wow... just wow, what can I say... this game is truly a masterpiece. when it comes to alan wake 2's predecessor, the narrative was really good and interesting, while it lacked in gameplay, it made up with the story, but this game? truly checks all the boxes.

the story may get a bit too meta, bordering on pretentious, but i think it's a part of aw2's charm! the presentation, the visuals, the whole atmosphere and soundtrack is nothing less than superb, you can see this is truly a product of love and hard work and i'm so glad sam lake accomplished this, i just remember how happy he looked at the game awards :')

i liked both protagonists, maybe liked saga a bit more than alan, her story was really interesting and i enjoyed playing her chapters more than alan's, maybe because i already am familiar with alan so saga came as a breath of fresh air. the whole cast around her is so good and i enjoyed exploring her chapters very much!
as for alan's part of the story, probably the most memorable thing is the musical part. i just couldn't help but grin the whole duration of it, it was wonderful. also the scary parts of the game were so well done, rarely i get spooked by fictional horror but this just hit the spot.
truly a game worthy of a goty contender. very glad my friend recommended me this game, it surely will have a place in my top 10 games!

I wanted to play this game for a long while because it checked all my boxes - plainly speaking, Yakuza meets Ace Attorney. I'm really happy the wait was worth everything because this just became my favourite game ever, which speaks volumes, not to mention that I was obsessively playing it day and night, it's that good.
While I was waiting for it to get ported to PC I heard many good things for this game, but I wanted to see it all for myself and dug in blind, without any big expectations because having played 6 Yakuza games I expected something of similar quality. Turns out, I was wrong.

I can say with confindence that this is in my opinion the best RGG game (tied with Yakuza 0 and Yakuza 7, which in my are peak gaming, in terms of story and combat). The plot was amazingly done, it felt so fluid and smooth and everything fell together nicely when we consider the full picture of everything happening in seemingly ordinary ''yakuza serial killings''. Usually, even in a good chunk of Yakuza games the plot gets a bit too much and flies over your head or the protagonists cough Kiryu cough are above everyone and pull some asspulls to get their point across.
It was very refreshing to see a bit of a slower setting, with a more realistic protagonist. I like how Yagami has throughout his journey a lot of rising and falling and bumps along the road which remind us how he's just a normal person who can get in danger when he digs deeper than he should. Also I love how most of stuff that Yagami needed to finally get to the truth was because of his various bonds; Kaito, Higashi and the Matsugane gang, Sugiura, Hoshino, Saori and Mafuyu too. Everyone got their time to shine and I like that very much, their bonds really felt genuine, not to mention how every of the characters I mentioned are amazing, the writing in this game is excellent imo.
Now for the antagonists, Mole was soooo interesting and the whole web around them, got me thinking a lot about the plot and their identity which kept me entertained the whole duration of the game, I actually felt like a part of it. I wish I could write a bit more about it all but it's spoiler teritory so that's that.
The ost is brilliant and the atmosphere is top notch. Kamurocho is so bright and walking around making friends along the way was amazing, even though some of the friends weren't that good. The things that made such a great impression on me were, of course, the classic cozy Yagami Detective Office, but more importantly, the last segment of chapter 12 which gave me chills and the last segment of the final chapter, I unironically felt creeped out and it was so well done I was at the edge of my seat all the time.

To sum it up: Yagami as the protag is a breath of fresh air, he's charming (KimuTaku wink wink), witty, interesting and not afraid to fight for what is right, the other main characters are stunning and brimming with personality, the plot is superb - this is imo the best written rgg game, ost and setting - brilliant. Can't wait to play the sequel and see more of the story.