I'll be listing all of the games that I finished in 2020 and attaching little mini reviews with them. I also won't be including Yakuza 7, partly because it's a bit too new for that (unless you count the Japanese release) and partly because, even though I technically beat it, I want to milk every drop of content that I can out of it. Without further ado, here we go! God of War (2005): Actually picked this one up at Goodwill and had a great time with it. Thought the story was great, with how it took the traditional greek tragedy to such gruesome extremes, and I thought that the journals of the architect that you find while working your way through Pandora's Temple were pretty cool, with how they paralleled Kratos's journey. On top of that, the combat was excellent (better than the new one) and surprisingly difficult even on the normal difficulty setting (Hero?). The spiked tower in Hades was pretty lame and the final boss was a bit weak, but all in all a really great experience, and an easy 4/5. Judgment/Judge Eyes: Wedged this one in before the release of the Yakuza Remastered Collection, and had a great time with it. Yakuza/RGG is my favorite series, and I really enjoyed this more subdued spinoff. Yagami's a great character, and the bros brought some really great chemistry to the mix. Combat was fun, and the story and central mystery was excellent. Really phenomenal across the board, with the exception of one category that's crucial to any RGG game: the side content. Honestly, the side content offering here was pretty weak. There were a few side cases that I enjoyed, and I discovered Motor Raid and Virtua Fighter 5, which are now some of my favorite arcade games, but the endless friendships, low income, and grinding for skills was... not very fun. But there was so much great here that the game still evens out to a great 4/5. Yakuza 3: I technically played Remastered on the day of release, but the game itself came out all the way back in 2009 and I could've easily picked up a PS3 copy or splurged on the digital release when it came out, so I think this counts. Anyway, great game. The vacation vibes are fun, the soundtrack slaps (Clay Doll on the Cradle and Fly are some of my favorite video game tracks, period), and the combat is tight and thrilling... at least once you do Komaki's training. Up until then, pretty much every fight is a slog. But honestly, I didn't care. This game was too fun for that to weigh it down. The orphanage and Rikiya made me feel a lot of things, and it was good to see Kiryu express some serious emotion. And beyond that, the finale is just... wow. Absolutely fucking batshit insane, but that's a huge factor in why it's my favorite video game finale. Oh, and my favorite game in my favorite series, earning it an easy 5/5. But if Yakuza 3 is my favorite game in my favorite series, does that not mean that it's my favorite game? Well, we'll get to that later. Yakuza 4: Had a pretty great time with this one, because, y'know, it's Yakuza. But I'm gonna just get it out of the way and say that this is my least favorite in the series. The worst in a great series of games still tends to be a great game, and this is, but it's got some pretty glaring faults, such as: Akiyama's story seems to establish a big conspiracy, but the only thing that really matters from it is that Lily is a character that exists. Saejima's an awesome character, but he's not fun to play as, and his story is largely inconsequential with the exception of one major beat. Tanimura's an awesome character whose development is all shunted aside into his substories because his section of the game has to do all of the legwork in establishing the actual plot. Kiryu's story is essentially just catching up to the other characters and tying up loose ends. The actually great and really interesting conspiracy that was established from the beginning of the game gets thrown out for the sake of the lamest antagonist in the franchise. The finale is hyped to an insane degree and then thoroughly underwhelms. Now, don't get me wrong: I love Yakuza 4. It's a fun game, the soundtrack's great, the new characters are awesome, and I actually don't have any qualms with a certain beat that most people hate. But it reeks of squandered potential. Regardless, as I already said, it's a great game and one easily deserving of a 4/5. Just one that isn't as great as it could or even should be. Yakuza 5: Now this is the good shit. I think that, from an objective perspective, it's easily better than 3, though my personal biases and love of movies like Die Hard and Face/Off leave me favoring that one. This right here is a Yakuza 0/Yakuza 7 tier game. Anyway, let's get into it. The combat is the series' best by far. Shinada's style could use some ironing out and Akiyama's new moves actually made him slightly more cumbersome than in 4, but Kiryu and Saejima feel like gods in your hands, and it just feels great to play. The character work is also excellent, and I really liked the central theme of dreams. And man, the scale of the plot and the amount of content is just wowie. So much here, and I love every bit of it. Easy 5/5 game. Yakuza 6: The Song of Life: I ended up enjoying this game a lot more than I thought I would, as I see people tearing into it a lot. The combat and general Dragon Engine-isms are... rough. The side content is lacking, and the new exp system feels needlessly grindy. There are a lot of problems here. But it has soul like few other games do. The best story beats left me feeling a lot of things, and those were only bolstered by the beautiful OST, which is, in my personal (and correct) opinion, the best in the series. A flawed, but beautiful end to a beautiful series. ...until Yakuza 7. 4/5. Metroid: Zero Mission: I had started Super Metroid twice in the past, taken too long a break between sessions, and gotten lost both times. So this time, I decided to give Zero Mission a shot, and wow is this game good. The movement and exploration was so satisfying that I ended up going all the way for 100%, and had a great time every step of the way. A more bite-sized Metroid experience really helped ease me into the series, and I shot through it in something like seven hours. A phenomenal 5/5, and now one of my favorite games. Super Metroid: Logically, after loving Zero Mission as much as I did, I had to tackle the king of kings once more. And I loved it! The atmosphere and level design was absolutely gripping. However, the controls are a considerable step down from Zero Mission (or rather, Zero Mission's controls are a step up), and the lack of some QoL features kept me from getting 100% this time. I still got something like 95%, so I was no slouch! Anyway, phenomenal game. I didn't enjoy it quite as much as Zero Mission, so it gets a comfortable 4/5. Final Fantasy VII: I started this game up all the way back in 2019, but with the impending release of FFVII Remake, I knew that I had to push through it in time. And I had a great time with it! The story was gripping, the characters were fun, and the Materia system is my favorite magic system ever, bar none. However, I think that the pacing suffers a lot from inconsistency and the need to wedge the game full of pointless minigames, the world design was generally cumbersome and uninteresting to explore, and some more cryptic and old-fashioned design tendencies hurt the experience. Still, the great far outshines the mediocrity, so this is an easy 4/5. P.S. - Yuffie and Cait Sith get too much hate. Final Fantasy VII Remake: This and the next entry might be cheating as far as sub rules go because I played them both at release, but they're both over six months old now, so ehh? Anyway, I actually wrapped up FFVII just days before Remake released, and then burned through Remake over the course of three days, sleeping only once, but WOW I love this game. This might be heresy, but so far, I actually like it more than OG FFVII. Now, whether that remains true or not is contingent on how the next parts go, but oh my, I had a great time with this one. People say that the game feels bloated, but I can't disagree more. Remake feels like it gives Midgar what it deserves. The world design and character development were hitting me with feels for a game that I had wrapped up playing only days before, and it was incredible. I cried a couple of times. Anyway, soundtrack was best of the year, combat was some of the best ever, and I'm really intrigued by the pseudo-sequel approach and am looking forward to seeing where it goes next. 4/5. Resident Evil 3 (2020): I had a good time with this one, but it's nowhere near the heights of Resident Evil 2 (2019). Nemesis was underused and wasn't as fun to deal with as Mr. X, the enemies were less fun to deal with despite there technically being more this time, the heavier action focus made it less memorable, and it was entirely too short. I know I sound like I'm being hard on it, but I really did enjoy it. However, this game deserved to be better than what it ended up being, and I probably wouldn't have enjoyed it as much if it hadn't come out right around the beginning of the lockdowns when I was in desperate need of a good game to take my mind off of things. So, it's a pretty good 3/5. Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time: Very mixed feelings on this one. On the one hand, the cinematic platforming was a ton of fun and I get why this game was such a big deal, but on the other... It really was a slog at some points, mainly due to the combat. God, the combat. Just fucking awful. Context-sensitive inputs were obnoxiously inconsistent, enemy design was mind-numbingly boring, and the constant waves after waves of enemies were painful to push through. It honestly felt lazy. Its saving grace is that it's super short. I actually cleared it in a single sitting. I can't say that I had a bad time with it, because it really was fun when I was doing anything other than combat, but I can't in good conscience give it more than a 3/5. I've heard that the sequels really bring up the quality of the combat, so I'm looking forward to burning through them sometime in the (hopefully) near future. Final Fantasy IX: Holy god damn shit oh my lord there is just. So much here. This is my favorite game ever. I discovered my all time favorite game this year, and I don't think it's possible for anything to ever usurp it. Just absolutely astonishing ever step of the way. The characters, the world, the music... I felt so many things playing FFIX. I cried... so many times. Anyway, I really liked the more traditional party dynamic and how it was shaken up by story beats, and I thought that the equipment/skill system was one of the more fun JRPG leveling and customization systems I've had the pleasure of experiencing. But yeah, this is now my favorite game, so I wouldn't be able to live with myself if I gave it anything less than a perfect score of 5/5. Anyway, I probably left a few things out here, what with covid giving me a lot more time to game. But this has been a pretty good year as far as gaming goes. I also played a lot of Ōkami but haven't yet finished it, have literally about ten hours left in Persona 5 Royal (Royal ending), started up GTA: Vice City and Metroid Prime right before the year ended, played about an hour of Luigi's Mansion, blasted through Yakuza 7, which may have edged out 3 as my favorite (I need to run through all of the jobs and mess with the post game before I decide for sure)... It's been a good, dense year, and hopefully 2021's no slouch either. What've you guys been playing this year, and what're your thoughts on my lineup? Here's hoping for a great 2021!
