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If you HAD to cut your RPG backlog to just 10 games, which 10?
Before 2021 rolls around with it's slew of newly released RPGs that I'll invariably add to my backlog, I trimmed my existing backlog down to only 10 games that I plan on playing and get through as my main backlog. If you had to cut yours down to only the 10 games you most want to experience, what are they? Here's mine:
Earthbound - Classic that I never played
Nier 1 - I LOVED Nier Automata and excited for the remaster coming out
Radiant Historia - Heard it's like chrono trigger and one of the best rpgs on 3DS
Shadow Heart: Convenant - Another classic that I never got around to playing
The World Ends With You - It often makes top 30 in any "Best" RPG lists so feels like it deserves a spot
Dragon Quest 11 - Never played any DQ games and this feels like a good entry point
Tales of Berseria - I haven't been a huge fan of tales game but it's a often praised series and I heard this is a good one with a darker story
Yakuza: Like a Dragon - Another game that has rave reviews
Neverwinter Nights 2 - I've played all the other bioware/obsidian games except this and I've heard it's pretty good and better than NW 1
Last spot not yet decided, thinking between Deus Ex Mankind divided or Underrail
The title is pretty self-explanatory but every year I set goals out for myself and work hard at achieving them. This year I have set the following goals out for myself and I'm curious to see what other community members' goals are. Write 15 Reviews: Personally want to get back into writing and this will help with that. Get 6 Paychecks from Twitch: I stream for fun and decided that anything I make from the platform will just be donated. I have donated my last 2 paystubs to Able Gamers and Extra Life. If anyone else has good gaming Charity organizations please let me know as I can add them to the list. Beat 21 games: Last year I set a goal of 15 and finished 16. This year I'm bumping it up and have created a road map as to what I want to play which is below. Cyberpunk 2077, Persona 5 Royal, Omori, Nier Automata, Spiritfarer, A Bird Story, Hades, Spiderman Remastered, Spiderman Miles Morales, Yakuza Like a Dragon, Bayonetta, Telling Lies, It Takes Two, Oneshot, Persona 5 Scramble. I know that's not 21 games^ but I've saved a few slots open for if something comes out this year that I am not remembering off the top of my head. Please let me know what your goals are for the year!
Recently, Yakuza 3-5 Remastered was released on XboxOne and reviews are pretty skewed (especially on 3). I still want to progress in the storyline but I don’t want to waste money on something that’s potentially going to be bad. What should I do?
I spent 2020 laid off. These are the games I beat and my thoughts
Many of these games have been out for longer than 6 months at the time of writing. Any game that hasn't been out for that long I have omitted from this list. Disney Aladdin (Xbox One X) - I picked this up physically for Xbox and it really brought me back to being a kid. I tried my hardest to beat it without the rewind feature. Even though it took me a while, I finally got through it. I know you don't HAVE to use the rewind feature, but I think it should have been omitted completely. Assassin's Creed Odyssey (Xbox One X) - I gave a review on this sub earlier this year. I have a love/hate relationship with this game. While I was completely addicted to it, I feel like it was for the wrong reason. I liked the story and game play, but felt like it was way too easy after a while. The DLC, as awesome as the story is, is extremely tedious. So, I loved the game, but didn't at the same time? If that makes sense. I put in 165 hours into it. Bloodstained Ritual (Xbox One X) - This is the last game I beat before getting the news that I'd be laid off for "eight weeks" back in March. I couldn't stop playing this. I never played Symphony of the Night and when I dabbled in that game I didn't care for it. I absolutely loved Bloodstained though. It makes me want to go back to Symphony of the Night. The game play, soundtrack and overall level of things to do was a blast. What Remains of Edith Finch (Xbox One X) - I beat this in one sitting, but it really captivated me. Sure, it's a walking simulator, but the writing is outstanding. I would recommend this to everyone. Catherine: Full Body (PS4 Pro) - I was a big fan of Catherine on the 360. I was super excited that they were remastering it for PS4 and it included an expanded story. I even pre-ordered the collector's edition. It's one of my all time favorite puzzle games with hilarious writing. I'd recommend the remaster over the original, despite it being a PS4 exclusive. Gato Roboto (Xbox One X) - Found this on Game Pass and thought I'd give it a try. Very fun metroidvania that had me laughing in spots due to how ludicrous it is. Your character is a cat that is in an armored mech suit. Your captain is stranded and you must save him. Very fun game. I'm unsure if it's still on Game Pass, but definitely on Steam. Hyperdot (Xbox One X) - Another Game Pass game that wouldn't let me go. I'm a sucker for these simple games and all you have to do in Hyperdot is dodge everything. It seems simple, but gets really tough after a while. It was very rewarding when I beat it. The Uncle Who Works for Nintendo (PC) - I co-host a horror movie podcast and we were talking about horror video games one episode. I decided to talk about this text-based browser horror game. It was a little glitchy in parts, but I thought it was very entertaining. The plot is that you're a kid who is spending the night at a friend's house and get word that the friend's uncle is stopping over and he works for Nintendo. It's pretty awesome and offers a few different endings. Fractured Minds (Xbox One X) - Another Game Pass game. It's an easy 1k if you care about achievements and offers a somewhat decent look at depression and anxiety in video game form. It's not bad, but doesn't offer that much either. Very very short, as in 30 minutes-an hour. Resident Evil 5 (Xbox One X) - So, this may upset people, but even though I co-host a horror movie podcast, my anxiety does NOT bode well with horror games. I panic and end up giving up. That's why Resident Evil 5 is my favorite entry in the franchise. My best friend is a horror game nerd and frustrates her when I talk about how good RE5 is. I technically beat this game more than any other game recently because my like-minded buddy and I fully completed all the achievements for single player and DLC in couch co-op. It was a blast finding all the jewels and weapon upgrades. Too bad the multiplayer isn't active or else we would have gotten those achievements too. Sure, it's more action oriented than it's horror predecessors, but my buddy and I dig that. The game play is a blast. Halo Reach (Xbox One X) - The Master Chief Collection is so awesome. My friend and I made a plan to run through all the Halos again on Legendary. Halo is my favorite game franchise and I have beaten these games a million times. Love couch co-op obviously. Halo Reach has a fantastic story that I'm sure you all know enough about. Afterparty (Xbox One X) - I am really glad this hit Game Pass. I really loved the writing in Oxenfree, so was stoked about a game that takes place in Hell this time. It was very comedic and oddly buggy in spots, but I had a really good time. The drinking games and descriptions of all the Hell cocktails were hilarious. Maneater (Xbox One X) - I knew I had to own this game as soon as I heard it was a shark rpg. It's exactly what you think it is. You eat fish to get stronger and eventually move on to people. I don't like how the "wanted levels" are so easily accessible though. You eat like three humans and people are immediately after you. The story is fun and is voiced by Chris Parnell. It also received the Xbox Series X upgrade for free, so check it out! Halo 3 (Xbox One X) - Another legendary Halo checked off for this year. I love how many achievements are tied into the Master Chief Collection. It definitely warrants multiple playthroughs of Halo just for some off the wall stuff to complete. Excellent, excellent game. Pokemon Sword (Nintendo Switch) - So, I love the Pokemon series dearly. In my Pokemon bank on my 3DS I caught every single Pokemon up until this new generation. I was one of the few that actually black balled this game because I do not like the direction Game Freak went in. It's been going down hill for a generation or two, but them omitting Pokemon out of this new entry was what crossed the line for me. I borrowed it from a friend so I didn't have to purchase it. Unfortunately, the addiction of collecting Pokeman came back in full force. I ended up nabbing Pokemon Home for the monthly fee anyway. I beat Pokemon Sword and transferred all my Pokemon over. It's neat seeing them in the updated graphics. I do like the designs of the new Pokemon, but Game Freak just sucks now imo. Pokemon Sword was so easy. It was insulting how easy it was. Sun and Moon had this overly long introduction that I was hoping Sword and Shield wouldn't. Turns out the whole game felt like an introduction. I used all new Pokmon, none from my bank, and it was just a joke. It had fun game play, but waaaaay too easy. Ghost of Tsushima (PS4 Pro) - This game is hitting the 6 month mark in just under two weeks, but I'm going to talk about it anyway. This is my game of the year, hands down. It's gorgeous and has a compelling story. I have seen people bash on it a bit, but it's simple and the voice acting really brings it home. I'm a subs type of guy, so having the voice actors actually speaking Japanese and reading the subs on the bottom really heightened the experience for me. Excellent game and my favorite. Double Kick Heroes (Xbox One X) - I am a huuuuge fan of the guitar hero/Rock Band series. Seeing a game where a bunch of metal heads are trying to fight Satan himself in an apocalyptic future was a no brainer for me. It's a rhythm game that unfortunately can only be controlled by a controller and not a guitar. It was a lot of fun, but my Rock Band controller didn't work. The songs were pretty good too. Halo ODST (Xbox Series X) - This is my least favorite Halo. I have beaten it 3-4 times and still can't tell you anything about the game. The game play is still a boat load of fun, but it's insanely short and doesn't offer much story wise. I am thankful it was added for free to the MCC though. Army of Two (Xbox 360/Series X) - My RE5 buddy and myself sat down and decided to play Army of Two. Neither of us have dabbled in it and were both surprised how much fun we had while playing it. Very enjoyable couch co-op game. I'm hoping the other games in the series are equally as good. Donkey Kong (Nintendo Switch) - I own this on my SNES, but it's on Nintendo's online subscription service. I thought what the hell and ran through it again. Donkey Kong was my favorite game growing up and I have beaten this game an astronomical amount of times. My buddy was getting on me for never having played DK 2 or 3, so I decided to restart the franchise and dominate one of my all time favorite games. Animal Crossing: New Horizons (Nintendo Switch) - This is my first AC game. My friend always talked about it and she really took care of her animals. I surprised her with buying it in April shortly after release. I was hooked on that for a long time. There is no real "beating" this game, but I did get my island to 5 stars. I don't play it every day like I used to, and my villagers are very upset with me about that (some taking offense), but I still sink in a few hours per week when I can. Very relaxing game in a very stressful year. It is appreciated. Now, I'm going to talk about the games I attempted, but didn't care enough to finish or just didn't get a chance to Doom Eternal (Xbox One X) - I feel like I am the only one who didn't like Doom Eternal. It was honestly too hard for it's own good and the puzzle were just in the way half the time. I don't judge anyone who thinks it's fun, but I just suck at this. Doom 2016 is one of my all time favorite fps', but this was a huge step back for me. I am on the second to last level too and have no urge to go back. Now that I have the Series X though, I may attempt it again to see if I enjoy it. Days Gone (PS5) - After getting my PS5 I had no games for it. I am not a Souls guy, so I didn't pick up Demon Souls. After hooking it up and rummaging through the OS I found that Playstation has many of their AAA exclusives on there for free. I always heard decent things about Days Gone. I didn't hate the game, but also didn't get too far. It was a solid time waster for the few hours I played it, but overall it didn't hook me like I hoped it would. Yakuza 0 (Xbox Series X) - I'm glad this is on Game Pass because it introduced me to the Yakuza series after ignoring it for the longest time. It is a very, very, very fun game that I put in close to 100 hours into. However, I couldn't finish it because I was way too burned out. All the grinding in businesses became a chore and I never wanted to pick it up. Even though I put 100 hours into it, I'm only slightly over half way. This is my own fault for focusing on stuff besides the main story, but I just can't bring myself to finish. Rage 2 (Xbox One X) - This is a game I'm going to come back to. I loved what I played, but other stuff came out and I just haven't gone back to it yet. Persona 5 Royal (PS5) - So, Persona 4 is one of my all time favorite jrpgs. For whatever reason, I waited a very long time to play Persona 5. I preordered the collector's edition of Persona 5, but just didn't play it. I then heard the Persona 5 Royal was going to be a thing. So, I preordered the collector's edition for that too lol. I then sat down and put in around 130 hours into it over two play throughs. I'm on the second to last palace and if I had beaten it by now then I would say this is my GOTY. The first play through I was kind of breezing through so I restarted it on a new save file to play it on a harder difficulty. Such a fan game. Donkey Kong Country 2 (Nintendo Switch) - My buddy has been hyping the game up for years, trying to get me to play it. I'm not against playing it, but I just haven't had the chance to. I'm going to be 33 next month, so I definitely grew up with DK, but for whatever reason I skipped the sequels. Very fun so far though, even though he's being a little "gatekeepy" with me having to find all the secrets. I'm just going to beat it to shut him up lol If you got through all this, thank you! It's been a very stressful year for me and these games have been a literal life saver. I'm hoping 2021 is better in many aspects. If it's not, then I only have entertainment to keep me occupied. Have a good year everyone.
