Discuss/Review (The Last) Game You've Beaten!

[Jigen]

Yakuza Kiwami, while the story was surprisingly good the gameplay had some fall backs. The combat is somewhat mindless, the developers allieviated the problem some by implementing multiple styles into the mix but, it often still ends up becoming a button masher. The Majima Everywhere mechanic while clever and fun at first, gets monotonous ans unavoidable and it really messes with the story in certain instances, like the scene in the batting cage, a mostly playful charcter suddenly becomes an absolute psychopath. Finally, the boss fights are flawed, the developers seemed to want to annoy the player more than challenge them. The constnat stun locks and annoying AI behavior make boss fights more frustration or even rage enducing than fun. These fights are not even difficult just annoying, tedious and long winded. 7/10, story is great, combat is mindless, but fun, boss fights are annoying, cool arena fights post game.

 

[Truck_1_0_1_]

Boss fights were fine and I agree that Majima Anywhere got very tired, VERY fast; thanks to that, I'm fairly sick of the character at this point and really hope they stop focusing on him so much.

Don't forget; this is just basically an update of the first game of the series; it took 3 games to get the combat down properly, so this is still a bit stiff, though I had no issues with the game (I rarely have issues with mechanics and control schemes).

 

[danielmann861]

Majima Everywhere has stopped me from fully upgrading...no matter what I do I can't get the next requirements I need for the Legend Style upgrades due to the Majima Everywhere system. I ended up giving up on it (I was trying for the Platinum but I got so tired ot the Majima Everywhere system in that game)

I liked Kiwami for the most part, but I did find the Majima Everywhere thing to be absolutely tiresome by the end of my time with it.

 

[danielmann861]

Catherine: Full Body

I really loved this game when it first released back on the PS3. It's one of the most unique games I've ever played in terms of the themes it explores. The long and short of it, it's your classic story of a guy stuck between two girls. The girl of his wildest fantasies (Catherine) and the level headed girl who wants to settle down and start a family with him (Katherine.) But in his dreams, he is thrown into a nightmare game of life and death as he has to climb a never ending series of towers Q-bert style. It takes the social elements of Persona (fitting considering it's made by the same team) and combines them with a really addictive and insanely challenging puzzle game all to tell a twisted tale of love, sex and desire.



I've been playing the Japanese Vita version on train commutes to work. I've beaten it at least three times now and seen at least two of the new endings. Much like Persona 4 Golden is (in my mind) the definitive version of Persona 4, I think this is now the definitive version of Catherine. The new content is definitely worth the time and doesn't ruin the pace or flow of the story. The two new endings that I have seen so far were pretty damn good. I think Rin is a pretty cool new addition and I like her as a character.



If you ever played the original PS3 game then you probably know that the game was fiendishly hard. So hard that even Japanese players had difficulty with it upon release and certain backlash led to Atlus patching in a Very Easy mode after release. Full Body is still quite challenging, but I do feel they have toned it down a little and made it a little more reasonable.

Unlike the PS3 version, in the hardest difficulty, you're now given the ability to undo at least one of your last actions making it a tad easier. Also, some of the stages do feel slightly easier to me, although, maybe that's just because I have familiarity now after playing as much of the PS3 version as I did.



Catherine on the Vita makes a ton of sense. It's a shame that Atlus isn't localizing the Vita version for the West. It's the type of game that fits right at home on a handheld as the puzzle sections are fun to replay in short bursts on commute. Also it's a damn good port with a solid 30 fps frame rate.

Atlus once again show that they know the Vita hardware in and out and it almost makes me sad that we will never see a Persona 5 Portable for the Vita...especially seeing how Catherine shows that they could have maybe pulled off a P5 port on Vita.

But yeah, it's a damn good game that holds up incredibly well. It's one of the most unique games I've ever played and I absolute love it for what it is...will definitely try for the Platinum trophy. (although, it's not gonna be easy)





Burning Rangers (Saturn)

I've been in a bit of a Saturn mood lately. Ever since I got Retroarch up and working and finally got the Saturn emulator up and running, I've been thumbing through Saturn games left and right. Finally got around to playing through Burning Rangers. I've been meaning to play for this years and I wasn't disappointed. It's short and brisk but fun and addictive in that typical Sega fashion.



