69 Reviews liked by zim_ek


If you like farming sim, its okay
for me that Im not so fond of this genre It was just...tedious. The game is cute, but speaking from a gameplay perspective, its pretty awful. Literally, you cant progress in the game if you dont do the farming aspects of the game and grind it (and no, its not a skill issue when you do 1 damage to the enemies) as I said in the beginning if you really dont like that like me, you are going to have a bad experience.

B-Movie horror perfection. It blends horror and comedy so effortlessly that it makes it feel like the entire RE franchise was made for this game. Also, I wish I could fuck Leon.

One of the most underrated games in my opinion, it has great visuals and controls really nice. It can be a mindless game or a really difficult resource management game depending on how you play it. There's also plenty of modes such as going through the story of the first 3 seasons as either your OC (which you can change up to have different weapons and gear) or many characters from the series. Want to mow down titans with two chainsaw blades or fire guns and explosives at them? Well, you can! There's also a post-game mode called 'territory recovery' which really leans into the resource management aspect. Your party members can become wounded and tiles that you reclaim from the titans within the walls net you resources to build up your base of operations. Really addicting - and really hard on eden difficulty.

It's probably easiest to describe the Infinite Wealth experience by describing my final 90 minutes of play.

The beginning of that block was spent running between every restaurant in town to order, literally, the entire menu on the off chance of catching one of the stupidest conversations conceivable between my party of characters whom I've grown quite attached to. Stupid jokes, everyone piss drunk and fucking up every enemy encounter we ran into, and the sheer absurdity of how much food I shoved down their throats on my quest to max out Kiryu's levels through any means necessary.

90 minutes later I experience the emotional nadir of my gaming career with the abject emotional sucker punch of the game's final musical sequence, an experience that had me in tears. Not to linger of how much of a loser I am, but it wasn't a misty-eyed sniffle so much as a head-in-hands bawling. The clarification is worth it to highlight the emotional capability of Yakuza 8, and for people who have played it, there's absolutely no mystery when it comes to the game's secret weapon.

Anyone who's played Yakuza 7 will sing the praises of its protagonist Kasuga. There's no surprises left to be found in this eighth installment; Kasuga is Kasuga is Kasuga. And what Kasuga is is a supernova of charisma. It's foolhardy to make a claim on the entirety of fiction across mediums, but contained to the realm of video games I feel pretty confident in singling out the writing of this character for excellence. Without going into a full character study, I'll say that the writers have found a successful mix of emotional depth and unwavering moral compass. The latter might imply a lack of growth or arc, but instead it's a constant string of challenges for Kasuga's character to shine through. Even if you know where it's going, it's never not exciting to see him keep on the righteous path despite all that goes on around him.

(This is my first parasocial relationship; how am I doing?)

It's the attachment to Kasuga that enables the emotional climax of the story. What, to me, initially seemed like an unrealistic act of forgiveness became the only logical course of events. Of course he resolved things this way, he's Kasuga. It's difficult to write about without spoiling things overtly, but it's a moment that will stay with me for a long time. One of my favorite scenes I've experienced in fiction.

Something I find fun to speculate is the complete opposite experience one could have while playing Yakuza 8. Infinite Wealth has two protagonists, of course, with the other being series idol Kiryu. I'm a secondary; I'm a late-comer Kasuga stan. For most fans Kiryu is the star of the show, and Infinite Wealth is a (backdoor?) tribute to the character and the series. A surprisingly large percentage of the content is dedicated to sending off Kiryu.

This includes references both overt and subtle to events and characters from all of the previous games in the series. Even random spinoffs like that survival horror zombie game (???) are paid homage. This is contextualized as Kiryu making peace with his life in light of his cancer diagnosis. I'd lying if I said it wasn't alienating for someone with no point of reference, but it's very easy to see that the game is not interested in catering to that group. Most of said content is optional, anyway. It's nice that fans have a chance to participate in a living funeral.

Kiryu has his own arc and spotlight within the game, including a scene immediately following the final boss that strikes me as particularly moving should one be familiar with the character. The notion that someone could have as strong of an emotional reaction as I did for a different character speaks to the quality of the game's writing.

I had been penning this review in my mind as I waddled along what was ultimately an 88 hour adventure. Until the story paid off at the end, I had envisioned most of this would have been written about the design of the open world.

Open world's in games are almost a joke these days. You look at your map, see thousands of icons that don't mean anything, climb a tower somewhere, and click fast travel buttons the vast majority of the time. Infinite Wealth has some of this nonsense, but it was the first time I had felt naturally encouraged to explore a world in a very long time.

Several of the side activities presented in the game are intrinsically fun to work through. Aloha Links, the friend making mechanic, simply asks you to press the dedicated Aloha button in the vicinity of certain people on the street. There's 200 potential friends and you bet your ass I found them all. There's a nice sound effect that plays when you form a link, Kasuga looks like an idiot as he mispronounces "aloha", and everyone on the street is having a good time. It's a pleasing gag that, when combined with watching a friendship meter fill until you make a certified buddy to cross off the checklist, never gets old. Take a taxi everywhere and you'll miss so, so many friends. It's just not done!

