Possibly my least favorite game ever made. Maybe I'm biased because I played the original first which is my second favorite game of all time but nothing about Kiwami 2 works for me. The game uses revamped combat from 6, a combat system I already disliked, and throws it into a lame copy paste of random assets from other RGG games while labelling itself as the definitive Yakuza 2 experience. I guess I can give RGG credit for remaking all of Sotenbori for this game, but to be honest it was obviously just so they could paste it into a future Dragon Engine game with no worries.
The presentation is significantly worse, using the rather flat photorealistic Dragon Engine aesthetic as 6, losing all semblance of atmosphere from the original. Rain, a common weather motif that added to the Neo Noire vibe of the game, simply doesn't exist. Cutscenes are also presented in a worse fashion, with significantly weaker cutscene music to enhance this gloriously shitty remake. The two cutscenes with the added SiM music are already notorious enough but to cut it short- they're terrible. They don't fit the jazzy vibes of the original game and ruin one of my favorite moments in a video game ever.
The soundtrack is abhorrent, only reusing select tunes from the original while also having new music that is extremely forgettable. Not helping this is the fact that the remixes aren't very good either. Phenomenal tracks like Evil Itself and The Grudge arent present either which is super disappointing.
The cut shopping district is another example of Kiwami 2's rampant laziness, and instead just inserts a pointless Majima side story as a substitute. Shinseicho worked because it was a relatively small district that had everything tightly knit together which made discovering the clues very fun. That doesn't exist here.
There's no reason to play this when Yakuza 2 is one of RGG's best games ever. Nothing about this remake is superior to the original, in my opinion anyway. If you prefer this game that's fine but I'm simply tired of hearing that Kiwami 2 is better because it's less dated and blah blah bla-... Shut up!!! The Dragon Engine combat was far more dated than the original when it first came out. The fact that RGG is insistent on saying this is a superior product while refusing to make the original accessible outside of reprints of the PS2 game they did years ago is infuriating. Overall one of the most corporate games I've ever experienced, don't play this.

SuperS, all things considered, is a great season of the show. My third favorite so far? Unfortunately though, at this point of the series, the amount of season specific Sailor Moon tie in games began to dwindle. This left me with either the second edition of the SNES fighting game, this game, or... games for the Playdia. That I can't even read. I've sampled this game in the past, originally downloading it thinking it was some expansion to the SNES game. And. Good lord. Was I in for a shock.
This is, undoubtedly, one of the ugliest games I've seen in my life. Most games I've played or seen have at least one redeeming aspect to their presentation, even bad looking ones, but this is an exception. Terrible spritework overlays low quality backgrounds that look like Sailor Moon™ kids playmats with some of the lengthiest windup times for special moves you'll ever see. The opening FMV is amazingly horrifying as well, It has to be SEEN to believed. Not a single aspect of this game's presentation is worth praising, it truly is that ugly.
But, okay, graphics aren't everything, sure. So that just leaves the gameplay to be the redeeming aspect, right? RIGHT? Unfortunately, nothing that made the SNES game appealing carries over here. The SNES game was responsive and feels very good to control. This game... does not!!! I've played plenty of fighting games with awkward controls, believe me, but this one takes the cake. Really nothing feels responsive or good to pull off here, the hitboxes are wack, and the broken moves in the SNES game now become unfunny because of how damn slow the game is. Not only are the load times terrible, but the actual game speed itself is significantly slower than its predecessor. I legit can't think of a single nice thing to say about the gameplay here, it's really that bad.
Things I did like:
- Uranus has a cool moveset here
- The character endings made me laugh because of the shitty "congratulation" pop up immediately followed up by the end credits
- The box art with the 3d render of Sailor Moon makes Silent Hill look like fuckin child's play
In short- don't play this. The SNES fighting game is an absolute masterpiece among kusoges, while also being a stupid fun game in it's own right, play that instead. If you are that intrigued about this disaster of a fighting game, go ahead, but just know I warned you.
this ending cutscene /10

GENTLEMEN, START YOUR ENGINES
For the past few months I’ve been obsessing over this game, while not actually sitting down to play through it. Not too long after I had dipped into Ridge Racer Type 4 I became interested in other racing games, and eventually learned about Daytona USA. An iconic arcade racer that- immediately took my interest. The aesthetics, soundtrack, and arcadey nature made me raise an eyebrow. I wanted to try this.