I'll be listing all of the games that I finished in 2020 and attaching little mini reviews with them. I also won't be including Yakuza 7, partly because it's a bit too new for that (unless you count the Japanese release) and partly because, even though I technically beat it, I want to milk every drop of content that I can out of it. Without further ado, here we go! God of War (2005): Actually picked this one up at Goodwill and had a great time with it. Thought the story was great, with how it took the traditional greek tragedy to such gruesome extremes, and I thought that the journals of the architect that you find while working your way through Pandora's Temple were pretty cool, with how they paralleled Kratos's journey. On top of that, the combat was excellent (better than the new one) and surprisingly difficult even on the normal difficulty setting (Hero?). The spiked tower in Hades was pretty lame and the final boss was a bit weak, but all in all a really great experience, and an easy 4/5. Judgment/Judge Eyes: Wedged this one in before the release of the Yakuza Remastered Collection, and had a great time with it. Yakuza/RGG is my favorite series, and I really enjoyed this more subdued spinoff. Yagami's a great character, and the bros brought some really great chemistry to the mix. Combat was fun, and the story and central mystery was excellent. Really phenomenal across the board, with the exception of one category that's crucial to any RGG game: the side content. Honestly, the side content offering here was pretty weak. There were a few side cases that I enjoyed, and I discovered Motor Raid and Virtua Fighter 5, which are now some of my favorite arcade games, but the endless friendships, low income, and grinding for skills was... not very fun. But there was so much great here that the game still evens out to a great 4/5. Yakuza 3: I technically played Remastered on the day of release, but the game itself came out all the way back in 2009 and I could've easily picked up a PS3 copy or splurged on the digital release when it came out, so I think this counts. Anyway, great game. The vacation vibes are fun, the soundtrack slaps (Clay Doll on the Cradle and Fly are some of my favorite video game tracks, period), and the combat is tight and thrilling... at least once you do Komaki's training. Up until then, pretty much every fight is a slog. But honestly, I didn't care. This game was too fun for that to weigh it down. The orphanage and Rikiya made me feel a lot of things, and it was good to see Kiryu express some serious emotion. And beyond that, the finale is just... wow. Absolutely fucking batshit insane, but that's a huge factor in why it's my favorite video game finale. Oh, and my favorite game in my favorite series, earning it an easy 5/5. But if Yakuza 3 is my favorite game in my favorite series, does that not mean that it's my favorite game? Well, we'll get to that later. Yakuza 4: Had a pretty great time with this one, because, y'know, it's Yakuza. But I'm gonna just get it out of the way and say that this is my least favorite in the series. The worst in a great series of games still tends to be a great game, and this is, but it's got some pretty glaring faults, such as: Akiyama's story seems to establish a big conspiracy, but the only thing that really matters from it is that Lily is a character that exists. Saejima's an awesome character, but he's not fun to play as, and his story is largely inconsequential with the exception of one major beat. Tanimura's an awesome character whose development is all shunted aside into his substories because his section of the game has to do all of the legwork in establishing the actual plot. Kiryu's story is essentially just catching up to the other characters and tying up loose ends. The actually great and really interesting conspiracy that was established from the beginning of the game gets thrown out for the sake of the lamest antagonist in the franchise. The finale is hyped to an insane degree and then thoroughly underwhelms. Now, don't get me wrong: I love Yakuza 4. It's a fun game, the soundtrack's great, the new characters are awesome, and I actually don't have any qualms with a certain beat that most people hate. But it reeks of squandered potential. Regardless, as I already said, it's a great game and one easily deserving of a 4/5. Just one that isn't as great as it could or even should be. Yakuza 5: Now this is the good shit. I think that, from an objective perspective, it's easily better than 3, though my personal biases and love of movies like Die Hard and Face/Off leave me favoring that one. This right here is a Yakuza 0/Yakuza 7 tier game. Anyway, let's get into it. The combat is the series' best by far. Shinada's style could use some ironing out and Akiyama's new moves actually made him slightly more cumbersome than in 4, but Kiryu and Saejima feel like gods in your hands, and it just feels great to play. The character work is also excellent, and I really liked the central theme of dreams. And man, the scale of the plot and the amount of content is just wowie. So much here, and I love every bit of it. Easy 5/5 game. Yakuza 6: The Song of Life: I ended up enjoying this game a lot more than I thought I would, as I see people tearing into it a lot. The combat and general Dragon Engine-isms are... rough. The side content is lacking, and the new exp system feels needlessly grindy. There are a lot of problems here. But it has soul like few other games do. The best story beats left me feeling a lot of things, and those were only bolstered by the beautiful OST, which is, in my personal (and correct) opinion, the best in the series. A flawed, but beautiful end to a beautiful series. ...until Yakuza 7. 4/5. Metroid: Zero Mission: I had started Super Metroid twice in the past, taken too long a break between sessions, and gotten lost both times. So this time, I decided to give Zero Mission a shot, and wow is this game good. The movement and exploration was so satisfying that I ended up going all the way for 100%, and had a great time every step of the way. A more bite-sized Metroid experience really helped ease me into the series, and I shot through it in something like seven hours. A phenomenal 5/5, and now one of my favorite games. Super Metroid: Logically, after loving Zero Mission as much as I did, I had to tackle the king of kings once more. And I loved it! The atmosphere and level design was absolutely gripping. However, the controls are a considerable step down from Zero Mission (or rather, Zero Mission's controls are a step up), and the lack of some QoL features kept me from getting 100% this time. I still got something like 95%, so I was no slouch! Anyway, phenomenal game. I didn't enjoy it quite as much as Zero Mission, so it gets a comfortable 4/5. Final Fantasy VII: I started this game up all the way back in 2019, but with the impending release of FFVII Remake, I knew that I had to push through it in time. And I had a great time with it! The story was gripping, the characters were fun, and the Materia system is my favorite magic system ever, bar none. However, I think that the pacing suffers a lot from inconsistency and the need to wedge the game full of pointless minigames, the world design was generally cumbersome and uninteresting to explore, and some more cryptic and old-fashioned design tendencies hurt the experience. Still, the great far outshines the mediocrity, so this is an easy 4/5. P.S. - Yuffie and Cait Sith get too much hate. Final Fantasy VII Remake: This and the next entry might be cheating as far as sub rules go because I played them both at release, but they're both over six months old now, so ehh? Anyway, I actually wrapped up FFVII just days before Remake released, and then burned through Remake over the course of three days, sleeping only once, but WOW I love this game. This might be heresy, but so far, I actually like it more than OG FFVII. Now, whether that remains true or not is contingent on how the next parts go, but oh my, I had a great time with this one. People say that the game feels bloated, but I can't disagree more. Remake feels like it gives Midgar what it deserves. The world design and character development were hitting me with feels for a game that I had wrapped up playing only days before, and it was incredible. I cried a couple of times. Anyway, soundtrack was best of the year, combat was some of the best ever, and I'm really intrigued by the pseudo-sequel approach and am looking forward to seeing where it goes next. 4/5. Resident Evil 3 (2020): I had a good time with this one, but it's nowhere near the heights of Resident Evil 2 (2019). Nemesis was underused and wasn't as fun to deal with as Mr. X, the enemies were less fun to deal with despite there technically being more this time, the heavier action focus made it less memorable, and it was entirely too short. I know I sound like I'm being hard on it, but I really did enjoy it. However, this game deserved to be better than what it ended up being, and I probably wouldn't have enjoyed it as much if it hadn't come out right around the beginning of the lockdowns when I was in desperate need of a good game to take my mind off of things. So, it's a pretty good 3/5. Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time: Very mixed feelings on this one. On the one hand, the cinematic platforming was a ton of fun and I get why this game was such a big deal, but on the other... It really was a slog at some points, mainly due to the combat. God, the combat. Just fucking awful. Context-sensitive inputs were obnoxiously inconsistent, enemy design was mind-numbingly boring, and the constant waves after waves of enemies were painful to push through. It honestly felt lazy. Its saving grace is that it's super short. I actually cleared it in a single sitting. I can't say that I had a bad time with it, because it really was fun when I was doing anything other than combat, but I can't in good conscience give it more than a 3/5. I've heard that the sequels really bring up the quality of the combat, so I'm looking forward to burning through them sometime in the (hopefully) near future. Final Fantasy IX: Holy god damn shit oh my lord there is just. So much here. This is my favorite game ever. I discovered my all time favorite game this year, and I don't think it's possible for anything to ever usurp it. Just absolutely astonishing ever step of the way. The characters, the world, the music... I felt so many things playing FFIX. I cried... so many times. Anyway, I really liked the more traditional party dynamic and how it was shaken up by story beats, and I thought that the equipment/skill system was one of the more fun JRPG leveling and customization systems I've had the pleasure of experiencing. But yeah, this is now my favorite game, so I wouldn't be able to live with myself if I gave it anything less than a perfect score of 5/5. Anyway, I probably left a few things out here, what with covid giving me a lot more time to game. But this has been a pretty good year as far as gaming goes. I also played a lot of Ōkami but haven't yet finished it, have literally about ten hours left in Persona 5 Royal (Royal ending), started up GTA: Vice City and Metroid Prime right before the year ended, played about an hour of Luigi's Mansion, blasted through Yakuza 7, which may have edged out 3 as my favorite (I need to run through all of the jobs and mess with the post game before I decide for sure)... It's been a good, dense year, and hopefully 2021's no slouch either. What've you guys been playing this year, and what're your thoughts on my lineup? Here's hoping for a great 2021!
