There are a lot of things I like about this game, mostly being Kiryu being more of a dad, some of the substories being really fun, and I like characters in it. I'm just not a fan of the amount of substories to do in the game to get a swing of amon, and I really wish every enemy wouldn't block so consistently. Especially with heavies it was really annoying.

Also I'm not the biggest fan of the story. It has good moments, but it feels overall marred by a lot of pacing problems, and it's not really doing much skimming the line as more a political drama than a crime drama. I do really like the first few chapters before we get into the big mystery, I like the substories and time with Rikiya (though I didn't much care about his death), and I think Mine is one of my favorite antagonists in the series.

It can be relaxing, but can also be boring and frustrating at times with the enemy encounters.

Like typical, here is some smaller thoughts before I go over it in more detail when I finally get around to reviewing all these games in full. Also spoilers ahead

-The Combat is very easily one of the best in the series. While it does suck Boxer was locked as DLC, all the styles are really fun and provide a lot of interesting ways to approach combat. The ability to style swap mid combo almost instantly makes things feel very kinetic and fluid, and the Mortal Reversal System is much MUCH better than the Mortal Wound stuff. Sure guns still are fucking mean, but now you got ways to counter them, and any really mean attack enemies throw at you.

-I'll have to sit on the story for a bit longer but I got to say I do like it more upon revisiting it, but I also can note a couple things I did notice disliking. The beginning mainly felt kind of slow pacing wise, and I am admittedly a little unsure how to feel about Yoko Sawa's death being the biggest thing Yagami's argument keeps circling back to whenever the main point of the plot goes by. It's not like a bad thing, but something about it feels clumsy, and I can't exactly point out what... Otherwise it's a really neat plot.

-I think the side content in the game is crazy however. While Yakuza 5 still has sheer size to it, LJ still has a lot to unpack in it's school stories as through exploring some of the clubs like the Dance Club or Biker Gang, you get whole new styles of gameplays, or altered and expanded upon gameplay with the Girls Bite stuff and especially the Skateboarding stuff. Not to mention that while I love Judgment 1's endgame thing against the Keihen Gang, the refight here along with the story with Itokura and the MRC is honestly really fun to see. Favorite stories were the Biker Gang, Boxing, Skateboarding, and Robotics Club. Great stories, really fun gameplay or both.

-This is an odd point for me to go over but now that I've sat on it for a bit, I like how LJ looks a lot more to it's predecessor in it's visuals. Not only are there more colors to work with, but they got rid of the smoky filter in exchange for a more vibrant energy that looks really good for everyone. Also the music in this game is really good. I mean that's RGG in general, but special mention to some of the chase tracks, Dig in your Heels, Unwavering Belief, and this game's take on Destination with "Final Destination" being the backing track to the last little dungeon before the final fights. Really good stuff here.

Overall, I think I can now say I like this more Judgement 1 pretty confident. Though I do still hold at least a bit that I do like a bit more of Judgement's story, mainly because the twist at the end still sticks with me, and it being a little closer to Yagami feels a bit more up my alley. That being said, this story does hit a lot harder than I remembered. I can give it that. Also shout outs to Sugiura, Tsukumo, Higashi, and the addition from the Yokohama Liumang, Tesso. Love that guy.

Onto the Kaito FIles

///Low-key this might have spoilers so oof///

This game might be a little bit of peak fiction...

Sonic Frontiers was a very well anticipated game for me in the midst of the last year or so, for better or for worse, and now that I finally have it, I can pretty confidently say i'm satisified at least. It's got a couple of weird things about it i'm like, mixed on at most, but I think it overall is a really fun package, from it's open zone stuff to it's cyberspace levels, and especially it's writing be actually really cool.

Starting on Gameplay stuff, I think Sonic is really fun to control, I like how the boost is handled in this game for the most part (it can be a bit unruly at times), and I do like you can customize just how you like sonic in the open world at least. I don't always like how they make it work in Cyberspace levels but eh. Combat-wise I think it's pretty ok battle system. Sonic gets a lot of moves, a lot of them either good for damage, evasion, comboing, etc., and the parry is weird because you can just hold it and win, which feels weird, but it's good I guess (tbf I didn't realize that til' late game, so i rarely used it). I think it's got some neat depth, and it's cool to string everything together, especially when you can cancel longer moves via boosting. It's not my favorite, I wouldn't want to have a game with this combat system alone, and I do think that enemies are overall a bit too lax to get much out of them at times (even on hard mode), but I think it's fine for what it is.