But only now have I actually gone through every track in the original game, after playing the first two levels on and off for about two months. Some of that is due to Daytona’s skill curve. I wouldn’t call it as easy to pick up and play as Ridge Racer. The way drifting works is significantly more difficult to pick up on, and overall this game has more emphasis on needing to learn all of its mechanical intricacies to play properly. That being said, you can still do okay-ish enough by knowing only the basics, even on automatic transmission.
Gameplay wasn’t the main factor for my interest in the game, though. I was much more curious about everything else. Daytona USA is absolutely seeping with SEGA’s energy from the 90’s. Bright blue skies loom over you, as head bopping tunes, some of Sega Sound Team’s pure finest, play in the background. Takenobu Mitsuyoshi’s fantastic vocals for every track elevated the score, and with the Saturn version, made his voice fully realized in the realm of CD quality audio. The soundtrack is mainly comprised of three songs, The King of Speed, Let’s Go Away, and Sky High, all of which are FANTASTIC. Both the arcade and Saturn versions of these tunes are some of my favorites in video games period, reminding me of similar Sega soundtracks like Sonic R and Sonic CD. Just music that is riding with both energy, creativity, and depth.
The 1994 Saturn port of the game isn’t well regarded, and while for good reason too, it’s still very solid. The technical aspects of the game are a bit annoying, such as the drop from 60fps to 20fps, and the limited draw distance being- very apparent. It still plays great, though, and it also introduces the arranged soundtrack. I think considering the crunch development cycle of the Saturn version in order for it to release on launch, alongside the limitations of Saturn hardware compared to Sega’s technical beast that is the Model 2, it’s a lot better than it could’ve been. Nowadays, if you have a PS3 or Xbox, you can just play a modern port of the arcade version for about ten bucks, which isn’t a bad price. There still is merit to trying older versions of the game, but if you had to pick one version… it’s probably that. I still adored the Saturn version, with it’s cute little limitations, shadows and other visual effects simply being a very obvious dithering effect, and overall comfiness. It is worse than the arcade version, but it still offers that core Daytona experience.
Little side tangent, can I just say that the box art for both of the Daytona USA ports on Saturn in Japan look fantastic? The 1994 one is oozing with color, while the Circuit Edition one has this amazing evening sky. The NTSC-U box arts by comparison are… fine, but a little generic.
Daytona USA is a special game to me. It’s not my favorite racing game (I still think RRT4 is), but it’s a game that reminds me of why I loved Sega in the 90’s and 2000’s, especially with those bright blue Sega skies. I don’t know if I’ll ever fully be able to explain what this game’s aesthetics mean to me, but it makes me happy and I guess that’s all that really matters. Please play this, if you can, it’s less than 30 minutes long if you play all the tracks, and it is really fun.

To say that I am actually insane about this franchise is an understatement. When I heard about this game being added to NSO I actually finished the whole thing in 3 days after it dropped because I was having so much fun. At the time of this review I still haven't started Hector mode, only finished Eliwood mode.
I do have to admit my opinion on this game has gone down quite a bit since my original playthrough, but there's still a lot I have to like about it. The characters are still great, (most of) the maps are fun, and it's as speedy to play as ever. The game also just looks fantastic on a switch screen, especially with the "classic" filter you can toggle. The pure fun of replay value from a Fire Emblem game was showcased for me here, as this time I decided to train Rebecca, a low tier unit, into one of my strongest characters who was capable of killing MULTIPLE endgame bosses, it was actually so fun. She literally even outpaced Louise, it was SO hilarious.
FE7 is still a fun time, even if weaker than many of the other games in the series I've played. If you have NSO I find really no reason to not at least try this. Even if you DON'T have NSO, GBA emulation is so accessible on so many devices that it's really no problem in getting to try it yourself. It's beginner friendly, its fun, and it's a bit overhated these days despite of what it does so great.

I’ve felt a bit hesitant about writing this review. To say that Persona discussion on this site, especially regarding 4 and 5 is toxic would be a massive understatement, it’s almost absurd. But at the same time, I wanted to write a few things about this long journey I’ve gone through.
Inaba is one of my favorite settings in a video game, the small town vibes with the fog and the friendly nature around you gives Persona 4 a distinct feel from all the other games which usually take place in bigger city areas. There’s a certain mood about the culture of Inaba that’s been imposed by the older folk there, while it's slowly being taken over by commercialization and such. The once peaceful town has now become flowed with a sense of unease because of the murders, but that laid back feel is still ever so present.
