Review #633: Yakuza Kiwami

 We're back to where everything began... The birth of a Legend.

 Yakuza on PS2 was pretty flippin' dope, but it was also pretty flippin' clunky. Not content with leaving things like they were, and finding themselves with a ton of reusable assets from Yakuza 0, the Ryu Ga Gotoku Team set to polish their very first Yakuza entry by blending its top-notch story with the lustrous gameplay of 0. And it works beautifully, revitalizing what was Yakuza's weakest link.

 The story is exactly the same as it was in the original game, to the point of cutscenes sticking to the same camera angles and, dare I say, animations of the original. The story now has the added benefit of having Yakuza 0's backstory, making Nishiki's transformation into a villain hitting harder than before. Alongside the original plot of Kazuma returning from prison to find his bestie-turned-enemy and the mystery surrounding the lost child Haruka and the stolen 10 billion yen, each chapter is prefaced by new scenes showing the trials and tribulations that turned Nishiki into who he is 10 years later. These scenes are very welcome and help make Nishiki a more interesting and sympathetic character. On the other hand, they added a ton of new dialogue and scenes for the series' breakout character Majima, trying to marry his initial portrayal with the zanier anti-hero he became. It kinda, sorta works, but I think a complete and total rewrite of his role would have been better. Majima isn't the ally-murdering psycho he was in the first game, so having him beat up his goons feels incredibly out of character, even if it was his original portrayal. Later Yakuza stories have been much more dramatic and twisted, but it's still a great plot and the new additions only make it better.

 I'm a bit tired of having to repeat the exact same gameplay description since Yakuza doesn't change much between installments, so I'll try to cruise through it. Yakuza is beat'em up action game that takes place in the city of Kamurocho. While you always have a main objective, you can also choose to spend time solving silly sidequests or wasting time with minigames like Bowling, Pocket Circuit Racing, Batting, etc. As you run around the city of Kamurocho you may come across miscreants that need a good beating, and Kazuma Kiryu, the hero, is only happy to oblige. Defeating enemies and solving sidequests reward Kazuma with experience points you can then spend on various different skill trees, depending on whether you want more health and strength, more moves or expanding your energy gauge to allow for stronger Heat(super) attacks. For the first time in the series, you can save ANYWHERE now.

 Remember how Yakuza 0 had the best and deepest combat in the franchise? It's back! Kazuma can change between four different styles(Brawler, Rush, Beast and Dragon) on the fly, each style having entirely different strengths and weaknesses. The first three can be developed by investing experience points on the aforementioned skill trees, but the Dragon style is a bit different... There's a new mechanic, 'Majima EVERYWHERE'. Basically, Majima really wants to fight Kiryu, but he wants to fight him at his best, so he'll try to ambush Kiryu at different times, from a bar to a cabaret, in order to train him and reawaken his Dragon style. It'll take a long, long while before Dragon is anywhere close to useful, and even then, it's been nerfed pretty hard, so you are just fine sticking with the first three styles. On the other hand, even on the Normal difficulty setting, Kiwami felt more challenging than any game before it, so you can't just mash your way through.... unless you are carrying a ton of healing items that is. Eventually it can get downright cruel, when story bosses start appearing with a ton of health bars, are fantastic at dodging and require the optional Dragon-style Extreme Action to take out of their healing auras.

 The game is brilliant, but there is a single misstep that hurt it a bit: Bosses can regenerate health. That's right, at two different times throughout the battle, at least on Normal, bosses will enter special stance and start recovering health. You can only stop this by performing a HEAT action on them. This means that you'll be holding onto your heat waiting for these moments instead of using them in battle, which is a huge disappointment. The game doesn't tell you this, but it's in your best interest to learn the Extreme Heat actions from the Soul skill branch first so that you have the required heat actions to cancel their healing.

 Yakuza Kiwami is the definitive way to play Yakuza 1, no question about it. Everything that was great about the first game is here alongside everything that was great about Yakuza 0, without its terrible upgrade system. Not every sidequest made it back, but most of them did and were rewritten to make them more interesting, and there's a ton of new ones, so there's no shortage of stuff to do in this game. It might have gone a bit too far making Majima a wacky walking meme, but I didn't mind it too much and just decided to enjoy the craziness.

 9.0 out of 10

Review #632: Power Rangers - Battle for the Grid

 The least amibitious crossover since TMNT Smash-up.

 I used to love Power Rangers, yo! I stuck with it long after the other kids had outgrown it and after growing up, I watched a few of the Japanese series(Gekirangers is all kinds of amazing and Shinkenger is flippin' brilliant!). I've always had a thing for characters that could transform, so the Sentai series has always been right up my alley. Color me surprised when a new 3-on-3 fighting game based on the franchise was announced, although color me a bit disappointed when it was announced as digital only. Regardless, I made my pre-order, and now Power Rangers - Battle for the Grid is finally in my hands!

 The game offers a few basic modes: Online VS(Ranked and Casual), Offline Versus Player or CPU, Training, Tutorial and Arcade modes. It's very basic, and there aren't many options. You can't tweak the AI's difficulty setting, you can't add rounds to a match, there's basically nothing. The tutorial is horrible, only going through the basic and skipping over some of the game's mechanics, which is a huge mistake. The Arcade Mode is a 7-stage slog that has about 4 written lines of dialogue total, culminating in a battle against Lord Drakkon. Lame. What makes Arcade so bland is the fact that there are only 9 characters total, Lord Drakkon being excluded since he is the final boss, so you end up fighting the same characters over and over and over again. Be warned, at least on the Switch version, loading times are a bit on the longer side.

