crimson_tide wrote: ↑Sat Feb 20, 2021 12:07 pm
This was apparently not a good year to be an FF that I haven't finished but tried to given the pandemic and having the time. I love so much about FF12. I hate the combat. I now can see what it is that I don't like about it because (oh my God Argyle, I am so sorry) I played Xenoblade.
If you don't like Xenoblade that's....OK. But I swear, if you ever compare it to FF12 again...
9EU9.gif (592.71 KiB) Viewed 7158 times
"When I was ten, I read fairy tales in secret and would have been ashamed
if I had been found doing so. Now that I am fifty I read them openly. When I
became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the
desire to be very grown up.” ― C.S. Lewis
I am sorry argyle...I really just mean I don't like auto attack. It makes combat not my jam. Which is a shame. I kinda dig everything Xenoblade does. The world, lore, side quest set up, the looks, the music...I would LOVE to be into Xenoblade (I would even buy a Nintendo system for it) but I cannot get into the combat. Ys, Fatal Labyrinth, literally anything that has had auto attack has thrown me off. I think the only way it worked for me was FF13 and that was turn based and it felt more like a marshaling of the troops, like coaching. I get Xenoblade and why you and everyone loves it though. I didn't mean to offend .
Now, Best Assassin's Creed Games I Bounced Off!: The Ezio Collection, Assassin's Creed III, Black Flag, Syndicate
I played all of these after Origins and Odyssey. I shouldn't have done that. I will absolutely never play these games, I could not get into them. I liked Syndicate the best (especially Alexander Graham Bell being thirsty for Evie was silly fun) but the actual having to be sneaky thing was meh. I don't do stealth. I am the Juggernaut, I want to run roughshod as often as possible and these games actively tell you not to do that. But they were all mad cheap so it was fine...
4: TIE Assassin's Creed Origins and Odyssey
There are glaring issues with the storytelling in both of these games. Like truly heinous and objectionable ish. I loved playing the hell out of them. They were exactly what I needed to get through huge tracts of this early lockdown nonsense. We'll go through each individually as they at least deserve that even though I love them both for the exact same reasons: combat, looting and side questing. My least favorite thing about both of them is also the same thing: Layla. I need her dead. Like super *******dead. I hate this person so much...but we will get to her...
Origins:
One of these people is the main character. One of them you play as for the vast majority of the game. But I am getting ahead of myself.
So Bayek is just Kazuma but Egyptian. They just wanted to make Yakuza apparently but with a loot system. Seriously, the absolute best stuff in this game is the small side stuff that Bayek finds himself involved in that builds his character. My favorite part is at the beginning of the otherwise not very good DLC The Hidden Ones wherein the mission involves Bayek performing the leap of faith off increasingly high things much to the delight of some children to impress them and absolutely nothing more. It was one of the most pleasant gaming moments I experienced this year. This father who had his child taken from him but still taking time to bring some joy to other children. It was Then the game goes ahead tells you in its closing moments that this is not the character you should have been following, it was really all about his wife Aya the whole time. The game literally stops being about Bayek at the end and you control Aya for all the important stuff that actually matters to the plot. Its absolutely bizarre. And this is the part where I have to bring up the behind the scenes stuff at Ubi Soft because it is frankly apparent in both of these games. Look, this should have been Aya's game, full stop. Bayek is great, love Egyptian Sheriff Kazuma. This is not his story. This story is all about Aya. Hell, the biggest emotional moment in the game should have been with Aya because Bayek doesn't really do justice to what should otherwise be a heavy emotional moment between two women. You can see the whole thing falling apart and see they missed something because Aya is already there, Bayek can't do this. Basically, Bayek is dealing with the death of his child by lashing out at what is in front of him and Aya is trying to channel her grief into doing better going forward so that this doesn't happen again. Her goals are bigger, she's got far more interesting contacts and is doing bigger things in this story than Bayek and she is the gosh dang ORIGIN OF THE ASSASSINS AND THEIR CREED IN A GAME CALLED ASSASSIN'S CREED ORIGINS. It really is a shame that there was a far better story to follow in this game that we didn't get because then they couldn't put a dude on the cover...