Of course the inhabitants of the town add to what makes Inaba so homely, and Persona 4’s main cast is a major contribution. While Persona 3 had a group of people teamed together who always felt at odds with each other for different reasons, 4 puts more focus on a tightly knit group of friends. A major complaint about this is that it makes the relationships between our characters feel rather shallow if there’s no real conflict, and while I understand that criticism, there’s something so nice about all these goobers just.. being friends, y’know? There’s also the protagonist’s found family, the Dojimas. Nanako is a pretty well written child character all things considered, and I think her strained relationship with her father is one of the best pieces of the game narratively. I found it the most interesting part of the story, mostly.
But on the topic of writing, Persona 4 is… pretty rough. I think when 4 hits its high points, it soars, but those lows… are really damn low. There’s a lot of “anime”isms with 4’s content, not helped by the many added scenes in Golden that pile up the anime factor. As someone who has an unnatural tolerance for shitty anime writing, I was able to push through some of it, but scenarios like the school festival (aside from teddie wearing you know what) is just flat out hot fucking garbage. Like actually abhorrent. Some handling of 4’s themes are lame or poorly done, and the excessive homophobia in the first 1/3rd of the game is extremely awkward even for 2008 standards… I’m really conflicted here, I dunno. On a more positive note, there’s a lot of character arcs and interactions that really touched my sensitive ND brain, and I’m sure most people wouldn’t care for those great moments, but it meant a lot to me at least.
I’m not really good at talking about JRPG gameplay, but what I will say is the combat is pretty solid, dungeons not as much. I think both 3 and 4 made me realize I’m just not a fan of the whole RNG floors gimmick.
That’s mostly what I wanted to say about Persona 4 Golden. I plan on revisiting this game through the (much better) original version on PS2, but it’ll be a while, especially when I still have Persona 2, 5, and 3 FES/Reload to cover. I’m really glad I played this game. Persona 4, flaws and all, is still a great experience. It might not be your thing, but it mostly was mine. And I’m happy for that.
Great Vegetables/10

I adore Thracia 776. Never in my life have I been so positively passionate about such a frustrating, punishing, but mechanically complex and rewarding video game than this one. Each chapter was some form of struggle, but I eventually would understand how everything worked, and after executing long thought out strategies for several chapters, I had done it. I had beaten one of the most infamous Fire Emblem games ever made. I have a lot of things to say, and I probably won’t be able to word them all out here, but please read the rest if you can.
Chances are if you’ve been a fan of Fire Emblem for a decent time, you’ve more than likely heard of the infamous Thracia 776, a sidequel to 1996’s Genealogy Of The Holy War. The game’s reputation has been so widespread, however, very few people have seemed to actually play it. It’s very easy to be intimidated by Thracia because of what you may have heard online, but the truth is, the game really isn’t that unfair as fans online make it out to be. Not to say the game doesn’t have its moments, or that it’s an easy game (believe me, it most certainly is NOT) but Shouzo Kaga and his team put their best efforts to create a very tough, but totally learnable game that would reward players who can wrap their head around its mechanics.
I think what will doom you most about going into Thracia is trying to approach it like most other Fire Emblem games, because this entry is almost a polar opposite in some regards. An oversimplification of Fire Emblem gameplay is “position all the blue guys to kill the red guys until they’re all gone and then seize the throne”, which is honestly mostly true, and I’m not saying it’s a bad thing. It’s just that this one is less about the combat of Fire Emblem and focused on pure strategy.
A good example I think is Thracia’s emphasis on staves. Without a doubt, this is the Fire Emblem with THE most heavy stave usage in the series, with entries like The Binding Blade getting sort of close. The amount of warp and rescue staves you’re gonna be finding while also dealing with is crazy, and you’re going to want to train up your staff users as much as possible. A pretty frowned upon strategy in Fire Emblem games is the act of “warp skipping”, which is effectively warping a strong player unit to immediately kill the boss then sending your lord over to seize the throne. It’s viewed as “cheap”, and while I can understand that sentiment, it fits the tone of Thracia 776 like a glove. Absolutely EVERYTHING is stacked against you in the enemies’ favor if you try and approach each chapter like a normal Fire Emblem game, chances are the struggle will be unreal. The appeal of warp skipping and other “cheap” tactics is what makes the game so damn fun. Seeing how you can easily clear a chapter by outsmarting enemies with the tools given to you is never not going to be satisfying. Like as one instance, chapter 22 has the probably the hardest boss in the game, but if you’re a creative player there’s plenty of ways that you can cheese him. Maybe cast sleep on him, which permanently renders him useless for the rest of the chapter (since status ailments last forever until a chapter is over). Or if you think even HARDER you can steal a berserk staff from another boss, then use it on the other guy which will make him more than likely kill every single unit on the right side of the map, which I’ve seen in action through YouTube clips and it’s amazing. There’s huge potential that players who invest enough time into the game can tap into, and it is absolutely fascinating.
