finished story: march 29
all achievements: april 1

stuck between rating it 4 or 4 1/2 but i really enjoyed playing this
story reveal was satisfying unlike some certain other games and the characters are all wonderful
the mystery stays interesting to the end and all the hints they drop along the way without outright revealing the Thing are really neat

mizuki, aiba, and date are my favorites for sure and the dynamic between each of them was what i enjoyed the most
very very sweet :< mizuki route had my favorite resolution too

did not mind the comedic tone although it is a little jarring when youre in an ultra serious situation near the end of a route and aiba is like date you motherfucker and dates like ^w^ lollllllllll but i have a bigger bone to pick with this game than that

qte sequences are funny but odd and not really tense
i didnt enjoy the somniums at first compared to the puzzles of ZE but i gradually warmed up to them, mostly for their very surreal atmosphere

well animated in a way that looks nice and doesnt take you out of the game but there are some clipping issues sometimes and the dance is just a liiiiittle awkward but its fine, the game looks good overall
played with jp voices and they were fantastic but many people seem to like the english dub too so maybe ill check that out at some point

onto my big huge enormous issue that actively holds back my enjoyment of the game. how fucking creepy every man is to iris

sometimes i didnt mind date being horny because it was kinda funny but every time it involved iris i just rolled my eyes so far back into my head it was bad
i really like iris. shes a sweet character, her being a streamer and an idol is fun, and shes a big nerd into the occult and conspiracy theories partially to cope
shes such a major character and most things male characters say about her are the most disgusting creepy shit

i know shes an idol and the obsessive love is just the way that these things go but the way this actually drives the story forward with kumakura and ota is maddening !!!!!!!!!!
SHES 18!!!!!!!! we dont need to hear these grown ass men be insanely horny for her and its never ever ever ever funny! i know thats what its supposed to be, comedy, but it fucking sucks!!!!

the thing i hated the most was them making date continue to be creepy as fuck towards her even after they both knew what their previous relationship was!!!!!
i know date regards himself as a different person from falco but i think it sucks to write him thinking of her like that anyways and it upsets me immensely

anyways. the rest of it was good and fun and the jokes were funny for the most part but that is such an enormous issue for me thats such a major part of the game that prevents me from liking it fully

felt just as empty finishing this as i did vlr

even though i enjoyed the majority of this game way more (more enjoyable puzzles and less repetitive) the tail end of it is so........... so............. Bad
like zero escape games quality to me hinges on the twist it forms itself around Duh but it can make or break the game entirely as seen with 999 and vlr for me

not that the rest of the plot was perfect because i hated the story presented in vlr anyways but i was having a moderately good time before sigma and diana fucked in the pod and had babies and then it all totally went downhill, all i could do is laugh at how ridiculous it was

the twist that delta was with q-team the entire time is so stupid i dont care how much it was hinted at, it just felt so so silly for them to suddenly just start acknowledging him

and the rest of the story with brother and sigma and diana and phi and all and mind hack and the snail and shifting and mira and. Whatever man it was just not fun to sit through. just like vlr i was desperately trying to get to the end to get things over with it was like pulling teeth

i didnt really have a problem with the flowchart system like yeah it was odd but it was preferable to vlr's incredibly repetitive system, though it certainly does take some of the impact away when you dont have that feeling of replaying through segments as much as you did in that game

the worst part of this game that has nothing to do with the story or characters is the absolutely abysmal animation
it looked so so bad and completely sucked the immersion and soul out of any scene trying to be emotional
i understand they had a small budget but i think it wouldve been just as okay if they kept the visual novel presentation and stuck with sprites or hell even still images that would have 1000% more life than these cutscenes did

the jarring art style change isnt terrible but much less preferable to the nonary games art style for sure. certainly doesnt help the bad animation at all or look all that great in the 3d models (carlos, diana, and akane especially) but the promotional and key art is really really great, creates a much better atmosphere than whatever is actually going on ingame though i do have qualms with how odd some female characters look in comparison to the male ones

i really really missed the whole Novel aspect. the writing and description were really good and added an extra layer of immersion and closeness to the characters that this game certainly lacks

highlights of this game are the puzzles, sigmas muscles, c team's dynamic, and the cool doll/figure portraits for each character that was really neat

999: march 10 - march 12, 5/5
fun, charming, intriguing, and really well written!!!! everything wrapped together so nicely. i had so many questions throughout the game and was hanging on every word, and every time the characters went into some shit like Well have you heard of i was like oh fuck here we go
like the science and anecdotes all feel random but theyre so fascinating and elevate the story of the game
created an almost scary atmosphere for me every time it happened

loved the characters so much and thought they had so much personality, wish lotus's design was different and that there werent as many perverted jokes but hey what can you do. i like the rest quite a bit.