Ok, got that out of the way (for this game). Now as for the gameplay, chef's kiss, 10/10. Loved just playing this game. The time I spent with the game before I got to the end game scenarios were enough to keep my mind off the real world and I got super wrapped up in it. First, it's beautiful. There is just so much to see and engage with in the world. The combat is intense and feels great (shields are a bit annoying but wait until we get to Odyssey...). On a real world note, as the pandemic raged through my family in April, my favorite aunt (who I played so much Sonic with that this is why I love that series so much) passed. And this is what I was playing at the time and frankly the rage I felt at not being able to go to see her, to say goodbye, to have her just gone was a lot. So I was feeling Bayek. I wanted to rage at the world for taking someone so precious to me. I couldn't do that. But I could go along on Bayek's journey to get revenge for his son. And in the end him realizing that revenge was not going to bring him peace but instead continuing to go out and live and do right to make things better for us all was something else I identified with. And then seeing Aya growing and really striking out to make things better as well really clicked with me. Loved it...
And then Layla kept showing up. I didn't get. I still don't get it. I don't want to get it. These games and their insistence on tying into the current day is extremely frustrating especially since this character just doesn't work. She doesn't listen. She's mean. She's wholly uninteresting.
Odyssey
AND THEN SHE'S HERE TOO!!! But also my homeslice, Kassandra. I dove so hard into this game. The capital P Plot was...I don't know. You did...ummm...mercenary? You were a...Spartan? Something something Leonidas's Spear...ummmm...and family? Look, it's wholly irrelevant because playing this game is just flipping delightful! I played it for 130 hours just because I liked how it worked. It all just clicked. There was nothing in particular I didn't like but there was just so much I loved. First, the shield issue was solved like this:
So combat was that much better. You had so many attack options, loot to collect and try, varied skills that worked together and you could redo your character as much as you wanted with no repercussions. It was all so good. The ship combat and boarding ships was a blast, puzzles were cool and fun. And the insane web of evil people you must take down for there to be any actual closure (seriously, this game has no actual plot, I swear) is just a blast. Hell, I was actually interested in pursuing a video game romance with Daphne the legendary hunting guild chick because her and Kassandra were mad thirsty for each other and flirty (sadly, the romance does not end well. Just saying...). There was nothing not to love...
Until the ending. Because Layla shows up like at the very beginning and then at the very end. And then it becomes the Layla show for the DLC which again if you want some kind of closure you need to play. The DLC, while excessively long, at least tried some new, fun stuff. I really dug what was going on. As far as gameplay at least. The stuff they do with Kassandra to make the first part work is not ok. Like not even a little. It rights itself to tie into Origins (where they again go out of their way to show that Aya was supposed to be the MC in Origins) by the end but I was not comfortable with how we got there. And Layla became increasing stupid and obnoxious the further you went. The character is seriously irredeemable and I will play Valhalla because she needs some kind of comeuppance. I cannot stand her. The game parts, great. The story parts, no...
And to end on a bit of a down note, you can clearly see this is supposed to be Kassandra's game. Her brother...yeah, him, he sucks. The voice actress for Kassandra is on point and the brother is not. This story was clearly written around Kassandra and it should have just been abut her. But needing to have a dude on the box we have idiot meathead brother. The game works because Kassandra recognizes the absurdity of these situations and her idiot brother does not seem to.
Regardless, as cheap as these games are regularly, if you don't have them you probably should. They're a super breezy to play and I had a great time through the vast majority of them. Great to play games, just watch out for that story...
Now that the chaff is out of the way, we journey to the top 3 next...here's a preview for #3...
I just wanted to stop in real quick and mention how much that I’ve been enjoying this thread. It’s been both entertaining and informative. Our opinions might differ slightly on some games (Final Fantasy IX, Nier: Automata and Sleeping Dogs are faves of mine), but that’s ok because we tend to agree more than disagree when it comes to games. I’m looking forward to playing the games that you’ve listed that I haven’t played yet, I have most of them in my backlog.
Last edited by Phaseknox on Sun Feb 21, 2021 6:42 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Thanks Phase, glad you are enjoying it! Y'all have sold me on Tsushima and argyle has me looking into Sundered at some point too. I forgot, I gotta work this week, going to move on a bit so I can wrap this sucker up by at least Wednesday night. Next category:
Game I Most Deftly Avoided Buying: KH: Melody of Memories
GUYS! I DIDN'T BUY A KINGDOM HEARTS GAME DAY ONE AND I STILL DON'T OWN IT!!! I THINK I AM FREE FROM...
