Magvel
2023
It's good and I really appreciate how you deal with weird strategies like coaching keldeo but the amount of back and forths you do is just too much. I can't imagine playing it without a calc and planning the whole fight in advance (which I like to do but not everyone plays like this)
2004
It's not bad like a lot of people seem to think but when your comparisons are suikoden 1, 2, 3 and 5 (even if I don't like 3) just being "not bad" isn't enough.
What am I doing with my life
2005
Probably the biggest discrepancy between the last 5 minutes of the game and the rest. The game is a downgrade in every way from zero 3 and while that's hard to live up it still has worse levels worse mechanics worse weapons and worse boss fights
But on the other hand few things are as kino as its final boss (except the gameplay of phase 2 I hate it) and ending. This is how you finish a character's journey through its series. Looking at you RGG
But on the other hand few things are as kino as its final boss (except the gameplay of phase 2 I hate it) and ending. This is how you finish a character's journey through its series. Looking at you RGG
What a colossal disappointment.
Ok it's not that bad. Everything with Kiryu is great especially chapter 8 (except the end that shit is ass, his final boss is good but feels like Ichiban should've fought him). New party members are cool and I like the gameplay improvements (still not a fan of having to go to a specific location to change jobs but there are more of them and money isn't as tight as in 7). Hitting dudes richocheting into other dudes never gets old. Same as having a physical character comboing into a mage to get them back some mp (there's even risk into it since enemies target the closest guy to them which would be said mage if it's their next turn).
The game feels like it was made back when length was a factor in game reviews. There were some cutscenes where I checked my phone or zoned out which never happened before in any other yakuza game. I don't know if it's due to the dialogue itself or just the length of the cutscenes but it really feels longer than it should. But somehow the ending feels rushed with a lot of stuff either forgotten about or that feels like we should've known more (Eiji becoming public enemy n°1 for example, did Ebina expose him because he wasn't useful anymore ? Was it Chitose ? Somebody asked who was running the Tatara channel and she said it was him ?)
Antagonists are also a big wrong in this game. One is Aoki but worse in every way and one is a generic cult leader. I guess there's a 3rd big one but him not appearing in the final chapter but instead in the ending cutscene where Ichiban talks no jutsu him (happens a lot btw, even for him) and he says sorry and it's fine apparently.
There's a lot if weird inconsistencies (Chitose casually using the Tatara channel despite Eiji having control of it and using another voice actor, the Geomijul unable to find a famous streamer but hijacking a government satellite, Nele Island running out of the space for the waste being a twist despite the thing being visibly half full in 2 months once you enter the cave)
The Daidoji are also not beating the shittiest group in the series accusations. What a wet fart of a character Hanawa is I can't believe Yokoyama said he was important what a fucking liar.
Ok it's not that bad. Everything with Kiryu is great especially chapter 8 (except the end that shit is ass, his final boss is good but feels like Ichiban should've fought him). New party members are cool and I like the gameplay improvements (still not a fan of having to go to a specific location to change jobs but there are more of them and money isn't as tight as in 7). Hitting dudes richocheting into other dudes never gets old. Same as having a physical character comboing into a mage to get them back some mp (there's even risk into it since enemies target the closest guy to them which would be said mage if it's their next turn).
The game feels like it was made back when length was a factor in game reviews. There were some cutscenes where I checked my phone or zoned out which never happened before in any other yakuza game. I don't know if it's due to the dialogue itself or just the length of the cutscenes but it really feels longer than it should. But somehow the ending feels rushed with a lot of stuff either forgotten about or that feels like we should've known more (Eiji becoming public enemy n°1 for example, did Ebina expose him because he wasn't useful anymore ? Was it Chitose ? Somebody asked who was running the Tatara channel and she said it was him ?)
Antagonists are also a big wrong in this game. One is Aoki but worse in every way and one is a generic cult leader. I guess there's a 3rd big one but him not appearing in the final chapter but instead in the ending cutscene where Ichiban talks no jutsu him (happens a lot btw, even for him) and he says sorry and it's fine apparently.
There's a lot if weird inconsistencies (Chitose casually using the Tatara channel despite Eiji having control of it and using another voice actor, the Geomijul unable to find a famous streamer but hijacking a government satellite, Nele Island running out of the space for the waste being a twist despite the thing being visibly half full in 2 months once you enter the cave)
The Daidoji are also not beating the shittiest group in the series accusations. What a wet fart of a character Hanawa is I can't believe Yokoyama said he was important what a fucking liar.