I think what impressed me most about it was the emphasis on verticality. Hovering from level to level with your jet pack and extinguishing fire turns out to be a really fun concept. In that typical Sega fashion, it's all about learning the layout and mastering your speed of completion with each play through. I was also impressed by how well it played. It felt good to play all around and I never once felt like I was fighting the controls or what not. It's a full fledged 3D platformer on a system that was always touted as not being 3D friendly.

Sonic Team really pushed the Nights engine as far as they could go (to the point where it feels like it's almost breaking the Saturn) with this one and it still holds up rather nicely to date. Some really nice lighting effects sprinkled throughout. It's a real testament to just how good Sega's internal teams were with the Saturn hardware. They consistently got the most out of it and showed that it was capable.



It's a shame there was never a sequel. I see so much potential for a really kick ass sequel that could build on it, but I suppose Burning Rangers will always remain a Saturn relic. But it's a really good Saturn relic at that. A damn good Saturn relic that is worthy of your time.

 

[Guppy]

Judgement (2018)

Having to wrap up the already convoluted story of the series main protagonist in Yakuza 6, the Ryu Ga Gatoku Studio moved on to brush another Yakuza game with a brand new coat of paint. Basically it's Yakuza 6 and Kiwami 2's Dragon engine pasted onto this game and pretty much the same Karumocho, and unfortunately only it this time around, though more like the one featured in Kiwami 2 as Little Asia is off limits and instead access to Champion's District and Upper part of the Hotel District is open once again. Random battles and stat progression are the same to the latest installments, with food and mini-games being an alternative way to gain XP. Though the stat system has been further simplified with only three lists: a basic power, speed and health menu upgrade; a technique upgrade menu, and the last one is dedicated solely for the adventure skills unique to this game.

On the beat'em up portion of Judgement, the combat system consists of two "styles" but it's in reality really just one mashup as both share some of the same pool of moves while power, speed and defense are the same across the two. The game just segregated the one fighting style into two technique modes: the red one being mostly hand techniques and the blue for kicking combos. Because of the physics based combat, fighters have strikes bouncing back if blocked, resetting the timing of the combo, while heavy blows can often stagger or send someone flying across the street when it connects, except that doesn't apply to Yagami most of the time when he's on the offense. After the initial light attacks, his combos won't bounce back if blocked and he will just continue the sequence uninterrupted and even increase the speed of his attacks. Besides that, he has the ability to vault over enemies for extra attack angles and heat actions, plus wall jumps to change direction of his attacks as well, making him essentially the Spider-man of Yakuza. To add more to his arsenal of unique moves, he also has a soccer sliding tackle attack and a palm strike not unlike what a character from Fist of the North Star could pull off. Yes, though incredibly fun the protagonist in this game is overpowered by design because the Dragon Engine physics doesn't apply to him most of the time and the only means of challenge come from boss fights. But to balance out the fighting system and add some tension, Judgement restricts players on the number of healing consumables or weapons used during combat, just like what the team did for Yakuza 6.

Now for the adventure section, there are unique mechanics not found in any other Yakuza game to this extent. During certain portions of the investigation, players will be prompted to a first person view to pinpoint for clues or people of interest. Yagami can move freely during those sequences as well, and there are sections of the game where players will do it with a drone, Judgement's brand new toy. They work like a throwback to the pixel-hunt mechanic of the old point-and-click adventure games. Other new elements include questioning certain NPCs, lock-picking, tailing and chasing after suspects by the way of QTEs. The only problem is that most of these elements are too telegraphed, having the game pointing out every step for the player and never have any sort of variation or freedom for players to figure things out by themselves. Questioning suspects for example doesn't even let players fail no matter how poorly their choices are, while tailing people will have a pretty forgiving AI combined with a barebones stealth mechanic. In the end once you've seen these mechanics at play the first time, it's a rinse and repeat process through out till the end.

On a positive note, exploring Karumocho and doing the many side quests are still engaging while the action set pieces, RGG Studio's specialty, haven't dipped in quality and continue to be exciting as ever. Overall the experience will not differ much from a typical Yakuza game which is good, but RGG Studio's fans will still continue to wonder if the developers will ever be able to make any other games at this point.

Recommended: 4/5