In all honesty, my love for Yakuza: Like a Dragon weighed heavily when getting in to Infinite Wealth and for sure, RGG writing sometimes is not always the sharpest, 4 being the worst entry in terms of consistency, so I was surprised just how consistent Infinite Wealth maintains itself through the story.

The stuff with the Palekana was kinda whatever because it feels so foreign to what this series is and how it doesn't feel well incorporated in the story, the humour is so effortless I was dying of laughter, Yamai the goat, Bryce was kinda sauceless and Ebina was alright, not as impactful as Aoki was, but serviceable.

Believe me when I say that Ichiban remains one of the greatest protagonists in gaming, the amount of compassion and confidence he exudes through all of his bravado and silliness makes him a force to be reckoned with, and Kiryu this time around breaks down that burden of flying solo as he was always and learns to be more cooperative and inviting to see this through his end, it wasn't just his death that loomed constantly, but he had a proper arc with a ton of depth not seen since Yakuza 6 to be honest.

Under the guise of dynamism, every single gameplay system cooperates with each other to not only deliver the best combat system the series has seen so far ever since the shift to turn-based, but also for the bonds you develop with your companions, from being invested in their weird personal things, like Namba fighting a raccoon once, Saeko getting a heavy cooking pan that beats going to gym, or Joongi being into films and forgetting to return the DVDs he borrowed, and consequently, how those moments influence the flexibility of combat, like tag team attacks, combos, and what have you. ICHIBAN QUITE LITERALLY HAS A "WITH THE POWER OF FRIENDSHIP" MOVE THAT DOES A FUCK TON OF DAMAGE, IT'S WILD.

Some of the big negatives from combat, however, is the excessive grind (again), especially in the last chapters, the rate at which you level up, which is ridiculously stupid, and how for me, turn-based games fall into this trap where once you're powerful enough, you can just rely on the most powerful moves constantly with no consequences, in turn making you rely less on the ones that output less damage. You may be thinking of the MP bar, but what's stopping me from chugging down another Staminan and keep going? I respect the decision to be open like this, but it kills the incentive to make use of all your tools when you can just rely on the best moves constantly

All in all, it's another great entry in the series, with some of the best dynamic turn-based gameplay gaming has to offer at the moment and a story that really does everything it can to honour both my Ichimans, the hero of Yokohama and Kiryu, the legendary Dragon of Dojima

Bon Voyage.

Growing up I could never really get into Pokémon. I found it overwhelming and my little brain can’t handle an ounce of planning. But playing through Violet completely changed that for me. Exploring this brilliant world and interacting with its amazing cast of characters made me fall in love with Paldea. To its themes of finding your “Treasure” to Nemona’s constant need for a battle. Its charm never ended.

Seeing my favs interact at the end and having this feeling of being in a party felt so satisfying in the final area. I can’t wait for Pokémon to hopefully move forward from this game and make their stories even better and the worlds even bigger!

Thank you my treasured friends 🌟

Ass backwards as I like to go about these things, Fatal Frame II was my first introduction to the series, a delightful masterpiece of survival horror that piqued my interest to try its inception title this Halloween season. Having heard Fatal Frame being described as a tech demo for the PS2 over the years, I find that distinction a bit patronizing and unfair, considering how successfully the series hits it out of the park on its first try.

Fatal Frame is a testament to the aesthetic prowess and hoist Shintoism is capable of instilling in the horror genre, placing the player in an otherwordly creacky dilapidated mansion of suffocating folkloric symbolism and eerie culturally alien soundscapes drenched in darkness that elevate its humble Resident Evil-like fixed angle backtracking into one of the most oppressive and nerve-racking house of horrors that has you dreading getting past static kimono stands and samurai armor statues.

The highlight of Fatal Frame is of course its antagonistic force: the ghosts. Not just the crafsmanship put into their creepy and unsettling designs and the inherent capacity ghosts have to scare the shit out of us, but ultimately the concept of having to dispel them using a photo camera. Forcing the player to gaze straight into fear as it slowly glides towards them until the very last moment is one of the most ingenious design choices ever conceived in the genre that affirm videogames as the superior venue to explore horror, placing the responsibility of creating tension and scares on the one holding the controller.

