My what a fantastic entry into the Like a Dragon series

I loved everything about this game except one thing and that is the coliseum, a staple in the franchise and generally my favourite kind of content to spend time with in these titles. However, in Like a Dragon Gaiden, this is a major part of the game that is necessary for progression and while I can appreciate the fact you can play as other fighters that you recruit under your team, it still feels like a watered-down experience overall with only the special event stages shining here. Something I liked about the previous entries to Like a Dragon with its Coliseum is that if you did a repeat tournament type you would still face off with various opponents, keeping it fresh with their movesets and allowing farming to be enjoyable without just being loopy content through and through. But Gaiden does this instead, it is very loopy you select a tournament type and it is the very same thing over and over, you just aim to earn money that you will use on upgrades and continue this till you eventually max everything out. But there is some stuff I appreciate with the coliseum despite the monotonous nature of most of it and that is when a specific substory starts to go into effect around it because it brings all the grind you've done around it into fruition in a very satisfying way by closing it up with an enjoyable subplot.

But hey enough about the Coliseum, everything else was just wonderful, the new characters they introduce in this title were exciting and I would love to see them return. The two fighting styles in the title were incredibly fun, I did not use one over the other throughout the entire game and kept them balanced in usage because they both have their pros and cons that work perfectly for the obstacles you will be facing.

One thing I think is fantastic for pacing is the change in how substories are encountered, it isn't perfect but they have finally stepped away from randomly pushing a substory in your face for walking down the street a tiny bit while trying to do other tasks and instead made it all linked to the Akame Network where you can accept them more freely. The substories in this title were some of the best, as mentioned earlier in the review about the coliseum, these plot lines will keep you hooked some of which use real-life trends as inspiration, opening up some interesting topics these substories then tackle.

Throughout most of the game I was just asking “why is this here”. Why are there upgrade mechanics for gear? Why are there side quests with neither material nor narrative purpose? Why are there main quests where you gather sand? A game pieced together from a bag of features that games “have to have” to “justify” a 60 hour playtime and £70 price tag. There’s a slick 20 hour (TWENTY HOUR) character action game buried in this, but that would have been an even harder sell on the Final Fantasy brand than this already is.

I'm seeing a lot of negative reviews on this site, but this honestly is one of my favorite games in recent memory.

First there's the story and writing which a lot of reviews I've seen say is bad and shitty, but I actually found myself enjoying it. Nothing made me laugh per say, but a lot of the jokes and character interactions did make me smile. Maybe it's because I'm a young adult who makes similar jokes with my friends but I can't help it.

Than there's the gameplay which I can best sum up as "Doom Eternal Lite" but that's 10 miles too far from a bad thing in my eyes. It simplifies a lot of Eternals mechanics. You don't have armor, you only have six weapons as opposed to 9 (7 if you count the sword), none of the weapons have alt fires (though they can be upgraded), and so on. But the thing is, everything still plays out the fabled "Doom Dance" fantastically. You shoot enemies to gain health back and slash them with the sword to get ammo, this simple loop still managed to create an amazing push forward combat loop that got really addicting, and even though non of the weapons have alt fires, they can be upgraded to improve how they play, and each weapon still felt like it had it's place in the combat and pulling of gun cycling combo's never gets old. Heck, this arena fps managed to make it's pistol weapon still viable in the late game, that's an accomplishment if I've ever seen one. And last in the game play department are this game's glory kill equivalent: the finishers, while yes they do give health back when used, they also need to be charged up and allow to use's your enemies' weapons for a short time. I love this because it really makes you have to work for a power trip and still requires the player to be smart with it.

Over all I see this game as more than a "Doom Eternal Clone" though I don't really get this criticism as whole where a game releases with a similar style to a popular game and it's labeled as a rip off. That's just how the game industry works, and Shadow Warrior 3 still manages to feel different from the rest. If you didn't like this game that's completely fine, but to quote Lo Wang "Listen I know your experience probably differs from mine, but I am having a blast!!".

The Frog Detective games have always been up my alley as the perfect dumb adventure games with quirky and completely absurd, yet family friendly humor, and are always a easy one sitting experience that take about an hour or less every time. Corruption at Cowboy County continues the formula of featuring your favorite #2 detective solving some mysteries with premises that don’t even try to take themselves seriously, and as an added bonus, you can even ride a scooter around the town and the surrounding hills if you want to further cosplay the wild west life. While you don’t have to play the previous two Frog Detective games, Corruption at Cowboy County has some fantastic callbacks and is a fitting and wholehearted love letter to the scores of fans that have enjoyed the franchise’s previous offerings. Ultimately, the gameplay and story aren’t anything complicated, but the coziness alongside the surprises have done it again for me. Thanks for everything Grace Bruxner, it’s been a pleasure.