Moving onto the general loop of the game, I think the open worlds are pretty fun, and honestly a really good way to make use of sonic's speed, since instead of a level to be blitzed through, you have a whole world to pick through, but can get it done quicker due to sonic's speed. That and the loop of being able to sequence break challenges because of some boost exploit is really funny, and hopping from challenge to combat admist looking for tokens or map challenges is really fun. And hey, if you want the sonic levels meant for speedrunning like typical, the Cyberspace levels gotcha covered. They make use of Sonic's past as themeing for the levels, sometimes even using bits and pieces of SA2 or Generations game design for certain parts, and I honestly think they make it work pretty well. I would've liked more themes tbh, and that Drift level is best beaten by skipping over it's gimmick, but it's overall pretty fun. And if you want something else to do aside from that, you could always do the fishing minigame. It's not Yakuza 3 fishing, but it's good enough, especially for the odd variety we get out of it. It's also cool that spending time here can get you exactly what you need to complete the game, meaning you barely have to interact with the islands, which is really funny. I did to get all the tokens, but shut up.

Also as a small note, Tokens were weird for my entire playthrough. I thought they were a currency or something, but side stories with allies kept just unlocking themselves, but no it's just how the game does stuff, collecting tokens does still count towards it, same with keys to chaos emeralds. I dunno why it didn't click with me for awhile, but hey tokens stop mattering after awhile into completing an island anyways, so eh. Thought it was at least worth mentioning for a chuckle at my expense. Ha.

Anyways inspeaking of Side Stories, let's talk writing. Over Sonic's journey through the isles, you can interact with who ever is the friend at the island (Amy, Knuckles, Tails), alongside new character Sage. You have to interact with these to progress the game (which require tokens normally), but optional ones also exist adding extra context to things. You also see Eggman is doing in cyberspace and even get memos going over his thoughts leading up to and going through the events of the game (prior to the 4th island at least).

With all of it in mind, it's half surprising how good it is. It's not that surprising cause Ian Flynn was writing it, and his work in IDW from what I know is pretty top knotch, but it's more surprising just how much this game got away with referencing older stuff and weaving it into the plot. Eggman does that plenty in the Memos, and there's a lot of lines from the cast using prior adventures as context to things they see now. Notable ones were Unleashed, the Team Sonic Racing games, SA1 and 2, the classic games, it even throws a line with the Babylon Rogues somewhere, and Sticks in their near the end, that's fucking crazy. You know what's also crazy, they actually used Forces weird writing to course correct Tails in a really cool way. They use all of his sidelining and even brief disappearance in Forces to build into an arc questioning his worth (even Eggman goes to mention something about it), which leads to him and Sonic talking things out finally, and things being resolved with Tails wanting to gain experience of his own after the end of Frontiers. It's interesting that they doubled down on it, and it turned out to work in the end, much better than if they just pretended those games didn't exist.

Though honestly, I think the highlights in the game were Sage and Eggman. Sage does fall into the troupe of "the AI learning to be human", but it's done really well as she knows something really bad will happen if Sonic doesn't stop, or if he and Eggman don't work together, even for a bit, to solve things. So seeing her caught between the two is interesting. I love her dynamics with Sonic, as the game slowly spends time letting her open up more, and when they are able to finally be open, they get some pretty intriguing, and even heartwarming conversations. Even Sonic believes Eggman can show he cares, just in his weird way. And inspeaking of him, I think especially near the endgame, his and Sage's dynamic becomes more familial, and we get some of the oddest, but most sentimental moments we've ever seen Eggman have. The scene before the Final Final Boss always gets me, because you can hear the pain in his voice as he sends Sage off. Plus you hear plenty about his growing appreciation of Sage in the memos. He even has to at some point ask if Sage had any pronoun preferences, and I think that's just adorable.

I also think the Voice Work in this game is really well done as well. I mean I think Eggman is weirdly the best, but everyone did a great job. I think I especially have to give that to Roger Craig Smith as Sonic, he made him sound a lot deeper voiced than other apperances, and it works really well, especially if you go with the idea that this is a sonic with a lot of exprience under his belt, and is probably just an adult at this point.

