Miscellaneous

Yakuza Kiwami (2016)

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Yakuza Kiwami is a remake of the original Yakuza game from 2005. Being a remake of a PS2-era beat ‘em up definitely limits how much the developers can do to improve an antiquated experience while simultaneously remaining faithful to the original design. After playing Yakuza 0, I was excited to see how the developers could leverage the new engine and combat to modernize the original Yakuza experience (read my Yakuza 0 review for further context). Unfortunately, I feel like there were a few key missteps in combat and side-quest design that were completely unrelated to being a remake. Still, Yakuza Kiwami is a fun romp through the nightlife district of Tokyo for fans of the series.

The game’s prologue starts with everyone’s favorite protagonist Kiryu taking the blame for the murder of the Dojima family patriarch. Not only does Kiryu land himself in jail for 10 years, but he is on the hit list of all Yakuza in the area for killing a high-ranking member of their crime organization. The game starts in earnest when Kiryu is released from jail and a civil war breaks out among the Yakuza families.

The story of Yakuza Kiwami isn’t quite as gripping as Yakuza 0, but much of that is just due to the era of the original’s release. There’s a lot of random sequences and wild goose chases that break up the pace of the story. That being said, Yakuza Kiwami is helped by virtue of now having a prequel to develop many of its characters. Knowing more about Kiryu, Nishiki, Majima, Shimano, and the rest of the cast goes a long way to make me more emotionally invested in the story. Still, I definitely wasn’t sitting on my edge of seat for the climax like I was during the finale of Yakuza 0.

The main appeal of the Yakuza games is the incredibly dense open world. I loved revisiting Kamurocho and seeing how the world I’d become so familiar with had changed with this installment. For the most part, the city is largely the same as it was 20 years prior aside from a few new Cabaret clubs and of course the Millenium Tower where the empty lot used to be. The game has plenty of callbacks and humorous moments referencing the side-stories of Yakuza 0.

Unfortunately, I felt that the tie-ins to Yakuza 0 were my favorite side-stories in Yakuza Kiwami. What I love about side-stories in Yakuza is how silly they are in comparison to the serious nature of the main story. Yakuza Kiwami lacks any truly memorable goofy moments. Most of the side-stories are some variations of somebody trying to scam Kiryu. Some of the schemes are a little crude and it’s fun to watch Kiryu’s reactions, but it never reaches the heights of zaniness that Yakuza 0 had.

Even though the side-stories were a bit of a letdown, I still think that the open world is a strength of Yakuza Kiwami. There is so much to do and get distracted by in such a tightly crafted city. Of course, there are a variety of mini-games to go along with the side stories. I spent more time than I should have racing toy cars, fighting in the coliseum, and playing inappropriate Pokemon against elementary schoolers. I’m not partial to the plethora of gambling mini-games but there are a ton of them for fans of them. I really did have fun running around the city and seeing what I could do, but I think my favorite twist is the Majima Everywhere system.

After the events of Yakuza 0, Majima has pretty much lost his mind. He roams around the city, searching for Kiryu. Majima craves a good fight and relishes in helping Kiryu gain his skills back after spending a decade in jail. Every time you encounter Majima, you are locked into a boss fight with him. As you repeatedly defeat him, you will unlock new abilities in the Dragon of Dojima fighting style. My favorite aspect of this system is not the boss fights, but how Majima will show up as you play mini-games or as a taxi driver or as a bartender. Seeing Majima put on costumes and surprise Kiryu across the city is the lighthearted goofiness that I felt Yakuza Kiwami was sorely lacking.

Even though I enjoyed the encounters with Majima, I got a little tired of fighting him by the end of the game. And this is in large part due to the combat of Yakuza Kiwami. When you compare the combat in Yakuza 0 to the combat in Yakuza Kiwami, they may seem indistinguishable from each other, but there are some crucial differences that I think absolutely ruin many of the encounters in the game. Like Yakuza 0, the game is an action brawler where you beat the hell out of goons with 4 different styles that you can switch between. What made the combat of Yakuza 0 fun to me was contextual. Playing as Kiryu, the disgraced badass with unimpeachable morals and fighting against the scummy Yakuza who wronged you was greatly satisfying. While it often was easy and simplistic, I had fun. Yakuza Kiwami makes encounters more challenging, but in a frustrating fashion.