Tonally the game is literally perfect. The constant reinforcements and extremely tight chapter design makes Thracia a game about how it feels to be the underdogs of a war, but ultimately still shine through with enough wit and perseverance. I’d be lying if I said that I wasn’t so heavily touched by the narrative, as it can be so bleak and depressing, and yet there’s always that feint light of hope that kept me going. The further I got, the more it felt that I was seeing the light at the end of this long, long tunnel. Actively seizing the throne in the final chapter was like a thousand tons being thrown off my shoulders at once, the feeling was absolutely AMAZING.
Story wise I’m not sure if I like this one more than Genealogy, but what I AM sure of is that Leif is my favorite Fire Emblem protagonist. It’s not even a contest. If anything, Leif feels like a reflection of the average player. He’s young and inexperienced, and he loses many battles, but he NEVER gives up. Even after all he’s suffered, he has something to live for, and grows as a person. He grows with the player. I’ve seen arguments online that Leif is a weak lord, but that’s just flat out not true, both narratively and gameplay wise. He’s no Seliph in terms of sheer power, but he has good growths and his light brand is a really handy weapon especially early game. But once again, I think that ties back to the core problem….
Thracia 776 is misunderstood. Horribly. Now, I’m not saying that if you dislike the game, your opinion is invalid, or that you got “filtered” or whatever. I’m more so talking about the regurgitated opinions I hear about this game online that convinces me that most of these people have never even played the game. The constant reminder of the same few points such as “did you know staves can miss?” or “the status effects are terrible”. Now I will admit that some aspects of Thracia’s design can be unfair, mainly fog of war chapters with enemy staves or ambush spawns, that is absolutely not fair. But conversely, about 90% of the game’s unique quirks either don’t matter that much or are just actively great mechanics.. Like I never see anyone mention the genius of the capture system, or being able to trade items multiple times in a turn, or in the case of things like status ailments, can use them in YOUR favor. Or how about how basically every single unit in this game is viable and has valid usage? You can’t say that about really any other FE game. What I’m getting at is that the same misconceptions that Thracia being “too unfair” are more than likely from people who never even experienced the game firsthand.
And I completely understand that is the thing. I’m not faulting ANYONE for saying things like that, because I doubt it has any harmful intention. I was scared of playing the game myself, and look where I am now! I took the time to understand, analyze, and absorb myself in it, and now it’s something I consider an all time classic. Is Thracia a game for everyone? No, absolutely not. It will test you in a lot of ways. Your good items will break, some units may die, you’ll have to reset a lot, failure is inevitable. But the best part is, these hardships were made to be overcome. Just like Leif, you must press on, and never give up to prove your worth. I implore you give this a shot, especially if you love Fire Emblem, or unique SNES games, or Tactical games, or just good ass video games as a whole. Maybe you won’t like it, or maybe you will. But I think if I could do it, then hey, maybe so can you.

I am convinced that Digital Eclipse cannot make quality collections for the life of them. Between this, MMLC1, and Street Fighter 30th Anniversary collection they seem to always mess it up. In fact, this collection shows that the team at digital eclipse seemingly learned NOTHING from their mistakes in the SF30th collection, like- I get it's called the "NEOGEO" collection, but no SSVI? No cool features like arranged music (which, ftr, the PS2 collection had)? Nope, here's 6 arcade roms for 40 bucks. That's LESS games than the last collection for 10 dollars more. For games you could also just play on fightcade for fr-
The menus are really slow and annoying to navigate (like the last collection lmao), and there seems to be some weird emulation issues??? For clarification I've only played thru SSII on here but not only were there some odd visual bugs for the victory screen but I also somehow got a game breaking bug on the final boss that completely froze her in place while none of my buttons worked except while dashing. If this is present in the original, let me know, but I couldn't find anything about it online.
I find absolutely no reason to buy this collection unless you want to ""own"" these games in some form and maybe hunt trophies on PS4 or whatever. It's almost equally as shallow as SF30th and that's saying a lot for a collection released years after. The sheer quality of Capcom Fighting Collection (which was developed in house by Capcom) has basically confirmed that I don't think Digital Eclipse needs to make fighting game collections anymore. Code Mystics has been pumping out much better ports such as the Steam versions of SSV, KOF98UM, and KOF02UM. Use your well earned cash on those instead.
This was not the review I was referring to last time that I was gonna make. I just needed to ramble for a moment.

Been months since I’ve really posted much about a fighting game, got in a bit of a mood for it recently again so here I am.
