My first Yakuza game (though I'm familiar with the series), but mostly played because I hungered for a good turn-based JRPG. So, from a JRPG fan's perspective, does this game deliver?

I'd say yes. But note that this is a series that was action-based until this entry. The gameplay had to be accessible to those not used to turn-based combat, and as such the battles are very, very easy to anyone experienced with the genre. There's a decent amount of depth with a class/skill inheritance system, along with summons. But with one exception (Chapter 12 boss...), you won't need to strategize much. There are extra difficult options, but only for New Game+ and they just jack up the stats and levels of enemies.

Other flaws in the JRPG experience include characters moving around randomly in battle (both yours and enemies), making AoE attacks a crapshoot much of the time (not helped by their AoEs not being visually indicated). The job system is also wildly unbalanced, some characters' default jobs are awful, while others are so good you'd never let them be anything else. You also don't unlock the job switching mechanic until mid Chapter 5 (out of 15). Infinite Wealth apparently fixes both issues.

But what the game lacks in challenge, it makes up for in charm. Ever wanted a totally mundane modern-day JRPG? Where instead of a wizard, you have a hobo who attacks with summoned pigeons and rancid breath? Super attacks with names like "Essence of Facial Gone Wrong"? Fighting enemies like chicken cultists, dine-and-dashers and men wearing trash bags? And it's all justified by the protag being a massive Dragon Quest fanboy with an over-active imagination. So what if the combat is easy, it's FUN!

Speaking of fun, one of the pillars of Yakuza is the sheer depth of side content. This game features a fully fleshed-out kart racer, business sim, shogi, mahjong, poker, koi koi, recreations of Sega arcade games, a movie theatre where you play whack-a-mole with the protagonist's literal sleep demons dressed as sheep (yes, this is real)... and that's not even all of it! For a game that often goes for < $10 in Steam sales, you sure get your money's worth. The minigames are all excellent, even if I suck at mahjong. The business sim is by far the highlight though, it could easily be a stand-alone game.

What else do you get? Oh, a really heartfelt, emotional and tragic main storyline. That's also a Yakuza pillar, the series juggles comedy and seriousness insanely well, and the plot here is one of the best I've played through in a while. The main characters are all great, but Ichiban is the real highlight. I played with the English dub (I know, heresy) and it's very well done, with Kaiji Tang as Ichiban, George Takei as his old boss Masumi Arakawa, Greg Chun as Nanba, Will Yun Lee as a very important spoiler character, and, well, EVERYONE ELSE being massive standouts. These VAs BECOME the characters, you barely acknowledge them as acting.

As much as I want to explain why the story is good, it's kinda hard to without spoiling everything, so I'll just have to give a "take my word for it". Besides a few late-game reveals that felt like "twists for twists sake", I enjoyed the whole thing.

Advance warning though that this is the 7th game in a long-running story, and while it stars a new protagonist, some of the late-game moments will hit a LOT harder if you have history with the franchise. They're still understandable and enjoyable by a newcomer though.

But when you need a break from the "serious crime drama" (tm), there's sidequests. Yakuza's approach to balancing tone is interesting: leaving the true balls-to-the-wall insanity for sidequests. From meeting a Yakuza family who dress like babies, to fighting a giant Roomba, there's no shorting of amazing comedy here. One aspect I love is how the game uses sidequest rewards as a punchline at times. I laughed out loud at some of the Poundmates (summons) and business recruits you ended up unlocking.

Overall a really great game, and one I recommend to any adult JRPG fan. I might check out other Like A Dragon games one day.

Tactica has been called a lot of things. The spinoff no-one asked for. The milking of Persona 5. Overshadowed by P3 Reload. And... a surprisingly really good game?

I was always hoping this would be good, but even I was blown away by how FUN the core gameplay ended up being. It's simple: getting extra moves in a strategy game is always a dopamine rush (see: dancers in Fire Emblem). Tactica brings in the main series' One More mechanic, making extra moves a REWARD for good tactical plays. It's amazing how natural this feels, and that they've never tried it before.

How these tactical plays work is also simple. Enemies in cover aren't vulnerable to One Mores. Enemies out of cover are. And like most Atlus RPGs, the same rules apply to you. While the cover system isn't as deep as it could be (cover/no cover is a binary, so flanking won't do anything), the core loop of using skills or melee to knock enemies out of cover and set up your teammates to One More and move further is straight-up addictive.

Don't believe me? Play the Quests. These are short "puzzle" missions often tasking you with using the One More system to find a set of moves to win in one turn. Aiding in this is...

Another option for your One Mores: if you make a triangle around a downed enemy with your 3 allies you can perform an All Out Attack that hits everything inside. The trade-off is this cannot trigger another One More, so that'll end the initiator's actions for the turn. But you can swap to your other allies and move them without locking in their action, so keeping a few people active to "widen" the triangle before triggering is also addictive. Once switches are introduced, this "you can move as much as you like until you use an action" system gets even more fun. A character can contribute a LOT in a turn without even attacking.