Fatal Frame II is a refined revision of the concepts presented by its predecessor, improving upon the established core gameplay loop and retelling much of the same story, ideas and themes of ritualistic dogmas imposing on individualism in a more confident coat of paint that might make the first entry obsolete in the eyes of many. But as the foundation of the entire franchise, Fatal Frame is a singular cohesive haunting experience that doesn't overstay its welcome and utilizes the early stages of PS2 development to invoke one of the scariest games of all time.

I honestly don't know if this will so much be a review of a playthrough in progress - subject to change as I make my way towards endgame, or will essentially outline the problems I'll continue have with the game indefinitely going forward. For some dubious reason it’s managed to sink its hooks in me and I’m keen to see where things go. (update: i give up lol. they refuse to upgrade their EU servers and this game is simply not worth the 6-hour queue time. eat my entire shit)

Lost Ark features one of the most dripless, uncharismatic settings and stories I've ever seen, it's fascinating how ungrounded it manages to feel throughout, no matter how many varied locales and beats it drags me through. On top of a frankly dire localisation, there really is just no theming here to ground anything. It's not even just that it's ultra-generic fantasy, as you leave the starting zone to begin exploring other islands and continents, settings vary wildly. From a Chinese xianxia-inspired gladiatorial island, tropical island where you drink an Arthur and the Invisibles shrinking potion, and I've arrived at a mecha desert continent with a city that is essentially MIdgar. The variety is definitely here, and there are instances that make good use of them in the sense that presentation here is generally top-notch. The camera will make cinematic movements through dungeons at points as grandiose setpieces do their thing in the background, it does a pretty good job at pretending it isn’t a top-down ARPG-inspired joint. One of the highlights so far has been one of the dungeons in the shrunken zone, where you’re walking across tables in a pirate camp as they stab their maps and spill bottles. The problem really is that I’m 100% certain the director is just copying One Piece and forgot to implement any levity or even pathos (it’s very funny when a painfully unconvincing “sad” sequence happens and the main story quest won’t progress until you stand in a certain spot and use a /cry emote). It just hurtles at a noticeably disinterested pace through its own ideas, introducing you to hundreds of characters that are all written like shit and exist to open doors for you to the next toy the director will eventually throw out of the pram.

I chose the Bard for my class, because by the game’s own admission it’s apparently the most difficult to play of the suite of guys. ARPGs are a genre I’ve always struggled with, especially Diablo-likes where you just click on swarms of approaching hitboxes until they turn into red mist forever as their health values slowly increase in perfect sync with your gear’s damage output, I was hoping the mechanical difficulty of a slightly gubbed support class and the general sense that I’m skinner boxing in a world filled with other rats in the same maze would help me out. In a sense, it is - it’s nice to look at the world chat and see emote spam, people notifying the zone that a world boss called Willi Willi has respawned by dryly saying “Willi up”, as well as that trademark EU data center racism. The combat here is functional I guess, my bard has about twenty skills for me to choose from, complete with Diablo 3-esque runes for me to alter certain properties, but I’ve done fine sticking to a handful that turn the hoards into mulch with low effort. Dungeons have the most boring kind of modular, numerical difficulty options for better gear, but I wouldn’t roll out of bed for that if it was on fire. I know for sure I’m not getting the most out of the game mechanically because the localisation does a frankly dogshit job at explaining its systems well. After a certain point in the story it dumps a ton of gear nuances and crafting mechanics on you all at once and it nearly drove me insane reading its indecipherable prattle.

