taigamask
30 reviews liked by taigamask
i dunno, let's keep this quick. to say it's a bit clumsy is an understatement - and there are certainly aspects of the overall narrative i struggle with - but the depths of its sincerity won me over. i have no particular attachment to yakuza 7 either, and in fact i find much of that game to be very awkward, stilted, and grating so ultimately no one's more stunned than myself here.
when it's not luxuriating in this chilled-out ocean's twelve vibe which i loved, infinite wealth is written with far more intentionality and consideration than most entries in the series; while one might accuse of it of verging on threadbare or cloying for its strict emphasis on theme, i think the game trusts its audience to take some of the emotional leaps necessary to make the storytelling work. character writing for the leads and the party members has seen a dramatic improvement across the board. ichiban as usual brings a lot of levity to the table - thankfully none of it quite as irritating in the zany sense as 7 liked to employ - but kiryu's portions of the game are comparatively sobering. collecting memoirs has a weird psychological effect at times but the series has earned the right to do this by this point given how much of the kiryu saga can feel siloed or compartmentalized - in the same vein as gaiden, the game almost damns him for this, for never taking a chance to stop and reflect, for the consequences of his interminable martyr complex
that tendency to bury the past is only contrasted further by infinite wealth being maybe the most direct sequel the series has seen yet - the events of that game are still fresh in everyone's mind and sets the stage for the overarching conflict and everyone's investment in said conflict. it's a surprisingly natural extension of a lot of 7's themes, and i found it worked better for me this time. 7 often felt more gestural than anything else - to me it balanced far too much as this metaphorical (and literal) tearing down of the old ways, handling the introduction of a new protagonist, paying lipservice to series veterans and setting up parallels to the original ryu ga gotoku. infinite wealth to me feels more fully-formed, more confident; i think the team was able to use this title's unique hook and premise to really bring the most out of 7s promise of something new, and it could only have achieved it by taking the time to reflect on the past.
to this end: they made the game a JRPG this time, that counts for something. and not just a JRPG but one that feels as close to traditional RGG action as possible. some excellent systems this time with a lot of fascinating interplay and the level curve is fantastic. not necessary to sum up all the changes, you've seen them, but they really promote a lot of dynamic decision-making with respect to positioning and once you figure out how status effects can correlate with them you feel like your third eye's opening. very fond memories here of navigating around a crowd of enemies - some of whom have been put to sleep - and figuring out how best to maximize damage without waking anyone drowsy up. lots more strategy and enjoyment to be had here than pretty much anywhere in 7.
that said, i know RGG prides themselves on the statistics relating to players completing their titles, but they could really afford to take a few more risks with enemy waves in the main campaign. i felt like my most interesting encounters were usually street bosses or main story bosses, but the main campaign's filled with trash mobs. and i'm not saying every fight has to be some tactician's exercise - in fact i think that's the opposite of what people actually would enjoy - but i really wish the game took the time to play around even more with positioning. there are some exciting scenarios in the game that are too few and far in-between. stages that split up the party, encounters with unique mechanics...would really liked to have seen more in that vein.
some extra notes - would like to dig a bit deeper into the strengths of the narrative as well as some additional hangups but i can't be assed to write more
- honolulu's great, it gets probably a little too big for its own good but it's a real breath of fresh air for most of the game
- yamai is the best new character they've introduced in years
- dondoko island feels like a classic yakuza minigame in the best possible way, might even represent the apex of this kind of design. not obscenely grindy but just something casual and comfortable with enough layers to dig into without being overwheming and enough versatility to express yourself. shame you can't really say the same for sujimon!
- kiryu's party is disarmingly charming and they have some insanely good banter
- despite what some have said, i think this is a good follow-up to gaiden. it's not explicit about it but this is still very much a reckoning with kiryu's character and his mentality; it is every bit as concerned and preoccupied with the series mythos, the core ideas and conflicts driving a lot of installments
- honestly found the pacing to be on-par for the average RGG title if not better. i can concede that the dondoko island introduction was a bit too long but that is the most ground i can afford. if we can accept y5 into our hearts we can accept infinite wealth; IW makes y5 look deranged for its intrusiveness despite both titles occupying a similar length. if any of it registers as an actual problem, i think people would benefit from revisiting yakuza 7 to find it is almost exactly the same structurally if not worse
- IW is home to maybe the best needle drop in the medium
- played in japanese, like i usually do, so no real interest in commenting on the english dub since it's not real to me but i will say that what i listened to seemed like a bit of a step back from the dub quality in previous RGG games. yongyea isn't a convincing kiryu either and while i could be a bit more of a hater here all i will say is there is a STAGGERING whiplash involved in casting a guy like that as the lead in a game with themes like this. in a grouchier mood, i think it would genuinely be a bit difficult to look past this and it does leave me feeling sour, but ultimately the dub doesn't reflect my chosen means of engaging with the title and it never will
- what is difficult to look past is the game's DLC rollout, which arbitrarily gates higher difficulties, new game +, and a postgame dungeon. i acquired these through dubious means (which i highly recommend you also do) so i feel confident in saying they're really not at all worth the money unless you had a desire to spend more time in this world, but what a colossal and egregious failure to price it in this fashion. new game + specifically has tons of bizarre issues that make me believe a revision of some kind was necessary.
- you will not regret downloading this mod that removes the doors in dungeons
long story short, ryu ga gotoku's journey began in 2005 with a simple motif: to live is to not run away. so much of infinite wealth is about taking that notion to its furthest extent. it couldn't have possibly hit at a better time for me. at times it might be a classic case of this series biting off a bit more than it can chew for a sequel, but i don't think there's anything you can reliably point to that would make me think this is one step forwards, two steps back.
also awesome to have a game that posits that hawaii is filled with the fire monks from elden ring and then you have to travel to the resident evil 4 island to beat them up
when it's not luxuriating in this chilled-out ocean's twelve vibe which i loved, infinite wealth is written with far more intentionality and consideration than most entries in the series; while one might accuse of it of verging on threadbare or cloying for its strict emphasis on theme, i think the game trusts its audience to take some of the emotional leaps necessary to make the storytelling work. character writing for the leads and the party members has seen a dramatic improvement across the board. ichiban as usual brings a lot of levity to the table - thankfully none of it quite as irritating in the zany sense as 7 liked to employ - but kiryu's portions of the game are comparatively sobering. collecting memoirs has a weird psychological effect at times but the series has earned the right to do this by this point given how much of the kiryu saga can feel siloed or compartmentalized - in the same vein as gaiden, the game almost damns him for this, for never taking a chance to stop and reflect, for the consequences of his interminable martyr complex
that tendency to bury the past is only contrasted further by infinite wealth being maybe the most direct sequel the series has seen yet - the events of that game are still fresh in everyone's mind and sets the stage for the overarching conflict and everyone's investment in said conflict. it's a surprisingly natural extension of a lot of 7's themes, and i found it worked better for me this time. 7 often felt more gestural than anything else - to me it balanced far too much as this metaphorical (and literal) tearing down of the old ways, handling the introduction of a new protagonist, paying lipservice to series veterans and setting up parallels to the original ryu ga gotoku. infinite wealth to me feels more fully-formed, more confident; i think the team was able to use this title's unique hook and premise to really bring the most out of 7s promise of something new, and it could only have achieved it by taking the time to reflect on the past.
to this end: they made the game a JRPG this time, that counts for something. and not just a JRPG but one that feels as close to traditional RGG action as possible. some excellent systems this time with a lot of fascinating interplay and the level curve is fantastic. not necessary to sum up all the changes, you've seen them, but they really promote a lot of dynamic decision-making with respect to positioning and once you figure out how status effects can correlate with them you feel like your third eye's opening. very fond memories here of navigating around a crowd of enemies - some of whom have been put to sleep - and figuring out how best to maximize damage without waking anyone drowsy up. lots more strategy and enjoyment to be had here than pretty much anywhere in 7.
that said, i know RGG prides themselves on the statistics relating to players completing their titles, but they could really afford to take a few more risks with enemy waves in the main campaign. i felt like my most interesting encounters were usually street bosses or main story bosses, but the main campaign's filled with trash mobs. and i'm not saying every fight has to be some tactician's exercise - in fact i think that's the opposite of what people actually would enjoy - but i really wish the game took the time to play around even more with positioning. there are some exciting scenarios in the game that are too few and far in-between. stages that split up the party, encounters with unique mechanics...would really liked to have seen more in that vein.
some extra notes - would like to dig a bit deeper into the strengths of the narrative as well as some additional hangups but i can't be assed to write more
- honolulu's great, it gets probably a little too big for its own good but it's a real breath of fresh air for most of the game
- yamai is the best new character they've introduced in years
- dondoko island feels like a classic yakuza minigame in the best possible way, might even represent the apex of this kind of design. not obscenely grindy but just something casual and comfortable with enough layers to dig into without being overwheming and enough versatility to express yourself. shame you can't really say the same for sujimon!