3 :Kingdom Hearts 3: Remind
Ok, never mind. I am super lying. I could play Kingdom Hearts forever at this point and still be bought in. Rhythm games just ain't my bag and I was terrible at the demo with even one button controls. But rhythm games are all about that music...
So now I'm just going to gush about Yoko Shimomura and this soundtrack. There are so many gosh danged BANGERS in KH that the soundtrack of KH3 is literally just Yoko smelling herself until she feels like giving us all that new stuff we are not ready for. So much music in this game is so great and a lot of it is remixed and way stepped up versions of previous tracks because KH3 is just that: a stepped up version of all the Kingdom Hearts that came before it. And I love Kingdom Hearts 3 for that.
If I am honestly reviewing this thing, be forewarned: the capital P Plot in this thing is Sora is on a quest to save Roxas (who has no body) and someone who literally was wiped from existence who the main crew has never met. And this is because even though he has saved the worlds multiple times and sliced through flipping skyscrapers flying at him by the end of KH2, Sora failed the test to be a Keyblade master. His boy Riku is doing all the heavy lifting as far as hero in this one, running around with Mickey Mouse to save the universe from Xehanort who is still after Kingdom Hearts. It turns out most of what Sora is doing is pretty inconsequential by the time we get to the super over the top fan service filled finale...and then Re:Mind happens...
No, I still can't tell you what Kingdom Hearts is. No one can. And that's not the point. Because Kingdom Hearts 3 is really the early PS3 game that they probably intended to release made super pretty. It plays like a souped up PS2 game. That's why I love it. It just does the exact thing I want it to do, just flashier. Izzy talks about Platinum combat and cool Dark Souls combat. I ain't that good and don't want to put the time in to do it but I still want thing to at least look cool and feel good about it. Kingdom Hearts just does that. It's button mashy and everything goes BOOM! in pretty colors and sounds and it feels good, like you did something and it's only a couple button presses you actually input. It makes you feel cool.
The thing everybody gets hung up on is the plot which is actually not hard to follow, there's just way too many subplots they...ok, Nomura (the creator) insists on inserting in everywhere and distracting even himself from what is happening. And then there's so much in the air that people expected KH3 to answer all the questions. It could not and nobody actually wanted them to because the series would be over. But it's not fair to drag the game after all the time it to get here. Judged as a game in the series, it's butter smooth combat and actually fun shooter sections (FINALLY), the game is great! It also gets flack for the ending. I didn't mind it. I don't know what people were expecting from a Disney game honestly...
And then Re:Mind came out last year! It's really fan service heavy. Basically, it just remixes the ending section of the game based on the events that happen and gives you some fun options to control characters who aren't Sora at key points in order to make things feel more thematically appropriate. Yes, even after 13 years they still seemed to be rushing a bit at the end. The part where they finally let you control Kairi is great but still not enough considering how poorly they treat that girl in this series. They play like she finally gets a big moment, like she gets to be the focus and then even in the game that features her, you control literally anybody BUT her. There is some weird stuff with Kairi they need to work out. Hell, there's a big problem with representation for women in these games on the whole. It's not ok. I mean, thank goodness for Aqua at least for being smart and capable but they still treat her like crap for the vast majority of the series.
What is ok is the moments in this game! The Pixar characters, for whatever reason, are absolutely savage to the main antagonists (Organization 13) whenever they cross paths. Woody just wrecks a man's whole ass career with a speech about love at one point. The Monsters Inc crew just owns one of these fools in a way they haven't let Disney characters do before. And then, after all these years, that stupid mouse finally did something worth a damn. Y'all played MGS4 right? Snake in the radioactive tube thing? Yeah, they did that with Mickey Mouse. I teared up, not gonna lie, that ish was flipping beautiful. In the main game when they just give you new characters to control and you are like YES! and the L1 or R1 pops up in Re:Mind and then you can choose? Say no more, fam. That image of the the beam I posted? That was the literal best moment of the game. Followed very closely by the relative insanity of what happens afterwards. Kingdom Hearts 3 and its DLC are just a collection of moments, really strong moments. The context is important or you sound insane (I would explain the beam thing but...just play the game) but it really is worth playing. Though I think izzy would only like the boss rush of Re:Mind because it takes actual skill to beat that (I still haven't ). But if you want a breezy...probably 30 or so hour PS2 style romp, definitely give it a go! I am currently getting some distance and then I am going to do a big ol' KH series replay (like in a couple years) and I really am looking forward to playing this again. Only 2 games topped the experience this year. Gee, wonder what they could be...you will probably never see my #2 game coming .
