Followup from my last review.

Bumping this one up a bit because, in hindsight, I do honestly think the finale is worth it and in fact would've preferred Gaiden to consist of nothing but the first hour and last two hours.

A lot of the reactionary praise I've seen for IW talks about that game's respect for the series' legacy and... Even putting aside that it's so observably wrong that reappraisals of IW in a few months will say the same thing, I think Gaiden's Important Bits and 6 ultimately do a better job of addressing the franchise's history.

Gaiden, ignoring the faff in the middle, really stands out upon reflection (and in light of IW) because it's perhaps the first and only title in this series to admit that a lot of the past plots were ridiculous. The last hour says it upfront: The dreams of the Yakuza - arrogant, egotistical maniacs playing at modern Shogun - don't mean a damn thing.
There's no real celebration of the Yakuza here. Even compared to Judgment's dimmer view on them, everyone in Gaiden who enjoys being a Yakuza is either pathetic or insane. Yeah it's kinda cringe and on the nose that Nishitani III is a sadistic rapist and Shishido is such a pathetic little man that his final phase is easier than some trash mobs, but what do you expect? Who else would covet the power of the Yakuza? They're reduced to beating up old men and hiding away on a boat.

The final boss especially is great, there's a lot of excellent visual storytelling going on which is unusual for this franchise. Kiryu taking one last scar to keep the Yakuza away from hurting innocents, Shishido's bulk being what destroys the Omi iconography, Kiryu's Daidoji gadgets being useless against Shishido which forces him to rely on good ol' tactics, Shishido standing against the Omi logo but looking tiny... It's just so good, dude.

Don't get me wrong, I'm ignoring a lot of shit. Agent style still feels awful and gimmicky to use, the Daidoji stuff is nonsense, after IW it's so obvious this was written after that game wrapped, the endless callbacks are embarassing, and the soundtrack is wimply.

But, after IW? I'm willing to give it a pass, because at least the awfulness isn't padded out. In-out, 8 hour game. Nice and clean.

Also god First Summer Uika is inhumanely beautiful. What's up with that?

Yakuza 5 is an anthology series.

Episode 1 - Kazuma Kiryu
“Suicidal Pedestrian Kart”
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The citizens of Nagasugai are desperate to die! It is your job to thwart the morbid plans of the populace while lawfully delivering your passengers!


Episode 2 - Taiga Saejima
“Cabela’s Dangerous Hunts: Sapporo Edition feat. Weapon Distribution Santa”
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Eat tripe, learn what a Marten is, and giggle every time Saejima says “Baba-chan”!


Episode 3 - Haruka Sawamura
“Harukatsune Miku”
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Sing and dance as you learn to stand up for yourself, but also repeat things back to authority figures verbatim and follow countless instructions without any error or deviation of any kind!


Episode 4 - Shun Akiyama
“Inept Businessman Simulator: Osaka Expansion”
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Spend very little time establishing a new office because there’s so much DANCING and KICKING to do!


Episode 5 - Tatsuo Shinada
“Brothel Baseball Chocobo Racer”
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Whack balls, race chickens, and write smut to get out of CRIPPLING DEBT!


Episode 6 - All
"Yakuzavengers: Homecoming"
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Probably the most baffling, nonsensical climax of any Yakuza game so far, but that doesn't stop it from being hype!

He de decir que este juego no me inspiraba mucha confianza cuando supe que nagoshi ya no iba a trabajar en sega, tuve mis dudas hasta el ultimo momento, pero yakuza es de esas sagas que descubres así de rebote y desde el primer momento me encanto, así que decidí darle un voto de confianza.
En mi opinion, se queda un poco atrás con respecto a yakuza: like a dragon que es sin duda mi yakuza favorito de la saga y esta ahi ahi con el 6 porque en el momento que lo jugué fue como cerrar un capitulo de mi vida por las emociones que sentí, pero aun así es un juego de 10, excepto para mi.
El juego es un 10 prácticamente en muchas cosas, pero no se porque durante todo el juego tuve como un rintintin de que no iba a sentir lo que sentí jugando al yakuza: like a dragon, no se si fue porque el yakuza 7 me sorprendió mas a la hora de que no sabia si me iba a gustar ichiban, los personajes tan carismáticos que salían, no se, es como que estoy jugando yakuza 7 otra vez pero le falta algo.
Aun con esas el juego me ha gustado mucho y el final me ha encantado, de verdad que la saga de yakuza es, junto a no more heores, de mis sagas de juegos favoritas la cual nunca podria describir bien el como me ha hecho sentir durante estos 4 años que la conozco, lo único que pido, si alguien lee esto, es que la pruebe y no solo la juegue y te sepas la historia y ale, otro juego ventilado para los números del backloggd, si no que sienta la historia, que sienta el peso que han tenido que cargar no solo kiryu y ichiban, si no todos los personajes variopintos que salen en esta maravillosa saga

