically changes the combat from the other two games to an extent that the overall combat becomes real watered down and easy to wash enemies as long as you pay attention to enemy attacks when they actually attack you. Everything is big here, both levels overall and the enemies too, which makes trying to play as Bayonetta herself without using a demon a real chore. The demons aren't bad to use and some are enjoyable, but much of the complexity and charm to the combat in the previous games are lost for just more spectacle here. Doesn't help with the new skill tree system here with multiple new weapons available replacing the option to buy moves from Rodin and not having to buy them every single time with each new weapon. The diversity of the weapons available unfortunately doesn't amount to much difference in their toolkits at a real deep level. Also, the less I talk about Viola, the better because her combat is awful and underdeveloped compared to Bayo's, it reeks of leftovers from 2B's combat in Automata but even worse. Maybe Bayo 4 will make her toolkit actually interesting!

Speaking of, the story just got worse running through a second course of it. The multiverse concept was doomed from the start and becomes real redundant after the second or third time through. Significant plot events fly out of nowhere with as much of an explanation as a shrug. The vibes of the returning characters are off completely in an otherwise real "serious" story that falters hard in the execution and is desperately missing the campiness that is core and beneficial to the stories despite how messy they all are. The ending itself goes on for way too long on whether Bayo and the other characters can finally kill boring, yassified Jeff Bezos. It then concludes with very concerning plot decisions that honestly turn me off for the next entry of the series unless P* changes course drastically and that's if the studio even exists to release to hypothetical fourth entry of Bayonetta. At least Bayo 1 and 2 exist as a cool duology I guess?

Oh god the platforming. I’d seriously like to be a fly on the wall for when many developers in the early to late aughts were designing these janky platforming challenges and sequences in their heavily combat-focused video games.

The game works fine with with its combat and story, and the cinematics shook me for a 2005 era ps2 game, but everything else here is real rough and boring after a long while.

Side note, but I can definitely see why Sonic Team was so influenced by this game and the second to create their own spin on it with Sonic Unleashed. The werehog combat is almost as good as the 2005 original here but really not by much or as fun.

The combat is surprisingly tame for a platinum game once it actually opens all the way up. I did enjoy getting to play around with the different legions, but something was just missing from the combat that never really clicked with me. Still, it was alright, though the influence it’s had on Bayo 3 does make me side eye the game more and more each passing day.

Everything else about the game including side missions, platforming, puzzles, story, characters and everything feels so plastic. The story itself felt a little too cliche as it progressed and the completely abrupt ending was definitely a choice that left me in laughter. Don’t really see myself going back to it since I did most of the side content while playing the main game, and they were very forgettable. Fine little experiment at the end of the day, definitely can see it being a cult classic stuck on the switch in the later future.