 Still, the game's biggest blunder is its roster. Let's hope you liked Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers, because we get: Tommy Oliver as both the Green Ranger and Lord Drakkon, from the comics, Jason Scott Lee, Kimberly as the Ranger Slayer(Don't worry, there's a skin to revert her to the show's look), Goldar and, finally, we get the comics' exclusive Black Ranger Trooper, which is grunt wearing a suit based off of Zack's. That's six characters that appeal to Mighty Morphin' fans. The other three are Magna Defender, from Lost Galaxy(Another classic series), Kat from SPD and Gia from MegaForce, thank god. And, in case you haven't noticed, there's not a single Blue Ranger. Leaks show that the upcoming three characters are the White Ranger, from Mystic Force(Praise the gods) and... another Jason Scott, from the Zeo era. The pandering is real. Official in-game art suggests that the third character is the Black Dragon AKA Trini from the comics. For a game that's supposed to celebrate Power Rangers it seems like the developers got stuck with the oldies, which hurts the game. They should've just called it Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers and not even bother with other eras. Lastly, there will be DLC costumes, Lord Drakkon Evo II and Mighty Morphin' pink are alright, but Dragon Shield Jason is where it's really at. Sadly, there are only two color schemes per character, and the alternate color sets are rather bland, hopefully they do something about that.

 With the worst out of the way, I'm happy to report that the game is actually rather fun to play! The game is played with four different buttons: Weak, Medium and Strong attacks with a fourth button relegated to Special moves. Each character has three different special moves, performed by pressing the fourth button and different directions on the control pad(Neutral, Forward, Backwards and, a fourth special done exclusively on air) as well as an EX move, done by pressing Weak+Special. EX moves tend to go through enemy attacks, but cost 1 energy stock to use. Ah, yes! Of course, we've got a traditional 3-tier energy stock, you can use two stocks to perform a powerful super move or use 3 stocks once a partner has died to summon a powerful Zord, one time per match only though!

 You can call in partners to either attack or swap places with you. Benched characters can recover a bit of lost health when tagged out, since this game employs Marvel's trademark red-health. There are a few moves to force your enemy to tag out, as well as you can decide pretty late if you want to tag with a character or just in his assist, since swapping places is done by double tapping the designated assist button. Overall, the combat is fast and fun, making combos is easy and the game is very masher friendly, however, you can pull off some fancy stuff if you're willing to put in the time. That said, there are only 9 characters, and the game is played with 3-person teams, so there's scant 27 different character combinations at the moment, which will get tiresome pretty quickly.

 Power Rangers - Battle for the Grid might just be the best Power Rangers game yet, which is not saying much. That said, the bland stages and poor special effects are proof of its relatively low budget, which is a shame, because I'm sure that with a larger budget this game could've been really, REALLY good, even if unremarkable. That said, I'm hoping that with a few extra characters the game might become an easier recommendation, the initial cast is diverse, mechanics-wise, even Lord Drakkon feels different from Tommy, but 9 characters just don't cut it in this day and age. The game is already off to a great start, I hate this 'games as a service' trend, but I'll remain hopeful.

 6.5 out of 10

Review #631: Night in the Woods

 Xylophobes need not apply.

 Do they know that they are animals? That's the biggest question Night in the Woods fails to answer throughout its quirky slice-of-life-horror-mystery adventure. As one of this generation's Indie darlings, NitW doesn't disappoint.

 Set in the little town of Possum Springs, you play as Mae, a cat-thing college drop-out who returns home after giving college a try. But not everything is as she remembered, some of her friends have changed, others remain the same, and she'll have ample time to figure things out as the story progresses. The game is divided into four different chapters, the first three follow a slice-of-life narrative as Mae gets reacquainted with the town and her friends. The script is charming, and you'll probably be able to relate to at least one character, as everyone is trying to figure their way through life and its obstacles. This is not an action game, you'll mostly be talking and, well, just talking with the different inhabitants of Possum Springs, often times being allowed to pick between different dialogue choices that may alter how different people see Mae. On the other hand, there are subtle hints here and there that not everything is as it looks, culminating in a fourth chapter tied with strong eldritch horror influences... depending on how you decide to interpret the story. It's a jarring tonal shift to be sure, but it doesn't hurt the game although I would've been fine with just a mundane story about mundane animalpeople doing mundane animalpeople things.

 The entirety of the game takes place inside Possum Springs, as you follow Mae through her life. Every day is a different day, so you're free to speak with as many townsfolk as you want, and see how their lives evolve throughout the game, even finding out different things about their personalities. It's entirely optional too, the only mandatory interactions are the ones with Mae's core circle of friends, and even then most of the time you'll have to choose between spending time with either of her best friends. This is a dialogue-heavy game, and while Mae can jump around different objects in town, most of your interactions will be talking. And talking. And pretty much just talking.

 On the other hand, most nights Mae will be harassed by nightmares, and while they are visually stimulating, they can also get quite repetitive. The game really, REALLY likes forcing you to explore mazelike environments searching for the four musicians, and these nightmares grow old quite fast. It's a shame, because some of the earlier, non-repetitive nightmare sequences weren't that bad.

 Night in the Woods is a keeper. It manages to create interesting characters and storylines from simple every-day life occurrences, but this is also why it can get so relatable and, in turn, engaging. The art style is simplistic but pretty, making traversing the town and Mae's Nightmares a pleasure. On the flipside, Switch owners get the supplemental "Longest Night" and "Lost Constellation" side minigames on the same package.
 7.5 out of 10

Review #630: Yakuza 0

 And now, let's go back to the 80s.

 Right before concluding Kiryu's story the Ryu Ga Gotoku team decided to do something a bit different... by taking the story back in time to the late 80s, when both Kiryu and Majima got their starts as the Legends they'd become. Yakuza 0 is one of the most, if not THE most, beloved games in the franchise because it came late into the series but also served as the perfect entry... and gateway drug into the world of Yakuza.