The majority of the past few games developed by RGG Studios have mostly been a transition for the world of the Yakuza/Like a Dragon franchise. Kazuma Kiryu, who had been the series’ extremely popular main protagonist for nearly a decade, was essentially retired from starring in the mainline games in 2016’s Yakuza 6: The Song of Life, after being featured as the lead or co-lead in numerous entries of the series. The mainline games then shifted genres entirely with 2020’s Yakuza: Like a Dragon, going from a 3D beat-’em-up to a turn-based RPG, while the beat-’em-up gameplay was delegated to the new detective-themed Judgment spin-off series. These games each featured fantastic new protagonists with their own charming supporting casts. It felt like RGG Studios was testing the waters with these new characters and approaches to gameplay, and since the Judgment games and Yakuza: Like a Dragon went on to be successful despite not starring Kiryu, it was time to officially pass on the torch to the new generation. RGG Studios does just that with Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth. It’s a seminal entry for the series that eclipses just about everything that came before it in scope.

The franchise has always been defined by its large and elaborate overworlds that are filled with stunning amounts of content to discover, including substories, mini games, mini bosses, and an assortment of other fun challenges and things to do. Infinite Wealth somehow manages to take that standard to the next level. The game primarily takes place in Honolulu, Hawaii, one of the largest overworlds the series has ever seen, in addition to including the cities of Ijincho and Kamurocho from the previous games. Each of these locations has an abundance of things to do, to the point where it’s honestly a little bit overwhelming. The first half of the game in particular has several back-to-back tutorials regarding how its systems and side content works and it can be a bit difficult keeping track of it all. This is a very enormous and lengthy game though, and as long as you give yourself time and breathing room, you’ll eventually get used to… most of it.

The turn-based combat is heavily improved from the previous game, with a ton of quality of life changes. A new and vital element of combat is that you now have a limited range you can move your characters in. This allows you to position your characters in order to make the most effective use of their special attacks, adding a whole extra layer of depth to the combat. Drink Links and Bonds, which are conversations that you can have with your allies that lets you get to know them better, are a lot more important in this game. Completing them unlocks additional combo attacks, which you can perform by knocking enemies into your allies, as well as chain attacks, where your allies will perform automatic follow-up attacks after landing one of your own. I can’t stress enough how much I love these. It is indescribably satisfying having all of these different methods of attacking an enemy come together all at once. Even if your party is outnumbered, it feels like you constantly have the jump on every enemy you come across.

Despite all of the quality of life changes to combat, there is one element of it that I found to be lacking. Perfect Guards return from the previous game, where timing a button press to the enemy’s attack allows you to mitigate some damage. It has been some time since I last played Yakuza 7, so I can’t trust my memory on this, but it feels like pulling off perfect guards in Infinite Wealth is a lot harder than the previous game. The timing of the button press won’t always align with the enemy’s attack and it can be difficult determining when you’re actually supposed to press the button. In addition to that, the camera won’t always shift to the character that’s getting attacked in time for you to see the enemy’s attack itself, so you’ll have to guess when you’re supposed to press the button. This is especially frequent with attacks where the enemy will quickly bounce from ally to ally, though thankfully, there aren’t very many enemies in the game that do this, it’s mostly reserved for boss fights.

In addition to the combat, there are a bunch of other quality of life changes that I really want to highlight. The job system has been changed so that you can choose any skill from any job and assign them to a character, which allows for an insane level of character customization. Enemies spotting you in the overworld doesn’t immediately start a battle. Now a battle will only start if you remain in their field of vision for a certain amount of time, or if you just run up to them. You can also immediately take out lower level enemies with the Smackdown option, which allows you to instantly win the fight and can help save time. These are all godsend changes that I’m so thankful for.