The first major difference in Yakuza Kiwami is its enemy design. Baddies in this game are far more likely to block and dodge out of your attacks. Even during the middle of your combos they can turn around and start blocking. I never really found a good way of dealing with this other than just to continue wailing on them to get the occasional hit in. Using grabs and throws seems like it should be the natural counter to blocking, but most enemies just dodge out of grabs and many of them will actually deal damage to you if you grab them. 

Bosses in particular are very slippery and hard to hit. They also have uninterruptible combos that will ignore hitstun if you attempt to attack them during that time. Trading blows with enemies seems to make sense in the world of Yakuza, but for some inexplicable reason Kiryu was made to be much more fragile. Taking any hit will cause a brief hitstun and interrupt whatever you are doing. Getting knocked to the ground is a common occurrence. Fighting groups of enemies is a nightmare because it’s so likely that you will get interrupted every time you try to attack. I was sorely disappointed that even in Beast style, the fighting stance specifically designed to deal with groups, Kiryu has no additional resistance to hitstun and a light breeze will prevent him from attacking.

Another annoyance is the addition of the Kiwami mechanic. When bosses get low on health, they begin glowing a colored aura and rapidly heal. To interrupt this, you have to swap to the style that matches the color and use a special heat move on them. Swapping to the correct style takes time. And if you don’t have enough heat you have to use an item or hit them a bunch which takes time. And during this time, they continue healing. I feel like this mechanic was supposed to be a cinematic way of dealing big damage to the bosses, but most of the time I was lucky to break even after they had healed for a few seconds. They can do this multiple times per fight, and using the same heat move in the same battle deals reduced damage. Which is a massive oversight considering that you only have the one heat move to interrupt Kiwami healing. This mechanic is utterly pace breaking and annoying to deal with.

All of these issues make the combat in Yakuza Kiwami painfully slow and tedious. The combination of enemies constantly blocking and dodging, Kiryu having trouble getting off significant hits, and bosses healing massive amounts multiple times throughout a single fight just makes combat take forever. On normal difficulty the game still isn’t “difficult”, you can carry a dozen healing items with you and can take a hefty beating before going down. It’s just tedious to slowly whittle away at enemy health and popping a healing item whenever you get low. I don’t need the combat to be deep or challenging, I just want it to feel good to smack around bad guys as the indomitable Kiryu.

 I was shocked how many steps backwards Yakuza Kiwami took from Yakuza 0. I can look past the dated story since the game is a remake, but the bland side stories and tedious combat surprised me. It’s still a fun enough game, exploring the city and getting distracted by the plethora of mini-games is essential to the series. If you played Yakuza 0 and want more, then Yakuza Kiwami is the next logical step. But definitely don’t start with Yakuza Kiwami even though it is a remake of the first game in the series. And if Yakuza 0 didn’t click with you, then Yakuza Kiwami definitely won’t. Unfortunately, it is a worse game in every way. I’m still looking forward to the rest of the series, and I hope that this was just a low point. 

Animal Well (2024)

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Animal Well is a special game. It’s a game that begs the player to get lost in its atmosphere and labyrinthian level design. It’s a game that has no tutorials or guiding text, the player has to experiment with ideas and explore the world to figure out what to do. It’s a game that transported me into its ethereal world filled with mystery, spooky vibes, and of course, animals. It’s a game that I think everybody is capable of completing, yet it has much deeper secrets that require a dedicated community to uncover. It’s a game that I think you should play.

Metroidvanias are exceedingly common in the indie gaming landscape, but Animal Well stands apart from its peers. There is no combat and it doesn’t really focus on platforming either. Instead, Animal Well is about navigation and thinking. You have to figure out where you can go and how to get there using the tools at your disposal. After a short introductory area, you emerge into a great cavern with four pedestals and matching statues. There are four primary directions to choose from and a handful of other branching paths. It’s up to the player’s curiosity to lead them in a direction.

You may stumble across roadblocks and have to poke around in different directions to see what is accessible. But that is part of the magic of Animal Well. It is a real labyrinth that requires the player to be inquisitive about the world. I often went in a direction and had to turn around and find a different way to go, but I never felt discouraged or stuck. The cogs in my brain were always turning and thinking of where to go next and how to progress. The game’s dream-like atmosphere and gorgeously stylized visuals ensured that I wanted to stay in its world as long as possible.