Ultimately this just feels like a souped-up Ragnarok Online. The Korean MMO hallmarks are all here, the spectre of inevitable grind looms over so many unhideable UI elements - bars to fill and percentages to tick up (this thing even has the nerve to hide Korok seeds out of geometry). My modern MMO experience is squarely on FFXIV but I really only appreciate how that game doesn’t have a glowing shopping cart button onscreen at all times when you play essentially any other MMO - Lost Ark is a casino and a skinner box first and foremost, a game second. It boggles the fucking mind how this game essentially demands you to level up alts with its oh-so-generous server-wide “roster” buff system. The levelling process here is painstakingly railroaded - killing enemies gives 1/10000 of the exp of a quest, of which you’re completing in a choreographed straight line through a continent every few minutes. There is no player expression or true variety, and the exploration is pure smoke & mirrors. You’re here for one reason and one reason only, constantly trickle in money so you can Boost through the tedium. There’s not even one lost ark, there are like seven..

When Guild Wars 2 was in early development, ArenaNet considered not having "leveling" at all--just no concept of "level" in the game whatsoever. Looking at GW2 as it is now, it's easy to see how that could've worked. You'd explore the world to get skill points to unlock your skills and traits, but you wouldn't have to worry about filling your EXP bar to hit arbitrary milestones that make your numbers go up. And given how GW2 now throws full level-up books and level boosts at you these days, honestly I think they should've stuck with that idea. It's hard for me not to look at Lost Ark with a similar lens. The levelling experience doesn't seem to accomplish anything (you even start at level 10, and immediately choose your advanced role). The levelling system works in a game with fixed classes and a strong narrative thrust like FFXIV, but Lost Ark is a game that promises a seafaring adventure, that instead has its levels arbitrarily introduce the world for you. I want to strip numbers out of games so fucking bad dude.

The overall plot is that W was sent to this island "Sector City" (as opposed to City Sector which is a level in this game) because they received an e-mail asking them to "Find Professor Aida". OOO got sent there because the Kougami Foundation sent him there for whatever reason. Accel follows W, ProtoBirth and Birth are sent there by the Kougami Foundation, it also turns out Gotou and Terui know each other since they work in the same police station and Terui is his superintendent. Zero-One is just there because "AI research" or something.

Each character plays different except not actually. Flying forms and characters share the same controls and basically the same moves. Zero-One and Gatakiriba both have high jumps. Shit like that. They're cutting corners. W might be the most unique one given he has a gun, staff and fists, but in general they translated each Kamen Rider sort of okay. I'm a little disappointed that Zero-One didn't have anything but Flying Falcon in terms of early in the show forms, I think Tiger would've been cool but my guess is they literally developed the game as the show was happening, hence Fuwa not appearing and Is doesn't even get a major role, Zero-One just mentions her.

The gameplay is actually really tight, it's just boring once you're 11 hours in. The game has a levelling up mechanic that lets you unlock enhancements, they're unlocked in intervals of 2 unless you're Joker who gets one at level 1, but the rest is the same. They're things like ATK up, armor ATK up, being able to hold down the unique attack button to make it more powerful, etc. It's a decent concept except that the game really holds your hand with who you can level up. You can't level up to max from the first level anyway, which is fine, but they lock you off from being able to pick Kamen Riders so often. Most of the game you're either W or OOO and you have no fucking chance of levelling Accel, ProtoBirth, Birth or Zero-One. I ended up being able to max out W, OOO and Zero-One but I never finished Joker, Birth, ProtoBirth or Accel.

It's clearly a fanservice game, Ankh shows up, they bring in Lost Ankh, there's Mezool, Gamel, Uva, Kazari and DINOSAUR GREEED. From W's side you get Eternal, the Museum and Nazca (who is just this game's Gray Fox for whatever reason). Some of the other Dopants show up, Quetzalcoatlus, Virus, Violence, Magma, so on. There's some cyborg T-Rexes in there for like no reason. No one from Zero-One's story even shows up.

The levels are unimaginative and generic as hell from their design and just from how repetitive they end up being.

This game is carried almost exclusively by it's combat and the fact you can play as W, OOO or Zero-One.

It is absolutely STAGGERING they got Aya Kamiki and TAKUYA back to make a brand new song for this, considering it's been over a decade since we had W. Not to mention Takehito Koyasu voices Zeus in this game.

It's almost like they put effort in some areas, but not nearly enough to make it a consistently incredible game like it most definitely could've been.