i was enjoying the game a lot already but when the true ending hit and the game revealed its hand i fell completely in love
though i wish akane and junpeis relationship was presented a little nicer bc its really heavy on the cheese early on to the point that its almost insufferable but the ending changed my mind about them almost completely. love prevails and love is all powerful
the whole story is really good overall and i think hongou's motivation makes a lot of sense!!!! dude is fucked up!!!!!!!

puzzles were really really fun i have to say the cargo hold was my favorite to do and figure out but the digital root system as a whole was so fucking fun as the thing the puzzles shaped themselves around. solid, dependable, and wraps into the story well too!!

the way the gameplay as a whole wraps into the story with the replays, door choices, and novel/adventure mode is so well done too and im sure its even better in the ds version

good aesthetic, really nice 3d visuals that feel creepy like a 3d adventure game from the 90s
good and catchy music, wasnt crazy but it was a nice backdrop to the whole game
fantastic voice work (JP) as well

doesnt outstay its welcome with the replay factor and wraps up quickly and nicely

i hope what im writing gets across how much i loved this game

vlr: march 12 - march 16, 2/5
i wanted to like this game much more than i did so so bad
i couldnt help comparing it to 999 bc vlr is its own game (although connected) but 999 just did everything vlr was going for so so so so much better

the need to replay to get information for other endings was one thing and i liked it at first, loved it in 999, but you have to do it so goddamn much in this game its ridiculous
i understand its essential to the story but fuck i dont even like the story!!!!!!!!! so many things and events repeat just for a few lines to be different and it gets tiring having to skip through so so much
999 does the same obviously but way less than vlr just bc it has less branches
not to mention
the fucking door/travel animations i was seriously so frustrated with being forced to watch these it had to have made up like half of my playtime
AND the shots of the room from different angles you had to watch almost every time you entered a room! sometimes even between dialogue!
sure theyre fast forwardable! but if i timed it incorrectly i was shit out of luck

it was still fun and i was deeply interested in what the truth was, what the actual story was, but as it went on, i really felt like i was pushing myself to get there. like i didnt want to keep going but i had to to find out what the fuck was going on
and it was not even a little satisfying and didnt feel at all as good as learning 999's true story

i have this problem with plots where it bothers me if things "get too big." if the scale of a problem gets too big and it advances rapidly from endangering a small set of people to endangering humanity, stuff like that
that was probably a big part of my issues with vlr's story and why i didnt enjoy it at all really
and just the sheer amount of things it takes for them to resolve it/try to resolve it
the amount of time travel in 999? perfect. loved that
the amount of time travel in vlr? too much man cmon

i liked the themes it was going for and the scientific elements it had and explained as much as its hard for me to wrap my head around quantum physics but i feel like nothing worked together at all
sure maybe the whole story objectively makes sense in conjunction with its themes but to me it felt like a pile of slop barely held together with glue. i just did not like it and the explanation in the true ending was kind of maddening with everything that kept getting tacked on

the whole "we had to recreate what we saw of the future to fulfill it" thing was crazy in 999 but really good
it is completely fucking ridiculous in vlr
radical-6 as a whole to me is so 30923ut4y93uwifjkwfn fucking stupid i dont wanna talk about it

i felt like 999 revealed its story much more steadily than vlr
while you hear the same set of information over and over throughout many of vlr's branches with maybe an added scientific/philosophical concept here and there
maybe objectively vlr did the same things as 999 and presented its plot and ideas in the exact same way but it really didnt feel like that to me, it felt like an utter mess that i was simply forced to understand in contrast to the seamless way that 999s story and scientific concepts weave together

i did like individual things! i really really love luna! she has to be my favorite part of this game by far, and her story is just really sweet. oh i just realized in her ending she basically died in the arms of her creator my life is ruined

occasional good writing and descriptions, i liked the voices of characters and how they interacted with sigma
i like sigmas personality a lot actually even with his pervertedness 🙄🙄 hes fun, not that different from junpei but you get to see him way way less for obvious reasons so hes not as compelling

the characters from the previous game it wraps into this one was. interesting but i think the best thing we got out of it was learning that snake plays the harp and has a weirdly devoted fan following
i do like clover n alice, tenmyouji to a lesser extent but whatever, i dont really like their presence in the game and what it does to both games plots

i think the characters as a whole are just weaker
i do like them! but theyre weaker than 999s cast
dio is just unlikable even before u find out anything about who he really is and i think he puts a damper on everything
the replay factor and the AB game as a whole weakened the bond i couldve had with these characters just because of the nature of betrayal and all
its purposeful of course but it only made me like most of them less overall even after being provided their backstory
zero jr. is also annoying !!!! i do not like these sorts of silly animal mascots for masterminds