I didn’t engage with all of the side content because there is just so much of it, but I did want to highlight Dondoko Island. This is the equivalent to the Ichiban Holdings mini game from 7. This single mini game honestly feels like a fully-fledged spin-off title in its own right. It takes extremely obvious inspiration from Animal Crossing: New Horizons where you’re customizing your own island resort by breaking trees and rocks, collecting materials, and placing all sorts of different furnishings and attractions all over the island. You can invite several guests to experience your island where they’ll spend Dondoko Bucks, a currency which can be converted into actual money. While you won’t break the economy to the same extent that you could in Yakuza 7, you get pretty damn close, and it’s a side activity that’s not only very worthwhile, but also engaging and genuinely relaxing.

Infinite Wealth’s story left me with a lot of mixed, but mostly positive feelings. I wasn’t as moved emotionally by this game as I was with Yakuza 7, which by the end had me in tears. Despite that, I still think the story is really good overall. It handles both Ichiban and Kiryu’s stories extremely well. Ichiban’s importance to the story isn’t diminished or overshadowed by Kiryu, which was a worry of mine going into this game. A major plot point is that Kiryu is suffering from cancer and doesn’t have much longer to live. One of Kiryu’s biggest flaws as a character is that he is always undertaking the brunt of burdens unto himself, rarely letting people in and sharing his own personal struggles with others. While he did originally meet Ichiban in Yakuza 7, which left a huge impression on him, it isn’t until here in Infinite Wealth where he finally starts sharing the burden with not just Ichiban, but the rest of the playable cast as well. It’s not just fantastic character development, but it really feels like a passing of the torch between these characters. The biggest downside to the story I feel is that it doesn’t do the best job at balancing the party members and the roles they play in the game. A few characters like Zhao and Joon Gi Han feel like they’re kind of just along for the ride. You still get to spend time with them with the Drink Links and Bond system though, so it’s not the biggest deal.

The game celebrates Kiryu as well as the franchise’s legacy with side content exclusive to him. I don’t want to give too much of this away, but if you’re a fan of the series, then this side content should be considered essential. It’s not just a trip down memory lane, but a way of tying up some loose ends of the series as well. Still, I really want to talk about it as well as the ending to the game, so I’ve made a spoiler Pastebin where I discuss them.

I feel like I’ve barely scratched the surface of the game with this review. Infinite Wealth is really the perfect title for this game, as it really does feel like it provides an endless treasure trove of sheer enjoyment. Time just stopped existing for me when I played it. I was locked in, having way too much fun and I couldn’t put it down. It’s a wonderful celebration of not just the series’ past, but its future as well. It’s truly incredible, and I genuinely cannot fathom how RGG Studios could possibly make a game that’s bigger and richer than this. It is overwhelmingly phenomenal.

Cyberpunk 2077 has always been a guilty pleasure of mine. Typically, I’m not someone that gets all that excited for western AAA releases, but this game was an exception. I have a huge taste for the cyberpunk genre as well as futuristic settings in general, and at the time of the game’s launch, the idea of a massive open world RPG within that genre and setting was immensely enticing to me. Then the game dropped with one of the most infamous video game launches of all time. It was absolutely littered with all types of bugs that ranged from hilarious to gamebreaking. Consoles were struggling to run it, and last-gen ones were getting completely bricked attempting to do so. Stories of how poorly development was managed and the horrible crunch the people working on it were put under were coming out months after release. CDPR eventually even got hacked and were threatened to pay a ransom or risk the source code of the game being leaked. To say that it was an absolute shitshow would be an understatement.

Yet despite ALL of that, weirdly enough, I was still able to enjoy my first playthrough of Cyberpunk 2077 quite a bit. Now to be fair, I played the PC version of the game on a rig that had been recently built. While I did run into numerous bugs and performance issues in specific areas, including numerous quests being completely broken and uncompletable, I didn’t have it nearly as bad as most console players did. It was a lot easier for me to see CDPR’s vision and enjoy the game in its mangled state, even if it didn’t turn out how it was supposed to. After the game’s horrific launch, the folks at CDPR promised that they were going to fix all of the issues with it and make it closer to their original intentions for the game, as well as supplement it with additional downloadable content. After my original playthrough, I decided that I wanted to wait a few years and come back to it once CDPR pledged to fix it, and after three years, with the launch of the 2.0 update and the Phantom Liberty expansion, I decided this was the time to give the game another go.

