Man this game is something special

I knew about Yakuza franchise only two things: it's silly and you punch people. That was correct

But this game..... God damn this game is something really amazing.

At first I didn't like it that much. Some cutscenes that I didn't really care about, fighting seemed pretty brain-dead, open-world gameplay seemed kinda pointless, and just "gags forte the sake of gags". But after a couple of hours.... Oh shit, the last time I was that invested in a game was probably dark souls

Characters:

The thing that hooked me the most was the characters. Oh lord, they are just so simple, so likable, and so easy to understand. It never feels like they do or say something that is out of character. The voice acting, the writing, the dialogues, even in gameplay... Everything just glues together and works, and it makes them one of the best characters I've ever seen. Kiryu is basically my new personality, and Majima is one of the best badasses I've ever seen. Badass with some soft spots, and fucking handsome as fuck holy shit.........

Setting:
Holy shit this game is Beautifull. It's not the most advance in terms of pure graphics, and it's the prettiest with a unique style. But the world HOLY SHIT so pretty and memorable. Japan of 80 OH SHIT, I didn't know I needed this but I do now. Because the world is so small, you just learn in in hours and it's so compact and hand-crafted... Man, it's one of these games where it feels like home.

Fighting:

At first, I thought it was pretty simple and dumb. And it is, I played it or normal or hard, but it still wasn't that difficult due to the enormous amount of health drinks you can carry. Anyway, what really makes the fighting feel good and non-tiring are: personalities, style, and sound. Man, the sound of enemies dropping money when they are hit.... One of the best sounds in video games... And there are hundreds of unique final blows and animations for different ways of punching ppl. And then personalities.... Kiryu be a hardcore cheeky bastard and punch hard, and Majima is being fucking crazy having the best fighting style I've ever seen- fucking breakdance. Not only it's the most badass and fun style, but for me, it was also the deadliest one. I enjoyed every fight when I was using this style.

Story:

Oh my god. Characters being that great help to make the story that good. It's a crime story about fighting for power between the yakuzas and others. But while it's a big epic story, it's actually much more character-driven. It was such a great decision to add Majima... He is such a great character and his story arch is interesting af

Minimages & substories:

A lot of ppl say that yakuza are about mini-games ... And tbh I don't agree. For me, it was more about the main story and the characters + settings, and mini-games and substories were good, maybe even necessary, additions to the game. It makes the characters more alive, and while being silly and unrealistic, the characters are still themselves. IDK, there is a lot of substories, and while they are interesting,I didn't finish them all, cuz also, let's be honest, some of them are pretty lazy and boring

Music & karaoke:
the best

Summary:

This game is silly, interesting, alive, and just a fucking videogame. The plot, if you describe it might sound like any other story, but god damn.... Everything that this game offers makes the whole picture. It just works. Everything in this game feels like it's in the right place. Even with all this crazy Japanese shit. You never question ludonarrative dissonance cuz it's a game, and it knows it's a game. Fun is in the first place, while realism and making sense are not that important. I love shit like this

Yakuza 0 somehow hit me really well. It's super close to my heart now, and I finished the game with this "empty feeling", which hasn't happened in a fat while. Thankfully there are like a bazillion more yakuza games. Thank you Yakuza 0

Okay this game slaps

It def feels like an old game in both, a good way and a bad way. Let's start with the bad:
1) The hitboxes are sometimes bullshit. It's hard to measure the distance to the enemy and with the lack of a directional target(like in any flying game, to shoot ahead of the enemy's movement) it's hard to aim sometimes.
2) The story is meh.............. Characters and motivations are..... there
3) Lack of some UI elements for the flying game: directional-target crosshair, distance meter... That's mostly it.
4) There are different types of planes and that's good, but the variety mostly comes from the special weapons, but the stats or normal weapons don't change that much.
5) Upgrades are kinda wack because for the same reasons

The goods:
1) you fight big fucking nazi war machines: spiders, big ass flying zeppelins, big ass flying castles, big ass snakes, and others. holy shit! And you actually fight them, and not just its minions. amazing shit
2) the world. That's one of the most unique worlds I've ever seen in a video game. It's simple, but yet so believable. It's easy to understand the rules of this world, and it doesn't require you to watch 1000 cutscenes or have a degree in something, plane simple, super effective
3) Diesieslpunk. Diesieslpunk slaps
4) Chicago fucking slapssssss


The goods easily overweight the bads. Amazing and very unique games, I miss games from ps2/xbox era.....

