sayton
2023
the only thing i think i like that most people dont is the music. people really hate the Zangief theme that much?? its my favorite track in the game. Chun Li's is a close second.
the newcomers are all super good, easily the best bunch since SF3. not especially hard to go up after SF5's mostly pitiful newcomers. they all have excellent designs and fun fighting styles. my personal favorite is JP. Manon and Marisa are also big likes.
fuck the drive system, it makes zero sense to me why you get punished to the point of losing the ability to block when you get pushed into a wall and cant do anything about it. puts me off of playing the game online.
ive been a bit tired of the RE engine for a bit, but it really started to get on my nerves with this game for some reason. all RE engine games look technically incredible of course, but i wish almost every major capcom release in the past almost 7 years (holy fuck) didnt look like they all take place in the same universe. im still mourning MT Framework.
the story mode is some poop. its just some do this do that shit, really mind numbing. pretty much nothing interesting happens. the mini open world is a neat idea. there are many points where you have to grind for money and its a giant slog because theres not many great ways to earn money, mostly just through some minigames that have the feel of a mario party knockoff during the 6th gen of games. hardly any of the playable characters do anything, and if you want anything to do with them, you gotta grind presents to give them which earns you some drawings. its really just Luke and JP doing anything, and theyre just bookends in this. pretty lame.
at least i can make my guy look like Anton Chigurh.
the newcomers are all super good, easily the best bunch since SF3. not especially hard to go up after SF5's mostly pitiful newcomers. they all have excellent designs and fun fighting styles. my personal favorite is JP. Manon and Marisa are also big likes.
fuck the drive system, it makes zero sense to me why you get punished to the point of losing the ability to block when you get pushed into a wall and cant do anything about it. puts me off of playing the game online.
ive been a bit tired of the RE engine for a bit, but it really started to get on my nerves with this game for some reason. all RE engine games look technically incredible of course, but i wish almost every major capcom release in the past almost 7 years (holy fuck) didnt look like they all take place in the same universe. im still mourning MT Framework.
the story mode is some poop. its just some do this do that shit, really mind numbing. pretty much nothing interesting happens. the mini open world is a neat idea. there are many points where you have to grind for money and its a giant slog because theres not many great ways to earn money, mostly just through some minigames that have the feel of a mario party knockoff during the 6th gen of games. hardly any of the playable characters do anything, and if you want anything to do with them, you gotta grind presents to give them which earns you some drawings. its really just Luke and JP doing anything, and theyre just bookends in this. pretty lame.
at least i can make my guy look like Anton Chigurh.
This review contains spoilers
disappointing in a lot of areas, but i was prepared for that. when they were hyping up that the story itself is around 50-70 hours, alongside being the 3rd release for the series in under 12 months, i knew it was gonna be bloated as shit. probably the longest stretch of dull moments in a yakuza game's story. there are entertaining little bits peppered throughout the nothing, but its a lot of buildup for a very predictable final act.
there is a bit too much said rather than seen, and not enough elaborated on, especially in regards to the mediocre rogues gallery. this is really a problem with eiji in particular. hes one of many yakuza characters where the writers expect the player to think the way ichiban does a bit too much. i couldnt believe that the child soldiers never came up once in the finale for ichiban. it seemed like that was going to become a huge moral dilemma at some point, but i guess all it was for was to show us how fucked up bryce truly is. wong tou amounted to nothing, he feels like he shouldve been a party member. dwights death was stupid in a great way. ebina is a very watered down masato, its kind of crazy that they just did the same thing twice in a row. ebina just has nowhere near the amount of character that masato had, so it was just really eye-rolley seeing his past and intentions become revealed. the only villain i enjoyed was yamai, who becomes an ally and majima-equivalent to ichiban. im not sure how hes going to stick around given where we leave off with him in this game, but i thought he was a great addition, and had a nice story. yamai also easily had the best fights in this one.
akane and lani are whatever, they really do not do much other than be on the run and then in japan with seemingly no danger past that point, and then everything is completely fine after bryce is defeated. im not saying i need a complete breakdown of how things unfolded post-boss fight, but there was simply no reason for me to care about these characters when they werent anything more than goals for our protagonists. the most we get out of akane is the scene on the beach with ichiban and her, and it plays out exactly how you would imagine. i feel like seeing these 2 interact with bryce would've been the most interesting scenario for them, but it never happens. the end felt really rushed too, feels like we got half of an ending after the credits rolled.
something yakuza now shares in common with ace attorney is that our new red clad protagonist has to share the spotlight with his predecessor. funny that both ichiban and apollo have had stories centered around their mothers and half-siblings. anyway, ichiban is like a stereotype of himself now. the way kiryu gets cancer is so out of left field and stupid, just what the fuck ever man.
what was the point of the daidoji????? all gaiden boils down to at this point is showing us how watase was driven to the great dissolution
you can really tell some characters werent supposed to be here, like joongi and zhao. i am fine with ichiban having a group of friends that will stick around for forever, i just hope they all get some real time in the spotlight throughout this saga at some point. the drink links this time around were also pretty whatever. joongis and seonhees are the ones that i enjoyed. tomizawa is great, chitose is alright. she is definitely one of the better women in yakuza, her twist is really obvious though.
