Starting: Polaroid's Mega Rush to the 2023 End!! A game-filled December to Remember!!
...or something like that.
I had a larger review in mind however the draft I have of it isn't currently on me and to be honest, there's a lot of other stuff I wanna beat before the year end so I'm going micro for reviews this month.
Like A Dragon Gaiden is: Like A Dragon condensed into as meaty of a package as you can get, without much of the structure to keep it as held tightly as other games in the series. It begins strong enough, has a neat new cast of characters and has a strong enough finale- but what fills this gap is maybe less nutrient dense than the usual affair.
Exploring Sotenbori and having a mini package of the usual Yakuza affair is never gonna be a 'bad' time per se, but there's very little that hasn't been done before and a lot of that 'before' isnt really what I wanna do again. Pocket circuit? Fine. Cabarets? Fun! Mahjong..uhh Darts has a lot of content...?
...
Hey theres still Master System games and Sonic: The Fighters at least!
Actually though the worst part filling in this middle chunk of the game is going to the castle; I really didn't care about most of the content here and the Tournament gets incredibly grating. There's quite a bit I could complain about with this being the primary moneymaker + minigame filling the two ends of the package- the four kings boss fights mostly suck, I don't really know what the hell rumble mode is for, I don't think the 'power' numbers make much sense, I don't like that some allies can just hit and slow you down, etc.
I think this is a Yakuza with a lot of 'fighting' rather than a lot of 'action' and I don't really think that amounts to much in the long run. The agent style is neat but once you get into the late game you can just wash most of it by throwing your cigarette bombs everywhere. Yakuza style is. Also, it doesn't really help that I did plat the game- I had a lot of money to spend on attack upgrades and man does stuff just get washed if you beat Amon as early as chapter 4.
At the very least I will say it concludes on a much more fulfilling and intriguing note. Kiryu's character is finally facing the latter half of his life and its still tackling the stuff he's been wrestling with for most of it. The worlds changed a lot but he really hasn't, and all the baggage throughout his life has remained, compounded as a weight around his neck. He goes through the wringer throughout the game, and with as dispirited as he is, he figures its about time to just accepts what's finally come to him.
....
Now yakuza is still a wacky franchise now, right?
....
I dunno, I don't usually complain about this sort of thing but with how short of a game this is and some of the stuff Kiryu is given, its really hard to appreciate the mellow tones of the game with Kiryu jet-boosting his way into dynasty warrior hordes of goons. Maybe its just because of how condensed this whole package feels that the intervals between free time and story are shorter? Idk. After the final boss there's one final cutscene of Kiryu meditating at the palace and a part of me wondered briefly...what if there's was near zero combat? The gameplay doesn't even need to be interspersed with like, Judgment style investigation, it could honestly be just Kiryu plot/side story with some additional adventure elements, maybe with some of the agent gadgets to play around with. But I guess there's gotta be someone to clean up the yakuza-inundated streets of Sotenbori...
I really think this could have stood as a DLC for 7, or hell 8 even. It's short enough that I appreciate parts of it conciseness (and also the fact that you can plat it in one go), but bloated enough in other parts throughout the middle that I don't know if I really see myself wanting to play this again in the future. Yakuzas are long ass games yet there tends to be a lot of stuff I miss in each title, good for a second playthrough. Here the stuff I missed didn't feel worth checking out and by all means it seems like I've 'completed' it anyway, no need for a Premium Adventure.
Still, if you just glide through the main content you've got a pretty brief adventure, filled with a middling middle chunk topped by overall satisfying last chapter. I wouldn't say don't check this out, certainly not, but I would definitely note it's 'half-gamey' nature, and that the supplemental content for this RGG title isn't nearly as fulfilling as others in the series. Still, really excited for whats to come in Infinite Wealth.
Extra note:
I had a whole section in my initial draft talking about the rise in season pass/expansions/ DLCs as supplemental steps in certain franchises (comparing the content packs of early PC games, the rise of 'cosmetic' DLC like the obvious horse armor bit, into series like Xenoblade or Shovel Knight making what are practically whole ass new games but are considered 'just' expansions). I felt like this would have worked well in describing why this game feels so weird as a 40 dollar title rather than as DLC to something else. Also wanted to play through Kaito Files to compare and contrast with something like this in terms of 'fulfillment', I guess. I don't know, felt like I was getting to in the weeds and these games go on sale for like, Little Caesar prices after a while- the 40 dollar price tag is fine.