 Cutting back from the massive five characters featured in 5, Yakuza 0 follows both series regulars Kazuma Kiryu and Majima Goro through seemingly separate stories that eventually turn and twist together, although never really getting to meet each other. Kiryu's tale is great, as he gets framed by one of the three menacing Dojima lieutenants, in order to get him and the Kazama family out of the picture. The three previously mentioned lieutenants are fantastic villains and characters, each very distinct and memorable, easily one of the most memorable parts of the story. We also get to see first-hand the friendship between Nishiki and Kiryu, which is all sorts of endearing. On the other hand, it also felt like a missed opportunity, Yumi is nowhere to be seen, even if she is mentioned once, and while the very first part of the game promised a meaner Kiryu that'd beat up people for not paying their debts... it doesn't last further than that, and we are back to good ol' heart of gold Kiryu. I thought the prospect of having Kiryu grow from a rougher Yakuza into the Vigilante we know today could've been a brilliant story to tell. That said, seeing a more immature and weak Kiryu is interesting, even though we know Kiryu will survive the whole ordeal, seeing these lieutenants parry his fist as if it was nothing, or having Kiryu grasping for air after most fights is quite refreshing. Majima's story takes place after Yakuza 4's flashbacks, as he is kept a captive under the guise of freedom. He maintains the largest hostess club in all of Sotenbori, but under close surveillance of the Omi Alliance. Everything changes when he is offered the chance of redemption... if he kills a certain someone. His story quickly warps into a tragic love story that sees Majima like we've never seen him before, and we get a glance at how he became the maniac Mad Dog of Shimano.

 The basic open-world elements of the game remains pretty much the same it's always been, most of Kiryu's story takes place in good ol' Kamurocho, while Majima's take place in Sotenbori. Every two chapters you'll switch characters. This game's got the most side activities of any Yakuza to date, Dancing, Bowling, Batting, Casino, Mahjong, Shogi, Darts, Karaoke, Super Hang-on, Fantasy Zone, Space Harrier, Outrun, Fishing... and I'm probably forgetting a few. The newer additions are Sexy Telephone chats, which are hilarious, a gratuitous and totally unnecessary rock-paper-scissors matches arena where two women in skimpy clothes fight each other and you place bets and, lastly... POCKET CIRCUIT RACER! In which you have to customize a toy car so that it can complete various races. Each character has his own minigame sub-story that unlocks their Legendary fighting styles, Kiryu gets real state, which is boring since you have to wait a long, LONG time between 'rounds' of money collecting, and Majima's Cabaret Manager, which is more fun, as you help girls with their customers by learning their hand signs. Majima's was way more fun, but I was so drained after spending 10 hours with Kiryu's that I just delved a tiny bit into it. Needless to say, you won't be running out of stuff to do for a long, long while.

 ... and the game actually wants you to spend as much time as possible trying out different things. The famous lockers are gone, but now there are 'Completion Points', awarded for simple things such as running X amount of Kilometers, to eating every food at every restaurant or scoring 50.000 points in Outrun(Good luck!). CP can then be traded for perks, such as gaining more money from beating up thugs, to a longer stamina for your dash. Completion Points is a fantastic idea, but you probably won't want to get every last point.

 The game has the best combat system in the entire series yet, while it's not as visceral as the one in Yakuza 6, it's way deeper. Each character has access to four different styles, and you can change on the fly. While they share 'archetypes', such as a balanced style, a quick style and a strong style, both Majima and Kiryu are very, VERY different. Kiryu's balanced style is Brawler, strong, but a bit slow, while Majima gets Thug, which isn't as strong, but is more nimble, allowing for two stright dodges. For speed, Kiryu has Rush, which is akin to boxing, letting Kiryu cancel his attacks with dodges, and pummeling an enemy long enough will get them dizzy, on the other hand, Majima has Breaker, a fantastic style that covers wide areas, at the cost of being very weak and not having many super attacks. Beast is Kiryu's last style, which slows him down to a walk, but he'll deal massive damage and cover wide arcs with his swings, Majima gets Slugger, which equips him with a powerful bat that works great in both single and group fights. Lastly, there are the unlockable Legend Styles, Dragon of Dojima, which plays like Kiryu did in previous games, and Mad Dog of Shimano, that equips Majima with his trademark Tanto. Combat in this game is brilliant, no two ways about it. It's a shame their legendary styles are gated behind huge time-consuming mini-games, I was so drained after Kiryu's that I didn't even bother with Majima's.

 So far, so good, but the game had one key flaw that made hampered my enjoyment big time: Upgrading. So far, Yakuza has had a perfectly acceptable upgrade system: Fight baddies and do sidequests to earn experience points and profit. Since this game takes place during Japan's economic boom, everything is money in this game, including upgrades. It's a shame that making money is so damn hard. Sidequests don't reward with money and fights reward you with paltry sums. There's only a single non-exploitative way to earn money: Real State for Kiryu and Majima's Cabaret. And even then it will take a long, loooooooooooong time to upgrade anything. Honestly, nothing in the game felt rewarding, after finishing Kiryu's minigame I just used the Mr. Shakedown exploit(Mr Shakedown is an overpowered prick that walks the streets, if you find him you can try to beat him), which consists of using Completion Points to unlock "Mr Shakedown's Big Pockets', so that you lose to him, and he gets all of your money, then tracking him down again to earn it back plus the percentage bonus from the Big Pockets perk. It's a chore. This is the first Yakuza game in which I actively avoided combat because there was nothing in it for me besides losing health for the next story segment. The upgrade system single-handedly turned Yakuza 0 into a chore.

 Yakuza 0 has one of the best stories in the entire series, as well as some of the most charismatic villains in it and the best combat yet, which is why I can understand why people like it so much. Sadly, the prohibitive costs of upgrading your character, as well as the unhealthy amount of time grinding to earn money and unlock the legendary styles really took a toll on how much fun I had. And it's true, I've sunk countless hours in the Yakuza game, but I felt I was being rewarded each time... not so much in here.
 8.5 out of 10

Review #629: Mighty No.9

 Well.... It IS better than nothing, I guess...

 I tried to defend this game, I really did. While I always felt that having more than one kickstarter for Mighty No. 9 was very shady, I respected that the end result looked like exactly what they had promised: A Megaman clone. I don't know why people chose to believe that it'd have 2-D graphics when they said day 1 that it was only concept art. Regardless, after firmly defending the product I finally got my hands on it... and it's not very good...