side note: am i crazy or does it feel like theres too much fluff in the dialogue with this one? i was pretty bored out of my mind listening to conversations that couldve been trimmed down, ive never felt this way with past yakuza games.
the memoires of a dragon were cool, but i really wish the life links had those sleek ultra hd animated cutscenes. it feels very unceremonious for these to be animated in the stock sub-story style. especially with all the returning characters. matsunaga was my favorite character in 6, so i was shocked and happy as hell to see him and naoto. we get to see akiyama again after all this time and i cant see every pore on his face?? fuck you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
the life links were sweet regardless.
the minigames are neat this time around. dondoko island is already an all time best for yakuza minigames, sujimon league is something i look foward to being expanded on in future entrees, and the little stuff is fun for an hour each. i was hoping crazy eats would be a bit bigger, but thank god i didnt need to play it as much i had to play can collector in 7. ptsd
the combat is much better than 7's, which was already great. i appreciate all the enhancements to ichiban and co's behavior that make fights much snappier and less bullshit. didnt care for many of the jobs this time around though. in 7, it felt like you absolutely needed to try out other jobs to have a chance at the true millenium tower. in this, i seriously only changed joongi to desperado, and tried sujimancer on ichiban for a bit before realizing it wasnt worth the time to max it out. the base jobs, and weapon upgrades, just give you enough to work with. its really disappointing that the true millenium tower equivalent is also locked behind dlc. getting to level 70 for the platinum felt like a chore due to how the base game doesnt offer any fun way to actually get there. the hardest dungeon only needs you to be at about level 52, so you hardly get anything once youre past that. theres not any incentive to max anything out because theres nothing to use your maxed out characters on...
...unless you buy the dlc of course!! the dlc/microtransactions are pretty scummy as well. the big swell looks like it has the best and funniest stuff in the game but im not willing to spend $20 on it right now, maybe when it starts to get discounted ill get around to it. it was very odd beating the game, realizing 3 characters never even came to hawaii when i know i saw screenshots of them all together in hawaii before the games release, and then discovering that in order to see that, i have to spend more than the initlal $70. and new game plus also being locked behind this dlc is stupid too. fuck that
i hope they can rekindle the same energy they had for 7 in the next entry, and that its not being developed alongside 3 other games again. i would much rather have a smaller scale game with a tighter focus on story. i guess thats hard to do with an rpg so its pretty pointless to even suggest, but with gaiden coming out right before this one, i kinda hope for something like that with ichiban and friends could be a possibility. or an akiyama game. wishful thinking.
anyway i cant wait to see why yagami goes to hawaii in judgment 3 where there will be a segway racing minigame
there is a bit too much said rather than seen, and not enough elaborated on, especially in regards to the mediocre rogues gallery. this is really a problem with eiji in particular. hes one of many yakuza characters where the writers expect the player to think the way ichiban does a bit too much. i couldnt believe that the child soldiers never came up once in the finale for ichiban. it seemed like that was going to become a huge moral dilemma at some point, but i guess all it was for was to show us how fucked up bryce truly is. wong tou amounted to nothing, he feels like he shouldve been a party member. dwights death was stupid in a great way. ebina is a very watered down masato, its kind of crazy that they just did the same thing twice in a row. ebina just has nowhere near the amount of character that masato had, so it was just really eye-rolley seeing his past and intentions become revealed. the only villain i enjoyed was yamai, who becomes an ally and majima-equivalent to ichiban. im not sure how hes going to stick around given where we leave off with him in this game, but i thought he was a great addition, and had a nice story. yamai also easily had the best fights in this one.
akane and lani are whatever, they really do not do much other than be on the run and then in japan with seemingly no danger past that point, and then everything is completely fine after bryce is defeated. im not saying i need a complete breakdown of how things unfolded post-boss fight, but there was simply no reason for me to care about these characters when they werent anything more than goals for our protagonists. the most we get out of akane is the scene on the beach with ichiban and her, and it plays out exactly how you would imagine. i feel like seeing these 2 interact with bryce would've been the most interesting scenario for them, but it never happens. the end felt really rushed too, feels like we got half of an ending after the credits rolled.
something yakuza now shares in common with ace attorney is that our new red clad protagonist has to share the spotlight with his predecessor. funny that both ichiban and apollo have had stories centered around their mothers and half-siblings. anyway, ichiban is like a stereotype of himself now. the way kiryu gets cancer is so out of left field and stupid, just what the fuck ever man.
what was the point of the daidoji????? all gaiden boils down to at this point is showing us how watase was driven to the great dissolution
you can really tell some characters werent supposed to be here, like joongi and zhao. i am fine with ichiban having a group of friends that will stick around for forever, i just hope they all get some real time in the spotlight throughout this saga at some point. the drink links this time around were also pretty whatever. joongis and seonhees are the ones that i enjoyed. tomizawa is great, chitose is alright. she is definitely one of the better women in yakuza, her twist is really obvious though.
side note: am i crazy or does it feel like theres too much fluff in the dialogue with this one? i was pretty bored out of my mind listening to conversations that couldve been trimmed down, ive never felt this way with past yakuza games.
