azure, i will go!
chou uppah!! double!!
3 Likes
Beat Yakuza 4, or, yāknow, as much as Iām gonna beat it. Pretty good conclusion. The final fight was sort of bullshit til I figured it was just best to chase down the corrupt chief and knock him out first, since him popping off shots made fighting the dozen other guys impossible. Itās still a bullshit fight, that just makes it manageable.
While I like that all four protagonists kinda logically divvy up who to wail on, itās just kinda funny that Kiryuās job is to beat the shit out of Daigo for making some bad decisions.
Went back and wound up doing all of Saejimaās side stories (worth it for the ending to the Kappa side quest alone).
Also realized that this is theā¦technically fifth Yakuza game Iāve played where I donāt bother with weapons (at all, apart from environmental stuff) or gear (much, anyway). Iām sure these fights would be shorter if I did!
Fighting the urge to jump into 5 because as I understand it, if playing Yakuza games in rapid succession leads to burnout, 5 is the widow maker of the bunch.
Naturally that means Iām gonna jump through the hoops to install RPCS3 on my Steam Deck and try to play Dead Souls there.
10 Likes
Inscryption hasā¦ more nested framing devices than I would have used.
15 Likes
They keep adding free content to Astro Bot. Last night, I looked at some of the latest additions, mostly those gauntlet-style challenge levels with no checkpoints. Maybe thatās for the people who complained the game was too easy but Iāll hold out for more of the slow-paced exploration ones. (I guess I think that game is at its best when itās ātoo easy.ā)
Iāve also been playing VVVVVV for the first time since it was brand new. I like it just as much now as I did before, but Iād forgotten how hard some parts are. Okay, one part in particular. Did I ever beat that part? I canāt remember but it seems like I would have been stubborn enough to way back then.
8 Likes
While thereās an element of that probably, the DLC challenge levels have online leaderboards so they have a multiplayer/communal element to them. I think thatās been a big part of the appeal since Astroās Playroom.
2 Likes
I went back and finished Citizen Sleeper. What a fantastic game. I wasnāt sure at first whether the DLC would be worth the time, but boy oh boy, it was. It provides a much more satisfying ending than the main game. This is some of the best writing in video games, full stop. I read recently that it was heavily inspired by the book The Mushroom at the End of the World: On the Possibility of Life in Capitalist Ruins, which sounds fascinating:
Matsutake is the most valuable mushroom in the worldāand a weed that grows in human-disturbed forests across the northern hemisphere. Through its ability to nurture trees, matsutake helps forests to grow in daunting places. It is also an edible delicacy in Japan, where it sometimes commands astronomical prices. In all its contradictions, matsutake offers insights into areas far beyond just mushrooms and addresses a crucial question: what manages to live in the ruins we have made?
A tale of diversity within our damaged landscapes, The Mushroom at the End of the World follows one of the strangest commodity chains of our times to explore the unexpected corners of capitalism. Here, we witness the varied and peculiar worlds of matsutake commerce: the worlds of Japanese gourmets, capitalist traders, Hmong jungle fighters, industrial forests, Yi Chinese goat herders, Finnish nature guides, and more. These companions also lead us into fungal ecologies and forest histories to better understand the promise of cohabitation in a time of massive human destruction.
By investigating one of the worldās most sought-after fungi, The Mushroom at the End of the World presents an original examination into the relation between capitalist destruction and collaborative survival within multispecies landscapes, the prerequisite for continuing life on earth.
My local bookstore had a copy, so I snagged it. Iām looking forward to reading it, and to playing Citizen Sleeper 2.
12 Likes
Do it! I just started 5 (formerly considered the most bloated Yakuza game) immediately after back-to-back playthroughs of 7 and 8 (now considered the most bloated Yakuza game) so I will be testing whether the difference between the old and new styles of game are enough of a change of pace to temper the burnout. But I havenāt played 4, so coming straight from that might be more of a challenge.
Iām mostly playing 5 because Iām so curious about the Haruka sections. Like, what is the result of the Yakuza game format setting its sights on the idol industry? Also the sheer promise of 5 playable characters across 5 cities? Sign me up!
My first impression is that the cinematic language of 5 is much more sophisticated than Infinite Wealth. I can only ever half pay attention to the main story in these games, so Iām getting way more out of the gestures and details in the cutscenes, like the way Kiryu lights a cigarette or takes his jacket out of the boot of his taxi. By comparison, Infinite Wealth is just a whole lot of people standing around expounding to each other as the camera whooshes around to mask the lack of expression.
Maybe itās because I skipped a bunch of games and so the story is assuming some insider knowledge about the characterās relations, but when the game is being more gestural itās like Iām actually being offered space for interpretation. Itās pretty stark considering Infinite Wealth was constantly up its own ass about mythologising the previous games. Like, in Yakuza 5, āTaichi Suzukiā feels like a real person. Heās got a job, coworkers, and rituals ā fully grounded and situated by all aspects of the game. Whereas in Infinite Wealth āTaichi Sukuziā is just a punchline, always said with an implied wink at the camera.
Also really loving the texture of the Kyushu dialect. Noticing a lot of ć°ć£ć¦ćs. Hoping someone might drop a ćØć¤ććć«ć at some point.
Oh well, looking forward to 50 hours later in my playthrough when Iām in full checklist mode, scrolling on my phone during cutscenes, feeling nothing at all.
7 Likes
5 was the biggest leap forward the series ever made and itās not close
3 Likes
Today I played Braid 2 by dweedo. An unauthorized sequel that turns indie gamingās first masterpieceā¢ into a janky dumbass platforming shooter. Mow down monstars with an automatic weapon and listen to āLose Yourselfā, a cover version in high likelihood versed by the dev himself.
Just what J Blow would have wanted!