WELCOME TO MY LONG ASS REVIEW OF THE YAKUZA SEIRES! This will include a shortened version of all of my thoughts and feelings towards all 8 (*note: this review will only cover the main series, so no dead souls, ishin or other spinoff's (tho I might play them in the future)) games and some of their inner aspects. So not reading all of it is completely understandable I just wanted to share them with someone but sadly none of my friends played it so i have nowhere else to do so one them suggested posting it here and tbh i have nothing better to do so here they are TLDR; 10/10 franchise I really like the characters, stories, music and gameplay.with that being said, HERE WE GO! (*note: like I said these are MY opinions and MY lists, if you think otherwise, youre welcome to write it down in the comments I would love to hear your thoughts :))(*note: this review might contain spoilers, with that being said I will try to hide everything that I think might be considered a major spoiler and will put it between [ ] so if you see these be careful)(*note: this review might be a bit scattered and not understandable at times, that's because of 3 reasons: 1.english is my second language, although I like to think im at least conversational, spelling and sentence building aren’t my strong suits. 2. Like I said this is a review of all 8 games so I might scramble stuff in the middle or forget something completely. 3. I first wrote this on word and after transfering it here i noticed there are problems with the spacing and enters, so if you see a lack of space when there should be most likely there was supposed to be a shift+enter, i tried fixing it multiple times but appreantly having every enter where it should be makes it over 4000000 characters long.) So forgive me for those)(*note: if for some reason you would like to see my opinion on something that I didn’t include, you're welcome to ask me to write it :) I might not be able to answer everything but ill do my best to check the comments every so often for a while) first of all I would like to say that my entry to the series is that a friend of mine bought me a copy of yakuza 0 for pc, little did he know, that would evolve into a crippling yakuza addiction (I bought a ps4 off another friend just to play 3-6). (*note: I know I said "none of my friends play it" that was a tiny lie, I have 1 friend who for 2 years now "is in process" to 100% yakuza 0, so I have no one to talk to about 7/8 games of the series) I came into the series thinking what I believe almost every player thinks before they start playing "oh it looks similar to gta/saints row but Japanese" but, say it with me now! "YAKUZA IS NOT JAPANESE GTA!" what I discovered is a beat'em-up, tear-jerking-story based adventure game, lucky me these are some of my favorite genres! I feel like yakuza has a very sad story not because its actually like sad sad but because kiryu is human, you see him go through life having to go through all kinds of crisis's and problems and its kinda feels like seeing a child grow? Idk, at least for me it sometimes does now for my top 8 yakuza games (*note: the scores I give them out of 10 and their place on the top 8 might seem weird and "incorrect" because I give some games of lower place higher score then stuff of higher place. That's because when I decide their place on the top 8 I only consider how much I enjoyed it overall. when I give them a score out of 10 I try to give them what I think is a more objective score that includes everything of how fun it was, how much I liked the characters, the mechanics, the story, ect….) (*note: if I don’t include a character in my reviews that doesn’t necessarily mean that I hate them, it just means that I generally don’t have too much to say about them. Overall I like basically all the main and side cast) 1.Yakuza kiwami 9/10 Lets start with the story, Imma be real with ya chiefs, I have a pretty small smooth brain. That's why I like simple-semi complicated stories And here we have a very basic story to follow, 10000000 yen missing, parent of this child missing, find them both. I love that simple, short and to the point but still interesting enough that I spent half my playthrough on the edge of my sit This game also has the best side-quests of the entire series which are easily pocket circuit & majima everywhere from the gameplay and mechanic side I also feel it’s the most fun and tight, nothing feels slow, every punch packs a punch and I actually really love (and prefer) the 4 fighting styles and was really sad to find out they were only in 0&kiwami. It has my favorite level up system (I will also include my top 7 level up systems later) And now for some character reviews Kiryu-CHAN!- he's by far my favorite character in the entire series, until now I only saw him as a brooding, badass, powerhouse that fucking breaks, shoots, and destroys (god forbid kills nothing like that here) but this was the first time I got to see that he actually has a soft side too and it’s the cutest fucking thing I've ever seen in my entire life. It was the first time I realized yakuza is one of those series that can make me sound like a kettle when I "aawwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww" seeing his interactions with haruka, yumi, nishiki and others was almost heart melting. Speaking of which Majima-I have what I think is a very controversial opinion, which is I don’t like majima in 0 (and I will get to that later). So I really didn’t expect much considering I came to this series blind. And OH BOY! Majima quickly became one of my favourite characters and its really sad for me that I believe they kinda toned him down in later games. [half of my playthrough was running around looking for him and doing all of his stuff, having to fight him as a cop, zombie, idol, hostes in all sorts of different situations was one of the best things about this game] nishiki-*ahem*,Im gonna fucking cry. Like I said I came from 0, seeing the journey he went through from #1 jobro (which he will forever be btw) to head of a family he has no idea what to do with, to madness, to evil mastermind was one of the saddest stories of this series. Every head of the nishikiyama family after him only brought shame to his name. [every scene that contained both him and kiryu in the same room made me want to cry. From the moment he declared they are not brothers anymore to the final scene when he shot the bomb] Haruka-B A B Y My first thought after seeing her was "ughhhhh fuck an annoying child character to take care of, that's not what a yakuza game should have" but what ended up being is that if anything happened to her I will ̶k̶i̶l̶l̶ hit everybody in this room very hard until all their bones break and leave them unconscious with no way of calling an ambulance or any kind of help and then do that to myself only to protect her. She is precious, and if you for some twisted, evil, disgusting reason think otherwise you are wrong [Yumi/mizuki- when Im writing this its been like a year since I played kiwami so I don’t remember every little detail about this character (not that there's too much to remember to begin with) if anything the twist at the end was pretty surprising and her backstory is kinda sad] [rena/shinji-they both serve kind of the same role so I don’t have too much to say on them separately. Their death (by the hands of the most annoying boss in the series) is kinda sad and like anything else relating to nishiki in this game, rena's death speech about how she always really loved him and wanted to help him in any way possible made me want to cry] 2.yakuza4 7.8/10 This game could’ve easily been an 8.5/10 but there're some stuff that just annoy me a bit and makes me have to retract from its score, let me get into it First of all, Although at the start the story didn’t really make sense to me and I thought it was very confusing, now after I played everything and saw how stuff connected together, I realized how amazing it actually is From akiyama's little relationship with lily To kiryu helping a refugee To a laid back cop who gets in to something bigger than himself And finally back to the actual main character of this series initially It was very annoying when I found out I only get to play as kiryu at the end of the game but I got over it On the gameplay side in the overworld everyone felt really slow to me,it didn’t feel like they were running (like their animation showed) it felt like they were always at the speed of a start of a jog but you kinda get used to it so its fine overall.In the combat side of thingsI really liked how akiyama, tanimura and kiryu controlled. Fast&strong which is why I really like the combat of this series to begin with (I also found it kinda funny that swords in this game are sometimes considered "blunt objects" for some reason so when you use a heat action with them you just smack an enemies head again and again with the blade) I will use the fact I didn’t include saejima in the list of the gameplay I like as a perfecet Segway to my character reviews Saejima-although his story really is interesting, kinda sad and heartwarming at times I grew to not like him just because his gameplay is sooooooooooooooooo slooooooooooooooowwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww I don’t know why but I also felt that he was weaker than the rest of the characters? It kinda felt like when the rest of the crew took down 10 enemies in 1 second he took 1 enemy in 10 seconds I get that hes supposed to be a tank and he has a lot of hp but usually tanks also do lots of damage to make up for their lack of speed Here its just a "very healthy", slow and weak tank so its just annoying to play [if anything his sister is hot] Akiyama- his gameplay is kinda like the "brawler" of the game, similar enough to kiryu's gameplay but different (because kicks) also his personality is cool, i would categorize it kinda like a happy go lucky guy but not really His story is interesting about this mysterious girl named lily who apparently really looks like his ex and he has a picture from his past that shows her. Anyway she asks for 100000000 yen a̶n̶d̶ ̶b̶e̶c̶a̶u̶s̶e̶ ̶h̶e̶s̶ ̶a̶ ̶s̶i̶m̶p̶ and because he really wants to help her, he gives her a challenge. Tanimura- the counter option was kinda cool ig. His character is cool enough and his story about wanting to find what happened to his father is kinda sweet I don’t have too much to say about him because he's kinda forgettable in the sense that his story was kind of an open and shut case He was definitely one of the playable characters of the series but that's honestly the most you can say about him If anything its kinda sad they swapped him in yakuza 5 but understandable because his story is 100% finished and he has nothing to draw him back considering he isn’t really related in any way to the rest of the cast Date-I like him but his character rarely changes. In the rest of the series it seems the story writers forgot he quit being a detective [yasuko/lily-seeing her story unfold was kinda sad, all she wanted for the last 25 years was to see her brother again. At least she got to that 1 last time before she did the bullet walk thing this series lovesssss to do] One last thing about this game that really annoyed me, the game ends with a happy ending, [saejima is proven innocent, kiryu seems to return to the tojo clan and they all live happily ever after]. When I saw it I thought "oh wow, I wander how they're gonna build upon this?" well, they didn’t, like at all. This series has 1 annoying problem that the writers team usually completely forget how the previous game ended 3.yakuza3 7.4/10on the story side- Kiryu only wants to keep his goddamn orphanage leave him alone ffs.BUT NOPE!It’s the yakuza series so every few years it’s always the same thing: something something TOJO something something MONEY something something BROTHER something something REVENGE, oh godly kiryu san mr.dragon of dojima please help me! The gameplay in the remastered collection stays more or less the same throughout so I don’t really have anything to say here The characters of this story are a weird bunch The children of the orphanage- if anything happened to any of them I will ̶k̶i̶l̶l̶ hit everybody in this room very hard until all their bones break and leave them unconscious with no way of calling an ambulance or any kind of help and then do that to myself only to protect them. rikiya- at the start of the game I thought he was just gonna be one of those bosses that you beat thrice throughout the game and never hear from them again afterwards, what ended up happening is that I discovered just a lovable, loyal, dork of a character [and when he got shot and kiryu started crying I was almost crying with him, definitely one of the saddest deaths in the series because it’s a very unexpected one] 4.yakuza 6 8/10 HOLY SHIT MY BABY HAD A BABY but who is the father? Let's go to Hiroshima to find out! [If only yuta put on a condom] Jokes aside this is one of the most amazing stories the series ever told I was originally dreading playing this game because I