Daaaamn, what a game.
As per usual, my background:
1. Liked the first game a lot, replayed it around 5 times when was a kid
2. Didn't like Arkham City, had to endure it
3. Never played other games

So, I remember trying this game a couple of years ago, but I got so tired of the batmobile that I dropped it. Decided to give it another try. Damn.

First of all, this game is fucking gorgeous. One of the most technically stunning game that I played in recent years. From the artstyle to the shaders, everything looks as amazing and god damn, this shit is optimized.

Now, the gameplay was somewhat a hit or miss for me. While it is the most developed out of the three-logy, I was struggling with the controls until the last mission. I don't know, there are just so many stuff and the placement just didn't click with me at all. I dunno how many times I missed the gadget wheel option...
The combat is even difficult, again, kinda related for me not being able to fully control Batman as much as I want to. The batmobile is suprsingly fun! I was enjoying it. Yeah, the combat in batmobile gets old by the end-game but the racing is fun.
Stealth is probably the best part of the gameplay. Fun and unique.


And what surprised me the most was the story. DAMN. What a work of art. The joker integration is so cool. I've seen people be saying that it is a cliche, but I deadass can count just a couple games that executed this type of integration, and this one has done the best way. And even beyond that, the story by itself is pretty cool. But the joker part, man, I applause

Great game, one of the best superhero games and def the best batman game. Sad that it got bad reputation due to technical problems at launch.

As always, my background:
1) Played this game when I was a kid
2) Loved it a lot
3) Loved the graffiti culture back in the day
4) Indifferent about it now

Now.... This game is an absolutely work of art. For me, this is the definition of a video game for ps2. It looks and sounds incredible, has a very unique theme, every aspect of it was made with love, ball brave game design and overall ideas.

So let's digest it a little:
1) Gameplay - It's a 3rd person action-adventure with graffiti elements. It mainly has 4 aspects: fights, exploration and graffiti

Fight system is somewhat hit or miss. It works well, the animation are great, the overall system is good, but the "bullet sponge" enemies are the problem. God damn, some regular enemis are just too fucking fat. That makes you wanna use stealth, and yes, this game has stealth. But it is kinda wonky. The only proper way to deal with them, imo, is to avoid them and run away. And honestly I think that what the intended way to deal with them. Kinda like OG mirror's edge.

Exploration is one of the best aspects. 3rd platforming kinda sux, but at least there is not a lot of it and it's not that important. But exploring the world, oh my. I will speak about the world-building later, but holy shit just being in this world is amazing. And no, I wouldn't like an open world probably. Every level is so unique and give you the different and complete view of one of the districts of the town: big ass bridges, HQ of the special police, zeppelins, metro stations, etc... Man, I miss these games where the levels were just unique. Also by exploring the level you can find: upgrades, ipod songs, normal secrets and additional graffiti spots.

Now, the biggest thing - Graffiti. Man oh man. Basically on every level there are marked spots where you can tag your graffiti. Once you get close to it, you can choose the graffiti that ya wanna paint, the size and start painting. It's pretty much just a mini-game, where you control your hand with a can and try to fill in the image. But you gotta do it fast, without drips(keeping the can on the same place for too long), and also shake the can once in a while. Also enemies can interrupt you, so you gotta deal with them first or be extra strategic. And that's pretty much it. Sounds kinda repetitive, and it is. But I never got tired of doing them. I did all the extra once as well, cuz man, it's just cool to do them. You pick your graffiti, and then all the sounds of releasing the paint, shaking the can, and just overall vibe, DAMN. Also, after some levels you unlock new graffities and even new styles, so it never gets old for me. There is also additional small tags that you can place anywhere, but they are not that fun.

