(Played about equally on Windows PC and Steam Deck)

Holy shit, Hi-Fi Rush really is that good! Every aspect of the game is absolutely full of passion and style; the fact that this was published by Bethesda is absolutely shocking. This is the kind of game I'd only expect to see from an indie developer nowadays. The combination of the rhythm and hack-and-slash genres isn't entirely new (see 2020's No Straight Roads), but this game just does it so well. I found myself bopping my head to the rhythm more often than not. The cast of characters was also very entertaining; Chai and CNMN were probably my favorites, but just about everyone else was really good too. I also really appreciated the bits of dialogue from the robots throughout each stage + the conversations with the team at the base; I made sure to listen to all of them. And of course, the rock soundtrack was really great too, from the bangers composed for the game to the inspired choices of licenses tracks for some of the bosses and stages. Not that I needed to use it myself, but the fact that they went through the effort of making entire alternative songs so that streamers won't get copyright claimed is also commendable. I did have two small issues with the game, though. First, the way Chai controls doesn't work particularly well for the platforming you need to do throughout the game. It's not too bad, though, and I was definitely used to it by the end. Second, several fights can get chaotic, whch made it hard to tell what was going on on my first few tries. Again, though, this wasn't that bad either; the game has infinite lives and generous checkpoints, so I never worried about losing progress whenever I lost.

So yeah, Hi-Fi Rush is absolutely something special. I'll definitely be sticking with it a little while longer to get some S-ranks and do some postgame content. I'm also certain I'll come back to it sooner or later after that to play through it once again. Hopefully the success of this will lead to more uniquely fun projects getting greenlit by big companies in the future! If not, though, we still have plenty of indie devs making all kinds of creative games for us to play.

but if we do get something like this again can we like. get some notice beforehand

i did not expect it to be THIS good. it got me crying and laughing so much it's such a goofy game sometimes and at the same time manages to tell a serious heartwrenching story, the combat is satisfying as fuck and visually great it's a fucking dopamine rush and i just love the concept of the hub being this town that is genuinely full of life and things to do, you could spend half your time just walking around the city completing sidestories or playing minigames or doing your own thing and have so much fun, it has left me with a burning desire to play all of the other games

I was actually kind of excited about this game for several reasons. The art for this game is probably some of the best I've ever seen for the series, the costumes for the characters look good, the music is great, and most importantly it would bring parts of the compilation that never got an official release to the West finally, like Before Crisis. All for the best price of free. I was disappointed when they announced the game was going to be a gacha, and I have a strict mental block of not paying a penny to mobile game microtransactions, but I figured this game is so approachable to me I might as well give it a try. Yet somehow they still managed to drop the ball in so many ways and so hard at those with this game. I genuinely couldn't even get past the opening bombing mission; it was just so mindless and an obvious cash grab.

First off, they advertised that all compilation titles would be playable at launch in some degree, when that just obviously never happened. All that's been available at launch is the Midgar section of the original game, the first few chapters of Crisis Core, and some new story for First Soldier. To be honest, ever since Remake launched I've grown so tired of Midgar content because that's all they've been able to advertise for a while now. And yet these few chapters are all based in Midgar. It's all becoming repetitive, especially since both the original game and Crisis Core got remade recently.

Second off, I REALLY hate how you're forced to play other chapters of other games before playing the chapter I want to play. I was really only interested in the other compilation titles and maybe the First Soldier story, because everything else has been done to death already or is still being remade. I don't really want to play the bombing mission for the 30,000th time, I'm tired of it. I don't want to play Crisis Core again, when that game is already designed to be as replayable as possible. Yet here we are, still at square one. I get that this game will feature episodic releases, but if I'm not hooked in at the start there's no way I could really care for anything else. I just want something new again, so it really sucks that I have to play everything I've already gone through dozens of times just to get to the First Soldier story I may be interested in.

Third, the combat system was designed to be more in line with traditional ATB based JRPG combat, which is great for people who want that more traditional experience, but this is just a joke made in spite of that kind of system. It's not even ATB, it's just "wait for bar to fill up, press button". It's not fun at all. At least with the original FFVII, you had so much more freedom with your commands when your bar does fill up, but with Ever Crisis it's just pathetic. Really hard sell on this.

Finally, the gacha elements are everywhere. I get that this game is a gacha, so they're supposed to get you to gamble your life savings away, but everyday I've gotten notifications on my phone saying shit like "5 STAR PULL GUARANTEED!!! NEW COSTUME!!! DRAW NOW!!! GIVE BIG DADDY SQUARE ENIX MONEY!!!" There's even achievements in game for logging in everyday and pulling something from the slot machine. I think they might as well just lock away parts of the game behind gacha elements with how in your face it all is.

Overall, a MASSIVE disappointment. If you like gacha games I guess it's for you, but with probably being the biggest fan of FFVII I know amongst my small circle of friends this game just sends me into an ephemeral rage. I'm sorry. 3/10.

playing this game as someone new to the yakuza series with no real knowledge of what the original version of this game was like sometimes things happen in this game and i'm just like oh wow. the 2005-isms are really poignant (the discrepancy between majima everywhere characterisation where he's your silly joker bff and what he actually does in the actual story written years ago when he wasn't quite as sillyfunny is maybe the first thing that comes to mind) but that makes me want to cut it a little slack for some of the gripes i have with the story since it makes do with what its working with. it's really hard to not compare this game to 0 which enhances kiwami but also just completely overshadows it at the same time. i had a good time with it though! apart from the godawful boss fights but it's all worth it for haruka and kiryu