- kiryu's party is disarmingly charming and they have some insanely good banter
- despite what some have said, i think this is a good follow-up to gaiden. it's not explicit about it but this is still very much a reckoning with kiryu's character and his mentality; it is every bit as concerned and preoccupied with the series mythos, the core ideas and conflicts driving a lot of installments
- honestly found the pacing to be on-par for the average RGG title if not better. i can concede that the dondoko island introduction was a bit too long but that is the most ground i can afford. if we can accept y5 into our hearts we can accept infinite wealth; IW makes y5 look deranged for its intrusiveness despite both titles occupying a similar length. if any of it registers as an actual problem, i think people would benefit from revisiting yakuza 7 to find it is almost exactly the same structurally if not worse
- IW is home to maybe the best needle drop in the medium
- played in japanese, like i usually do, so no real interest in commenting on the english dub since it's not real to me but i will say that what i listened to seemed like a bit of a step back from the dub quality in previous RGG games. yongyea isn't a convincing kiryu either and while i could be a bit more of a hater here all i will say is there is a STAGGERING whiplash involved in casting a guy like that as the lead in a game with themes like this. in a grouchier mood, i think it would genuinely be a bit difficult to look past this and it does leave me feeling sour, but ultimately the dub doesn't reflect my chosen means of engaging with the title and it never will
- what is difficult to look past is the game's DLC rollout, which arbitrarily gates higher difficulties, new game +, and a postgame dungeon. i acquired these through dubious means (which i highly recommend you also do) so i feel confident in saying they're really not at all worth the money unless you had a desire to spend more time in this world, but what a colossal and egregious failure to price it in this fashion. new game + specifically has tons of bizarre issues that make me believe a revision of some kind was necessary.
- you will not regret downloading this mod that removes the doors in dungeons
long story short, ryu ga gotoku's journey began in 2005 with a simple motif: to live is to not run away. so much of infinite wealth is about taking that notion to its furthest extent. it couldn't have possibly hit at a better time for me. at times it might be a classic case of this series biting off a bit more than it can chew for a sequel, but i don't think there's anything you can reliably point to that would make me think this is one step forwards, two steps back.
also awesome to have a game that posits that hawaii is filled with the fire monks from elden ring and then you have to travel to the resident evil 4 island to beat them up
This review contains spoilers
“The Dragon Engine at this point is kind of a bit of an old engine. We have made a lot of minor updates over the years for it, or we've made a lot of minor updates over it, but we haven't made any major updates. So probably next what's coming for would be a major update if we had to do anything,” Yokoyama says.
...
“So, regarding [Unreal Engine 5], yes, we are researching it,” Yokoyama said in response to a question asked by IGN during a roundtable interview. “We are kind of looking at it and saying, what are the merits of each? What's the merit of the Dragon Engine? What's the merit of the Unreal Engine? And when it comes down to it, the Dragon Engine…it's really perfectly designed to represent a city at night. The nighttime city. Whereas Unreal, it's better at showing nature and daytime and that sort of feel.”
- Masayoshi Yokoyama, September 14, 2022
it shouldn't come as a surprise that RGG studio might be considering some evolution of their proprietary engine following the release of infinite wealth. key figures from the studio have spoken at length about the technical difficulties and production challenges associated with the engine, and unreal engine has the obvious benefit of practicality that a proprietary engine does not, with vast swathes of community resources to tap into during production.
of course the question is whether or not this proposed engine change will constitute a productive shift for the studio - certainly, epic's growing engine monopolization raises some concerns, and the ishin remake, itself an attempt to learn the processes of unreal, ultimately looks flat, lacking in warmth. likewise, it can't be understated just how well-optimized the dragon engine is in contrast to something like unreal engine 5.
it's worth noting that we are now seven years into a dragon engine-led era, ironically introduced by the game which initially purported to be kazuma kiryu's swan song: yakuza 6, one of the franchise's most polarizing entries. setting aside thoughts on its narrative, one of yakuza 6's chief issues is how spotty it is. while it's capable of rendering some gorgeous environments - the quaint countryside of hiroshima is still pound for pound my favourite locale in the series - it's also marred by poor in-engine presentation, a stilted combat system, frictional rpg systems, and disarming balancing.
i don't think it's a coincidence that the first entries in this series to eschew the traditional inventory limitations on healing items are also the first ones to have this many issues with its combat, with mechanics that are more suggestive than they are clearly defined. and it's not just yakuza 6 either, even if that game does reflect the nadir of these complications; several quirks and blemishes are instead intrinsic to almost all the dragon engine games and never really get fixed. there's still no consistent and meaningful way to shatter enemies' guards. enemies still recover very quickly and will often break their animations or shrug off further attacks to do so. enemies will have unblockable grapples that are terribly telegraphed. heat systems sometimes feel like an afterthought, or an excuse to rapidly pile on damage moreso than to facilitate interesting decision-making. if the general intent of the combat of this era is to evoke a film set - a sandbox and space for opportunity allowing for high octane action and gruesome applications of the environment - then these titles fall short compared to even yakuza 5, which has a colossal list of heat actions and arenas cluttered with miscellaneous knickknacks allowing for quick experimentation, dwarfing almost anything else in the dragon engine games.
the list goes on. as a whole, the combat of the dragon engine games behaves far less consistently than the 2005 - 2015 RGG era (also marked by drawbacks, albeit for different reasons), which can often be a really frustrating element of the newer games to deal with. the judgment subseries fares a bit better in this respect, but is still shackled to many of the same key concerns.
however, yakuza 6 - and the dragon engine in turn - does incorporate several features that i think would be difficult to discount, since these titles aren't strictly combat showcases. as adventure games, they've really started coming into their own. dragon engine titles generally have a faster gameplay loop, seamlessly transitioning into and out of battle with ease. this extends to arcades, shops, and most interiors within the game. the explosiveness of the combat works to its favour a lot of the time - it's hard not to crack a wry smile at any of the insane ragdoll shenanigans unfolding on screen. long battles and scenarios are oftentimes more unique than anything in preceding entries - the various infiltration scenarios in 6 come to mind, as well as the battle on the cargo island. and of course, the presentation of these titles reached an apex with the dragon engine games - a necessary virtue in a series with a reputation for lengthy cutscenes.
it's that level of production which gaiden has really electrified - this is without a doubt the best looking game in the series. the team has gotten ridiculously good at exploring what can be accomplished during in-engine scenes. where yakuza 6 was rife with expository scenes of characters blankly emoting and talking to each other, gaiden instead enriches its canvas with various techniques - action choreography, bespoke animations, and some truly stunning lighting from time to time. it really breathes a lot of life into exactly how this series chooses to disseminate its narrative - if any of this is possible owing to its pared back approach, then please, by all means, rgg studio, i would love to see more gaiden titles.
the title's combat chooses to evolve the lineage from yakuza 6 and kiwami 2 while largely ignoring the judgment subseries. this makes gaiden more of a lateral move than a strict improvement, and makes for a bit of an awkward approach when contrasted against the highs lost judgment managed to reach. credit where credit is due, the yakuza style is the strongest implementation of this specific combat system yet, and the agent style, while unwieldy, earns points for being one of the most idiosyncratic styles in the series yet. they remembered having a combat theme with grungy vocals is kind of essential to kiryu's whole deal, can't be mad at them.
gaiden's chief draw is really its narrative. ultimately, the smartest thing about gaiden is that it really is not a retroactive apology for y6 the way so many - myself included - suspected it would be. gaiden instead leaves the status quo intact from 6 and is content to simply wrestle with the consequences of kiryu's actions. to that end, the game is much less of a character study than is currently advertised, but this really works in its favour. we already know that kiryu is impulsive and strictly bound to unaccommodating codes of honour; these traits almost get him summarily executed in a clandestine, dingy room far away from his loved ones. we already know that kiryu is passive and wrestles with his conflicting loyalties to both his adoptive family and the tojo clan; gaiden forces kiryu to play a pivotal role in dissolving the tojo clan at the behest of his successor/figurative son, causing an organization he devoted his life to for almost 28 years to crumble into dust without any real say in the matter.
turning a stray plot beat from y7 into a pivotal moment of kiryu's arc and imbuing it with all the weight it deserves is genius. similarly, forcing that dissolution to culminate in a battle against someone who is essentially the embodiment of every guy in a fart hoodie who kiryu essence of finishing stomp'd was a fantastically realized decision. shishido is probably one of my favourite characters in the series. unlike most other final bosses in the series, shishido isn't wearing a suit, his face communicates his troubled history immediately and his irezumi covers most of his battered and bruised body - it speaks to the sense that there is no other life for this character imaginable except for the wretched and brutish violence of the yakuza. the game makes clear that there is no honour in his way of life, no decorum. as other characters posit, he's a wounded animal trying to escape his forced euthanasia. fleeting dream starting up is probably the most beautiful moment in the series - it's just so irrefutably clear at that moment that shishido is fighting a losing battle which he does not have the capacity or clarity to appreciate, much less understand.