the memoires of a dragon were cool, but i really wish the life links had those sleek ultra hd animated cutscenes. it feels very unceremonious for these to be animated in the stock sub-story style. especially with all the returning characters. matsunaga was my favorite character in 6, so i was shocked and happy as hell to see him and naoto. we get to see akiyama again after all this time and i cant see every pore on his face?? fuck you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
the life links were sweet regardless.
the minigames are neat this time around. dondoko island is already an all time best for yakuza minigames, sujimon league is something i look foward to being expanded on in future entrees, and the little stuff is fun for an hour each. i was hoping crazy eats would be a bit bigger, but thank god i didnt need to play it as much i had to play can collector in 7. ptsd
the combat is much better than 7's, which was already great. i appreciate all the enhancements to ichiban and co's behavior that make fights much snappier and less bullshit. didnt care for many of the jobs this time around though. in 7, it felt like you absolutely needed to try out other jobs to have a chance at the true millenium tower. in this, i seriously only changed joongi to desperado, and tried sujimancer on ichiban for a bit before realizing it wasnt worth the time to max it out. the base jobs, and weapon upgrades, just give you enough to work with. its really disappointing that the true millenium tower equivalent is also locked behind dlc. getting to level 70 for the platinum felt like a chore due to how the base game doesnt offer any fun way to actually get there. the hardest dungeon only needs you to be at about level 52, so you hardly get anything once youre past that. theres not any incentive to max anything out because theres nothing to use your maxed out characters on...
...unless you buy the dlc of course!! the dlc/microtransactions are pretty scummy as well. the big swell looks like it has the best and funniest stuff in the game but im not willing to spend $20 on it right now, maybe when it starts to get discounted ill get around to it. it was very odd beating the game, realizing 3 characters never even came to hawaii when i know i saw screenshots of them all together in hawaii before the games release, and then discovering that in order to see that, i have to spend more than the initlal $70. and new game plus also being locked behind this dlc is stupid too. fuck that
i hope they can rekindle the same energy they had for 7 in the next entry, and that its not being developed alongside 3 other games again. i would much rather have a smaller scale game with a tighter focus on story. i guess thats hard to do with an rpg so its pretty pointless to even suggest, but with gaiden coming out right before this one, i kinda hope for something like that with ichiban and friends could be a possibility. or an akiyama game. wishful thinking.
anyway i cant wait to see why yagami goes to hawaii in judgment 3 where there will be a segway racing minigame
did not think this one would make me cry. also im down for any setting based on venice. probably my favorite layton at the moment
2023
I need to sit on this for a while but it pisses me off that even before the game released, one of my most recurring thoughts was "I can't wait for the sequel to be way better", and that's most likely going to be true in the next 5 years! I just want to appreciate the fact that I get to have a spiritual successor to my 3rd favorite game of all time, but this really does feel like Jet Set Radio 1 at times, rather than Future, in the sense that it knows what it wants to be, but can't be it quite yet.
They've laid the groundwork for something perfect to come and I look very forward to that. What we have here is great though.
For half of my life, all I've wanted is Beat from Jet Set Radio to actually be a character with a story, and boy, I sure got my wish and then some with this game. Absolutely love the protagonist. The characters involved with the story have excellent designs. The unlockable crew members are pretty whatever though. Most people I know didn't even realize Shine for example was a recruitable character, she just looks too normal, even though she's just in place dancing for your attention. I was shocked Coil wasn't a story character, his design is much more unique than say Shine or Mesh, but he's just completely miss-able. He's all over the place in the trailers too! Also, why can I not play as Escher? Not cool. I also wish there was more voice acting on display throughout the story. We're missing a pretty big piece that made Jet Set Radio so special here in regards to that. I'm not sure what the equivalent to DJ Professor K would be in this world, but I hope to god we get anything comparable to him in a sequel. Not trying to be mean here, but I wanted to highlight Rise's voice acting. Were those lines selected after one take?
Also......you're gonna have a guccied down to the nuts dog design in this game, and just make it an NPC??? You couldn't make that design be this world's Pots the Dog?????? FUCK YOU!!!!!!!
The additions to the Jet Set Radio style tricking are nice, but I do feel like the addition of manueling created the requirement for way too many open spaces, like the 2nd part of the mall for example, that didn't need to be that big. Hopefully in a sequel, they can craft tighter environments. I don't mind the simplicity of the tricking as much as most people, as Jet Set Radio never had that in mind much. I never expected it to be THPS levels of complex in this game, and thank fuck it's not. Absolutely love the addition of bikes though. We don't see enough bikes in extreme sports games these days.
I like the spraying mechanic here. It's cool to see it take from JSR 1 rather than Future in this area, as it was a really cool mechanic in JSR 1 that was sadly scrapped for the much quicker spraying in Future. I wish they kept the sense of fear that came with spraying in JSR 1, where while you're doing it, the cops are still getting closer, helicopters included. To be fair though, the police in this game are already extremely annoying to deal with. So annoying in fact, that there are portapotty's you can use to make your heat meter go down to 0 stars. Thank goodness they were self aware of that. It sucks that past 2 stars, the police just despawn all civilians and make the world feel very empty.
