And that's 60+ hours in, but Yakuza 7 finished this morning in terms of main quest and all substories. I cleared some of the side stuff, such as the Holdings, the Dungeons, Baseball, Cinema, Vocational School and the like, but anything to do with driving (cans and kart) wasn't for me to be honest.

Plotwise, it's some of the great melodramatic Yakuza shit - you'll know by now whether or not that brand of particular apeshittery is for you or not. What shouldn't be underestimated is how outrageously good Ichiban is as a new protagonist, taking over from Kiryu. Just an absolute moron with a heart of gold and faith in his friends. If the next series entry is the continuing adventures of Ichiban, sign me up.

The new battle system/rpg stylings hit some highs and lows. Overall the system is a refreshing change up for the series, and the playfulness with which it approaches transposing jobs from game to 'reap life' makes it feel like a spiritual successor to The Stick of Truth, with nearly the same amount of crudeness. The vast majority of battle can be brute forced, but later on in the game, it demands you at least know RPG101, which is no massive ask. But at points it feels a little half baked, particularly in terms of positional attacks and area effects. I believe the system was changed pretty late in the development and this is where it shows. Much like the protagonist, though, I'm keen to see it continue in the future.

So yeah, it's more Yakuza, I'm here for it, and enjoyed my time. The sub stories are still that same mix of bonkers, emotionally manipulative, and odd comments on the mundanity of Japanese life (traffic census?) but the new stuff is welcome, and I'm happy to see the series finally stretch out in a different direction. Plus Nick Ogata is the best .

Did you like it?

hylian_elf wrote:

Did you like it?

Yep, very much so. Does that not come across in my write up?

Read it: sounds good. But 7 or 8 games is a lot for me to catch up on! Maybe I’ll just play Zero to start with and see how much I like/love it.

It's actually 9.05 games if we include Dead Souls and the .05 crossover from Judgment.

I've got zero on disc but not gonna play it anytime soon, happy to loan it out when you fancy, Elf.

Ah you're all sorted then. I really should play it too tbh, got it on release.

Quite a few yaks on gamepass atm

One child's game, one auto-runner, one poor retro-style platformer and two piss takes. 

1. Luigi's Mansion 3 (Switch)
Very decent. Hadn’t played one of these before so no idea what to expect. Nice variety in the levels. A lot of imagination and effort in some of them. Although the ghost catching is pretty basic, it mixes it up enough with gentle puzzling and tweaks to keep it interesting. It looks great - the familiar Mario graphics blended with Scooby Doo and Ghostbusters. The ghosts are all pretty fun characters. 

Excellent Gooigi, asymmetrical co-op action - he is invincible and, with a couple of exceptions, doesn't require any decent level of ability to complete his parts of the puzzles or ghost catching. Lots of collectibles that I'd have been forced to hoover up post-game but it doesn't let you do that. You have to play from a pre-completion save file. The kid was having none of that so it got switched off in disgrace. Quite pleased with that outcome. [8]

2. Jewel Quest 2 (Switch)
I don't know anything about the jewel games. Bejeweled? Is that the famous one on the facebooks? Bedazzled? I assume this is a clone of whatever that is. 89p in the sale. You match jewels before the time runs out. I don't know exactly when you should put an endless puzzle game like this on a completed list. In this case, it's 45 minutes. Quite good. The kid likes it and it keeps her occupied for twenty minutes or so. [8]

3. Donkey Kong (NES)
Completed by accident. Trying to find Tetris on the NES virtual console (it wasn't there), my daughter spotted this and wanted to play it. She was piss poor then I had a go and completed three levels. And that's it. That's the game. Three levels. Less than five minutes. Still good fun. [7]

4. Chameleon Run (Switch)
Auto-runner where you switch between one colour or another to match the colour of the platform you're in contact with. About 30-40 courses with an unlock system of picking up extras from re-running courses in different ways. It's actually got an amazingly satisfying jump, the timing feels precise, you can pick up decent speed with quick switching just before you hit a platform and fling yourself huge distances. Really good when it all comes together. 