Sooo, the gameplay is an okay action-adventure with a unique element of graffiti, what about the rest of the game?

2) OST & sound design - OST, and included songs are hip-hop from the early 2000 and damn it fits this game perfectly. The sound design is also top, especially all the painting related things

3) Graphics - DAMN. Definition of ps2 graphics. Peak. So much love here, every tag, every texture, every graffiti. I absolutely adore this game. You look at any screenshot and you feel "yup, that's ps2"

4) Story and world-building - again, DAMN. It takes place in a authoritarian city, where people are being oppressed. And graffiti is one of the way to "fight the system". But what first starts as a gang battling for respect, grows into a much larger story about conspiracy, mayor, elections, freedom of speech and so on. It's not super deep, but I love how they decided to use graffiti sub culture to tell this story.

The game is not perfect, it's pretty junky in a lot of aspects. But this game is coming from love, and I can't get anything except love to this game. One of my favorite games of all time.

okay so my background:

1) didn't care about souls game when there were coming out
2) last year played Dark Souls 1 and enjoyed it
3) went pretty blind with this one
4) but knew that it was considered "shitty" and a lot of players has skipped it

So how's the game? Pretty fucking good. I understand some of the frustrations that people are experiencing but honestly, it wasn't that crucial for me.
So I will be discussing this game by also comparing it to the first one cuz I think they are quite similar.

What I liked:
1) Armour, weapons, and builds - what I really love about Dark Souls is how you build your character based on the weapon you choose, cuz every weapon gives you a different move set. It's not a big one(just like 5 different moves) but god damn, spears feel insanely different from big axes. I love this shit, and in dark souls 2 there is even more variety in this regard. More weapons, more weapons types and you can choose any weapon and finish the game. Also you probably be experimenting throughout the game and switching weapons cuz THEY FEEL COOL, not necessarily cuz this sword gives you +45 crit chance, or cuz it's just PURPLE RARITY. Always feels so fresh with these movements.
2) Twinblades - they kinda suck but god damn they look cool
3) Powerstance - Kinda useless but god damn looks cool
4) You can wear heavier armor and still fast roll. I was surprised that you can fast roll even at 50% of weight. Yeah, the roll is not as far as the 30% but at least it's fast. Gives me more room to play with different armor.
5) Amount of bosses and locations is insane. Yeah some of them are pretty meh, but damn, some of the locations are so cool looking
6) Power fantasy- I love power fantasy games, and dark souls are pretty good at this, but this one god damn. It gives you so many levels and badass weapons that by the end of the game you feel like a powerful powerfuck.
7) 4 rings. 4 Rings are cool af.
8) Exploration is still rewarding af. I love souls game for that. If you see a waterfall, there will be a cool as weapon behind it. And cuz in dark souls the weapons and armour is so much more important and fun, it's just like good ol times, and not just changing the "rarity" of your weapon.
9) Despawning enemies. Honestly, I think that is a pretty good mechanic. If you are stuck with a boss run you can clear the run and also level up at the same time. But if you wanna grind them, you also have options to spawn them again. On some of the bosses, this saved my mind(especially in the begging)

Okay, now what I didn't like:
1) Aimlock is fucked up. That's the only technical issue I have with the game. Cuz I was playing a strength build this shit pissed me off quite a lot. I got used to that and played it safer with the attacks, but god damn this is bs.
2) Yeap, some of the boss runs are pretty shitty
3) Too many fucking invaders. It's okay to fight them and whatnot, but they are mostly just annoying obsticales. They are pretty easy to fight against, but holy shit there are lots of them and they don't give you a lot of reward for killing them.
4) Majula. Yeah Ik, a lot of ppl liked it and i see why. The location is peaceful, the NPCs are quite interesting, the music is nice, and overall I love hub locations like this one. But it just felt so out of this world. Like the connections to different locations felt too far away.
5) Didn't like some of the locations
6) Zwei got nerfed :(
7) Healing with stones. I dunno, not a fan
8) ADP

And that's pretty much it. For me, it feels like an upgraded version of Dark Souls 1. Just more of dark souls, with some different directions here and there but overall I feel like it's the same game. It's true that it didn't make me feel so in love as the first game, but still a great game.