WELCOME TO MY LONG ASS REVIEW OF THE YAKUZA SEIRES! This will include a shortened version of all of my thoughts and feelings towards all 8 (*note: this review will only cover the main series, so no dead souls, ishin or other spinoff's (tho I might play them in the future)) games and some of their inner aspects. So not reading all of it is completely understandable I just wanted to share them with someone but sadly none of my friends played it so i have nowhere else to do so one them suggested posting it here and tbh i have nothing better to do so here they are TLDR; 10/10 franchise I really like the characters, stories, music and gameplay.with that being said, HERE WE GO! (*note: like I said these are MY opinions and MY lists, if you think otherwise, youre welcome to write it down in the comments I would love to hear your thoughts :))(*note: this review might contain spoilers, with that being said I will try to hide everything that I think might be considered a major spoiler and will put it between [ ] so if you see these be careful)(*note: this review might be a bit scattered and not understandable at times, that's because of 3 reasons: 1.english is my second language, although I like to think im at least conversational, spelling and sentence building aren’t my strong suits. 2. Like I said this is a review of all 8 games so I might scramble stuff in the middle or forget something completely. 3. I first wrote this on word and after transfering it here i noticed there are problems with the spacing and enters, so if you see a lack of space when there should be most likely there was supposed to be a shift+enter, i tried fixing it multiple times but appreantly having every enter where it should be makes it over 4000000 characters long.) So forgive me for those)(*note: if for some reason you would like to see my opinion on something that I didn’t include, you're welcome to ask me to write it :) I might not be able to answer everything but ill do my best to check the comments every so often for a while) first of all I would like to say that my entry to the series is that a friend of mine bought me a copy of yakuza 0 for pc, little did he know, that would evolve into a crippling yakuza addiction (I bought a ps4 off another friend just to play 3-6). (*note: I know I said "none of my friends play it" that was a tiny lie, I have 1 friend who for 2 years now "is in process" to 100% yakuza 0, so I have no one to talk to about 7/8 games of the series) I came into the series thinking what I believe almost every player thinks before they start playing "oh it looks similar to gta/saints row but Japanese" but, say it with me now! "YAKUZA IS NOT JAPANESE GTA!" what I discovered is a beat'em-up, tear-jerking-story based adventure game, lucky me these are some of my favorite genres! I feel like yakuza has a very sad story not because its actually like sad sad but because kiryu is human, you see him go through life having to go through all kinds of crisis's and problems and its kinda feels like seeing a child grow? Idk, at least for me it sometimes does now for my top 8 yakuza games (*note: the scores I give them out of 10 and their place on the top 8 might seem weird and "incorrect" because I give some games of lower place higher score then stuff of higher place. That's because when I decide their place on the top 8 I only consider how much I enjoyed it overall. when I give them a score out of 10 I try to give them what I think is a more objective score that includes everything of how fun it was, how much I liked the characters, the mechanics, the story, ect….) (*note: if I don’t include a character in my reviews that doesn’t necessarily mean that I hate them, it just means that I generally don’t have too much to say about them. Overall I like basically all the main and side cast) 1.Yakuza kiwami 9/10 Lets start with the story, Imma be real with ya chiefs, I have a pretty small smooth brain. That's why I like simple-semi complicated stories And here we have a very basic story to follow, 10000000 yen missing, parent of this child missing, find them both. I love that simple, short and to the point but still interesting enough that I spent half my playthrough on the edge of my sit This game also has the best side-quests of the entire series which are easily pocket circuit & majima everywhere from the gameplay and mechanic side I also feel it’s the most fun and tight, nothing feels slow, every punch packs a punch and I actually really love (and prefer) the 4 fighting styles and was really sad to find out they were only in 0&kiwami. It has my favorite level up system (I will also include my top 7 level up systems later) And now for some character reviews Kiryu-CHAN!- he's by far my favorite character in the entire series, until now I only saw him as a brooding, badass, powerhouse that fucking breaks, shoots, and destroys (god forbid kills nothing like that here) but this was the first time I got to see that he actually has a soft side too and it’s the cutest fucking thing I've ever seen in my entire life. It was the first time I realized yakuza is one of those series that can make me sound like a kettle when I "aawwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww" seeing his interactions with haruka, yumi, nishiki and others was almost heart melting. Speaking of which Majima-I have what I think is a very controversial opinion, which is I don’t like majima in 0 (and I will get to that later). So I really didn’t expect much considering I came to this series blind. And OH BOY! Majima quickly became one of my favourite characters and its really sad for me that I believe they kinda toned him down in later games. [half of my playthrough was running around looking for him and doing all of his stuff, having to fight him as a cop, zombie, idol, hostes in all sorts of different situations was one of the best things about this game] nishiki-*ahem*,Im gonna fucking cry. Like I said I came from 0, seeing the journey he went through from #1 jobro (which he will forever be btw) to head of a family he has no idea what to do with, to madness, to evil mastermind was one of the saddest stories of this series. Every head of the nishikiyama family after him only brought shame to his name. [every scene that contained both him and kiryu in the same room made me want to cry. From the moment he declared they are not brothers anymore to the final scene when he shot the bomb] Haruka-B A B Y My first thought after seeing her was "ughhhhh fuck an annoying child character to take care of, that's not what a yakuza game should have" but what ended up being is that if anything happened to her I will ̶k̶i̶l̶l̶ hit everybody in this room very hard until all their bones break and leave them unconscious with no way of calling an ambulance or any kind of help and then do that to myself only to protect her. She is precious, and if you for some twisted, evil, disgusting reason think otherwise you are wrong [Yumi/mizuki- when Im writing this its been like a year since I played kiwami so I don’t remember every little detail about this character (not that there's too much to remember to begin with) if anything the twist at the end was pretty surprising and her backstory is kinda sad] [rena/shinji-they both serve kind of the same role so I don’t have too much to say on them separately. Their death (by the hands of the most annoying boss in the series) is kinda sad and like anything else relating to nishiki in this game, rena's death speech about how she always really loved him and wanted to help him in any way possible made me want to cry] 2.yakuza4 7.8/10 This game could’ve easily been an 8.5/10 but there're some stuff that just annoy me a bit and makes me have to retract from its score, let me get into it First of all, Although at the start the story didn’t really make sense to me and I thought it was very confusing, now after I played everything and saw how stuff connected together, I realized how amazing it actually is From akiyama's little relationship with lily To kiryu helping a refugee To a laid back cop who gets in to something bigger than himself And finally back to the actual main character of this series initially It was very annoying when I found out I only get to play as kiryu at the end of the game but I got over it On the gameplay side in the overworld everyone felt really slow to me,it didn’t feel like they were running (like their animation showed) it felt like they were always at the speed of a start of a jog but you kinda get used to it so its fine overall.In the combat side of thingsI really liked how akiyama, tanimura and kiryu controlled. Fast&strong which is why I really like the combat of this series to begin with (I also found it kinda funny that swords in this game are sometimes considered "blunt objects" for some reason so when you use a heat action with them you just smack an enemies head again and again with the blade) I will use the fact I didn’t include saejima in the list of the gameplay I like as a perfecet Segway to my character reviews Saejima-although his story really is interesting, kinda sad and heartwarming at times I grew to not like him just because his gameplay is sooooooooooooooooo slooooooooooooooowwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww I don’t know why but I also felt that he was weaker than the rest of the characters? It kinda felt like when the rest of the crew took down 10 enemies in 1 second he took 1 enemy in 10 seconds I get that hes supposed to be a tank and he has a lot of hp but usually tanks also do lots of damage to make up for their lack of speed Here its just a "very healthy", slow and weak tank so its just annoying to play [if anything his sister is hot] Akiyama- his gameplay is kinda like the "brawler" of the game, similar enough to kiryu's gameplay but different (because kicks) also his personality is cool, i would categorize it kinda like a happy go lucky guy but not really His story is interesting about this mysterious girl named lily who apparently really looks like his ex and he has a picture from his past that shows her. Anyway she asks for 100000000 yen