TheDogEnding
Bio
Hello, I have been gaming for years now and I consider it as one of my hobbies. The first console I got was in Christmas 2009 and it was a Nintendo DS. I could not stop playing with that handheld and soon, my brother and I would get a PlayStation 2 from one of our cousins in 2010.
Since then, I have played through different genres of games and on different systems, new and old. My favorite genres in no particular order are platformers, RPGs, and rhythm games.
By the way, I have more than five games that I considered as my favorites, so check out my lists.
Hello, I have been gaming for years now and I consider it as one of my hobbies. The first console I got was in Christmas 2009 and it was a Nintendo DS. I could not stop playing with that handheld and soon, my brother and I would get a PlayStation 2 from one of our cousins in 2010.
Since then, I have played through different genres of games and on different systems, new and old. My favorite genres in no particular order are platformers, RPGs, and rhythm games.
By the way, I have more than five games that I considered as my favorites, so check out my lists.
Badges
Loved
Gained 100+ total review likes
Best Friends
Become mutual friends with at least 3 others
Popular
Gained 15+ followers
2 Years of Service
Being part of the Backloggd community for 2 years
Gamer
Played 250+ games
Liked
Gained 10+ total review likes
Donor
Liked 50+ reviews / lists
Noticed
Gained 3+ followers
GOTY '21
Participated in the 2021 Game of the Year Event
N00b
Played 100+ games
On Schedule
Journaled games once a day for a week straight
Favorite Games
315
Total Games Played
014
Played in 2024
120
Games Backloggd
Recently Played See More
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Here is another game that given away for free as part of that PlayStation Play at Home initiative in 2021: Abzu. It is a short game where you play a diver going on an adventure underwater. It looks nice and controls well. Traversal on land is slow and that is my only criticism with the game.
I do not know if this is a dealbreaker for some, but for some reason, this game runs at 40fps on the PS5. I played this on my PS5 and I did not know this. The game was still playable.
Source: https://www.resetera.com/threads/ps5-games-tech-details-resolution-frame-rate-backwards-compatibility-and-more.324880/#post-51388633
I do not know if this is a dealbreaker for some, but for some reason, this game runs at 40fps on the PS5. I played this on my PS5 and I did not know this. The game was still playable.
Source: https://www.resetera.com/threads/ps5-games-tech-details-resolution-frame-rate-backwards-compatibility-and-more.324880/#post-51388633
This review contains spoilers
Yakuza 0 is a prequel to the original Yakuza game. I remember playing Yakuza 0 years ago and dropped it for reasons I cannot remember. With the newer Yakuza games (or Like a Dragon as they are called now) getting more attention with the switch to role-playing instead of action/beat ‘em ups, I wanted to give Yakuza 0 another chance. I have a lot to say.
Yakuza 0 is a story driven game. There are lots of cutscenes, dialogue, and the gameplay takes a backseat. I do not mind story driven games. The RPG genre is one of my favorite video game genres and they are known to be story heavy. Yakuza 0’s story is enjoyable, but I was not as invested as I wanted to be. People praise Yakuza 0’s story and I can see it has its moments, but it did not leave the same impact on me like it did for other people.
The story can get bloated at times. The first 4 chapters were a slog to get through. After Ch 4, the story and gameplay start to gather steam. However, like I mentioned earlier, I could not get as invested. I wonder if later games will get me more invested in their stories because Yakuza 0 did not do that for me.
The gameplay has you playing as two characters: Kiryu and Majima. Both have three different styles of combat. Brawler/Thug is your standard fisticuffs; Rush/Breaker have quick attacks, but the damage output is weaker; finally, Beast/Slugger is slow, but they can be strong. Besides your health bar, you have this heat gauge that fills up when you are doing combat. Once you get at least a bar of heat, you can perform heat actions. Think of it like a fighting game character’s ultimate or a Mortal Kombat fatality given how brutal some of these heat actions can get. The gameplay is solid and you can get new moves by spending your hard-earned yen on upgrades. The combat can get repetitive and you might need to grind to get more money. However, you can get more money by selling objects and spending Completion Points.
You explore Kamurocho and Sotenbori by foot as either Kiryu or Majima. The locations have tons of things to do. You can eat at restaurants, play at the arcades, do karaoke, or do the many substories. I am mixed on substories. They can break up the monotony of the main story and give you something different (mostly something wacky), but many of the substories I did were uninteresting. I am glad that the developers added these into the game to make the locations you explore more alive, but some of these substories I could live without. It does not help that some of the NPCs in the substories are of much lower quality compared to Kiryu and Majima. Kiryu and Majima look so detailed yet some of the substories have the NPCs looking like early PS3 models. It is jarring.
Speaking of looks, this game still looks good despite it releasing in 2015 in Japan and 2017 everywhere else. The music was also quite good. The song that plays when you boot up the game gets your blood pumping.
Yakuza 0 did not get me as invested in the story as I wanted, but the game is still good. Solid gameplay, nice exploration, and good visuals and music. I cannot wait to get into more of the Yakuza franchise.
Yakuza 0 is a story driven game. There are lots of cutscenes, dialogue, and the gameplay takes a backseat. I do not mind story driven games. The RPG genre is one of my favorite video game genres and they are known to be story heavy. Yakuza 0’s story is enjoyable, but I was not as invested as I wanted to be. People praise Yakuza 0’s story and I can see it has its moments, but it did not leave the same impact on me like it did for other people.
