Wow. While I would still consider Sons of Liberty my favorite of the MGS games I've played, Snake Eater comes extremely close. The gameplay for one thing was so much fun. I love how they combined stealth mechanics of the previous games with survival elements, allowing for so many interesting gameplay options. The story was pretty great also. It's fun and at times hilarious; but when it needs to it's absolutely gut wrenching. But just like the previous game I did have issues. While the story is overall good; it didn't quite have me hooked like Sons of Liberty did, and I really didn't like the writing of Volgin’s character. I also felt very mixed by the boss fights. Most of them were good with some genuinely great ones; but there were also ones that really annoyed me like The Fury and The End. These things hold back the game a bit for me, but just like Sons of Liberty it's made up for by how incredible the ending is. Where all the pieces that were set up culminate in a powerful conclusion that brought me to tears. Snake Eater was already great, but the ending being this perfect easily cements it as one of my new favorite games.

I've been wanting to play this game for years and it did not disappoint. The gameplay was incredibly addictive, having so many different options and incredible attention to detail. It makes this game very hard to put down. And the story while it does have its issues, is thematically one of the most relevant stories I've seen. There are parts of this game that make it feel like this could've come out recently, which for a 20 year old game is mind blowing. Although the game’s age can clearly be seen with its controls, which were very difficult for me and made for a lot of frustrating moments (especially the boss fights). I did have some issues that slightly brought the game down for me. But by the time I witnessed that conclusion, I left feeling completely satisfied. The last hour of this game was exciting, shocking, and incredibly moving. Even having it partially spoiled, it was an emotional rollercoaster that I'm going to be thinking about for a while. I'm so glad that I finally got to experience this.

A frustrating and at times unfair experience that I could not stop playing. The atmosphere and level design of this game were incredible; making every new location and discovery feel so rewarding. And for all the stupid things that this game has, it also has some of the most satisfying moments of any game I've ever played. Every small bit of progress felt massive. And when I finally got the ending, I was left feeling an amount of catharsis that I have never felt playing a video game before. And despite the exhausting experience this game could be, all I want to do now is play it again and play more of these Souls games. Dark Souls for all the issues I had with it was a genuinely incredible experience, and one that I would easily call one of my new favorites.

Top 10 Anime Betrayals



But for real, I forgot how fun and genuinely hilarious this game is. So much so to the point that I got 100% completion and still kind of wish there was more. Really my only complaints were the occasionally frustrating controls, certain plot points not aging well, and certain requirements to get 100% being very annoying (Nut Shot made me more angry than I care to admit). But even these things seem minor with how much fun I had overall, good game.

There was a lot I liked here but a lot that I didn't. I loved the soundtrack, the gambit system was one of the most unique and entertaining combat systems I've played, and I enjoyed exploring the world. That being said I did not care about the story. It's extremely politics heavy and I had trouble keeping track of what was going on; making some of the later moments of the game fall a bit flat for me. I also felt it lacked many compelling characters. Besides Balthier who I loved; most of the characters in the game just don't have much about them I find likable or interesting. The English voice acting also felt hit or miss to me; with performances sounding either pretty good or devoid of emotion (the low audio quality doesn't help). Like I said the gameplay was great, but in a series that can have some really good stories, I felt just a bit let down by 12 even with all the things it does great.

Hard to think of much that hasn't been said. Incredible characters, great atmosphere, fun combat, tons of addictive side content, and some of the most powerful moments of any video game I've played. There are genuine issues with the game. Certain plot developments feel a bit contrived and the pacing could've been better at points; but that doesn't stop this game from being a masterpiece in my opinion and completely convinced me that I need to play the rest of these games (which I am still working on 😅).

Besides the fun side content and enjoying Sayama as a character I'm feeling really mixed about most of this game. The combat although pretty satisfying at times did feel a bit repetitive without the option of multiple styles. Also I'm surprised that a lot people consider this to be one of the better Yakuza plots, as it felt extremely uneven to me. It starts out really interesting and there were some great moments here and there; but there was a ton of reveals that didn't work for me and subplots I didn't care about. I also didn't find Ryuji Goda as compelling as previous antagonists. I found him entertaining and he had some good moments; but I didn't find him too interesting personally. So even though I enjoyed the final fight with him it just didn't have as much weight for me as the final bosses of Zero or Kiwami 1. Kiwami 1 was also pretty messy, but I still felt it had a really emotionally compelling story at its core; while Kiwami 2 has a solid story but didn't resonate with me nearly as much. I still think Kiwami 2 is a good game, but personally I didn't feel it reached the emotional highs of the other Yakuzas I've played, and for that reason it's my personal least favorite.

I definitely want to come back to this game eventually since I've only played up to chapter 6 (About 25 hours), but from what I have played I do feel a bit mixed about Like a Dragon.

The story starts out really strong, for the first 3ish chapters I was completely sold on Ichiban as a protagonist and although they were cutscene heavy I enjoyed pretty much all of them. But chapters 4 and 5 weren't quite as interesting for me, they had some interesting moments but in general just kind of bored me and kind of just felt like filler with not much interesting plot developments or character interactions. From what I hear this is longest game in the series, and I could really feel its length with these chapters.

There's also the gameplay which I also feel mixed about. It's mostly enjoyable and it translates the silliness of combat in previous games really well; but the amount of grinding was annoying and there's one dungeon at the beginning of Chapter 6 was by far the most boring part of the game for me. In terms of side content though I don't really have any complaints. Yokohama is massive and is so dense with things to do; I spent hours just wandering around and doing side content. I loved the additions of minigames like go-karting, staying awake at the movie theater, and aluminum can collecting.

So although I do have issues with this game so far, there's still so much that I enjoyed here and I really hope that when I come back to this game I get more of what I liked about it.

I feel Kiwami 1 shows Yakuza at both its best and worst. On one hand it does have pacing issues, certain characters acting out of character, the underwhelming and at times infuriating boss fights (I temporarily switched to Easy multiple times); the dragon style being pretty worthless without grinding, that on rails shooting segment, and a lot of uninteresting subplots. It's a game that isn't at its best very often, but when it is it's one of the most compelling stories I've experienced from this series. Nishiki's heart breaking transformation, Kiryu losing so much that he held dear yet still finding a reason to keep going, the bond he forms with Haruka, witnessing all the ways that Kamurocho has changed while still feeling so familiar. This game has so many problems and I understand why people are frustrated by it (I definitely was at points). But despite said problems it's one of the most impactful stories I've experienced in a game and I'm glad that I played it.