Citizen Sleeper is a fairly linear narrative adventure that feels like a sprawling RPG. The developers somehow make you feel like anything is possible in the Eye as you take on odd jobs and try to eke out another day by the skin of your teeth. The quality of writing here is superb, I just wanted more of it.

This is the true best Cyberpunk RPG on the market, and it shouldn't be missed. All I ask for is a proper fail state to keep you stressed about losing, as Citizen Sleeper is content to let you fuck around and make terrible choices with little consequence, which makes it a fairly chill game. This game captures the same feeling as a great book you can't put down with a tight addictive loop, and I highly recommend it.

i got this game out of the game pass "which game will you play" die and im so glad i did. im not sure what i expected. i remember seeing it ages ago be it when i originally got game pass over a year ago, or from one of the many awards it has garnered, and thought "sure! i'll give it a shot". it's been a good long while since i've played a text-heavy narrative game like this, but it was so intuitive and the story was so well written that it didnt ever make me feel like there was something i couldnt do. it's a surprisingly... addicting? game to play, continuing the story, learning more about the characters, and everything keeps pulling you in saying "sure one more cycle". my only complaint is that at times I wasn't sure what story to follow, as I only had so many dice and so much energy and so many cycles until the next story event, but that in part adds to how engaging it is. that and sometimes moving around the eye felt slow, but again, it adds to the feeling that you are living life on this giant space colony, and moving around pursuing different storylines and discovering more of the world. i'd say give it a shot! especially since it's on gamepass and i finished it in only a couple days. big big big recommend, it's like reading a very good choose-your-own-adventure book

The most common sentiment I see about this game is that it just came out of nowhere and completely gripped the reviewer for its entire playtime. That was basically also my experience. Citizen Sleeper is an excellent game, and well worth its price. Even more worth it if you're getting it for free off Game Pass.

Like Disco Elysium almost all of Citizen Sleepers' gameplay is in the form of reading, the RPG elements start off light and only become less present as the game goes on. But the writing is for the most part excellent, with a strong and interestingly built world. I do wish more was done with the game's RPG elements, but if you're playing this game then you're here for the story.

A few small flaws keep me from giving this game a perfect 5 - I wish some of the endings had been better telegraphed, and I wish fewer events had been locked to binary either/or choices. I also had a couple minor bugs, nothing game breaking, but something I didn't really expect in a game with this few moving parts. But these are very minor complaints about a game that I overall loved and would strongly recommend.

The word "deconstruction" gets thrown around a lot these days. Formally defined as "questioning traditional assumptions about the ability of language to represent reality", it's often used to describe works that seek to criticize a specific genre. I disagree with this use of the word, but less because of the "what" and more because of the "why". I believe deconstruction should be used not only to criticise media, but to use that media's pieces to build something new.

An excellent example of this is one of my favorite films: Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg's 2007 action-comedy masterpiece Hot Fuzz. It deconstructs both the contemporary American cop flick and the traditional detective story by flipping classic tropes on their heads. However, all of this is done not out of criticism, but as a way to both pay tribute to those genres and highlight their potential.

In that sense, yes, Yakuza: Like a Dragon is a deconstruction of the JRPG. Rather than a teenager killing God, you're a 40-year-old man trying to find a job. But the game is still very much a JRPG: It has all the classic mechanical trappings, numerous references to other games, including multiple explicit mentions of Dragon Quest (and people still compare it to Persona), and yes, it relies on the tried-and-true trope of the power of friendship.

That last one is a major criticism of JRPG's I've seen from certain online sources, and I feel Like a Dragon does everything in its power to embrace it. Everything from the combat to the substories to the summons to the incredibly complex management minigame revolves around helping others. There's a major mechanic that involves spending time with your friends and helping them work out their personal issues (alright, it's a little like Persona). A lot of the strongest attacks in the game involve working with your other party members.

But more than anything else, Yakuza: Like a Dragon embraces the theme of friendship through its story, especially through its protagonist, Ichiban Kasuga. He's someone who spent most of his life at "rock bottom", and gets dragged through the mud on a regular basis, often by powers much greater than him. But he gets out through a power even greater than that: the people he can count on. Everyone who supports him, from his party members to the most insignificant NPC, makes his journey just a little bit easier. Even in his darkest times, Ichiban can still bounce back to his infectious optimism thanks in no small part to the support he gives to and recieves from the people around him.

Of course, the game still isn't perfect. While it's an amazing first attempt at a JRPG, you can also tell it's a first attempt. Dungeons are a slog and sometimes combat is too (you didn't have to borrow everything from Dragon Quest, guys). Job systems are fun, but the lack of ability mixing combined with not being able to switch on the fly means there's very little reason to experiment. Also, there are some pretty nasty difficulty spikes near the very end. I get why they're there, but I would've appreciated a little warning.

Despite all my criticisms, Yakuza: Like a Dragon is still an excellent game with a wonderful story and the best deconstruction ever made of the JRPG. Suck it, Undertale.