The story can get bloated at times. The first 4 chapters were a slog to get through. After Ch 4, the story and gameplay start to gather steam. However, like I mentioned earlier, I could not get as invested. I wonder if later games will get me more invested in their stories because Yakuza 0 did not do that for me.
The gameplay has you playing as two characters: Kiryu and Majima. Both have three different styles of combat. Brawler/Thug is your standard fisticuffs; Rush/Breaker have quick attacks, but the damage output is weaker; finally, Beast/Slugger is slow, but they can be strong. Besides your health bar, you have this heat gauge that fills up when you are doing combat. Once you get at least a bar of heat, you can perform heat actions. Think of it like a fighting game character’s ultimate or a Mortal Kombat fatality given how brutal some of these heat actions can get. The gameplay is solid and you can get new moves by spending your hard-earned yen on upgrades. The combat can get repetitive and you might need to grind to get more money. However, you can get more money by selling objects and spending Completion Points.
You explore Kamurocho and Sotenbori by foot as either Kiryu or Majima. The locations have tons of things to do. You can eat at restaurants, play at the arcades, do karaoke, or do the many substories. I am mixed on substories. They can break up the monotony of the main story and give you something different (mostly something wacky), but many of the substories I did were uninteresting. I am glad that the developers added these into the game to make the locations you explore more alive, but some of these substories I could live without. It does not help that some of the NPCs in the substories are of much lower quality compared to Kiryu and Majima. Kiryu and Majima look so detailed yet some of the substories have the NPCs looking like early PS3 models. It is jarring.
Speaking of looks, this game still looks good despite it releasing in 2015 in Japan and 2017 everywhere else. The music was also quite good. The song that plays when you boot up the game gets your blood pumping.
Yakuza 0 did not get me as invested in the story as I wanted, but the game is still good. Solid gameplay, nice exploration, and good visuals and music. I cannot wait to get into more of the Yakuza franchise.
(NOTE: JUST LIKE THE N-SANE TRILOGY, THE COPY I PLAYED OF CRASH 4 IS A USED COPY. ACTIVISION DID NOT GET A SINGLE CENT FROM ME.)
Crash 4: It's About Time is another good Crash game. It is so close to great. The visuals are nice and expressive, the story, while simple, has funny writing, and this game is fun.
The platforming is great. The level design is superb and it is a fair challenge. The final stage can go fuck itself, though. "It is the final stage, it supposed to be hard, blah blah". I played with the retro mode, which gave me lives, and I almost got a game over from that last section of the final stage. If you do not want to worry about lives, go with the modern mode.
In this game, you will get different masks that grant Crash/Coco different abilities. The blue mask can phase objects, the purple mask lets you do a move similar to the Death Tornado Spin from Crash 3, the yellow mask slows down time, and the green mask is anti gravity. My favorite mask is the yellow mask for the time slow down. The blue mask is decent, I kind of lose control using the purple mask, and I hate the anti gravity gimmick with the green mask.
At certain parts of the game, you will play as different characters: Tawna, Dingodile, and Cortex. Tawna and Dingodile are fun to play as, but I do not like Cortex. His ray gun can turn enemies into solid platforms and platforms to bounce on, but he feels more limited. No double or hovering like Tawna and Dingodile.
The bosses saw a massive improvement. They are not piss easy. They put up a fight and I am glad they do. Crash 1-3 had unimpressive boss fights, so thank God, we finally got good boss fights here.
Like the Crash N-Sane Trilogy, I did not bother 100 percenting this game. I saw how nightmarish it can get, so I did not want to chuck my PS5 out the window. I completed the story and moved on.
Crash 4 is another good Crash game. Great platforming, bosses, and gameplay. Final level is dogshit, but I still had a good time playing and beating this game.
Crash 4: It's About Time is another good Crash game. It is so close to great. The visuals are nice and expressive, the story, while simple, has funny writing, and this game is fun.
The platforming is great. The level design is superb and it is a fair challenge. The final stage can go fuck itself, though. "It is the final stage, it supposed to be hard, blah blah". I played with the retro mode, which gave me lives, and I almost got a game over from that last section of the final stage. If you do not want to worry about lives, go with the modern mode.
In this game, you will get different masks that grant Crash/Coco different abilities. The blue mask can phase objects, the purple mask lets you do a move similar to the Death Tornado Spin from Crash 3, the yellow mask slows down time, and the green mask is anti gravity. My favorite mask is the yellow mask for the time slow down. The blue mask is decent, I kind of lose control using the purple mask, and I hate the anti gravity gimmick with the green mask.
At certain parts of the game, you will play as different characters: Tawna, Dingodile, and Cortex. Tawna and Dingodile are fun to play as, but I do not like Cortex. His ray gun can turn enemies into solid platforms and platforms to bounce on, but he feels more limited. No double or hovering like Tawna and Dingodile.
The bosses saw a massive improvement. They are not piss easy. They put up a fight and I am glad they do. Crash 1-3 had unimpressive boss fights, so thank God, we finally got good boss fights here.
Like the Crash N-Sane Trilogy, I did not bother 100 percenting this game. I saw how nightmarish it can get, so I did not want to chuck my PS5 out the window. I completed the story and moved on.
Crash 4 is another good Crash game. Great platforming, bosses, and gameplay. Final level is dogshit, but I still had a good time playing and beating this game.