60 reviews liked by Lorazx


loose thoughts, don't really care for much of a coherent review this time around.

maybe doesn't have as many cool "moments" as other games in the series but probably the most thematically compelling all around (other than maybe 0) and definitely my favorite rgg game now. feels like it has the same vibes as earlier entries where the stories weren't great but cool shit happened and i liked seeing the characters interact and beat the shit out of each other, but having a lot less of a struggle to manage tone whatsoever than 7 did (mostly because it did not go for many deeply emotional moments) and having themes that come across more coherently and less clumsily than dreams in 5.
gameplay is also improved compared to 7 and i think at this point (at least with kiryu's party) that infinite wealth has gameplay i enjoy more than any of the beat em up style rgg titles. kinda sucks how lopsided some of the cool and interesting mechanics are onto being just part of kiryu's kit when ichiban does not get anything remotely as interesting but oh well
the party dynamics are also so much better in 8. ichi/nanba/saeko/adachi in 7 is definitely good but ichi/tomi/chi/adachi and kiryu/seonhee/nanba/zhao just does so much more for me. felt way more invested in the party in 8 than i did in 7 and i already was pretty invested in 7's party. i'm sad that tomizawa is tied to hawaii because an ichiban group without him is going to feel super hollow afterwards.
speaking of new characters i like, yamai is probably one of the best characters this series has introduced in years and my biggest gripe with the story is that his backstory is hinted at and then just kinda ran through at the end. really hope they continue to use him since he's really a great presence. his second dynamic intro is also like the best one in the entire series


despite the fact that the misconception that 6 was designed and intended to be an ending for kazuma kiryu as a character plagues this fanbase so we need to pretend that it's bad when kiryu takes up screen time after that game ended or whatever, kiryu is the highlight of this game and it is not even a competition. maybe a lot of the "the game should've been more about ichiban!" crowd are just people who started with 7 and/or did not play through the kiryu games but i still think he was absolutely worth including in this game and i think this could've ended up being one of the weaker entries in the series without him. sorry ichiban, but you are kind of yakuza 4 kiryu in this game where you are dragged into the story because you are the Like a Dragon Guy and need to be there. even if your final boss basically gets a better version of the munakata intro (with a worse song because even if the music is better in 8 the ichiban games have a terminal case of Ichiban Gaming Intro HD 720p) i did not find your part of the game as compelling as kiryu's outside of strong character writing. character writing in general is probably some of the strongest the series gets in this entry though so it's definitely not a waste of time.


infinite wealth in general honestly feels like it is setting up for a third ichiban game to really tie it all together, more of a middle point for ichiban while progressing kiryu's story to a point where it actually feels reasonable to start ending his, so despite not actually being excited for 8 until much later into the prerelease cycle i'm very excited to see what rgg studios does for like a dragon 9: lost in new york

played through the prologue because the 3ds version came with a gift i got this month, probably one of my favorite dragon quest games visually in terms of the 3d and i unironically think it looks better than the normal version. it's a shame that after the prologue you have to choose between 3d and 2d instead of having both, but definitely still going to play through the rest of the game with this version after finishing my main playthrough

yakuza 3 is kind of sad to me, a good game held back by glaring issues. mine is still one of the strongest foils to kiryu and still has the coolest boss intro and battle theme in the series and most scenes with him are incredible, and i really like the story in terms of kiryu and the orphanage and all of that, but the combat is pretty weak and the actual conspiracy that drives the plot is by far the weakest in the series and it's hard to reconcile with that when the behind the scenes scheming and what not that drives the plot is too uninteresting to do that very well. equally integral to and great for kiryu's story and progression as it is uninteresting and not really worth revisiting in my opinion

Schwarzweltcels seething over Expansechads. An entire generation of Megaten fans have been filtered by kino.

Early access survival games are a blight on society.

i might play more with friends, but it's as generic a survival game as you can imagine made by some of the most soulless just doing it for a quick buck devs in the industry. i don't particularly care about the stolen pokemon designs (they are bad though) but the whole game is filled with stolen ideas and concepts with almost no spin on it. i don't doubt people genuinely find it fun, but it's as soulless and greedy as their previous game craftopia but because there's pokemon and they can hold a gun it sold 7 million copies and counting! sad for the industry, and the people acting like this is some special new indie company making a huge ambitious game and not their like 4th asset flip garbage hoping it catches on to make some money is pretty silly. i realize i'm part of the problem playing it at all, even if i did do it though gamepass. also, the gamepass version is behind on updates and entirely broken and pretty unplayable with friends almost certainly on purpose to push people to spend real money for it on steam (which judging by reviews is working!) and that sucks. idk, this is the most bitter i've been in a review and i don't really think less of anyone who is playing it and enjoying it because i understand it's just a kind of fun trendy game but i guess it's just the entire circumstance around this game that really bums me out.

Thinking about this game, the discourse around it, the developers, the streamers, the players, the supporters, gives me spiritual depression

Remember when Naughty Dog used to make games like Jak & Daxter and Uncharted while not being held hostage by a egotistical Zionist who believes he can do no wrong and a bigger company who so desperately wants the same 7 franchises they've relied on heavily since 2017 to be cinematic video game showcases so they can easily translate them into movies and TV shows because said-company's previously existing movie/TV IPs have either underperformed or is forced to have shared custody with the Mouse™?

On a completely unrelated note the Last of Us Part II is a very nothing remaster and they're now announcing the new cast for season 2 of the show.

This has big “robot chicken skit” energy

a crossover of two of my absolute favorite series that ends up being a showcase of everything i hate about the direction both of them have ended up taking