The Involvement of the Minions in World War 2, and the Near Extinction of the Minion Species.
Introduction:
It is a widely debated subject in the Despicable Me community that the Minions served Hitler between 1933 to 1945, with some claiming that such events could not have taken place given that the Minions were trapped in an ice cave for a long duration of time. However, some evidence in the Despicable Me universe points toward a possibility that the Minions not only served Hitler and Stalin, but engaged in a brutal civil war that nearly wiped out the species as a whole.
Evidence No. 1: The Minions trapped in the ice cave are NOT the only Minions in the world.
Proof:
In the Despicable Me and Minions films, we see the Minions interacting with Human society on a rather normal scale. Whether it be going on vacation, joining the French Military, hitch hiking to the villainy convention, wandering through TV studios, getting ice cream and going out in public no one seems to bat an eye to the existence of the Minions. Given that the Minions have been around before the Dinosaurs, its not impossible to assume that there were millions, if not billions of Minions alive on earth given the time they had to spread across the globe. Some possible evidence that there were millions to billions of Minions is how little people react to them in society.
No one seems to bat an eye to the Minions, implying they've been abundant and around long enough to be completely normalized by Human society. In fact the Minions may have well been completely integrated into human society instead of being viewed as a different species. In our universe, if a few hundred 3 foot half naked lemon Tic-Tacs speaking gibberish appeared in the middle of Times Square, not only would people immediately bat an eye, but all of the nation's three letter organizations would be swiftly mobilized to New York. This isn't the case in the Despicable Me universe.
Evidence No. 2: The Minion species, while very resilient, is NOT immortal due to a severe weakness to biological and chemical attacks.
Proof:
In the starting paragraph, I mention that the Minions nearly went extinct from a brutal Minion Civil War. While this point may be contradicted by the Minions being able to survive explosions, torture devices, bullets, kinetic impact and many other lethal threats, the Minions are not very resilient to biological and chemical attacks. In Despicable Me 2, we see the Minions become mutated by the PX-41 Mutagen. Rapidly altering the effected Minion's DNA and causing drastic changes regarding:
Tooth and mouth structure
Abnormal hair growth
Eye color
Skin pigment
Physical structure
Personality and behavior
Later in Despicable Me 2, we see Dr. Nefario cure the Minions using an antidote mixed with the Jelly from earlier in the film. The PX-41 Mutagen, and its respective cure are solid evidence that the Minions are not entirely immortal and possess a severe and potentially lethal vulnerability to biological and chemical attacks. While some may argue that the PX-41 Mutagen and its antidote did not kill the Minions, a disease or toxic gas could prove fatal showing they can be drastically effected by chemical and biological substances.
Evidence No. 3: Stalin and Hitler both attracted Minions in large quantities to both sides of the Eastern Front, which would result in the gruesome Minion Civil War.
Proof:
Stalin and Hitler were both evil tyrants who would be seen as nothing more than soulless monsters to any human, but for the Minions, saying they were gods amongst Minion would be an understatement. With Stalin's gulags and Hitler's concentration camps, the two of them would be the greatest villians Minion kind had witnessed. With World War 2 beginning in the 1930s, the Minions suffered a brutal split in their society and culture, now voluntarily choosing sides of the Second World War between the two tyrants of the Eastern Front. Because of this, the Minions would engage in a brutal war to end the disagreement of whether Stalin or Hitler would be more deserving of Minion service and worship.
Given their vulnerability to chemical agents, both Human and Minion soldiers of the Eastern Front would release chemical agents such as Chlorine, Phosgene and Mustard Gas across the front lines to attack the other side's Minion forces. Given the sheer bloodiness of the Eastern Front, its likely that the majority of the Minions would be killed in the Second World War. Only a few isolated pockets of Minions would survive following the Second World War, with a primary example being the Minions in the ice cave, having emerged following the World Wars with no knowledge of Stalin Or Hitler and the near extinction of their race.
Evidence of a Minion Civil War occurring and being possible can be found at the end of Despicable Me 3, in which a sizable chunk of Gru's Minions defect to Dru, having deemed Dru more evil and more worth their service, along with the remaining chunk of Minions choosing to remain with Gru.
Closure:
It is unclear what happens after Gru gives chase to Dru at the end of Despicable Me 3, however it can be safely assumed that Despicable Me 4 will cover the complete extinction of the last remaining Minions as they battle it out through various means of chemical warfare over whether Gru or Dru is more evil.
Despicable Me 5 will potentially cover Dru and Gru putting their differences aside from their battle in Despicable Me 4 and the two will begin tampering in the realm of genetic engineering in an attempt to revive the Minion species. However the Minions created via Gru and Dru's genetic engineering research would go wrong, and the new Minions would resemble the Post-Humans from All Tomorrows. Leaked script details suggest that the Post-Minions would follow Kevin becoming a female Temptor, Bob getting turned into a Colonial and Stuart being morphed into a Hedonist. It is currently unknown what other All Tomorrows species will appear in the 5th Despicable Me film.
Overall, It is very likely that the minions did serve Hitler to some capacity, and nearly went extinct following World War 2. The tale of the Minion is nothing short but a tragic one. A culturally rich and intelligent race, which had been around before the Dinosaurs, choosing the path of annihilating themselves over two questions with no answer. Today they are a reminder, that Humanity must avoid the same fate as their Minion brothers. The Minions of the World Wars are to today's Humans as a grim teaching, telling us we must be careful with how we treat the choices of conflict and geopolitics, otherwise, we will hear the rhymes of the history books once more.
Works Cited:
1. Renaud, Chris and Pierre Coffin, directors. Despicable Me 2. Illumination Entertainment, 2013.
2. Healy, Janet, et al. Minions. Universal Pictures, Illumination Entertainment , 2015.
3. Meledandri, Chris, et al. Despicable Me 3. Universal Pictures, Illumination Entertainment , 2017.
4. 2020 Oregon Measure 110. Oregon Hosue of Reps. November 3rd, 2020