Ryu Ga Gotoku Studios second take in shooters is a pretty good one. The entire team are so experienced with action that they can handle turn based, hack and slash, shooting mechanics, beat up or even help with things like adventure just fine.

Binary Domain is very much like Gears of Wars but the entire concept of picking this and putting Persona 1 concepts in the game with Ninja Gaiden 2 style of action made everything feel way more unique. The entire squad is fun to dealt with, the multiple way the campaign can go on makes me want to try again some other time, the enemies are all very fun and even the story is very cool. It isn't RGGS doing masterpieces like they are used to but I can't find anything that bothers me besides knowing that the studio can be at the same level as Takeshi Kitano or Kinji Fukusaku if they want to.

My only problem with the entire game is two things that never bothered me in ANY Ryu Ga Gotoku Studios game and let me very sad because of this. The soundtrack and boss fight, both are so forgettable and generic that is the only thing that make strange RGGS making this game. But overall, very good stuff.

Cain is the coolest character ever btw

I am not much a fan of Hideyuki Shin work in Grasshopper since I like more when the studio decides to go all out with everything instead of just playing with one concept (Let It Die playing with arcade games being a hard core rogue like with only this idea) but here he does a great job. Killer is Dead is a very normal hack and slash with focus in his presentation and does this very well. You have all the problems Grasshopper faced during this time but for the most time they are very manageable. The Killer7 DNA almost don't have anything left, the forced sexual side content you can ignore since the sub weapons almost don't have much use besides the one that do slow motion. Overall is a fun game, Hideyuki Shin can do some pretty cool.

Ryu ga Gotoku Studio bringing a manga format to video games made them showcase how strong the series is.

The game was made in 6 months but it only works because there's one since 2005. It was made in 6 months but have one of the most strong final fights and segments in games because of how auto conscious RGGS is with their own unique style. It was made in 6 months with a small budget (probably the last one like that) but have the same care as any other game. It's a game about erasing the past to protect the future, about freedom, loneliness and with only 10 hours works very well with all that. It can't be compared with the most strong work of RGGS like Kurohyou, Ishin, 5 but it sure does deserve be at the same rank as them of being very very good. The only complaint I can think of is the skill three but at least is very easy to pick everything you need just a little bit boring.

One of the best games of 2023 easily

One of the best examples of why the PS2 is just in another level.

The first Disaster Report was a fun proof of concept game. Adventure with natural disaster setting with a lot of set pieces and a little bit of date sim. In the sequel they just decided to make one of the best games in the generation. The basic concept still the same but everything is better and the multiple playable characters just adds more to the experience. The first chapter is your regular Disaster Report, you and your possible partner trying to survive and you deciding how to act and what you should focus. Then you get to play a murder thriller occurring while the city is drawing and right after you are just a taxi with a cute journalist investigating an corruption scandal togheter at the same time everything going down. And then you play as a girl who was left to die in the school because of bullying and the list goes on. Disaster Report is low budget but uses everything it cans to give life and interesting situations to the player there's not one single moment in the game that isn't engaging they can turn even just found itens to try to resolve a fever in something interesting.

You may don't have complex situations like you get in Disaster Report 4 that really made me think about while playing but everything is just so creative. Is the best kind of game out there, just use everything you can in video game as an art and have fun. The guys behind those games really knew what they are doing.

I did only one ending so far and played about 10 hours. I normally wouldn't talk about unless I did two endings for a short game like this (only two hours) but I think I know enough of the game so far to talk.

In The Friends of Ringo Ishikawa Yeo put us in a simple town in a simple world but with complex characters and difficult situations occurring. Is a small town and because how small it is everything that happens have more punch. In Fadding Afternoon we have a adult world, everything is more complex, walking in the street, sleeping, fighting, relationships, doing anything is more difficult and bigger. You are not a teenager that just happens to fight a lot, you are a legendary yakuza and a slowing dying one. There is no time now and there is no reason, you are just free to do anything to spend the rest of your days. Want to start a war to compensate the clan helping you? Fine. Want to become the top dog in the yakuza? Fine. Want to kill yourself? Fine too. Fading Afternoon let you 100% free to do what you want and at the same time this can be a bit harsh for someone who just want to beat the game it also can be awesome.

If The Friends of Ringo Ishikawa is nihilistic, Fading Afternoon is absurdist. You don't have a reason to do anything but why not? What better option you have? What you can achieve in a short time? Is not that the game is more optimistic, Maruyama just don't show much of his feelings and can't think anything to do if not fight. Even his dreams are about him fighting a army by himself for all eternity. Is a complex game about a complex world where the only thing you can do is stop forever or move forward until you die.