in general, gaiden is the least inclined entry in this series to lionize the yakuza as an organization. even those with honour like watase and tsuruno, ostensibly your allies, are not above petty manipulation and using others for their own gain. this extends further to the game's monstrous villains this time around - particularly nishitani III, who i must confess is very weirdly handled? the seeds of a compelling idea are there - nishitani III gave up his name and adopted a new title before proceeding to more or less denigrate it - but if the constant innuendo surrounding his involvement with shishido is to be taken at face value, he invites a level of darkness into the narrative proceedings that i'm not sure RGG studio's writers are tasked to handle. likewise, configuring the game's only korean character as yet another jingweon survivor scans as a bit tasteless at this point (although to be clear, nishitani himself never brings this up and doesn't seem much interested in that facet of his past - it's tsuruno who keeps harping on this as justification to murder nishitani). i do, however, enjoy the kind of psycho FKMT vibes of the castle, it's an alright setting.
throughout gaiden i spent a lot of time reflecting on just how much of a privilege it is to chart out one character's story, with close to 40 years of history to sift through. it's certainly not an opportunity almost any other developer can dream of, and RGG studio has often squandered and wasted it. almost every entry in this series is set in the year in which it released - kiryu keeps getting older, and you can't exactly turn back the clock on any of it. and so in this subdued way gaiden is really one of the first entries that i felt manages to effectively reckon with the often messy and wayward elements of the series - all the errant tendencies for character mismanagement and disorganized plotting and wasted opportunity - and it does so by simply choosing to tear all that history down and start anew. kind of remarkably poignant stuff from this studio.
misc notes:
- i appreciated that this game pretends to be an 007-esque spy thriller for all of two hours before revealing that a.) kiryu fucking sucks at this b.) the first half antagonists' whole plan is basically 'kiryu we have to link up 🗣️‼️', which then allows for this to become a typical RGG meathead game. beautiful.
- the akame network is a decent enough way to recontextualize and consolidate the substories/busywork of RGG games for the purposes of a smaller scale title. it's a bit tired and some of these substories are actually just kind of bad, but akame herself is charming.
- as previously mentioned agent is fun because it's so odd but it really underscores just how badly these games have needed a proper lock-on function for almost two decades now. the spider tool especially is quite unwieldy
- i really do think that finale is going to occupy a spot in my brain for the next few years.
- the game doesn't call attention to any of it but there are a lot of miscellaneous details that are brought forward which i ended up appreciating. there's an exchange in yakuza 0 where a character asks kiryu if he's someone who could ever be worth one billion yen; in gaiden, the watase family coughs up 50 billion yen to spare kiryu and retain his services, much to his chagrin
- really looking forward to infinite wealth particularly after playing the demo, seems like a straightforward improvement. can't wait for kiryu to put up michael jordan numbers in the RGG equivalent of the flu game for his character arc.
- find it very promising that yokoyama is aware that people want more gaiden-sized titles - i only hope that they're able to clean up some of the bunk pacing because it really does get kind of irritating here and while i'm long past the point of being inoculated to the bullshit in this series, i could reasonably see this as being a major turn-off for anyone.
- it does bug me a lot that these games call kiryu's style the dragon of dojima style...no it's not...i see akira in the colosseum literally using the old kiryu style, where do you get off
- extremely funny that this game introduces the 'daidoji zone' as a shadow realm equivalent. if an RGG character is not confirmed deceased and they have since disappeared from the fabric of the narrative then they are either now a bartender or they are a daidoji faction agent
- ichiban was taking a nap during the RGG equivalent of the final fight in mgs4
...
“So, regarding [Unreal Engine 5], yes, we are researching it,” Yokoyama said in response to a question asked by IGN during a roundtable interview. “We are kind of looking at it and saying, what are the merits of each? What's the merit of the Dragon Engine? What's the merit of the Unreal Engine? And when it comes down to it, the Dragon Engine…it's really perfectly designed to represent a city at night. The nighttime city. Whereas Unreal, it's better at showing nature and daytime and that sort of feel.”
- Masayoshi Yokoyama, September 14, 2022
it shouldn't come as a surprise that RGG studio might be considering some evolution of their proprietary engine following the release of infinite wealth. key figures from the studio have spoken at length about the technical difficulties and production challenges associated with the engine, and unreal engine has the obvious benefit of practicality that a proprietary engine does not, with vast swathes of community resources to tap into during production.
of course the question is whether or not this proposed engine change will constitute a productive shift for the studio - certainly, epic's growing engine monopolization raises some concerns, and the ishin remake, itself an attempt to learn the processes of unreal, ultimately looks flat, lacking in warmth. likewise, it can't be understated just how well-optimized the dragon engine is in contrast to something like unreal engine 5.
it's worth noting that we are now seven years into a dragon engine-led era, ironically introduced by the game which initially purported to be kazuma kiryu's swan song: yakuza 6, one of the franchise's most polarizing entries. setting aside thoughts on its narrative, one of yakuza 6's chief issues is how spotty it is. while it's capable of rendering some gorgeous environments - the quaint countryside of hiroshima is still pound for pound my favourite locale in the series - it's also marred by poor in-engine presentation, a stilted combat system, frictional rpg systems, and disarming balancing.
i don't think it's a coincidence that the first entries in this series to eschew the traditional inventory limitations on healing items are also the first ones to have this many issues with its combat, with mechanics that are more suggestive than they are clearly defined. and it's not just yakuza 6 either, even if that game does reflect the nadir of these complications; several quirks and blemishes are instead intrinsic to almost all the dragon engine games and never really get fixed. there's still no consistent and meaningful way to shatter enemies' guards. enemies still recover very quickly and will often break their animations or shrug off further attacks to do so. enemies will have unblockable grapples that are terribly telegraphed. heat systems sometimes feel like an afterthought, or an excuse to rapidly pile on damage moreso than to facilitate interesting decision-making. if the general intent of the combat of this era is to evoke a film set - a sandbox and space for opportunity allowing for high octane action and gruesome applications of the environment - then these titles fall short compared to even yakuza 5, which has a colossal list of heat actions and arenas cluttered with miscellaneous knickknacks allowing for quick experimentation, dwarfing almost anything else in the dragon engine games.
the list goes on. as a whole, the combat of the dragon engine games behaves far less consistently than the 2005 - 2015 RGG era (also marked by drawbacks, albeit for different reasons), which can often be a really frustrating element of the newer games to deal with. the judgment subseries fares a bit better in this respect, but is still shackled to many of the same key concerns.
however, yakuza 6 - and the dragon engine in turn - does incorporate several features that i think would be difficult to discount, since these titles aren't strictly combat showcases. as adventure games, they've really started coming into their own. dragon engine titles generally have a faster gameplay loop, seamlessly transitioning into and out of battle with ease. this extends to arcades, shops, and most interiors within the game. the explosiveness of the combat works to its favour a lot of the time - it's hard not to crack a wry smile at any of the insane ragdoll shenanigans unfolding on screen. long battles and scenarios are oftentimes more unique than anything in preceding entries - the various infiltration scenarios in 6 come to mind, as well as the battle on the cargo island. and of course, the presentation of these titles reached an apex with the dragon engine games - a necessary virtue in a series with a reputation for lengthy cutscenes.
it's that level of production which gaiden has really electrified - this is without a doubt the best looking game in the series. the team has gotten ridiculously good at exploring what can be accomplished during in-engine scenes. where yakuza 6 was rife with expository scenes of characters blankly emoting and talking to each other, gaiden instead enriches its canvas with various techniques - action choreography, bespoke animations, and some truly stunning lighting from time to time. it really breathes a lot of life into exactly how this series chooses to disseminate its narrative - if any of this is possible owing to its pared back approach, then please, by all means, rgg studio, i would love to see more gaiden titles.
the title's combat chooses to evolve the lineage from yakuza 6 and kiwami 2 while largely ignoring the judgment subseries. this makes gaiden more of a lateral move than a strict improvement, and makes for a bit of an awkward approach when contrasted against the highs lost judgment managed to reach. credit where credit is due, the yakuza style is the strongest implementation of this specific combat system yet, and the agent style, while unwieldy, earns points for being one of the most idiosyncratic styles in the series yet. they remembered having a combat theme with grungy vocals is kind of essential to kiryu's whole deal, can't be mad at them.
gaiden's chief draw is really its narrative. ultimately, the smartest thing about gaiden is that it really is not a retroactive apology for y6 the way so many - myself included - suspected it would be. gaiden instead leaves the status quo intact from 6 and is content to simply wrestle with the consequences of kiryu's actions. to that end, the game is much less of a character study than is currently advertised, but this really works in its favour. we already know that kiryu is impulsive and strictly bound to unaccommodating codes of honour; these traits almost get him summarily executed in a clandestine, dingy room far away from his loved ones. we already know that kiryu is passive and wrestles with his conflicting loyalties to both his adoptive family and the tojo clan; gaiden forces kiryu to play a pivotal role in dissolving the tojo clan at the behest of his successor/figurative son, causing an organization he devoted his life to for almost 28 years to crumble into dust without any real say in the matter.