I am on a serious RPG kick, and I have a lot in my backlog that I *want* to get to playing soon - KH3 is on that list. Maybe not at the top, but given its length and the button-mashy change of pace it will provide, I imagine I'll slip it in at some point this year.
My current gameplan is to move into Strikers after I wrap up P5R (of course), then move on to Ys IX (because I'm becoming a Ys fanboy, and I really want to play that game). After that? I'm considering your #1 game (I'm Nostra-freakin'-damus over here ).
"When I was ten, I read fairy tales in secret and would have been ashamed
if I had been found doing so. Now that I am fifty I read them openly. When I
became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the
desire to be very grown up.” ― C.S. Lewis
crimson_tide wrote: ↑Sun Feb 21, 2021 2:17 pm
Izzy talks about Platinum combat and cool Dark Souls combat. I ain't that good and don't want to put the time in to do it but I still want thing to at least look cool and feel good about it. Kingdom Hearts just does that. It's button mashy and everything goes BOOM! in pretty colors and sounds and it feels good, like you did something and it's only a couple button presses you actually input. It makes you feel cool.
Though I think izzy would only like the boss rush of Re:Mind because it takes actual skill to beat that (I still haven't ). But if you want a breezy...probably 30 or so hour PS2 style romp, definitely give it a go! I am currently getting some distance and then I am going to do a big ol' KH series replay (like in a couple years) and I really am looking forward to playing this again. Only 2 games topped the experience this year. Gee, wonder what they could be...you will probably never see my #2 game coming .
Trust me I'm not that good, I'm just too dumb to know when to give up if I really love something. So I bang my head on the wall until I bleed for my passions in life.
Maybe one day I'll return to see what else KH series has to offer, maybe one day far away. (I only played KH1 - which was a 3/5 for me.)
And to echo phase and cane, I'm enjoying your thread as well. Nice to read your experiences.
isthatallyougot wrote: ↑Mon Feb 22, 2021 2:56 pm
Trust me I'm not that good, I'm just too dumb to know when to give up if I really love something. So I bang my head on the wall until I bleed for my passions in life.
Maybe one day I'll return to see what else KH series has to offer, maybe one day far away. (I only played KH1 - which was a 3/5 for me.)
And to echo phase and cane, I'm enjoying your thread as well. Nice to read your experiences.
Fair, I appreciate your stick-to-it-ive-ness, I just get frustrated and hang up my controller (see: KH Remind superbosses ). And KH is KH. You are either there for the combat and willing to ignore the bug**** insanity of spit and hope holding the mess of a story together or you need an actual context that you can understand for the button mashy combat. Again, argyle: the plot is simple. Everything else is nonsense. KH3 just leans into this and has a great, poppy combat system. The end is just completely off the rails fan service but you get some really fun boss fights out of it.
BUT, it has been a week y'all!!! I started this post at like 8 this morning and am just getting to finish around 11pm. Life, what can I say ? Let's finish this list this weekend and jumping right into the thick of it with my runner up for game of the year 2020:
2: Persona 5 Royal
Me and my girl Kasumi!...dear sweet lord do I want to talk about Kasumi. But no spoilers. Well, there will be a mechanics spoiler if that's a dealbreaker for you but that's it. I am going to have to talk about how this game works because the mechanics reinforce it.
So let's start: Persona 5 came out in 2016. September 2016. I ignored it HARD. I knew I just wouldn't have time for it. School just started, I just moved in with my fiancee at the time, we still had our goddaughter we were fostering, I was planning a wedding, I was trying to get fully licensed and tenured...I couldn't deal with Persona and a literal second life to manage! I knew how long P4 was, especially since I spent the better part of the year playing Golden on the train to and from work. Yakuza was my timesink series, I just was never going to get to Persona 5 unfortunately, especially since no Vita version was coming...