a̶n̶d̶ ̶b̶e̶c̶a̶u̶s̶e̶ ̶h̶e̶s̶ ̶a̶ ̶s̶i̶m̶p̶ and because he really wants to help her, he gives her a challenge. Tanimura- the counter option was kinda cool ig. His character is cool enough and his story about wanting to find what happened to his father is kinda sweet I don’t have too much to say about him because he's kinda forgettable in the sense that his story was kind of an open and shut case He was definitely one of the playable characters of the series but that's honestly the most you can say about him If anything its kinda sad they swapped him in yakuza 5 but understandable because his story is 100% finished and he has nothing to draw him back considering he isn’t really related in any way to the rest of the cast Date-I like him but his character rarely changes. In the rest of the series it seems the story writers forgot he quit being a detective [yasuko/lily-seeing her story unfold was kinda sad, all she wanted for the last 25 years was to see her brother again. At least she got to that 1 last time before she did the bullet walk thing this series lovesssss to do] One last thing about this game that really annoyed me, the game ends with a happy ending, [saejima is proven innocent, kiryu seems to return to the tojo clan and they all live happily ever after]. When I saw it I thought "oh wow, I wander how they're gonna build upon this?" well, they didn’t, like at all. This series has 1 annoying problem that the writers team usually completely forget how the previous game ended 3.yakuza3 7.4/10on the story side- Kiryu only wants to keep his goddamn orphanage leave him alone ffs.BUT NOPE!It’s the yakuza series so every few years it’s always the same thing: something something TOJO something something MONEY something something BROTHER something something REVENGE, oh godly kiryu san mr.dragon of dojima please help me! The gameplay in the remastered collection stays more or less the same throughout so I don’t really have anything to say here The characters of this story are a weird bunch The children of the orphanage- if anything happened to any of them I will ̶k̶i̶l̶l̶ hit everybody in this room very hard until all their bones break and leave them unconscious with no way of calling an ambulance or any kind of help and then do that to myself only to protect them. rikiya- at the start of the game I thought he was just gonna be one of those bosses that you beat thrice throughout the game and never hear from them again afterwards, what ended up happening is that I discovered just a lovable, loyal, dork of a character [and when he got shot and kiryu started crying I was almost crying with him, definitely one of the saddest deaths in the series because it’s a very unexpected one] 4.yakuza 6 8/10 HOLY SHIT MY BABY HAD A BABY but who is the father? Let's go to Hiroshima to find out! [If only yuta put on a condom] Jokes aside this is one of the most amazing stories the series ever told I was originally dreading playing this game because I don’t really like the dragon engine that much (that might be because I played kiwami 2 right after 0&kiwami and was just kind of overwhelmed by it although the graphics of it are amazing, the gameplay feels a lot more wonky to me, I either feel very weak or too strong (usually weak) I got used to it but I actually prefer anything else in the series) But man did the story really bump up its place in the top 8 Nagumo- im sorry but speaking by role-serving terms rikiya is just kinda the cooler Nagumo (or technically speaking Nagumo is the worse rikiya) he's just a hot headed simp who's the captain of the hirose family but also kind of sweet in a way If anything he has one very memorable line "yesterday's enemy is today's aniki" Yuta-[BOI LOOKS LIKE LIVE ACTION KOICHI FROM THE DIAMOND IS UNBREAKABLE MOVIE AND MY BABY STELLED FOR HIM?! jokes aside I see why haruka chose him, one of the best character's in the series for sure tho the twist where he's actually the father was kind of apparent from the start] Kiyomi- she looks like sayama's mom. Like I was 200% sure it was her for like the entirety of the first chapter she was shown in [Also the thing in the end about kiryu saying he considered daigo as a son is stupid and forced in as hell] 5.yakuza0 7/10 (*note: I think I got a little more to say about this game then the rest cause like I mentioned it was my entry to the series so this may be a little bit of a garbled mess) So let's start by saying, hands down it has the best overall soundtrack (*note: I will get to my top 15 songs later) consistently very high quality while the rest of the games have like 1-3 outstanding songs in them this one has: the intro, judgement, the best version of baka mitai (*note: I only discovered that the meme originated in yakuza like half-way through its life span) (*note: I saw on here some time ago that one of the top posts is a screenshot of a tweet from kiryu's VA that says he's very pleased that people are singing his song and I find that very heart warming and wholesome), 24-cinderella and so, SO many more. Now… from the story side of things….. Im sorry to say this but I don’t really like majima's story in this game. Out of every other playable character in this series majima's story in this game felt the most like a filler to me. The first like 4 of his chapters could've easily been skipped with nothing of value to the overall story lost. Having to switch to him every 2 chapters was very annoying. Actually It annoyed me so much that in the middle of zero I kinda just dropped the game for like half a year+ because I just didn’t feel like playing as majima [it was after the cutscene where nishiki betrays kiryu but doesn’t want to shoot him]. Tho his relation-ship with makato is easily the saddest, most tragic thing to happen throughout the entire series. But like… idk I really preferred playing as kiryu 100% of the time On the gameplay side of things tho Definitely one of the better, like I said I really like the fighting styles so having 8 of them (well 6 technically since I basically didn’t touch the real estate nor the cabaret) was really fun Brawlethug-very basic, close enough to the dragon fighting style if that's what youre looking for but very boring nonetheless Rush/breaker-rush fucking sucks, on the other hand I find breaker to be very funny and I used it most of my time playing majima beast/slugger-beast is easily the best fighting style in the game, it’s a tiny bit slow but it gives back by being a fucking powerhouse being able to lift giant object's and using them as very fast hard hitting weapons (*ahem* *ahem* thisiswhatsaejimashould'vebeen*ahem* ahem*) on the slugger side I only switched to it when I saw that I couldn’t just style on my enemy to win and had to actually "play the video game" now for the character's makoto- I A M G O I N G T O F U C K I N G C R Y nishiki- [ kiwami spoilers>>R.I.P best jobro, once again im going to fucking cry everything in this game makes me want to cry], his relationship with kiryu is easily one of the best parts of this game, from the little comments he makes about kiryu's wardrobe to [him saying he's not interested in climbing up the ranks without kiryu] everything that makes him easily the best follower in the entire series. majima- I didn’t know what was coming so I just assumed this was kind of his character.looking back at it im kinda disappointed they didn’t try to do something else with him and instead they just kinda made him a simp to the yakuza [also it was kinda stupid to me how they didn’t find a way to bridge him into the crackhead he is in the rest of the series (they totally could've btw) instead making him just choose to "live crazier than any of 'em" (but thinking about it again honestly I feel like making majima choose to be a crackhead just because he wants to kinda fits his character)] kuze- *insert how many times do we have to teach you this lesson old man meme* 6.yakuza LAD 8/10"YOU BITCHES EVER HEARD OF PERSONA 5?"was probably the first line shouted by the director of the series in the first boardroom meetingthe story of this game follows ichiban kasuga trying to prove his loyalty and powerand goddamn smashing those goalsits kinda weird because I feel like I have nothing yet so much to say Gameplay wisefor some reason they decided to change it to an rpg probably after the director played P5R for too long because like I indirectly said… almost everything here is persona 5,the ui, combat, life skills and so on and so forth. There are even social links for crying out loud. this game might've been a 9/10 if only there wasnt 2 giant grind moments in the latter half of it [specifically before the majima&saejima boss fight and kiryu boss fight] Character review Ichiban- I saw a meme somewhere that said ichiban is "cooler nishiki", HELL NAHthose 2 are completely different characters each with their own reasons to make me depressed. Defiantly in the top 3 protagonists of the series which goes like 1.kiryu 2.majima 3.ichiban [before i started the game i was 200% sure he was gonna die, luckly he didnt, yet] Adachi- before I started this game and only saw the art I was 100% sure it was the guy who taught slugger to majima in 0 (the weapon maker from the noodle shop).he's not.Good follower tho [Joon-gi han- imma be real with ya chief, I forgot he died. And until kiryu said it was a double I was sure it was the same dude, he's not, still cool tho] [kume-LITTLE SHIT SHANKED MASATO AND DIPPED WHY DONT I GET TO BEAT THE SHIT OUT OF HIM AGAIN!?] I feel like I should have more to say about the rest of the MC's, but I got nothing. I love all of them but I don’t have anything outstanding to say. also this game has the top 3 best girls of the series which are: 1.seong-hui 2.sumire sawa 3.saeko mukoda don’t @ me 7.yakuza5 thekomakitigerdropisbrokenasallhell/10 Once again with 4 different character's, each with their own story that finally combines into one somehow on the gameplay side Like I said kiryu has the best moves in this game then the entire series The counter allowed me to cheese out enemies I couldn’t really fight. And the komaki tiger drop allowed me to delete half