turning a stray plot beat from y7 into a pivotal moment of kiryu's arc and imbuing it with all the weight it deserves is genius. similarly, forcing that dissolution to culminate in a battle against someone who is essentially the embodiment of every guy in a fart hoodie who kiryu essence of finishing stomp'd was a fantastically realized decision. shishido is probably one of my favourite characters in the series. unlike most other final bosses in the series, shishido isn't wearing a suit, his face communicates his troubled history immediately and his irezumi covers most of his battered and bruised body - it speaks to the sense that there is no other life for this character imaginable except for the wretched and brutish violence of the yakuza. the game makes clear that there is no honour in his way of life, no decorum. as other characters posit, he's a wounded animal trying to escape his forced euthanasia. fleeting dream starting up is probably the most beautiful moment in the series - it's just so irrefutably clear at that moment that shishido is fighting a losing battle which he does not have the capacity or clarity to appreciate, much less understand.
in general, gaiden is the least inclined entry in this series to lionize the yakuza as an organization. even those with honour like watase and tsuruno, ostensibly your allies, are not above petty manipulation and using others for their own gain. this extends further to the game's monstrous villains this time around - particularly nishitani III, who i must confess is very weirdly handled? the seeds of a compelling idea are there - nishitani III gave up his name and adopted a new title before proceeding to more or less denigrate it - but if the constant innuendo surrounding his involvement with shishido is to be taken at face value, he invites a level of darkness into the narrative proceedings that i'm not sure RGG studio's writers are tasked to handle. likewise, configuring the game's only korean character as yet another jingweon survivor scans as a bit tasteless at this point (although to be clear, nishitani himself never brings this up and doesn't seem much interested in that facet of his past - it's tsuruno who keeps harping on this as justification to murder nishitani). i do, however, enjoy the kind of psycho FKMT vibes of the castle, it's an alright setting.
throughout gaiden i spent a lot of time reflecting on just how much of a privilege it is to chart out one character's story, with close to 40 years of history to sift through. it's certainly not an opportunity almost any other developer can dream of, and RGG studio has often squandered and wasted it. almost every entry in this series is set in the year in which it released - kiryu keeps getting older, and you can't exactly turn back the clock on any of it. and so in this subdued way gaiden is really one of the first entries that i felt manages to effectively reckon with the often messy and wayward elements of the series - all the errant tendencies for character mismanagement and disorganized plotting and wasted opportunity - and it does so by simply choosing to tear all that history down and start anew. kind of remarkably poignant stuff from this studio.
misc notes:
- i appreciated that this game pretends to be an 007-esque spy thriller for all of two hours before revealing that a.) kiryu fucking sucks at this b.) the first half antagonists' whole plan is basically 'kiryu we have to link up 🗣️‼️', which then allows for this to become a typical RGG meathead game. beautiful.
- the akame network is a decent enough way to recontextualize and consolidate the substories/busywork of RGG games for the purposes of a smaller scale title. it's a bit tired and some of these substories are actually just kind of bad, but akame herself is charming.
- as previously mentioned agent is fun because it's so odd but it really underscores just how badly these games have needed a proper lock-on function for almost two decades now. the spider tool especially is quite unwieldy
- i really do think that finale is going to occupy a spot in my brain for the next few years.
- the game doesn't call attention to any of it but there are a lot of miscellaneous details that are brought forward which i ended up appreciating. there's an exchange in yakuza 0 where a character asks kiryu if he's someone who could ever be worth one billion yen; in gaiden, the watase family coughs up 50 billion yen to spare kiryu and retain his services, much to his chagrin
- really looking forward to infinite wealth particularly after playing the demo, seems like a straightforward improvement. can't wait for kiryu to put up michael jordan numbers in the RGG equivalent of the flu game for his character arc.
- find it very promising that yokoyama is aware that people want more gaiden-sized titles - i only hope that they're able to clean up some of the bunk pacing because it really does get kind of irritating here and while i'm long past the point of being inoculated to the bullshit in this series, i could reasonably see this as being a major turn-off for anyone.
- it does bug me a lot that these games call kiryu's style the dragon of dojima style...no it's not...i see akira in the colosseum literally using the old kiryu style, where do you get off
- extremely funny that this game introduces the 'daidoji zone' as a shadow realm equivalent. if an RGG character is not confirmed deceased and they have since disappeared from the fabric of the narrative then they are either now a bartender or they are a daidoji faction agent
- ichiban was taking a nap during the RGG equivalent of the final fight in mgs4
Ikaruga
2001
Its sometime in the year 2000, and Treasure are finishign up production of the best games of all time, Sin and Punishment, and for some fucking reason, in their after work hours, Programmer Atsutomo Nakagawa and artist/director Hiroshi iuchi have put together a prototype for a new game. Masato Maegawa, founder of treasure and by the sounds of it, the best boss of all time, plays it and basically puts his own money on the line, hiring three guys from G.Rev, themselves scrounging enough pennies to make their metal black fangame to assist, and putting the game into full production.
It is one of those realities that is very easy to forget about Ikaruga, now 22 years into it's stint of being "the shmup", and with that has come some sort of monolithic presence. And certainly with it's truly bonkers level of polish, it is hard to imagine it's origin - an absolute flash in the pan, a game that some top level developers really wanted to make, and circumstance and a little risk taking gave them a shot at it.
And you can't say they didn't take it.
Perhaps it is a byproduct of the "one chance to do what you want" reality of Ikaruga that the game is downright pathological in it's approach. And that approach is really the kicker, and usually the thing that draws contention.
Because Ikaruga is rigid as they come. You really have to cast your mind back to the likes of very early toaplan titles like Tiger Heli and Slap fight to find a game where spawns, bullet patterns and stage layouts are essentially locked in, and the game is almost entirely built around really knowing the stages before you go into them, figuring out the best paths through them and executing it perfectly. There's really more resemblance to some fucked up kind of racing game than a wild game like say, Recca. And yes, a lot of shooting games have a strong emphasis on stage knowledge, but Ikaruga is a game that basically shows you the door unless you're prepared to meet it on it's terms. It is a game that can feel comically impossible on a first approach, with stages 3 and 4 in particular being filled with layouts of enemies and bullet hazards that are fast, complex, and will just kill you before you have a chance to properly assess the situation. It can feel outright unfair, and it's probably worth pointing out the Original arcade version came with something ive never seen in any other arcade game - a trial mode which let you play the first two stages with infinite lives on one credit, serving as an introduction for the player to apperciate the mechanics.
And yeah, Ikaruga is a bit gimmicky. I will admit readly it's a game that really took me a while to actually grasp - it's exceptionally easy to appreciate the things about Ikaruga that are obviously exceptional, but especially coming at it as if it's a standard STG, harder to have actual fun with it.
For me, what unlocked that fun was the scoring. Ikaruga is exceptionally tightly tuned, but the scoring is just wonderful - and for me the secret element that tends to go unmentioned is large parts of it are very in line with games like dangan feveron and thunder dragon 2 where enemy spawns are tied to kills, which makes optimising it's chains of 3 enemies and doing it as fast as possible, spawning more in for more points and then you can get more extends and then maybe, just maybe you can beat this thing, right?
And at least for me, when i unlocked that key, when i got my first good run of stage 1, I got it. And from there the beauty of Ikaruga really shows itself. Because yes, doing a cool run of stage 1 is good gameplay - but Ikaruga then pushes this gameplay as far as it will go, with the claustrophobic and more puzzle-y stage 2 and first half of stage 3, to the notorious, exceptional battleship raid of stage 4 with an almost rhythmical quality to it, to the peak caravan-scoring festival of stage 5, each stage with a completley unique and weird boss that puts different elements of the game's mechanics to the test, and really only the first one resembles a traditional STG boss at all. Oh, and you want to quick kill them all.
Learning all these stages, these bosses, understanding their quirks, and understanding the quirks of Ikaruga's own systems, is just about the most satisfying thing i've done in any videogame. And buried deep in there, amongst the routing and execution, the sponteneity and chaos you were sure that Iuchi and Nakagawa hammered out of the game rears it's head again - sometimes in elements of the game itself, like the completely bonkers bonus chain enemies at the end of stage 3 that Superplayers still havent optimised, and the snakes in the final boss' second phase - but more often in yourself. Ikaruga is a game challenging and demanding to the point that even the very best players cannot execute the perfect route every time, and it is in catching the small errors, the deaths, the chain breaks - like a snap of oversteer going down the back end of the nordschleife, they may be mistakes but catching them is part of the thrill.
