The Japan-exclusive remake of Dynamite Deka (localized as Die Hard Arcade in US/EU)...well it's more like a shiny reskin than a remake really...think of Spider-Man (2000) on PS1/N64 vs. PC/DC. It's kinda exactly like that.

You know how I feel about remakes, but this is pretty cool. Bruce Willis likeness is still here and even visible on the model lol. I'm going off my Saturn version review, so most of what I said carries over here...the added details and shiny graphics are cool...I don't like how they modernized that walkie talkie a bit but it's a minor complaint.

I'll focus on the PS2 exclusive stuff I haven't mentioned on the Saturn review...they added a variety of modes to this version, Easy Mode, Time Limit, a mode where you can only finish off by arresting people (which is normally a combo move and I love that), one hit kill (does player die in one hit, or the enemies or both?) and such...but the real treat is Altered Beast mode! Where Bruno and Cindy are replaced by furries! God I love this....and you can only clear it in one credit but game gives you more health pickups as a result, and they're Altered Beast style orbs...this is a funny connection considering I literally played and beat Altered Beast hours ago.

RISE FROM YOUR GRAVES!

the final boss going "YES! YES" is still great
I appreciate them including a trailer for the game and a gallery of renders!

I like how they made the Game Over screen an actual in-game cutscene going to that Game Over logo than just a still image.

Cindy has a much more obvious cleavage as she loses clothes in this version, this is them next gen graphics kicking in. How based!

Cleared using 18 credits, I love how ending screen has both Saturn and PS2 model renders for the individual modes respectively.

Yippie Kanpai!

EDIT: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-aULK4gk8I
THERE'S FUCKING GOLDEN AXE COSTUMES?!

without a doubt one of the worst games I have ever played

///

Music: at most 20% of the tracks are good, the other 80% are the worst things ever made

Movement: Fine, it’s basically Mania

Skins: Shadow and Lego ❤️

Levels: Horrible

Visuals: How was this even released

Performance: (see above)

Multiplayer: (see above)

Bosses: shit from a butt

Special Stages: either ok or shit from a butt

Bonus Stages: nothingburger

Plot: N/A

tl;dr: it would be like a solid 3/5 if the bosses weren’t designed so poorly

not a bad game at all, a pretty good one in a lot of ways but incredibly messy. the conspiracy in this one maybe tests your suspension of disbelief a bit, but there's so many good moments and it's not nearly as boring as 3's conspiracy so it's still an enjoyable time, at least when the game has you in onomichi. kamurocho feels like a drag regardless of how unfinished it is, but that's mostly because onomichi is just such a great hub and where most of the actually compelling story and character moments take place. characters like hirose and someya are also incredibly compelling, especially when the rest of the cast is just kind of there in my opinion. iwami more than anyone is a very bad and unenjoyable character but that's kind of the point and why he's so effective in his role, but then you have everyone else who's just kind of boring or vaguely evil and it just doesn't do much for me personally and it maybe doesn't help my wider thoughts on the characters that the western release is missing all of the tatsuro yamashita vocal tracks so cutscenes involving those songs just feel kind of empty and stilted since the original japanese version lets the vocals and facial animations do more talking than.. actually talking. the most striking thing to me about this game though is that even if it's not the last step in his journey, a lot of kiryu's story in this one basically has him in the passenger seat for a lot of events he went through in the first game, which i think works really well for a game that's supposed to be the end of his tenure as the sole lead of this series (more on that later).
very much a game that i enjoy but one that i don't find intensely remarkable most of the time. in terms of enjoyability though, the ending is where my thoughts on this game become more complicated, and while it really doesn't impact my thoughts on the game that much it's still something that constantly irks me and i find very hard to divorce from this game.

there's this pervasive idea in the yakuza fanbase that 6 was meant to be an end all be all finale to his character, that this would be the last time we would ever see him. however this idea falls apart pretty quickly; even while playing the game it becomes obvious that either this assumption is full of shit or that kiryu just got the worst send off ever, and to this day you'll see people upset about kiryu's inclusion in the post-6 like a dragon games. more than any other game in this series when like a dragon 8 was revealed there was this vocal fan outcry, people were upset that kiryu was coming back as a protagonist in this one and the more and more time i think about i just don't get it? on its own terms, as an ending to the individual game it's fine, but it's such an awful way to hypothetically conclude our time with this character and it's just perplexing to me that a non negligible amount of fans felt like kiryu's inclusion in games like 7, 8, and gaiden were even capable of "ruining" it. did kiryu fans really want his story to end with him once again falling back onto his deepest fatal flaw? the one thats been haunting him since the finale of the first game in this series? kiryu is constantly running away, he feels like people and especially the people he loves only get hurt when he's around, so he keeps running, and him not learning from that and just doing it again is supposed to be the final send off to this character? this grand finale that the newer entries tarnished? never has the fanbase of a series made me more happy that the loud voices in fandom are not the ones in the writing room because never before have i seen such a widespread misunderstanding of a character and his arc than with kazuma kiryu after yakuza 6.
hopefully as we get more fans in this series after the release of 8, a game that actually has what feels like a natural finale for the character, the idea that 6 was not only supposed to be a total finale for the character of kiryu but that it was a even a remotely good one for him dies down and yakuza 6 discussion can finally shift solely to how it has the worst version of kamurocho in the series, just like god intended.