Other things you would miss include the photo rally that tasks you with snapping pictures of key locations for extremely minor rewards. But of course the reward is in the fun of the treasure hunt itself, as the items you need to photograph are only relayed to you in the form of small, context devoid image that forces you to suss out where it could be. It's very satisfying to be wandering around only to get a sense of déjà vu from some landmark and realizing it's on your list of to-shoot photos.


I had a lot of fun with these two mechanics, but they are admittedly minor. What wasn't minor was the effect they have on your play through. You walk around more, you fight more enemies, you get more resources, you upgrade your weapons more, you happen across more opportunities to train your team of Pokemon (Yeah), you take some time to do side quests, you find the hidden conversations your party could have only by walking by certain locations, your relationship level rises, you work through the party members' individual quests, and I could go on.

The point is that be tacitly encouraging players to actually inhabit the game world instead of warping around it constantly, the game naturally and smoothly delivers a drip-feed of its systems. In other games grinding of some sort would be necessary. Grind for resources, grind for experience points, grind for opportunities to raise your bond with your party. Infinite Wealth incentivizes and trusts the player the find perfect gameplay rhythm that the developers had built into it. It's very impressive.

When you have excellent, well-considered gameplay alongside a story capable of genuine emotional connection. That's a winner. Yakuza 8 is incredible across the board, and the only thing left for me now is the crushing void felt in its absence.

You know what? Fuck it, this game is great. I've played it numerous times now, and while it doesn't do anything nearly as interesting as stuff like Mario 64 or Odyssey, it's just as addicting and fun as any other 3D Mario game.

Use to think that the people who preferred this over 3D World were crazy, but the more I replay both games, the more I begin to understand where they're coming from. They're still wrong, but I get it.

In terms of gameplay, this is such an improvement to 7 in every aspect. From the combat (being able to move around in combat makes the game sooo much better), the substories, Hawaii being great to explore, the graphics. The minigames like Sujimon, Dondoko Island and the dating app, were kind of a miss for me honestly, I didn't have much fun with them. My major complaint is the story, it starts off great, but it starts getting worse and worse, until I feel like there's no good payoffs for a lot of plotlines as well as stuff like the bucket list having no relevance to the story. It's not as bad as, say, Yakuza 4, but I do think this game tries to link so many things together that it ultimately fails, kind of like Yakuza 5. Maybe the problem is having two protagonists (maybe it's because their sections aren't as well divided as Yakuza 0's Kiryu and Majima). Overall, great game, mid story.

This review contains spoilers

gameplay? literally an improvement on all fronts. 7's gameplay was good for what it was but it was way too simple and straightforward, this game just builds on what 7 already had and made it so much more enjoyable its incredible. def a highlight of the game

story? super enjoyable. not without its issues though, for one the antagonists were kind of underwhelming and bryce's final fight was cool but slightly disappointing still since hes the BIG BAD GUY of basically the entire story. Ebina was fantastic though and the games themes were executed well. The ending was also amazing, just a flawless way to top off ichibans character and an awesome send off to kiryu
also to be perfectly honest i could not take bryce seriously at all when he speaks in engrish, nothing against the va i just think its odd how they just couldnt have used the english va lines instead for the moments he speaks english in

side content? without a doubt the most enjoyable side content in the entire series. Dondoko island alone is insane especially when you compare it to earlier minigames like the real estate management from 0, really makes you appreciate how far theyve come with the minigames.

just overall some of the most fun ive ever had with a yakuza game and with very little flaws in the story. rating may change in the future but for now its a solid 5/5

Style over substance: the game exceeded my expectations in certain aspects (visuals, soundtrack, humour) but throughout my playthrough, I couldn't help but feel like there was something missing.

Might be hyperbolic to say a game changed your life, but I played this at just the right time, and it sent me down the rabbit hole of JRPGs which has defined my last year or more of gaming.

The story struck a chord, the music is glorious, and I just had a blast exploring, completing quests, and being in that world.

I had a lot of fun, I don't know if it's a good game to introduce the franchise to other people, but for those who have enjoyed RPGs but had never played Dragon Quest, this game works very well.

Played time: 34hrs

Well, I sank over sixty hours into this game because it was so damn fun and goofy, but I think the genius of this game is how it manages to lure you in with its silliness and then pull the rug from under you and rip your heart out. It's the second Yakuza game, after Yakuza 0, to reduce me to a blubbering mess.

Ryo Aoki might be my favorite villain purely because of how complex he is as a character. My God, I hated him, but I kinda identified with him at the same time. That's how incredibly written this game is.

Monster Hunter World is absolutely fantastic and I can't think of a better word to describe it than grounded. Grinding through monsters is great, but the way weapons feel, the maps are laid out, and the processing of searching for monsters is absolutely fantastic.

this joryu guy is so cool. They should make an entire franchise about him.