While I think the cast is really neat for their writing and voice work, and I think the references are warmly welcomed (especially as a fan of the series), I think they also help spin into the main theme of the game really well. Sonic has been at this for a long time, adventuring, stopping eggman, all that stuff. He's had hard times, but he's never ran away, but instead would charge headfirst. Sage repeatedly warns, threatens, and even sicks titans on Sonic to deter him, but he still keeps going. Sonic is exhausted through most of this game, and is carrying on more and more cyber corruption to save his friends, and is consistently getting weaker and weaker, but he still presses on. He keeps on no matter what, and that kind of determination is enough to rub off on all his friends, even with Sage especially. Many of the allies reflect on their past, and are in some ways troubled by it, but Sonic's idealism, compassion, and actions help let them come to terms with what's done and want to search out new horizons. For Amy to help all around, for Knux to get to know the world below, and Tails to come back one day stronger than ever, and even if it's sad to say goodbye, Sonic is rootin' for all of them, and is working ever harder to beat the odds and see things through.

What I think all of this ties together in is a theme of moving forward. To persist on even when the present is dreadful and seemingly insurmountable, whether it's the past that ties us down, or the future holds terrifying uncertainty. Sonic continues on in spite of it simply because that's who he is. He makes it an absolute point to live the way he wants to live, and that to him means doing right by the ones he cares for most and seeing what the world has in store for him. Because he's able to live true to himself, despite the odds continually growing bigger as the game progresses, he still is able to keep on, as long as he can keep moving. That kind of determination is infectious too, pretty obviously seen in Tails, Knuckles, and Amy, but also Sage, who by the end of things, is fighting for that hope rather than trying to snuff it out, so much that she got Eggman to help out, of all people.

It's maybe a simpler message, but it's got good merit, especially for why Sonic sticks around in people's minds nowadays despite a long, tumultuous, and kind of crazy history. I think it's made a bit stronger considering a lot of the past is brought up, because while some of it is reference, others are genuine hang-ups or achievements, and they all help inform us of how to move forward. Working out how from there is up to those in the present, but eh.

Story stuff aside, let's finish with boss, because they're really good. They let Super Sonic come out for some of the coolest fights in the series, ones that would probably be final bosses in other games, and back it with some of the coolest backing tracks these games can have. For the most part, the gameplay for those is basically normal sonic, but he's got the flying and quirks of super form (a.k.a., ring depletion, invincibility, increased power on all moves, etc.), with the main exception of the Final Final Boss you can only fight on Hard Mode. To keep spoilers brief, the true final boss is my favorite in the game, but out of the 4 titans you fight, the 2nd is my least favorite (partly due to my misunderstanding of parries, but also cause the fight feels like it drags on for awhile longer than I want), and the 3rd is my favorite pretty easily (partly because it turned out to be an intense fight, even with full rings, but also the ending is the sickest shit sonic does with a sword since black knight).

Also this should probably go without saying, but the music in this game is really good. I mean I have a problem remembering music for the most part, but I know I liked what I heard for sure. I just think it's actually kind of insane that every Cyberspace level has a theme unique to itself, and most of them are really good.

Overall, I think this game fucking sucks 0/10 easy.

For real though, this game is really fun, I think it's pretty easily one of the best sonic games to come out in awhile, I guess since Mania. This game has a lot of good will, and despite some small things I guess, those nitpicks are well overpowered by how much of that good will is gotten across with how fun this game can be, and how well Sonic and the rest of the cast were played. I'll be honest, I kind of need to play Unleashed again beause I really want to see if I end up liking that game more or this one more, it's pretty neck and neck right now. I'm excited to see where things will go from here.

I was following this game on and off, but more off I guess since I was kind of shocked to see it released on the Eshop, and even more so to figure out it was only a little over 2 weeks ago. But hey, for a game with the vibe of "DMC in a Metroidvania", this is really fun.

I think the main mechanics are really solid from the combat to the traversal. I specifically like moving around more in this game, as you progressively get more and more tools that let you just break the environment, but they still find ways of making it fun. Just the way you can wall run and combo it into dash jumps, or even early on with wall hikes followed by using the upward aerial charge slash to gain some meager distance to reach a ledge. Oh and the ledge grab is really snappy. Another favorite is sliding, especially when you get water sliding later on, it's just satisfying to be able to cross a long hallway with a ton of extra momentum because you slammed down on a slope.

These also help play into the combat mechanics, which they give you a surprising amount of freedom to customize your build between a mix of technique, stat buffs, or some mix of the two. Your main moveset is tied to your sword, where you can do basic attacks with it, do unique attacks called pulse attacks that cost some of your pulse meter to use but successfully landing hits will heal you, and spells, of which you can have four equipped at a time. The sword and pulse moves have aerial and ground up, down, forward, and neutral attacks as well, but you can also charge the normal attack for charge attack variants of all attacks.

Those are really important as they can let you break enemy's poise, which if you break all of their poise, they will be stunned and you can wail on them with combos for a bit. This is actually a really neat way to frame it for enemies and bosses alike, where with poise they will rarely flinch, but without poise, you can style on them like the ragdoll they are. You can also knock stunned enemies into another to break their poise a bit.

