Tauranoro
2016
The darker tone of the original's story is kinda ruined by the majima everywhere system and the whole game is completely unbalanced, with most bosses being a slog to get through. Overall it feels like it was trying to update the original while keeping it the same, but without enough resources to do the former or smart enough design to balance the two sides. The real reason someone should play this game is to experience the beginning of Kiryu Kazuma's story without having to deal with the jank of the ps2 version (also because publishers hate anything that doesn't make them boatloads of money in the immediate term and turns out preserving videogames, while extremely good for gaming culture, doesn't print money).
2020
I was expecting a meme and instead it turned out to be rather legit, I even liked a few characters and its sense of humour (I am a weirdo though, so keep that in mind). Since it's free and very short (like 100% completion in ~1 hr) I can't help but reccomend it to puzzle and VN game fans.
Anniversary update: on replay, I can't help but feel that the "action" parts of the game are too stiff for their own good. Sure, in the puzzle sections my mind is always faster than my fingers, which leads to me messing up a step, but at least there's no stress linked to having to redo a certain annoying part again.
All in all, I think it's best we leave this game to rest so we can move on to greater, better things
Anniversary update: on replay, I can't help but feel that the "action" parts of the game are too stiff for their own good. Sure, in the puzzle sections my mind is always faster than my fingers, which leads to me messing up a step, but at least there's no stress linked to having to redo a certain annoying part again.
All in all, I think it's best we leave this game to rest so we can move on to greater, better things
2016
I was hoping to like this, but after ten minutes I found myself utterly bored, frustrated with the controls and with the speed (or rather the lack of it).
2017
This review contains spoilers
The game is good, but the reason I'm not saying it's great is beacuase of the Dragon Engine. Part of the reason I fell in love with the series was because of its arcade-y combat, and this is the second entry to eschew that in favor of a slapfest where landing hits feels arbitrary and more than four enemies means Kiryu will be flipping around in ragdoll form like he's from half-life 2. And not in a fun way. The drop to 30 fps on consoles is also a flaw I simply can't get used to.
On to positives, the story is brilliant, with the exception of the final showdown ("You're korean, you're korean, I'm korean! Are there any other koreans i should know about?!); it's also inferior to the ps2 original in terms of tone (compare the kiryu stabbing scene in Osaka from 2 with kiwami 2's). Although, I must praise the Majima extra side-story for reuniting the Mad Dog with Makoto, while keeping the spirit of Zero and not ruining their relationship for fanservice-y cheap drama.
On to positives, the story is brilliant, with the exception of the final showdown ("You're korean, you're korean, I'm korean! Are there any other koreans i should know about?!); it's also inferior to the ps2 original in terms of tone (compare the kiryu stabbing scene in Osaka from 2 with kiwami 2's). Although, I must praise the Majima extra side-story for reuniting the Mad Dog with Makoto, while keeping the spirit of Zero and not ruining their relationship for fanservice-y cheap drama.
2016
It's nice enough, the atmosphere is its strongest point. Got it in a bundle with way better games but it's still a nice experience. While it has 16 endings, I don't think it's worth it to play through them all, after 3 endings and about 1 hour of gameplay I had seen enough
2014
the game's design is mesmerizing, I can hardly fathom the amount of work it took to design the combat alone; I'm even more blown away by the fact the player is actually encouraged to experiment with their loadout on a constant basis in a natural way with how functions unlock backstories.
The artstyle and narration are top-notch, a mark of excellence of Supergiant Games.
What the game suffers from is its length, perhaps too short for the story it wanted to tell; it didn't help that for how much our techno-sword companion talks, the game is so tight-lipped about what is actually going on. While I think I got most of what the story was trying to convey, mostly thanks to its environmental storytelling, and while I respect the game for making the player put the pieces together, i would have appreciated a bit more bluntness.
The artstyle and narration are top-notch, a mark of excellence of Supergiant Games.
What the game suffers from is its length, perhaps too short for the story it wanted to tell; it didn't help that for how much our techno-sword companion talks, the game is so tight-lipped about what is actually going on. While I think I got most of what the story was trying to convey, mostly thanks to its environmental storytelling, and while I respect the game for making the player put the pieces together, i would have appreciated a bit more bluntness.
2017
Note: with how much this game changed in these few years, this review is only accurate as far as April 2018.
First off: fuck Epic Games for killing its employees with its 100-hour per week schedules. This should be reason enough for this game to not exist.
I'm not a fan of BRs. This game made me realise why, with most matches taking about 3 minutes to start getting into the actual game, walking around looking for items for 5 minutes and then getting obliterated by little Jimmy in a John Wick skin. I honestly had more fun with Free Fire, a PUBG mobile ripoff, than I did with this.
First off: fuck Epic Games for killing its employees with its 100-hour per week schedules. This should be reason enough for this game to not exist.