puzzles were not as fun to me
more difficult and frustrating even with their specifications but whatever im probably just bad, 999 did spoon feed u most solutions
visuals are fine, obviously less likeable than 999s sprites but the 3d models dont look bad or anything
music was fine but im struggling to remember because of just how many times trepidation was played

despite this review just being almost all criticism i liked the game 70% of the time playing it i think
but just as 999s true story made me love it, vlr's true story almost ruins it for me
whatever man. onto zero time dilemma, maybe itll give me that satisfaction

interesting and fun for what it is, i really enjoyed watching wayne play this!! i like that it doesnt take itself too seriously either but the end credits definitely give u some whiplash even still LMAO

gameplay is easy, its all just the same thing but i like its format a lot
taking calls and having to figure things out from context clues......... like thats dope but i do wish there was a little more to it
it being short and the great ending trial segment makes it not be a slog, but its definitely not for everyone

and the slow reveal of a fantasy based world with little goblins and fairies being natural phenomena is so neat, i like the way it sets itself and its world apart from most other analog horror media. the way the dev injects this folklore with this creepy factor and puts his own spin on them (that i agree, has always been there) is really cool as well.

the part where he talks about struggling with making things that came from all over the world seem scary so he focused instead on things that could live inside your home was fascinating and resonated with me. there is nothing scarier to me than thinking youre safe in your home and youre just not for one reason or the other
left the wrong treat for my hobb now im doomed. LOL

i do feel it shows its hand a little early though with carol saying things like thee so quickly but thats negligible

its funny yet still creepy at the same time, i havent heard a lot of the failed calls yet but the ones wayne did get really put this sense of doom in u. definitely gets into the corny analog horror region a few times, especially with the videos, but thats ok. sincerely

music and aesthetic are nice, the voice acting work is great and outstanding at certain points, and obviously the art and writing add so much to the game, really impressive and immersive

i hope to see this sort of online horror concept a lot more in the future. my dream is something like hypnospace outlaw fully focused on horror

i really like this game, i think its genuinely great. easy, simple gameplay, lore that is interesting and pretty serviceable in terms of rebecca's, i like the way it contrasts with her job and adds to it

raymond's is especially interesting though, i reaaally liked the vhs tape in the new update. something about editing and just footage presented like that just creeps me out every time, and the images were damn good

this was made by one dev mostly so that is just so impressive to me. it can be a bit apparent sometimes, especially in terms of the animations, but its still good
the voice acting is especially phenomenal as well

and its scary! the gameplay and setting makes for something that easily crawls under your skin, and the random events mostly being not very in your face and slinking into the background is so excellent. good stuff

finished world tour with 28 hours
i think its a good and fun singleplayer mode! not incredible by any means but its enough, especially for people who havent played fighting games before (me) and dont really want to dip their toes into the actual online and competitive matches, and i think it does pretty good at teaching as well

being as obsessed with this game as i am, i knew most of the systems so i didnt really learn much personally but im sure it could really help others. the side missions with alice, tracy, and ryan are the biggest part of this help but many other little things like the part time job minigames and just the one minded ai enemies help kinda condition you as well

like if they jump a lot, spam projectiles, etc, and all of the moves are really telegraphed

although they get decently annoying at times, and if youre a few levels below them or havent been keeping up with stats, the damage can feel unbeatable, especially if theres a lot of them lol an example being that clip of that dude getting wrecked with the hundred hand slaps from like 3 masked sumos and calling luke in and him getting wrecked too

the way they allow you to use multiple specials from different masters is really fun but in a way i think its a little limiting in terms of learning

maybe it was just me but it led me to just spamming multiple of them, sumo headbutt was my spam of choice because it can break the ai sometimes into spd or manege dore

maybe it was even my perspective of world tour as just a little fun rpg so im ALLOWED to spam to beat the ais quickly, im not SUPPOSED to do combos

but i think thats overall okay because there are so so so many other legitimate ways to teach the player in the game with all the tutorials and character guides and combo trials

ive heard some people complain that so much of world tour is just going from point a to point b but as someone thats played a few yakuza games i really really enjoyed it i like running around places and talking to people who like hmmm anyways uh huh every time they say a line! its fun to me!