Your defensive options lie not just in your evasion (though I feel something is off about how long the invincibility frames last for), but in blocking where you can counter attack, or eventually just a parry. Both are handy, but a little hard to make full use of in this game. You also have projectile deflection on all attacks when you get it, and those are good when you mix the dash attack, so you can win by turning enemy projectiles on them so long as you can deal with the I-frames.

I keep saying "when you get to it" and that's because a lot of your upgrades are through memory discs that contain the given abilities, from main abilities required for completion and 100%, to essential battle abilities, to the fun stuff you can equip like an attack from taunt or time stop on footstooling enemies. This also applies kind of to spells, though they're treated as a separate resource, and they mainly help in diversifying your moveset, like helping break poise easier, or have extra dps. My personal favorites were cutter, searing knuckle, piercing ray, chaser, upper sword, and especially timebomb. That one creates sticky bombs that break two bars of poise, making them pretty handy in encounters and boss fights.

You got a lot of options to work with, and your enemy variety is pretty good all things considered. You got flying birds, normal guy, speedy mantis guys, giants, tall faust lookin' motherfuckers with axe hands, axe guys that are the worst to fight in the game, reapers, spell sage monsters, and the three church aloe types of knight, mace tanks, and white mages. Knights are my least favorite of them all though, because that stupid dropkick somehow always clips me. I also like the green coating enemies like normal guys and birds can have because they help clear the field a little easier if I lead their attacks near other enemies. They explode, that's why I like them, they explode.

I think the overall combat is actually pretty well done, and I only really have a few nitpicks. One is the dash, because I feel like the I-frame count is kind of strict but I might be stupid, blocking and parrying don't feel all that worthwhile to do, so aside from the few times I blocked and counterattacked, and very few times I parried to get the trophy, I didn't feel much doing it, and I think poise can be a bit more cumbersome of a mechanic than fun, especially when it's a group of hard-hitting enemies that are really fast and they all have immense poise pools so it's just a lot sneaking in charge slashes and hoping I don't get grazed, which I inevitably do. Also more a presentational complaint, but I wish there was like a combo meter or something that made getting into the heat of the action feel a little more satisfying. I'm not even just saying that because of the DMC inspiration, but because while combat is fun to figure out, if there was more to incentivize getting into those combos more and improving them, like a combo count to see how high the number can go, then i'd have a little more interest in trying to perfect them. It's small, but it would be cool.

The bosses overall were fine. I think a few of them are pretty cheap at times with most attacks that lock-on to you, especially the ones where they'll just stick to you like glue and do some kind of really damaging attack (the last two fights are very guilty of this), and I did have to retry plenty of times to get patterns down, but that's nothing new to how I play these kinds of games. This is where timebomb really helped a lot too, since you can just stick them on multiple times to a boss, and not only will they take a chunk of their health, but the boss's poise will be at best, 6 bars gone, letting me focus a bit more on sneaking in hits and dodging the patterns before going ham. And hey, since I have the ability that builds pulse more when you're waiting for the mana to recharge, you still can have at least enough for one pulse attack when you eventually break their guard.

Moving on from the mechanics into the greater world, the levels you explore are all sky islands that all have some kind of unique thing about them, whether they're towns, the wilds, abandoned labs and ruins, or just raiding a fucking airship, there's a lot of cool stuff to find in the world, not just in mini-games or side quests, but through the locales unique oddities or in the times you can enter Unreality, which is basically the void, to knock out some unique endeavors, ending up frazzled in different places. A lot of the game's objectives are also left mainly up to how the player wants to tackle them.

After meeting Chervil and getting your ship, Vernal's main goal is to find out more about the whereabouts of her father's location, but you don't know where to go. You got a bunch of islands, but nothings in specific is being pointed to. It's all on the player to get a baring for the world by exploring each locale, even getting wrapped up into a little story with whoever is in the locale. Like chasing a treasure hunting Aloe Knight who I'm 30% sure is corrupt until the treasure actually makes him corrupt, or challenging essentially tower coliseum so you can meet with an old friend. And that's just the early stuff. After what is basically the midpoint where you are properly introduced to Unreality traversal and get the new Bloom ability (which is basically a super attack), you have even more places to visit in the hopes of unlocking the final island containing the final boss, but the order you do most of that in is up to the player.