Peak

For a two hour game trying to adapt the entire original Ultraman show, does a pretty good job. Sure it only focuses in the action scenes and left alone a lot of the stuff that make the original show so good but at the same time adapts perfectly what it wants even putting shoot up sections. The weight, the powers, the kaijuus gimmicks, scenery, is very well made and there's the bonus of using the same idea as Fighting Rebirth 3 for hidden content (win following perfectly the episode, win in another way, etc). Is easily the best model for an Ultra game adaptation so far.

If Kenka Banchou do a banchou life sim using the cool factor (supposing so, since the only with english translation is like this), The Friends of Ringo Ishikawa uses everything more depressive about them. Sure, you have cool stuff happening but is just a small time fantasy, the reality comes crushing right after.

Everything is made to reflex Ringo and his friends and even the player too. If Shenmue suggests things and made you think something, The Friends of Ringo Ishikawa ask directly. The cast is made of teenagers that already lose in life. Ken can't go to pro boxing because he always enters in fights and always end with a broken hand, Goro can't be an artist because is like everything is against him, Masaru have a gambling addiction being only 18 years old, Shiro try to do the right thing and always gets in fight and Ringo doesn't have anything anymore. He left the opportunity of being a national champion, he doesn't have the wish to do anything anymore, he can try to be a better student but for what? Everyone wants to fight him. Is just the very relatable moment in banchou works when you see the characters knowloding how everything sucks and even if they did the right choices the system is against them.

The mix of russian literature with japanese movies and mangas sure goes hard.

After finally reading the book and rewatching the movie, I decided to replay this classic after years without touching and man, glad that I did that.

If the Zone in the book is a place of horror and in the movie a place of "magic" in the game is chaos. You have to enter this chaos and walk amongst everything the Zone have all the time, the only time you have some peace is when you hear the sound of a guitar and even these moments are very short.

The whole point of searching for yourself and a chance of a wish is amazingly done. The atmospheric and immersion in the Zone is so well done that almost builds everything the game needs for the main quest and conclusion. And of course that the gameplays helps too, even with the strange system the gunplay and combat in general is amazing, the feeling of fighting for your life and using anything you can is amazing and returning with anything to sell is just way to much satisfying.

I really like the world building, the quest desing, the combat and just exploring the Zone. Is a hard place to live but is a nice place in the same way. Is not my favorite version of Roadside Picnic (the book become my favorite book so I doubt any adaptation can surpass for me) but now I like way more than when I was 14 years old.

Beating the game knowing that this is basically Suda giving a present to his wife. Man I wish I have a relationship this good.

Fatal Frame was always about the clashing of tradition with the contemporary world and love. Grasshoper pick this and do the same thing they do with their Kill The Past games but this time they question one thing: the past is what make someone? If in the Silver Case they talk about how past drags someone life and the grow because of that is important, in Fatal Frame 4 we see people without a past, without a person inside then trying to recapture this. And they do this really well.

This is the game with the less amount of ghosts but this creates a sense of familiarly that is great and even helps the atmosphere with bonus of the peacing of the story since this is more a detective horror story than a psychological horror.

My only true problem with the game is more because of the version I played. This is a game clearly made with the entire Wii in mind, the way the levels play, the way you interact with anything and even the controls. So putting the game to work in a normal controller is pretty hard and is not so well done and as result you lost a big part of the fear they wanted do give. I disliked the new main color of the game but is just the same idea (making the game looking like the color that moon and the night in general reflects) so is more nitpick for my side. In general, Fatal Frame just have great games and 4 is no exception.

IS INSANE WHAT GRASSHOPER DID WITH SO LITTLE TIME AND THINGS TO WORK WITH

In all Grasshopper anime games so far they had a lot of material to work with and a bit more of time. Evangelion they had a lot of movies, an entire series, a lot of games and all they had to do was find a way to work their unique style with the style of the original work. Samurai Champloo they managed to capture the anime feel, writing style and just played an what if Suda and the boys from 25th Ward worked in some episodes from Samurai Champloo? But Blood +? They only had 7 episodes, and with that 7 the anime only introduced what the sinopse is. How the world works, how Saya fights, what the characters are and who is Saya was not even a thing they started to development in the anime. Is mostly a 100% original game and in only 4 months they did an entire game with it. AND SOMEHOW, IT'S WORKS! The core loop is very simple but fun, is what they are thinking to do with No More Heroes but not polish enough but hey its get the job done. Aoyama is a bit messy to play with but not enough to be a problem. The adventure segments are simple but work, the hub world works, like a genius once said: it's just works. The entire presentation is great, they manage to give a lot of personality to Blood + working with the same art style as Killer7, the story is a cool episode and the writing somehow mix well with anime, is Suda not doing much of his stuff but feeling like his work at the same time. The whole experience of playing this game is crazy