don’t really like the dragon engine that much (that might be because I played kiwami 2 right after 0&kiwami and was just kind of overwhelmed by it although the graphics of it are amazing, the gameplay feels a lot more wonky to me, I either feel very weak or too strong (usually weak) I got used to it but I actually prefer anything else in the series) But man did the story really bump up its place in the top 8 Nagumo- im sorry but speaking by role-serving terms rikiya is just kinda the cooler Nagumo (or technically speaking Nagumo is the worse rikiya) he's just a hot headed simp who's the captain of the hirose family but also kind of sweet in a way If anything he has one very memorable line "yesterday's enemy is today's aniki" Yuta-[BOI LOOKS LIKE LIVE ACTION KOICHI FROM THE DIAMOND IS UNBREAKABLE MOVIE AND MY BABY STELLED FOR HIM?! jokes aside I see why haruka chose him, one of the best character's in the series for sure tho the twist where he's actually the father was kind of apparent from the start] Kiyomi- she looks like sayama's mom. Like I was 200% sure it was her for like the entirety of the first chapter she was shown in [Also the thing in the end about kiryu saying he considered daigo as a son is stupid and forced in as hell] 5.yakuza0 7/10 (*note: I think I got a little more to say about this game then the rest cause like I mentioned it was my entry to the series so this may be a little bit of a garbled mess) So let's start by saying, hands down it has the best overall soundtrack (*note: I will get to my top 15 songs later) consistently very high quality while the rest of the games have like 1-3 outstanding songs in them this one has: the intro, judgement, the best version of baka mitai (*note: I only discovered that the meme originated in yakuza like half-way through its life span) (*note: I saw on here some time ago that one of the top posts is a screenshot of a tweet from kiryu's VA that says he's very pleased that people are singing his song and I find that very heart warming and wholesome), 24-cinderella and so, SO many more. Now… from the story side of things….. Im sorry to say this but I don’t really like majima's story in this game. Out of every other playable character in this series majima's story in this game felt the most like a filler to me. The first like 4 of his chapters could've easily been skipped with nothing of value to the overall story lost. Having to switch to him every 2 chapters was very annoying. Actually It annoyed me so much that in the middle of zero I kinda just dropped the game for like half a year+ because I just didn’t feel like playing as majima [it was after the cutscene where nishiki betrays kiryu but doesn’t want to shoot him]. Tho his relation-ship with makato is easily the saddest, most tragic thing to happen throughout the entire series. But like… idk I really preferred playing as kiryu 100% of the time On the gameplay side of things tho Definitely one of the better, like I said I really like the fighting styles so having 8 of them (well 6 technically since I basically didn’t touch the real estate nor the cabaret) was really fun Brawlethug-very basic, close enough to the dragon fighting style if that's what youre looking for but very boring nonetheless Rush/breaker-rush fucking sucks, on the other hand I find breaker to be very funny and I used it most of my time playing majima beast/slugger-beast is easily the best fighting style in the game, it’s a tiny bit slow but it gives back by being a fucking powerhouse being able to lift giant object's and using them as very fast hard hitting weapons (*ahem* *ahem* thisiswhatsaejimashould'vebeen*ahem* ahem*) on the slugger side I only switched to it when I saw that I couldn’t just style on my enemy to win and had to actually "play the video game" now for the character's makoto- I A M G O I N G T O F U C K I N G C R Y nishiki- [ kiwami spoilers>>R.I.P best jobro, once again im going to fucking cry everything in this game makes me want to cry], his relationship with kiryu is easily one of the best parts of this game, from the little comments he makes about kiryu's wardrobe to [him saying he's not interested in climbing up the ranks without kiryu] everything that makes him easily the best follower in the entire series. majima- I didn’t know what was coming so I just assumed this was kind of his character.looking back at it im kinda disappointed they didn’t try to do something else with him and instead they just kinda made him a simp to the yakuza [also it was kinda stupid to me how they didn’t find a way to bridge him into the crackhead he is in the rest of the series (they totally could've btw) instead making him just choose to "live crazier than any of 'em" (but thinking about it again honestly I feel like making majima choose to be a crackhead just because he wants to kinda fits his character)] kuze- *insert how many times do we have to teach you this lesson old man meme* 6.yakuza LAD 8/10"YOU BITCHES EVER HEARD OF PERSONA 5?"was probably the first line shouted by the director of the series in the first boardroom meetingthe story of this game follows ichiban kasuga trying to prove his loyalty and powerand goddamn smashing those goalsits kinda weird because I feel like I have nothing yet so much to say Gameplay wisefor some reason they decided to change it to an rpg probably after the director played P5R for too long because like I indirectly said… almost everything here is persona 5,the ui, combat, life skills and so on and so forth. There are even social links for crying out loud. this game might've been a 9/10 if only there wasnt 2 giant grind moments in the latter half of it [specifically before the majima&saejima boss fight and kiryu boss fight] Character review Ichiban- I saw a meme somewhere that said ichiban is "cooler nishiki", HELL NAHthose 2 are completely different characters each with their own reasons to make me depressed. Defiantly in the top 3 protagonists of the series which goes like 1.kiryu 2.majima 3.ichiban [before i started the game i was 200% sure he was gonna die, luckly he didnt, yet] Adachi- before I started this game and only saw the art I was 100% sure it was the guy who taught slugger to majima in 0 (the weapon maker from the noodle shop).he's not.Good follower tho [Joon-gi han- imma be real with ya chief, I forgot he died. And until kiryu said it was a double I was sure it was the same dude, he's not, still cool tho] [kume-LITTLE SHIT SHANKED MASATO AND DIPPED WHY DONT I GET TO BEAT THE SHIT OUT OF HIM AGAIN!?] I feel like I should have more to say about the rest of the MC's, but I got nothing. I love all of them but I don’t have anything outstanding to say. also this game has the top 3 best girls of the series which are: 1.seong-hui 2.sumire sawa 3.saeko mukoda don’t @ me 7.yakuza5 thekomakitigerdropisbrokenasallhell/10 Once again with 4 different character's, each with their own story that finally combines into one somehow on the gameplay side Like I said kiryu has the best moves in this game then the entire series The counter allowed me to cheese out enemies I couldn’t really fight. And the komaki tiger drop allowed me to delete half a bosses health bar in one hit So usually a boss would last about 2-6 tiger drops His story revolves around just being A NORMAL GODDAMN TAXI DRIVER LEAVE HIM ALONE FOR FUCK SAKES and going through a midlife crisis Akiyama stays mostly the same They did fix saejima a bit but still it was a drag to play him, not only that but the entire thing where he stayed in the small village for like a full chapter was very annoying and was clearly made just to drag out his story HOLY SHIT MY BABY IS A PLAYABLE CHARACTER, when I originally saw haruka on the splash screen when you open the game she kinda has a fighting pose so I thought that she maybe learned a thing or two while watching kiryu NOPE, I HOPE Y'ALL LIKE RYTHEM GAMES CAUSE THAT'S ALL SHE DOES!, personally im ok at them but not that good so I played only the stuff I had to do with her [tho the twist at the end of her story about majima being park's ex husband, MAN I DIDN’T SEE THAT COMING] And then there's shinada.... I honestly don’t know what to think about him. He's an ok character overall but his story seems so unrelated it kinda seems to me like they just shoved him in there because they had some problem with having only 3 character that can fight. His gameplay is fine enough but sometimes it kinda felt weaker then it should be? Idk. His normal punch and grab combo is mediocre+ - ok- nothing more than that. His staff doh allowed me to cheese enemies and getting them into an infinite loop of being knocked down again and again Another thing I can say about this game is that the character models eyes always look on the verge of tears and it seems very funny to me that at any given moment most of the cast looks like its about to cry cause im sitting here ready to do the same 8.yakuza kiwami 2 6.9/10 Man what a disappointment. I came to this thinking its gonna be as good as 0/kiwami and my hopes were crushed Like I said I don’t like the dragon engine that much so moving to it after the engine of the 2 previous games felt really weird The story of this game although very heart warming at the moment youre playing it, is quickly forgotten about and basically un-canonized in the rest of the series [at the start of yakuza 3 sayama departs to America and never returns, in yakuza 6 it is mentioned that yumi is the only woman kiryu ever loved and that he never killed anyone (although ryuji goda died by his hands)] Don’t get me wrong its still a very good game just not as good as the rest of the yakuzas Now for the characters Sayama- although story wise it seemed very sudden that they started dating, it was apparent from the start that something is gonna happen between them. Once again it was a sign that yakuza is one of those series that can make me sound like a kettle when I "aawwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww" Ryuji- one of if not the best villain of this series. That's because he's not actually evil but he knows there can only be one dragon so hes gonna fight for it. He actually has honor and some sense of justice. [the ending tho where sayama is crying because she finally discovered she has a brother but now he and her lover need to fight is very depressing, good thing it was all forgotten amirite? (pleasekillme)] Now for my top 7 level up system's because this series cant ever just stick to 1 1.yakuza kiwami It’s the only one I managed to fully complete so I might be a bit biased, but I feel like the exp/level system that is different for each fighting style is perfect. Unlike in the rest of the series where there's only the dragon fighting style that separates into body, soul, heat and tech. 2.yakuza 3 it’s very simple and doesn’t really lock out any abilities that you really need 3.yakuza 4 it locks some stuff out on the start but you can get them pretty easily 4.yakuza 5 Kinda just a worse version of 4 5.yakuza LAD I actually like the fact every battle upgrades everything at once and I don’t really have to think about if something is better than anotherthan again you can make the case that it removes any sense of choice from the game (at least speaking in level up terms) 6.yakuza 0 Although you get like 500000 yen per basic group of enemies, I still feel that money and levels shouldn’t corelate, especially when I need hundreds of millions for some of the side-quests (*ahem* *ahem* pocket circuit *ahem* *ahem*) also, tho it makes sense canonically, I feel like the trainer system of this game specifically is kinda stupid and annoying, never really bothered with it doh considering how much beast is a powerhouse even when its only upgraded with the stuff you don’t need to unlock 7.yakuza 6 & kiwami 2 Its too separated, having all those different exp points is stupid, I always had like 2 sections that were lagging behind the rest. I would like now to give a quick shout-out to the top 4 side-quest's in the series1.pocket circuit 10/10 I got too addicted to it both in 0 & kiwami, 95% of all my early game money was either spent/saved for pocket circuit #pocket_circut_fighter_forever [when I saw kiryu reminiscing on being kamurcho's fastest in kiwami's baka mitai I fucking died laughing] 2.majima everywhere 10/10 Basically doubled my playthrough's length because I always wondered what kinda whacky ass shit majima is gonna pull next. He's the best character in that game 100% 3.taxi racing 10/10 I did it all in the same game day so I like to think that in 1 night kiryu beat all the devil killers. Shock that it reminds me of intial-d, who would've thought right? Jokes aside the car controls in this game are really fun 4.dragon kart 10/10 I would like to believe someone ran in the idea room and was like "GUYS, SO UNTIL NOW WE PLAYED PERSONA 5 100% OF THE TIME, GET THIS, WHAT IF, MARIO KART?!"and then everyone clapped Now… There's 1 aspect that I pretty much barely mentioned in this review and you might even be asking yourself where is it? So without further ado My top 15 songs from the yakuza