This game has a very strong case of "first game syndrome" in my opinion. Pretty much all of what Paper Mario does was improved in the upcoming games. The combat system? More in-depth in Thousand Year Door. The characters & story? wackier in Super Paper Mario. The writing? Funnier in basically every later entry.

As I see it, there isn't really a reson to come back to this game these days, since it's just so basic in comparison to its sequels. It's alright, but doesn't ever get more enjyoable than "alright".

Pikmin without the hassle

The art style of the game is super cute and the music is awesome.

It's a bit lacking in the challenge department since the game doesn't contain any fight but it's a great game to chill and do some fun platforming and simple puzzle solving.

This was genuinely So good, most pleasant experience ive had with the series so far which is funny because on a technical level it's probably the worst ive played thus far. Barring being able to deal with the stupid ass goon guys that sit in the middle of a hall blocking your way with just a few shots of a pistol to the face and an actually Fun gun boss fight.. this SUUUUUUUUURE IS RGG's first outing with Yakuza on some new hardware alright lmao. And yesss yes yes I played the remastered version on my Xbox, and yet the civillians seem to crowd up in swarms weirdly and clip and bug into each other all weird, even ingame cutscenes ive seen some weird model glitches that i'd never seen at all in the first couple games.. and in general the enemy AI seems a lot softer this time around and hell the upgrade where you can get a second finishing move kind of just grants you access to a Lot of ways to exploit every boss in the game if youre paying attention to which light + heavy combo mixups grant you the best possible tool to break guards, though i digress, cause id rather feel Rewarded for learning the game's quirks, ins and outs than having my back blown out by a 54 year old devil may cry wannabe draining all of my resources (yes i am still bitter about that one fight even if it was all Fine in the end)

Though on top of it all the game is still pretty fun and you even get a lot of opportunities to pick up new special moves from kiryu's first actual native english speaking friend AND black friend like holy fuck they remembered we can exist in Japan and are actually showin melanated ppl galore in Okinawa and some even in Kamurocho, its nice! Mack is a pretty funny character, understandably silly because i can totally see a lot of things he says coming out of the mouth of someone making a japanese friend for the first time in the late 00s
he didnt need to slip that bit about tentacle.. porn.. though.. i didnt need to know tht
ahem
But anyways I think Kiryu learning how to use a camera is extremely funny and adds a nice bit of interactivity to the gameplay that wasnt there before
and speaking of interactivity, i think that the chase missions are actually really fucking cool & even though sometimes it feels janky as all fuck esp with vaulting over things that FEEL like youre getting them at the right time.. I think theyre still a great idea for an addition because kiryu shouldnt Always need to kick the shit out of something or just talk to something to get an answer or progression out, infact thats kind of how it shouldve been with that jingweong bullshit in the latter bit of yakuza 2
Though i get that that shit wouldve been harder to do on the ps2
Anyways all the side content is there and i did some of the substories and i think they actually fit really well within the framework of the story this game is trying to tell, they feel a bit more.. local and tender??? Idk! It's kind of hard to put my finger on but it feels like such a relaxed game even when there's dudes trying to actually murder you LMFAO

I think the part about it that made it breeze by and feel so serene despite the apeshit plot and how severely lackin in money you are for most of this game unless you're prowling these streets on thug-patrol batman lite type shit, is that its by far the most emotional story this dev has told so far and that amplifies everything about the experience and gameplay for me.

I'll keep it short with the story because it's a LOT to fuckin digest and a backloggd review is no place for that shit really.

Weirdly enough the most intriguing thing about this entry in the series to me isnt that there's a mysterious benefactor resembling someone from the past, recurring characters' alignments and whereabouts unknown, shit or even this "greater enemy group" that has an underground presence throughout the whole game(which imo kind of sucks aside from the boss fight being kind of cool but i do like how seamless they assimilate and keep tabs on everything going on but jingweon mafia was runnin streets way harder in 2 and so was Goatda) NAH F U C K ALL THAT SHIT MANNN ITS THE ORPHANAGE ITS THE CHILDREN ITS THE CONNECTIONS ITS THAT KIRYU IS BEING ROBBED OF HIS FUCKING RETIREMENT AND ROPED INTO SOME MORE OF THAT B U L L L L L L L L shit, thats whats intriguing. The new connections he's made, the haven and calm before the storm he's enjoying, you feel it All, or atleast i fuckin do dude
because the reason why having kiryu interact with each kid and helping them with their problems is awesome isnt because its ""mindblowing storytelling"" but because it feels Earned. He's EARNED this. He has lost so much and will continue to lose and gain because that's life. He is ultimately a guy thats doomed to get fucked over in relationships platonic and romantic otherwise with people because even if he's a good guy, his status and world he was born in lingers in the background like a black swirling vortex and every time he has to batter that shit back
and he does! but usually at a cost, and this time the price is insane because of the personal stakes and sentimentality that it means
this game has a slow start because it wants you to see it from kiryu's point of view like that as well. I fucking love this main character, and I love this series. Now ill touch on the general plot as a whole, i like the idealogy clash with the final antagonist and the ending really does come out of left field yes... but i cant say its a marvel of writing and thats what keeps me from giving this game a 5/5 the most, a good shitload of this game's biggest twists and information are infodumped out the ass to you instead of the writers finding an organic way to go about all of this. The biggest excuse card they can pull is that Kiryu is out of the loop, which makes sense yes but the fact that it gets played so many times and you never even let Date do all that much aside from telling you the profiles of the new family patriarchs is really disappointing.

final thoughts: this game is one of my favorite games ever right now, that might change in the future bc like.. tbf i got like maybe 5 games to go until im fully caught up with the series still, but even if i sink this ranking lower i think itll still hold a sweet place in my heart. I think the final bits of the game can get really speech-y and derail from the tenseness you can feel in a scene but I get the point they were trying to make out.. just kinda fell flat though
Someone had told me before that they actually felt the orphanage content and stuff revolving around it felt really tame for an M rated game and that it seemed a lot softer than the content proposed in other entries in the series, and I couldnt disagree more.
A scarred man born and raised to bear and wear his dragon tattoo'd back bare and with pride and conviction, not as a lapdog or loyalty to occupation, but a moral representation of defending the righteous and aiming to teach and stand and invoke his scorching fury on anyone that dares to fuck with those he holds dear. When all is said and done he never wavers and plants his feet staring anyone in the face, asserting that he Can change and Will change, and that anyone is able to do so as well only if they take the steps to better themself and trust in those that trust in you. A man teaching lessons, righting wrongs, accepting shortcomings and that accidents can be out of your control and that its what you Do after the fact and the accountability and ever burning drive to rebuild that matters, giving warmth and hope to the next generation of scarred children, scarred like he was at an almost similarly young age by the throes of life.

To me, that's some of the most mature shit you could ever do.

Better than Yakuza 3 in a lot ways: Story, gameplay, features...
However for some reason it didn't stick to me that much.

Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed this game, but it was the game on which I took the longest time so far to complete it (not for being stuck, but for not feeling like playing it that much)

I don't know if the reason for it were the spoilers or me playing another games at the same time (so personal taste)

Well, let's just hope I don't end up growing out of this wonderful franchise, I really want to see what's going to happen in the next games
(Also I'm gonna do my best in order to get all the achievements in this one, seems tougher than YK0)