I’ve never seen a game that looks quite like Animal Well. Its cutesy pixel art paired with simulated lighting and fluid effects is truly remarkable. The world is dark, mysterious, and ominous at times. There are even moments of outright terror. But the faint light from lanterns and fireflies provides a comforting glow. Firecrackers provide flickering illumination as well as a hazy smoke effect to distort the environment. The ambient darkness and the understated soundtrack go a long way to make Animal Well immersive. This is further assisted by its cast of creatures.

One of my favorite aspects of Animal Well is of course the animals. The world is populated by cute, charming, and sometimes ferocious creatures. From little chinchillas that you can ride atop, to dogs that chase you down, to a whale that shoots jets of water at you, the animals aren’t just set dressing. They feel like real residents of this world with their own personalities and behavior. Figuring out how to avoid or use the animals to solve puzzles is not only satisfying, but intuitive.

The commitment to crafting an ethereal world filled with animals is further reflected in the playful toolset of Animal Well. You never acquire the classic double jump or explosive item to blast open walls, instead the things that you find are more interesting. The player will most likely come across the Bubble Wand and Frisbee as their first couple of items. Figuring out how these seemingly mundane and silly tools can be useful is very enjoyable. Experimenting with how to use these gadgets to traverse the world, solve puzzles, and interact with animals is wonderful.

The only potential hiccup in the main part of the game is the existence of a handful of awkward jumps. I don’t feel like Animal Well really is a platformer. Of course there is platforming in the game, but it rarely asks the player to make a series of difficult jumps. Which makes it odd when there is a particularly awkward jump seemingly out of nowhere. This is made more frustrating because oftentimes when you miss a jump you fall to a previous screen or even get reset at a checkpoint. I think having real stakes when exploring is great, but I can see how some players may get frustrated if they miss a particularly tricky jump a few times in a row and lose their progress.

Animal Well is known for being a “layered” game. From the moment you start to the first time you see the credits roll is the main part of the game and is known as “Layer 1”. There are 3 deeper layers, each with increasing obscurity and there are secrets that still haven’t been found months after release. I strongly disagree with a common sentiment that “the real game doesn’t start until after the credits”. To me, Layer 1 is the most enjoyable due to the exponential growth of complexity and obscurity that the deeper layers require.

I was able to complete Layer 2 and made some progress in Layer 3 before I called it quits. Layer 2 is a fairly straightforward completionist egg hunt. You have to dig through the nooks and crannies of the world to find 64 hidden eggs. I think this is mostly fine, but hunting down those last few eggs can be a little painful as you have no idea where they could be. I spent hours running around the map in circles looking for those last few secrets. Layer 3 is where things quickly get insane. There are 16 bunnies hidden across the map and simply finding them requires a ton of dedication and observational skills. To actually solve the puzzles and acquire the bunnies often requires extreme out-of-the-box thinking. I don’t think that these puzzles are unfair or unsolvable, but I’d be shocked if anybody got all 16 bunnies without outside help. I didn’t even touch Layer 4 and I assume it is only for the most dedicated of puzzlers.

I admire how layers upon layers of secrets are built on top of one another. I love the feeling when you discover something that was expertly hidden right in front of your eyes. While I gave up early on in Layer 3, I appreciate that there are deeper and more obscure puzzles for players who want them. I think the downside of this is that the game will almost always end on a limp note for many players. At some point you are going to reach your limit of obscurity and throw in the towel. It doesn’t feel great to have a great experience end because you had to quit. There’s not really a way to avoid this in a “layered” game like Animal Well. It’s a necessary tradeoff to allow for the iceberg of secrets that the game hides.

Animal Well really is a game that you just have to experience. It’s hard to describe how gripping its dreamlike world is. Exploring the depths of the well and uncovering its secrets is something that I had a hard time stepping away from. Even though I wasn’t able to peel back all the layers, the first layer by itself is spectacular. It is for these reasons that I give Animal Well a 9/10. It’s an experience with unparalleled atmosphere, thoughtful puzzles, and has a mix of memorable moments that are charming and terrifying. 

Tchia (2023)

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Tchia is a love letter to New Caledonia. From the outset it is obvious that the developers wanted to share the culture, music, landscapes, and peoples of this Pacific Island. Tchia is a heartfelt adventure with a variety of small gameplay elements that contribute to the greater whole. While no aspect in particular is remarkable, I had a good time just exploring the island and messing around with its various ideas.

The game follows the story of a young girl who lives on a tiny island with her father. When her father is kidnapped by a local warlord, the girl realizes that she has a special power to briefly possess objects and animals. You play as the titular girl as she sets out to rescue her father. The story itself is cute as you get to visit a bunch of small towns and peoples as you make friends. Every group you meet is seemingly accompanied by a jam session on your trusty ukulele. 

