A lot to say that I don’t here and I’m at work rn so this is fairly rambly but game’s cool. I love the Saga stuff, it feels like you really are trapped in this world as everything moulds around you and the people act vague and uncanny. This particular story being about the real world but having it change itself gives the game a unique tone where it still feels like this is a grounded and real world, but one that you still feel out of place in. The whole thing of solving this mystery within the mystery and using that mystery to solve your mystery is really cool!

With Alan though it feels a lot more confused I’d say? It seems to want to say things about art and artists and everything but never quite hit for me in the way I think it wanted to? The plot in Alan’s sections also don’t have the line of logic you can attach yourself to with Saga’s story, there you’re putting the pieces together yourself to solve a grounded question of “who is behind the cult and its murders” you just answer that through all the crazy stuff, with Alan though I never really understood what he was doing or why? Alan would say “I’m going to go talk to Mr Door” so I’d think “ok I guess we’re talking to Mr Door”. I forgive him for this though because the actor for Alan’s cute and these sections are similarly drenched in atmosphere, with the city feeling really dead and lonely. I like the stealth in these bits! It can get a bit much but the vagueness of the taken’s detection, the fact they’re just everywhere and that they’ll see your flashlight gives the game that underlying sense of tension and nervousness without turning it into a full stealth game.

Kind of a mess but I ended up really liking it. I feel like it's hurt by having to be "the final yakuza game!!" because while I like the story's hard focus on family and connecting to each other, it's a story that doesn't feel targeted at Kiryu really. Tons of the drama revolves around a specific character who doesn’t feel like he gets to do much because Kiryu’s the main character, therefore he has to do everything. Vaguely spoilery screenshot but this line is a perfect example of what I mean, if this were a film or whatever where they didn’t need to think about who you’re directly controlling I think a lot of this would go completely differently. It’s not helped either by Kiryu not really having much more character development? 1-3 and 0 develop him while he’s a bit more in the background for 4 and 5 uses his overpowered-ness in a cool way while he’s not directly placed as “the main character”. Here though, I love him but he’s just killing any drama. I’m not the type to constantly go “ehehe i bet this will happen” but I kind of knew how a lot of scenes would go just because of Kiryu’s presence, nothing bad seems to happen around him. When he does get genuine pushback, especially at the end, it’s really cool! But for a lot of this I felt like his main drama was “how can I make this about me” when I wanted it to focus on the others more because they’re great! The fact that I’ve rated this 4 stars then spent the whole post complaining should emphasise just how much I loved all the Onomichi characters and the game’s direct character focus. The big “Yakuza conspiracy” side of this plot felt like it was pushed to the side a bit more and I kind of like that (mostly because I’m dumb but also) because it just felt like it had time to breathe and clearly play with each of the character’s relationships.

The dropkick is so good as well. Good stuff.

edit: it's slowly sinking in that this is the last direct kiryu yakuza, i'm gonna vomit tears, i've been playing these since 2019

As someone who made a "Hunt Down The Freeman sucks 😤😤" video when this came out, it kind of rules fuck it

Absolutely baffling game every step of the way with no sense of thought out design or anything, not played a game since this where I've had so many questions for the developers. Might not be "so bad it's good" in the same way as something like The Room but gives the same feeling of complete confusion on how it was made. And in a medium that seems really eager to homogenise and streamline itself so that everything can be played by everyone, it's kind of funny playing something that doesn't seem to have been thought through at all and either completely ignores game design techniques or tries them without understanding what they're for.

Not saying this is some misunderstood materpiece but I'd actually put it alongside Half-Life 2 to show the contrast of how you should and shouldn't design an FPS campaign. It's bad but it's so bad that I feel like I appreciate games more because of it lmao

also i remember i beat this mostly in a day because we were snowed in, kind of a weirdly cozy memory 😌

I got snake bite piercings since the last time I played something as intense as this and I've found out it makes me subconsciously chew on them which can't be good for my teeth. Other than that the game's good though.

actually the logo annoys me a bit as well, i thought it was just text saying OTXO but there's a random gun outline in the middle like they forgot to hide that layer

will probably post some actual thoughts once i beat this

Preferred it to what I played of F.E.A.R. 2! While that game took F.E.A.R. and made it play better for consoles but kept similar level design leading to a worse game, I feel this pushes into the console angle. Focusing on quick set pieces that carry you through the combat rather than levels that are trying to prop up and put a focus on that combat.

It's very short and not amazing, I still don't particularly like this combat and the story is very nothing-y but it has a sense of pace and energy to it that I didn't feel with what I played of the base game, so pretty ok! If this was Letterboxd there'd be a wee 'like' next to those 2 stars.