So 2020 happened. And right at the beginning out of nowhere (for me) Persona 5 Royal drops. Still, I put it off. I had tons to play in my backlog, I couldn't just willy nilly add a Persona game with extra content. Then by August, I ate through most of what I wanted to play in my backlog and had a whole month at least to not have to commute (summer vacation). So August 5, boom, break down and buy it on sale on PSN. Weird how I remember that date so exactly...oh wait, it's because I was what's called excessed from my job the exact moment I sat down to play it. In NYC, when schools reconcile their budgets, they can what's called excessing. My school decided they had enough special education teachers so I was released from my position. However, instead of freak out, I redid my CV, reached out to my connections and continued attending the virtual training I had been for the past 2 weeks. Within 48 hours, with a healthy outpouring of support from my connections, I had a new position at another school.
So how does this rambling story tie into Persona 5 Royal? Because P5R became a game that's indelibly tied to a very important moment in my life. I have several games that are tied to a series of moments in my life. Rocketknight Adventures and Gunstar Heroes. Guardian Heroes. Threads of Fate. Final Fantasy Tactics. The World Ends With You. The Last Story. Yakuza 0, 5 and 7 (geez Yakuza...). Kingdom Hearts. I can tell you exactly what was happening in my life due these games being inextricably linked to getting me through something, generally something tough. These types of games tend to become short list games for my favorites. P5R will be the time I lost my job but didn't have to stress out because I knew if I turned it all over and stayed the course without freaking out, I would land in a solid place because I did the right things. I knew I was a good teacher. I just had to use my network and with a lot of luck, it would work out. So I made P5R which I bought on August 5 the treat I would play after I buckled down and found a job. 48 hours later, I started P5R and absolutely fell in love with this game.
It took months. 180 hours. This game is just a beast. I loved every minute. Thematically, the Persona games since 3 have been about the bonds you make inevitably making your character a richer person and contributing to the dungeon crawling gameplay. The trick in P5R (that I have no idea how they'll top, since it's so ingenious) is they leaned so hard into it with the theme of being thieves. The Phantom Thieves pull off heists. But the rub is these are the purest heists you will ever experience. Joker has been wronged. He did the right thing and circumstance and bureaucracy just crushed the boy. It was unfair what happened to him But he hold to his conviction. And holding to that conviction is how the Phantom Thieves come together. The one thing I will spoil is the mechanic of how they pull off these heists: the Phantom Thieves are able to enter what's called a mind palace. In each of these palaces, there is a ruler that exists in the real world who in this palace of cognition, has something they treasure. The crew plots a course to the treasure of the palace which is what each ruler treasures most. The trick is the thieves can't just get there and steal it. The treasure is all hazy and formless...until the thieves go back to the real world and leave a calling card for the ruler. This puts the the ruler in a state if panic because the crew tells the ruler straight up they are coming and they are going to force them to have a change of heart by stealing the treasure. This will make the ruler in the real world admit to their own wrongdoings to the world. And it is such a great mechanic and thematically appropriate that they may not be able to top it. I almost demand this be part of every Persona game from now on. Also, this song plays every time you re-enter the palace for the big boss throwdown and it is the coolest thing as the palace pulses and flashes with the ruler's anger that you DARE come at them:
Why am I droning on about this? Because this is THE reason I love the game so. I am enamored with the idea that you have to call your shot and tell that fool you are coming and they better be ready because you WILL make them face their evil (and these are some ****ed up people, folks) and fess up. The Phantom Thieves are not trying to kill these adults, they are making them tell the truth. The trauma these people have inflicted is intense. The fact that revenge isn't the driving motivation but mercy (in their view) by doing the heist is so, so cool. The boss battles are spectacular and worthy of the amazing setup. And the payoff for each successful heist is chef's kiss, 10/10! It feels so good to get through the dungeon and know you are meaningfully making a change. A change that by design (because heist motif) is bigger and bolder than the last. Are there hiccups and plot twists? Of course and they all play out so well.
And as is standard in Persona, you are making connections the whole time. You probably spend the same amount of time in conversation as you do in dungeons. And I NEEDED this in 2020! Holy schnikeys I did not realize how much I missed routine. I made Joker go to the gym almost everyday for a month toward the end. It felt SO GOOD! There was itineraries and routines and time spent with people all over Tokyo...oh my God, I forgot how much I liked these routines. They just felt so comfortable. P5R really made me feel like a whole ass person again. I am not a social butterfly but just having to do these social links felt so natural.