The music is pretty good. This game has it's own things going on in that department, and I respect that it wasn't trying to be 1-1 with Future's flavors, but I did find myself getting really tired of a lot of the songs here pretty fast. I am a B-Side kind of person, but some of these picks are kind of C-Sidey to me. The Klaus Veen song especially made me feel that way. His contribution to the soundtrack was the thing I was looking forward to the most, and it turned out to be a track from one of his albums released a few years ago. I immediately recognized it because I've had it in my Spotify likes for quite a while. And Anime Break is a good song, obviously I think so because I just said it's in my Spotify likes, but would I expect it in this game? No. Do I like listening to it after the 10th time in game? Not Really. I guess I just expected more stuff that would stick around in my head than what I got. It's got flavor, but not as much crazy variety as the games this is trying to emulate have. My favorite tracks are pretty much all the songs used in the trailers for the game. I love Agua a ton. It is very cool that you get rival gang's playlists after defeating them.
I think the game is the perfect length. Both Jet Set Radio's are between 8-13ish hours, and it took me about 11 here. I don't want a 20 hour long Jet Set Radio, and neither would you man. It would get repetitive.
A lot of what I have to say at the moment sounds negative, but I love the game regardless. It is still an extremely fun time whether you've played either Jet Set Radio's or not. It's probably more fun for you if you haven't touched them. I just know that a sequel to this will probably be as perfect as Jet Set Radio Future, and I look forward to that dream being real eventually. I hate that that's my foremost thought at the end of this, looking forward to the Future rather than what we just got not even a week ago. But can you blame me? The Future is amazing as long as it has Jet Set Radio before it! I think the Future with Bomb Rush Cyberfunk before it will also be incredible.
They've laid the groundwork for something perfect to come and I look very forward to that. What we have here is great though.
For half of my life, all I've wanted is Beat from Jet Set Radio to actually be a character with a story, and boy, I sure got my wish and then some with this game. Absolutely love the protagonist. The characters involved with the story have excellent designs. The unlockable crew members are pretty whatever though. Most people I know didn't even realize Shine for example was a recruitable character, she just looks too normal, even though she's just in place dancing for your attention. I was shocked Coil wasn't a story character, his design is much more unique than say Shine or Mesh, but he's just completely miss-able. He's all over the place in the trailers too! Also, why can I not play as Escher? Not cool. I also wish there was more voice acting on display throughout the story. We're missing a pretty big piece that made Jet Set Radio so special here in regards to that. I'm not sure what the equivalent to DJ Professor K would be in this world, but I hope to god we get anything comparable to him in a sequel. Not trying to be mean here, but I wanted to highlight Rise's voice acting. Were those lines selected after one take?
Also......you're gonna have a guccied down to the nuts dog design in this game, and just make it an NPC??? You couldn't make that design be this world's Pots the Dog?????? FUCK YOU!!!!!!!
The additions to the Jet Set Radio style tricking are nice, but I do feel like the addition of manueling created the requirement for way too many open spaces, like the 2nd part of the mall for example, that didn't need to be that big. Hopefully in a sequel, they can craft tighter environments. I don't mind the simplicity of the tricking as much as most people, as Jet Set Radio never had that in mind much. I never expected it to be THPS levels of complex in this game, and thank fuck it's not. Absolutely love the addition of bikes though. We don't see enough bikes in extreme sports games these days.
I like the spraying mechanic here. It's cool to see it take from JSR 1 rather than Future in this area, as it was a really cool mechanic in JSR 1 that was sadly scrapped for the much quicker spraying in Future. I wish they kept the sense of fear that came with spraying in JSR 1, where while you're doing it, the cops are still getting closer, helicopters included. To be fair though, the police in this game are already extremely annoying to deal with. So annoying in fact, that there are portapotty's you can use to make your heat meter go down to 0 stars. Thank goodness they were self aware of that. It sucks that past 2 stars, the police just despawn all civilians and make the world feel very empty.
The music is pretty good. This game has it's own things going on in that department, and I respect that it wasn't trying to be 1-1 with Future's flavors, but I did find myself getting really tired of a lot of the songs here pretty fast. I am a B-Side kind of person, but some of these picks are kind of C-Sidey to me. The Klaus Veen song especially made me feel that way. His contribution to the soundtrack was the thing I was looking forward to the most, and it turned out to be a track from one of his albums released a few years ago. I immediately recognized it because I've had it in my Spotify likes for quite a while. And Anime Break is a good song, obviously I think so because I just said it's in my Spotify likes, but would I expect it in this game? No. Do I like listening to it after the 10th time in game? Not Really. I guess I just expected more stuff that would stick around in my head than what I got. It's got flavor, but not as much crazy variety as the games this is trying to emulate have. My favorite tracks are pretty much all the songs used in the trailers for the game. I love Agua a ton. It is very cool that you get rival gang's playlists after defeating them.
I think the game is the perfect length. Both Jet Set Radio's are between 8-13ish hours, and it took me about 11 here. I don't want a 20 hour long Jet Set Radio, and neither would you man. It would get repetitive.