a bosses health bar in one hit So usually a boss would last about 2-6 tiger drops His story revolves around just being A NORMAL GODDAMN TAXI DRIVER LEAVE HIM ALONE FOR FUCK SAKES and going through a midlife crisis Akiyama stays mostly the same They did fix saejima a bit but still it was a drag to play him, not only that but the entire thing where he stayed in the small village for like a full chapter was very annoying and was clearly made just to drag out his story HOLY SHIT MY BABY IS A PLAYABLE CHARACTER, when I originally saw haruka on the splash screen when you open the game she kinda has a fighting pose so I thought that she maybe learned a thing or two while watching kiryu NOPE, I HOPE Y'ALL LIKE RYTHEM GAMES CAUSE THAT'S ALL SHE DOES!, personally im ok at them but not that good so I played only the stuff I had to do with her [tho the twist at the end of her story about majima being park's ex husband, MAN I DIDN’T SEE THAT COMING] And then there's shinada.... I honestly don’t know what to think about him. He's an ok character overall but his story seems so unrelated it kinda seems to me like they just shoved him in there because they had some problem with having only 3 character that can fight. His gameplay is fine enough but sometimes it kinda felt weaker then it should be? Idk. His normal punch and grab combo is mediocre+ - ok- nothing more than that. His staff doh allowed me to cheese enemies and getting them into an infinite loop of being knocked down again and again Another thing I can say about this game is that the character models eyes always look on the verge of tears and it seems very funny to me that at any given moment most of the cast looks like its about to cry cause im sitting here ready to do the same 8.yakuza kiwami 2 6.9/10 Man what a disappointment. I came to this thinking its gonna be as good as 0/kiwami and my hopes were crushed Like I said I don’t like the dragon engine that much so moving to it after the engine of the 2 previous games felt really weird The story of this game although very heart warming at the moment youre playing it, is quickly forgotten about and basically un-canonized in the rest of the series [at the start of yakuza 3 sayama departs to America and never returns, in yakuza 6 it is mentioned that yumi is the only woman kiryu ever loved and that he never killed anyone (although ryuji goda died by his hands)] Don’t get me wrong its still a very good game just not as good as the rest of the yakuzas Now for the characters Sayama- although story wise it seemed very sudden that they started dating, it was apparent from the start that something is gonna happen between them. Once again it was a sign that yakuza is one of those series that can make me sound like a kettle when I "aawwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww" Ryuji- one of if not the best villain of this series. That's because he's not actually evil but he knows there can only be one dragon so hes gonna fight for it. He actually has honor and some sense of justice. [the ending tho where sayama is crying because she finally discovered she has a brother but now he and her lover need to fight is very depressing, good thing it was all forgotten amirite? (pleasekillme)] Now for my top 7 level up system's because this series cant ever just stick to 1 1.yakuza kiwami It’s the only one I managed to fully complete so I might be a bit biased, but I feel like the exp/level system that is different for each fighting style is perfect. Unlike in the rest of the series where there's only the dragon fighting style that separates into body, soul, heat and tech. 2.yakuza 3 it’s very simple and doesn’t really lock out any abilities that you really need 3.yakuza 4 it locks some stuff out on the start but you can get them pretty easily 4.yakuza 5 Kinda just a worse version of 4 5.yakuza LAD I actually like the fact every battle upgrades everything at once and I don’t really have to think about if something is better than anotherthan again you can make the case that it removes any sense of choice from the game (at least speaking in level up terms) 6.yakuza 0 Although you get like 500000 yen per basic group of enemies, I still feel that money and levels shouldn’t corelate, especially when I need hundreds of millions for some of the side-quests (*ahem* *ahem* pocket circuit *ahem* *ahem*) also, tho it makes sense canonically, I feel like the trainer system of this game specifically is kinda stupid and annoying, never really bothered with it doh considering how much beast is a powerhouse even when its only upgraded with the stuff you don’t need to unlock 7.yakuza 6 & kiwami 2 Its too separated, having all those different exp points is stupid, I always had like 2 sections that were lagging behind the rest. I would like now to give a quick shout-out to the top 4 side-quest's in the series1.pocket circuit 10/10 I got too addicted to it both in 0 & kiwami, 95% of all my early game money was either spent/saved for pocket circuit #pocket_circut_fighter_forever [when I saw kiryu reminiscing on being kamurcho's fastest in kiwami's baka mitai I fucking died laughing] 2.majima everywhere 10/10 Basically doubled my playthrough's length because I always wondered what kinda whacky ass shit majima is gonna pull next. He's the best character in that game 100% 3.taxi racing 10/10 I did it all in the same game day so I like to think that in 1 night kiryu beat all the devil killers. Shock that it reminds me of intial-d, who would've thought right? Jokes aside the car controls in this game are really fun 4.dragon kart 10/10 I would like to believe someone ran in the idea room and was like "GUYS, SO UNTIL NOW WE PLAYED PERSONA 5 100% OF THE TIME, GET THIS, WHAT IF, MARIO KART?!"and then everyone clapped Now… There's 1 aspect that I pretty much barely mentioned in this review and you might even be asking yourself where is it? So without further ado My top 15 songs from the yakuza series Why 15? Cause that's how many songs I personally find to be fucking bops and the number of songs that I put in my playlist (*note: don’t take it too much as if its in numerical order, I kinda tried to do it as such but that's kind of a lot of songs (the longest section in my playlist at least) and I really love all of them so it was hard to choose. Maybe try to look at it more of as a list then a top 15) 1.get over it-yakuza kiwami It’s the only REALLY good song in this game (*note: not the only good one, the only REALLY good one) Man that fucking guitar section in the middle, you know the one im talking about.I apologize for bringing jojo into this but I feel like if kiryu was a jojo this would easily be his theme (and that guitar section is like giorno piano) 2.destiny-yakuza 6 V I O L I Ncoming in in a VERY close second is destiny from yakuza 6I originally thought someya to be one of those bosses you just beat like 3-4 times throughout the events of the game then never hear from again and just remember him as that one asshole from that yakuza game. But MAN then this theme hits in his final fightand O O F[and right after the fight when he begs you to kill him to save kioymi, I have yet to actually cry during the events of this series but its really trying to make me do it and im 100% sure eventually I will] 3.machinegun kiss-yakuza4&5 I have a story with this song that the first couple of times that I listened to it I thought it was very mediocre, then one day I just got a vibe to listen to it 1 more time, at which point it got stuck in my head for about 3 weeks-month and it shoved its way up here. 4.judgement-yakuza 0 In case you haven’t noticed I really like buttrock [I read a comment somewhere that said kiryu can no longer sing this after 0 because its not the same without nishiki, excuse me when I UGhhhHhHhHhhhhhhhHHhhhHHhhhHHhhHhhhhHhhhh] 5.clay doll on the cradle-yakuza 3 It has a pretty weak start but becomes really good really fast 6.comin'at ya, my girl-yakuza 5 As much as I don’t really like haruka's gameplay in 5, this is the best song in the game, sue me
24-hour cinderella-yakuza 0
Started listening to it because it’s a funny meme song It got stuck in my head for 2 weeks 8.tears of a father-yakuza 3 When the credits hit after THAT cutscene and this song starts to play, "the father" is almost not the only one to shed tears I only found out its called "tears of a father" while I looked it up after, and that was the point my heart had to get replaced because the previous one died 9.baka mitai-yakuza 0/kiwami/5 Do I really need to explain? 10.speed star-yakuza 4 A really pumped up default fight theme 11.intro-yakuza 0 I have a meme with some of my friends about the first 4 notes you have to hear before being able to skip it (*TA NA, NA! WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA*) 12.infinite handcuffs-yakuza 4 Another pumped up normal battle theme 13.today is a diamond-yakuza 6 *insert funny kiryu thumbs up*this song seems so happy and upbeat until you realize that according to it the singer is singing it to his lover that is in a coma[kinda fitting doh] 14.Friday night-yakuza 0 Once again, started because of a meme, continued because it’s a bop 15.[majima construction anthem]-yakuza kiwami 2 All rise for our national anthem. One of the best things to come out of this game. Surprisingly enough there weren't any outstanding songs in lad AND THAT'S IT! As a little conclusion, I would like to say I would've never imagined I would be as much in to this series as I am now, definitely one of the best game series's of all time and im really sad its not popular as it should be Overall 10/10 series So many good memories were formed and I can 100% see myself replaying it in the future If you actually read all of it, Holy shit thank you I wouldn’t be able to do that myself :) And even if you just schemed through it and only looked at specific sections, Thank you as well Like I said if you wanna ask me about something I didn’t already write or wanna give your own opinion on one of my opinions youre 200% welcome to do so in the comments, ill try to answer most of the stuff i see Well, I have nothing to add, see ya!