You do all of this and build to an amazing crescendo and then you get to the 3rd semester (the Royal content) and you think they can't top what they just did...and they flipping do! The final boss song is amazing, it's so thematically appropriate and somehow the most 2020 song possible. It just all works. It works so, so well. I don't know how they made this thing but I am kicking myself for not having just played it earlier. I would give it another 180 hours. Hell, I bought the Warriors sequel at full price! P5R put Persona in that rare category of Kingdom Hearts, Yakuza and Ratchet and Clank where it is a day one buy going forward. Such a wonderful game...
Is this game perfect? No. I have some small quibbles. The palaces, while great overall, can go on a bit too long. Two of the bosses are too gimmicky. One has the absolute worst mechanic I have ever seen in a turn based RPG, periodt. There's one Phantom Thief who deserved to have more time to flesh them out but they came into the story a little to late so they get kinda sidelined because plot. As for the plot, there's a twist they are way, way, WAY too proud of and spend a solid 45 minutes explaining several times over. There is a weird sexualization of female characters (in particular teenager Ann and the maid confidant especially) I was absolutely not even a little OK with. Additionally, the fact Joker couldn't date dudes in the year of lord 2020 is a particularly odd choice. At least do the P3P thing and let Joker have a female option to play through as well (my sweet art boy Yusuke was my canon ship for Joker). They took a step back from P4 with gender and sexual orientation in general in this game (which is really weird and not OK, I was hoping they would have gone further).
But the game deserves the praise because it does such a wonderful job exploring trauma from so many different angles. They really confront some stuff, it ain't all sugar and rainbows. Yes, the Phantom Thieves are very much the power of friendship trope but it works before this is a story about confronting trauma. And nobody should have to do that on their own. You should have friends for that. Nobody should have to pull themselves out of darkness by their bootstraps, that's a ridiculous ask. And the music, design, writing, music, dialogue, combat, music...did I say music...all of that more than makes up for any of the game's shortcomings. This game NEEDS to be experienced if you are into RPG's. It really is deserving of your time. Crank the difficulty down and make a go of it. It just flows with a rhythm and energy that I haven't really experienced before. It has low points but is never dull. It's like a really great album or something. In fact, this game is as close to a musical as an RPG is likely to ever get. The lyrical songs are basically the Greek chorus and the game just pops with all the music. So many songs in this soundtrack just slap and are absolute bangers...hell, three of the songs made their way into my game of the year...weird, wonder what that could be...it's like a...something...can't quite think. Maybe it will come to me in the morning (it's getting late...) .
crimson_tide wrote: ↑Sat Feb 27, 2021 10:22 pm
Why am I droning on about this? Because this is THE reason I love the game so. I am enamored with the idea that you have to call your shot and tell that fool you are coming and they better be ready because you WILL make them face their evil (and these are some ****ed up people, folks) and fess up. The Phantom Thieves are not trying to kill these adults, they are making them tell the truth. The trauma these people have inflicted is intense. The fact that revenge isn't the driving motivation but mercy (in their view) by doing the heist is so, so cool. The boss battles are spectacular and worthy of the amazing setup. And the payoff for each successful heist is chef's kiss, 10/10! It feels so good to get through the dungeon and know you are meaningfully making a change. A change that by design (because heist motif) is bigger and bolder than the last. Are there hiccups and plot twists? Of course and they all play out so well.
It has low points but is never dull. It's like a really great album or something. In fact, this game is as close to a musical as an RPG is likely to ever get. The lyrical songs are basically the Greek chorus and the game just pops with all the music. So many songs in this soundtrack just slap and are absolute bangers...hell, three of the songs made their way into my game of the year...weird, wonder what that could be...it's like a...something...can't quite think. Maybe it will come to me in the morning (it's getting late...) .
Really enjoyable review crim! The quote above really makes me interested in playing it. (It's already in my backlog - along with various Persona games dating back to the PS1. I've never played any of them though.)
I know they're different than the SMT series, but as much as I loved Nocturne, I always told myself I'd get into this franchise one day.
Dude, izzy the best thing about the Persona games is you can jump in anywhere! They're thematically connected and nowhere near as ball busting as SMT proper though they tend to revolve more around the tone than anything else. Glad the review got Persona 5 Royal on your radar!