While there have been AAA developers in the past that have promised to fix a game after a troubled and bug-ridden launch, I struggle to think of any examples aside from maybe No Man’s Sky where a developer makes such a long term commitment to refining their game the way CDPR has with Cyberpunk 2077. They’ve shipped out numerous updates over the course of these past three years, stamping out a countless number of bugs and actually making the game playable for certain people. I do think that they were able to mostly deliver on their promise to fix the game. The old bugs and performance problems that I ran into during my first playthrough are completely gone, and the game now runs incredibly smoothly for the most part. I did still run into some bugs, but they tended to just be minor presentation ones, such as NPCs occasionally clipping through objects or floating in midair, and infrequently overlapping audio during conversations. I did run into a confusing issue with the Phantom Liberty expansion, but I’ll talk about that in my review for it.

Aside from the technical issues, a lot of the controversy surrounding the game was that to many, it turned out to not be the choice driven RPG that it was frequently marketed as, but I don’t think that’s necessarily true. 2077 requires you to explore and engage with its world in order to receive opportunities to make choices that affect how the story plays out. What you could consider to be the main storyline (specifically everything that has to do with Takemura and the Arasaka family, which is required to get the point of no return) is actually rather short, railroaded, and won’t take too long to complete. At the very least, you need to complete 2077’s major side plots in order to get the most out of its narrative and the game as a whole. This will involve completing a specific series of side quests that involve certain characters or factions. There are multiple endings to choose from, but you’ll only unlock them if you’ve completed those major side plots. Otherwise, you’ll only have one single option to choose as an ending. If you only stick to the main storyline, you will miss out on not just the choices that will shape how the story concludes, but you’ll also miss out on so, so, so much excellent story, worldbuilding, and content in general. Just following the primary campaign won’t get you the most out of this game, and doing so will only result in a major disservice for yourself.

That being said though, some decisions definitely affect the game more than others. The life paths that you choose at the beginning of the game have always been one of the most disappointing aspects for me. These are essentially the origins and backgrounds of your character. The only thing that your life paths really affect is how the very beginning of the story plays out, as well as very minor dialogue options in numerous conversations. The game places a lot of importance on your choice of life path, but in all honesty, it’s not nearly as important of a choice as the game makes it out to be. It’s disappointing because I feel like there was a lot of potential for your choice of life path to affect the narrative and gameplay. Overall though, I do think this is more of a minor issue that I’d still like to see addressed in 2077’s sequel.

For me, the primary appeal of Cyberpunk 2077 is how Night City is filled to the brim with all sorts of stories that you can discover or stumble into and take part in. Getting hit by an autonomous taxi that leads to the start of the Delamain side quest, randomly bumping into the guy with the malfunctioning crotch implant who begs you to take him to a doctor, or stopping to meditate with a buddhist priest you just happen to come across on the street that mysteriously vanishes after you sit with him. There’s so many fascinating people to meet and so many different stories that you can take part in and shape all throughout Night City. You also make choices during these side quests which will shape how they turn out, such as the conclusion to the Delamain quest or the crucifixion quest with Joshua Stephenson. The quests in 2077 are all very well-written, I struggle to think of a single quest that I didn’t enjoy in some way.

Night City isn’t just a massive and pretty looking futuristic city, it’s filled with a lot of NPCs who behave in a way that really makes the city feel alive. You can find drug deals going wrong and leading to a shootout, someone consoling their friend over a breakup, people suffering from nasty hangovers, and people simply ordering food at a restaurant or making small talk at a club. These NPC interactions that you can encounter are all voice acted, and they all feel extremely natural as well, though there are some reused animations here and there that may break the immersion. This in addition to all of the stories throughout the game are what make Night City my favorite world I’ve explored in any game I’ve ever played. I love just driving my bike around the city and seeing what kind of trouble I can get mixed up in.

Aside from the narrative, roleplaying also extends to stealth, combat and interacting with the environment. You have a number of attributes and perks that you can acquire as you level up that define your approach to combat and allow you to open up additional or easier paths in certain areas in order to complete objectives. The perks you choose will shape your overall playstyle, and it’s very fluid. I’ve played through the game twice now, and while I can’t comment on every single option that the game gives to you, I can say that I had a really good time with both of my builds. I wanted my first character to essentially be built like Doomguy, so I focused on upgrading my strength via the Body attribute and choosing perks related to shotguns and explosives, which in turn limited my ability to approach things in a stealthy manner. For my most recent playthrough, I wanted to roleplay as a samurai, so I focused on upgrading the Reflexes attribute and choosing perks that affected my efficiency with blades as well as enhancing my movement with things like a dash ability and a double jump. This allowed me to dash all over the place and shred foes into ribbons like I was Vergil from Devil May Cry. You have quite frankly, an overwhelming number of options in terms of building your character, which I think is fantastic. I didn’t even touch upon the Netrunning stuff that you can do, mainly because I didn’t really choose to invest in Netrunning skills, but I still think that being able to use the environment as your plaything by hacking things like lights and vending machines to distract enemies, or even just straight up hacking enemies themselves is extremely cool.