I would be remiss not to mention Ikaruga's just unbelievable presentation. The key staff member of Ikaruga I havent mentioned yet is Yasushi Suzuki, who's art direction and particularly his mechanical design is absolutely impeccable. The ikaruga ship is as unique and offbeat as the game itself, the designs of enemies and their sihoulettes is perfectly balanced between flavour and function, and on a simple level, the game is just pretty much the best looking 3D STG out there. And I know it really doesn''t matter but goddamn is his Key art, featured in the steam version as backgrounds, just the best.
And yeah i've got to mention the music. Director of Ikaruga Hiroshi Iuchi is not a composer. His main thing was making backgrounds and his jaunt in directing Radiant Silvergun and Ikaruga already seemed like a stretch but just popping out one of the best game soundtracks ever as you do so and then not releasing another piece of music for 22 years is something else. And yes, a lot of it is based around that one motif from "Ideal" but that is fine when your game is 20 minutes long and ideal might be the very best in the long tradition of exceptional STG stage 1 tracks. I simply do not understand how you just do that.
The real cherry on top of Ikaruga is how it works thematically. It's clearly a sequel to the very dour radiant silvergun, a game about breaking the eternal cycle of torment humanity inflicted itself with some buddhist themes, which is hype as shit and awesome in it's own right, but there's also Radiant Silvergun's subtext - that of game development stagnating, devs repeating the same things and refusing to risk - that is really wha the stone-like represents, and Ikaruga takes glee in blowing it up, but it's the game's entire existence and style that refutes it best - and its worth noting in the years between the two, it wasn't alone. In the years between RSG and Ikaruga, in the STG space alone you had the wild Dimahoo, Guwange, Progear, Raycrisis, Mars Matrix to name a few. They, and Ikaruga, are proof that whilst the wheel of samsara might bind us, the capability to change it is there.
The end result of all this is just so special. A lot of STG development history has strokes of lightning in a bottle, but Ikaruga takes the cake. A small bunch of ridiculously talented creatives on the same page (nb. Iuchi has called Nakagawa his "wife" in relation to work on this game) given the chance to make the thing they really wanted to do and threw everything at it. In like a year dev time. I swear, the more you look into Ikaruga the more it feels like an impossible result. And yet it is here, and it is special.
It is one of those realities that is very easy to forget about Ikaruga, now 22 years into it's stint of being "the shmup", and with that has come some sort of monolithic presence. And certainly with it's truly bonkers level of polish, it is hard to imagine it's origin - an absolute flash in the pan, a game that some top level developers really wanted to make, and circumstance and a little risk taking gave them a shot at it.
And you can't say they didn't take it.
Perhaps it is a byproduct of the "one chance to do what you want" reality of Ikaruga that the game is downright pathological in it's approach. And that approach is really the kicker, and usually the thing that draws contention.
Because Ikaruga is rigid as they come. You really have to cast your mind back to the likes of very early toaplan titles like Tiger Heli and Slap fight to find a game where spawns, bullet patterns and stage layouts are essentially locked in, and the game is almost entirely built around really knowing the stages before you go into them, figuring out the best paths through them and executing it perfectly. There's really more resemblance to some fucked up kind of racing game than a wild game like say, Recca. And yes, a lot of shooting games have a strong emphasis on stage knowledge, but Ikaruga is a game that basically shows you the door unless you're prepared to meet it on it's terms. It is a game that can feel comically impossible on a first approach, with stages 3 and 4 in particular being filled with layouts of enemies and bullet hazards that are fast, complex, and will just kill you before you have a chance to properly assess the situation. It can feel outright unfair, and it's probably worth pointing out the Original arcade version came with something ive never seen in any other arcade game - a trial mode which let you play the first two stages with infinite lives on one credit, serving as an introduction for the player to apperciate the mechanics.
And yeah, Ikaruga is a bit gimmicky. I will admit readly it's a game that really took me a while to actually grasp - it's exceptionally easy to appreciate the things about Ikaruga that are obviously exceptional, but especially coming at it as if it's a standard STG, harder to have actual fun with it.
For me, what unlocked that fun was the scoring. Ikaruga is exceptionally tightly tuned, but the scoring is just wonderful - and for me the secret element that tends to go unmentioned is large parts of it are very in line with games like dangan feveron and thunder dragon 2 where enemy spawns are tied to kills, which makes optimising it's chains of 3 enemies and doing it as fast as possible, spawning more in for more points and then you can get more extends and then maybe, just maybe you can beat this thing, right?
And at least for me, when i unlocked that key, when i got my first good run of stage 1, I got it. And from there the beauty of Ikaruga really shows itself. Because yes, doing a cool run of stage 1 is good gameplay - but Ikaruga then pushes this gameplay as far as it will go, with the claustrophobic and more puzzle-y stage 2 and first half of stage 3, to the notorious, exceptional battleship raid of stage 4 with an almost rhythmical quality to it, to the peak caravan-scoring festival of stage 5, each stage with a completley unique and weird boss that puts different elements of the game's mechanics to the test, and really only the first one resembles a traditional STG boss at all. Oh, and you want to quick kill them all.
Learning all these stages, these bosses, understanding their quirks, and understanding the quirks of Ikaruga's own systems, is just about the most satisfying thing i've done in any videogame. And buried deep in there, amongst the routing and execution, the sponteneity and chaos you were sure that Iuchi and Nakagawa hammered out of the game rears it's head again - sometimes in elements of the game itself, like the completely bonkers bonus chain enemies at the end of stage 3 that Superplayers still havent optimised, and the snakes in the final boss' second phase - but more often in yourself. Ikaruga is a game challenging and demanding to the point that even the very best players cannot execute the perfect route every time, and it is in catching the small errors, the deaths, the chain breaks - like a snap of oversteer going down the back end of the nordschleife, they may be mistakes but catching them is part of the thrill.
I would be remiss not to mention Ikaruga's just unbelievable presentation. The key staff member of Ikaruga I havent mentioned yet is Yasushi Suzuki, who's art direction and particularly his mechanical design is absolutely impeccable. The ikaruga ship is as unique and offbeat as the game itself, the designs of enemies and their sihoulettes is perfectly balanced between flavour and function, and on a simple level, the game is just pretty much the best looking 3D STG out there. And I know it really doesn''t matter but goddamn is his Key art, featured in the steam version as backgrounds, just the best.
And yeah i've got to mention the music. Director of Ikaruga Hiroshi Iuchi is not a composer. His main thing was making backgrounds and his jaunt in directing Radiant Silvergun and Ikaruga already seemed like a stretch but just popping out one of the best game soundtracks ever as you do so and then not releasing another piece of music for 22 years is something else. And yes, a lot of it is based around that one motif from "Ideal" but that is fine when your game is 20 minutes long and ideal might be the very best in the long tradition of exceptional STG stage 1 tracks. I simply do not understand how you just do that.
The real cherry on top of Ikaruga is how it works thematically. It's clearly a sequel to the very dour radiant silvergun, a game about breaking the eternal cycle of torment humanity inflicted itself with some buddhist themes, which is hype as shit and awesome in it's own right, but there's also Radiant Silvergun's subtext - that of game development stagnating, devs repeating the same things and refusing to risk - that is really wha the stone-like represents, and Ikaruga takes glee in blowing it up, but it's the game's entire existence and style that refutes it best - and its worth noting in the years between the two, it wasn't alone. In the years between RSG and Ikaruga, in the STG space alone you had the wild Dimahoo, Guwange, Progear, Raycrisis, Mars Matrix to name a few. They, and Ikaruga, are proof that whilst the wheel of samsara might bind us, the capability to change it is there.
The end result of all this is just so special. A lot of STG development history has strokes of lightning in a bottle, but Ikaruga takes the cake. A small bunch of ridiculously talented creatives on the same page (nb. Iuchi has called Nakagawa his "wife" in relation to work on this game) given the chance to make the thing they really wanted to do and threw everything at it. In like a year dev time. I swear, the more you look into Ikaruga the more it feels like an impossible result. And yet it is here, and it is special.
Dragon Warrior
1986
Guys, this game is fucking insane. Like absolutely insane. I can not stress enough how fucking cool this game is. This dude from Japan, Yuji Horii, took this mostly Western PC genre and completely changed the world of gaming for-fucking-ever. I mean, I'm sure you already know that, and I'm sure you think, oh yeah, it's impressive how much this game did being a prime builder for the genre, but like guys... holy SHIT. This game is one of the first of its kind, and it still gets SO much right. It gets things right that games coming out way later might forget about (YES, I'm still bitter that Lufia doesn't have ANY indicator of how low your HP is in battle in fucking 2002 shut up), it gets things right that I full on went in expecting a game on the Famicom to understandably not get right it's first-time around, it got things right that I didn't even know I wanted to be done right. I've see people online argue about earlier Japanese RPGs, and they're what we should put more focus on, like Dragon Slayer or Black Onyx, but like come on - this was put on a way less powerful system compared to the PC-88 and it had a soundtrack of music, charmingly detailed enemies and backgrounds, it had fucking characters you could talk and learn from... Dragon Quest so perfectly surrounds you into feeling like you've been dropped into a fairy tale and finally get to be the hero for (which I lovingly named Fugger btw).