 The story follows Mighty No. 9, William White's creation, as he set outs to stop the other Mighty Numbers suffering from a bug. In typical Megaman fashion, you're free to tackle any of the 8 initial stages in any order, 9 stages if you have the Ray DLC. The plot itself is TERRIBLE. It's cheesy in all the bad ways, to the point of cringy, as a matter of fact, the story is so bad that it made me dislike the game... usually I can separate plot from gameplay and, if it's too horrid, ignore it. But I couldn't here, it is as if it was constantly trying to get you to hate it. The dialogue itself feels as if it was written by the Irate Gamer, it's THAT bad. The icing on the cake is that you can't skip the text and read it at your own pace, you have to wait for the voice actors to finish their lines. Besides the 12(13 with the DLC) stages there are VR missions, which are pretty much glorified tutorial challenges, and a few unnecessary co-op online missions. The game actually suffered a delay due to the online mode nobody cared for. But, hey, for the first time in Megaman(and its clones) history... the Boss Rush is not mandatory. Praise the gods. As a whole, the 13 basic stages took me less than 3 hours to complete, and there's a trophy for beating the game in less than 60 minutes, so... yeah, it's kinda short.

The voice acting itself is mediocre, and even at its best the script is so BAD that appreciating the better acting is impossible. On another note, the ending consists of four hand-drawn images with no text or dialogue. Alright.... Let's talk graphics, I think that, for a low-budget game, they are good enough. Yes, the game raked over 8 Million dollars in kickstarter money. But you also have to keep in mind that kickstarter keeps a percentage of the money and that making games isn't cheap. I think the graphics, as a whole, get the job done. On the other hand, Beck doesn't look as good in 3-D as he does in concept art, and I think I know why, y'see, the 3-D proportions are all outta whack. Beck's 3-D model has a huge head, and short stubby arms that start out very thin and get thicker as they get closer to his hands. He looks quite different from his concept art, and in turn, looks rather lame. He is also sporting this weird blue codpiece for no reason whatsoever.

 The gameplay... has some interesting ideas, but it has a few shortcomings. Beck, our main character, can jump and shoot, as you'd expect, but he can also absorb enemies by dashing into them. You can dash by pressing R1(Or by double tapping left or right, if you toggle the option on) and you can use it pretty much indefinitely, so you could try dashing your way to safety out of a miscalculated jump. If your dash into an enemy you will just hurt, but if you shoot an enemy a few times they will get incapacitated, turning green, blue, red or yellow and then you can dash into them to absorb them. Each color is a different buff, for instance, Blue fills a Health Refill option while Red makes your shots go through enemies and deal more damage... for a short while. The different effects of each color aren't explained in game, instead, you must go into the hints sub-menu on the stage select screen. Thanks for nothing! Dashing makes the game feel like a faster take on Megaman, and it can be quite fun once you get the hang of it. You don't need to absorb enemies, however, if you try to destroy an enemy just by shooting at it, it wouldd take about double the amount of shots than it would have taken you if had you just incapacitated and absorbed them. On the other hand, absorbing makes bosses a chore. You have to damage them until they grow purple, at which point they will stop taking damage, and then dash into them. Fail to do so and they will recover their health. It's an unnecessary mechanic that makes bosses less fun than they could've been. On the flipside, landing a dash on a boss will restore your sub-weapon gauge, so in a way it's also rewarding. There's also a 'hidden' move, an emergency escape, holding R2 and pressing the shoot button will make Beck jump backwards while shooting. This is never told in the tutorials and seems to have no practical use whatsoever.

 Besides dashing, another neat twist on the formula is how the sub-weapons earned from bosses work. First of all, each power is not a simple recolor, but actually change how Beck looks. But then there's the fact that each weapon is entirely unique, not simply being a different projectile, like most Megaman games. For instance, the Sword sub-weapon doesn't consume energy from the sub weapon gauge if you use basic attacks, so if you wanted you could play the entire game as a melee-based Beck! The hitbox seemed a bit wonky on a few bosses(Namely the machine-creators from the latter set of stages), but on the whole I had fun playing as Sword beck. You've also got Avi's weapon, which lets you jump higher, hover and attack enemies above you. There's also an electric weapon that shoots spread bullets and then you electrocute whatever was hit by the bullets, land every bullet on a boss and you'll deal massive damage. The way sub-weapons look and play is simply brilliant. Once you beat a boss the game also tells you which enemy is weak to that sub-weapon, something that was criticized... but I think it's a good thing. Don't try to deny it, you've looked online how the weapon weaknesses work in Megaman games, if you say otherwise you are lying, and this simply cuts down on the chase. Defeating a boss also makes segments from the vulnerable boss' stage easier, just like Megaman X.

 So far, I've been mostly positive about the game, because, as I said before, it does have some very good ideas. However, not matter how good those ideas are, they all go down the drain once you actually start playing the game and discover that level design is terrible. There's an almost sick over-reliance on one-hit kills spikes to add challenge to the game, a few times hiding behind some ugly text-boxes due to in-game dialogue nobody wished for, just like Gunvolt, except that you can't turn the portraits off!! Sometimes you'll have to react seconds flat because the pit you needed to fall through had spikes hidden off-camera. Megaman and Megaman X had always had some of these, but those games weren't as focused on speed as Mighty No.9. You are expected to dash through stages, but also be wary of spikes that could turn up at any moment. The Mines stage is particularly bad about all of that, one time I was going through the stage I got so fast I got stuck between a wall and a drill and I couldn't go down below because I ended up on the wrong side of the first drill, forcing me to commit seppuku. The Ice stage is another bad one, with slippery floors and framerate drops. One stage that received some praise, I think, was Shade's looping stage... which was boring at best and annoying at worst, as you play hide and seek with the boss. And dying meant doing the ENTIRE chase again, and his hiding spots never changed. LAME. Another point of contention was Beck's dash. Fun most of the time, but it's too imprecise and MANY times the game required me to dash into tiny platforms, often times ending in my death.

 Let's talk about Call, Beck's sister. She gets an entire level for herself that is pretty much Metal Gear Call. And it SUCKS. She's slow, can't dash and her shots are so weak that killing enemies is pretty much a waste of time. Her stage is all about sneaking about, collecting keys and opening doors. Boring. There's this particular segment in which you have to fly through the infamous one-hit kill spikes that nearly made me quit the game. The entirety of  Call's stage is a detriment to the game. As a whole, the game can be fun, and there are a few fun stages, it's a shame most of them are so poorly designed, which, in turn, makes any fun you could've had with the game's admittedly good ideas be very sparse.