I'm not a fan of BRs. This game made me realise why, with most matches taking about 3 minutes to start getting into the actual game, walking around looking for items for 5 minutes and then getting obliterated by little Jimmy in a John Wick skin. I honestly had more fun with Free Fire, a PUBG mobile ripoff, than I did with this.
2019
Just moving around in this game is amazing, sliding and jumping through mountains and slopes is more fun than everything else. I will praise it for "forcing" 3-person teams as a way to encourage teamplay (and encouraging you to telling your friends to play as well so the playerbase grows).
Playing this after the witcher 3 was a mistake
Pokémon anime football 2: somehow even better than the original, More characters and more locations which are more interesting and varied than the original's. The thing I still remember is the singular special's moves leveling system that makes them stronger during the playthrough; while it added more grinding, it was also interesting to see the animations improve over time.
2018
This review contains spoilers
I liked it, but many things held it back. The plot might be the only part of the franchise that gave me tonal whiplash between its gritty crime drama and the orphanage parts in a way I didn't actually enjoy, whereas it's a staple the series pulls off really well. But the worst offender is Joji, which is just stupid and kind of ruins Kazama in hindsight; while Andre Richardson is also stupid, it's so over the top that I can't help but forgive it. This game really nails its other side characters and villains, with Rikiya and Mine being two of my all-favourite characters in the franchise, which is surprising seeing how neither will return in the future.
The combat kills my interest to come back to this game, knowing the only viable combo is 3-punch-then-2-finishing-strikes one, seeing as it is the only one that breaks enemy guard, which is ALWAYS up.
Despite how harsh I've been, this game needed to come out in the west, seeing how the only previous release was incomplete, as well as bringing this game up to 60 fps.
Finally, I will never not get weirded out by Kiryu's face in this, 4 and Dead Souls/of the End.
The combat kills my interest to come back to this game, knowing the only viable combo is 3-punch-then-2-finishing-strikes one, seeing as it is the only one that breaks enemy guard, which is ALWAYS up.
Despite how harsh I've been, this game needed to come out in the west, seeing how the only previous release was incomplete, as well as bringing this game up to 60 fps.
Finally, I will never not get weirded out by Kiryu's face in this, 4 and Dead Souls/of the End.
Even as a kid, the 3ds version was underwhelming. Had I known any better I would have played on PC. Oh well, too late for that.
2019
This game deserves a lot of praise for managing to get 4 playable characters working and also making the newcomers feel different from Kiryu.
Where the story stumbles is in its plot, which works up a lot of intrigue but becomes incredibly complicated and nearly impossible to follow unless you manage to never lose attention for the entirety of its runtime.
It doesn't help that, while the main characters are fun to follow and to see them bounce off one another, the villains and many side characters are not that interesting, chief problem being Yasuko. She has so little personality of her own I hesitate to call her a character and not a walking plot device.
Regarding gameplay, this is the series where the games show their strength, with combat and side content being better and more plentiful than ever (although Tanimura's style sadly being the jankiest and most arbitrary when it comes to what moves can be used in which occasions).
Where the story stumbles is in its plot, which works up a lot of intrigue but becomes incredibly complicated and nearly impossible to follow unless you manage to never lose attention for the entirety of its runtime.
It doesn't help that, while the main characters are fun to follow and to see them bounce off one another, the villains and many side characters are not that interesting, chief problem being Yasuko. She has so little personality of her own I hesitate to call her a character and not a walking plot device.
Regarding gameplay, this is the series where the games show their strength, with combat and side content being better and more plentiful than ever (although Tanimura's style sadly being the jankiest and most arbitrary when it comes to what moves can be used in which occasions).
2018
This game kicked my ass so much it's not even funny
I held this game in high regard as a kid but playing it now it feels very dated.
The game's main fault is in its balancing, seeing how infantry unit are rarely viable and what you really need are tanks. Too bad their pathfinding is awful, getting stuck over nothing and blocking each other, requiring you to manually control each of them separately. Thank goodness there's a pause button, otherwise this would be infuriating. Also beware difficulty spikes during the Allied campaign, which is what made me abandon the game completely.
You should play this only if you're interested in a somewhat grounded RTS, or if you thought how most games in the genre handle large groups of units dumb and unrealistic, and want to see and see how painful it actually have units have their own volume instead of overlapping each other during movement
The game's main fault is in its balancing, seeing how infantry unit are rarely viable and what you really need are tanks. Too bad their pathfinding is awful, getting stuck over nothing and blocking each other, requiring you to manually control each of them separately. Thank goodness there's a pause button, otherwise this would be infuriating. Also beware difficulty spikes during the Allied campaign, which is what made me abandon the game completely.
You should play this only if you're interested in a somewhat grounded RTS, or if you thought how most games in the genre handle large groups of units dumb and unrealistic, and want to see and see how painful it actually have units have their own volume instead of overlapping each other during movement