Feb 2022
“Wherever you decide to be, that’s where you belong.” -Persona 5
Shoot’em up with puzzle like qualities. You go up a corridor of colored blocks and enemies. Shooting a block with same color blocks connecting them are destroyed in succession and the last block destroyed freezes blocks around them and giving them invulnerability. Your goal is to collect upgrades, gems, and defeat the boss of each world. The game plays alright enough, but I did find it far too easy to end up in a situation where you freeze your progression and are forced to die to the auto moving level.
Lewd? Nope
Recommend? Meh, it’s okay. Again, the fact that you can easily block off your progression with little to no foresight is annoying. That and the Boss Rush only gives you 1 health.
A very short and multiplayer focused western game where you must take part in duels. Instead of being quick and accurate with your gun, you must be quick and accurate with your… typing. Both opponents will be tasked with typing out a word (or memorizing and typing out a sequence of letters). The one who finishes first and with the least number of mistakes survives the duel. There is a sort of single player mode where you can face against a gauntlet of foes with increasing difficulties. This is a great way to unlock more characters (purely aesthetic) and gauge your difficulty level. Outside of that, you can face against bots if you don’t have anyone to type against, but their difficulty only goes so high, and some achievements are near impossible as the bots just are not good enough.
Lewd? Nope
Recommend? It’s alright, it is incredibly short and runs the course pretty quickly. I think this game was finished within minutes and then it’s just grinding for achievements/cards. Discount or pass.
Fourth game in the Yakuza series and you know what that means? Four separate characters to play as with their own story paths. Each character not only has their own story, but play style and skill tree. A pretty exciting new addition as they have their own playstyle, move set, upgrades, and karaoke songs available. Not all characters are made equal as some of the stories are somewhat weaker than the others and some playstyles will just not work for everyone. Still, the pacing seemed consistent and had some pretty solid central plot points to cover. As well, it introduced my favorite character of the series, Akiyama.
The minigames of this were generally improved, but sadly Hostess Club Manager is still in a bad state and Karaoke is pretty limited in it’s selections. It also seemed this game put ever egg in the “twist” basket as this game just likes selling them out like hotcakes. Though the pieces of the story moved generally well towards an end, the end itself felt loosely placed together and a little generic. Heat actions are not only unlockable, but upgradeable now by using them so many times. Unfortunately, it’s unclear which actions could be upgraded, and which cannot.
Lewd? Massage Parlor can be suggestive, but also maintains a humorous aspect to it.
Recommend? Yes, the events this game takes place around upon are a bit legendary as well as introducing several new characters that ended up taking top spots in my eyes.
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Persona 5
86.5 hours
After playing through the Persona series, I have made it to the early version of the latest installment, Persona 5. I’ve pretty much been hounded to play this for quite some time and I have got to say… it is pretty great. As far as the new generation of Persona games go, this is easily the most well done mechanically. Reintroducing more damage elements such as Nuke, providing more dynamic boss battles to make up for any limited weaknesses, and a much improved first strike system. It should also be mentioned that this is the most artistically stylish of them all both in music and visuals. The new “castle” system of levels were far more dynamic and some had some great level designs, but unfortunately not as consistent as I would like. For instance, when you siege a castle you are forced to enter it a minimum of a few times to set your path and then another visit will be the actual process of stealing their “heart” using that path. The game does allow you to teleport between saves, but the coolest thing for me was in the first castle, creating a path where I could be pure stealth (no combat) and not use teleporters. For most castles that just is not possible.
Voice acting is of pretty high quality as usual and there are a few animated scenes which sort of cleanse the VN palate. The story is also just genuinely great with solid meaning behind the themes within. Each character is placed particularly well and even with some spoilers the game does provide decent progression and unexpected turns.
I will say that not all bosses were particularly memorable, in fact the main antagonist really did not seem to have been all that fleshed out as they maybe could have been. Their second in command was more interesting than them. Also, some of the main cast could be a little much for me at times. Although they are young and rebellious, there were multiple times where the most responsible of them seemed to just lack any sense of secrecy and sense of a situation. Those moments are fairly limited, but they are there. Additionally, the confidant/tarot system is decent but there were many skills that just seemed for the most part useless and some of the characters don’t have all that interesting of a side story to progress. What’s worse is that some of those worst ones are the hardest to complete leaving little to no reward for the extra effort.