Extra (2) note:
This game DOES have Kaito so its at least GOOD
...or something like that.
I had a larger review in mind however the draft I have of it isn't currently on me and to be honest, there's a lot of other stuff I wanna beat before the year end so I'm going micro for reviews this month.
Like A Dragon Gaiden is: Like A Dragon condensed into as meaty of a package as you can get, without much of the structure to keep it as held tightly as other games in the series. It begins strong enough, has a neat new cast of characters and has a strong enough finale- but what fills this gap is maybe less nutrient dense than the usual affair.
Exploring Sotenbori and having a mini package of the usual Yakuza affair is never gonna be a 'bad' time per se, but there's very little that hasn't been done before and a lot of that 'before' isnt really what I wanna do again. Pocket circuit? Fine. Cabarets? Fun! Mahjong..uhh Darts has a lot of content...?
...
Hey theres still Master System games and Sonic: The Fighters at least!
Actually though the worst part filling in this middle chunk of the game is going to the castle; I really didn't care about most of the content here and the Tournament gets incredibly grating. There's quite a bit I could complain about with this being the primary moneymaker + minigame filling the two ends of the package- the four kings boss fights mostly suck, I don't really know what the hell rumble mode is for, I don't think the 'power' numbers make much sense, I don't like that some allies can just hit and slow you down, etc.
I think this is a Yakuza with a lot of 'fighting' rather than a lot of 'action' and I don't really think that amounts to much in the long run. The agent style is neat but once you get into the late game you can just wash most of it by throwing your cigarette bombs everywhere. Yakuza style is. Also, it doesn't really help that I did plat the game- I had a lot of money to spend on attack upgrades and man does stuff just get washed if you beat Amon as early as chapter 4.
At the very least I will say it concludes on a much more fulfilling and intriguing note. Kiryu's character is finally facing the latter half of his life and its still tackling the stuff he's been wrestling with for most of it. The worlds changed a lot but he really hasn't, and all the baggage throughout his life has remained, compounded as a weight around his neck. He goes through the wringer throughout the game, and with as dispirited as he is, he figures its about time to just accepts what's finally come to him.
....
Now yakuza is still a wacky franchise now, right?
....
I dunno, I don't usually complain about this sort of thing but with how short of a game this is and some of the stuff Kiryu is given, its really hard to appreciate the mellow tones of the game with Kiryu jet-boosting his way into dynasty warrior hordes of goons. Maybe its just because of how condensed this whole package feels that the intervals between free time and story are shorter? Idk. After the final boss there's one final cutscene of Kiryu meditating at the palace and a part of me wondered briefly...what if there's was near zero combat? The gameplay doesn't even need to be interspersed with like, Judgment style investigation, it could honestly be just Kiryu plot/side story with some additional adventure elements, maybe with some of the agent gadgets to play around with. But I guess there's gotta be someone to clean up the yakuza-inundated streets of Sotenbori...
I really think this could have stood as a DLC for 7, or hell 8 even. It's short enough that I appreciate parts of it conciseness (and also the fact that you can plat it in one go), but bloated enough in other parts throughout the middle that I don't know if I really see myself wanting to play this again in the future. Yakuzas are long ass games yet there tends to be a lot of stuff I miss in each title, good for a second playthrough. Here the stuff I missed didn't feel worth checking out and by all means it seems like I've 'completed' it anyway, no need for a Premium Adventure.
Still, if you just glide through the main content you've got a pretty brief adventure, filled with a middling middle chunk topped by overall satisfying last chapter. I wouldn't say don't check this out, certainly not, but I would definitely note it's 'half-gamey' nature, and that the supplemental content for this RGG title isn't nearly as fulfilling as others in the series. Still, really excited for whats to come in Infinite Wealth.
Extra note:
I had a whole section in my initial draft talking about the rise in season pass/expansions/ DLCs as supplemental steps in certain franchises (comparing the content packs of early PC games, the rise of 'cosmetic' DLC like the obvious horse armor bit, into series like Xenoblade or Shovel Knight making what are practically whole ass new games but are considered 'just' expansions). I felt like this would have worked well in describing why this game feels so weird as a 40 dollar title rather than as DLC to something else. Also wanted to play through Kaito Files to compare and contrast with something like this in terms of 'fulfillment', I guess. I don't know, felt like I was getting to in the weeds and these games go on sale for like, Little Caesar prices after a while- the 40 dollar price tag is fine.
Extra (2) note:
This game DOES have Kaito so its at least GOOD