Fun game! I just need to talk to whoever thought it was a great idea to lock saving behind the sleeping mechanic on Survival difficulty.

To put into perspective why this is an abhorrent design decision made by absolute fucking dumbasses who couldn't tie their shoes, even under the threat of gunpoint, you have to consider:

- This is a Bethesda game. Halfway through the tutorial on this most recent playthrough, my game crashed. Imagine being halfway across the map and you haven't saved in a while. While this sort of thing is true for any game that withholds saving like this, it simply isn't acceptable when the scope of your game is so large that these sort of technical hiccups are more inevitable than anything else.
- The combat mechanics and scenarios were evidently not built around this. To give a lesser example, the warehouse you have to clear to get to Diamond City requires a significant amount of cheesing if you want to see it through, and this is only expedited and compounded when you step outside and have to deal with multiple snipers. To give the most textbook example of this, one of the very first quests in Fallout 4 has you dealing with a Deathclaw. This Deathclaw only gets spongier with each progressive difficulty option, and by the time you've turned Survival on, can easily one-shot you. Given that you have to fight a litany of raiders before this encounter begins, you already start the fight with reduced resources. Unless you chose to pick off the remaining raiders with the laser musket the game hands you before you decide to pick up the minigun, good luck running around the second you have to reload that minigun. The only way this fight is even remotely fair is if you cheese it by going back inside the building you came out of, running back up to its roof, and "stealth killing" it from the roof while it runs around like a chicken with its head cut off trying to find you. The big issue with this approach is that it drains you of your ammo for the minigun, seeing as there's no real chance that you're getting a clean shot on that thing while it's moving around. Seeing as you'll probably need that minigun if you want to have a fair fight in places like the aforementioned warehouse, this is less than optimal. Once again, this is one of the first quests in the game. It would hardly surprise me if they didn't test this thing, that's how poorly thought out this is.
- One of the enemy types in this is a mole rat that will suicide bomb you. If you're lucky and have enough distance from one, this isn't a problem. But if even a single one of those things surprises you, you better start hoping your last save was recent.
- If you're playing on PC, none of this is an issue! Just install a mod that allows you to customize the rules to whatever you're comfortable with. If you're playing on a console, in particular anything PlayStation-related, you're shit out of luck.

What I love about Survival difficulties in games like these is that they force you to engage with the minutiae of the game's world. Having to actually scout for empty bottles so you can pour water into them is far more compelling than using what would be that water for boring, barely noticeable stat bonuses on regular difficulties. In this regard, Fallout 4's survival mode adds a nice layer to an already pretty fun game. But good lord, unless you're in a situation where you can circumvent the baffling decision to restrict saving in this way, I can't recommend it. Unless you're already halfway through the game, it makes the game nearly unplayable, and I'm not mincing my words here. It's genuinely that bad.

i have my nitpicks and prefer the original due to its faster game speed and the text being too slow (seriously guys its 2024), p much everything else is nitpicky like sound design and occasional dialogue changes

but i had the biggest grin on my face throughout the entire 32 hours i played, its beautiful, the battle mechanics are still as fun as ever, the remade soundtrack is (for the most part) a banger, its so faithful and felt like I was playing the original for the first time again as a kid, felt like a new yet extremely familiar take on ttyd, fitting for a remake

genuienly cant believe this exists, I dont think paper mario will ever be the same again but I am so happy i got to relive one of my all timers like this

(please nintendo make more of these im fucking begging you just make the game faster)

this game in such a weird spot for me. it's a really bad game with ass controls, really bad voice acting that fucks up the tone of the game a lot at times, and a whole bunch of glitches that i'm not sure are from the actual game, or the emulator.
but on the other hand, the premise is really really interesting. love how you can either make the reporter(s) suffer for some good camera footage, or save them but have no footage at all. too bad I encountered a glitch somewhere near the end, where I kept clipping through the floor and I couldn't continue. it's a shame, if this game had a better dub (or no dub at all) and the game was less buggy (or the pcsx2 devs fix them) this game would definitely be up there as a goated horror game in my opinion