What’s truly bizarre and off-putting though is how this game switches between several different types of cutscenes, ranging from completely fleshed out and animated (those look great) over less well-animated (but serviceable), to nearly completely static (but still voiced)= cutscenes with barely any movement.
If I remember correctly, 0 might be the only game to do this. 0 was my first game too and I remember being taken back by this (the static scene talking to some guy in a car smoking a cigarette or something is what sticks out in my memory). It’s possible other games did this too and I just forgot, but I’m not sure.
As for 0 being a good starting point, I do disagree. Having played all of them, I think 0 would land better if it was played after 1, 2, and 3. Kiryu’s and especially Majima’s stories in 0 heavily reference things that occur or are at least revealed in 1 and 3.
I started with 0 and worked my way chronologically from there (with the remakes for 1 and 2), and 0 is my pick for best if the series. I think the thing to know about the real estate sub-game, and others of its ilk like the host club in the same game (I think), is that they are completely parallel, non-consequential, optional content.
I personally feel that you could go through every single Yakuza game playing only the main story and side stories without missing anything of value. I would frequently force myself to play batting cages or karaoke or dancing because fans talk a lot about that stuff, but there’s really very little there to compel your attention unless you enjoy it. You can totally skip all that.
You could probably also skip the side stories if you just want to follow the main path, but those I do think are more crucial to Yakuza’s experience and identity - the outrageously silly flip side of the coin to the main story’s soap-opera-esque melodrama.
Glad to see a publication pushing back on the recent asinine comments and behaviors from CI.
Sorry, I meant that, having not played the game, I’m not sure how much observations like Curly’s inability to see the details are something the game tells you directly and how much is your interpretation. I guess I mostly meant that your framing of the story is really cool whether you’re just repeating the story beats as they’re given or mixing in a lot of your own analysis.
Thanks for writing this up, never heard of the game and this was really interesting. I’m not sure how much of your write-up is explicitly textual, but the analysis is really cool.
Is that a Trump “Tim Apple” reference? I wouldn’t have even noticed if you hadn’t called it out.
So close to great. I wish more developers were making environmentally detailed, high production value, single player linear games like Callisto Protocol. Just that little bit better executed to round out the total package.
I played the demo up to the first couple battles just to get a taste of how that works. No question, I am very excited to get my hands on it. I’m generally a sub-$20 patient gamer, but this is one I’ll be getting sooner. I’ll still probably wait for the holiday season to see if it drops down at all because I’ve got plenty to keep me busy in the meantime.
I gotta vent a little about Jedi Survivor - I really did not enjoy it much at all and am surprised it was so critically lauded. The combat aims for souls-like but is way too twitchy and glitchy to make it feel fun and rewarding. I came out of 60% of combat encounters feeling bored, 20% feeling relieved that some erratic imbalance or technical tomfoolery didn’t make me repeat it, and 10% feeling frustrated for the same reason but on the other side.
The same core issues affected the bosses too. I didn’t feel like the game earned my dedication to “solving the puzzle” the way games like Elden Ring and Returnal do.
Exploration was mostly fine in a zone-out kind of way but grew quite stale by the end, being the same vertical platforms and grapple spots on every section of every world. And the story too was just too out of focus. The whole Tanalorr thing was a late first-act development completely divorced from the course of the opening, and there was never a clear or necessary enough idea of why they wanted to get there to justify it becoming a priority to drive the story.
By the time they were trying to chase down the last compass, they’d garnered enough attention from the raiders and the empire that it no longer felt like a hidden secret. And the fact that all Cal had to do to get there was press a button to align the arrays…how long will they be safe on Tanalorr before the empire figures that out? It simply never felt like it was worth the trouble everyone was going to for it.
I still like the characters, but I was desperate to be done by the time I was fighting a notable turn-of-the-second-act boss, whose appearance elicited an eyeroll rather than excitement. I set the game to story mode at that point and just rushed the ending.
While that was going on though, I did play Animal Well all the way through (“layer 1” anyway), and that was extraordinary fun.
Oh, I also tried out the Metaphor Refantazio demo and that feels incredibly promising, especially with the incredible reviews it’s getting today.
Fatal Frame has gotten lost to history a bit, but I remember those games having the reputation as being the scariest that games have ever gotten when they were new.
The turn-based with real-time elements reminds me of Sea of Stars and Shadow Hearts, which are both excellent titles in my mind for this game to associate itself with. Looks really flashy too with the menu, camera movement, and slowdown effects (hopefully that wouldn’t get old with too much repetition).
Same here. Loved the setting and style, and the story and characters were admirably close to (the good) 3rd-person bioware stuff.
I don’t usually pay full price for games, but I was thinking of buying Greedfall 2 near release to support what they do. This puts a real taint on things.
I think the remake addresses these issues as well.