Interestingly, the story takes a pretty dramatic tonal shift about halfway through as you start to learn more about the backstory and villain. While the main character and setting remain cheerful, the narrative gets pretty dark and disturbing. Honestly, I enjoyed this dramatic shift as it will forever stick out in my mind as opposed to if the game remained 100% wholesome for the entire duration.

Tchia is first and foremost an open-world exploration game. While I’ve grown a little exhausted from these types of games, I think Tchia still manages to be fun because it is a more compact experience. The map is small and the game is short. While the game crams in a ton of side activities and points of interest, I didn’t feel obligated to do them all. I stuck to the stuff that I enjoyed and things that happened to be on the path where I was going.

The main gameplay hook is the possession mechanic. You can briefly possess any animal that you come across as well as a handful of inanimate objects. The animals behave as you would expect, and you can fling the inanimate objects as a projectile as you release your possession. The animals are fun to mess around with as they are mainly used for traversal. The islands are small, but the main character is quite slow. Possessing a bird, a deer, or a dolphin to get around greatly expedites exploration. Some animals such as the crab or dog have special uses for puzzles to snip and dig for treasure. 

The other place where possession comes in handy is combat. There isn’t much combat in the game, but there are a handful of enemy camps spread around. The enemies are made of possessed cloth, so your main form of attack is to launch objects such as oil lanterns, explosive rocks, or flaming branches at them. The smaller enemy camps are a bit of frantic fun as you quickly swap between possessions and take out enemies on the fly. The bigger enemy camps at the end of the game are a bit tedious as you end up having to wander around for a while to find any opposition and oftentimes there isn’t any flammable material nearby to possess. I had to carry around a ton of explosive rocks in my backpack to take out for these occasions but it just wasn’t as fun as looking around and possessing objects strewn about the camps.

Aside from combat, Tchia has a handful of mini-games and challenges to play with. There’re timed races with different animals, shooting galleries with your slingshot, musical rhythm sections using the ukulele, traditional platforming, stealth, acrobatic diving challenges, claw machines, boating, and photography. There’s so much variety here that it’s hard to feel bored of any particular element. None of these gameplay segments are revolutionary or amazingly executed, but they are fun enough to fuel exploration.

Exploration is the core of Tchia. Whether you walk, boat, or possess a bird to get around there is a beautiful island to discover. Aside from possession, the main form of traversal is similar to that of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, stamina-based climbing and gliding. Between the mountains, crispy blue waters, dense jungles, and cozy towns there is a real natural allure to the environment. As I previously mentioned, the world is absolutely packed with collectibles and challenges if you want to engage with those. One aspect of exploration that I enjoyed was that there was no constantly-updating reference point on the mini-map. You had to infer where you are based on landmarks and directional knowledge. This was nice as it lets you appreciate the environment and look for ways to discern your location rather than relying on a 2D projection.

Part of what makes Tchia so charming is its dedication to New Caledonia. While the world of Tchia is fictional, it bases itself heavily off of the people, culture, and landscapes of New Caledonia. It is a place that I barely knew existed, and now I find myself researching its history and culture to learn more. Everything in the game pays homage to the culture in a respectful way. It doesn’t feel like it’s just using the setting as a backdrop, but rather it’s really immersing the player in the way of life of New Caledonia’s people.

As far as performance goes, Tchia is serviceable. I personally didn’t run into any bugs, frame-rate drops, or slow loading times. Graphically, however, Tchia isn’t the best game to look at. I love the environments and setting of the game, but the hyper-stylized art style looks a little too generic and cartoony. The character models in particular look off to me. I am usually an advocate for stylized art styles as opposed to hyper-realistic graphics, but the art style of Tchia just feels outdated and worn-out. All that being said, I don’t think it’s a huge detractor from the game considering that the environments still look nice.

Tchia isn’t anything revolutionary, and that’s ok. If you are exhausted of open-world exploration games, Tchia isn’t for you. But if you do want a charming trek through a small-but-dense island then Tchia does have a lot to offer. There’s a ton of variety in the activities and mini-games to play with. The heartfelt homage to New Caledonia is what really makes the game standout, as it lets us have a window into a culture that most people are entirely unfamiliar with. It is for these reasons that I give Tchia a 7/10. It didn’t blow me away with new ideas or mechanics, but it was a much needed relaxing and wholesome adventure.