A lot of what I have to say at the moment sounds negative, but I love the game regardless. It is still an extremely fun time whether you've played either Jet Set Radio's or not. It's probably more fun for you if you haven't touched them. I just know that a sequel to this will probably be as perfect as Jet Set Radio Future, and I look forward to that dream being real eventually. I hate that that's my foremost thought at the end of this, looking forward to the Future rather than what we just got not even a week ago. But can you blame me? The Future is amazing as long as it has Jet Set Radio before it! I think the Future with Bomb Rush Cyberfunk before it will also be incredible.
This review contains spoilers
Very very spoiler heavy thoughts below.
It's been almost a year since AINI released, and the more time passes, the less I like this game.
And that sucks because I was so excited for it!!! I love the first game a ton, it means a lot to me and especially my partner, and we're a bit more forgiving when it comes to some of Uchikoshi's more 'controversial among the fans' releases, like Zero Time Dilemma. I hate that I feel this way about something I thought I wanted for years, but this game made me realize more than anything before that some stories are better left finished than turned into a franchise.
As a sequel, it was extremely held back by the rule of being beginner friendly for players who decided to experience this before the first game. Returning characters do and say things that make no fuckin sense for the sake of not spoiling the first game to people that play this first. Date is the best example of how far they had to reach in order to not spoil stuff, it's ridiculous. Him continuing to wear Saito's face for some made up ass reason just so unfamiliar players don't know what Date really looks like is ghoulish stuff, and so out of character. And him ditching his family after being reunited for some more made up bullshit was so infuriating. I feel really bad for anybody that actually played this first and this is the version of Date they got to meet. He might as well not have been here. Most characters might as well not be here.
Mizuki was definitely the highlight of the returning cast. I honestly think she's the only one they didn't fuck up in a bad way. Since this timeline is the True Ending from the first game, we know that in this world, the Mizuki ending didn't happen, and Date and Mizuki probably never got to have a super deep bond. I'm glad that by the end of this game, Mizuki has someone that will (unless more made up bullshit happens in game 3) never leave her side. That felt like a good ending for her.
I don't really even know what to say for Ryuki though. He is just more of a plot device than a character by the end of it all. I enjoyed him for the first half before everything about him began to get revealed. Also that gay moment felt so out of nowhere? That's honestly the Ryuki moment I think about most is them giving him unrequited love for Date for some reason. I guess Tama's design hints at it, but it gets brought up once and never again. All for the most hetero guy in the franchise too, like bro, you never even had a shot...dude really thinks he can be a homewrecker.
Not to toot my own horn, but many of the twists were predictable for me personally, and were just not nearly as impactful as anything from the first game's story. The timeline being a literal Twist is pretty clever, I'll give Uchikoshi that. The big big twist about Bibi actually being half of the Mizuki side, making Mizuki only playable in 1/4th of the game, was cool, it sucks that it makes the Mizuki game barely have Mizuki as the lead though. Somehow I even guessed Amame being the 'final boss' before the game even came out. I was just getting those vibes from her being promoted to main cast, no idea why. I had a similar experience with the mastermind in Danganronpa V3 funnily enough. Uru being revealed as another child of So Sejima is really icing on the twist cake. What, are they just gonna tell us at the beginning of game 3 that the 'Tetrahedron Killer has been revealed to be So Sejima's 4th illegitimate child, but heh, I'm getting ahead of myself. Let's start from the beginning.' That had to be for the sake of a joke, like c'mon man.
The character endings are really tame in comparison to the first game's. Every single ending from game 1 is so memorable and fills you with emotion. The character endings in this game are just like, okay, moving on. It doesn't help that 2 of them deal with relationships that are being shoved down our throats to make us care, but that all of them(besides the secret ending which is the best one btw) all have to be about 2 characters at once because this game is obsessed with the number 2. I hate that most of these characters have to rely on another to have a story, most of the characters only really get to be characters when they're stapled together rather than on their own. Also these new guys that get most of the endings are just not that engaging in these endings. I simply could not care for Lien/Kizuna's and Gen/Amame's super forced relationships. Komeji and Shoma's was pretty alright though, at least that one felt natural and normal and didn't leave me with a bad taste in my mouth. None of the character endings come close to the first game's in terms of emotional beats which sucks because I feel like game 1 did such a good job expanding on what if scenarios with the leads.
One thing that bugged me a lot was every body discovery being the exact same. There are some really gruesome deaths in the first game that are so shocking to see for the first time. In AINI, every character that dies is killed in the same fashion, just split down the middle. Obviously the reason for this is most of the plot and twists, but it was just so boring seeing the same style of murder over and over, when the first game's deaths were so varied and unique in comparison.
I see a lot of people say the somnium's themselves are much better here than in the first game, and I agree for some, but I just feel like most of them are missing the eeriness of the first game's. This game really does have a problem trying to establish the same grim tone the first game had throughout it. I only ever felt on edge during Tokiko and Bibi's. I think the problem with this as a sequel is that they couldn't pull off the insane twists of not knowing who's head you're actually in again here, so just going through all the new character's for one small piece of the puzzle each was pretty repetitive. I will say, Chikara's somnium was a super strong start. If Ryuki has anything going for him, it's that the somniums he explores are significantly better than Mizuki and Bibi's on average. Also I may need a replay to remember this part, but my partner and I both felt that the somnium's this time around felt too easy and made too much sense in comparison to game 1, y'know? The absolute biggest complaint I always encountered when seeing people talking about game 1 was that the solutions to puzzles made no sense or had no reasonable line between puzzle and solution. I never understood this as a somnium is like a dream, and dreams don't make any sense. You're not in control of a dream, and neither is a person in control of their somnium. In AINI, I felt like maybe there was a bit of control going on and things just made a little too much sense. I feel like this was done to address the complaints people had about solutions seeming random in game 1. I enjoyed the trial and error of game 1 and I guess I personally just enjoy that more than most people apparently. I guess that's why I love games like Somnium Files and Illbleed so much.