Now, lemme tell you the ways in which Dragon Quest blows my goddamn fucking mind:
- Dragon Quest takes a genre used to the complexity that a PC keyboard can allow a player, and was able to easily convert it over to a controller that has 2 buttons.
- It opened an uncountable amount of players to a concept they've never heard of, and had them fall IN LOVE with it. Like for real, how many kids in 1980's Japan do you think were playing Dungeons and Dragons with their friends?
- This Horii dude was so worried about making sure the game was player-friendly enough that he straight up invented some amazing QOL elements that became naturally part of the genre, to the point we just assume it's going to be in any RPG we pick up. Examples include: Leveling-up quick in the beginning to keep motivations high, NPCs offering beginner advice, visual representations in knowing the changes in difficulty (bridges and tunnels), text boxes with all current information easy for access, etc. etc.
- Additionally, how involved the player's actions feel in connection to the game's story is so charming. Events such as being able to see the hero physically bridal-style carry the princess back to the castle, and seeing the poisonous swamps now brimming with flowers really helps emotionally connect the player to what they do to progress the story.
- And yes the story! Let's not forget about that! Yes, it features a damsel-in-distress storyline that we've seen a million times in plays, books, and movies, but the way Dragon Quest's story of self-growth and determination so perfectly mixes with the RPG gameplay brought forward. The villain is also really cool - especially his sort of plot-twist second form.
On top of all that, the absolute most important of all, Dragon Quest is FUN. It's fun! It's really fucking fun! Almost 30 years later, and you still find people online, old or young, Eastern or Western, no matter the gender, all talking about their fondness for the game. It's groundbreaking, beautiful (especially on NES), influential, it looks and works better than even goddamn Linda Evangelista. I played through it with the American Dragon Warrior guide book that came out the same time the game did in the West, and found that perfect for helping me know what to do next after I got bored wandering in circles trying to level up.
This is the first game I've played in the Dragon Quest series, even though really, I played Dragon Warrior for the NES in technicality, heh heh. This whole experience is definitely the start to a new series I think I will be very annoying about, so I hope anyone who, for some reason happens to like following my reviews, is ready for many, many more to come.
XOXO
4/5
Now, lemme tell you the ways in which Dragon Quest blows my goddamn fucking mind:
- Dragon Quest takes a genre used to the complexity that a PC keyboard can allow a player, and was able to easily convert it over to a controller that has 2 buttons.
- It opened an uncountable amount of players to a concept they've never heard of, and had them fall IN LOVE with it. Like for real, how many kids in 1980's Japan do you think were playing Dungeons and Dragons with their friends?
- This Horii dude was so worried about making sure the game was player-friendly enough that he straight up invented some amazing QOL elements that became naturally part of the genre, to the point we just assume it's going to be in any RPG we pick up. Examples include: Leveling-up quick in the beginning to keep motivations high, NPCs offering beginner advice, visual representations in knowing the changes in difficulty (bridges and tunnels), text boxes with all current information easy for access, etc. etc.
- Additionally, how involved the player's actions feel in connection to the game's story is so charming. Events such as being able to see the hero physically bridal-style carry the princess back to the castle, and seeing the poisonous swamps now brimming with flowers really helps emotionally connect the player to what they do to progress the story.
- And yes the story! Let's not forget about that! Yes, it features a damsel-in-distress storyline that we've seen a million times in plays, books, and movies, but the way Dragon Quest's story of self-growth and determination so perfectly mixes with the RPG gameplay brought forward. The villain is also really cool - especially his sort of plot-twist second form.
On top of all that, the absolute most important of all, Dragon Quest is FUN. It's fun! It's really fucking fun! Almost 30 years later, and you still find people online, old or young, Eastern or Western, no matter the gender, all talking about their fondness for the game. It's groundbreaking, beautiful (especially on NES), influential, it looks and works better than even goddamn Linda Evangelista. I played through it with the American Dragon Warrior guide book that came out the same time the game did in the West, and found that perfect for helping me know what to do next after I got bored wandering in circles trying to level up.
This is the first game I've played in the Dragon Quest series, even though really, I played Dragon Warrior for the NES in technicality, heh heh. This whole experience is definitely the start to a new series I think I will be very annoying about, so I hope anyone who, for some reason happens to like following my reviews, is ready for many, many more to come.
XOXO
4/5
Kusoge to some, kino to others
Genuinely amazing what a year can do to a studio. They ironed almost all of the grievances I had with the first part, cutting up all the tediousness of the giant maps and key hunting (for the most part) to bring up a solid as fuck experience of being an illiterate, severly inbred drunkard with unlimited access to gunpowder and explosives going postal on the dredges of the south, both American and extraterrestial. Special mention goes to the fucking WACO LEVEL . The soundtrack is also spotless this time, with Mojo screaming about not wanting to send dick pics over the net and an Elvis Impersonator talking about how he only eats food out of cans, although the MVP is definetely Mojo's Redneck Rampage.
No notes on this one, just more Redneck Rampage with just enough quality control to make it a worthwile product this time around. I'm really gonna miss Bubba and Leonard for a couple of days.
Genuinely amazing what a year can do to a studio. They ironed almost all of the grievances I had with the first part, cutting up all the tediousness of the giant maps and key hunting (for the most part) to bring up a solid as fuck experience of being an illiterate, severly inbred drunkard with unlimited access to gunpowder and explosives going postal on the dredges of the south, both American and extraterrestial. Special mention goes to the fucking WACO LEVEL . The soundtrack is also spotless this time, with Mojo screaming about not wanting to send dick pics over the net and an Elvis Impersonator talking about how he only eats food out of cans, although the MVP is definetely Mojo's Redneck Rampage.
No notes on this one, just more Redneck Rampage with just enough quality control to make it a worthwile product this time around. I'm really gonna miss Bubba and Leonard for a couple of days.
Redneck Rampage
1997
"It all returnifies to nutin it just keeps tumblirzing dewn, tumblirzing dewn, tumblirzing dewn"
Word of warning I'm attaching some files to this review so you can have a glimpse at how utterly weird this game is. The audio might be fucked up because it hurt my ears so much I had to tone it down as much as I could while I played it. Papa can't lose his noise peepers.
Yeah I have no fucking clue what they were cooking with this. If you ever played Slayers X, imagine that but non functional. Too weird to be taken seriously, too rare to dissapear from the gamer zeitgeist. Multiple times something so weird and stupid happened to me while I was playing I had to second look around me ingame just to be sure I was not hallucinating.
Everything in this beast of a game is designed to either gross you out or make you desperately angry. Buy the ticket, take the ride as they say. The enemy design for the most part is lackluster, with all save for one of them being hitscanners with the same arsenal as you. Special shout out to the bosses being completely incomprehensible. Yes, the things accompanying him are turds. The game expects of you almost complete devotion, punishing you in the most bizarre ways possible if you aren't actively consuming it's crack-based content. You'll be blown to bits by a type of cosmic stupidity fuelled by bothyour own hubris and the developer's.
Did I mention the game also has platforming? On the build engine floatiness, no less.
But even so I find myself thinking...that that was a really cool fps! Definetely not the best Build Engine one, but completely able to perform on the same level of entertainment as Shadow Warrior or Duke Nukem. Everything is there, with "gorgeous" levels that tend to feel close to life and the perfect amount of grease and doodoo. When the going gets good, you can totally get an enjoyable, if deeply weird experience or downright comically painful punishment for not acting like an imbecile alongside it thanks to the atmosphere, straight out of Corona and sound design it has, half maddening screaming and cursing with ear blasting guns and half psychobilly soundtrack with Mojo Nixon and Reverend Horton Heat among others shooting it out the park with some really good hollerings and general crassness. Mojo really left himself go with the original stuff he wrote for the game, absolute psycho shit ranting. Mc Donalds can kiss my butt. I'll forever be thankful for the game for letting me hear Dick talk about something profoundly weird and obscene while shit and farm animals explode everywhere.
A weird beast off a build engine FPS absolutely not made for human consumption yet painfully fun, clearly made with love and a respect for the sources ( RIP Dick Montana ). I thoroughly enjoyed my time with it, shit and all and I wholeheartedly recommend it to everyone who wants to feel weird for a couple of hours.
Word of warning I'm attaching some files to this review so you can have a glimpse at how utterly weird this game is. The audio might be fucked up because it hurt my ears so much I had to tone it down as much as I could while I played it. Papa can't lose his noise peepers.
Yeah I have no fucking clue what they were cooking with this. If you ever played Slayers X, imagine that but non functional. Too weird to be taken seriously, too rare to dissapear from the gamer zeitgeist. Multiple times something so weird and stupid happened to me while I was playing I had to second look around me ingame just to be sure I was not hallucinating.