I spent 2020 laid off. These are the games I beat and my thoughts
Many of these games have been out for longer than 6 months at the time of writing. Any game that hasn't been out for that long I have omitted from this list. Disney Aladdin (Xbox One X) - I picked this up physically for Xbox and it really brought me back to being a kid. I tried my hardest to beat it without the rewind feature. Even though it took me a while, I finally got through it. I know you don't HAVE to use the rewind feature, but I think it should have been omitted completely. Assassin's Creed Odyssey (Xbox One X) - I gave a review on this sub earlier this year. I have a love/hate relationship with this game. While I was completely addicted to it, I feel like it was for the wrong reason. I liked the story and game play, but felt like it was way too easy after a while. The DLC, as awesome as the story is, is extremely tedious. So, I loved the game, but didn't at the same time? If that makes sense. I put in 165 hours into it. Bloodstained Ritual (Xbox One X) - This is the last game I beat before getting the news that I'd be laid off for "eight weeks" back in March. I couldn't stop playing this. I never played Symphony of the Night and when I dabbled in that game I didn't care for it. I absolutely loved Bloodstained though. It makes me want to go back to Symphony of the Night. The game play, soundtrack and overall level of things to do was a blast. What Remains of Edith Finch (Xbox One X) - I beat this in one sitting, but it really captivated me. Sure, it's a walking simulator, but the writing is outstanding. I would recommend this to everyone. Catherine: Full Body (PS4 Pro) - I was a big fan of Catherine on the 360. I was super excited that they were remastering it for PS4 and it included an expanded story. I even pre-ordered the collector's edition. It's one of my all time favorite puzzle games with hilarious writing. I'd recommend the remaster over the original, despite it being a PS4 exclusive. Gato Roboto (Xbox One X) - Found this on Game Pass and thought I'd give it a try. Very fun metroidvania that had me laughing in spots due to how ludicrous it is. Your character is a cat that is in an armored mech suit. Your captain is stranded and you must save him. Very fun game. I'm unsure if it's still on Game Pass, but definitely on Steam. Hyperdot (Xbox One X) - Another Game Pass game that wouldn't let me go. I'm a sucker for these simple games and all you have to do in Hyperdot is dodge everything. It seems simple, but gets really tough after a while. It was very rewarding when I beat it. The Uncle Who Works for Nintendo (PC) - I co-host a horror movie podcast and we were talking about horror video games one episode. I decided to talk about this text-based browser horror game. It was a little glitchy in parts, but I thought it was very entertaining. The plot is that you're a kid who is spending the night at a friend's house and get word that the friend's uncle is stopping over and he works for Nintendo. It's pretty awesome and offers a few different endings. Fractured Minds (Xbox One X) - Another Game Pass game. It's an easy 1k if you care about achievements and offers a somewhat decent look at depression and anxiety in video game form. It's not bad, but doesn't offer that much either. Very very short, as in 30 minutes-an hour. Resident Evil 5 (Xbox One X) - So, this may upset people, but even though I co-host a horror movie podcast, my anxiety does NOT bode well with horror games. I panic and end up giving up. That's why Resident Evil 5 is my favorite entry in the franchise. My best friend is a horror game nerd and frustrates her when I talk about how good RE5 is. I technically beat this game more than any other game recently because my like-minded buddy and I fully completed all the achievements for single player and DLC in couch co-op. It was a blast finding all the jewels and weapon upgrades. Too bad the multiplayer isn't active or else we would have gotten those achievements too. Sure, it's more action oriented than it's horror predecessors, but my buddy and I dig that. The game play is a blast. Halo Reach (Xbox One X) - The Master Chief Collection is so awesome. My friend and I made a plan to run through all the Halos again on Legendary. Halo is my favorite game franchise and I have beaten these games a million times. Love couch co-op obviously. Halo Reach has a fantastic story that I'm sure you all know enough about. Afterparty (Xbox One X) - I am really glad this hit Game Pass. I really loved the writing in Oxenfree, so was stoked about a game that takes place in Hell this time. It was very comedic and oddly buggy in spots, but I had a really good time. The drinking games and descriptions of all the Hell cocktails were hilarious. Maneater (Xbox One X) - I knew I had to own this game as soon as I heard it was a shark rpg. It's exactly what you think it is. You eat fish to get stronger and eventually move on to people. I don't like how the "wanted levels" are so easily accessible though. You eat like three humans and people are immediately after you. The story is fun and is voiced by Chris Parnell. It also received the Xbox Series X upgrade for free, so check it out! Halo 3 (Xbox One X) - Another legendary Halo checked off for this year. I love how many achievements are tied into the Master Chief Collection. It definitely warrants multiple playthroughs of Halo just for some off the wall stuff to complete. Excellent, excellent game. Pokemon Sword (Nintendo Switch) - So, I love the Pokemon series dearly. In my Pokemon bank on my 3DS I caught every single Pokemon up until this new generation. I was one of the few that actually black balled this game because I do not like the direction Game Freak went in. It's been going down hill for a generation or two, but them omitting Pokemon out of this new entry was what crossed the line for me. I borrowed it from a friend so I didn't have to purchase it. Unfortunately, the addiction of collecting Pokeman came back in full force. I ended up nabbing Pokemon Home for the monthly fee anyway. I beat Pokemon Sword and transferred all my Pokemon over. It's neat seeing them in the updated graphics. I do like the designs of the new Pokemon, but Game Freak just sucks now imo. Pokemon Sword was so easy. It was insulting how easy it was. Sun and Moon had this overly long introduction that I was hoping Sword and Shield wouldn't. Turns out the whole game felt like an introduction. I used all new Pokmon, none from my bank, and it was just a joke. It had fun game play, but waaaaay too easy. Ghost of Tsushima (PS4 Pro) - This game is hitting the 6 month mark in just under two weeks, but I'm going to talk about it anyway. This is my game of the year, hands down. It's gorgeous and has a compelling story. I have seen people bash on it a bit, but it's simple and the voice acting really brings it home. I'm a subs type of guy, so having the voice actors actually speaking Japanese and reading the subs on the bottom really heightened the experience for me. Excellent game and my favorite. Double Kick Heroes (Xbox One X) - I am a huuuuge fan of the guitar hero/Rock Band series. Seeing a game where a bunch of metal heads are trying to fight Satan himself in an apocalyptic future was a no brainer for me. It's a rhythm game that unfortunately can only be controlled by a controller and not a guitar. It was a lot of fun, but my Rock Band controller didn't work. The songs were pretty good too. Halo ODST (Xbox Series X) - This is my least favorite Halo. I have beaten it 3-4 times and still can't tell you anything about the game. The game play is still a boat load of fun, but it's insanely short and doesn't offer much story wise. I am thankful it was added for free to the MCC though. Army of Two (Xbox 360/Series X) - My RE5 buddy and myself sat down and decided to play Army of Two. Neither of us have dabbled in it and were both surprised how much fun we had while playing it. Very enjoyable couch co-op game. I'm hoping the other games in the series are equally as good. Donkey Kong (Nintendo Switch) - I own this on my SNES, but it's on Nintendo's online subscription service. I thought what the hell and ran through it again. Donkey Kong was my favorite game growing up and I have beaten this game an astronomical amount of times. My buddy was getting on me for never having played DK 2 or 3, so I decided to restart the franchise and dominate one of my all time favorite games. Animal Crossing: New Horizons (Nintendo Switch) - This is my first AC game. My friend always talked about it and she really took care of her animals. I surprised her with buying it in April shortly after release. I was hooked on that for a long time. There is no real "beating" this game, but I did get my island to 5 stars. I don't play it every day like I used to, and my villagers are very upset with me about that (some taking offense), but I still sink in a few hours per week when I can. Very relaxing game in a very stressful year. It is appreciated. Now, I'm going to talk about the games I attempted, but didn't care enough to finish or just didn't get a chance to Doom Eternal (Xbox One X) - I feel like I am the only one who didn't like Doom Eternal. It was honestly too hard for it's own good and the puzzle were just in the way half the time. I don't judge anyone who thinks it's fun, but I just suck at this. Doom 2016 is one of my all time favorite fps', but this was a huge step back for me. I am on the second to last level too and have no urge to go back. Now that I have the Series X though, I may attempt it again to see if I enjoy it. Days Gone (PS5) - After getting my PS5 I had no games for it. I am not a Souls guy, so I didn't pick up Demon Souls. After hooking it up and rummaging through the OS I found that Playstation has many of their AAA exclusives on there for free. I always heard decent things about Days Gone. I didn't hate the game, but also didn't get too far. It was a solid time waster for the few hours I played it, but overall it didn't hook me like I hoped it would. Yakuza 0 (Xbox Series X) - I'm glad this is on Game Pass because it introduced me to the Yakuza series after ignoring it for the longest time. It is a very, very, very fun game that I put in close to 100 hours into. However, I couldn't finish it because I was way too burned out. All the grinding in businesses became a chore and I never wanted to pick it up. Even though I put 100 hours into it, I'm only slightly over half way. This is my own fault for focusing on stuff besides the main story, but I just can't bring myself to finish. Rage 2 (Xbox One X) - This is a game I'm going to come back to. I loved what I played, but other stuff came out and I just haven't gone back to it yet. Persona 5 Royal (PS5) - So, Persona 4 is one of my all time favorite jrpgs. For whatever reason, I waited a very long time to play Persona 5. I preordered the collector's edition of Persona 5, but just didn't play it. I then heard the Persona 5 Royal was going to be a thing. So, I preordered the collector's edition for that too lol. I then sat down and put in around 130 hours into it over two play throughs. I'm on the second to last palace and if I had beaten it by now then I would say this is my GOTY. The first play through I was kind of breezing through so I restarted it on a new save file to play it on a harder difficulty. Such a fan game. Donkey Kong Country 2 (Nintendo Switch) - My buddy has been hyping the game up for years, trying to get me to play it. I'm not against playing it, but I just haven't had the chance to. I'm going to be 33 next month, so I definitely grew up with DK, but for whatever reason I skipped the sequels. Very fun so far though, even though he's being a little "gatekeepy" with me having to find all the secrets. I'm just going to beat it to shut him up lol If you got through all this, thank you! It's been a very stressful year for me and these games have been a literal life saver. I'm hoping 2021 is better in many aspects. If it's not, then I only have entertainment to keep me occupied. Have a good year everyone.
[H] Yakuza Kiwami 2, Darksiders 3, Hat in Time, Ancestors, PC Building Sim, Pathologic 2 Darkwood, Call of Cthulhu, AoW Planetfall, Grid Ultimate, hellblade, Gris, Catherine Classic, HITMAN 2,Tropica 6, Overcooked 2, Lethal League Blaze, MANY MORE [W] Farcry 6 key, Horizon Zero Dawn
This month, I set out to beat God Wars: The Complete Legend on PC. About 30 hours into it though, I started to lose the desire to play the game so I decided to drop it. I then picked up AOT Wings of Freedom and AOT 2 and I beat them both in the span of 3 days. I had a lot of fun with both games and it's definitely a good game to pick up. I then decided to play The Outer Worlds thinking it would take up the rest of my month, but it turned out to be much shorter than I imagined, I didn't do every side quest, but I didn't just go straight for the main storyline either and I clocked in a few hours in the game (All enjoyable though) After beating TOW, I then picked up a game I knew would be short and sweet and after about 10 hours, I beat Ikenfell which is a lovely LGBTQIA+ game that I would recommend to anyone looking for something with a great cast of characters, good soundtrack, and RPG battling reminiscent of Paper Mario. After beating Ikenfell I spent the last week beating Conception 1 and 2. I played the remastered version of Conception on PC and I finally beat 2, I reviewed 2 when it first launched on PC but at the time, I was lukewarm on the game and I dropped it before I finished the game, but when I beat Conception I started a new save file and played Conception 2 all the way from the beginning and while I was a bit more open to the story, the amount of fan service and the "classmate" aspect of both games, got a little awkward and uncomfortable for my liking. I do like the class system of the game and I will admit that the dungeon design can go die in a ditch. Other than that, I would recommend both games if you can handle the excessive fan service and horrible dungeon design. I don't think I'm going to be beating any other games this month so that's why I'm writing this up now about 5 days in advance because I'm going to relax while I wait for Yakuza Remastered Collection to hit PC so I can play Y3 and continue the Kiryu Saga.