The music is the best part of the game for me. Chikara, Shoma's and Tokiko's somnium themes are stellar, and I like the Silent Hill vibe of Lien's. Bibi's somnium theme is the kind of tenseness I was hoping to hear more of. The updated character models are also very welcome. It was surprising to see how different boths games looked, even if mostly subtle. Amame is a great example.
I also enjoyed Tokiko and Komeji a lot, they were very much the highlight characters for me. Tokiko especially is a character that actually manages to leave you with some thought once the journey is over.
I just wish this game wasn't so scared of progress. I would've loved a more traditional sequel, I'm sure it would've been excellent. This being the outcome, the rule of not letting what happened in the first game affect the sequels story, is just so damn frustrating, it makes me wonder why ever bother doing it this way? Was it because visual novels tend to not sell like crazy, so this was to entice people into spending money sooner than later? I have no idea. At this point, I am just left wondering If I even want to play the inevitable 3rd game when it comes out in probably 2025.
Thanks for the Aiba figurine at least.
It's been almost a year since AINI released, and the more time passes, the less I like this game.
And that sucks because I was so excited for it!!! I love the first game a ton, it means a lot to me and especially my partner, and we're a bit more forgiving when it comes to some of Uchikoshi's more 'controversial among the fans' releases, like Zero Time Dilemma. I hate that I feel this way about something I thought I wanted for years, but this game made me realize more than anything before that some stories are better left finished than turned into a franchise.
As a sequel, it was extremely held back by the rule of being beginner friendly for players who decided to experience this before the first game. Returning characters do and say things that make no fuckin sense for the sake of not spoiling the first game to people that play this first. Date is the best example of how far they had to reach in order to not spoil stuff, it's ridiculous. Him continuing to wear Saito's face for some made up ass reason just so unfamiliar players don't know what Date really looks like is ghoulish stuff, and so out of character. And him ditching his family after being reunited for some more made up bullshit was so infuriating. I feel really bad for anybody that actually played this first and this is the version of Date they got to meet. He might as well not have been here. Most characters might as well not be here.
Mizuki was definitely the highlight of the returning cast. I honestly think she's the only one they didn't fuck up in a bad way. Since this timeline is the True Ending from the first game, we know that in this world, the Mizuki ending didn't happen, and Date and Mizuki probably never got to have a super deep bond. I'm glad that by the end of this game, Mizuki has someone that will (unless more made up bullshit happens in game 3) never leave her side. That felt like a good ending for her.
I don't really even know what to say for Ryuki though. He is just more of a plot device than a character by the end of it all. I enjoyed him for the first half before everything about him began to get revealed. Also that gay moment felt so out of nowhere? That's honestly the Ryuki moment I think about most is them giving him unrequited love for Date for some reason. I guess Tama's design hints at it, but it gets brought up once and never again. All for the most hetero guy in the franchise too, like bro, you never even had a shot...dude really thinks he can be a homewrecker.
Not to toot my own horn, but many of the twists were predictable for me personally, and were just not nearly as impactful as anything from the first game's story. The timeline being a literal Twist is pretty clever, I'll give Uchikoshi that. The big big twist about Bibi actually being half of the Mizuki side, making Mizuki only playable in 1/4th of the game, was cool, it sucks that it makes the Mizuki game barely have Mizuki as the lead though. Somehow I even guessed Amame being the 'final boss' before the game even came out. I was just getting those vibes from her being promoted to main cast, no idea why. I had a similar experience with the mastermind in Danganronpa V3 funnily enough. Uru being revealed as another child of So Sejima is really icing on the twist cake. What, are they just gonna tell us at the beginning of game 3 that the 'Tetrahedron Killer has been revealed to be So Sejima's 4th illegitimate child, but heh, I'm getting ahead of myself. Let's start from the beginning.' That had to be for the sake of a joke, like c'mon man.
The character endings are really tame in comparison to the first game's. Every single ending from game 1 is so memorable and fills you with emotion. The character endings in this game are just like, okay, moving on. It doesn't help that 2 of them deal with relationships that are being shoved down our throats to make us care, but that all of them(besides the secret ending which is the best one btw) all have to be about 2 characters at once because this game is obsessed with the number 2. I hate that most of these characters have to rely on another to have a story, most of the characters only really get to be characters when they're stapled together rather than on their own. Also these new guys that get most of the endings are just not that engaging in these endings. I simply could not care for Lien/Kizuna's and Gen/Amame's super forced relationships. Komeji and Shoma's was pretty alright though, at least that one felt natural and normal and didn't leave me with a bad taste in my mouth. None of the character endings come close to the first game's in terms of emotional beats which sucks because I feel like game 1 did such a good job expanding on what if scenarios with the leads.