series Why 15? Cause that's how many songs I personally find to be fucking bops and the number of songs that I put in my playlist (*note: don’t take it too much as if its in numerical order, I kinda tried to do it as such but that's kind of a lot of songs (the longest section in my playlist at least) and I really love all of them so it was hard to choose. Maybe try to look at it more of as a list then a top 15) 1.get over it-yakuza kiwami It’s the only REALLY good song in this game (*note: not the only good one, the only REALLY good one) Man that fucking guitar section in the middle, you know the one im talking about.I apologize for bringing jojo into this but I feel like if kiryu was a jojo this would easily be his theme (and that guitar section is like giorno piano) 2.destiny-yakuza 6 V I O L I Ncoming in in a VERY close second is destiny from yakuza 6I originally thought someya to be one of those bosses you just beat like 3-4 times throughout the events of the game then never hear from again and just remember him as that one asshole from that yakuza game. But MAN then this theme hits in his final fightand O O F[and right after the fight when he begs you to kill him to save kioymi, I have yet to actually cry during the events of this series but its really trying to make me do it and im 100% sure eventually I will] 3.machinegun kiss-yakuza4&5 I have a story with this song that the first couple of times that I listened to it I thought it was very mediocre, then one day I just got a vibe to listen to it 1 more time, at which point it got stuck in my head for about 3 weeks-month and it shoved its way up here. 4.judgement-yakuza 0 In case you haven’t noticed I really like buttrock [I read a comment somewhere that said kiryu can no longer sing this after 0 because its not the same without nishiki, excuse me when I UGhhhHhHhHhhhhhhhHHhhhHHhhhHHhhHhhhhHhhhh] 5.clay doll on the cradle-yakuza 3 It has a pretty weak start but becomes really good really fast 6.comin'at ya, my girl-yakuza 5 As much as I don’t really like haruka's gameplay in 5, this is the best song in the game, sue me
24-hour cinderella-yakuza 0
Started listening to it because it’s a funny meme song It got stuck in my head for 2 weeks 8.tears of a father-yakuza 3 When the credits hit after THAT cutscene and this song starts to play, "the father" is almost not the only one to shed tears I only found out its called "tears of a father" while I looked it up after, and that was the point my heart had to get replaced because the previous one died 9.baka mitai-yakuza 0/kiwami/5 Do I really need to explain? 10.speed star-yakuza 4 A really pumped up default fight theme 11.intro-yakuza 0 I have a meme with some of my friends about the first 4 notes you have to hear before being able to skip it (*TA NA, NA! WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA*) 12.infinite handcuffs-yakuza 4 Another pumped up normal battle theme 13.today is a diamond-yakuza 6 *insert funny kiryu thumbs up*this song seems so happy and upbeat until you realize that according to it the singer is singing it to his lover that is in a coma[kinda fitting doh] 14.Friday night-yakuza 0 Once again, started because of a meme, continued because it’s a bop 15.[majima construction anthem]-yakuza kiwami 2 All rise for our national anthem. One of the best things to come out of this game. Surprisingly enough there weren't any outstanding songs in lad AND THAT'S IT! As a little conclusion, I would like to say I would've never imagined I would be as much in to this series as I am now, definitely one of the best game series's of all time and im really sad its not popular as it should be Overall 10/10 series So many good memories were formed and I can 100% see myself replaying it in the future If you actually read all of it, Holy shit thank you I wouldn’t be able to do that myself :) And even if you just schemed through it and only looked at specific sections, Thank you as well Like I said if you wanna ask me about something I didn’t already write or wanna give your own opinion on one of my opinions youre 200% welcome to do so in the comments, ill try to answer most of the stuff i see Well, I have nothing to add, see ya!
Hello fellow gamers. I just recently got into the Yakuza series. I've always known about it but only played different entries here and there over the years. Played a couple hours of Yakuza 6 when it launched but I stopped. I could never shake the feeling that I was doing it wrong because I hadn't experienced previous entries. That was years ago. That basically sums up my history with the franchise. Fast forward to 2020. I bought LAD at launch on XBSX and loved it. Finished it and needed more. So I booted up Yakuza 0 since forever I've heard that it was the perfect starting point. Finished it and naturally moved to Kiwami. I also finished it. Now.... Im truly invested in the story as im currently a few hours into Kiwami 2. But I have a problem........ So far I've been anxiously looking forward to the next game each time..... But with Yakuza 3...... not so much. Even though I will be playing the remastered versions, I still can't help but notice how dated it looks. The engine seems ancient and the systems don't look as sophisticated. 4 and 5 look similar but slightly better imo. Granted, I haven't played 1 second of the remaster. This is all based on gameplay clips and reviews. I guess my questions are....Is 3 necessary? Was it fun? Is it a must play or would a recap be sufficient? Maybe its burnout...I don't know. But is the whole remaster in general a "must play" in my Yakuza journey? I've been seriously thinking about skipping straight to Song of Life....Somebody convince me to play Yakuza 3..... give me something about the Remaster to look forward to. Thanks in advance! 👍👍
This month, I set out to beat God Wars: The Complete Legend on PC. About 30 hours into it though, I started to lose the desire to play the game so I decided to drop it. I then picked up AOT Wings of Freedom and AOT 2 and I beat them both in the span of 3 days. I had a lot of fun with both games and it's definitely a good game to pick up. I then decided to play The Outer Worlds thinking it would take up the rest of my month, but it turned out to be much shorter than I imagined, I didn't do every side quest, but I didn't just go straight for the main storyline either and I clocked in a few hours in the game (All enjoyable though) After beating TOW, I then picked up a game I knew would be short and sweet and after about 10 hours, I beat Ikenfell which is a lovely LGBTQIA+ game that I would recommend to anyone looking for something with a great cast of characters, good soundtrack, and RPG battling reminiscent of Paper Mario. After beating Ikenfell I spent the last week beating Conception 1 and 2. I played the remastered version of Conception on PC and I finally beat 2, I reviewed 2 when it first launched on PC but at the time, I was lukewarm on the game and I dropped it before I finished the game, but when I beat Conception I started a new save file and played Conception 2 all the way from the beginning and while I was a bit more open to the story, the amount of fan service and the "classmate" aspect of both games, got a little awkward and uncomfortable for my liking. I do like the class system of the game and I will admit that the dungeon design can go die in a ditch. Other than that, I would recommend both games if you can handle the excessive fan service and horrible dungeon design. I don't think I'm going to be beating any other games this month so that's why I'm writing this up now about 5 days in advance because I'm going to relax while I wait for Yakuza Remastered Collection to hit PC so I can play Y3 and continue the Kiryu Saga.
Hello all – and welcome to a (slightly overdue) review of my year in gaming! As always, I first want to thank the sub. I maintained motivation to continue to work through a significant chunk of my backlog throughout the year, and even found the chance to play a few newer releases as well. I did make a list of 12 specific games I wanted to play back in January last year, but abandoned as it just felt a bit restrictive, which is totally at odds with the fun that gaming is supposed to be about! I then just focused on playing what I felt like, making sure to consider all the games I owned already before spending on something new. A combination of increased motivation and more spare time due to - well, you know what - I managed to maintain steady progress throughout the year and beat 37 games in total, just shy of the 40 I beat last year. This did, however, include a fair few longer titles which I've typically been averse to in previous years where I tended to stick more to 10-15 hour campaigns. In broad terms, there were three general highlights to my year:
Discovering my love of a challenge - specifically in beating all the Dark Souls games, Bloodborne and Sekiro, but also in finding I often have more fun when I bump regular games up to harder difficulties - which I did in The Last of Us (1+2), Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order and Ghost of Tsushima
Discovering the 'immersive sim' genre - Deus Ex: Human Revolution was an incredible find for me this year, having previously pretty much ignored the series, and it sparked an interest in immersive sims which led to me discovering several new games to try
Catching up on my 'missed generation', i.e. the PS3/360 era. Back then I only had a Wii, and many quality titles completely passed me by, so it was great to catch up on some of them. Highlights include the above mentioned Dark Souls and Deus Ex:HR, as well as the Bioshock series, Sleeping Dogs, Dishonored, Arkham City and Dead Space
I thought I may as well copy in my brief thoughts on all the games I played this year. Mostly these are just copied from when I originally posted them in my monthly updates, but in some cases I’ve altered the review if I felt that my opinion had changed significantly since I’d played the game. In some cases I've just posted an abbreviated version... if for some reason you do give a shit about what I think you can dig through my post history on the sub! Here are my mini-reviews for everything I beat in 2020: Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice (PS4) – absolutely incredible experience. Played it through 5 times pretty much back to back and it gets an extra special place in my heart for opening my eyes to the wonders of FromSoftware and challenging games in general – ★★★★★ Bloodborne (PS4) – played this straight after Sekiro and loved the combat, world design and atmosphere. Bosses were a bit hit and miss but overall a great experience - ★★★★ Yakuza 0 (PC) - this was terrific... I probably started back in October last year, and very slowly made my way through until eventually reaching the end after ~60 hours of play. At one point I went about 15 hours without progressing the story because I was so engrossed with some of the mini-games. The gameplay is pretty basic, although the combat was very satisfying. The story itself could get a little confusing at times, but for the most part it was quite character driven which kept me invested even when I wasn't totally sure about all of the political intricacies going on in the background - ★★★★ Dark Souls Remastered (PC) – finally hopped on the Dark Souls train nearly a decade late, but still it’s probably one of the greatest gaming experiences I’ve ever had. So many vivid memories of my journey through such an intricately designed, haunting world. Stumbling across the great hollow – and subsequently ash lake - in my desperation to find a bonfire (apparently I missed one at the bottom of blighttown) might be one of my most incredible gaming memories ever. The game lived up to the ‘tough but fair’ reputation I’d heard of and I never felt like giving up. Only hiccup was the archers in Anor Londo which made me so angry I kicked a hole in the wall, resulting in some awkward email exchanges with the landlord, but all’s well that end’s well - we got the hole patched up, didn't get kicked out, and I beat the game a few days later – ★★★★★ A Plague Tale: Innocence (PS4) - This was an okay game, especially considering it came from a small studio. The gameplay switches between some straightforward stealth, and puzzles that involve manipulating massive swarms of rats with light sources. Both were fine, but I thought there was some missed potential with the puzzles. The game in general is quite easy, and in the middle it was almost boring, but towards the end it became a bit more challenging and actually really fun In any case, it's actually quite a narrative focused game, which perhaps explains the lack of complexity in the gameplay, and it does at least deliver on that front with a creative, well written story that ensured I kept playing, even when the game itself was quite slow - ★★ Crash Team Racing: Nitro-Fueled (PS4) - got this to play with my friends whilst we're all on lockdown, and managed to get 100% in the story mode. The story mode is alright, but mainly just a way to learn