Here's the catch though: the gameplay is very, very easy. After testing multiple modes I was only ever at risk of losing party members on Merciless, and even then I never lost a non-Quest battle.
But strangely... being easy didn't make the game any less fun. It still takes a lot of tactical thinking to find the smoothest way through each map, you can't just blindly throw units at the closest target.

Speaking of units, while I admit the Phantom Thieves don't feel as distinct as in other P5 games, each has their own role and some get to shine in unexpected areas. E.g you'd expect Mona and Yusuke to have high Move, but Ryuji does too due to his track background. You level up as a party rather than individually, letting you experiment with whatever combination you want for each map. The skill tree system is also interesting. While you spend skill points gained from levels to learn skills, you're free to "take back" purchases and re-allocate your points at any time, letting you swap around skillsets on the fly.

Sub-Personas return from the Q games, but fusion didn't feel as impactful here as in other games, as each Persona only has one fixed skill and one inheritable slot. Having extra skills on party members felt more useful early on, before they were deep into their personal skill trees.

There's also a weapon fusion system, but it has several downsides. Their random chance of ailments is at odds with an otherwise RNG-less experience, and they can be DETRIMENTAL sometimes (e.g freezing an enemy you'd rather lure forward). They also force you to use Personas on-hand as material where possible, even if a weaker option is available from the Compendium. In general I find range beats everything else when looking at a weapon.

Another aspect of this game that surprisingly blew me away? I was NOT expecting the OST to go this hard. And there's a good variety too as each Kingdom has its own set of tracks, including bosses. There's also 7 brand-new Lyn vocal tracks, and "Truth or Dare" is my favourite one of hers to date.

The game's story is ALSO surprisingly good, it's just not about the Phantom Thieves and I know that'll be a deal-breaker for some. It's more like the Q games in that the dungeons and bosses are symbolic of the new characters' mental struggles, but it also feels different from those on a way that's hard to describe. It might be because Toshiro is an adult, and therefore approaches his problems differently. Toshiro and Erina are both incredible characters, but I can't explain why without spoilers. I'll just say their relationship is very unique among spinoff characters and adds a lot of re-watch value once you know the full story.

The Phantom Thieves do feel under-used here though, and much of their dialogue doesn't even really "feel" like themselves. They're not ludicrously exaggerated to the extent of Chie and Akihiko in earlier spinoffs, they're just... sort of bland. There's the occasional exception though: Futaba and Haru have some very good moments later on, as they're the ones who relate the most to Toshiro due to their own issues, and Ryuji has some decent points too.

But even putting the characters aside, the core story is actually pretty decent? I was surprised at how invested I got in saving the helium-voiced cartoon people of each Kingdom. Yes, a concept that ridiculous could be genuinely moving at times, which is an achievement in itself.

To sum up, Persona 5 Tactica is a bundle of pleasant surprises. It's not a very long game for its genre (around 30 hours) so I'd still recommend picking it up on sale. But definitely give it a shot, it's one of the better spinoffs.

Hi-Fi Rush is an excellent game (that shadowdropped!) that I'm just not built for. Definitely one of the best to come out in 2023, which is saying something.

The game is... actually, if you're interested, I highly recommend watching a video of the first level, it does an EXCELENT job of summing up when you're in for, both gameplay and atmosphere.

Essentially it's a 3D rhythm action game split between a lite 3D platformer and "stylish-action" combat. (Chai would make a great Smash Bros character) Everything in the world, from platforms to enemy attacks to your battle moves to the UI is synced up to the music, and you're encouraged to time your actions to the beat. If you aren't used to rhythm games I'd recommend turning on the Rhythm Assist to get an unintrusive visual representation of the BPM.

The combat is surprisingly complex, with the first stage ALONE introducing light and heavy attacks, beat-timed combo finishers, super moves, air combos, "rest" combos (don't press attack for 1 beat mid-combo), timed dodges, collectibles in levels to raise your max health and super meter and a scoring system.
Later ones adding an upgrade system, a whole slew of buyable extra combos, a grappling hook, partner assists, parrying, counters, partner combo finishers...

Now try not only memorizing the button combos for each of these, and which moves are tactically best for which situation. AND THEN DOING IT ALL IN TIME TO THE BEAT. (And the varied soundtrack means learning different timing for each stage and boss)

Admittedly, if you're only concerned with beating the game, it doesn't demand that much of you. But the postgame will require at least some mastery of the systems, and even more if you want 100% achievements. This gives the game unexpected replay value despite a relatively short storyline. (12 stages, each about an hour on a first time through)

On the subject of storyline, it's a perfect showing of why simple isn't always bad. "There's an evil megacorp trying to kill you, team up with a band of outcasts and defeat their cartoon villain executives." But said "outcasts", and ESPECIALLY "cartoon villain executives", are amazingly fun characters. Well-acted and well-written. Combined with a colourful artstyle, amazing comic-book cutscenes (which often seamlessly transition into and out of gameplay) and an obviously killer soundtrack (both in licensed and "streamer mode") and you've got a fun time.

