HayleeFISH
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Being part of the Backloggd community for 3 years
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The first game I played in the Yakuza series.
I must admit, this one was a very slow burn for me at first. I did have to force myself to come back to it at times. I have a friend who loves the series, and they insisted I carry on and kept poking at me to do so. So I did.
I'm so glad I did. Once I got to around Chapter 7, I was hooked in. The story is excellent and it's great to see the origin stories of Kiryu and Majima - during my current full-series playthrough I find myself often saying "wait, I remember this! This happened in 0!"
Then the minigames happened. The goddamn minigames.
I'll preface this by saying I am in a rut with open world games right now. I just can't bring myself to sink so many hours on pointless side missions, pointless fetch quests and pointless collectathons.
But my god. These minigames. SO. GOOD. You have the Real Estate Royale, which pays off massively if you invest the time in that you get a LOT of cash to be able to level up both characters on that alone. Whilst it's not very "player involved" compared to the other minigame (which I'll get to), the payoffs of doing this minigame are massive.
Then we have Cabaret Club Czar. This quickly became one of my favourite minigames of all time. You could easily make this into a full game alone. I've sank many hours into this one (and still continue to do so), and I intend to finish this one. Taking me a bit longer than Real Estate did, but this is one time sink I particularly enjoy.
(I haven't got to Pocket Circuit yet, admittedly I'm terrible at this one from what little I've played, but it always gets a smirk out of me to see Kiryu's crestfallen reaction to losing what is essentially a Scalextric race to a bunch of 10 year olds)
Then we have the substories. Again, I'm in a rut with open world games so going in I was very 50/50 on doing these. However, overall these substories are brilliant and memorable. I'm sat writing this review remembering each substory I played. The best part of this is - you get rewarded for your hard work finishing the substories. Some of them give you employees for both the Cabaret and Real Estate games, so there is incentive there for doing them on top of the smiles, laughs and occasional gutpunches they can offer!
There's so much more I could mention - Kamurocho and Sotenbori are both beautiful, beautiful settings and I often found myself stopping and just taking it in. The Karaoke minigame is excellent fun, and a good laugh (seriously, if you haven't already, go sing "24-hour Cinderella" as Majima. You won't regret it.)
Overall, this is an open world game that respects and does not waste your time. For me, someone who is tired of most open world games, this has set a very high standard for them, and rightly so.
5/5.
I must admit, this one was a very slow burn for me at first. I did have to force myself to come back to it at times. I have a friend who loves the series, and they insisted I carry on and kept poking at me to do so. So I did.
I'm so glad I did. Once I got to around Chapter 7, I was hooked in. The story is excellent and it's great to see the origin stories of Kiryu and Majima - during my current full-series playthrough I find myself often saying "wait, I remember this! This happened in 0!"
Then the minigames happened. The goddamn minigames.
I'll preface this by saying I am in a rut with open world games right now. I just can't bring myself to sink so many hours on pointless side missions, pointless fetch quests and pointless collectathons.
But my god. These minigames. SO. GOOD. You have the Real Estate Royale, which pays off massively if you invest the time in that you get a LOT of cash to be able to level up both characters on that alone. Whilst it's not very "player involved" compared to the other minigame (which I'll get to), the payoffs of doing this minigame are massive.
Then we have Cabaret Club Czar. This quickly became one of my favourite minigames of all time. You could easily make this into a full game alone. I've sank many hours into this one (and still continue to do so), and I intend to finish this one. Taking me a bit longer than Real Estate did, but this is one time sink I particularly enjoy.
(I haven't got to Pocket Circuit yet, admittedly I'm terrible at this one from what little I've played, but it always gets a smirk out of me to see Kiryu's crestfallen reaction to losing what is essentially a Scalextric race to a bunch of 10 year olds)
Then we have the substories. Again, I'm in a rut with open world games so going in I was very 50/50 on doing these. However, overall these substories are brilliant and memorable. I'm sat writing this review remembering each substory I played. The best part of this is - you get rewarded for your hard work finishing the substories. Some of them give you employees for both the Cabaret and Real Estate games, so there is incentive there for doing them on top of the smiles, laughs and occasional gutpunches they can offer!
There's so much more I could mention - Kamurocho and Sotenbori are both beautiful, beautiful settings and I often found myself stopping and just taking it in. The Karaoke minigame is excellent fun, and a good laugh (seriously, if you haven't already, go sing "24-hour Cinderella" as Majima. You won't regret it.)
Overall, this is an open world game that respects and does not waste your time. For me, someone who is tired of most open world games, this has set a very high standard for them, and rightly so.
5/5.
This review contains spoilers
For some bizarre reason, despite being a huge fan of the Final Fantasy series and RPGs as a whole, it took me until this year to finally start this game. And oh boy, am I glad I did.
The soundtrack is excellent. Especially "Corridors of Time". The story is engaging and kept me gripped the whole way through, and it's incredible that a game from 1995 has so many endings - including the ever-infamous "bad ending".
I stumbled upon that ending with zero prior knowledge, and let me tell you, it sent a shiver down my spine seeing that cutscene of Earth exploding, and that goddamn creepy roar of victory from Lavos, all with that ominous text.
"But the future refused to change."
5/5. What an excellent game, and definitely one I'll remember.
I still need to go for the other endings...
The soundtrack is excellent. Especially "Corridors of Time". The story is engaging and kept me gripped the whole way through, and it's incredible that a game from 1995 has so many endings - including the ever-infamous "bad ending".
I stumbled upon that ending with zero prior knowledge, and let me tell you, it sent a shiver down my spine seeing that cutscene of Earth exploding, and that goddamn creepy roar of victory from Lavos, all with that ominous text.
"But the future refused to change."
5/5. What an excellent game, and definitely one I'll remember.
I still need to go for the other endings...
My favourite game of all time. I try to replay this regularly.
It's the game that got me into RPGs and video games as a whole. I was blown away by everything - as a kid playing this was huge. I do wish I could go back and experience it all for the first time again.
I'm due another playthrough soon, to be honest. Absolutely stellar. Don't listen to the fluff about how it's "overrated" - that's not a criticism and should never be taken as such. There's a reason it's so highly regarded.
It's the game that got me into RPGs and video games as a whole. I was blown away by everything - as a kid playing this was huge. I do wish I could go back and experience it all for the first time again.
I'm due another playthrough soon, to be honest. Absolutely stellar. Don't listen to the fluff about how it's "overrated" - that's not a criticism and should never be taken as such. There's a reason it's so highly regarded.