and i was perfectly okay with there being only two full "real" open worlds

i wouldve been okay if metro city was the only one too, legitimately but nayshall is fucking huge and winding and mount vashal is a whole fucking area too! and its fucking beautiful! the designs of the areas are very very pretty and i think they feel full of life
especially with the dialogue of the people you can talk to and each side mission you can take

its easy to look behind the curtain and see the samey npc generations and their placements in the areas but i really quite liked it

the merchants and store designs and the food of each area that you can get from them being rendered so fucking well add a lot to it too GOD that food looks so fucking good

it does get a little tiring
going to a big bad place and having to fight so many of the same enemy, especially in mount vashal up to the suval'hal arena

this is the majority of the encounters in this mode, but its over and done with pretty quickly so idrc

the tournaments are mildly annoying though, especially with the lowlands tournament and the suval'hal one back to back but again thats whatever

i will say. cardboard combatant was a pain in the ass but the only reason he was was because im BAD and after i just went on about not learning anything from this mode and not needing to learn anything, he was quite the rude awakening because i NEVER. ever ever ever NEVER block low, especially when i need it most because i thought his super was UNBLOCKABLE and STUPID and did SO MUCH DAMAGE for no reason no im just bad and cant block. it is a knowledge check. most fights are but i failed!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

good thing is that there isnt really much grind though, i didnt find it necessary unless you wanna max out masters' styles.

bonds are not that hard to max out, you just need a bit of money to buy their favorite gifts which is how i did luke's but all of them have special gifts you can get through master missions and some side missions that give +40 to their bond. it can be pretty easy

i played a lot and did all the side missions and never really grinded outside of one or two times when i was looking for black color dye but i was around level 50 at the end of the story

again, as long as you keep up on the skilltree and the stats on clothing, you should be good

i didnt find it necessary to enhance clothes either because it was so expensive but i might have to later lol

the feature is always there and itd probably help tons

now the story
i dont have a lot to complain about
its decent and sure, it doesnt really go anywhere, but aaaaall of it is just for the player and to ask the big fat question of "what is strength?"

i do wish it kind of actually concluded
this games whole story seems isolated, just kind of at a standstill, especially with the conflicts in nayshall

it asks so many big moral questions about the development of nayshall and whether its right or not but thats just kinda left in the air
and thats frustrating

but the games not about that and it doesnt really want to be, it is something that is off to the side which is a little strange but makes sense. i guess

it is more so about bosch and the player character, and their search for strength, along with their connections to others

it is something i see in luke's story too
he mentions someone told him "you gotta fight battles on your own terms"

bosch sought strength to enter the tournament and to kill jp for the revolution, while the player character, on their own little journey, kinda does it to save bosch

idk there is something in there about fighting for others, for greater causes, because you care, or because you feel theres a responsibility to, like in luke's case

i dont think im smart enough to articulate it well but hopefully i get what i mean across

the ending is. silly though
it kinda falls flat and makes you go IS THAT REALLY IT??
like jp directly asks the player. What does this mean to you? None of this means anything at all. Hahahaha!
but the post credits are reeeeeeally sincerely needed. still feels a little weird, luke telling us that there is no real ending, but thats better than the jp scene
the search and journey for strength is endless
and the whole adventure of world tour made it all worth that

bosch still being alive by the way!!! hes in that last scene running alongside the other buckler members!!

the highlight of it all is certainly the interactions with the masters

i think thats the smartest move capcom could have made, letting you get them gifts, having them praise you and talk to you so directly, its so so so so nice

so nice having characters you enjoy text you
the cutscenes of them interacting with the player
and all of their dialogue is so sweet and funny and every little thing they share with you is just

its just a really good feature. that i enjoyed a lot (maxed out luke immediately)

the cutscenes are all just really nice, along with the npcs in world tour, like li-fen, thrasher, rudra, bosch, kalima, etc
i wont lie! i cared a lot about bosch! the story worked in the way, at least for me

broke my heart seeing him twisted by the psycho power
i cared a lot about the characters and i was endeared to them

theres this one scene that stood out to me where rudra and thrasher are sitting next to each other at the suval'hal tournament and theyre just chatting around in the background while the announcer keeps talking and the only thing i could think was "thats so cute"

i think they did really really good on that part

as an aside, i had a lot of trouble trying to start world tour because of hardware stuff though
fighting ground and battle hub ran perfectly

i played on an hp omen gaming laptop with an amd ryzen 7 5800 processor but every time i opened world tour, it would give me a fatal d3d error and crash my entire laptop

i have directx 12 and all my graphics drivers were up to date so. idk

what fixed it for me was adding '-dx11' to the launch options on steam, but it still crashed when i opened the world map or moved from a large area to a different area, like metro city -> nayshall or mount vashal -> nayshall
but ONLY when my laptop was charging

otherwise, it ran perfectly fine and i could travel as i pleased

i dont pretend to know anything about how software or hardware or electronics or processors worked so i blame my laptop rather than the game but it wasnt that big of a deal, i just had to be cautious

i forgot more than a few times though LOL

thats all i have to say on world tour. i plan to keep playing and finish up side missions and master missions along with maxing out all of the masters styles and bonds but i am not looking forward to that grind

ill make it through and ill still probably have fun doing it

overall, id say world tour is a 4/5 but as a whole the game is still 5/5

cant wait for the dlc expansions and to meet rashid 🥺🥺🥺