reviews
I have a long list of steam games and i've played quite a few of them i'll rate each game /10 with a few reasons why may may not contain spoilers
hollow knight
metroidvania
game is great at first going into it i didint expect it to have as much detail as it did with like map changing for endgame etc. punishing in a fun way learning curve isn't that horrible even if you're going for standard true ending
rimworld
sandbox game
hard to give this game a traditional rating since it's a sandbox game but great game lots of variety dlcs are a little pricey but worth it if you enjoy sandbox games i especially enjoy emergent behavior from pawns nad seeing them interact with the environment
persona 5 royal
jrpg highschool setting
persona dialogue is very on-the-nose and repeating but i think in this game it's the most noticeable presentation is very stylish i love it it was the first persona game i played but the dating aspect feels arbitrary?
probably mostly because i don't really like the premise of it all that much but it's a linear dead end once you reach it you're 'dating' and that's it
combat is satisfying also the social links calendar hobbies all of that is fun living a dual life as vigilante and ordinary student especially
little minus point but the core phantom thieves only have 1 major arc and after that they're mostly backseating helping out others which is fine but they don't develop beyond that
obscene amount of story content is a huge plus for me and royal is a nice sendoff like it very much
persona 3 reload
jrpg highschool setting
it also has the gripes i have with persona 5 royal but less so dating aspects etc are all present except the ending of this game actually made me cry
persona games have blank slate protagonists but persona 3 a little less because people actively comment on how apathetic the protagonist is etc.
social links being fully voiced is also a huge plus love it
yakuza 0
beat em up wrapped into a narrative
best yakuza game from 0 through 6 story comparatively is much more satisfying combat is fun standard yakuza formula at its greatest essentially; only real bad thing i can say about this is that faces of characters during the cinematic cutscenes have very ugly visible pores
i only played the original that was 20$ on steam dislike the fact that sega rereleased it with minimal changes for standard 50$ price on steam old one is still available on gog.com
gog store page
yakuza kiwami
beat em up wrapped into a narrative
the game is alright story and everything is a bit rougher compared to 0 and 2 also the boss fight at the end is VERY underwhelming outright frustrating if you don't have any bullet armor on you since you have to fight the boss alongside 5 goons
i played the legacy version but i doubt the rereleased version has any major differences
steam store page
yakuza kiwami 2
beat em up wrapped into a narrative
amazing game all around loved the story loved the technic upgrade loved the plot twists ESPECIALLY compared to kiwami 1 i especially liked that you get to see a little more of the main villain which some other yakuza games struggle doing especially 1 whose villain was comically evil
i played the legacy version but i doubt the rereleased version has any major differences
steam store page
yakuza 3 remastered
beat em up wrapped into a narrative
the game isn't unplayable but the combat was unbearable especially jumping from kiwami 2 it was BAD bad i constantly got stunlocked movement isn't that smooth etc etc.
plot exposition is also not great there's a 40 minute text-only faq section most of the game is centered around the orphanage the main character kiryu manages and the ending for me also fell relatively flat
yakuza 3 remastered has a remake kiwami 3 but i haven't played that; old version was relisted but it's still up on gog
gog store page
yakuza 4 remastered
beat em up wrapped into a narrative
i really hate this game it's also the first game where a titular character in yakuza never makes another appearance which is pretty jarring if you jump from 4 to 5
the protagonist system is fun but the game struggles to find a sufficient reason to tie them all together standalone though the stories of the protagonists do have interesting hooks
combat is i think the worst thing ever i like nothing about it the final end boss is especially horrible with hard to avoid bullet and blade damage
yakuza 5 remastered
beat em up wrapped into a narrative
a real upgrade from 4 but holy hell this game is VERY long for yakuza standards surprising amount of voice acting playing this after a while becomes a real slog
the narrative is very unnecessarily complex found myself confused why some villains were even fighting same for some protagonists the word 'dream' comes up a lot
execution is alright? not amazing but the setup of some protagonists especially the new one shinada is great and compelling but the way they're forced into the narrative feels arbitrary
yakuza 6 remastered
beat em up wrapped into a narrative
game isn't bad and i thought the setup is very strong motivations of characters are clear goes back to 1 protagonist kiryu his demeanor in the early chapters is more pissed off agitated etc. i like it especially since the game assumes you've played prior 5 games already
only gripe is that haruka's motivation for leaving falls a bit flat especially after she during the ending of 5 proclaimed she's not afraid to say kiryu's her dad despite him being a criminal but whatever
also noticeably more comedic during its cinematic scenes? dont think i've seen a yakuza game where characters have major intentional visual or physical gags so that's fun
judgment
beat em up wrapped into a narrative
the story is memorable the new characters come off as interesting i went into this after lost judgment so i already knew most of the characters the scope is smaller than judgment but that kind of adds to its appeal? tight detective noir-esque vibe good departure from yakuza formula
lost judgment
beat em up wrapped into a narrative
this game is great but compared to judgment some of the characters feel a bit flanderized; for example after sawa dies yagami the protagonist consistently uses her death specifically a large amount of times to critique the main villain
it makes sense she's an innocent civilian caught in crossfire but arguments are sometimes a bit circular