Is the remastered collection a good starting point?
Hi guys, PS4 owner. I never thought much about the serie of yakuza games, but i don't know why, I feel I want to try. I check a little bit the reviews and it seems the 6 and 0 are well loved, no idea about the last one but the price is still a bit high. 6 and 0 cost 20e each but i'm sure they can get discounted so i should wait, but the remastered collection is on sale, at 30€ for 3 games. Then, when i check the ranking lists, and i don't read much cause i want to avoid any spoiler, those games are often ranked among the bottom. so, without spoilers, are they worth it or not really? thanks
My post history will reveal that I made a starting thread back in 2019 that never got a follow up because as it turns out I could only manage 6 completed games that year, and only 2 of them were actually from my original list. Obviously because of the pandemic I’ve had a lot more free time on my hands, so since March 2020 I’ve blazed through a whopping 23 games – more than I’ve completed in the past 4 years combined. Though instead of focusing my efforts on culling my backlog, a lot of the games I finished this year were new releases/purchases. Earlier in March/April I assumed probably like many people that coronavirus would go away in a matter of months and we’d return to the office (and my long commute) in short order, so I wanted to relish the extra free time while I had it by playing some new games (such as Final Fantasy VII Remake). However, it seems like I'll be continuing to telework into the future, so for 2021, I’d like to refocus my efforts on clearing my backlog (and ultimately buying fewer games – especially major new releases). 2020 Completed Games
Hollow Knight | Completed: 19 Mar | Rating: 5/5
Borderlands 3 | Completed: 5 Apr | Rating: 2/5
Control | Completed: 15 Apr | Rating: 3/5
Final Fantasy VII Remake | Completed: 30 Apr | Rating: 4/5
Return of the Obra Dinn | Completed: 13 May | Rating: 4.5/5
Resident Evil 4 | Completed: 15 May | Rating: 4/5
Anatomy | Completed: 13 Jun | Rating: ?/5
DOOM (2016) | Completed: 18 Jun | Rating: 4/5
Devotion | Completed: 28 Jun | Rating: 4/5
Life Is Strange 2 | Completed: 5 July | Rating: 4.5/5
Dishonored: The Knife of Dunwall | Completed: 3 Sep | Rating: 3/5
The Dark Pictures: Man of Medan | Completed: 21 Dec | Rating: 3/5
Total Complete: 23 Total New Games Added to Collection: 43
My Thoughts and Progress
Favourite Game (Overall): Life Is Strange 2 This may be surprising, but yes, LIS2 was my favourite game this year! Unfortunately I don't hear much buzz about this game and it's weirdly polarising, even to those who have yet to play it. It's about two brothers who are on the run from the law after the youngest's then-undiscovered powers result in the accidental death of an officer. As the older brother, you have to make choices to protect and guide your loose canon of a sibling from Seattle to the border of Mexico. It's a dire scenario, yes, but because the narrative is framed as more of a road trip than a thrilling escape from the authorities, I found this game to be oddly comforting, especially during these (corona) times. Because the brothers keep a low profile, they're often in nature and visit real locations that this game creates its own gorgeous rendition of (Mount Rainier and the Arizonan canyons in particular were my favourite), and the game also sheds light on alternate lifestyles (living on the road, in communes, train hoppers, etc) that often aren't explored in video games. There are no real good endings to LIS2 where all the characters get to walk away unscathed, but after this playing this, it stayed in my mind and made me feel inspired in a way that no other game I've played this year has. Runner Up: Hollow Knight - Because my progress with this game has stretched out over years, it almost doesn't feel like "a game I beat in 2020." It also doesn't feel finite. It's a game I'll continue to pull out every now and then to discover new things and find new challenges. Favourite 2020 Release: Hades Surprising no one, Hades has to be my GOTY for 2020. Supergiant is a master at turning genres I normally hate into games I love. I've been taking it at my own pace, but I'm hoping it's something I come back to regularly in the future. Least Favourite Game (Overall): Borderlands 3 I'm not too keen on looter shooters, so it's probably through no fault of the game itself. There was one particularly cool cameo, but otherwise, I don't have much good to say. Biggest Disappointment: Control All style, lots of padding, but no substance. Everything that happens in this game leads up to a... big flat nothing. Like, come on! The world, the setting, and the visuals were on point, but the story was aimless and anticlimactic. Literally nothing changes from the beginning to the end of the game, and it feels like you made no impact on the world and its characters whatsoever. Biggest Surprise: Resident Evil 3 Remake I may not have liked Resident Evil 2 Remake... Like. At all. One of the main reasons being how sluggish the controls were. I know we're supposed to tolerate subpar movement/combat mechanics for horror games because it makes them "more tense," but for the love of God, getting constantly bowled down because your character has the same level of dexterity as your grandma was simply not fun for me. Especially when the zombies of all things can bob and weave out of your crosshair better than Mike Tyson. Well, RE3R addresses that problem by adding a dodge button. Turns out, that small addition is all that was needed for a much smoother experience. Most Unique Gameplay: Return of the Obra Dinn It's hard to believe this game was created by a one-man team, not only because it's so damn polished in every respect, but because the "whodunit" structure of the game is so intricate and well-thought out. Every single character's fate can be determined from tangible clues if you're observant enough, and not just via guesswork (though the game acknowledges that guessing is a perfectly valid way to determine the fates). Best Hidden Gem: Song of Horror Or is it? I do love my horror games, but it seems like I've fallen out of touch with the genre. Either way, it doesn't seem like many people are aware this game exists. If you're sick of the modern horror game template, Song of Horror is a throwback to when the genre felt a little more experimental. Rather than throwing jumpscare after jumpscare at you, Song of Horror keeps you on edge with a mix of a perma-death system, choice-based scenarios that can lead to your demise or be your saving grace, and the placement of "illusions" to trick the player into walking into their own deathtrap. It's unsettling and a lot of fun, but it loses some points for having some broken/obtuse puzzles. Favourite Boss Fight: T-073-M (Ghostrunner) If it can even be called that? It's more a challenging platforming section that has you avoiding lasers and lethal electrical pulses as you zip and wall climb up to the top of a rotating machine. It was a fun sensory overload and easily one of the most memorable gaming moments I've had this year. Final Notes:
I've said for a long time that I'm no fan of the FPS genre, yet I've found myself enjoying games like DOOM and Halo: The Master Chief Collection quite a lot. Perhaps it's not a genre to snub after all.
Almost all games completed this year were also purchased this year, only DOOM and Hollow Knight were games I've had on my list for a long time. With things like the The Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality, Xbox Game Pass, Epic giveaways, and my existing backlog, I have less and less reason to purchase new games in 2021.
In the previous years, I didn't get caught up in much of the hype culture, but in 2020 it's like a switch has flipped. I've made many impulse, full price purchases on brand new games that I could've happily waited for a discount to play.
2021 List and Goals
I don't think having a set monthly list works for me, so I'm just going to drop a list of games from my backlog I'd like to clear in 2021 and refer back to throughout the year. Started but incomplete:
The Evil Within (PC)
Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee (PC)
Night in the Woods (PC)
Resident Evil HD Remastered (PC)
Resident Evil 2 (1998) (PC)
Yakuza 0 (PC)
Persona 5 Royal (PS4)
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (PC)
Silent Hill 4: The Room (PC)
Kingdom Hearts Final Mix (PS4)
System Shock 2 (PC)
Dragon Age: Inquisition (PC)
DOOM Eternal (PC)
Dead Space (PC)
Sunset Overdrive (PC)
Hypnospace Outlaw (PC)
God of War (PS4)
Final Fantasy 7 (Switch)
Darkwood (PC)
Halo 2 (PC)
Metal Gear Solid 3 (PS3)
Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice (PC)
Unplayed:
Resident Evil 0 (PC)
Observer (PC)
Pyre (PC)
Ghost of Tsushima (PS4)
So that's 26 total games. I don't think I'll get through my entire list, but I'm aiming to complete a similar number of games. Other loose goals:
Post semi-regular progress reports in this subreddit
Play some obscure games
Play some pre-2000 games
Buy fewer than 20 games
Wait for new games to go on sale before purchasing (if more than $35 on release)
So that's it! Happy new year and good luck for 2021!