There's a lot of freedom in how you do things. There are technically required objectives to explore the islands, but how you do them is up to you, and honestly for someone doing this for the first time, it certainly added to the feeling of charting my own course, and trying to make progress where I could to get the answers I needed. It did unfortunately make things feel a little less cohesive by the time we actually got to the plot beats, but it was still pretty fun, especially since aside from a few islands, most of them tell their own little tale or build a bit on the overall story which helps makes these little random objectives feel fun to work through, especially since finishing them yields my ultimate objective at the time. The only downside I did have was finding the last few things in an area with a fine toothed comb, but that's typical for these kind of games, and only exasperated by the fact that this game is only 2 or so weeks old, so barely any resources are there to help find those items. The one that caught me the most that I actually really need help for was the 11th treasure in the airship. On the right of the elevator shaft above the main monitor room, there's a breakable wall that has the item. I dunno why'd you figure that out from a random review on backloggd but there you go.

Probably also helps that the characters we took through that adventure, Vernal and Chervil, were both pretty neat. Vernal comes off as a very hotheaded and stubborn, the kind of person that prefers to get shit done, and ask questions when it's convenient to her, and raise hell if she doesn't get those answers. Not without reason though, as much as she loves to fight, and even is ready to take on a bunch of people, she is still caring enough to help with people's needs and hear them out on their troubles. Though sometimes, she's the trouble, like climbing someone's already broken windmill and pissing them off, standing in front of someone's still drawing session and progressively pissing them off, and constantly trying to be a thorn in the side of the Church of Aloe, the current ones in power of the islands. They do get pissed at her antics, but they're also corrupt officials more than an actual church so fuck them. While she has cases of being a smug little shit, she specifically gets a kick out of causing trouble for the church, and again, fuck them.

Chervil on the other hand, the amnesiac scientist turned robot who pilots the ship, is a lot more reasonable, a lot more wise to the world (though a little uncertain due to his amnesia over the span of time from the rise of the islands to now), and is usually the one supporting Vernal through advice, knowledge, and well, piloting the ship. He mainly comes off as pleasant to be around, and very intent to right the wrongs he helped all those years ago. He and Vernal are pretty neat to see chat with one another. They got some good gags, Chervil's knowledge mixing with Vernal's exprience or lack of knowledge can be endearing and very insightful to the events or state of the world, and it's overall fine.

I think the one character I didn't really feel anything for was probably Saffron. He vernal clash a couple times, he runs into the void the first chance we got, and he's gone from the story. He clearly meant something to Vernal, as it's mentioned the two trained under the same master sometime after Vernal lost her mother and he lost his kingdom, but it feels like such a nothing beat since nothing really comes of it. He just pops up for a couple worlds, he's the boss in one of them, and that's it. I kind of wish they delved a bit more into him, because I feel he would've been interesting, but they just kind of show and drop him. Kind of disappointing.

But uhh.. yeah that's Vernal Edge. It's a really fun mish-mash of DMC and a Metroidvania in a 2D plane, with a lot of cool traversal and puzzles, a pretty good combat system with some good depth, some neat characters exploring both the world and the void it's attached to with a lot of neat lore, settings, background, and a lot more I wish we went into a bit more. It's a pretty fun game. I will definitely come back though once I hear that the game gets a patch for consoles.

I played this on switch, and not only did I experience a couple audio bugs, a bunch of random crashes, mostly after talking to NPCs, and one time where the game kept thinking I was in battle mode for awhile. In fight mode, you can't check spells. items, and memory discs, and after one experience with unreality, it just kept me in fight mode until I died. But the major one is that two things are bugged so I can't really finish them. Firstly is one town says it has 16 collectibles, it only has 15. And secondly is you can't unlock the palette change achievement if you accidentally open a chest in the same area you get the achievement in, so I couldn't get the palette swap. Looking it up, I did see the creator is gonna patch those two things out after Nintendo gives him the ok to do so, so I'll come back and maybe replay it on vicious difficulty. That'd be fun.

Oh and if there is one more complaint, I really wish that resetting the game didn't reset the controls so I had to rebind them over and over. I wouldn't normally mention this kind of thing, but resetting the game over and over because of random crashes sort of started to get on my nerves a bit.

It's still worth the purchase, just keep those things in mind until a patch drops.

Now this is cool, a return to my first outing into Kamurocho, and Sotenbori by extension. I beat the game on normal, on hard, and finally on legend. That last one being in my attempt to beat all of the Yakuza games on Legend. So now that I have started, what's the feels on the first step?