SO...what on Earth could top P5R???
1: Yakuza: LIKE A DRAGON
Yo. Son. You like melodrama? You like shocking violence? You like wild tonal shifts? You like fan service? Sir, do you like video games AT ALL? Well, have I got a game for you...it's basically the 8th game in a long running, story focused series that had the audacity to go from densely packed open world 3D brawler to...a straight up JRPG for no actual reason than they made this as an April Fool's joke and then decided why the hell not:
Seriously, just hearing the backstory to how this happened was mind blowing. It is such a balls out insane idea when all they had to do was not rock the boat and slap a 7 after Yakuza and call it a day. But they didn't do that. Not even close. Yakuza 7 (for brevity's sake, that's how I will refer to it going forward) was a massive, massive gamble for what has been a very successful, very iterative formula. I can think of precious few franchises that not only retired the main character but changed the whole ass genre in the next game in the franchise but have it actually WORK. Has that ever happened?...
Anyway, how did they pull this off? So let's start with this clown:
For starters, Ichiban Kasuga is NOT Kazuma Kiryu. Like the only things they have in common is they are both in the Yakuza. Ichiban isn't strikingly handsome but his looks grow on you, even that awful, awful hair. As I went through my misadventures with Ichiban, my wife slowly grew to love this dude even with that ridiculous hair. He's not stoic, he's actually just a big ol' nerd, social awkwardness and all. Kazuma always seemed to have a need to help people no matter how detached he was from the proceedings. Ichiban leans into that ish HARD. He is absolutely there for everything he gets involved in and it is utterly infectious.
Test to gain certificates at night school? THERE FOR IT!
Kart racing? THAT BOY DOWN!
Picking up cans? LET'S DO IT!
Cleaned house at a shareholder meeting? YESSIR!
It didn't seem like Kazuma could be replaced so easily but RGG Studios did it effortlessly with grace. They don't feel the need to crap on Kazuma or to just shove Ichiban down your throat until you accept him. They introduce Ichiban in the absolute dumbest way possible and set the tone immediately. They quickly establish that, like the picture states above, Kazuma is living life like he's the hero in Dragon Quest...but a Yakuza (Ichiban is kinda dumb...it's endearing)? He grew up in a soapland raised by the working girls and their manager and whiled his youth away playing Dragon Quest. Dude had a hard life and it just keeps getting harder. It's not fair. And he just wants to do good. Again, it's infectious. And it is not in the same beleaguered way Kazuma just fell into these ridiculous situations. It's not the same energy of Majima or any of the other playable chuckleheads in the series. It's an energy that's wholly unique to Ichiban. It's what fuels this entire game...for me, all 115 hours of it!
So once they establish the battle system is the way it is because you are essentially living out Ichiban's delusion, they immediately hit you with the part that reminds you that you are in fact playing a Yakuza game. The backstory and how they get you out of Kamurocho and into the whole new city of Yokohama is gosh dang ridiculous. But again, they were extremely clever in immediately setting the tone that Yokohama is NOT Kamurocho. Ichiban starts there but you can't easily go where you want and do whatever. It's basically gated by your level. But it's an RPG, what did you honestly expect? Once you hit Yokohama and really get a feel for how things have changed since Yakuza 6, they hit you with the job system. This is the bread and butter of the game. Ichiban and crew (we will get to them next) change jobs by visiting the local employment agent and assuming new careers. Some seem rote like demolitionist or office worker and others like devil rocker and night queen (it's just a dominatrix) seem a bit more esoteric than you think an employment agency would suggest. This is where your standard Yakuza nuttiness comes in. You enter combat, Ichiban imagines his enemies as standard DQ punny named enemies and his party assumes whatever role they were assigned. And everything is big and ridiculous and utterly glorious. The battle system is FUN. Seriously, I will get to cons eventually, but considering this started as a joke and then became THE game, it is so impressive what they pulled off. I love animation and one of my favorite things is when animation changes style and makes it work. That a few seconds to minutes of animation. They pulled it off for an at least 50+ hour game. Give these people an award, NOW!
