Another RGG Studio game, another incremental improvement on the last release. Being the first time we’ve controlled Kiryu since Kiwami 2, the thing you notice right away is that this blows away previous Dragon Engine incarnations of his fighting style. Whether you’re dispatching low level mooks at Musou levels of pace with his agent gadgets or blasting bosses’ energy bars with his even more charged up brawler style (Tiger Drop now back at its full power, doing more damage and sounding significantly louder than, say, a shotgun blast), Kiryu starts strong and only gets more dominant. The new arena mode, with up to 11v10 battles, just becomes absolute chaos - loads of fun.
More importantly, though, the game justifies its existence as it follows Kiryu between the end of RGG6 and about halfway through the events of 7, culminating in a final section which delivers on the promise of the consequences of what happened at the end of 6. The shadowy Daidoji faction and its absolute ruthlessness is something I hope we see more of in 8 because there are some characters there who I’d really like to get more screen time, particularly the absolute bastard Yoshimura and Kiryu’s handler Hanawa. being made alongside 8 seemingly allowed them to include more characters from throughout the series too which hit hard.
Speaking of which, the demo for 8 which is included is definitely worth a run through. Hawaii looks great and the bad guy you meet at the start is a really promising looking cold-blooded gangster character.
Before release there was some rumbling about the game’s initial plan as being DLC; the obvious comparison point here being the Kaito DLC for Lost Judgment. That had a really strong story but felt slight due to the complete lack of side activities; I’m not sure how much longer this would be to just main line through the story but the extra activities absolutely make it stand up on its own. As a shorter, concentrated experience it’s hard to complain and I'd like to see some more of this.
Steam Deck report: It defaults to medium settings with FSR in Quality and it pretty much constantly held 40 throughout. These ports are getting better and better.
More importantly, though, the game justifies its existence as it follows Kiryu between the end of RGG6 and about halfway through the events of 7, culminating in a final section which delivers on the promise of the consequences of what happened at the end of 6. The shadowy Daidoji faction and its absolute ruthlessness is something I hope we see more of in 8 because there are some characters there who I’d really like to get more screen time, particularly the absolute bastard Yoshimura and Kiryu’s handler Hanawa. being made alongside 8 seemingly allowed them to include more characters from throughout the series too which hit hard.
Speaking of which, the demo for 8 which is included is definitely worth a run through. Hawaii looks great and the bad guy you meet at the start is a really promising looking cold-blooded gangster character.
Before release there was some rumbling about the game’s initial plan as being DLC; the obvious comparison point here being the Kaito DLC for Lost Judgment. That had a really strong story but felt slight due to the complete lack of side activities; I’m not sure how much longer this would be to just main line through the story but the extra activities absolutely make it stand up on its own. As a shorter, concentrated experience it’s hard to complain and I'd like to see some more of this.
Steam Deck report: It defaults to medium settings with FSR in Quality and it pretty much constantly held 40 throughout. These ports are getting better and better.