One thing that bugged me a lot was every body discovery being the exact same. There are some really gruesome deaths in the first game that are so shocking to see for the first time. In AINI, every character that dies is killed in the same fashion, just split down the middle. Obviously the reason for this is most of the plot and twists, but it was just so boring seeing the same style of murder over and over, when the first game's deaths were so varied and unique in comparison.
I see a lot of people say the somnium's themselves are much better here than in the first game, and I agree for some, but I just feel like most of them are missing the eeriness of the first game's. This game really does have a problem trying to establish the same grim tone the first game had throughout it. I only ever felt on edge during Tokiko and Bibi's. I think the problem with this as a sequel is that they couldn't pull off the insane twists of not knowing who's head you're actually in again here, so just going through all the new character's for one small piece of the puzzle each was pretty repetitive. I will say, Chikara's somnium was a super strong start. If Ryuki has anything going for him, it's that the somniums he explores are significantly better than Mizuki and Bibi's on average. Also I may need a replay to remember this part, but my partner and I both felt that the somnium's this time around felt too easy and made too much sense in comparison to game 1, y'know? The absolute biggest complaint I always encountered when seeing people talking about game 1 was that the solutions to puzzles made no sense or had no reasonable line between puzzle and solution. I never understood this as a somnium is like a dream, and dreams don't make any sense. You're not in control of a dream, and neither is a person in control of their somnium. In AINI, I felt like maybe there was a bit of control going on and things just made a little too much sense. I feel like this was done to address the complaints people had about solutions seeming random in game 1. I enjoyed the trial and error of game 1 and I guess I personally just enjoy that more than most people apparently. I guess that's why I love games like Somnium Files and Illbleed so much.
The music is the best part of the game for me. Chikara, Shoma's and Tokiko's somnium themes are stellar, and I like the Silent Hill vibe of Lien's. Bibi's somnium theme is the kind of tenseness I was hoping to hear more of. The updated character models are also very welcome. It was surprising to see how different boths games looked, even if mostly subtle. Amame is a great example.
I also enjoyed Tokiko and Komeji a lot, they were very much the highlight characters for me. Tokiko especially is a character that actually manages to leave you with some thought once the journey is over.
I just wish this game wasn't so scared of progress. I would've loved a more traditional sequel, I'm sure it would've been excellent. This being the outcome, the rule of not letting what happened in the first game affect the sequels story, is just so damn frustrating, it makes me wonder why ever bother doing it this way? Was it because visual novels tend to not sell like crazy, so this was to entice people into spending money sooner than later? I have no idea. At this point, I am just left wondering If I even want to play the inevitable 3rd game when it comes out in probably 2025.
Thanks for the Aiba figurine at least.
2001
this game leaves you with one question at it's climactic ending: what if crash bandicoot was chocolate? what would you do...?
the most rented from a redbox ass game of all time
the only fighting game with a dead rising 1 stage so its perfect to me. best song in the game as well.
1999
2006
Not as bad as i thought it would be. The combats not too annoying and the driving sections are kinda fun if you can keep your momentum going. The character models are pretty fuckin ugly. The hostage system is cool but kind of pointless at the same time. Like i'm gonna have to shoot the cops i'm trying to get past at some point anyway, they'll just run back to their gun the moment i start shooting again. Speaking of that, they rarely drop their guns. It just slows the gameplay down to a crawl, but i appreciate the options at least.
This game also features a karma feature like Sopranos Road to Respect did, and i think this one is even more pointless. If you avoid killing, you're titled a Professional. If you kill and are reckless, you're a Psycho. I guess it's just for fun. Maybe they wanted you to try and play each character accurately to their movie counterparts, like acting completely professional as Mr. Pink, and being a fucking psycho as Mr. Blonde.
It's really cool that you get to play as every character(besides Joe). I feel like there's driving sections in this game just because they wanted you to have a chance to play as Mr. Brown, but they put so much effort into the driving gameplay that they decided to make up extra shit to get more use out of their efforts, and pad the game out a bit more. Mr. Blue has more screen time in this than the movie, and that last mission with him is pretty neat even though it's basically fanfiction.
That's what the game is: fanfiction. The game just serves as gap fillers for what you wonder was going on with the cast off-screen, and it does get tedious at times, but i still somewhat enjoyed it. At least there was a mall level. It's entertaining mindless shooting, but none of it really matters to the plot other than showing you things that are just said, rather than seen, in the film.
Props to the game for even existing, like what the fuck. There was even a 2nd game adaptation released in 2017. What is with peoples obsession with making a Reservoir Dogs video game? You just don't get shit like this and Antz Extreme Racing anymore. A true relic.
This game also features a karma feature like Sopranos Road to Respect did, and i think this one is even more pointless. If you avoid killing, you're titled a Professional. If you kill and are reckless, you're a Psycho. I guess it's just for fun. Maybe they wanted you to try and play each character accurately to their movie counterparts, like acting completely professional as Mr. Pink, and being a fucking psycho as Mr. Blonde.