19 Likes
just finished playing the eng translation of honey and swallowtail which is out now. of parunās games iāve only played heisei pistol show and re:kinder which i understand are sort of maximalist victory laps for him, HPS in particular. honey and swallowtail (an rpgmaker visual novel) seems to be his most stripped-back game nd is fittingly bleak
text boxes never go beyond 1 line nd often of a set duration, in particular during chatroom scenes. stylistically cold & purposeful but tender - would have to replay but i liked it and it is only ~30 mins long
9 Likes
I will say that Iām kinda shocked at how different the presentation in Yakuza 5 is. Some of it (stuff like walking up to people on the street and the camera zooming in on them) is a little nauseating, but the direction overall feels moreā¦cinematic? Not that past games didnāt have a sort of cinematic flair, but even the stuff very early on, like Kiryu and his boss sitting in the little bar stall talking almost feels like a movie, the way they frame it.
It does drive me nuts that you get into fights like every ten feet or so, though I like that some of the enemy placement is more natural (like the guys I encountered by a bridge that were squatting and smoking cigarettes). The little pink speech bubble for enemies helps I guess, now that they donāt stick out like sore thumbs.
I canāt remember if I saw it in a later-released game or not, but seeing Kiryu slam a dude down ass-first onto a bollard, and then the pained little hop they do before collapsingā¦makes the olā coccyx hurt thinking about itā¦
Edit: I am a little sad to see, at least so far, maybe itās still in there, that Kiryuās face stomp heat action no longer grossly distorts the jaws of defeated enemies and makinā them look like the girl in the closet from The Ring.
7 Likes
started sukoden hd, huge nostalgia for these games (1 was one of the first jarpegs i ever played) and couldnāt resist a new translation + hard mode but the enshittification is difficult to ignore:
21 Likes
disgusting
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Is there more stuff like that? Iām not super offended by making those two orbs, which are both available immediately upon starting the game (with a bit of grinding / running away from random battles) and basically useless, available. Making it a DLC is gross though.
Iām way more worried they patched the infinite potch trick out of the shell game without adding in other ways to get money.
2 Likes
Really enjoyed playing through Skald: Against the Black Priory. Played most of the way through on Normal, resting and making food to heal injuries and regain mana. It was a fun challenge and the exploration and collecting worked until the final world expansion. I was just ready for it to be done.
I built my character as a Hospitaller which is basically a healing tank. There is another Hospitaller team member you get early on who ended being the same exact build but was more of a pure spell caster DOT applier during the most fun parts of the story. I think Hospitaller is probably the most powerful late game class with lots of stuns, tankiness, heals, and access to sublime damage which, IIRC, nothing resists and hits the vulnerability of the last enemies for very little mana.
Interesting and concise writing the whole way through. Itās a well done genre mashup. Graphics are really cool but a little difficult to read grassy terrain likely due to my red-green color deficiency. Music is really good synth with long boarders on both dungeon and ambient styles. Works in Linux with Proton and can be played entirely with controller. I preferred keyboard and mouse and 90% of actions can be done with just mouse.
6 Likes
I watched Warhammer 40000 Space Marine 2. Based on research I did I couldnāt really find a way to play this without probably just getting frustrated. Quite a lot of aiming and not really much assist options so I figured Iād just watch rather than throw away my money. I rarely watch full playthroughs of games Iām interested in and write about them even less. This one was just something I had to see as a kid who collected Tyranids in the 90s. I donāt have any Warhammer left anymore but the memories remain and I always wanted to see an action game depict Tyranids. Itās pretty good though the full diversity of Tyranid units is a bit limited. We never see a hive tyrant though one features in a major offscreen mission objective which is kind of weird. Similarly a lot of obscure units arenāt really ever seen. I think they mainly wanted to focus on units that could demonstrate their swarm tech. Rippers look hilarious and I never really imagined them moving as fast as they do in the game. No animation, just hundreds of ripper models driving at full speed around the floor.
They go back to the Chaos-as-a-twist-third-party well which makes sense for Titusā arc but the Tyranid invasion kind of just ends without much ceremony. Tyranids are meant to be really hard to combat en masse and fictionally they terraform planets as they invade which wouldāve been nice to see more of but I think the game is in a bit too much of a rush to undercut them with the Chaos incursion. Thereās also not really many times when you have a three-way fight going on which I would have thought would be quite interesting given that Tyranids and Tzeentch donāt really intersect very often in Warhammer lore and seem like a natural juxtaposition.
Quite a lot of Warhammer narratives can be summed up as everyone argues while Chaos just gets away with it. Like the Space Marines never really think to plan ahead or outwit their opponent even when their opponent is known for deception, like famously so. Throughout my time watching I think a thought about the fact that the hypermilitary and the setting is kinda the appeal from whatever lens you look at it. Like as a kid, the designs and teen maturity of it are appealing on a rule of cool level but as an adult it becomes a pseudo-ironic enjoyment that still enjoys thinking about the implications of such a world. Confirmation of the pure horror of endless war motivated by pure propaganda but also the meta-layer of how silly and garish it all is before looping round to a childlike enjoyment of space men shooting other space things. Enjoyment of can look to the satirical overtones but also a more ābrain-offā layer. Itās also kind of wrapped up in this strange identity as a British property. Highly imperialistic but also kind of saying that thatās really stupid and terminally pointless, the only enjoyment to be had is with the games that war has inspired. Thereās a scene near the end where Titus holds a banner and commands a platoon to hold ground against endless chaos hordes. It plays out as a turret scene since you canāt move but sums up the appeal for a lot of Warhammer fans simply creating little dioramas of imaginary jingoism. The eternal enjoyment of both sides of the awesome/dorksome coin. At least it feels like this is how a lot of British fans reconcile it.
9 Likes