Bit uneven in the difficulty. Most of the courses can just be run through without too many problems. But reaching some of the gems and stuff to get the XP you need in other runs can be where the grind is. So frustrated with it about midway through I gave up on it and left it for dead. I only went back into it, months later, when trying to keep She Who Must Be Entertained happy for another twenty minutes and thought the simplistic controls would let her get something out of it. 

Anyway, she loved it, kept asking for it, gave up after 10 seconds and made me complete the level. As long as you 100% the first half, you can just do a straight run through the second half and that's just about the right side of tricky for the most part. [8]

5. Cosmonauta (Switch)
This cost 8 pence. A NES-looking platformer with occasional jetpacking. Gameplay is get to the exit, avoid the spikes, now the missiles, now more spikes. Rough and ready, bare bones, seemingly lone dev effort. You can jump and go left and right. Sometimes there are ladders. 65 short levels all filled with the same old stuff. There are two music tracks that switch abruptly. 

Decent fun for a bit but gets boring. You can bodge and fluke your way through a lot of obstacles. And others need the timing of a hummingbird and a pressure exerted on the jump button equivalent to that of a gnat landing on it. Exactly the sort of stuff that used to get churned out for the NES. Packed it in on level 62, 3 from the end, during one particular jump that took the piss. Shit game, ok for a bit, deleted, never want to play again. [5]

4. Cadence of Hyrule - Cyrpt of the Necrodancer Featuring The Legend of Zelda: The Symphony of the Mask DLC (Switch, 8hrs)

Standalone mini campaign where you play as Skull Kid in a darker future Hyrule.  The main game was an excellent spin-off based on the well regarded Crypt of the Necrodancer, a unification that probably left quite a few Zelda fans scratching their heads.  It worked superbly though.  Me in 2019:


If I'd known how difficult the dlc was I doubt I would have coughed up the £13 for the season pass though - it's so tricky in places I really struggled to enjoy it, even after I wimped out and switched to fixed beat mode (nothing moves until you do, and you can't mistime attacks).  I died 38 times in the main game, which was actually too easy after its first hour, and 88 times here.  I sucked at it, but even taking my lack of coordination into account it's still a brutal game.  It has a decent sized Zelda dungeon in it, which unfortunately isn't cause for celebration as the line puzzles contained within are a bit dull and the map screen is poor.  It's still a roguelite: the overworld map remains the same upon death after the initial generation (seed?), whereas caves and underground areas shift around every time you leave and reenter.  There are a handful of masks to find, each with slightly different abilities, although as the magic bar depletes so quickly and potions are scarce they're all pretty useless and you'll stick to either the spear attack or the broadsword.  I would've thought something like this might be built around the mask abilities, instead it felt like a bit of a nothing addition. 

There is plenty to like in fairness, but nothing that isn't easier to love in the main game.  I'd recommend the full fat experience for sure but unless you're desperate for more of the same but less enjoyable I wouldn't bother with the dlc.  Even the music isn't quite as good.  [6]     

monkey wrote:

One child's game, one auto-runner, one poor retro-style platformer and two piss takes. 

1. Luigi's Mansion 3 (Switch)
Very decent. Hadn’t played one of these before so no idea what to expect. Nice variety in the levels. A lot of imagination and effort in some of them. Although the ghost catching is pretty basic, it mixes it up enough with gentle puzzling and tweaks to keep it interesting. It looks great - the familiar Mario graphics blended with Scooby Doo and Ghostbusters. The ghosts are all pretty fun characters. 