Everything in this beast of a game is designed to either gross you out or make you desperately angry. Buy the ticket, take the ride as they say. The enemy design for the most part is lackluster, with all save for one of them being hitscanners with the same arsenal as you. Special shout out to the bosses being completely incomprehensible. Yes, the things accompanying him are turds. The game expects of you almost complete devotion, punishing you in the most bizarre ways possible if you aren't actively consuming it's crack-based content. You'll be blown to bits by a type of cosmic stupidity fuelled by bothyour own hubris and the developer's.
Did I mention the game also has platforming? On the build engine floatiness, no less.
But even so I find myself thinking...that that was a really cool fps! Definetely not the best Build Engine one, but completely able to perform on the same level of entertainment as Shadow Warrior or Duke Nukem. Everything is there, with "gorgeous" levels that tend to feel close to life and the perfect amount of grease and doodoo. When the going gets good, you can totally get an enjoyable, if deeply weird experience or downright comically painful punishment for not acting like an imbecile alongside it thanks to the atmosphere, straight out of Corona and sound design it has, half maddening screaming and cursing with ear blasting guns and half psychobilly soundtrack with Mojo Nixon and Reverend Horton Heat among others shooting it out the park with some really good hollerings and general crassness. Mojo really left himself go with the original stuff he wrote for the game, absolute psycho shit ranting. Mc Donalds can kiss my butt. I'll forever be thankful for the game for letting me hear Dick talk about something profoundly weird and obscene while shit and farm animals explode everywhere.
A weird beast off a build engine FPS absolutely not made for human consumption yet painfully fun, clearly made with love and a respect for the sources ( RIP Dick Montana ). I thoroughly enjoyed my time with it, shit and all and I wholeheartedly recommend it to everyone who wants to feel weird for a couple of hours.
imagining myself doing the peanuts football gag with g5 iguazu lol.. eat shit iguazu
"Try to get as many 'HEARTS' as possible by meeting your girlfriend's demands."
In my review for the original OutRun, I referred to the game as an "i-15 simulator." Its distinctly Californian vistas and the frequency in which you pay witness to the most horrific car crashes imaginable rouse fond memories of nearly losing my life repeatedly on trips to and from my grandparent's home in Orange. Oh good, it was just a bus full of tourists that collided with a semi-truck and overturned, not me. Whew. Think I'll stop off for some McDonalds and pay triple the normal value for fries.
The original OutRun is a near-perfect simulacrum of this experience, and so it goes without saying that OutRun 2006's improved fidelity and more fluid controls provides a more accurate translation of that unique vibe. As with OutRun, your journey begins along the shore and branches out along one of several routes towards the more mountainous regions of California, and it's for this reason I picked it as one of the last games to play during my 2023 Summah Games series. It represents the trip back home. The vacation is over, it's time to leave the beaches and boardwalks behind and begin that long, harrowing trek back towards the drudgery of your everyday life - back to work and responsibilities, to the tired and familiar. It's the victory lap, and one last taste of Summah.
While the Shadow the Hedgehog-esque progression system accounts for a significant chunk of OutRun's replay value, Coast 2 Coast introduces a slew of additional modes and unlockables to pad out the game. Thankfully, a lot of this side content is worthwhile, and I personally found Heart Attack mode to be one of the more enjoyable parts of the game. In Heart Attack, you have to meet your girlfriend's "demands" in order to win her affection in addition to juggling your overall time. Girlfriends, am I right? All they do is nag, nag, nag. "Baby, take the trash out. Baby, you need to pay your bills. Baby, collect all the coins while drifting between traffic." Ugh. The ol' ball and chain...
The only real problem I had with OutRun 2006 is one that is uniquely me. I've spoken before about how I've been playing most PS2 games off a hard drive, and whether I just grabbed a bad dump of the game or there's some issue with the way Coast 2 Coast is being read in general, the soundtrack would not play for me at all. This is kind of a big deal, as anyone familiar with OutRun as a series would probably tell you. Listening to the radio is not only a major part of tying these games to the experience of racing through California, but the soundtrack is just really damn good. I resorted to playing the OST on my laptop, so this wasn't a total loss, but playing a deconstructed OutRun is less than ideal. Maybe I'll shell out 60$ for a used copy one day, but I'm not sure I like OutRun 2006 that much.
I'm going to eschew the Summah Index Scale for this one and say that the science on it is settled already. Probably for the best, as I've run out of goofy vehicle based "tests." Scraped the bottom of that barrel so hard I've broken through. Buncha bones on the other side... Concerning, but let's not dwell on that.
Not only is this patently Summah, but I can also see it entering into my annual rotation of games as something I can end the season on. That "trip back home" is just too perfect, and it is not something I am content with experiencing only once.
In my review for the original OutRun, I referred to the game as an "i-15 simulator." Its distinctly Californian vistas and the frequency in which you pay witness to the most horrific car crashes imaginable rouse fond memories of nearly losing my life repeatedly on trips to and from my grandparent's home in Orange. Oh good, it was just a bus full of tourists that collided with a semi-truck and overturned, not me. Whew. Think I'll stop off for some McDonalds and pay triple the normal value for fries.
The original OutRun is a near-perfect simulacrum of this experience, and so it goes without saying that OutRun 2006's improved fidelity and more fluid controls provides a more accurate translation of that unique vibe. As with OutRun, your journey begins along the shore and branches out along one of several routes towards the more mountainous regions of California, and it's for this reason I picked it as one of the last games to play during my 2023 Summah Games series. It represents the trip back home. The vacation is over, it's time to leave the beaches and boardwalks behind and begin that long, harrowing trek back towards the drudgery of your everyday life - back to work and responsibilities, to the tired and familiar. It's the victory lap, and one last taste of Summah.
While the Shadow the Hedgehog-esque progression system accounts for a significant chunk of OutRun's replay value, Coast 2 Coast introduces a slew of additional modes and unlockables to pad out the game. Thankfully, a lot of this side content is worthwhile, and I personally found Heart Attack mode to be one of the more enjoyable parts of the game. In Heart Attack, you have to meet your girlfriend's "demands" in order to win her affection in addition to juggling your overall time. Girlfriends, am I right? All they do is nag, nag, nag. "Baby, take the trash out. Baby, you need to pay your bills. Baby, collect all the coins while drifting between traffic." Ugh. The ol' ball and chain...
The only real problem I had with OutRun 2006 is one that is uniquely me. I've spoken before about how I've been playing most PS2 games off a hard drive, and whether I just grabbed a bad dump of the game or there's some issue with the way Coast 2 Coast is being read in general, the soundtrack would not play for me at all. This is kind of a big deal, as anyone familiar with OutRun as a series would probably tell you. Listening to the radio is not only a major part of tying these games to the experience of racing through California, but the soundtrack is just really damn good. I resorted to playing the OST on my laptop, so this wasn't a total loss, but playing a deconstructed OutRun is less than ideal. Maybe I'll shell out 60$ for a used copy one day, but I'm not sure I like OutRun 2006 that much.
I'm going to eschew the Summah Index Scale for this one and say that the science on it is settled already. Probably for the best, as I've run out of goofy vehicle based "tests." Scraped the bottom of that barrel so hard I've broken through. Buncha bones on the other side... Concerning, but let's not dwell on that.
Not only is this patently Summah, but I can also see it entering into my annual rotation of games as something I can end the season on. That "trip back home" is just too perfect, and it is not something I am content with experiencing only once.
Skyblazer
1994
Learning there was a Ninja Gaiden inspired action-platformer on my fav system, Skyblazer was always something I would go into thinking I would fall in love with it. There are shmup levels, large amounts of moves, levels centered around wall climbing, all sorts of exploits to speedrun through levels, animations that are hilariously fluid... so why is it something I come out of just thinking "yeah that sure was an action-platformer I guess" and not something I'm super passionate about like with other action-platformers of the era? I wish I could put my finger on it
Perhaps the biggest positive I can give the game is its graphical presentation. Between the rotating pillar levels and the mode 7 world map shmup minigame (yes this has 2 different shmup modes!) there's a lot to take in. There's fuckall slowdown to be had, the perspective is quite clean, all the animations have just enough frames to not be overly fluid for such a fast-paced game... it's honestly really radicoolio
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1048770623805079633/1142671002535460884/Skyblazer_USA_-_Snes9x_1.60_2023-08-19_23-33-10.mp4
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1048770623805079633/1142671053714358272/Skyblazer_USA_-_Snes9x_1.60_2023-08-20_00-05-48.mp4
The gameplay is where I truly am conflicted. There's a lot to like but also a lot to dislike. To start with the negatives, the bosses are truly uninspired. Every boss in the game is either "mash punch to kill it to death while it pathetically squirms in retaliation" or "avoid a million things on the screen" with kinda jack shit in between? I guess some like the wall boss are cool visually.
https://gyazo.com/d1be426f41f6f2c67a8c260f25772736
The shmup minigames are cool conceptually and pretty fun on a first playthrough, but given that the player can only have one projectile onscreen at a time and there are no subweapons in those stages (despite subweapon pickups being available) I can't imagine they would be any fun on replays.