 Let's talk about Ray now. There's absolutely no reason as to why she shouldn't be on the disc from the get-go besides gating used copies. Which is incredibly slimy considering this was a fan-funded game. She has one of the very few fun stages, but she doesn't reward Beck with a weapon, instead, defeating her unlocks her as a playable character. The game doesn't even tell you HOW to play as her, what you must do is press up on the D-Pad when selecting a stage and then the game will allow you to pick Ray as a character. She has her own story, but it's so dumb, she speaks too much and says what amounts to nothing. By the end of the first cutscene I was already tired of hearing her voice. As for her gameplay, she is a melee take on Beck that is constantly losing health, making her constantly a chore to play. That's a bit harsh, she's not that awful, but I had more fun as Sword Beck.

 Oh, how the mighty have fallen. Mighty No.9 is a disappointing successor to Megaman. The worst part about it is how many good ideas it had, and the fact that some stages are actually fun prove that the game had potential, but for whatever reason, the team wasn't inspired or experienced(Which would be surprising, considering Inti-Creates, of Megaman Zero and Gunvolt fame, developed the game) enough to care about the levels. That said, I'd be willing to give a sequel a try, because I know that something really fun could be made from this game's foundations.
4.5 out of 10

Review #628: Yakuza 6 - The Song of Life

 The Tojo should know better...

 This is it. This is Kiryu Kazuma's final chapter in the long-running Yakuza/Ryu ga Gotoku series. For the first time in the series since the first game, they dove right in with a new numbered entry, as opposed to testing the new engine with a spin-off. It was a gamble, and opinions are varied, but if you ask me, they knocked it straight out of the park.

 After Yakuza 5 the police needed a scapegoat and Kiryu fit the bill, and while he could've gotten away scott-free... he decided to do the time, pay for his crimes as the Dragon of Dojima and start again with his name clean, as not to bring more tragedy to Haruka. The 3 years go by and Kiryu is free only to find out that Haruka is in a coma and she's had a baby, the father unknown. And thus begins Kiryu's final attempt at escaping from sins past. It's a poignant story, although, sadly, a lot of mainstays didn't make it in. Majima, Saejima and Daigo are handwaved away into prison, only to be seen at the start and at the very end of the story. The Florist, the one guy who could've solved the plot in 10 seconds flat isn't even mentioned once, and Master Komaki is nowhere to be seen. Long-time allies Kazuki and Yuya are absent as well, Yuya making the briefest of appearances. Disappointing, for a last entry, definitely, but the new cast of characters is phenomenal and very well fleshed out. We get to meet all the villains and supporting cast early on, learning about them and what drives them throughout the story, Someya being a particular standout. We've had evil antagonists before, both misguided and nonredeemable, but this entry features some of the nastiest, slimiest serpents to ever cross Kiryu, which makes it a very satisfying tale to bring to conclusion. Characters aside, the game has a very solemn and melancholic feeling about it: Yuya and Kazuki were bought out of Kamurocho, since the business wasn't going so well, Kiryu doing the time only to awaken to a comatose Haruka, Akiyama being forced to close down business... it's a sad, tragic tale, and it's SO good, even the sidequests having a tinge of sadness about them, from the couple that is trying to remain together to the point of faking switching bodies, to Kazuma befriending a bunch of bar-regulars and creating bonds with them.

 Where most fans take issue is with the lack of content when compared to previous entries. Honestly? It's to be expected. Yakuza 5 and 0 were the culminations of years upon years of adding on top of each game. This is a completely new engine, so the Ryu Ga Gotoku team had to start from scratch. And, even despite it being a new engine, we get a second town, as per usual, in the form of Onomichi. Combat and explorations feels heavier, since Kiryu now moves in a very weighty way, and, in my opinion, feels great. It's not perfect, though, Kiryu can be a slippery bastard at times, as any other character running on modern physics-based engines, like Nathan Drake. And there are bugs, sometimes random encounters ended as if I had run away because... I crossed some sort of invisible boundary? I dunno, it made no sense, but it happened a few times. Running is no longer a free action, now it's tied to a stamina gauge and the X button, so a few times I accidentally triggered conversations, such as trying to dash as soon as I got out of a cab. The engine definitely needs tweaks, but these few shortcomings didn't prevent me from having a blast with the new game.

 As far as exploration goes, thanks to the new graphics Kamurocho feels HUGE, and running around is a joy. There's a hidden stamina meter that gauges how long Kiryu can dash, and while it can be upgraded to a point that it barely hinders you, I wish it wasn't there. Random Encounters and buildings have been fully integrated into the open world of Kamurocho, you see thugs walking around with those Red exclamation points on top of their heads? Just run towards them and BAM! fight started. Want to enter any building? Go right in, no loading times stand between you and their insides. The new engine makes it so that Kiryu's body interacts with anything it touches, so you can dash around breaking around private property. Getting to run around a restaurant, while breaking every furniture not in use by NPCs while the remain so poise is hilarious. Phone Booths are a thing of the past, you can save your game at any time. Plus, you can carry as many items as you want(Although each type has a limit), however, you can no longer carry weapons in your inventory, so after combat ends Kiryu will just drop any weapon he stole from an enemy.

