Apart from TT fleshing out the hubs more than previously this LEGO game is a downgrade in every single aspect. Basing half the game on the worst movie is already a detriment, but the game itself isn't all that great as well.

Some baffling design decisions like making the vehicle missions (that everyone has complained about in every single LEGO game) even worse somehow. Traditional longer levels that included both puzzles and combat are now split into short ones that do one or the other which severely hurts the combat focused ones. Combat in LEGO games is there to give a touch of variety in between the puzzles or when you are moving along the level, but being dropped into an arena just to fight waves of enemies multiple times throughout the game is just boring. In addition every big section of the game is followed by a completely made up giant bosses that are all very similar and repetitive. This stands out esp. strongly because the adventure focused puzzle missions already have minibosses that are better every single time. Each of the 6 mission sets also follows a very rigid structure of 2 Puzzle levels (which are mostly great, but still worse than in previous games), 1 Brawl (boring), 1 Vehicle Mission (Bad) and 1 Big Boss (bad). It just becomes incredibly formulaic.

In the end the small glimpses of stuff done well like the traditional LEGO humor just don't do enough to make the game enjoyable.

This would have probably been miserable to play regardless, but doing it right after FF1 made it even worse.

I do acknowledge that a lot of ambition went into making this game, but while some of the core ideas were solid, most of the execution felt quite poor and led to almost constant frustration throughout the runtime. I guess this sometimes comes with the territory when you try to experiment and offer something completely different.

Like many others my biggest gripe was likely the progression. Maybe not even so much the mechanics of how it worked, but rather the way it constantly made me feel. The game sells the progression as what is essentially ultimate freedom - the more you use a certain ability the more it levels up and all equipment can be used without limitations. It should feel very natural, but instead it caused an almost constant feeling of dissonance for me. I felt a need to always use abilities I did not need in my current encounters just so I could level them up for future battles where I actually needed them. This made everything feel very hollow for me. There's so much choice with cool magic, but realistically you need to pick 2-3 favourites because unless you spend the time casting something constantly it will be relatively useless.

In addition to this many of your characters stat upgrades are somewhat random. If you get hit enough your health may increase a little after the fight. Same with dodges, MP and probably a few more things. The added randomness and removal of actual levels ended up almost completely removing my excitement at seeing my characters progress.

Naturally not loving both ability progression and stat progression meant that combat started feeling incredibly hollow after a while. Which brings me to the next point. There's so damn much of it. There is a random encounter approximately every 4-5 steps you take. In addition to that the dungeons in this game are about twice as long and filled with maze like dead ends and confusing stairs. Two things that absolutely do not work together. I would have liked to explore the maze, but there's a constant feeling of being penalised with 10 random encounters any time you take a detour.

Since progression seems to be the keyword for my little rant here I'll also add that map progression took a massive dive in this game. In Final Fantasy sections of the world map were unlocked in clever ways to guide the player more naturally and offer a sense of being on an adventure. For the most part this is gone in FF2 and the majority of the world map is open from the very start which removed a lot of the sense of wonder I had while playing the first game.

I have more gripes, but I figure I've already ranted enough about my experience and probably come across more negative than the game perhaps deserves. The biggest praise I can give this game is definitely the music. Nobuo Uematsu is a genius and listening to the iconic soundtrack made everything a little more bearable. It also looks amazing and I love all the sprite designs. The story - while not being perfect - strives to be a little darker which was interesting to see. It's still not something I want to judge too harshly in these early games which is a whole conversation of it's own, but they are getting closer to crafting a proper narrative. FF2 also introduced a lot of series staples like the Chocobos so it was cool as a fan of the franchise. It might even have more iconic elements than the first game as far as the identity of the series is concerned. I just wish that I had enjoyed the actual gameplay more.

Yakuza Kiwami makes me happy and frustrated at the same time. The happy side almost wins out, but not quite. The characters and the story are great! I was connected to everything that was going on and always wanted to push forward.

That being said most other aspects come with caveats. Kiwami gives you something with one hand and takes something else away with the other. The combat is fun, but the bosses can be annoying and the game really likes to stun lock you keeping your character immobile for much of it. The side content can be interesting, but a lot of it feels like busywork. Majima everywhere was brilliant, but is so drawn out that unless you grind it you can forget about keeping up with the final skill tree.