Now quickly about other criticism that I heard about it:
1) Hitboxes/hurtboxes - yeah, on some of the enemies they are pretty junky, but honestly, I don't think it's a big deal
2) Deathzone movement - also not a big deal tbh. I didn't even notice that
3) Aimlock - yeah, this one is fucked up
4) Enemy placement - also I didn't feel too much of a difference with dark souls 1.
5) Boss runs - yeah, some of the are fucked, but with the help of despawning it's not that big(without it yeah some of them are fucked up)
6) ADP and iframes - yeah it sucked
7) Bad bosses - nah I don't think so. I liked pretty much the majority of them.


And I think there are all major criticisms. I think all of them are fair, but also I think it's not a big deal.
Great game, great dark souls game, I liked it.

Man, this game is really something

TBH, I like ubisoft game. They are incredibly immersive for me. And the division is no exception.
I think the strongest Ubisoft trait is the world building. And damn, they hit the mark here. The lore of what happened is quite amazing and unique, and the snowy NY is stunning. So many details and so much environment storytelling, cheesus.

And not only the world building, but also the coherence of the game. From the ui, skills, echoes, everything just makes the world and setting whole.

And the gameplay is pretty fun as well. You just go from mission to mission, shoot bad guys and that's about it. You get new loot, upgrades and upgrade your base(which I love in videogames)

The story is okay, even though, I didn't finish it, so I can't say anything about the ending. The missions are fun, especially if you have a podcast or something in the background.

All the missions are more or less the same, but that's okay. That was actually the first game in years where I was clearing the map like crazy. I dunno, just mindless shooting works perfectly with this game.

However, game can be kinda challenging due to numbers. If you have lower gear, you will suffer in some of the missions(at least playing solo)

So, why am i abandoning this game? I think it just kinda started to feel boring for me(especially when I started to need to grind for the newer loot and craft new shit). The game is still amazing IMO, and I can see why a lot of people liked it a lot. Definitely doesn't deserve the hate that it's getting.

I'm still mad about everything related to this game

It killed the original battlerite which was on its pick

The game by itself is fine, but the history doesn't forget, and neither do i

Persona, persona, persona, what a difficult relationship I have with this series

I played P3P on my psp a couple of years back and had more or less the exact feeling to that game as well.

So let's make a list of bulletpoints

Hates:
1. Anime shenanigan - I still don't like all this typical anime shit: sexualizing under aged girls, always talking about having a girflriend/boyfriend like your life depends on it, some of the half-baked dialogues, characters and stories
2. Dungeons - Still not a fan of these dungeons. Ngl, the combat felt better in this game, but it's still super grindy and not my fav part of the game
3. Teddie - pervert jokes as the main character trait.
4. Empty days - there is a lot of days that are just empty. I understand that it's supposed to be like that, cuz irl you also have them. But the problem is that there are like a couple of month in the middle in the game where nothing really happens and you can't do much fun actives.
4. Getting clues about somebody - holy shit this is annoying. Absolutely not worth it doing it on your own, just google how to do it. In the end, it's just running around and talk to every NPCs every day, hoping that you somehow find the right one.
5. Social links - I'm not a fan of this system. Mainly because the main protagonist is a silent one, but even then, you can't choose a lot of dialogues options. It's mostly you listening to the monolugues of another character. And they gonna talk to you in a certain way, and you can't change it. So it's like you get the worst from the pre-made protagonist and the silent one.