My last review was a fairly negative look at KOF XIII which I really didn’t want to do, but I found the game very uninteresting and one of my least favorite entries in the series, Unsurprisingly not too long after that I sorta fell off from playing fighting games for a bit, with a single arcade run of KOF XV and random playthroughs of KOF 98-02 when having anime on as background noise really being all I messed with after that. However, I had the urge to play some fighters as of recently and I thought it would be fair to give this game a try again. Not that I disliked it, in fact I remember enjoying it initially, but pulling out the PS4 was a hassle and I still don’t have PS Plus so playing online was a no-go. But after doing some more arcade runs and trying other characters I thought I’d write something really quick because I actually really like this game.
The presentation is pretty solid, menus are clean, character models are a big step over XIV, animations look nice, the usual. The game in general is just popping with color which I couldn’t say about XIII and I love the flourishes and hit sparks to your moves in this one. While still not near in quality to the presentational masterpiece that is KOF 2000 for me, I think modern SNK did a pretty decent job here.
Now I might come off as hypocritical here because of my hot takes on KOF XIII but I really enjoy how this one plays. It has a lot of the standard gameplay systems like previous entries, but it’s combined with a very solid roster and game feel. I noticed it was very easy to get a combo going by just trying random combinations, and I’m sure it would drive a professional crazy but I find this a good thing for newer players. You still have to actually try, of course, but there’s some of that good ol’ SNK clunk to this one that makes the game a proper tribute to the classics in my opinion. Experimentation is rewarded by the player going “now wouldn’t it be crazy if I could combo THAT” then actually trying that and pulling it off, which just gives a great reward for creative players. I’m fairly on the primitive side when it comes to making up combos in fighting games, but KOF is one series where my brain is constantly thinking up random shit I could forge together especially in the older games, and I had a similar vibe here too.
The roster is very dream match like despite being canon (although there are lore reasons for this all happening ofc) and seems to have less emphasis on original characters than what I’ve seen of XIV. This time it’s more about refining some old favorites but now in 3D (but not in whatever the hell Maximum Impact was… lol), which I’m fine with. Maybe it’s a really cynical move on the developers’ part but eh. Even so, the new characters are cool too, although Isla was the only one I’m familiar with, one of the coolest KOF character designs in a while for me. Returning characters are pretty similar to what they’ve been before, but I really like the new character designs, even one of the flat out worst designs in the franchise, Sylvie Paula Paula, is getting one for the DLC and no joke she actually looks GREAT. I don’t find this game soulless or corporate or whatever despite everything inside me feeling like I should, because there definitely is a clear amount of effort put here, I dunno. Mainly rambling at this point.
But overall this is a good entry in the series and I’m glad it exists. I’m not terribly fond of modern fighting games… and maybe the only reason I loved this one was because it feels like an older one… but I am willing to try more of these new fighting games. See you in Street Fighter 6 everybody! This is also a great game for beginners. If you’re one of those kids playing your Guilty Gear Strives or whatever this could possibly be entirely for you, just know there still is a fairly high skill ceiling here, but I find the skill floor very welcoming for fighting game newbies. Or I could be entirely wrong here.
I’ll be writing about another fighting game possibly pretty soon so… stay tuned for that.

Season S of Sailor Moon is generally considered the best of the original series, so it seems fitting that it had plenty of tie-in games based on it. I decided to go with this one out of the main three I’m aware of (that being this game, the SNES fighting game, and Another Story) because it’s the one I have the least to say about. Not that this game is bad, actually quite far from it. It’s pretty decent in fact!
The game seems to be a weird fusion of enemy types and player movesets from the beat em up games now thrown into a.. platformer? A bit odd but it’s not terrible or anything. Usagi can punch/kick, grab enemies, and charge up her tiara just like the R game for SNES. However, now that these moves have been put in a game with significantly less enemies around at a time, the game is a complete joke. Literally no enemy in this game will give you trouble, not even the bosses. In fact, it was actually more punishing for me to try and use my full moveset than it was to simply crouch and punch enemies, especially the bosses. Platforming is also not really an issue, there’s not much there aside from “moving platform over a bottomless pit” occasionally.
In between each stage there are bonus stages, really just to restore your health or give you more rod items to use. They’re pretty dead simple but I think they’re cute and they fit the arcadey nature the game is going for. My favorite was probably the one where you have to roll Luna-Pi across the stage without touching Luna or Artemis although I couldn’t beat it lol.