Best Girl(s): Tae Takemi, Sae Nijima, Sadayo Kawakami
Best Boy(s): Yusuke Kitagawa
Lewd? Suggestive and romance options available, but nothing outright lewd. So far, only straight relationships.
Recommend? Though it is not my favorite in the series, it is by far one of the best Persona games out there. It kills the story, the themes, and the gameplay creating a trifecta of enjoyment.
Pokémon Legends Arceus
179 hours
After many years, many generations of Pokémon, we get a spin off that wishes to push the envelope in a different direction than it really has before. A semi-open world Pokémon game that focuses on collecting Pokémon over the traditional battle system. Taking place many years in the past, your character is pretty much isekai’d to this “foreign” land where Pokémon run around fairly free and untamed. You are quickly tasked with creating the first ever Pokédex and it not as easy as you may know. In previous titles, you merely had to catch a Pokémon once to get their entry. In this, you have several tasks per Pokémon before getting a base completion level all the way up to a perfect completion level for those completionists out there. Also unlike previously, you don’t have to battle a mon and catch it, but instead can sneak or stun, and throw a ball to get your chance, but this puts you in much more danger from their attacks. You can still battle with Pokémon in the traditional way, but it is also a bit different. Moves can now be switched out in the menu and there is a new style system that uses up extra power points to either do extra damage but slow your movement or do less damage and increase chances to have your turn come sooner. To put even more emphasis on change of pace in battles, certain boss battles require only you vs a powerful mon as you must dodge their attacks and throw items at it to defeat it.
This game is a much-needed step in a different direction, but it is far from perfect or great. Generally poor graphics aside, the general settings are kind of bland for a Pokémon game. It really feels like some sort of generic world instead of these key vibrant locations we’ve seen in past games. Additionally, seeing Pokémon roam freely is nice, but there really is not any dynamic interactions that really make any encounter unique. It’s all just basic walking, running, eating, and sleeping. The Pokédex is generally enjoyable and a little relaxing, but I felt the tasks set could be a bit much. There would be tasks where you have to use a 5 PP move 70 times and on top of that use it in a specific style which further accelerates through your available moves before resting to restore them. I really believe that the system is there but needs to be wildly balanced especially with the amount of redundancy across multiple Pokémon. The story can also be a bit of a drag as it is not only slow but kind of uninteresting.
Lewd? Nope
Recommend? For the most part, yes. This game, I feel, is more of a test to see if this is what people really want which is why I think they did not put nearly as much polish in it as they could have. I would like to see another side game like this where it has a similar focus, but the graphics and dynamic scenery and interactions of a Pokémon Snap game with more refined gameplay mechanics of Arceus.
179 hours in Pokemon!!!! That’s madness! xD
I played it a bit as well. Had a fair bit of fun, liked the new stuffs they brought but pretty much all you said is how I felt too. So I didn’t play as much. I didn’t even beat it yet. :(
And it’s a bit off topic but I played Triangle Strategy! Not the greatest name, but it was a nice experience. It’s a tactical game, but it was also a lot of fun. Beat it twice. Once regularly, and a new game+ with a guide to get best ending haha xD
Definitively worth it.
179 hours in Pokemon!!!! That’s madness! xD
Absolutely! Despite feeling the grind, I felt a compulsion to try perfecting each entry and to get an all shiny living dex if able. It will be some time before I continue that venture now that I put it down finally…
And it’s a bit off topic but I played Triangle Strategy!
I was very curious about that game as I do enjoy some tactical games (Final Fantasy Tactics/Fire Emblem/Etc). Glad to hear it has some merit. Only bad thing I have heard is that there is some issues with the choices you try to make(?) I’ll have to pick it up once I get some spare funds and maybe a little less backlog. Thank you for the insight! ^_^
That’s amazing what Yakuza 4 did and years before GTA 5?? Ig that’s where Rockstar got the idea from lol.
Can the characters meet each other during and off missions, hang out etc?
The main characters definitely can meet each other at some point during main missions. However, it gets pretty limited after that from my experience. This is a bit of a shame since it would be great if they could all sing karaoke, play darts/pool, etc. together. I know later Yakuza games also have several main characters and I’m hoping they include more side encounters where the others can tag along.