The loves:
1. Music - shit slaps hard. Not as much as p3 tho, but still amazing
2. Vibes and settings - just looking at this game makes you feel comfy and somewhat nostalgic. And with the music is just 10/10. Also the old mobile phones, tvs, and so on. Nostalgia and cozy
2. Social links are more engaging - even tho I'm not a fan of this system, I like way more than p3 cuz now on some of the social links you will interact with other characters and also increase their social link. Cool addition and feels much more that they are a group of friends, and not just individual friends to the main character
3. Characters - characters are way more likeable, and they each of them has a somewhat unquie social problem that is pretty easy to relate tho. Great progression from P3. Kanji is the best girl
4. Story - I like it way more than p3. Much more down-to-earth story and also I like detective shit
5. Endings - I got the bad ending and for me, that's the best ending. It's much more tragic, yet it gives you consequences. While the other endings feel like "too good" for me. Also the final dialogue with Doijma in the bad ending is cool af

Overall, as P3, it's a love-hate game. I'm glad that I played it cuz it will bring me a lot of good memories of it, like it's right now with persona 3. Music will always stay on my playlist

Persona is a series that you enjoy feeling nostalgic over it more, than actually playing it

I remember I was kinda hyped for this game when it was announced cuz of the story mode, but then forgot about it

Then, after some time I saw a post in acecombat subreddit saying that it was like "ace combat" but racing. Say less my guy, that's my horny dream. I love ace combat and i love racing

So I usually play "arcade sim", like f1, forza motosport and so on. I play it with the wheel and in first-person mode, so just to establish my preferred way of playing racing games.

So, the main thing that I was interested in is the main story. It's structured in a similar way to "Drive to survive", a documentary about F1. Pretty much it's real ppl on cameras, taking place in a singular season of some moto racing championship. I'M DOWN.

The characters are pretty cliche but that is what it makes it good. Bad guys are so bad, they just show with every second they are in. Good guys are underdogs who always are in the fucked situation. That's the part that I adore: simple cliche characters, good over-the-top drama, simple and effective.
This story also makes some races more impactful, sometimes you actually feel that "oh this son of the bitch said that and this about me, I'm gonna race him rly hard this race" and so on, there is even one somewhat emotional moment near the end. Also during the races, they add some cool music depending on the mood of the story. That's the best thing that the game can offer.

Sadly, that's about that. That's the only feature of this game that makes it stand out. But the worst part is that it's just not enough. There are 36 or 31 races in total, and about 10 of them have cutscenes. And like only 2 move the story forward, the rest of them is just establishing the characters and showing how bad the main guys are. I'M fine with it, but there is just no story development. Deadass the story progresses only in the last 3-4 missions. There is a beginning where you only get introduced into stuff, the middle part has no story, and then the end.

It just feels like there is no story whatsoever. Such a letdown, I was expecting all kinds of drama, sports drama, character drama, and business/politics drama... but I kinda got nothing... The actors and acting are good, I really liked all of them, but there are just not enough interactions. I wish every race was treated as the last one. And cuz of how little we gotta see them, you can't connect with them and they just gonna be forgotten :(

So, the story, while I was super hyped for it and super excited, was a let down cuz it was wayyy to little of it.

Now gameplay
It's fine, but it just doesn't feel as good as other games. I dunno how to describe it. It's an arcade, but if you disable every assist setting and crank up the difficulty, you will get more enjoyable racing, but it still feels kinda clumsy. Especially fucking pick-ups or wherever these cars were. I dunno, at the end, I really wished that I was playing forza motorsport tho


Anyway, I was super hyped for it. It was kinda my dream racing game in my mind. Dramatic sports story with good gameplay... But it has such a small "story" and the gameplay is alright... Also the performance wasn't that good on xbox one s

Anyway, I know that dlcs enhance the story. I might check them out later, but for now, this game is a disappointment for me

My background:
1. Not a big shooter guy
2. Not a boomer shooter guy
3. Haven't played modern boomer shooter games

Soooo it's good. As you could tell I'm not a shooter guy, especially boomer shooter. While the gameplay sound perfect to me: bunch of crazy guns, super high-speed movement, versatility and so on, it kinda does not click to me. Like I sometime get in the flow and everything, but just deep inside, it doesn't click

What I usually don't like about these games is the world building and the setting. And that's why I got to play this game over others, cuz this one has a really nice world. The art in this game is my favorite part, especially with the retro settings. The art direction is just amazing, and the execution! Oh my, these levels are badass. But.... Only like the 1 chapter. The second chapter is just grey corridors and the last one is better, but still not as great as the first one.