some of the tracks and unlock a few customisable options. It's a fun game - I think it's ridiculously high skill ceiling, meaning that even after 50 or so hours of play you're still getting obliterated online, which with limited features and support is probably not worth the effort, but it was a fun diversion at the time - ★★★ Dark Souls II (PC) – a strange, but ultimately very enjoyable experience. I went into this knowing nothing other that it’s considered the ‘black sheep’ of the franchise, but it wasn’t until after I beat it I really got why that is. My sense for the first half of the game was how overwhelming it was – so many different directions to go and so much to keep track of – and the volume of enemies in certain areas produced some huge difficulty spikes throughout. I felt this lost the ‘tough but fair’ mantra on a few occasions, with some rooms or areas taking several hours for me to progress through. The bosses as well were definitely a case of quantity over quality. Still, I did really enjoy most of the time with the game, and I was well and truly hooked for the 60 hours it took to beat it - ★★★★ Final Fantasy VII Remake (PS4) – This was the first Final Fantasy game I ever finished, and one of the few RPGs I’ve played that I actually enjoyed all the way through. I had played the beginning of the original, so I was familiar with the events of this game without necessarily having any kind of nostalgia or expectations. Visually I thought they did a great job of bringing those PS1 era pre rendered backgrounds into the HD era. The highlight for me though was the combat. It was super satisfying, with a perfect balance of broader strategy/preparation and making decisions on the fly in the heat of battle. A few chapters in the middle portion of the game the game felt really slow and stretched out - I did like that they’d clearly gone above and beyond in developing the world, but adding in long empty corridors, tedious puzzles and “platforming” really did not help the experience. Overall though, great game and hopefully the next instalment can live up to the potential shown here - ★★★ Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night (PC) – picked this up on a whim since it’d been a while since I’d had my Metroidvania fix. The first half of the game is great, a steady stream of new abilities and great enemy variety pulled me through. I slowly grew tired of it though, as all the small issues I’d noticed at the beginning became more and more irritating. Still though, I did get a few fun hours out of this, and some of the songs were stuck in my head for a while, so it wasn’t all bad – ★★ Horizon Zero Dawn (PS4) – I held off on this game for a while as I’d kind of dismissed it as yet another open world action RPG in a new coat of paint. For the most part, that’s what it is, but I’m still really glad I played it. The combat is really fun and gets better as you unlock new weapons, and uncovering the mysteries of the “post-post-apocalyptic” world was really compelling. Visually it's one of the most impressive games I think I've ever seen. I thought the crafting, levelling system and skill tree were a bit tacked on, but that’s something of a nitpick, and somewhat undermined by the fact that I did find every collectible to get the platinum anyway. I really liked the game overall, from the exciting combat, to the stunning visuals, to the intriguing lore, and I’m interested to see where they take the story in the sequel - ★★★ Final Fantasy XV (PS4) – had a pretty fun time with this game. It felt like a proper road trip which was helped by the characters feeling genuinely likeable, and some impressive visuals. The game itself is pretty weird though. Nothing you do really matters, since if you just buy 99 potions you basically can’t die, so experimenting with all the different weapons and strategies never felt worth it. It also removes any motivation to do side quests, but they weren’t especially interesting anyway. Still, it was a good ride and aside from a late game chapter which I can only describe as an indefensible piece of trash, an enjoyable if disjointed experience - ★★ Control (PS4) – I was initially attracted to this game by a few Metroid comparisons I’d seen, and in that regard it fell short, but it’s still a good game in its own right. The combat was super satisfying and the setting and the story did not hold back on the weirdness. I had a few serious framerate drops when there were a lot of enemies on screen, which ultimately did detract from my enjoyment a bit, but your mileage may vary (for reference I played on a 3.5-year old PS4 slim). The most fun I had was actually after I beat the main story. The side quests had some really good boss fights in there and helped add context to the world, and I ended up getting the platinum trophy - ★★★ Batman: Arkham City (PS4) – I don’t really know why it’s taken me so long to play this, but I have now and it was absolutely superb, one of the best I’ve played this year. I played Arkham Asylum last year and loved it, but I had worries that the switch to open world would sacrifice some of what made that game so good in favour of just having more content, but I needn’t have been concerned. The main story was one of the most compelling I’ve experienced in a game recently, and the combat, stealth rooms and Zelda-dungeon-like item based puzzles all alternate wonderfully to ensure I was basically never bored. Even the side missions were interesting and introduced their own unique gameplay twists. The riddler trophies were as addicting as always to pick up and ensured there was always something fun to do when travelling between mission locations - ★★★★ Batman: Arkham Knight (PS4) – a great game and a satisfying way to round out a superb series. It carries over everything that makes the previous games great – simple but satisfying combat, exciting stealth encounters and plenty of Zelda-like environmental puzzles – but the new additions in this game improve all of that. The combat is more fluid with a whole bunch of new abilities and animations, the stealth sections are made infinitely more dynamic by the multi-fear takedown, and the puzzles are as good as ever. The riddler trophies in particular are much improved – pretty much all of them require some level of thought to get compared to previous games where they were often extremely basic to figure out. Plotwise, it was engaging throughout, although I never found it reached the heights of Arkham City. The Joker’s inclusion as a memory(?) felt a bit forced - like they regretted killing him off in the last game - but that’s understandable since he is such a great character - ★★★★ The Last of Us Remastered (PS4) [REPLAY] – Decided to replay this in preparation for Part II. Previously I had played it on the Normal difficulty and found it way too easy, so I stuck it on hard and found it much more enjoyable. I’d actually forgotten how much shit happens in this game, the pacing is so good it never feels like a drag. The scenarios are tense throughout, although never truly mindblowing On the surface it’s a relatively simple story, but the development of the relationship between Joel and Ellie is the driving force and is compelling right up to the end. It’s close to perfect, although I’m still not a huge fan of the winter section from a story perspective. In terms of gameplay, it’s probably the most fun area – controlling Ellie with her reduced abilities really ramps up the tension, the section where you crawl through a blizzard is great, and I found the boss fight at the end fun. However, it feels a bit jarring to have an outright villain given the morally ambiguity of the actions from the rest of the characters Still, it’s a classic – a bit limited on the gameplay front but more than made up for with a simple story with emotional depth - ★★★ Wreckfest (PS4) – been playing this with a friend online. The single player is actually really good, but primarily functions as a method of unlocking the vehicles you need to compete online. It’s probably the most fun I’ve ever had in an online racing game. Being aggressive and booting other players off the track is a genuinely viable strategy, and there’s a glorious satisfaction in nailing someone into the wall on the final corner. It also solves an issue with many racing games whereby, if you fuckup early on you have to just slog it out until the next race for a chance to win. This is still true to an extent, but now you have the perfectly legitimate option of just going backwards round the track trying to destroy the leaders, which can be just as fun as fighting for victory - ★★★ Uncharted: The Lost Legacy (PS4) – I know it’s the same engine as Uncharted 4, but a lot of the time it felt a little off. Aiming didn’t feel as snappy, and the platforming wasn’t quite as reliable as I’d hoped. It’s still a worthy addition to the series - Nadine and Chloe are both likeable in their on way, and there’s a few great set pieces in there. The plot is generic Uncharted fare, but you do get to ride an elephant - ★★ The Last of Us Part II (PS4) – check my post history if you want my longer thoughts on this game but the short version is that I thought it was great. Ellie is so much more dynamic than Joel was in TLOU1, with several new tricks up her sleeve. She can go prone, lay trap mines and actually dodge melee attacks, all of which added a real sense of improvisation to the tougher encounters in the game. Whilst the scenarios that required these new moves were exciting, they were also quite sparse, particularly in the first half of the game. There was a lot of walking around and light puzzling, and a bunch of less exciting mini-encounters before you get to the really good stuff. Not that this stuff was bad, but the ratio of super open exciting stealth-combat arena to slow-paced walking and talking meant that the game felt like it wasn’t playing to its strength a lot of the time. There’s a lot to go into with the story, but the ultimately I enjoyed it and found it engaging through to the end – it wasn’t a mindblowing masterpiece and I thought they tried a bit too hard to “subvert expectations” at times, but it was a good ride - ★★★ Until Dawn (PS4) – I was surprised by how much fun this was. The story was a pretty good twist on the standard cabin in the woods type drama, the quality of the voice acting helped me to feel invested in the characters, and whilst the gameplay was simple, the QTEs were fun and added a lot of tension to the experience. Also, all the choices felt meaningful and, unlike certain similar games (looking at you Detroit: Become Human), it was genuinely fun to see the consequences of your actions. Unfortunately it looks like the developers’ more recent efforts have fallen flat but this was definitely a worthwhile experience - ★★★ Deus Ex: Human Revolution – Director’s Cut (PC) – This game was a revelation for me. Within the first few hours I was completely hooked, a feeling that lasted for the full 30 or so hours it took to beat the game. The game is just amazing. The mission structure, level design, upgrade system and weapon/item variety all come together to create an experience greater than its already substantial parts. Even the dialog wheels were fun! I could go on… the world, the visuals, the music was great and it was one of the few games where I actually bothered to read all the little notes you find. The narrative was pretty good as well, although sometimes a bit difficult to follow and with some dodgy voice acting along the way. All in all I was absolutely delighted with this game, I’d honestly rate it amongst the best games I’ve ever played Similarly to Sekiro, it will always be a special game for me for opening my eyes to a new ‘genre’ – in this case the immersive sim, which I have subsequently begun to dig into – ★★★★★ Sleeping Dogs (PS4) – Another surprisingly great game. The game very closely follows the GTA structure, and while it doesn’t do anything major to differentiate itself from Rockstar’s bigger budget hits, it does do a lot of little things that made it, in some ways at least, better than the GTA series. The melee combat is actually fun, the narrative is really engaging and, because of its shorter length, seems to have a lot more focus. Most appreciated was that all the tedium of GTA games has just been entirely removed here. If a mission requires you to drive somewhere you’ll actually start the mission in a car. Collectibles actually appear on the map (once you do certain side activites). Setting a waypoint for your next mission just requires clicking the analog stick. The game always gives you the weapons you need for each mission. So many nice little touches like this mean that the whole experience felt so much more seamless compared to GTA, which I’ve always thought had a tendency to sacrifice a smooth gameplay experience in the name of ‘realism’. It's certainly not as big and bombastic as the best GTA games, and there’s a lot less to do on the side, but the content it does have is, in my opinion, better than the equivalent in any GTA game - ★★★ Bioshock (PS4) – I did try this a few years back but dropped it fairly early on. In the intervening time I spoiled myself on the story and the big twist as I’d kind of written off the idea that I’d actually play it myself, but having the trilogy for free on PS Plus recently I thought I‘d give it another go. Turns out that one of the most critically acclaimed games of all time is, in fact, really good. Knowing the big plot twist obviously took away from one dramatic moment but there was a lot more to the story that I wasn’t aware of previously, and uncovering all the mysteries of Rapture was compelling right to the end. It’s possibly one of the best and most creative settings I’ve ever seen in a game. I played the Remastered version, and visually it was stunning. I was really immersed in the world, and the various different areas were each impressive their own right. On the gameplay side, it’s a lot of fun once you get past the first few hours. At the start, you have very few abilities and there were some weird design choices that made the game incredibly frustrating until you’ve got some good upgrades, but once you’re past that it really is an incredible game - ★★★★ Bioshock 2 (PS4) – Thought I would jump straight into this after beating the first. The first half of this game is a bit frustrating – to my horror they kept the health system exactly the same as the first which made the opening couple of hours a little rough, but the game is mercifully a bit more forthcoming with cash and health packs this time. Also, nothing really happens from a story perspective for a good 5-6 hours. It does eventually pick up though, both in terms of story and gameplay. The story itself actually turns out to be just as good as the first, taking some pretty weird turns I didn’t expect and wrapping up in a very satisfying way. The gameplay builds well on the foundations of the first game, with newer weapons, improved plasmids, and a much better hacking minigame. All in all a very fun time I also went on to beat the Minerva’s Den DLC the next day too which was fantastic - ★★★ Bioshock Infinite (PS4) – went into this one without too much being spoiled for me… all I really knew was that the setting had changed to a city in the sky and the gameplay was much closer to a traditional shooter. Similar to when I played all the MGS games last year I had an idea that there was some crazy shit going on in this game but it still managed to surprise me – although I did figure out the final twist a good few hours before the end I won’t go into the story too much more but I really enjoyed it. It touched on a lot of interesting themes and wrapped them up in the kind of weird mystery sci-fi I tend to love in other forms of media but rarely see done well in games. Columbia was a beautiful place to explore and the bright colours were wonderful, especially coming out of 2 games + a DLC of dark, dingy underwater corridors. The gameplay itself was okay, obviously being more of a straight shooter there wasn’t as much scope for creativity, but there was a good range of abilities to keep things interesting. It was much, much easier than the other two games as well - Ordinarily this might have disappointed me but it was actually nice to be able to kick back and just enjoy the ride - ★★★ Dishonored (PC) – I played this on the back of having enjoyed Deus Ex: Human Revolution so much, as it seemed to have a similar approach in terms of freedom in how you approach things. It was definitely a worthwhile experience – the variety of the levels was great and succeeding was always satisfying no matter how you pulled it off. The House of Pleasure and Last Party missions were both particularly memorable. I did think the abilities you could unlock felt a bit limited, and the way the game was broken up into separate missions meant it lacked the addictiveness you might get in an open-world or metroidvania structure, but it was good fun and I’m definitely going to check out the second at some point - ★★★ Disco Elysium (PC) – I bought this on a whim, having pretty much no experience whatsoever in this type of game, or indeed most kinds of RPG, but ended up really enjoying it. The slow-paced nature of the game took some getting used to, and after the first 8 hours I actually stopped playing for a good couple of months until I eventually picked it back up again, but when I did resume it really sucked me in. The world and the characters were all pretty interesting, and at times it was genuinely hilarious but I mostly enjoyed how the levelling system worked with your attributes all being different parts of your psyche, and they’d talk to you and give you advice throughout the game. The game itself was quite satisfying to work through as well, it felt a bit like the classic point-and-click but without the frustratingly obscure puzzle solutions – instead you can just explore elsewhere and return when you’ve upgraded an ability or found a key item. I did feel like towards the end of the game you were just going through the motions, and opportunities to express yourself through the dialogue became less frequent, but this wasn’t a major drawback and it was somewhat offset by the fact you were then dealing with the consequences of the choices you’d made earlier. All in all an interesting game, one I’m glad I took a chance on, but I doubt I’ll be digging any deeper into the ‘CRPG’ genre - ★★★ What Remains of Edith Finch (PC) – an interesting way to spend my bank holiday afternoon. A 2 hour ‘walking simulator’, another genre that I’ve not really explored, but it was a really nice game. I didn’t blow my mind or anything, but I was really impressed with how much variety – both visually, thematically, and in terms of gameplay – they managed to cram in to the experience whilst still feeling totally organic. As with Disco Elysium, I don’t really feel compelled to check out any similar games, but still felt it was a worthwhile experience and one I’m glad I had - ★★★ Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1+2 (PS4) - this is probably my game of the year. I still rank the original THPS2 as one of my all time favourites, and when this was announced I was almost overwhelmed with excitement - particularly as it previously seemed like the series was pretty much dead. The game itself is incredible - effectively bringing a refined, streamlined version of the gameplay from the later games to beautifully reconstructed levels from the first two. All the gaps and goals were still there, and it can't be understated how massive it was for them to get most of the old soundtrack on there as well. The introduction of a ton of new challenges, high scores and, of course, online play means I'll likely be playing this for a long long time, especially if they do what the people want and bring in THPS3 levels as DLC – ★★★★★ Metro 2033 Redux (PC) - A pretty fun game, although without too much depth in gameplay terms. The atmosphere here was genuinely oppressive, and I really liked the slow paced nature of the levels, especially when contrasted with the dopamine overload of other modern shooters. Have heard positive things about the sequels so will hopefully have a chance to give them a go in the coming year - ★★★ Ghost of Tsushima (PS4) - Essentially another one of these open world checklist type games, but the combat, story and side activities were all slightly better than you usually see. The 'following the wind' was interesting at first, but functionally not much different from following a way point so the novelty wore off after a few hours. I kind of wish the game had been a bit more linear and focused as the main story is actually quite good, but I kind of ruined the pacing for myself due to my completionist tendencies. Not really a complaint against the game itself I suppose, and I did overall enjoy my time, even if I did bog myself down running around chasing foxes for hours - ★★★ Dark Souls III (PC) - A superb end to an incredible series. The gameplay was at its most refined, the enemy variety was the best it's been and some of the bosses were absolutely incredible - a welcome change from the quantity over quality approach DS2 had. The difficulty I think was tougher but fairer than the previous games - Essentially the bosses were harder and there fewer bullshit traps and ambushes in between, which I quite liked I felt like progression could be a bit linear at times, for the first 25-30 hours there was only really one direction I had to go, whereas in the older titles I usually had two or three different routes to prod at. It opened up a bit towards the end as I discovered a few secret areas and tried the DLC, and ultimately I loved my time with this game. It's also another to tick off from the wider Soulsborne series which I've played all of this year (except Demon's Souls, waiting to get a PS5!). Difficult to say how I'd rank them, the first Dark Souls is probably my favourite, it felt most like a genuine adventure, but they're all absolutely incredible games – ★★★★ Yakuza Kiwami (PC) - A bit of a weird one. It looks and plays just like Yakuza 0, which I loved, but I occasionally notice the very '2005' DNA of the game coming through, with the odd tedious fetch sequence, and some pretty underwhelming side stories. I started out trying to do quite a lot of stuff on the side, but quickly realised most of it was just a rehash of what was in Yakuza 0, which I didn't really fancy doing again. I was also wary of getting bogged down in the world like I did for Ghost of Tsushima, especially given that the main story here was actually very, very good. A slow start and a weird midgame chapter aside, the story here was a really tight, focused experience and I was always genuinely excited to see what happened next. The last couple of chapters were absolutely gripping and I'm definitely going to check out Yakuza Kiwami 2 some time to see where it goes next - ★★★ Dead Space (PC) – honestly found this a bit of a slog. It was a nice twist on the survival horror, and the atmosphere and story were good, but the levels and missions got pretty repetitive and the moment to moment gameplay was a bit dull. Running out of ammo was frequent which – I get it, it’s a survival horror - for whatever reason it just irritated me in this game. The story was good though, and the payoff at the end made me glad I stuck with it, but any possible interest I had in the sequels was extinguished long before that point - ★★ GRIS (PC) – absolutely stunning, if brief, experience. Visually this game is one of the most beautiful I’ve played, and there was actually a bit of depth in some of the puzzles, which kept me engaged throughout its runtime. I’ve heard people say that the story made them cry, but honestly I found it too abstract to even guess what was happening, let alone have it elicit a strong emotional response. Still though, a nice way to spend 4 hours - ★★★ Final Fantasy VII (Switch) – decided to go back an experience the original as I couldn’t wait for the remake sequels to see what was gonna happen (plus I realised that they were gonna shake things up in terms of the story anyway). I really loved this game, a really good mix of high concept fantasy sci-fi and more emotional personal stories. The gameplay modifiers (turning off random encounters/speeding up the game) were really helpful in getting me through what I think is the first non-Pokemon JRPG I’ve ever beaten - ★★★ Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order (PS4) – this was a pleasant surprise… the level design and exploration were really enjoyable, and the combat was fun and strategic, if a bit unwieldly at times. I’m not a massive Star Wars fan outside of the films themselves, so didn’t have any particular hopes or expectations with regards to the story, but found this to be a worthy addition to the Star Wars canon that I know- ★★★ Super Mario Galaxy (Switch) [REPLAY] – I rate this as my favourite game of all time and replaying it on Switch has done nothing to change that. It’s not quite as massive as I remember it being over a decade ago, but this time round I appreciated more the sheer variety and creativity in the levels, backed by one of the greatest soundtracks in video game history. It was also amazing to play it in full HD for the first time and, despite a few minor issues with the pointer controls, I think this is now the definitive version of the game – ★★★★★ And that's it. As for what's next, I'll make a post soon outlining my challenge for 2021 - haven't decided on what it will be but I'm hoping to keep my gaming varied so potentially something around beating games from different genres. In the meantime I'll also make a 'bonus' post of all the other games I played this year but didn't beat - either because I dropped them, put them on hold or just they're not the type of game that can be 'beaten'. In gaming terms, I've got a couple currrently on the go, both of which I'm really enjoying and will share my thoughts here once I'm done:
Paper Mario: Origami King (Switch)
Prey (PC)
And that's it, thanks for reading, and happy gaming!
