the engine is the first thing you notice about this game. The game looks much nicer, the lighting on the streets is amazing and the character models have improved exponentially. The combat is now more physics-based, when you kick an enemy they can go flying into another enemy and knock them over. You can walk into most buildings without loading and in some cases, you can throw an enemy through the glass of a restaurant and continue your fight in there. For the most part, the gameplay, the feel, and the graphics have been exponentially improved over 0 and kiwami, and I'd probably have no issue with them dragon engine-ing 0 and kiwami 1 as well as the rest of the games. It's super cool, but unfortunately, the huge drawback is I played this game on CONSOLE (like some sort of god damn peasant) and it ran at a pathetic 30fps. I don't even have to describe how unacceptable that is. If I played it on pc, I would have been fine but, we can't get caught up on "if's" in the cutthroat business of Backloggd videogame reviews. You came to me, elkmane, THE elkmane, for top-tier reviews and nothing but the cold hard truth with a heaping side dish of facts. Even IF I played on PC, think of the poor console peasants having to play this game at 30. My deepest sympathies. But since it was the shortcoming of the hardware and not the game, I won't take away any stars for that. So we know that the graphics are awesome, the traversal has been improved and the combat now has true physics.
there are small nitpicks with each of these though:
The graphics are awesome... BUT... Kiryu's face just looks slightly off, his eyes are inexpressive, or at least less than K1 and 0. And at night-time, there's a weird green tint to everything that looks kind of weird.
The whole map loads at once... BUT... Kiryu now controls like Arthur Morgan, meaning movement is much less accurate and you can get stuck on things. Your base speed is a walk so to go your base speed from kiwami or 0 you have to hold down the sprint button. Your sprint is the normal walk speed from the older games.
The combat now has true physics... BUT... it can be a little unpolished at times. If you're standing on a guy and he stands up, you go up with him, and it's weird.
besides that, the story is pretty great. There are some unnecessary parts that feel like padding, and I thought to myself "what am I doing? is this the main story mission? why am I looking for Santa Claus!?"
But the antagonist and the supporting characters as well as the boss battles and set pieces are amazing. Super cool, imagine two tigers and a ninja fortress but multiply that coolness by 10!
My general thoughts about this game is that everything is 85% great. There's always a "but" to everything. However I think altogether its still a really great game and I really enjoyed my time with it. Onto the remastered trilogy.
there are small nitpicks with each of these though:
The graphics are awesome... BUT... Kiryu's face just looks slightly off, his eyes are inexpressive, or at least less than K1 and 0. And at night-time, there's a weird green tint to everything that looks kind of weird.
The whole map loads at once... BUT... Kiryu now controls like Arthur Morgan, meaning movement is much less accurate and you can get stuck on things. Your base speed is a walk so to go your base speed from kiwami or 0 you have to hold down the sprint button. Your sprint is the normal walk speed from the older games.
The combat now has true physics... BUT... it can be a little unpolished at times. If you're standing on a guy and he stands up, you go up with him, and it's weird.
besides that, the story is pretty great. There are some unnecessary parts that feel like padding, and I thought to myself "what am I doing? is this the main story mission? why am I looking for Santa Claus!?"
But the antagonist and the supporting characters as well as the boss battles and set pieces are amazing. Super cool, imagine two tigers and a ninja fortress but multiply that coolness by 10!
My general thoughts about this game is that everything is 85% great. There's always a "but" to everything. However I think altogether its still a really great game and I really enjoyed my time with it. Onto the remastered trilogy.