I still think this is a great way to get into the series for a few reasons, but I can get if someone recommends something like 1, K1, or 7 or something. I've revisited 1988 a few times within in the year and got to understandin' bits of the series goin forward, I feel the things I appreciate has grown, yet the things I dislike are a bit more defined as well. So let's discuss.

Let's start with what I dislike, just to get it out of the way. At least the main things. That being that I think the game is frontloaded with a lot of it's side content, most of it open to you by the first half for you to do. In this game, 57/60 of Kiryu's and 39/40 of Goro's substories can be completed before chapter 9, and that includes all the business stuff.

The buisness stuff is pretty fun, but can run out of steam before the end, though at different points for both protags. For Kiryu's property management, it's still kind flat since it's more management than game, but at least you can get a lot of money for it. What's fucked up though is I found out how to get more money from Shakedown encounters, so I ended up with ways to farm literally trillions of yen, which kind of cracked the teeth of the property buying, making the upgrading and keeping afloat the properties the main "challenge". Goro's on the other hand is a lot more hands on and less reliant on money. It's running a cabaret club, and it's some fun stuff. Both because the music and vibe makes you feel like the slickest sap in all of sotenbori, but also because the game is actually pretty fun, having the three minute sessions feel intense and nail-biting, and it being heightened when facing the other clubs. That being said though, this runs out of steam because sub-stories are tied to it. They don't lock away progression in the side story, but they do lock off Amon until you finish them, which since I wanted to 2 shot Amon with a funny knife trick I found on YT, I went ahead and did that (More on Amon later).

I'm overall conflicted on this because it only really bothers me, someone who's trying to shoot for 2 of the harder bosses in the game and to get as much out of a revisit as I could. On one hand, it sucks because I halt a lot of the story just so I can tackle these side businesses that lock behind substories to beat, parts of the styles that require completion of the business stuff to get, and of course amon. Plus if you do NG+ I'm pretty sure you still have to take on the side stuff just to reunlock stuff, It can get tedious eventually. On the other hand, if you do complete it, you not only have a ton of money to get you through everything, but you'll swim through the last half of the game no problem. for reference, half or so of my gametime over the 2 weeks was dedicated to finishing the side content. I only picked up the stuff again a few days ago, and was done tonight. And even then, this all is only really an issue if you do everything at once. You could just do this as you progress, or just not at all. Hell on my first run, I didn't finish either business and still got through plenty fine. It can vary on your mileage, and part of me wishes the side content was spread out more, at least the substories...

I think the only other issue I can think of that isn't fully nitpicky is i'm also not a fan of how a lot of substories are started. Part of them are tied to a business, some are tied to mini-games, which are both fine (if a bit dragged out at times in the latter), and then a whole lottery of mostly randomly chosen stories are told in the Telephone Club. Like the minigame itself is ok, it's just kind of not my thing, but you gotta do it at least 7 times if you hope to knock out all the one hidden behind it. It's kind of tedious above all else.

Also, lowkey, I like all of the trainers. I think all of Kiryu's are really cool (Especially Miss Tatsu and her Beast Training), and Majima's got Komaki- sorry,Komeki, as well as a weapon shop owner named Fei-Hu who is predictably, really good at fighting with his merchandise. The only one I don't like is Areshi and his Breakdancing stuff. I think the mini-game is boring, and I don't like that Areshi is always in Breaker Style so when you try to do stuff, your flow is broken pretty easily because of the get up attack that breaker has. The other two are aggressive as well, but that also was because I was on Legend mode, so yeah. I also think the training is boring and frustrating because they tend to have different weapons each one, some of them stun and knock you to the ground, and it's just not fun to deal with in certain ones, especially with how all their aggression works in this mode. Fuck Areshi.

Anyways, those are the 3 things, Areshi, Substories are sometimes annoying to get, and... the game feeling frontloaded which can be a bad selectively. Those are my biggest gripes. Aside from that, this game is pretty good.

On that good, let's talk gameplay. Since i've come back to this game a lot, I think that I can appreciate the kind of shit you can do in this game much more, and how the heat bar transfers into it. This is the only game to use the 3-bar heat system to my knowledge, and while it doesn't always land, I think the more I've played with it, the more I appreciate the stakes it puts up. It determines your speed of attacks along with other buffs, making it actually worthwhile and fun to hold onto heat rather than waste it on a heat action or something. There's also a lot of moves that have heat bar requirements. Some are like "you can only do this at full heat" or something like that, but there are some that are really weird, liek the ones that need you specifically at the 2nd bar of heat to do some weird ass moves that are actually really good. Breaker and Beast have a grab that needs you at the second bar and for you to dash and then grab. Many of them also have counters, some of which are like attack counters (breaker, brawler, slugger, etc.), but some act as grab counters that make it a lot more fun (mainly thug, dragon, and mad dog.). Some of these counters are stronger with no heat (breaker and brawler), and some need 3 bars to work for the most part (Dragon and kind of Mad Dog).