Graphically the game is alright, dunno if it’s impressive for Game Gear standards but it’s colorful and the sprites are cute. Although, this did make me realize one thing.. And it’s that these characters are way too damn tall for this small screen! This is more of a problem with the shitty gameboy game but I felt that Usagi takes up too much space on the screen. I get that it’s just apart of that shoujo aesthetic to have your characters with extremely long legs but I think it’s a detriment to the core platforming when your player character takes up too much of the screen real estate.
So overall, this game isn’t too bad! My main complaints is I felt they should’ve just done a beat 'em up if they were gonna use these controls, and also the lack of being able to play as the senshi aside from Usagi/Chibiusa was a bit disappointing. Is this a great game? Not really. But if you’re a fan of the show, especially S, this is worth checking out. You can finish it in about a half an hour or so.

Replayed on PC with the Legend Remix K1 mod this time around, alongside some other small mods to enhance the experience (original ost, green filter disabled etc). Let me just say that the combat thanks to this fantastic mod was GREAT, and being able to unlock Dragon Style through EXP made the combat a million times more fun.
The increased EXP drop from enemies also makes the early game upgrades feel much less bloated leading to a better balance overall. By endgame I had every single ability unlocked except the Komaki moves, which might be a bit overkill but I think it made the game very fun. Every moveset has also been a bit tweaked making this possibly THE most robust combat system in the entire franchise, and this is all just a fan's work!
Bosses also are a bit more tolerable as they lack heal states, now having super attacks that are VERY dangerous and you should exercise caution when they are being used. I still think the boss design is significantly weaker than the original, but I'd definitely take this over vanilla unmodded Kiwami.
Somehow to even further prove my point that Majima Everywhere is a bad mechanic is that I was absolutely BOMBARDED with Majima fights during this playthrough, ending the playthrough with an S RANK (I ended with D Rank on PS4), which is enough proof that the system being RNG is complete bullshit. I did enjoy the new encounters I viewed this time but it overall felt redundant because I could just unlock these upgrades with normal EXP.
I wouldn't really recommend playing Kiwami like this for your first experience, I'd still just say play the original, BUT this is a great option if you were a bit disappointed with K1's combat flaws and want to see a more polished battle system made by fans. Sometimes a mod can change many things....

Been meaning to write about this game for a while, but it just wasn’t coming to me. It’s a shame because I really do enjoy Conquest, and I actually have a mildly entertaining personal history with it, so writing about it was a no brainer. So today I think I’ll sit down and give my thoughts on this incredibly divisive game. I should also clarify I have ONLY played this route of Fire Emblem: Fates. I have no comment on the Birthright or Revelation routes respectively.
This is another game that dates back to my Smash Brothers era, and believe me man I wanted to play Fates sooooo bad because of the characters that were spirits in the game. Obviously there was Corrin, but I was more interested in Elise because her hair was so cute and looked like cinnamon rolls lol. Most of the Fates spirits just looked extra cool to me, and this was also in my “admitting things were cute” denial arc but I was still interested because of some of the characters on display. Around the time I had a My Nintendo account, which actually would offer pretty significant discounts on 3DS games, one of which being Birthright, so it was like everything was lining up for such an opportunity to finally get into Fire Emblem. THE PROBLEM… was this was back when I didn’t have a debit card so I had to get full permission from my parents to buy shit, and they gave the thumbs down on it which left me devastated.
I still find it funny to think what I would’ve been like if I had started this series with Birthright, however, but that’s not really a focus for this review as it’s about Conquest. Not too long after this whole charade happened I learned online that fans DID NOT like this game… mostly. It was a real love it/hate it affair depending on who you asked, but in the end it gave me a false impression of these games for a good while. After properly starting to play Fire Emblem in October until taking a slight break before January, I had discovered that there was one game of the fates trilogy that people seemingly loved, that being Conquest. The map design and mechanics were the most highly praised factors, with the story (lol) being the main detracting point. This really peaked my interest, as I had heard similar things about Engage, which was a game I actually really liked. After ordering a copy of Conquest, I started playing through it IMMEDIATELY once finishing Engage.
Ok first things first, yes, the story is bad. For multiple reasons. Some of it stems from the actual writing feeling immature as hell even for a T rated game (although seems to be a carryover from Awakening judging by what I’ve played of that game so far), some of it is most of the characters being complete idiots, and some of it is ALSO the shitty purposeful lack of answers of several plot points as a way to force players into buying each route to experience a full story. Let’s discuss the route thing first. I’m not gonna sugarcoat it, Fates is an extremely greedy game in regards to its routes. While I’ll give these games points for not trying to be Pokemon by selling identical games, splitting the story into 2 games and 1 priced DLC would’ve cost you about 100 DOLLARS if we are going by USA MSRP for each game. Making the Revelation route DLC only is also scummy as hell (and thanks to the eShop being closed now you can’t even purchase it anymore!!!).