 As stated before, a lot of the side activities have been lost. That said, Karaoke is back, and so is the Hostess bar, Darts are here and accounted for and, lastly, Mahjong and Batting are both still here. On the other hand, Bowling, Gambling, Pool, UFO Catchers and the underground arena have been axed completely. But we get a few new fun additions to make up for that. There are the Clan Creator battles, a Tower Defense-esque mode in which you call upon thugs and heroes(Such as Kiryu himself or even Date!) to defeat various enemy gangs, which has no right to be as fun as it is. There's also a first-person gallery-shooting sub-aquatic hunting game that's also pretty fun to play. There's also a Baseball simulator-esque mode that I didn't even try since I really didn't care about it. To top it all off we get complete Arcade games: Super Hang-on, Outrun, Space Harrier and Fantasy Zone. What? They are ancient you say? There's also Virtua Fighter 5 Final Showdown(the customization items are gone though) and Puyo Puyo. I've longed for a physical release of Virtua Fighter 5: Final Showdown, and this is as good as it gets. As if it couldn't get any better, you can access the multiplayer components of Virtua Fighter 5 and Puyo Puyo from the game's main menu, talk about a treat! There's also a cringy, but enjoyable thanks to the brilliant localization, web-cam chat minigame. It really is growing!

 The final element is combat. The basics remain the same: Circle is a Grab, Square and Triangle are your basic attacks, X is a dodge, R1 targets the enemy and L1 blocks. Kiryu's combo string has been changed, but what makes the combat feel different is that now everything feels heavier, which makes blow extra satisfying. On the other hand, it also means that bodies fall around like ragdolls, which can have some unintentionally funny side effects. The Heat actions have been reduced considerably, but the game wants you to use the new mechanic, Extreme Heat. Heat is no longer a gauge, but orbs(up to six of them), and you can either spend them on Heat actions... or use them to enter Extreme Heat for a short while, which makes you stronger and gives you nastier looking combos. Ending a boss fight with one of the finishers you can pull when mashing Square under Extreme Heat felt AMAZING.

 Leveling up has been tweaked as well, now you gain five different types of experience points, which you can then spend on either skills or your basic stats, such as health or attack power. Earning the combat experience points(Red, Blue and Yellow) is fairly easy, but the Green and Purple experience points are a bit of a pain to earn, so you'll have to rely on food.... or get some Rare characters, via code, for the Clan Creator and spam the latter fights to earn money and then spend it on Rizap's drinks. Whatever flies your way, honestly.

 I don't know if I can make it any clearer, but I absolutely loved Yakuza 6 - The Song of Life. It has a few rough edges here and there, but the final product is top-notch. Combat feels fantastic, and I bet that it's only gonna get better as they build up on this on future Shin Ryu Ga Gotoku games. I just can't wait to see what Sega will do with this new engine. On the other hand, Yakuza 6 gives Kiryu his well-earned closure, even if it may not be as happy as the one he deserves.
 9.5 out of 10

Review #627: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

 I've always dreamt about a game based on Roald Dahl's writings. But not like this. Not like this!

 I could try to be ambiguous and mysterious about the game's quality before getting on with the review... but is it really gonna fool anybody? The game's a mess. It's the bottom of the barrel as far as licensed videogames on the PS2 go, it's what you've got left after you're done scraping what's left inside the barrel.

 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is meant to be a tie-in of the movie with the same name, but it kinda isn't. This Willy Wonka looks a bit like Johnny Depp's version, but besides two unlockable trailers there's nothing tying this game with the movie. Regardless, the game haphazardly follows the story of the eccentric Willy Wonka, who hides a golden ticket inside five different chocolate bars and whoever gets a ticket gets invited to his factory, under the promise of a prize. Charlie is one of the winners, and alongside four other kids he gets to visit inside Willy's factory, a place both whimsical and dangerous. The game does a poor job at retelling the story, each chapter is prefaced with a lackluster narration alongside some spectacular 2-D art. Hilariously, the 2-D art doesn't match the in-game graphics, however, by the same token, the in-game art direction was brilliant as well, pretty minimalistic and cartoonish... and it works well. Animations are choppy, but hey, it looks great in pictures!

 Because there was no correct way of translating the source material, except, maybe an adventure game such as the Telltale series or even Monkey Island, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory on the PS2 is a puzzle game. As Charlie you must find Oompa-Loompas and guide them to operate various machines in order to progress. As you go through the game you'll also get access to different candies, such as one that lets you fly, one that encases you in a giant candy sphere and a bouncing gum that let's you jump higher. On paper, there's promise to the set-up, but everything is very sloppy. What little combat there is is a mess, you have to hold down the square button for Charlie to lock on-to an enemy before firing a jawbreaker, but enemies have unnecessarily long invulnerability periods. Luckily, death is but a slap on the wrist, and enemies are so dumb you can just shoot from afar.

 One of the biggest issues is how unresponsive the game is. BE prepared to having to position yourself correctly before the order to work fires off your Oompa-Loompas. And, sometimes, they love to get stuck while following your or on the way to their jobs. Movement, which includes a lot of jumping, feels very choppy and the camera likes to get stuck around objects. Regardless, nothing feels quite 'right', the entire game is janky and, sadly, very, very boring. Puzzles aren't hard to solve, although sometimes it isn't very clear just what the hell the game wants you to do. R2 can sometimes solve this, since it's a hint on what to do.

 The good news? The hand-drawn art is beautiful and the in-game graphics are a delight that capture how the world of Roald Dahl looks, plus, I think the game's premise, on paper, is great. The bad news? The execution is terrible, the entire game feels as if it was developed on a 3 dollar and one lollipop budget.
 2.0 out of 10

Review #626: Yakuza 3

 Just give Kazuma a break already!

 Kiryu just can't leave the Yakuza business behind, can he? With a new generation of consoles hitting the market it was only time before Ryu Ga Gotoku would make the jump into the HD generation. And it did... with a spin-off that never left Japan, but the following year Ryu Ga Gotoku would hit the scene. You'd expect Sega to cut back a bit in order to start a new, but the Yakuza team managed to make Yakuza 3 the biggest and largest Yakuza yet.