[H] Yakuza Kiwami 2, Darksiders 3, Hat in Time, Ancestors, PC Building Sim, Pathologic 2 Darkwood, Call of Cthulhu, AoW Planetfall, Grid Ultimate, hellblade, Gris, Catherine Classic, HITMAN 2,Tropica 6, Overcooked 2, Lethal League Blaze, MANY MORE [W] Farcry 6 key, Horizon Zero Dawn
Prelude: I played the first Yakuza when I rented it back when I was younger. I only made it halfway through the game and I never rented it again, I don't know why I didn't rent it again because I distinctly remember it being one of the most unique games I had played on the PS2, there was no other game that had its atmosphere. Time passed by and I would always notice Yakuza in the background, occasionally seeing a trailer for the most recent entry and sometimes finding a game in a store and going "I remember playing that on the PS2" and then looking for a different game. Eventually, I saw a review of Yakuza 0 around the time it came out, I decided "You know what? How 'bout I try a Yakuza game again?". Cut to three years later and as of a couple of months ago, I've completed every game in the Kiryu saga and I'm here to summarise my thoughts and rank them from best to worst. Yakuza 0: This game is amazing. When I started 0, I was enjoying it well enough but I didn't think it was amazing, but at a certain point after the first few hours, that's when it became great, from that point to the end. The story is very well done with all the twists and turns and emotional payoffs, the relationship between Majima and Makoto I thought was really touching. The gameplay was really fun with the different styles, my favourite was Majima's slugger style. Some of my favourite moments of the game come from the substories, even after playing through the entire series, I still think that 0 has some of the best substories. I know I'm not being very descriptive but there are only so many ways to say that Yakuza 0 is great and I don't have anything to add to the discussion when practically everyone thinks Yakuza 0 is great. Starting the series with the prequel was an interesting experience, to most Yakuza fans this game is the backstory to characters they already know, to me, this is my introduction to these characters. There were only a couple of times where I was confused due to not having played the other games, the part where I was confused the most was at the very end when it mentions the Millennium Tower. Yakuza 0 is a great game, but you probably knew that already. And one last thing before moving is when I unlocked the Dragon Of Dojima style, I decided to put on Kiryu's classic suit and went out on to the streets at night, and as I was beating up some thugs, I ended up getting flashbacks to Yakuza 1 on the PS2, it was a cool moment of nostalgia for me. Yakuza Kiwami: This game is a mixed bag. Starting with the story, I don't think it has held up to time, and that's excluding the bits with Majima they added which I'll get to that in a bit. There's a lot of sections in the campaign where the story digresses from the main plot and spends time on subplots that have very little to do with the main story. The best way I could explain it is that the story lacks momentum, it constantly stops and starts for detours that it feels less like the story is progressing and more like events just happen. The stuff added with Majima clashes with what was in the original game, Majima changes from how he is in 1 and how he is in the rest of the series, and considering that they're essentially two different characters, it's incredibly jarring. I think there are two ways they could have gone, either change the story cutscenes so that Majima acts like he does in later games or don't have the Majima Everywhere system. Having Majima swap between two different versions of himself just adds issues to the story and makes the game inconsistent. The gameplay is similar to 0, except I didn't like the bosses as much. There were a lot more moments during gameplay where I would get attacked constantly and would have very little time to react so it felt cheap. The Majima Everywhere system was fun because of all the different interactions with Majima, one of my favourite moments was when he busted out his karaoke outfit from 0. The thing I didn't like about it was that after I had finished the Majima Everywhere storyline Majima would still fight me which made finishing up all the substories annoying. My least favourite part of the game was the presentation, the cutscenes were just the PS2 cutscenes with newer models pasted over them. The low-quality animations and Kiryu's dead eyes were incredibly distracting and took me out of the experience. I also noticed really bad tree pop-in, not sure if anyone else had that but it was very distracting during the daytime. I've been crapping on the game for the last several paragraphs, so what did I like about Kiwami? I liked the connections to 0 and how they felt natural and not forced. Added substories like pocket circuit and the woman asking about the bubble period were some of my favourite substories from the game. The line Kiryu says to Haruka, "Something bad happened there a long time ago." acknowledges the events of 0 while being subtle. Haruka is freaking adorable. Even though I had issues with the story, I did like the ending, it sorta made up for the story a little bit. Overall, even though I said more negatives than positives, I didn't hate my time with Kiwami, I liked it as much as I disliked it, it's a mixed bag but I didn't regret playing it. Yakuza Kiwami 2: This game is way better than Kiwami 1. The first thing I want to mention is the presentation, the cutscenes look way better than Kiwami 1, probably because the original Yakuza 2 had better animations, so they don't look half bad with newer models, there were times where I completely forgot that the cutscenes came from a PS2 game so I wasn't nearly as distracted as I was in Kiwami 1. There were a few times where animations looked robotic but thankfully they were few and far between. The story is a huge improvement from 1, it fixes the issues I had with 1's story, it's more focused and gets less distracted. Ryuji Goda is probably the best antagonist of the whole series. Overall I don't have many issues with the story except for the ending, the fake-out cliffhanger was bizarre, and the after-credits scene of Date going "Boy it sure was a good thing that bomb was fake!". It was as if they originally intended to kill Kiryu off but they had to change it so he lived. That's probably not the case but that's how the ending came across for me. Other than the bizarre execution of the ending, the story was really good. The additional content that they added to the remake, the cabaret club minigame and the Majima sidestory, are very good additions to the game. I'd say that stuff between Majima and Makoto is some of the best writing in the series. The moment when Makoto realises who Majima was on the airplane is great stuff, one of my favourite moments in the series. The cabaret club was the better of the two sidestories from 0 so I was happy to see it return in this game. Overall, Yakuza Kiwami 2 is a great game, almost as good as 0, and is a way better remake than Kiwami 1. Now that I'm done with the remakes, it's on to the Remastered Collection. Yakuza 3: This game holds up surprisingly well. I was pleasantly surprised by how good this game is, I was expecting it to be a bit dated but it didn't feel dated to me. Starting with what I liked: I liked the story for the most part. I liked a lot of the new characters, Rikiya especially, shame he ends up dying, would have liked to see him in later games. I liked the story of Kiryu becoming a sort of dad for the kids. I don't know what the consensus on the orphanage kids are, but I liked them, I thought they were fun and well written and they didn't detract from the game for me. Ryukyu is my favourite location in the Yakuza series, shame it never makes a reappearance, I can only imagine how it would look in the Dragon engine. My favourite parts of the game were the Revelations, I thought they were a fun way of learning new moves, I liked exploring the world finding all the unique cutscenes. Overall, the gameplay was fun, I thought the story was decent, the side content was also fun, but what didn't I like about Yakuza 3? The biggest issue I had with the story was the antagonist Mine. I couldn't understand his motivations and thought it didn't make sense, even during his villain motivation speech, I couldn't get a grasp on his motivation. Maybe I wasn't paying enough attention but it did feel like his motivation was overly convoluted. I think he could have been a good villain had his motivations been clearer. The twin brother reveal, while I don't think it's that big of an issue, I still think it's a bit far fetched. The hostesses made completing all the substories a pain in the ass, I must have spent several hours just on the hostesses, easily my least favourite part of the game. It ends with another fake out death for Kiryu, this one even less justified than 2's. Other than those things, I think Yakuza 3 is a solid entry that holds up surprisingly well. Yakuza 4: This game is terrible Absolutely terrible. It's kind of impressive how abysmal it is. This game has the dumbest plot twist in any story I've ever experienced. And it wasn't just that twist, it was also another event that came afterwards. The event was Hamazaki landing on Kiryu's beach. It was that tag team that solidified that this game was a poorly written mess, not that there weren't signs before them, but these two events were what confirmed it for me. First, the rubber bullets twist because I have a lot to say about how stupid it is.
He still would have injured someone.
Saejima at a few points sticks his guns directly into the stomach of a few of the people at the ramen shop. Problem is, if you stick a gun to someone's stomach, you're going to put a hole in them because the force coming out of a gun is enough to put a hole in something. So everyone Saejima did that to should have holes in their stomachs. But what about the people that weren't shot directly in their stomachs, they should be fine right? Neither would they be ok, because Yakuza 4 states that the rubber bullets are powerful enough to knock people unconscious. If they're powerful enough to knock people unconscious, that would also mean that they're powerful enough to break people's bones. What would have happened is that they would get shot, it would hurt like a bitch, then they realise that they weren't shot with real bullets. It wouldn't take until after Saejima left for them to wake up, they would realise it shortly after getting shot. But okay, let's try to ignore that and take the game at its word, that the bullets just knock people unconscious.
How would they knock people unconscious?
I don't see how shooting someone in the stomach or shoulder would knock them out, In the chest maybe you can reason it as the bullets knocking the air out of their lungs or something, I know that's a big stretch but at least it's more than what the game gives. What would have happened is that they would get shot, it would hurt like a bitch, then they realise that they weren't shot with real bullets, just like with real rubber bullets. So if the bullets worked as they do in real life, it wouldn't knock people unconscious, if the bullets worked like how the game describes them, it still wouldn't work. Then there's the third point, which isn't a gun logic issue or bullet logic issue, it's a character logic issue.
Saejima does not aim for the head, despite having no reason not to.