I’m not against games having multiple routes involving choice, in fact it’s done pretty cool with plenty of games. But unlike all of those games, every route was included in a single package, not sold separately. Take 2004’s iconic visual novel Fate/Stay Night, an extremely lengthy game that told a story through three whole routes, but the difference was it was ONE game. Hell, even a future game from THIS SERIES would put multiple routes into a single cartridge, although with mixed results as well.
Onto the story itself, the Conquest route falls completely flat on its face the mere second the route split occurs because of how an absolute dumbass Corrin is. “Noooo I’m going to solve things from the inside just give me tiiimee!!!”.... shut up bruh. Your dad is LITERALLY EVIL. The entire game Corrin and her siblings just refuse to admit this fact and it’s honestly embarrassing. Their excuse is always “but he’s our father we can’t disobey him!” but there has to be at least some point where they know he’s too far gone and he has to be stopped. It does happen though….. AT THE FINAL CHAPTER OF THE GAME, when Azura and Corrin’s incredibly stupid and drawn out plan finally comes to a close. Did she… NEVER consider telling her siblings about this plan?? Like, deadass?? Not once? Corrin herself is a terribly written character within the context of Fates, she is def redeemed in Heroes and such but in this game it’s unbearable. Her siding with Nohr is dumb and she constantly whines about wanting peace for everyone. Wanting peace is admirable (and… y’know humane) but the game decides that it’s her defining trait. Remember why I said this story fails because of her decision at the route split? This is why. If she wanted peace, why wouldn’t she just side with the obviously more tranquill region, instead of opting to continue with the corrupt kingdom of Nohr. The game was even seemingly marketed as “morally gray” when it’s so painstakingly obvious that Hoshido is the good guys and Nohr is the bad guys. There’s also several moments where the game feels like it’s just talking down upon it’s player, explaining why “war is bad” and stuff that most sensible people would know... it’s just so incredibly juvenile. I think I’ll stop the story discussion here because I’m sure 800 other people on this site have already elaborated on why this plot sucks for you.
While failing in story I actually really enjoyed the characters in this game when outside of the actual plot, Supports are hit or miss but I found several of them pretty cute, especially ones regarding Forrest and his parents :) the characters themselves aren’t half bad either. While many can be summed up in very basic categories (i.e. Elise is the “youngest sister” which is kinda self explanatory) I found them mostly enjoyable and the really awesome character design helps. I’d say Fates is up there in having some of the coolest character designs in the franchise, especially with the differing Hoshido and Nohr clothing aesthetics. It goes to show that these games had a lot of potential to worldbuild with it’s route format but it’s all never given time to flesh out let alone an actual name for this region the game takes place in.
But enough of this “story” and “worldbuilding” nonsense, we all came to play this game because of the actual game itself. Many fans consider Conquest to have some of the best map design in the franchise, and after playing it I honestly really agree. Conquest is a tough game, even on normal casual, but is also (mostly) a fair game too. I think the tweaks to the pairup mechanic from Awakening is very cool, because now enemies can use it which makes the game significantly tougher. Unbreakable weapons from Gaiden return, which is something I surprisingly never had too much trouble adjusting to. You’d think it’s extremely busted but the game feels very well designed around stronger weapons being rather rare purchases you can only get if you’ve saved up just enough cash. Money is extremely scarce in Conquest. I’ve never played an FE where I constantly felt broke more than this one, and it made acquiring good items feel REALLY gratifying. Some of that goes to the arena no longer offering cash, instead being used to earn more resources for forging and making food. I forgot to mention this game also has a castle you can chill out in between chapters. It’s not as expansive as the stuff in later games but I’m not the biggest fan of it as I sorta just prefer immediately going to the next chapter and having a prep menu. It doesn’t needlessly pad out the game though, and I think it gives the player a good time to wind down in between these brutal maps.
I’m not an FE expert so I’m not gonna leave an elaborate analysis on the map design, but yes, the maps are very hard. They’re also really good! There’s a good variety of objectives and setpieces alongside some really infamous chapters (wind lol!). It’s kinda like Engage where the maps are straight fire for quite a bit and then they shit the bed for a chapter or so occasionally. The final boss is also just plain bad.