 The game opens up one year after Yakuza 2 and Daigo Dojima, the sixth chairman of the Tojo family, getting shot. And then we're taken back in time to right after Yakuza 2 ended before Kaoru is unceremoniously removed from the story to pursue a career in America. Screw that noise! Kaoru and Kiryu were the best and I'll never forgive Sega for that. That aside, the new story has Kiryu and Haruka moving to Okinawa to start up an orphanage and move away from Yakuza business. But it's never easy to leave crime behind, and soon he becomes embroiled in Tojo affairs again, just by trying to protect his new home and his kids. While we had some pretty complex villains in Nishiki and Ryuji before, Yakuza 3 has some of the evilest and most ruthless villains we've seen yet! And, on the flip side, also has some of the most endearing characters yet in the form of the Okinawan Yakuza. The first act of the game is very slow paced, which I appreciated for the build up, having Kiryu taking care of his children as well as dealing with the local Yakuza. But it's not long before Yakuza earns the respect of the Ryudo family, beloved Okinawan Yakuza that just might bite more than they can chew when they come across Tokyo's worst. Yakuza 2 is often considered to have the best plot, but I disagree, I completely adored Yakuza 3's script, I love how we get to see Kiryu acting like a foster parent and having to manually partake in such menial tasks as calling the kids for a family meeting since someone stole money, or having to chide them into doing their homeworks! It's not for everyone, but it does wonders to develop Kiryu and sell you on him as a parent. On the other hand, Yakuza has always been a very Japanese franchise, so expect to come across a few... questionably affairs, such as Michiru, a cartoony transvestite that chases Kiryu because rape is funny, something which was thankfully axed from the PS4 port, as well a bit of unintentional sexism, such as everyone trying to pair up to kids just because the kid likes the girl, even though the girl is clearly uninterested. On the other hand, they have a brilliant portrayal of a gay(or maybe bi) character. It's a different culture, you either take it or leave it.

 The game continues the tradition Yakuza 2 started of building on top of what came before. If you ever played a Yakuza game before, well, it's pretty much exactly the same: You are thrust into the small city of Kamurocho, which you're free to explore as you follow the story or invest your time solving sidequests. I expected the amount of sidequests to be lower than Yakuza 2, since it was a new engine, but there's about a 100 of them, so have fun. It took me almost 30 hours to beat the game, 10 more than Yakuza 2, and I spent a ton of them delving into these, from chasing the nefarious dine-and-dasher to solving a crime-mystery right out of Phoenix Wright's notebook, pointing included. Exploring the city feels better than ever, fixed camera angles are a thing of the past, with the camera firmly stuck behind Kiryu's back, and his running speed is quite fast. You can also swap items from any Telephone Booth out there, which is a godsend, no longer having to trek back to a Hideout because you need to make space in your inventory. As per usual, there's a secondary area besides Kamurocho, this time being Okinawa, a pleasant rural town that offers a golf course and its own set of Lockers.

 Joining the Batting, Mahjong, Shogi and Golfing from Yakuza 2, now we've also got a new Arcade game: A sidescroller shooter, Golf, Darts, Fishing, and best of all: Karaoke. The Karaoke minigame is so good and so much fun that it will be returning in future games! On the other hand, a lot of the more Japanesy activities, such as Hostess clubs, were removed(According to Sega, due to time constraints) which... are no skin off my back, I never cared too much about them(Even though I appreciated them being there, since it made Kamurocho more authentic) so their loss didn't sting too much. Dating hostess has been hilariously simplified into them just asking Kazuma to take them out on a date out of the blue. Ridiculous, but at least their sidequests were kept in.

 Combat is easily the best it's ever been, offering more options than ever before. The basics are the same as before, Weak attack, Strong attack, Grab, Dodge and blocking, as well as a Heat gauge that builds up as you dole out damage which can be spent on powerful finishers... if you fulfill the right conditions. Leveling up is now divided into four different categories, and while a lot of the things you'll be unlocking you already unlocked in the previous game... there are also a ton of new additions. You can hasten the speed of Kazuma's combos, you can get a second Strong attack after your weak combo string, a TON of new Heat specials. There are so many options now that combat feels great, the new engine allows for more interactions with weapons, so stray blows might send tins or cans flying around, and the new graphics makes everything very crunchy. On the other hand, this is the hardest Yakuza yet, but by the time you've got a well developed Kazuma you'll be wrecking faces left and right.

 There are two new additions worth talking about, since they'll be returning in Yakuza 4: Chases and Inspirations. Inspirations come in the way of observing silly people doing silly things and hitting all the QTEs. The QTEs are easy enough, but afterwards you have to pick from three choices in order to earn a new move... and it's not always obvious which is the right choice, so you might have to trigger the scene again until you get it right, which can be a bit annoying. Chases are a new mechanic in which you must hold R2 to dash and try to tackle a your target to decrease their stamina.... before you run out of yours. Sometimes you'll be doing the escaping, in which case you'll just have to run around until they run out of stamina. Chases felt tacky at first, but they grew on me, and by the end of the game I was genuinely enjoying them.

 I was ready to hate Yakuza 3. It's the one nobody talks about and the one that came before number 4, the one that brought the paradigm shift of multiple playable characters. But the slow-paced beginning captured me, and then I fell in love with the new supporting cast. I mean, Ryuji was cool, but the new main villain is a ruthless son of a gun that has his own traumas, and as much as I loved Kaoru and Kiryu, Rikiya is the best bro anyone could ask for. And the more I played it the more I realized just how great the combat felt and by the end of the game I couldn't help but notice just how great the side content was. Yakuza 3 is the best Yakuza 3, although I think 4 is even better. But we won't find out, since I'm skipping straight to number 6! Y'know, since I already played 4 back in 2011 and 5 never got a physical release.
9.0 out of 10

The DLC Report: Travis Strikes Back - DLC #1 : Black Dandelion

 Shinobu's back, yo!

 It sucks, don't buy it unless you got it for free.

 Let me explain. Travis Strikes Back, the game, is worth every penny. This DLC is not. For $4 all you get is a new visual-novel scenario and Shinobu as a playable character.

 I love Shinobu, alright? Her new outfit is a bit on the skimpy side, but I think the black and yellow scheme fits her well, and the scarf is badass. Her 3 exclusive skills are fairly fun too, and she has new dialogue throughout the game. Her old voice actress reprises her role, for the very few lines she gets to spew. But there's no more content, it's just a character and one that you can't even use on a new game, as she becomes playable upon finishing the main game. As for her stats, she shares Travis' stat growth. In this game characters are pretty similar, and combat doesn't have much depth outside the four Skills... which run on a shared pool, so she's basically a glorified skin for Travis. That's all she is... and she can't even be played on the last level.