The FPS combat in 2077 isn’t the best that I’ve ever played, but I do think that it’s still very enjoyable and satisfying for what it is. I’m not a gun snob, so to me, they felt pretty good to use. Though, since I was a samurai for this playthrough, I mainly used katanas, which were pretty decent. I do wish that the enemies reacted a bit more when they’re hit by your sword, but I still had a lot of fun slicing and dicing dudes up, and especially deflecting their bullets back at them, which can cause critical damage if you manage to do so at the correct time. There’s also the cyberware that you can install on your character that can grant you unique abilities. Admittedly, I didn’t mess around with the cyberware too much, but I did make a point of acquiring a Sandevistan, the cyberware that was featured in the Cyberpunk Edgerunners anime that allows you to slow time. This cyberware can be a little OP, especially if you combine it with other cyberware that immediately lets you use it again after the time limit on it expires. I was able to use it in difficult situations to get to cover and heal up, as well as use it for stealth in order to just zoom past foes without being seen. You lose the ability to hack things at all as a trade-off for the Sandevistan, which in all honesty, is very fair.

Cyberpunk 2077 will probably always live in the shadow of its disastrous launch, and I think that’s probably for the best. I love this game, I really do. My second playthrough has solidified it as one of my favorites of all time, and I have thoroughly enjoyed both of my 80+ hour long playthroughs of it. But to tell you the truth, I don’t think that its launch should be forgotten. As much as I love the game, even my original playthrough of it, I don’t want to perpetuate the revisionist idea that it was always good. I think that CDPR should be commended for their commitment to fixing the game, but I also don’t think that they necessarily should be rewarded for doing so. The game was given an award for “Best Ongoing Game” at the 2023 Game Awards, which felt kind of disingenuous. I wouldn’t say that spending the past three years fixing a game means that the game itself is “ongoing”. No game should launch in the state that Cyberpunk 2077 did. There’s already a precedent amongst AAA publishers that it’s okay for games to launch in terrible states so long as it's fixed later down the line, and I worry that 2077’s redemption arc gives companies the idea that rushing launches and then fixing the game later is always a viable option, even if it takes two or three years to make it playable. I hope that everyone at CDPR has learned from their experiences with Cyberpunk 2077, because I really want them to continue to build upon the foundation that they’ve laid down and take the IP to even greater heights in the future. I want to return to a Night City even farther in the future, see how it's changed, meet all sorts of new people and get wrapped up in even grander stories of friendship, love, loss and corporate greed.

VA-11 Hall-A is a rather simplistic game, even in terms of being a visual novel. It’s not this complex, grandiose story that takes dozens of hours to complete. While there are some additional endings you can unlock, they’re small and really only serve to expand upon the game’s primary ending. There aren’t a whole bunch of branching paths with their own long and intricate routes. While it does have some elements of romance and mystery to it, they’re very passive, and the game isn’t particularly married to either genre. Despite the science fiction nature of its cyberpunk setting, VA-11 Hall-A is rather… mundane. And as I grow older, I gradually find myself relating to its mundanity more and more as time passes.

VA-11 Hall-A is the game for twenty-somethings. It’s the perfect game to boot up after a long day at work and just relax with. It’s not extremely long, nor is it a huge commitment. It’s just a comfy visual novel/bartender simulator with fantastic pixel art and a catchy synthwave soundtrack. It has a relatable story about the struggles of finding what makes someone happy, as well as the value of community in a world where everything sucks all the time and is gradually getting worse day by day, all lessons which are primarily learned by the main character, Jill. Jill is the perfect encapsulation of someone in their mid-twenties working a dead end job who isn’t quite sure of what they want from life. She’s intelligent, witty, charming, and sarcastic in a way that’s not obnoxious. Most importantly: she’s a very caring person, and all of these personality traits serve to really enhance the conversations she has with her patrons as a bartender.