I think if you really liked Fire Emblem Engage you should try this game, because they’re actually pretty similar in many ways. I still think the latter tells a much much better story than this game of course, but they are both games that have some great gameplay that is held down by pretty shoddy storytelling (however Engage is pretty damn funny at points so it gets a pass). If you’re a veteran of this series, it’s also worth checking this out, because the game is pretty damn hard! I had a good time with Conquest, and at some point I’ll try out the other two routes because honestly I just really desire to see how much worse the story could possibly get. That’ll be fun. Really, really fun….

RULING DIES OUT
I don't really know how to start this review. It's hard for me to put into words how I feel about this game, it's perception given by others, and my already strong feelings for the source material it's based on. I should preface this review by saying I don't think Yakuza Kiwami is a bad game, but I think it's an absolute failure as a remake and several other things. Everything about the original game that made it so unique is... simply gone. The fantastic atmosphere, stellar soundtrack, rock solid pacing, it's not present anymore.
Visually this game is just extremely bland. The aesthetic is simply copy pasted from Yakuza 0 but now without the 80's flair from that game, making it look so bleak and uninspired. The game still looks good, sure. But none of it's original vibe is even close to being present. The dingy, lived in streets of Kamurocho, filled with a nasty underbelly hidden from the average citizen... missing. Everything feels just a bit too sterile. The residents of Kamurocho no longer feel like individuals who live here and have their own lives to attend to, it's just generic NPCs transiting.
The combat is "technically" better than the original, but I also don't care. It's the exact same as Yakuza 0 with some slight enhancements, that's great! Maybe make your enemies better designed around this. I won't act like Yakuza 1's bosses were particularly amazing, but they were fun and quick. Now these bosses have became absolutely loaded with health, even having the ability to entirely regenerate full bars if you don't have the correct heat action to stop them. Everything is so much more bloated for NO reason. All of these enhancements to 0's combat would be perfect in a game that ISN'T THIS ONE. Every boss is worse than the original, the only one even being close in quality is the final boss... yeah. I'm being serious.
Even the music is worse. They're not exactly bad remixes I guess but they're so much less interesting and several tracks are flat out missing. It doesn't help that this game doesn't ever USE any of the music it has for normal battles aside from like, 3 themes. The remix for the chapter 10 boss, Turning Point, is horrid. It maintains nothing that made the source so atmospheric and emotional, now becoming a lame trap remix pretty much.
Pacing was another major strength of Yakuza 1. While I still managed to finish Kiwami in a similar length of time, everything generally felt more drawn out for no reason. For example, in chapter 3 you pick up this one item pretty quickly and move on. Kiwami, however, decides to slightly draw this out by adding a couple extra steps after finding the item and like - literally what is the point. SERIOUSLY. Thanks for wasting my time, I guess?
Majima everywhere is another detriment to both the pace and tone of the story. Majima in og 1 only appeared like three times, and I a story context it made sense. For some reason in this game however Majima has gone full cockstalker mode and will stop at nothing to fight you in both scripted events and random battles. Now, to be nice for a second, I like the scripted events! They're charming. But why are they in this game? It's extremely inconsistent with his presence in the main story, now being this goofball of a character compared to his gritty maniacal self in the main narrative. Who is this even trying to appeal to? Majima didn't act like this in 0, nor did he in 1. It's like RGG thought the original game was too mature so they needed the game to be sillier like 0, so they threw in a popular character from that game and wrote up a bunch of wacky scenarios. I don't get it man.
And that's sort of just what my problem is. I don't understand what this game wants to be. Is it trying to turn Yakuza 1's story into a sequel to 0's? Well, I'm sorry but... the game wasn't written like that. It was meant to be viewed in it's original context with no future retcons or whatever. Then is it trying to be a remake of 1 that preserves what the original intended to be? Well it surely didn't do that either! Copying 80% of the content and assets from 0 alongside even cutting a couple substories, cutscenes, and songs from the source material is a major red flag and a sign that your remake isn't working. The game is simply just lazy.
I'm tired of this whole common mentality that Kiwami is better than 1 because it has new things to tie into 0, because Kiwami doesn't improve upon... ANYTHING from it's source. I genuinely can't think of a single thing this game did better than the original. "They added Nishiki backstory cutscenes!!" They're superfluous. They elaborate upon things we didn't need to know and isn't enough to warrant a full blown remake of a perfectly solid game.
I don't really know how to structure or end this review at all, because quite honestly I'm just writing off of pure instinct. I'm sorry this review has been so negative but like, I'm just disappointed. It's a pointless remake that isn't worthy of replacing Yakuza 1. At all. Easily the weakest RGG game I've played so far, being ""okay"" at best. And that does not cut it for this studio period. Skip this one. Play the original instead.