 As for the visual-novel style scenario, it's a 6-chapter long backstory to Badman and why he wants Travis' head. All six chapters together are probably as long as Travis' first chapter. I'll admit that I enjoyed his backstory a lot, I did, but... it's too short for the price.

 It pains me to say it, but this DLC simply isn't worth it. Travis Strikes Back was pretty good by itself, and this DLC adds nothing of worth(Well, that's a bit mean considering how much I liked Badman's scenario, but it was too short!). It'd be a different story if it added a new game, but for that we'll have to wait until DLC #2...
3.5 out of 10

Review #625: Assassin's Creed Rogue

 If everything is permitted... then nobody is safe.

 'Alright, guys, we are Ubisoft, and what do we want?' 'MONEY!' 'Exactly! So, we've Unity comin' up, but let's be honest, most people are still clinging to their PS3. Downgrading Unity is impossible. But we want that sweet, sweet PS3/X360 money' 'I know! Let's grab Assassin's Creed 4, reskin it and call it a day!' 'GIVE THIS MAN A RAISE!'. That's how it went inside Ubisoft's HQ, and how Assassin's Creed Rogue was born. It was Ubisoft dialing in it and it was bound to be a flop, however, Ubisoft forgot about one thing... Assassin's Creed IV was amazing and thus a reskin of said game was, by proxy, gonna be amazing as well.

 The story follows Shay Patrick Cormac(You don't get any more Irish than that) an assassin under the care of Achilees, the very same Achilees from Assassins Creed III, years before Connor was born. It's a tale of how Shay grows dissatisfied with how the Assassins do things and join the Templars. Well... how should I tackle this? I think the premise had a lot of value. Comics have done a great job at portraying a grey and gray morality when it comes to Assassins and Templars. What the game shows, however, is the Templars being as evil as always and the Assassins just being dumb, this is a case of dumb VS evil and not evil vs eviler or grey vs grey, which, I think is a missed opportunity to add more nuance to the lore. On the other hand, it's fun getting to see how the Assassins were exterminated before Connor's time and why Achilees grew so bitter, the game does a nice job at developing Achilees and we even get to see Haytham again, King of all that is swag. The modern-day segments are still around, but much less intrusive than before, a plus in my humble opinion, but you play as 'Numbskull', another tester, inside Abstergo Entertainment and we are introduced to another Abstergo Templar big-wig, but it's nothing worth writing about.

 The game is Assassins Creed 4. There's a huge focus in sailing and ship to ship combat, which is as amazing as always, there are very few cities, instead opting for smaller areas on beaches. There's a single large city in the game, New York, which is rather small, and then you get two different maps that are meant to be navigated by ship. Combat remains exactly the same, square to attack, circle to counter and X to break defense, every enemy requiring a different strategy(Nothing too complicated, you'll learn which character models requires to be countered and which one requires you to break their defense), etc etc. I cannot stress this enough, this is, for all intents and purposes, Assassins's Creed IV. They even went for 'Assassin turned Templar' to justify why you're pretty much playing as any other assassin you've already played as. Heck, even if you adored Assassin's Creed IV I'd suggest taking a break before undertaking Rogue, as it's pretty much identical in all the ways that matter.

 Developers claimed that the game is larger than AC4, and I'm willing to believe that. The main story is extremely short, it could probably be beaten in little more than 4 hours... but this is Assassin's Creed, so there's a LOT of side content to find and do... which I did. There's 200 Memory fragments spread throughout, over 100 chests, a TON of viewpoints to sync with(one per city), there are over 20 Templar Crosses that unlock a costume, 7 Native Statues that unlock the Ultimate Armor(It's great!), about 14 Viking Swords(Which unlocks a sword and a costume) not to mention all the upgrades you can craft by hunting animals on land and under the sea. The Abstergo sections have 20 different computer puzzles to solve as well as a few collectibles, all of which add tidbits to the Templar lore and even a bit into what's happening with the modern day battle against the Assassins.... if you are a completionist you've got your work cut out for you.

 But maybe collecting stuff isn't something you find appealing, fair enough, there are other ventures you can pursue. You've cities that need to be freed from Assassin-allied gangs as well as preventing assassinations! The latter were one of my favorite activities since you are actively foiling Assassin interference, you have to locate their target and then use Eagle Vision to spot the Assassins before they can murder him or her. It's a blast and makes so much sense in-context. If you're feeling nostalgic for Assassin's Creed 2 you've also got properties to renovate for a constant influx of money. There's another new addition, which sadly I felt detracted from the game: Stalkers. As a Templar you'll be targeted by Assassins, which means that 'Stalkers' will try to ambush you. You'll get a pink  glare on the screen to warn you, and then you are supposed to activate Eagle Vision and try to find it before it attacks you. Stalkers were way too frequent to be any fun, eventually I stopped caring and just reacted to their attacks.

 For an AC4 reskin I gotta admit that the game had some of the most beautiful natural environments in the series, exploring the world of Assassin's Creed Rogue is truly a pleasure. It's a shame that it's a bit... glitchy. Costumes are weird, for instance, the game had me wearing the Templar outfit WAY before I was supposed to. Another time I wore the Whaler outfit to hunt a Whale and then... the game reset me to Shay's Assassin robes. There were a few jumps that just didn't work some times and others did, for no apparent reason. But, being Assassin's Creed, it's probably to be expected that it'll have a few bugs here and there, nothing game breaking thankfully.

 It's true, Assassin's Creed Rogue was made on the cheap. But it's also true that it borrows from one of the best games in the franchise, and even though it's a clone, the core of the game is fantastic. The new elements that it brings to the table, namely the story, are great and while I would've preferred a more nuanced approach, Shay is one of the most interesting protagonists we've had so far, and that's saying a lot when he has to share a bit of screen time with Haytham! Call it lazy, call it cheap, call it a clone., because it is. But it's also one of the most fun.
 9.0 out of 10