Still, the shmup levels while they last are a cool way to change the pace and never quite overstay their welcome.
Sky's arsenal is immense. The omnidirectional blast is useful on certain bosses, the charge attack allows one to skip a shit load of platforming which is nice, the phoenix form avoids pits... of course the optimal strategy for most of the game is to spam the heal spell but it's alright since the main character's 3 hit combo gets the job done and can even be extended by ducking mid-combo. Also helps extra aerial time can be gained by mashing attacks in mid-air. And definitely be sure to rack up 50 lives ASAP in the first tower, lord knows some levels will require them.
Music and story are both mediocre and I don't feel like getting into them at all. There's nothing bad about them but nothing 1% as sauce-filled as the NES Ninja Gaiden games for example.
Anyhow, Skyblazer is a solid enough action-platformer that everybody owes it to themselves to try once. I ended up needing to start the game over from the beginning 4 times in my life to actually get around to finishing it today. It can shake hands with Soul Blazer for being the most 7/10 game titled S_Blazer in its genre. Overall, one of Sony's best games by far.
Also... the main character is totally just Goku. Similar colours, super saiyan aura, energy blasts, the spiky hair etc. I never even watched DBZ yet this shit was blatant. Jesus LOL.
Perhaps the biggest positive I can give the game is its graphical presentation. Between the rotating pillar levels and the mode 7 world map shmup minigame (yes this has 2 different shmup modes!) there's a lot to take in. There's fuckall slowdown to be had, the perspective is quite clean, all the animations have just enough frames to not be overly fluid for such a fast-paced game... it's honestly really radicoolio
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1048770623805079633/1142671002535460884/Skyblazer_USA_-_Snes9x_1.60_2023-08-19_23-33-10.mp4
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1048770623805079633/1142671053714358272/Skyblazer_USA_-_Snes9x_1.60_2023-08-20_00-05-48.mp4
The gameplay is where I truly am conflicted. There's a lot to like but also a lot to dislike. To start with the negatives, the bosses are truly uninspired. Every boss in the game is either "mash punch to kill it to death while it pathetically squirms in retaliation" or "avoid a million things on the screen" with kinda jack shit in between? I guess some like the wall boss are cool visually.
https://gyazo.com/d1be426f41f6f2c67a8c260f25772736
The shmup minigames are cool conceptually and pretty fun on a first playthrough, but given that the player can only have one projectile onscreen at a time and there are no subweapons in those stages (despite subweapon pickups being available) I can't imagine they would be any fun on replays.
Still, the shmup levels while they last are a cool way to change the pace and never quite overstay their welcome.
Sky's arsenal is immense. The omnidirectional blast is useful on certain bosses, the charge attack allows one to skip a shit load of platforming which is nice, the phoenix form avoids pits... of course the optimal strategy for most of the game is to spam the heal spell but it's alright since the main character's 3 hit combo gets the job done and can even be extended by ducking mid-combo. Also helps extra aerial time can be gained by mashing attacks in mid-air. And definitely be sure to rack up 50 lives ASAP in the first tower, lord knows some levels will require them.
Music and story are both mediocre and I don't feel like getting into them at all. There's nothing bad about them but nothing 1% as sauce-filled as the NES Ninja Gaiden games for example.
Anyhow, Skyblazer is a solid enough action-platformer that everybody owes it to themselves to try once. I ended up needing to start the game over from the beginning 4 times in my life to actually get around to finishing it today. It can shake hands with Soul Blazer for being the most 7/10 game titled S_Blazer in its genre. Overall, one of Sony's best games by far.
Also... the main character is totally just Goku. Similar colours, super saiyan aura, energy blasts, the spiky hair etc. I never even watched DBZ yet this shit was blatant. Jesus LOL.
F1 2012
2012
Aight this one of the games I own on steam. And also one of the best ones in the series, the best so far actually and not by a bit.
F1 2012 is where the series really came alive and codemasters made the formula (hA) properly work.
There's new modes, the best handling so far, improvements all around, none of the previous ones beat this one at anything really. Except maybe the main menu which has been simplified a lot? If you care...who does tho lol.
Anyway.
The handling finds a nice balance between the overwhelming challenge of F1 2010 and the overwhelming... easiness (if thats a term?) of F1 2011. It is very similar in feeling to 2011 but it feels much better, you spin easier but it's not bullshit like in 2010.
There's a tutorial which is nice and teaches you everything you need to know about F1 to get started. Is it painfully boring for someone who knows how to play these games half decently? Yes, does it matter? Eh.
What about the modes? The standard career is here and mostly unchanged, AI is easier (won the championship with Williams playing on the harder difficulties lmao) and aghhhhhh...more options for starting teams?
Then there's the new stuff, firstly the best addition imo which is the champions mode. This requires a bit of context of the actual sport. 2012 was a very special year for F1, there was tough competition all year and all the front running teams were on it. First 7 races, 7 different winners. A tight championship battle that went to the last race between Sebastian Vettel in the dominant Red Bull and Fernando Alonso in the dogshit Ferrari somehow putting that truck in the championship fight and losing by a few points.
Where does this inspire this champions mode? Well 2012 was also a year with 6 different champions on the grid. A historic grid for sure. So they made a scenario mode around it and it is fantastic. Agh it is perhaps a bit easy but honestly I don't mind. It's a brilliant idea.
You're put in interesting scenarios, you got new tires at the end of the race, make up ground. You gamble and put on full wet tires after a safety car, you find yourself struggling at the start then catching car after car as you're the fastest man on track.
Hamilton put on new tires and is hunting you down while you're on much older tires so you have to defend from him till the end.
And at the end you get a race with all 6 champions at the (at the time) new American track Circuit of the Americas. It's great.
The other new mode is season challenge which is a simplified career where you pick a target, beat them and you steal their seat. You do that 5 times throughout the season, races are shorter here which fits the idea, being more of a quick fire mode.
Besides that only returning features, time trial, time attack (time trial scenarios with medals), co-op career is here tho I think it was in last years game too, havent tried it cuz who tf am I gonna convince to drop 20 bucks on a key for this game lol.
Oh also it's the first game with like...good graphics, first one had decent textures but awful art style, 2nd had better art style but the textures kinda suck. This one's got both colour and decent textures lol.
So yeah, as an F1 game, it's the closest to a whole package that the series has come too so far.
F1 2012 is where the series really came alive and codemasters made the formula (hA) properly work.
There's new modes, the best handling so far, improvements all around, none of the previous ones beat this one at anything really. Except maybe the main menu which has been simplified a lot? If you care...who does tho lol.
Anyway.
The handling finds a nice balance between the overwhelming challenge of F1 2010 and the overwhelming... easiness (if thats a term?) of F1 2011. It is very similar in feeling to 2011 but it feels much better, you spin easier but it's not bullshit like in 2010.
There's a tutorial which is nice and teaches you everything you need to know about F1 to get started. Is it painfully boring for someone who knows how to play these games half decently? Yes, does it matter? Eh.
What about the modes? The standard career is here and mostly unchanged, AI is easier (won the championship with Williams playing on the harder difficulties lmao) and aghhhhhh...more options for starting teams?
Then there's the new stuff, firstly the best addition imo which is the champions mode. This requires a bit of context of the actual sport. 2012 was a very special year for F1, there was tough competition all year and all the front running teams were on it. First 7 races, 7 different winners. A tight championship battle that went to the last race between Sebastian Vettel in the dominant Red Bull and Fernando Alonso in the dogshit Ferrari somehow putting that truck in the championship fight and losing by a few points.
Where does this inspire this champions mode? Well 2012 was also a year with 6 different champions on the grid. A historic grid for sure. So they made a scenario mode around it and it is fantastic. Agh it is perhaps a bit easy but honestly I don't mind. It's a brilliant idea.
You're put in interesting scenarios, you got new tires at the end of the race, make up ground. You gamble and put on full wet tires after a safety car, you find yourself struggling at the start then catching car after car as you're the fastest man on track.
Hamilton put on new tires and is hunting you down while you're on much older tires so you have to defend from him till the end.
And at the end you get a race with all 6 champions at the (at the time) new American track Circuit of the Americas. It's great.
The other new mode is season challenge which is a simplified career where you pick a target, beat them and you steal their seat. You do that 5 times throughout the season, races are shorter here which fits the idea, being more of a quick fire mode.
Besides that only returning features, time trial, time attack (time trial scenarios with medals), co-op career is here tho I think it was in last years game too, havent tried it cuz who tf am I gonna convince to drop 20 bucks on a key for this game lol.
Oh also it's the first game with like...good graphics, first one had decent textures but awful art style, 2nd had better art style but the textures kinda suck. This one's got both colour and decent textures lol.
So yeah, as an F1 game, it's the closest to a whole package that the series has come too so far.