So what's this about a crew? Ichiban rolls deep, son! There's a party and not like past Yakuza where you just are that character at the plot's convenience until you're not. They are just there and you have whole ass party battles. You drink with them and have essentially social link style interactions that improve their utility in battle while giving you some more insight to them as a person. I really loved these folks. The one thing I forgot to mention about P5R is they do the RPG thing of Joker (you) being the GREATEST INFLUENCE IN THE UNIVERSE, ALL REVOLVES AROUND YOUR VERY EXISTENCE!!! It's a little exhausting but you get numb to it eventually. Every character is going to tell how cool you are and how they couldn't do this without you and blah blah blah. That doesn't really happen in Yakuza 7. Yes, the game ends if Ichiban dies, but that's the RPG trope. Your party rolls with you because they are whole ass adults and they want to see how this ends. There are times in this game when you are going to want to reach in your TV and slap the taste out of Ichiban's mouth because he is so blindly devoted. Don't worry, his crew puts him in his place for you and dresses him down accordingly. They call him on his nonsense. It's refreshing. Ichiban is kinda dumb and loyal to a fault. His crew guides him, supports him and is helpful throughout the story. I don't want to spoil too much so I won't go into detail but they each can leave the story at any time they want and it would make sense for them to go. But Ichiban grew on them and the deeper they get into this plot, how could they not want to see how deep this goes?
...well while we're here, let's address a few cons. Again, they get better every time but RGG Studios has a long way to go to address how they treat women in these games. There's two female party members. One kinda just hangs around after her big story beat intro because girl and the other one is a 'secret' character you don't even need to recruit who they didn't even include in any cutscenes at all. And then there's the jobs they have access to: Hostess, Barmaid, Matriarch (think house mother), Office Worker, Idol, Night Queen (again, just dominatrix)...they don't get many and they access to none of the dude jobs. It's not cool at all. You can't change jobs on the fly easily, you have to go to the agency in Yokohama no matter where you are. There could have been a bit more enemy variety. Some of the names of the enemies don't match with the dignity the game tends to show people who society consider to be less than like the homeless. Some of the bosses are just damage sponges.And the plot. Yes, it's tonally wild Yakuza melodrama nonsense. Then Chapter 12 on happens. It is A LOT. It is honestly too much. I love it. It's so good but it's so not good. There are so many logistical gymnastics you have to go through to make this thing they did work.
BUT they do. And you get it. Ichiban Kasuga is a good person no matter where he came from. You have the capacity to be a good person no matter your station. You know the right thing, you need to do the right thing. That's the point. The world can't beat you completely as long as you are doing the next right thing to be a good person no matter what straw you pulled at birth or later in your life. You can and have to make that right choice. Thematically, at the last battle, I made an active decision to call in as many summons as I could because Ichiban had built these bonds and the people who had been wronged in this story or helped get him there should have some part in the end. It felt great, I love when you can thematically tie the game's mechanics to what is happening in the plot. Again, logistical gymnastics. It's dumb. But GOOD dumb. Like the music. I heard the music be described as bad on purpose. It's dubstep, it's extra, it's a lot. But that's THEMATICALLY APPROPRIATE TO THE GAME. It being this dumb and brash at every possible opportunity is the point. It has to be because Ichiban is extra, he is a lot. But he grows on you. No matter how dumb this plot gets, you, like his party are invested in seeing this thing through. You don't have to, like they don't, but you want to see: How does this end after all that?
To end 2020 playing this game after this crazy game just felt right. It just feels like 2020. I reflect on this game a lot like I do P5R because they are great JRPG's for entirely different reasons. Yakuza 7 just spoke to me a little bit more. It's like the difference between (oddly enough, stay with me, almost done) Buffy and Angel. Buffy is more popular, was first and was great for a metaphor for going through college and high school. Angel was the spinoff that had a smaller but loyal fan base and was focused more on what it was like to be an adult. It was messier, spread out all over the place especially in wild tonal shifts but was more hopeful because of it. P5R is great, an all time. I just like Yakuza for taking a bigger swing and connecting at all. It left me with so much hope to follow Ichiban Kasuga for the next 10 years. And when these fools want to make the next Yakuza follow with whatever they choose, like Ichiban, I will be THERE FOR IT!!!
And this concludes my game of the year 2020 list. I had an absolute blast writing this, I am glad y'all enjoyed it fam! I will check you out for my game of the year 2021 list...probably in like March next year !
.
So I bang my head on the wall until I bleed for my passions in life. 