Legit would put this really high up in yakuza games. A shorter more condensed experience than the usual games, but still i was packing a solid 20 something hours without doing everything.

I like the story even if it's oddly paced at times (there is a pretty large chunk of this game that feels like filler) . It's a really strong way to connect the end of Yakuza 6 to a keystone moment of Yakuza 7, and inturn Yakuza 8. It's impressive because I was someone who was content with the ending of 6 and what we see of him in 7 being the end of Kiryu's story, and was hesitant with him coming back again in 8, but they managed to nail it so damn good job.
And as I'm sure you've heard, the final chapter is probably the best final chapter in this whole franchise.

One of the weaker games in sidequests, there's a couple funny and memorable ones but the hit rate is pretty low. I cant believe pocket racer came back.

The colosseum is pretty good for side content activities. I did all the initially available solo / vs group fights but didnt continue when i got to a platnium hell rumble fight where they put 3 big club oni guys and saw half the my party get cleaved almost instantly, or hte first of the four kings fights which was down to the wire, not because it was hard but because he had so much health that I only managed to kill him at like sub 5 seconds left. Having 20+ people throw down at once is pretty novel but the higher difficulty fights feel like they need you to grind out party members for better stats which I didnt feel like doing.

Combat is Yakuza combat but I think its one of the better feeling ones in the series. Agent style is fun but is clearly designed less for 1v1 fights and clearing out large groups of enemies (which the game definitely supplies; i finished many random fights by hitting them with the Maximum Spider and killing like 5+ people instantly). Also all around very low amount of classic Really Annoying Yakuza Bosses. The boss Super Fuck You charge attacks being almost always completely free enormous amounts of damage for you is kinda silly but the parry feels good so w/e.

A nice, condensed Yakuza experience that is designed to tie into Yakuza 8. If you like the franchise and/or plan on playing Yakuza 8, you should definetly pick it up.


Also you can play Daytona USA 2 in the arcade and that game is fucking awesome.

This review contains spoilers

(Review at ~24 Hours of gameplay)

A game letting you think you're getting away with something while still balancing accordingly is a powerful motivator to keep playing.

DQM The Dark Prince might be the highest quality turn based battling that I've played in a new release in years, the difficulty curve perfectly compliments the progression of power as you fuse stronger and cooler monsters. I'm on the verge of 12 different decision trees all converging in satisfying ways resulting in systems that feel like cheating but the game is gently pushing you along the entire time. As a consideration, I took notes while playing the game and I feel it improved my experience immensely.

At present the game has shown me 28.8% of its 500+ monster catalog. That tells me that there is not only more content to be seen, but there are plenty of gaps in my bestiary to suggest the creation of even more monster combinations of strategic growth and battle strategies.
I've performed just shy of 100 fusions, where I'm confident over 80% of them result in original species. This means I'm in a constant cycle of making new Monsters, searching for the path of evolution to make the next higher tier.
I've won 318 battles. Between the overworld encounters, arena fights, bosses, and encounters to recruit more monsters, 104 successfully ended in scouting a monster. These are important numbers because it's showing that a third of the time I got into a battle, it was building up my strength through acquiring raw resources, and 2/3rds of the time building up the strength of my team by cultivating resources I already had.
Like all great "Number Go Up" games, it comes down to resource management on a micro and macro scale. Read my Fire Emblem post if you haven't and want to, but I kind of articulate this that if you are investing your gametime into different avenues of getting more powerful, the cohesion for replaying the game is a lot stronger. Your team is getting stronger, your skills are getting stronger. It’s very engaging as you are juggling present and future investments to create the ultimate team of strong and silly guys.

I already believe I’ll put in an embarrassing number of hours into this game. Will the game stick the narrative landing? They’ve handled this game and characters with care, even if I don’t LIKE Toilin, the themes he represents about humanity being guilty and innocent on his path to seek revenge against his father as a representation of the world. The fact that the game is giving this Monsters spinoff something to work with shows that this is both a fully fleshed out game with more voice acting that 4 Treasures stapled together, and something that will appease long term fans as they wait for more information and news on mainline entries.

So this game is an instant recommendation if you enjoy making complex decision matrices, love anti-hero stories, and can’t help but like a picture of a Slime on social media.

Next update at 48 hours or credits, whichever comes first.

This is a fun, cute game that will appeal to fans of the DQ and especially the DQM games. It feels a bit like a mobile game in a good way, like it's a great game to relax with after work or on the train. Not too deep, but lots of fun things to do. And unlike mobile games, no microtransactions. That said, it's not a $60 game. Grab it when it goes on sale. I've seen physical copies for around $30 which is what it's worth IMHO.

The monsters are gorgeous, especially the new jewel ones. I just wish the new DQM Dark Prince game looked as good (the demo is out and it looks worse than the 3DS games).