Terra Nil (2023)

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City builders are a genre all about optimization. Laying out districts and infrastructure in a logical manner is necessary to grow into a bustling metropolis. Terra Nil is labeled as a reverse city builder, you aren’t tasked with building sprawling cities. Instead, you have to cleanse a planet that has been ecologically destroyed. It’s not a game about careful planning or building, but of restoring the planet to its natural state which can be messy and unorganized. I liked what Terra Nil was trying to do, but I felt like it was missing something. 

The concept of Terra Nil is superb. It not only is a game about cleaning up the devastation caused by humanity, but emphasizes this idea as a genre reversal of city builders. In city builders you often are searching for ways to optimize your city, exploiting every resource and inch of space that you have to support endless growth. But in Terra Nil you don’t have to be optimal. Everything that you build is a temporary fixture meant to restore the ecosystem and will be eventually recycled.

Restoring nature in Terra Nil comes in stages. When you visit an area, your initial goal is to generate some electricity through windmills and other renewable energy sources to power toxin scrubbers to rid the land of chemicals. The next stage is where things get more interesting. You begin to seed forests, rivers, wetlands, tundra, jungles, and whatever other biomes are appropriate for the part of the world that you are working in. There’s a bit of a puzzle element to this, as each biome has requirements to thrive such as needing certain levels of humidity, elevation, or access to water. Some even require you to do a controlled burn to enrich the soil before planting.

The biome planting phase is definitely where the game shines. You have a single resource: a pool of points to spend on buildings. You get additional points fairly rapidly as your biomes grow. Moreover, you get extra points for completing certain tasks like reaching certain temperatures or humidity levels through weather manipulation. I quite enjoyed these little side tasks not just because they gave points, but also because they had a visual effect on the world such as dragonflies and algae showing up in the wetlands. Rain is the first major milestone in any area as it cleanses any remaining polluted land. Watching as the desolated land slowly transforms into an ecological paradise of different biomes is immensely gratifying. It’s pretty simple but there are light puzzle and strategy elements to plan where you are putting the buildings and biomes.

Once your biomes have been created, identifying where wildlife can thrive is the next step. There’s a handful of species in each area that you are supposed to find, you have to scan small areas that match that species’ habitable requirements. I think this part of the game can be a little tedious as there is a lot of guesswork to figure out what each requirement is. It also can be a bit finicky even when you know the requirements as the radius of the scan is fairly small and it has a lot of trouble when certain species require multiple biomes or a food source. I loved watching animals be reintroduced to the ecosystem, but mechanically it was a bit unsatisfying. 

Finally, after you are done planting biomes and identifying fauna it is time to pack up and leave for the next area. You absorb every building into recycling pods and setup collection systems to pick up those pods. In some areas you set up pylons and ziplines that connect to one another and collect the pods from there. In areas with more water, you send out little drone boats that will pick up the recycling pods. It’s a pretty straightforward phase of the game. While I did like cleaning up after myself and fully getting rid of all the buildings to let nature take over, the recycling phase is mechanically just a little barebones.

Being mechanically simplistic is one of the biggest hesitations that I have with Terra Nil. Most phases of the game don’t require much decision making or problem solving, just following a series of predefined steps. The biome creation phase is definitely the most engaging part of the game as you have some decisions about how and where you will attempt to create the biomes. But every other phase is just… too rigid. I don’t think that it is an inherently bad thing to have simpler games. I understand that one of the design philosophies of Terra Nil is to be Zen. But I would’ve liked to see at least some more expression and decision making afforded to the player during the cleansing, fauna, and recycling phases.  

That’s not to say the game lacks difficulty. I wouldn’t say it’s a challenging game, but it is possible to run out of points and fail in the 3rd and 4th zones. But once you get over the initial hurdle then you are simply playing out the scenario without much thinking needed. I don’t think the game needs to be more challenging, as it does offer different difficulty options and running out of points is a real issue in harder areas. But depth doesn’t necessarily have to be difficult, Terra Nil does lack depth.

While most phases of the game lack depth and freedom, I will say I was impressed with the variety provided by the different zones. There’re 4 main areas, each with 2 scenarios to play. Aside from having their own unique biomes and fauna, you have to contend with different methods of power generation and terraforming. You will be creating new land in the tropical archipelago, restoring glaciers in the tundra, and repurposing building foundations in decaying urban centers. Terra Nil is on the shorter side, but I am glad that they didn’t repeat the same ideas over and over.