Excellent Gooigi, asymmetrical co-op action - he is invincible and, with a couple of exceptions, doesn't require any decent level of ability to complete his parts of the puzzles or ghost catching. Lots of collectibles that I'd have been forced to hoover up post-game but it doesn't let you do that. You have to play from a pre-completion save file. The kid was having none of that so it got switched off in disgrace. Quite pleased with that outcome. [8]

2. Jewel Quest 2 (Switch)
I don't know anything about the jewel games. Bejeweled? Is that the famous one on the facebooks? Bedazzled? I assume this is a clone of whatever that is. 89p in the sale. You match jewels before the time runs out. I don't know exactly when you should put an endless puzzle game like this on a completed list. In this case, it's 45 minutes. Quite good. The kid likes it and it keeps her occupied for twenty minutes or so. [8]

3. Donkey Kong (NES)
Completed by accident. Trying to find Tetris on the NES virtual console (it wasn't there), my daughter spotted this and wanted to play it. She was piss poor then I had a go and completed three levels. And that's it. That's the game. Three levels. Less than five minutes. Still good fun. [7]

4. Chameleon Run (Switch)
Auto-runner where you switch between one colour or another to match the colour of the platform you're in contact with. About 30-40 courses with an unlock system of picking up extras from re-running courses in different ways. It's actually got an amazingly satisfying jump, the timing feels precise, you can pick up decent speed with quick switching just before you hit a platform and fling yourself huge distances. Really good when it all comes together. 

Bit uneven in the difficulty. Most of the courses can just be run through without too many problems. But reaching some of the gems and stuff to get the XP you need in other runs can be where the grind is. So frustrated with it about midway through I gave up on it and left it for dead. I only went back into it, months later, when trying to keep She Who Must Be Entertained happy for another twenty minutes and thought the simplistic controls would let her get something out of it. 

Anyway, she loved it, kept asking for it, gave up after 10 seconds and made me complete the level. As long as you 100% the first half, you can just do a straight run through the second half and that's just about the right side of tricky for the most part. [8]

5. Cosmonauta (Switch)
This cost 8 pence. A NES-looking platformer with occasional jetpacking. Gameplay is get to the exit, avoid the spikes, now the missiles, now more spikes. Rough and ready, bare bones, seemingly lone dev effort. You can jump and go left and right. Sometimes there are ladders. 65 short levels all filled with the same old stuff. There are two music tracks that switch abruptly. 

Decent fun for a bit but gets boring. You can bodge and fluke your way through a lot of obstacles. And others need the timing of a hummingbird and a pressure exerted on the jump button equivalent to that of a gnat landing on it. Exactly the sort of stuff that used to get churned out for the NES. Packed it in on level 62, 3 from the end, during one particular jump that took the piss. Shit game, ok for a bit, deleted, never want to play again. [5]

I was thinking of taking up Donkey Kong to see what kind of high score I can get, it's a very technical game right, with barrel manipulation etc? There must be multiple loops of the 3 levels surely?

The arcade one is available on switch BTW.

Jokes love you monkey.

I said I love your monkey.

2: Doom Eternal (PC) 9/10

Posted in the Currently Playing thread about how, after a couple of hours, DE was getting too overwhelming - too many ideas, skills and systems.  I couldn't keep up!  This was at the time you get the flamethrower.  

Normal games give you a flamethrower and it's just a fun and different way to kill the baddies for when you want to mix it up from killing them with bullets.  But DE isn't normal; the flamethrower has its own button and you use it to make the baddies shed armour pickups.  You have to use it.

On top of your switchable and upgradable gun mods, your different grenades, punching people for health, chainsawing them for ammo, double jumping, dash dodging, remembering how to kill the different enemy types quickly... I thought it was too much.  Early on I couldn't remember which button did what.  

But it did all click shortly after!  I never got good but I did get good enough to beat it on easy!  All bets were off after the cueball demon was introduced.  You shoot him and he goes flying and explodes when he comes into contact with anything.  It's this sort of out of the box thinking that I will probably remember the game for - maybe it doesn't make sense but it comes together coherently to make a unique FPS.  

Love the heavy metal style too, it looks and sounds like Doom ought to.  I THINK the story takes itself seriously (with bits of overt humour) but it's so over the top.  I enjoyed the cheesiness.  There is the odd winking at the camera but I didn't think there was too much of that.  You don't need to follow it that closely but it seems like it's all there in the data pieces you pick up.  

Very impressed, will try the expansions when they're cheap, who knows maybe I'll turn the difficulty all the way up to medium.