The atmosphere of the game is (very fairly) praised for being rich and unsettling, but it's really the audio that really sold me on Hob's Barrow. The voice acting is really strong throughout, and the soundtrack feels dense and at times ominous and truly fits the tone the game is going for.

The third act of the game doesn't quite match the first two, but that's likely a result of the well-written script and dialogue taking a backseat to puzzles which are fine - it feels like a different experience than the rest of the game which isn't necessarily bad, just a big jarring. Still, that change can't detract from the overall package and marks another great entry into Wadjet Eye's publishing library.

this game makes me see the lack of options in this website's rating system. i find it a bit hard to put my thoughts about pentiment into words. i don't know if i have ever played a game that made me feel so interested in a world that sounds kinda boring at first glance. i learned so much from this game. about history and religion and people and psychology. it's amazing how well-written these characters are. there is no right or wrong in this story and that makes such a huge difference.

quite a passive game, but there was so much thought put into it and you could feel it in every second of the game. it felt a tiny tint bit dragged out but i am sososo happy i stuck around for the end. it took me a long ass time to finish it but i will think about it for a long time to come !

Ichiban Kasuga is simply one of the best protagonists a video game has ever had, i love him so much. the previous game's narrative was one of my favourites in any game - so when it was revealed that Ichi would be sharing protagonist duty with Kiryu, i was upset. i know this is sacrilegious to Yakuza fans but there are like ten other games where you play as Kiryu and one of them released three (3!!!) months before this one! i've had enough of his ass and wanted more of Ichiban. unfortunately, my fears that the story would more-or-less throw Ichiban to the sidelines so that Kiryu can have one last ride (again(again)) were proven correct.

Kiryu's story is the beating heart of this game. he has a beautiful narrative about coming to terms with is own mortality, fragile after years being the underworld legend of coolguy action and masculinity (positive), learning to rely on others and forgive himself so that he can fight on. Infinite Wealth tells you loudly, just like with Ichiban's impassioned tear-jerking ending monologue in LaD, that you have to live. i haven't played the entire Yakuza series, but Kiryu's sections with Date were really strong. old, lonely men learning to finally reach out and find a reason to keep going. i can't imagine how rewarding his 'bucket list' stuff must be to longtime fans, it had me tearing up over the pocket fighter guy. its villains are pretty weak, but its side-characters and themes are spectacular.

Ichiban's story, sadly, just isn't as fleshed-out or strong as Kiryu's. which sucks! it starts off strong but loses its focus as it goes. the early shit with police brutality, Hawaii's colonial issues, and poverty really felt like it was going somewhere special. when the true villain is revealed, a religious cult lead by a creepy white dude with violent fanatics shipped into every upper echelon of society's hierarchy (notably including the police) it really seems like Infinite Wealth is about to say something. but once that villain is revealed, and after the Vtuber twist, it feels like its story runs out of ideas. especially considering how Kiryu's side has a villain with far more personal relevance to Kasuga (which barely even registers in the plot), it's odd how much this side flatlines. i love its main characters, Tomizawa and Yamai are great new additions, and i love the side-stories. i love hearing these characters just chill out, i love them!!! its setting is wonderful, even if Hawaii more-or-less feels like Japan 2. after a certain point though, it didn't feel like taking place in Hawaii really had much relevance at all.

there's gameplay with that story, too. they fixed every issue with 7's combat and made one of the most fun RPGs there is! i love how it plays, though i think some of its balancing is questionable. cash goes from something so hard to get it's brutal (in a great way) to comically overabundant past the midpoint of the game, especially post-Dondoko Island. i really enjoyed Dondoko Island though! genuinely more fun than New Horizons was. there's so much to do in this that it's almost nauseating at points. honestly, it might've made some complaints i have with the story's pacing exist in the first place - i spent five days just on Sujimon and Dondoko. i just love that these are big RPGs now though. there's so much goofy, creative shit it does.

the ending was extremely heartwarming, i'm very excited to play as Ichiban and never as Kiryu again. leave him alone!!!!!!! let me play go on more Kasugadventures please!!!!!!!!

Demonstrates in perfect stride how this series has never had any clear idea for what they want Haruka to be, in such a way that it almost entirely uproots this whole story for me. My experience was more positive on this entry overall than it was with Yakuza 5, largely because its runtime is less than half of that game's torturously bloated length. This is a series that is at its most effective (to me) when it narrows its scope and focuses on the micro stories of its world’s inhabitants, rather than the endless vortex of clan warfare and revolving door system for cloak & dagger. It was honestly so refreshing that this was as stripped-back as it was. I see a lot of people almost rightfully decry the large swathes of Kamurocho being blocked off for what I’m assuming to be development timeframe reasons. It’s a shame not to see the Champion District in the shiny new Dragon Engine, but I’ll take a few bites out of a world map if it saves me tens of hours of playtime at this point.

Since much of the appeal of these games remains to me in its stunningly realised period piece virtual tourism, I’m always happy when they jumpscare me with an entirely new locale. Hiroshima’s gotta be my favourite in the series I’ve seen yet! It’s such a stunning portside town, coiling up a mountainside. It adds a level of verticality unseen in these games before, offering an incredibly scenic look into sleepy rural life in the Japanese afterglow. I’ll never personally have the funds to justify a trip to the country - so this series is about the best I’ll ever get, and it just doesn’t disappoint.

Alongside the Dragon Engine came some shifts to the gameplay I found very welcome (autosave 🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯). I’m surprisingly keen on the revamped eatery system, better encouraging exploration and dining wherever possible for stat gains and tourism points. They fixed the rhythm game so the tracks aren’t bizarrely varying speeds. Also kind of hilarious to me how busted the dropkick is. Yaku 6 will throw so many mobs at you that it’ll almost feel like a musou game at points, and that attack felt like a Lu Bu finisher or something. The ragdolls are insanely fun too.

But yeah, the story was a miss for me. Broadly speaking, I’ve come to learn that you’re best off taking everything the Yakuza series says at absolute face value without an inch of scrutiny, because its platitudes about honour and family and determination tend to fall apart under even a non-prescription lens. It is so insane to me how Haruka spends 95% of this game in a vegetative state when she’s played such a pivotal role in setting the stage. As I mentioned, this series is terrified of scratching the surface of Haruka’s autonomy and growth into adulthood, god forbid she leaves the “Pure & Perfect Daughter” box she’s been bolted into. God forbid we see the romantic relationship between her and her partner blossom, her demonstrate her independence and stop being a mom for five minutes. It felt as though she learned next to nothing from her experiences in Yakuza 5 outside of the events in its final hour, once again sabotaging any attempt the game makes into having her stand up for herself and stop doing exactly as told. She’s stern but in the same way a Weeble is. And while Kiryu’s final letter demonstrated a touching degree of self-awareness w/rt his effect on the people around him, where he stands on family, etc, it was addressed to Daigo while Haruka was in the room lol.