The primary focus of the narrative is just lending an ear to the patrons that come into the bar, as they share with you the unique problems that they struggle with on a day to day basis. There’s a serious incident that takes place early on in the game, and the fallout from that incident affects a few of the regulars who frequent the bar. As a result, they’ll often talk about how this event affects them or the people close to them. Jill is of course, merely a bartender, and there isn’t much that she can do to help those people. However, she still lends her ear to those who need to talk about these things, and she does her best to offer valuable input. She doesn’t always know what to say, but it still means a lot to many of her patrons that she’s willing to hear them out, and it’s a trait of hers that I find deeply admirable and relatable. The rest of the game’s characters are mostly fantastic, even if some of them aren’t necessarily the best people. Just about every character has something about them that adds to the story, whether its exposition about how the world works, a compelling subplot, or even just fun or comedic character interactions.

There is a character in this game that I feel like I should mention ahead of time because they’re a character that has caused a lot of controversy for the game. Dorothy is a sex worker android with the mind of a 24-year-old and the body of a 13-year-old. Despite the nature of her job, she’s constantly acting bright and happy-go-lucky, and she makes numerous sex jokes over the course of her appearances. She also frequently talks about her job in vivid detail. Understandably, her character really sticks out and has made several players of this game rather uncomfortable. It’s a bit hard to see her as anything but this game’s version of the stereotypical anime loli character with the mind of an adult. Her character could have been used as the springboard for a discussion about the morality of utilizing a life-like sex worker android with such a body type, but that doesn’t really happen. Her character isn’t completely about sex, as she mentions that she’s often hired just to provide comfort to people or to pretend to be their daughter in a non-sexual way. She even gets into a philosophical discussion with Jill regarding the concept of death. Still, I don’t think that the game treats her situation or her background with enough tact to really justify it. If a character like this is a dealbreaker for you, well, I totally get it, and I don’t really blame you.

There is a bit more to the gameplay aside from simply reading through the narrative. You do actually prepare the drinks that patrons order at the bar yourself. Making drinks isn’t at all complicated. After the customer orders their drink, Jill will recall what they chose and you just look the drink up in a recipe book and follow the directions. Sometimes, a patron will order a large version of a drink, but in those cases, all you have to do is double the ingredients in the recipe. It’s that simple. It's so simple, I don't even know if there are any repercussions for getting a drink wrong because it never happened to me.

Aside from that, Jill has an apartment, and before each shift, you have the opportunity to browse the internet on your phone. When you browse the net, you can visit a news site, a blog, and a message board in order to get updates on all of the happenings that are going on in Glitch City. This is a great way to learn about the larger setting despite not experiencing a lot of the things that go on within it yourself. You can also go shopping to purchase various things, such as decorations for Jill’s apartment or additional songs that you can play in the bar’s jukebox. As the day begins, Jill will sometimes desire an item from the store, and if you don’t purchase that item, Jill will be distracted and won’t be able to immediately recall a customer’s order during that night’s shift. Jill being distracted isn’t really a problem, though. As long as you’re paying attention to what people are ordering, it’s not hard to recall a customer’s order at all. However, there are mandatory things Jill needs to pay for, such as electricity and rent for her apartment, and if she doesn’t have the money to pay for those things by a certain date, you’ll get the “bad” ending to the game, so you can’t just purchase every single thing that Jill has her eye on. You’ll have to be smart with your money. It’s worth occasionally purchasing something, but not all the time.

The game does potentially date itself by implementing a lot of mid-2010s internet culture and humor, particularly by referencing common posts from 4chan and Tumblr at that time. These references aren’t frequent, nor are they especially in your face. They’re mainly made on the message board you can browse on her phone, and you can also spot some commonly posted comments flying across the screen whenever Streaming-Chan visits the bar. After nearly a decade of these types of posts going out of style, I feel like it might be a bit hard to really recognize them unless you were someone who was on the internet at the time those posts could typically be found. The game also makes several references to YIIK: A Post-Modern RPG, which was still in development at the time VA-11 Hall-A was released. I gotta tell ya, those YIIK references really hit like a truck in the wake of its… controversial release.

For the most part, VA-11 Hall-A manages to be a consistently endearing and entertaining story, despite some distractions that may or may not take you out of the cozy atmosphere it creates. For me, the struggles that Jill goes through were ones that I could really relate to, and the overall message the game conveys really struck a chord with me. My second playthrough of the game, now that I’m older, felt so much more personal than when I first played it. Finishing the game left me with a little bit of optimism, something that I’m really struggling to muster as each day passes and the world gradually resembles the worst aspects of cyberpunk settings more and more. I feel like a lot of people could really learn from Jill. The world sucks, so we should all do what we can to make it suck a little less for those around us, even if the only thing you can do is serve a drink and lend an ear to someone who needs to talk.