haven't felt this weird and split on a game in a long while


I think the MGS4 comparisons folks have been making are pretty valid both are big celebration games literally acknowledging everything that has come before in a way that for the most part feels earned which is a double-edged sword cause I doubt they will ever able to do anything again like this in terms of fanservice that can top it.

The gameplay is a fantastic upgrade from 7 in terms of strategy being able to move around and seeing exactly where your attack will land/the area of your attacks really leads to alot of fun encounters that feels super satisfying to pull off like throwing a goon into the direction of your teammate and them hitting em then that same teammate hitting em mid air then following up with a ground attack to get even more damage.

The open world is brimming with so many things to do in all 3 towns Hawaii is such a breath of fresh air for this series in terms of the variety of locale and the sheer insane amount of things to do inside of it and the returning towns ijincho and kamurocho are spiced up with kiryu’s bucket list which was probably one of the best highlights of this game for me seeing literally everything from the character’s nearly 20-year-old history in these games came back in some form or another had me smiling a lot.

However as good as everything else is about this game the plot is sadly the worst part about easily. If 7 had basic gameplay and a great story this game has the opposite issue the story has a decent start honestly takes awhile before going places and when it does start going places alot of it feels contrived for the sake of getting us from point a to point b the villains are really lack luster for the series Bryce is nothing but a mustache-twirling cult leader who i never really felt much threat from, Dwight is kinda fun although I think that mostly comes from him being played by Danny Trejo in the dub and he’s great in everything he is in, Ebina is the biggest outlier and really needed alot more time in the oven he barely has any screen time for you to really understand his motive of wanting to get revenge on the yakuza and just to make things even more weird with him they say he’s Ichiban’s half brother but in all honesty it means nothing as the two only meet iirc like one time in the beginning of the game, Yamai is probably the best villain in the game due to him being the most recurring and him actually having good development that i wish went into the rest of them. The main cast I dont have all the much to complain about I think most drink links are good with the expectations of Adachi and Joongi han just being boring to sit through although that leads me into another issue i have the game clearly didnt know what to do with han he shows up near the end of the game to point Ichi’s team in the right direction then doesnt really do anything and because of that he’s IMO the worst party member in the game in terms of use since he’s underleveled compared to the rest of the party and them making HItman a shell of what it was in 7. The ending really feels like it comes out of nowhere I get its supposed to be Ichi doing what he wanted to do for Masato in 7 but for Eiji but because the game sort of forgets that he exists in the last two chapters it sort of comes out of nowhere due to an apparent boss fight of his that was cut from the final game and thus to me loses alot of impact that scene could have had its not bad just not 100% earned imo. I think one of the biggest “Why” moments that baffles me is them just unceremoniously killing off Hanawa after Gaiden came out to set him up and seemed like he was supposed to be a big deal for at least the next few games or so but no he shows up for a few scenes in 8 then gets shot in the gut like what? What was the point then? The last point of the story I wanna talk about is the post-credits scene Ichiban spends a whole year away from Saeko not talking to her and finally then he has a chance to make things right with her only for the writers to come up with a really fucking stupid ass joke that makes Ichiban look like a complete fool all for the sake of a random joke (cant lie i did laugh at it) but still what the hell and then there’s Kiryu’s side where you see Haruka and Haruto visiting him then you get this strange scene of him saying his name is Kiryu looking way skinnier with an achievement of the “the man who reclaimed his name” I'm like uh what? Nothing about that made any sense to me. Even MGS4 did this better with Solid Snake also having not much time to live being told to go live and experience life what what little time he has left by his father and Otacon tagging along to be a witness to the legend’s final moments giving the battle-hardened soldier final moments to live free even if it’s short a true Shakespearean tragedy Kiryu doesn't get that luxury and Idk doesnt feel right to me.


In conclusion, I still really enjoyed my time with this game alot however the story ended up being the weakest part of the experience Im hoping this isnt the start of a downward trend for RGG now that Nagoshi is gone since the last few games they released have all had some massive issues in one form or another we’ll to wait and see i suppose.