Beast and Mad Dog are my favorite styles, Beast because aside from it being able to clear a room (and even then, situationally), it also just has a lot of neat caveats of turning Kiryu into a fucking tank with the resist counter moves (especially the hammer attack, that one's fun). Mad Dog is the opposite with frenetic speed keeping him very evasive with a unique finished called "Mad Dog's Bite" that lets him spam it so long as he has heat. It can lead to trouble if you're not careful, but it's really cool. He also has his counter, which is technically bugged to still be usable even with no heat, but I kind of wish this is how Kiryu's Legend/Dragon style worked. His "Iron Fist Counter" is just a worse tiger drop. Not even because it's just not as polished as the normal tiger drop and well... drops heat, but it is only usable at 3 bars, and it's really easy to whiff. Dragon style is generally really heat reliant, a lot of the best things are locked at least behind a second bar, and Kiryu with no heat is really slow, which confuses me why you give this style the move that drains heat to 0, even though beast has that already... Least favorite style hands down (in the game at least, it's still handy for its grab finishers and speed of the attacks at max heat, just rely on the shield and grab counters). Also if I said a least favorite for Majima, it's probably Slugger, but only because I like the other ones a bit more, Slugger is still really good, and that Nunchaku Bat move is fucked up. It even upgrades.

I spent a lot of this playthrough also experimenting with some more stuff from weapon shops, something I haven't exactly done since Kiwami 2 or Y3, and that's mainly because that before I got Thug Style's Harsh Lesson to cheese Shakedown's with, I really needed something to help drain those guy's health bars. Thanks to that though, I learned I really like Knuckles, I like Tonfas, I like Knives, and I really like some of the guns. Cannons and Zap Guns were really fun when I wasn't just blowing enemies away with other stuff. Because I also got to spend more time with Dragon and Tiger, I also got around to seeing how crafting works, and it's pretty fun. It's a little tedious when trying to get something you need, but when you do have it, no matter if you craft or receive a piece of equipment, it will always be rebuyable which is super handy, something done much better than in 5 (also no weapon level ups, yay)

I also experimented with some amulets and items, and I really got a kick out of ones that made enemies really hard. A small thing I'm not a fan of is that after you break the limits of both character's styles, you can just basically win everything like it was nothing. It's not an actual problem, you have to go out of the way to do it, but it can risk cracking the teeth that is the game's challenge. So, I thought, hey, if I think the game is too easy, let's prove it. Well not fully, I didn't level up the legend styles, so I wasn't "kill everything in one shot" broken, I really wanted to get some challenge out of the end game fights, but for its sake, it was worth the laugh. They all just gang the fuck up on you much harder, and it's a riot, both literally, and comedically. Also, in speaking of legend mode, this is how I found out that health items aren't strewn about stages, and that enemy amounts will increase as the game continues on past 3 to 6 or so. It's kind of neat actually, especially since the heat does start to turn up later on.

Either way, fighting's good. Next is mention of the substories and other side content. There's not much to say, they are usually pretty good. I suck at wobbly crosshair darts and 9-ball, and I think overall, I think the new dancing minigame is fun (but also pretty tricky to get used to), and the substories are some of my favorite in the series. Majima's especially are some of the most memorable, like dealing with a cult, taking a drug test that fucks with the gameplay, distracting a crowd so that a statue can use the bathroom. It's a good thing I'm spoiler tagging this. I also really love the introduction of Pocket Circuit, it's an overall fun substory, I like some of it's characters, especially Fighter, and I think the minigame is fun as hell, even if I cheese it with a guide. Then again, I got my fill of it in other playthroughs, so eh. Side content is over all fun, though I will say that 0 is defiently one of the raunchier games in the series. Both characters are a couple of horndogs in one way or another, which makes sense since they are both in their early to mid 20's, but it's crazy seeing how much they get out of that. Both Kiryu and Majima share a story with a Mr. Libido, a story about getting a new arcade cabinent (those are also cool btw), and Kiryu again gets the Telephone Club and the Catfight Club. I don't really like either that much, but they are there.