Saejima knows that he is risking his life and that if he succeeds, he will go to prison. So why does Saejima half-ass the assassination attempt? Ueno is sitting down, he's completely powerless in this situation, nothing is stopping him from shooting him in the head, yet he doesn't for whatever reason. Saejima isn't the only character in Yakuza 4 to make the same mistake, Arai also doesn't shoot Munakata in the head when he has the upper hand. This is even more egregious when you remember that he shot Ihara in the head at the beginning of the game, so it's established that he does shoot people in the head, but when it came to Munakata he just doesn't for no reason. I can't even say that this twist has faulty logic, it just has no logic. The twist depends on guns not working how they should, rubber bullets not working how they should and Saejima half-assing the assassination attempt, had Saejima aimed for the head then the plot wouldn't even happen, and that's why it's the worst plot twist I've ever seen. Then the final nail in this game's coffin is when Hamazaki somehow survives 3 bullet wounds to the chest, somehow doesn't bleed out, somehow doesn't drown and by pure coincidence lands on Kiryu's beach. That was the exact moment I checked out and stopped caring about the game. Let's list off some more issues, shall we? Saejima by pure coincidence ends up on the beach of the person he was just told to look for, then and even though he is a wanted prisoner on death row, somehow manages to get Kamurocho undetected and the game doesn't explain how he does it. Akiyama's life is saved due to a wad of cash that was never established. Arai somehow escapes the police station after shooting Munakata. The weak attempt at tying the plot of Yakuza 4 to Yakuza 1. I could on and on about the issues the plot, if I did, I would never get to the gameplay, which isn't much better, to be honest. The biggest disappointment was the lack of a new location, just Kamurocho for this game. I didn't have much fun playing with Akiyama's or Saejima's combat styles in this game, I liked Tanimura's focus on parrying but because of the whole debacle with Tanimura's original actor, they couldn't build upon it in later games. I'll always think of Yakuza 4 as "the bad one", the writing is a massive drop in quality from the rest of the series. Yakuza 5: This game is amazing. While Yakuza 0 is agreed upon by the Yakuza community to be a great game, Yakuza 5 seems more divisive. I've seen a post stating that Yakuza 5 has the worst story in any Yakuza game. I obviously disagree, but I would say that Yakuza 5 has one of the best stories in any Yakuza game. The intro to Yakuza 5 is the best in the series in how it effortlessly sets up the main plot. The mystery of how we ended with Kiryu as a cab driver and Haruka as an idol made it the most intriguing intro in the whole series. From the first hour, I was hooked. A major strength of Yakuza 5's story is giving the main characters and their surroundings time to breathe. The game gives a lot of time to flesh out its characters and not just the main ones but the side characters as well. For me, Yakuza 5 has the most memorable side characters in the series, I pretty much remember all of them from Kiryu's coworkers to Saejima's prison mates to the employees at the Idol agency to the citizens of Kineicho. The finale is really good, I love how almost everything gets paid off, like how the prison mates return and save Baba from killing himself, Takasugi calling Shinada, and Watase, Madarame and Kitakata showing up to help Akiyama, it makes the whole game mean something. Then there's Shinada, I don't know what the consensus on Shinada is, but out of all the playable characters besides Kiryu and Majima, he's my favourite. Akiyama's philosophy is interesting but in comparison to the rest of the cast he comes off a bit bland to me, Saejima is cool but he's attached to that dumbass twist and Tanimura had very little going on except his combat style. When I played Yakuza 5 I had no idea what kind of character Shinada was, so I was surprised when he turned out to be a sleazy goofball. I really sympathised with his backstory, plus, he's a bit of a Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass type, and I have an affinity for those kinds of characters. Gameplay is way better than Yakuza 4, Akiyama and Saejima were better to play in this game, Shinada being a weapons based character is cool, the sidestories such as Kiryu's racing sidestory, Saejima's hunting sidestory, and Shinada's baseball sidestory were all fun. That's everything I liked, but what didn't I like? The Kitakata kidnapping scene is complete bull. Aizawa being the final boss could have been set up a lot better. The game is very on the nose with what the theme is. Haruka becomes part of an Idol group called Dreamline, the track they sing is called dream, the final boss theme is "Battle for the dream", the Japanese subtitle is "Fulfiller Of Dreams" and I'm pretty sure every character says the word dream at some point. Overall, despite these issues, I still love Yakuza 5, I think it's on par with Yakuza 0, to the point where I can't decide which is better. Yakuza 6: This game is alright. This is the most "ok" game in the series, I did enjoy my time with it, but if there's one phrase that encapsulates my feelings on the whole game, it would be "it could have been better". Starting with the story. Something that I noticed is that even though the opening of Yakuza 6 takes place immediately after 5, Shinada and Baba don't even get a mention, which is weird since they were major players in 5's story but they don't even get a throwaway line. One thing I like about the opening is Haruka facing consequences for the stunt she pulled at the end of 5. Initially, I was annoyed at that when I was playing 5, but as I thought about it more, it does make sense that Haruka would do that. Haruka is pure, she has an optimistic view of the world which in the opening of 6 gets shat on by reality, Akiyama even says to her, "This may not turn out the way you're hoping it will". I've seen some people say that they don't like how Haruka is depicted in 5 and 6, but I didn't have any problems with her. Also, it was nice seeing the orphanage kids return from 3, even if it was just for a little bit. The game has some similarities to Yakuza 3, we're back to having Kiryu being the sole protagonist, we're in a small-town setting and a portion of the game is spent on Kiryu befriending the local yakuza. The mystery of who the father of the baby was I did find to be intriguing and the reveal did surprise me. Now let's go into what makes the game just okay instead of good. The Onomichi yakuza, they're fine characters but they mostly made me miss Rikiya. The letter scene at the very end is really bad, the father and son thing between Kiryu and Daigo was never a thing. After Yakuza 2, Daigo was done dirty, in 3 he was in a coma for the whole game, in 4 he was a bad guy for some reason and 5 is the best outing he's had and even in that game he only had two scenes with Kiryu. Subverting expectations doesn't work when the subversion makes less sense than the expectation. The biggest issue that I left Yakuza 6 with is that it didn't really feel like a finale. The only thing that makes it a finale to Kiryu's story is the ending, otherwise it's a standard Yakuza story. Kiryu and Haruka are the focus of the story but a lot of time is spent with the Onomichi yakuza when other more important characters are relegated to cameos. Majima, Saejima, and Daigo only appear at the very beginning and the very end. The only other prominent Yakuza characters that have any presence are Akiyama and Date. The game doesn't feel like the culmination of a story 6 games in the making, it feels like any other game in the series but Kiryu leaves at the end. By itself it's fine but as a conclusion to Kiryu's story, it could have been better. Ranking:
Yakuza 5/Yakuza 0
Kiwami 2
Yakuza 3
Yakuza 6
Kiwami 1
Yakuza 4
Summary: I really enjoyed my time with the Yakuza series, it took a while but it was worth it in the end. I'm excited to play Like A Dragon whenever I get it, I'm curious to see how the team handles an RPG rather than a beat-em-up. Miscellaneous thoughts: Favourite battle music: Force Addiction One Eyed Slugger Funk Goes On (Original) Scarlet Scar Independence For Violence Favourite Final Boss Music: Fly Favourite Receive You Variations: Receive You The Madtype Receive And Slash You Favourite Box Art: The Western PS3 Yakuza 4 Cover
Our review of the Yakuza Remastered Collection. 2020 was a monumental year in video games that saw the release a new generation of PlayStation and Xbox hardware, as well as a long list of stellar The Yakuza Remastered Collection is now available on PS4, Xbox One, and PC. The game was provided by the publisher for the purpose of this review, and it was reviewed on a PC via Windows 10. But with the Yakuza Remastered Collection, the cut scenes are unnecessarily long to the point of boredom and you are stuck with them, like it or not. While the fighting mechanics are a vast... The Yakuza Remastered Collection comes to Xbox, PC, and Xbox Gamepass, joining the three other Yakuza games to almost complete the Yakuza saga. Despite some clunky gameplay, The Yakuza Remastered The Yakuza Remastered Collection is about as perfect a rendition of the three included games as one could ask for. The three mainline PS3 games are here and look and feel better than ever. The The Yakuza Remastered Collection Review – The Dragon and the Mad Dog The saga is now (mostly) complete. Posted By Pramath | On 30th, Jan. 2021 Under Article , Reviews The Yakuza Remastered Collection finally allows PC and Xbox owners to play through the entire Kiryu Kazuma saga on a single platform, and the games have never looked better. And while some of the... Fortunately, the Yakuza Remastered Collection is bringing updated versions of Yakuzas 3-5 to PC. Unlike Yakuza Kiwami and Yakuza Kiwami 2, these games are not remakes, but facelifts of the original games, ported to PC. I had the good fortune of playing through these games on my PS4 last year, and so we’ll be taking a look at both how the ports handle compared to console, and how well the Unlike Kiwami and Kiwami 2, the Remastered Collection doesn't remake Yakuza 3, 4 and 5 from the ground-up. Instead this trio of titles from the PS3 is given a comparatively modest graphical... The Yakuza Remastered Collection In terms of value for money, it’s almost impossible to fault The Yakuza Remastered Collection. You’re getting three games that can easily occupy you for 60-80 hours...
RPGFan Links:Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/rpgfancom/Twitter - https://twitter.com/rpgfancom/Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/rpgfancom/Discord - ... In the end, if you have never played Yakuza, and want to start out, I would recommend none of these three games as your first one – Yakuza 0 or Like A Dragon... Twitter: https://twitter.com/nerd_cultuurFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/nerdcultuur/PSN: NerdcultuurMuziek van bensounds.com, niet mijn eigendom.Alle afb... With the release of Yakuza 5 Remastered today, all of the PS3 Yakuza titles are now playable on the PS4 in 1080P, 60 FPS action. But is it worth playing Yaku... Los fans de la saga #Yakuza están de enhorabuena: con The Yakuza Remastered Collection podrán disfrutar en sus #PlayStation4 de Yakuza 3, Yakuza 4 y Yakuza 5... This is an unboxing video for the Yakuza Remastered Collection on the PS4. I showcase everything in it, and will be covering Yakuza 5 on the PS4 this weekend...
![The Yakuza Remastered Collection PS4 [Unboxing] - YouTube](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/b5G545THqmE/default.jpg "Twitter: https://twitter.com/nerd_cultuurFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/nerdcultuur/PSN: NerdcultuurMuziek van bensounds.com, niet mijn eigendom.Alle afb...")
