BlackBlaze
If whismy was personified as 1 game it would be this. Incredibly fun and creative.
Was originally gonna give this game a 8/10 due to it being solid all around but with a quite a few things missing I felt could have improved this (most likely missing due to smaller scope of this game) but my god that last chapter...
Despite having a 1/3 of the screen time most villains in this franchise LaD Gaiden's villains stand out. Homare Nishitani representing the depravity the yakuza encourges and rewards and Kosei Shishido representing the average yakuza who has been cast out by society and members who feels the organisation is the only thing they have and their only path to success. Both of the antagonists reinforces the necessity of abolishing of the clans. Also their personalities are awesome.
The last scene in dojo might just be the best scene in the entire franchise and definitely my fav from this year. Moments like this really make the hundreds of hours I've poured into this franchise and story feel so rewarding. Kiryu getting the see the kids he gave up everything for thrive and live free of hardship is both incredibly wholesome and intensely tragic. Takaya Kuroda's performance here is perfect as Kiryu.
''I guess I needed them more than they ever needed me''
This succeeded phenomenally in it's goal of generating hype for LaD 8 because it really reminded me how lonely Kiryu is and I'm really hoping he can find that family he's been missing in Hawaii with the gang.
Despite having a 1/3 of the screen time most villains in this franchise LaD Gaiden's villains stand out. Homare Nishitani representing the depravity the yakuza encourges and rewards and Kosei Shishido representing the average yakuza who has been cast out by society and members who feels the organisation is the only thing they have and their only path to success. Both of the antagonists reinforces the necessity of abolishing of the clans. Also their personalities are awesome.
The last scene in dojo might just be the best scene in the entire franchise and definitely my fav from this year. Moments like this really make the hundreds of hours I've poured into this franchise and story feel so rewarding. Kiryu getting the see the kids he gave up everything for thrive and live free of hardship is both incredibly wholesome and intensely tragic. Takaya Kuroda's performance here is perfect as Kiryu.
''I guess I needed them more than they ever needed me''
This succeeded phenomenally in it's goal of generating hype for LaD 8 because it really reminded me how lonely Kiryu is and I'm really hoping he can find that family he's been missing in Hawaii with the gang.
2023
Best non-From Soft souls-like out there.
Would have been a 9 if the game didn't run my asshole on PC.
2012
Honestly this shit pissed me off. It's like the intentionally tried to make this game as shit as possible to piss of fans/players.
They actually removed everything that made the original game a classic and replaced it with....???
> Fast paced attacks and combos replaced with animations half as smooth and twice as slow
> Removed buying new moves from the shop so you're stuck with fucking stinger and high time FOR THE WHOLE GAME.
> Voice acting is still awful but now it's just plain bad instead of charming like the first game
> Simple but effective story of the first game is somehow stripped down to be even more bare bones with one of the worst villains I've ever witnessed.
> Changed Dante's character from cheeky and charismatic to a boring, generic stoic 'bad ass'.
Even though Lucia's gameplay is far better than Dante's I couldn't bring myself to play though this garbage again. At least the game was short I guess...
They actually removed everything that made the original game a classic and replaced it with....???
> Fast paced attacks and combos replaced with animations half as smooth and twice as slow
> Removed buying new moves from the shop so you're stuck with fucking stinger and high time FOR THE WHOLE GAME.
> Voice acting is still awful but now it's just plain bad instead of charming like the first game
> Simple but effective story of the first game is somehow stripped down to be even more bare bones with one of the worst villains I've ever witnessed.
> Changed Dante's character from cheeky and charismatic to a boring, generic stoic 'bad ass'.
Even though Lucia's gameplay is far better than Dante's I couldn't bring myself to play though this garbage again. At least the game was short I guess...
Zelda was one of the franchises I never played due to not owning a Nintendo home console until the Switch (and using my DS almost entirely for Pokemon until recently) so it's safe to say this a long time coming.
Going into this game I expecting to be disappointed because it seems this game has been hailed as an almost unanimous masterpiece since it released 5 years ago, and I felt like I had overhyped myself.
But only hours into the game I was already surprised by how fantastic this was, the way it tackles tutorials by letting the player simply experiment with the world and its physics and mechanics, how intuitive almost every system feels, it's insane. You can feel how well-crafted this game is from the first 10 minutes of gameplay.
This along with the breathing-taking scope of the world (huge draw distance used effectively in gameplay such as the towers) and art style resulting in BOTW's Hyrule one of most beautiful and rewarding worlds I've ever explored. I never expected a game on the Switch (especially a launch title) to look this good.
One of favourite aspects about this game is definitely how little this game hold the player’s hand even in things such as allowing us to find and start quests organically without a map marker pointing to NPC or location. Some of the best exploration in any game I've ever played.
Only criticisms I have is that the frame rate can take a dip at time when there's lot of effects on screen and especially Korok Forest (sadly as it's one of favourite areas in the game) and the forced motion control segments for certain shrine are absolutely terrible. Nintendo needs to learn not to force motion controls into their games.
It's safe to say this game has made me a Zelda fan and I look forward to playing the other entries in this franchise along with the upcoming sequel.
Going into this game I expecting to be disappointed because it seems this game has been hailed as an almost unanimous masterpiece since it released 5 years ago, and I felt like I had overhyped myself.
But only hours into the game I was already surprised by how fantastic this was, the way it tackles tutorials by letting the player simply experiment with the world and its physics and mechanics, how intuitive almost every system feels, it's insane. You can feel how well-crafted this game is from the first 10 minutes of gameplay.
This along with the breathing-taking scope of the world (huge draw distance used effectively in gameplay such as the towers) and art style resulting in BOTW's Hyrule one of most beautiful and rewarding worlds I've ever explored. I never expected a game on the Switch (especially a launch title) to look this good.
One of favourite aspects about this game is definitely how little this game hold the player’s hand even in things such as allowing us to find and start quests organically without a map marker pointing to NPC or location. Some of the best exploration in any game I've ever played.
Only criticisms I have is that the frame rate can take a dip at time when there's lot of effects on screen and especially Korok Forest (sadly as it's one of favourite areas in the game) and the forced motion control segments for certain shrine are absolutely terrible. Nintendo needs to learn not to force motion controls into their games.
It's safe to say this game has made me a Zelda fan and I look forward to playing the other entries in this franchise along with the upcoming sequel.
2018
First Yakuza spin-off I've played but loved the change in tone and approach to story telling with this game as opposed to mainline Yakuza. Yamagi rivals Kiryu as an MC and supasses him in some ways too.
The combat features the return of the style switching (even if only 2 styles) and is very enjoyable with each style offering diffrent gameplay styles and the heat actions are better than ever.
The story is one of the better constructed of franchise with very few forgetable characters or irrelavent plot points.
Only issues I had were the 'wounding' mechanic as I hate mechanics that lower Max HP along with the price for items that recover this being extremly epensive.
The combat features the return of the style switching (even if only 2 styles) and is very enjoyable with each style offering diffrent gameplay styles and the heat actions are better than ever.
The story is one of the better constructed of franchise with very few forgetable characters or irrelavent plot points.
Only issues I had were the 'wounding' mechanic as I hate mechanics that lower Max HP along with the price for items that recover this being extremly epensive.
2017
Extremly fun 3D platformer with loads of cool mechanics via Cappy. Music is also excellent with highlights being New Donk City and the finale. My first console Mario game and not disapointed at all.