Now the game is good and all, it's pretty funny and action packed and all that stuff, and can woefully dramatic on a dime, but the real seller is the story. It's themeing, it's writing, it's plotting, all fantastic. I think there are a couple stumbles here and there, but the game is probably the most solid in the series. I think it's got good introductions to who Kiryu and Majima were, but that being said, this is a Majima game, not a Kiryu game. Sure, Kiryu is the first one you meet, his story with Nishiki, the Tojo, and Tachibana is really cool, and it's weirdly nice to see a Kiryu much more younger and brasher than the life he'd eventually lead, there's a sort of innocence there and youthful rebellion in Kiryu's actions that's just compelling. But Kiryu's someone you need some time to understand. Goro instead gives us a tale that shows how he became the Mad Dog he is later in the series, and it's a perfect contrast to Kiryu's story.

This story really is rough for the guy. He spends a lot of the game conflicted in doing what he thinks is right, or in escaping the cage he's stuck in. He wears a lot of masks, a lot of faces that gleam specific parts of his personality, but it's only when he's thrown into this situation where he's protecting somebody else where we can see him for who he really is. Majima is stuck on a line, of crossing a horrible personal boundary that he can never undo, yet is driven to by broken and cold people doing the same. Kiryu dealt with something similar, but his is mostly of a role of someone who is the one uncorruptible man, the guy who sticks to who he is, and has to measure his stoicism with the safety of those he loves. Majima is unfortunately not as brash as Kiryu, the stakes are alot harsher and scarier, and he has to tread a lot of thorned and muddied ground just to... well I say get a shot at living the life he wants, but really it's just to stay above ground at this point.

Majima becoming the Mad Dog is in a sense, becoming someone who won't be held down by others, but how it comes about all through the perception of protecting someone in a similarly fucked situation is really interesting. It's a really good story, and a lot of characters in Majima's story are at least in one way or another really layered and interesting. Sagawa might just be one of the most interestingly written characters in the series, because so much of it really makes you wonder what he really feels about Majima. He spends a lot of the time taunting, questioning, joking, even giving friendly adivce, or rubbing majima's face into the dirt, but it's hard to get a read on how much of his dialogue or intent is genuine, and what of it is an act, even in times where he's been duped by Majima. It's always intriguing.

Stepping a bit back to Kiryu tho, I do think a lot of characters in his part are cool. I think Shibusawa is a really intriguing mastermind due to his very tactical and cruelly effecient methods all being in pursuit of a shallow and ultimately fruitless goal. I think Kuze despite being fought 5 times is a really cool character seeing how he comes to respect and learn from Kiryu during their encounters, leading to their final duel in Tenkaichi St., and Nishiki is just heartbreaking. I have feelings for how he was handled in Kiwami 1, but Nishiki here gets across how close he is with Kiryu so effortlessly, but the conflict that drives them apart is because the two care about each other two much. It's miscommunication and took until Nishiki manned the fuck up and told Kiryu to shut up and accept his help that the two were able to reunite. It's just that one scene at the end of chapter 6 man. It's fucked up.

Honestly if there are any things I don't like about the story, I'd say it's that it feels like some characters who do some really heinous and scummy shit get off the hook a little too easily because they had some dream or whatever. Awano and Oda are the two that pop into mind the most, especially with Oda considering that he was a human trafficker and was the one that dragged Makoto into it, actively making her go blind, but she's right up to helping him escape when things get rough? I dunno that part kind of sucked... Awano is not as bad I guess, but he does just shoot a woman for no reason during Chapter 6, and no one really mentions it, and then his fight against Majima is giving him a motivation of "oh Kazama is too cool, I can't beat him" which is why he retreated into the high life... but ehhhhhhhh it's kind of meh. Wen Hai Lee from Majima's part is also a bit contentious but I don't have as much on him...

Honestly there's a lot more to unpack about the story past it's characters, because the setting is really well chosen for this action thriller with a younger set of protagonists in a time of grime, glitz, and glamour with money flowing like water, the themes of deciet, money, broken bonds, and all that are all wonderfully woven in, and honestly fuck Sohei Dojima, but that's a paper in it's own right. Just know the story is overall really good. Favorite Chapter of the game is Chapter 16: The Proof of Love, easily.

So I've rambled on long enough about this game, that should tell you I probably kind of like it. I don't think it's my favorite, but it's up there. Top 5 in the series, pretty easily. I think that the combat is really varied and interesting, especially with the addition of it's type of heat bar and the different styles. I think the story is amazing, and the side content is overall pretty good (with misteps here and there), and I just like the vibe of this game. There's not really anything quite like it, even in the series.

Also side note, since I realized I forgot it, but the Amon fights were good. I beat Jo by stealing his knife and chucking it at him, it was really funny. The best 2 shot you'll ever see.