[H] Yakuza Kiwami 2, Darksiders 3, Hat in Time, Ancestors, PC Building Sim, Pathologic 2 Darkwood, Call of Cthulhu, AoW Planetfall, Grid Ultimate, hellblade, Gris, Catherine Classic, HITMAN 2,Tropica 6, Overcooked 2, Lethal League Blaze, MANY MORE [W] Farcry 6 key, Horizon Zero Dawn
I have really enjoyed reading everyone's retrospectives on their gaming years, so I decided to add my own! I couldn't remember the order in which I played these, so this is presented in alphabetical order. Crypt of the Necrodancer – a rogue-light game that you play to the beat of a song. I had high hopes for this, but in the end I just found it okay. Minimal (if any) plot. The playable characters all have different playstyles, but some just seem to be put in to handicap you and make it harder. Took me a couple days to beat. 5/10 Danganronpa 1&2 – Started the year off playing these. Loved both of them, they were my first foray into visual novel games. Having known absolutely nothing about the series before playing, I was immediately taken in by the art style, music, characters, and story. It’s amazing how much I came to care about characters that I only saw a few static 2D images of, and how much I ended up caring about the story and the world the characters lived in. Only downside IMO is that there isn’t a lot of replayability. Highly recommend. Danganronpa 1: 8/10, Danganronpa 2: 9/10 Danganronpa Ultra Despair Girls – a very simple FPS that explores the world of Danganronpa further. Surprisingly dark, even for a game series that is about high school kids murdering each other. Gameplay isn’t very good, and neither are the graphics, but the real motivation to play this game is for the story and further world-building, and in that area I really enjoyed it and am glad I played it. It also made me appreciate one of my least favorite characters from the first game. However, if you aren’t interested in the story, the rest of the game doesn’t bring much to the table. 6/10 Danganronpa V3 – Sadly the last foray into the Danganronpa world. Again, characters and story are the driving forces, and this had some of my favorite characters. The ending is very controversial, and while I appreciate what the developers were doing and the message behind the ending, I was one of the people that felt the ending sort of cheapened the experience. Still, I miss this series and would definitely look forward to future entries. Also, this had really enjoyable post-game content. 8.5/10. Dishonored – the game I played most recently. If there was ever a game with replay potential, this is it. There are SO many different ways to approach problems and get through levels. I played via stealth and avoided killing people, but I can’t wait to go back and go full melee psycho on another playthrough. The story was tight and didn’t overstay it’s welcome, and also didn’t allow to enough time to get every power (which I liked and which again makes me want to play again). The sequel will definitely be on my 2021 agenda. 9/10. Doom 2016 – I think these games are just not for me anymore. The original Dooms were some of my favorite games growing up in the 90s. Goldeneye was one of my favorite games on the N64, and a I loved Halo on the Xbox. I hadn’t played a true FPS in a long time, and I was very excited for this and… I just didn’t have fun. I can’t really explain why. I can see, intellectually, that this is a fast-paced, well-made example of what a FPS should be, but I got bored and wasn’t enjoying my time. I didn’t even finish it. I’ll give it a 5/10 because I don’t think this was a bad game and I know my experience with it isn’t how most people experienced it, but I didn’t like it and don’t have an urge to go back to it. Hollow Knight – Simple but rewarding gameplay, surprisingly deep story, beautiful and sad world… this game surprised me in so many ways. The only downside to me is that I’m not nearly as good at these types of games as other people are, and therefore wasn’t able to experience all the lore because eventually I just hit a roadblock I couldn’t overcome. Luckily it was mostly endgame stuff (and that’s what YouTube is for). Can’t wait for the sequel. 9.5/10 Iconoclasts – Indie platformer in which you play a “mechanic” in a dying world that is being overrun by religious zealots. I thought the game started off strong but dragged a lot by the end. Gameplay became repetitive and I got bored. If they had shortened it a bit or added new elements I may have enjoyed it more, but as is I didn’t even finish the game. 6/10. Nier Automata – An existential crisis in game form. Okay, so that’s a bit dramatic, but I did enjoy the themes the game presented even if they weren’t completely original or as mind-blowing as some make them out to be. The gameplay was fun, I liked the story and the characters, and there were some real heartbreaking moments. And the soundtrack was amazing, probably only outdone on this list by P5R. Also, bums. 9/10. Oxenfree – A visual novel game that I really enjoyed. I did two playthroughs experimenting with different choices. Has a very creepy vibe, and I enjoyed the character interactions. 8/10. Persona 5 Royal – it took my favorite game of this generation and improved on it in multiple ways. Not much else to say. 10/10 Stardew Valley – I didn’t think I’d enjoy this type of game but I quickly became addicted. Fun gameplay loop, endearing characters, and adorable sprites. 8/10, and will be playing the new update in 2021. Steamworld Dig 2 – So much fun! I hadn’t played any of the steamworld games prior to this, and this one immediately drew me in. Exploring the caves, looking for secrets, uprgrading my gear… it was all a great time. I even cared about the plot, although the game is light on it. 9/10. The Sexy Brutale – stylish, puzzle game in which you need to figure out how to stop the rest of the hotel guests from getting murdered. It revolves around a time-reset gameplay loop. It was enjoyable and I really liked the animation. The sections are very segregated though, your actions in one part of the game didn’t seem to make a huge difference in what happened in other parts. The puzzles themselves are pretty simple. And you can see the twist ending coming from a mile away. Overall, though, I found it enjoyable. 7/10 Yakuza 3 – So, this one is getting a possibly rough review from me. I played this after playing Yakuza 0, which was an amazing game and my first yakuza game, and both Kiwame 1&2, which benefitted from having be remade and updated. By comparison, 3 is simply a remaster, and therefore is more outdated. I found the story with the orphanage to be boring, and a lot of the sidequests were tedious (I thought running the hostess club was particularly awful). For the first time, I found myself skipping sidequests in a Yakuza game and just plowing through to the end. 5/10 Yakuza 4 – Same issues as Yakuza 3, but at least new characters to mix it up a bit. That said, at this point I was simply “yakuza’d out”, and I stopped playing about 1/3 of the way through (I think). I’m going to leave this one ungraded. I’ll plan on going back to this series sometime next year. Yoku’s Island Express – a fun indie game with an original gameplay hook. I really enjoyed this game, which was fun, but not overchallenging. Platinumed it over a few days (and platinums are rare for me). A bargain for what the price is. 8/10.
Is the remastered collection a good starting point?
Hi guys, PS4 owner. I never thought much about the serie of yakuza games, but i don't know why, I feel I want to try. I check a little bit the reviews and it seems the 6 and 0 are well loved, no idea about the last one but the price is still a bit high. 6 and 0 cost 20e each but i'm sure they can get discounted so i should wait, but the remastered collection is on sale, at 30€ for 3 games. Then, when i check the ranking lists, and i don't read much cause i want to avoid any spoiler, those games are often ranked among the bottom. so, without spoilers, are they worth it or not really? thanks
It’s a bit strange reviewing Yakuza 3 in 2020. It was originally released in 2009 in Japan, and since then, both Yakuza and Yakuza 2 were dramatically improved with their Kiwami versions, and all of the later games in the series (including Yakuza 0 and most recently Yakuza 6) are of course newer and more technologically advanced. Yakuza 3 Remastered Review An emotional trip While the gameplay aspects of Yakuza 3 show its age, the same can’t be said for its story, which is up there with The Song of Life and 0 as the... Analysis of Yakuza 3 Remastered for Xbox One. Yakuza 3 Remastered is the worst game of the Yakuza saga, consequently also of The Yakuza Remastered Collection that has just arrived on Xbox Game Pass. That does not mean that it is a bad game, be careful, but it is a very peculiar title and that it can lose players along the way. Yakuza 3 was the first entry in the series on the PS3 and the one that gains the most from being in this collection for a litany of reasons. Visually, it has held up remarkably well on PS3 — but ... Yakuza 3 Remastered Review – The Weakest Yakuza. By. Richard Dobson - February 7, 2021. 533. 0. Share . Facebook. Twitter. Pinterest. WhatsApp. ReddIt. Email. Tumblr. Mix. Let’s get something ... Yakuza 3 is one of the weakest games in the series, but a ‘bad’ Yakuza game is still head and shoulders above most other experiences. This remastered version of Yakuza 3 brings it more up to date in terms of what we expect, with 1080p and 60fps, as well as a bit of graphical touch-up. Yakuza 3 Remastered is the definitive version of my second-favorite Yakuza entry. The restoration work done on the game ensures that newcomers who hopped on the Yakuza 0 bandwagon will have a great time playing these older games, while people who enjoyed them the first go-round will love to see the restored content, new translation, and expert facelift. Yakuza 3 Remastered Review – The Weakest Yakuza. February 8, 2021 by admin. Let’s get something straight before we properly start: there are no bad Yakuza games. There are superb, there are great and there are good Yakuza games. Yakuza 3 is one of the weakest games in the series, but a ‘bad’ Yakuza game is still head and shoulders above most other experiences. This remastered version ... Yakuza 3 is probably going to be the most divisive of The Yakuza Remastered Collection trio here. Honestly, it’s one of my favorites, at least in part for nostalgic reasons. This was the first Yakuza 3 Remastered Review – The Weakest Yakuza. February 8, 2021 by admin 0 Comments. Xbox One. Share on Facebook. Share on Twitter. Share on Pinterest . Share on LinkedIn. Let’s get something straight before we properly start: there are no bad Yakuza games. There are superb, there are great and there are good Yakuza games. Yakuza 3 is one of the weakest games in the series, but a ‘bad ...
Vale a Pena? Yakuza 3 Remastered - Review/Gameplay PS4/PC ...
Read the full review at http://ps3.ign.com/articles/107/1075171p1.html - Just when you thought it was safe to pick random fights in Tokyo... The first part of the Yakuza Remastered Collection released yesterday, and here's about the first 16 minutes of the HD PS4 version synced up to the 2009 PS3 ... Gameplay for Yakuza 3 Remastered from The Yakuza Remastered Collection on PlayStation 4 (shown here) and Xbox One.That's right; every main Yakuza game is now... #YAKUZAYakuza 3 Remastered Gameplay ImpressionsSega recently released the Yakuza remastered collection bringing Yakuza 3,4 and 5 to pc for the first time. No... Yakuza 3 remastered chegou no PC. PS4, Xbox One e PS3 também fazem parte dos consoles pra gameplay do jogo que conta com muitas revelations, uma ost sensacio...