2004
When he said WARE WA MESSIAH NARI I clapped and yelled PEAK THIS IS PEAK and that's what this game is. PEAK
1993
Remember Vile lol
The Daidoji are incompetent buffoons, 3/4 of the game are spent running errands, there's so much padding it looks like they were trying to meet an arbitrary length to justify the game being sold full price (with dlc lmao), the ennemies are either thousands of armed guys as aggressive as if they were single or block spammers
But that fucking ending man I cried with him
But that fucking ending man I cried with him
One of the most conflicting games I've played this year. I went from "this is great" to "what is this" every 30 seconds
Positives first : the controls are tight and responsive. Hitting the road with the bike feels good and the movement options allow for a lot of creativity. The instant respawn is a godsend and should be a standard in every game where you die in one hit. Blowing birds to smithereens never gets old and the OST is pretty good. I didn't like the overall story but the ending is great
Unfortunately there's a lot of bad. The story is impossible to take seriously when characters swear everytime (NPC aren't much better and aren't helped by most quests boiling down to fetch). The enemy placement is really puzzling at times, especially later on when they get gatlings with shots that are pointless to reflect since they can only be hit from above or behind homing rocket launchers (and believe me those rockets follow you to the other side of the fucking planet). The upgrades are also bad. You need around 30k money to upgrade everything but most of those upgrades don't feel substancial. Only things you really need are shotgun, pistol and bag upgrades, the rest is pretty much bait. And good luck farming when there's the dark souls mechanic where you lose half your money upon death and have to retrieve it by going where you died (It's not that bad since there's a lot of checkpoints but it's still annoying)
On the mixed bag the game has 6 bosses. Similarly to the rest of the game most are good but the 2 bad ones (caterpillar and crab) really suck ass
Did I like the game ? I mean yeah I finished it but it's definitely an acquired taste. It's either a GOTY contender or a frustrating experience that feels worse than it could be
Positives first : the controls are tight and responsive. Hitting the road with the bike feels good and the movement options allow for a lot of creativity. The instant respawn is a godsend and should be a standard in every game where you die in one hit. Blowing birds to smithereens never gets old and the OST is pretty good. I didn't like the overall story but the ending is great
Unfortunately there's a lot of bad. The story is impossible to take seriously when characters swear everytime (NPC aren't much better and aren't helped by most quests boiling down to fetch). The enemy placement is really puzzling at times, especially later on when they get gatlings with shots that are pointless to reflect since they can only be hit from above or behind homing rocket launchers (and believe me those rockets follow you to the other side of the fucking planet). The upgrades are also bad. You need around 30k money to upgrade everything but most of those upgrades don't feel substancial. Only things you really need are shotgun, pistol and bag upgrades, the rest is pretty much bait. And good luck farming when there's the dark souls mechanic where you lose half your money upon death and have to retrieve it by going where you died (It's not that bad since there's a lot of checkpoints but it's still annoying)
On the mixed bag the game has 6 bosses. Similarly to the rest of the game most are good but the 2 bad ones (caterpillar and crab) really suck ass
Did I like the game ? I mean yeah I finished it but it's definitely an acquired taste. It's either a GOTY contender or a frustrating experience that feels worse than it could be
Gamer Sanae is back bros
2021
I never understood why Asano apologized for Bravely second, it wasn't a masterpiece by any means (it played too safe and the cast was worse, streetpass also aged as badly as every game that included it) but it was good. Now this is a game he should apologize for. A game that manages to be both incredibly frustrating and boring at the same time. A mix of mechanical nonsense (hey here's a new job btw the next boss counters it) and characters that manage to out-flat Agnes.
Crazy how despite having FIFTY ONE playable characters the ones who carry here are the newcomers. The C crew compensates the 2 other that are honestly just rehearshes of their MC's previous arcs (not bad but I couldn't care less about Rean after 4 games focused on him). Hyped for Kuro in 2024 (probably lol), speaking of the west and trails.
Almost as crazy as having to wait 3 years for a localization job that was so bad it contained more bugs than the original jp release (and not small ones, it's one thing to have Machias say "this place gives me the jitters" but links were literally broken and were all named "link attack"). NISA is a company with more than a decade of fuck-ups that has the audacity to take down fan translations of games they haven't announced working on (which I sincerly doubt It's legal but hey companies can bully people It's fine apparently). If you think wanting a game that isn't released in a terrible state (3 years btw) is an exaggeration because LOL gamers amirite then fuck you. You deserve dogshit, doesn't mean everyone deserves too.
Almost as crazy as having to wait 3 years for a localization job that was so bad it contained more bugs than the original jp release (and not small ones, it's one thing to have Machias say "this place gives me the jitters" but links were literally broken and were all named "link attack"). NISA is a company with more than a decade of fuck-ups that has the audacity to take down fan translations of games they haven't announced working on (which I sincerly doubt It's legal but hey companies can bully people It's fine apparently). If you think wanting a game that isn't released in a terrible state (3 years btw) is an exaggeration because LOL gamers amirite then fuck you. You deserve dogshit, doesn't mean everyone deserves too.
The PS1 era was a time where creativity was still flowing and a great mind had a high enough budget to realize their ideas without being limited by the technology at the time
This game is also a relic of that era, which is making dogshit sold full price hoping suckers will buy it because they recognize the licensed name in it
This game is also a relic of that era, which is making dogshit sold full price hoping suckers will buy it because they recognize the licensed name in it
"escapism bad reality good" ok mr video essayist I get it this game still has a shit gameplay, boring plot and uninteresting characters
what if we took the stealth levels from MGR no one liked and made it an entire game