I'm probably not good enough to 100% this, but from beating both the story and postgame, I'm don't regret my purchase. This should've won more Game Awards.

SMT Nocturne is the JRPG from Hell. At times it feels like the game is sentient and hates you. Once you accept this, however, it's surprisingly fun.

So yes, this game is difficult. But now that I've actually PLAYED it rather than just watched boss fights and consumed memes, I realize it's also surprisingly well-designed. Yes, you will die a lot. But save points are fairly frequent and reasonably-placed, as are heal points. I rarely lost enough progress from dying to be frustrated. Dungeons are also fairly short, so tend not to overstay their welcome. And it's not ALL dungeons, there some towns with NPCs to speak to, and said NPC dialogue is pretty good at giving gameplay tips to newcomers along with guidance on where to go next.

Speaking of newcomers, this was the first Shin Megami Tensei game to introduce the now-standard (and beloved) Press Turn system. Hitting an enemy weakness turns one of your turns into a half-turn, effectively granting you another action. (You can also "pass" your turn for the same effect) While hitting an immunity or missing an attack consumes 2 tuns. And in classic SMT fashion, mechanics work the exact same way for both sides. Minus Beast Eye and Dragon Eye, anything the enemy can do, you can do too.

If you haven't played a Shin Megami Tensei game before, you'll quickly find that buffs and debuffs are your friend. Status ailments are deadly, but they're also part of the element system, letting you punish the enemy for using them with the right Demon allies.

Aside from the customizable "Demi-Fiend" protagonist, you'll be making your party out of the Demons you battle, like a twisted version of Pokemon. Demons always have the same weaknesses and resistances on your side as they do as enemies, and this is... a little hit-or-miss in Nocturne. A surprising number of Demons, even early ones, have no weaknesses at all, forcing you to rely on physical critical hits to gain turn advantage. And then these same Demons, once recruited, essentially let you forget about enemies gaining turns off YOUR weaknesses, which kinda saps some of the fun. The Fiends are especially notable here. Optional bosses added in the "Maniax" version, they all lack weaknesses and nullify ailments (therefor robbing the enemy of turns for attempting them), AND tend to have overpowered skills, so can trivialize gameplay once you unlock them.

Most Demons are obtained via Fusion (which should be familiar to those who played Persona) or the dreaded negotiation. Some Demons can also evolve, Pokemon-style, though this is left as a fun "easter egg" to discover. I was surprised at how little I minded negotiation though. As long as you're not too stingy with money and items, you'll get the demons you want eventually through sheer persistence. There are skills that make it easier, but I was fine embracing the randomness most of the time. Once you unlock the Compendium you can re-summon any Demon you've had before, which helps.

Having played through the whole game, even the difficult optional dungeon, my main criticism is Evasion buffs and debuffs are actually pretty broken. As missing means you take no damage AND the enemy loses turns, Fog Breath on the foe and some Sukukajas on the party can make you practically invincible. Only late-game bosses carry buff/debuff cancel skills, and some don't even have both.

Being an older SMT game, Nocturne has its fair share of jank you'll have to live with. The protagonist learns skills from Magatamas (think equipped armour), but if you refuse a skill you never get a chance to re-learn it, and only the next skill a Magatama learns is visible, meaning it's easy to give up skills you later realize you need if you don't have a guide, or give up on a Magatama too soon.
Hard Mode is what the bosses are designed around (Normal is secretly an Easy mode, halving damage taken), but it also triples shop prices and prevents running from random encounters. If that sounds annoying to you, I'd recommend playing on Normal for exploration, and switching to Hard for bosses. (Difficulty can be changed from the menu at any time, at least in the remaster) The HD Remaster at least lets you select inherited skills in fusion (after a patch), while keeping the option of randomized inheritance if you prefer that.

I haven't even talked about the story yet. If you're playing Nocturne, you're likely doing it for the gameplay. It has less "story" and more "lore" and "atmosphere", but both are very good. You'll be exploring some of the most unique and creative-looking locations in any JPRG, with an excellent soundtrack by the legendary Shoji Meguro setting the mood. The difficult gameplay enhances the atmosphere, making you feel like you're struggling to survive in a post-apocalyptic world where everything wants you dead. The characters are all varying degrees of unlikable, but that's kind of the point.

My only real criticism isn't to do with the plot itself, but how one of the Maniax additions impacts it. The original story had multiple endings, all shades of grey, but Maniax added a new ending with far more content that essentially invalidates all the others. As a result, you don't see the original 5 (yes, FIVE) endings discussed or considered much, which is a shame as they're all conceptually interesting.

Overall, do not go into Nocturne unless you have some experience with Shin Megami Tensei and/or Persona already and are looking for a challenge. But if you do, you'll find some of the best gameplay, boss fights and atmosphere in the JRPG genre.