It's really cool that you get to play as every character(besides Joe). I feel like there's driving sections in this game just because they wanted you to have a chance to play as Mr. Brown, but they put so much effort into the driving gameplay that they decided to make up extra shit to get more use out of their efforts, and pad the game out a bit more. Mr. Blue has more screen time in this than the movie, and that last mission with him is pretty neat even though it's basically fanfiction.
That's what the game is: fanfiction. The game just serves as gap fillers for what you wonder was going on with the cast off-screen, and it does get tedious at times, but i still somewhat enjoyed it. At least there was a mall level. It's entertaining mindless shooting, but none of it really matters to the plot other than showing you things that are just said, rather than seen, in the film.
Props to the game for even existing, like what the fuck. There was even a 2nd game adaptation released in 2017. What is with peoples obsession with making a Reservoir Dogs video game? You just don't get shit like this and Antz Extreme Racing anymore. A true relic.
i dont even mind Iori infiniting me in the story mode just because of the way he says "then DIEEE" being one of the funniest things i've ever heard. worth playing just for the voice acting and seeing cowboy Virgil. this game is also way faster than i would've expected for a 3D transition in a primarily 2D series, gotta appreciate it for that. plays like butter.
1998
You really have to be a god gamer to experience most of the games unlockable content. Score challenges ask for way too much from you while giving you way too little time to complete them. Game is a lot more fun, and possible to complete, with an infinite time limit enabled. Huge respects to anybody that can pull any of this shit off without it, i just dont have the will to try anymore. It also has the kind of jank you'd expect out of an extreme sports game from this era that wasn't made by Neversoft.
A huge problem is the amount of time it takes to do a trick and have it count towards your combo. You hold a C button, and your character will perform a move about 1 & 1/2 seconds later. Obviously the wait on the move interrupts the whole flow of doing anything flashy, and it doesn't help that if you're getting out of the animation by the time you hit the ground, your dude will fumble and have to get back up. The other shitty part is that the move only counts once it's pulled off, and the score multiplier is based off of how long you stayed in each move during the combo, so it's really hard to get huge scores in the air when the game is giving you peanuts for each trick. The only good thing about trying to do combos is that it doesn't matter which way your board is facing once you land, which is great since if you're tilting the analog stick in any direction while in the air, even while trying to perform flips, you just go fucking anywhere but straight back down onto the ramp. I could ever really get about 4 moves in a combo during the first mission, and just barely got an A rank after about 40 minutes of playing and restarting constantly.
This game definitely would've benefited from releasing a couple years later for Gamecube, when speed in character movement was increasing. Really sucks because i love everything else about this game. The artstyle, the designs of the levels, the music, all great. Disney Extreme Skate Adventure for sure plagiarized that house level though. The kids bedroom is almost identical to Andy's room in that game.
A huge problem is the amount of time it takes to do a trick and have it count towards your combo. You hold a C button, and your character will perform a move about 1 & 1/2 seconds later. Obviously the wait on the move interrupts the whole flow of doing anything flashy, and it doesn't help that if you're getting out of the animation by the time you hit the ground, your dude will fumble and have to get back up. The other shitty part is that the move only counts once it's pulled off, and the score multiplier is based off of how long you stayed in each move during the combo, so it's really hard to get huge scores in the air when the game is giving you peanuts for each trick. The only good thing about trying to do combos is that it doesn't matter which way your board is facing once you land, which is great since if you're tilting the analog stick in any direction while in the air, even while trying to perform flips, you just go fucking anywhere but straight back down onto the ramp. I could ever really get about 4 moves in a combo during the first mission, and just barely got an A rank after about 40 minutes of playing and restarting constantly.
This game definitely would've benefited from releasing a couple years later for Gamecube, when speed in character movement was increasing. Really sucks because i love everything else about this game. The artstyle, the designs of the levels, the music, all great. Disney Extreme Skate Adventure for sure plagiarized that house level though. The kids bedroom is almost identical to Andy's room in that game.
2006
really regret taking this long to hear Remix 5. worth all the pain of the festival minigame just for that
1999
Much harder to play than i was expecting. might just be that i'm very bad at rhythm games, but the timing combined with the annoying ass camera angles make for a challenge i would say makes the game too frustrating for me. But, it's simply too cool to get mad, i love games like this. i've spent a good amount of time seeing how songs play in Audiosurf, and i'll be doing the same with this game as i build up my collection of cd's over the coming years. Fun way to use your cd's, can just be a bit irritating to play depending on the song.
cd's i used during my first day with Vib-Ribbon:
Cibo Matto - Stereo Type A
Summer Salt - Driving To Hawaii
Boys Age - Calm Time
Tyler The Creator - Cherry Bomb
Mr Deeds OST did not work :(
cd's i used during my first day with Vib-Ribbon:
Cibo Matto - Stereo Type A
Summer Salt - Driving To Hawaii
Boys Age - Calm Time
Tyler The Creator - Cherry Bomb
Mr Deeds OST did not work :(
2021
i really love Yagami leaving his office unlocked now due to being annoyed by having to find the key on your key ring to unlock it all the time in Judgment. you and me both bud. now hopefully the side case born as a result of this doesn't make him start doing it again in Judgment 3