Yakuza 7 is a wild ride. The gameplay, whilst ambitious in its job-hopping feature, is certainly flawed to an extent: its ridiculously spongey late-game enemies, awkward combat layout which makes targeting enemies needlessly difficult, and level spikes frustated me almost to the same degree as I enjoyed the combat system overall.

However, where this game shines is through both its storyline, with its rich characters and ever-changing political dynamic, and the 'balls-to-the-wall' philosophy it was obviously made with. Zany subplots, various minigames and hilariously over the top fanservice moments bring a level of charm to Like a Dragon you don't find in many other JRPGs. As a big Persona fan, I actually found Like a Dragon's characters to be far more relatable and interesting than your to be expected high school cast; and those fanservice moments are admittably awesome.

Story and characters are probably both 10/10s, whereas the gameplay is something more akin to a 7/10. Excited to play more of the series now.

bit of a weird one. got over 400 hours on skyrim, and i have fond memories of being thirteen and going 12 straight hours into sunrise in the summer of 2017 just fully immersed in the (admittably gorgeous) world of skyrim.

but coming back to it now, it just doesn't hold up writing wise. the world design and ambiance is still INCREDIBLE, but as long as you dare to peek beneath the surface at this game's writing, quests and worldbuilding it all seems so shallow. the major questlines range from adaquete to downright awful, the magic system is bare bones, the quests and repetitive and sometimes nonsensical.

skyrim is a game i'll forever cherish for the experience, but it's best not thinking too hard about it or exploring too deep or else the shallowness of it all becomes clear.

(disclaimer: i play an enhancement hack of this game, called pokemon volt white 2 by the immensely talented drayano)

my first mainline pokemon game, first experienced christmas day 2012. i'm aware i'm probably extremely biased, but i could rave for hours about how this is, by far, the greatest and most complete pokemon game ever made. the amount of content here is STAGGERING: not only is the region of unova overflowing with different quirks and activies to explore, some battle oriented some not, but the post-game is where this game really cements itself as top dog.

white treehollow, pokemon world tournament, memory link battles, bro you can get a girlfriend in this game. probably my most played video game ever, all things considered, and it's no coincidence that 11 years late i still haven't gotten bored of it.

this is my favourite video game of all time. since first completing the game in an extremely bare bones, A to B main questline speed-thru in 2020 (working for MR HOUSE? WHY?) i've 100ed% this bad boy at least five times using a myriad of different character quirks, builds and faction affinities. you'd think i'd be bored of it by now, but yet every few months i find myself coming back, unable to resist the escapism that comes with feeling like a political mastermind-rough around the edges gunslinger-deranged mailman hybrid revolutionising the political landscape of a recovering post-war 23rd century society and ushering in a new era, devoid of misguided nostalgia for the past.
also you can give yourself like really high luck and just rob every casino under the sun which is based and awesome