The music is also great, fits the game perfectly.

The gameplay is fun, movement is crunchy and the bosses are fun. Some of the enemies be killing me fast tho, but the adrenaline mechanic is neat

If you are not a boomer shooter guy or just wondering about this game, try it, it's fun and beautiful

it's like Og KR but on drugs:
1) some towers are insane
Building 3-4 necrs and you deadass have got an army.
Archers just melting enemies
Assassins could insta kill crabs
2) heroes now are more interesting. Instead of leveling them up in every level, they now have a global lvl and more abilities.
3) More interesting and fucking annoying enemies. fuck you crabs and nagas

Overall great game, a great successor of KR. now it's time for origins

Wanna love this game but god I don't like this genre

The game looks gorgeous: the art design, the backgrounds, the portraits, the animation, the enemies, and the weapons. It's not only unique but it's so bound to the gameplay that it feels amazing. You expect action to be done, it's done, you see the enemy doing an animation, and you know exactly what's gonna happen. The game deadass should be an example of readability and a good-looking, well-playing game altogether.

It also sounds good, the sound design adds, even more, feel to gameplay and the sounds are unique and easily digestible. The music tho... I know a lot of people liked it, and for me, it's aight, I added some of the songs to my playlist, but honestly, it's not my jazz

I heard there is like 2 equal camps: 1 that enjoys the voice acting and the second one that thinks it's shit. It's awesome, i love it.


Okay so now about the bads:
1) I don't like roguelike, roguelites, or whatever the hell that is. Yeah, I understand the point, but god damn it's repetitive as hell. You kinda just play the same level over and over again, making the same build whenever you can, and if you cannot, you suffer. It's kinda like gambling, yeah you can make an overpowered build but it's just random. Yeah, technically you can beat the game with any build, but cheesus, I suffered for quite a lot of builds. So it kinda becomes a game, where you just hope that this run you will get something good, or you start the run and know that this one will be for the grind.
In the end, it feels like:
I get a good build -> it's a fun game
I don't get a good build -> it's a fucking enemy bullet-sponge fest

2) Story - it's a very interesting good way to tell the story when your death progresses the story further, but my god, I didn't care about any of that. And even with such good voice acting damn. I can't even find a reason, the dialogues are pretty good, the characters are also good, the voice acting is good, idk why i didn't like it

Overall if you like this genre you have probably already played it and loved it. If you want and wanna experiment, go for it, it's probably the best one. If you don't want to experiment, you can skip it

great power-fantasy game

A lot of people describe this game as "Ace combat but with boats" and it's pretty accurate:
1) You play as a powerhouse of a vehicle
2) You fight dozens of cool enemies
3) The wow/cool factor is much more important than realism
4) Anime-ish story

But there are two main additions:
1) Customizing your ship
2) More options for controlling your ship

So, the customization is one of the core mechanics of this game. You can gain new technologies by beating the missions and killing enemies(they drop the loot). At first, I didn't bother to customize my boat, cuz I thought that it would be useless and it was kinda clunky at first. But my goad, by the end of the game my boat was annihilating everything and kick flipping every 2 seconds holy shit.

And from the customization you have more options to control your ship, from fast acceleration, raming your enemies, drifting, and of course, kick flipping. The controls are so nice here and it's so fun to drift around, flipping, and raming enemies while your missiles are shooting down everything else. my god

The story is also kinda of insane, even tho, I don't like the format of static portrait dialogues, but I understand that it's for the budget.
The music is also quite nice

The game is also surprisingly long with a lot of replayability, the main story will take you around 6-7 hours, and then you can do bonus missions or replay old missions with your new ship

Anyway, insane game, great power fantasy, strongly recommended