I played the game on the Nintendo Switch and while I was happy that it was available on the platform, I had some noticeable performance issues. Obviously, the Switch is not a computing powerhouse but I did not expect Terra Nil to require a powerful console. Loading screens took a long time, the game crashed once or twice, but the real complaint that I have is that graphical quality is just not great on Switch. This is not meant to be a complaint against Terra Nil, I just wish I knew beforehand that it had a major visual downgrade on the platform. Part of the appeal of the game is watching the beauty of nature as it blossoms, which didn’t look as crisp as it should have on Switch. I recommend getting this game on PC or a more powerful console for a better experience. 

Terra Nil succeeds in being the Zen reverse city builder that it set out to be. City builders that demand optimization and ruthless resource utilization are fun, but I enjoyed seeing the reversal of that genre. The quick turnaround of desolate wastelands to thriving ecosystems was fantastic. I wish that most of the phases of that transformation were more mechanically engaging. It is for these reasons that I give Terra Nil a 7/10. If you approach Terra Nil as an ecological Zen Garden, you will have a great time. If you are looking for depth or intertwined gameplay systems you may be let down by its simplicity.

Super Mario RPG (2023)

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Turn-based RPGs are often some of the longest video games that exist. They can easily exceed dozens of hours, if not hundreds. I’m often put off from many of these games as I feel they are bloated with repetitive content and grinding. But Super Mario RPG is the rare case of an RPG that went in the opposite direction. It’s an intentionally short and sweet experience. You move so quickly through the zones and dungeons that there’s no chance to be overcome by tedium. It’s a game that relies on novelty rather than a grandiose story and scope.

Super Mario RPG is a wacky game. There’s plenty of goofy characters, ridiculous situations, and slapstick comedy. While many RPGs focus on slowly building up an ever-escalating story, Super Mario RPG moves at a breakneck pace through silly scenarios and never gets tiresome. A giant sword has fallen from the sky and destroyed Bowser’s castle and the army of sentient weapons is threatening to steal all the Star Pieces to prevent any wishes from coming true. It’s not a super engaging story, but it is helped by the characters.

There’s a ton of unique characters introduced in Super Mario RPG, the main ones being Geno and Mallow. Geno is a stalwart spirt from space that inhabits a wooden doll, while Geno is a young emotional cloud who was adopted by the Frog Sage. Bowser also gains his signature braggadocious personality as he assists Mario and company on their journey. While the story itself won’t keep you on the edge of your seat, the characters and their goofy interactions makes the adventure far more charming. After playing this game, I hope that Nintendo allows future RPGs set in the Mario world to create new characters, as that bizarre decision something that has been holding back the Paper Mario series for years.

The biggest strength of Super Mario RPG is just how snappy everything is. From the story, to the progression, to the battles. The battles in particular are a blessing. First and foremost, there are no random encounters. You can just walk past enemies that you don’t want to deal with. Despite being turn-based, the battles themselves are remarkably fast-paced. Animations and text boxes are snappy, health pools aren’t overinflated, and there isn’t too much fanfare that slows things down. I often get in and out of the easier encounters in 30 seconds to a minute.

Thankfully, this is not a game that you have to grind for experience to complete. I found that I naturally gained plenty of levels and equipment from just playing normally to beat the game. The game is definitely on the easier side, the only major hurdles are the bosses. I enjoyed the simplicity of basic bosses but I also appreciated when I had to use a little more strategy during the elongated boss fights. The combat is fairly basic, but I appreciated the simplicity of straightforward attacks and abilities.

One aspect that I enjoyed about combat in Super Mario RPG is that it is interactive despite being turn-based. By timing button-presses during tight windows of opportunity during animations you can increase your own damage or block damage from enemy attacks. I liked learning all the timings for the different weapons, abilities, and enemies. The game has a system that hints towards the correct timings if you miss it too many times, but the hint goes away once you start succeeding again.

Progressing through the game is absurdly fast. The game is maybe 12-15 hours long, but it’s crazy how many areas they crammed into the game. I never got exhausted in any zone as they just went by so fast. Every area has its own little story and characters like a typical RPG, but it doesn’t drag anything out. I think this is mostly to the games benefit, but some of the areas and towns I would have liked to spend a bit more time in. It’s hard to really get invested in any of the side characters, stories, or areas when you only spend 30 minutes to an hour there. Still, I’d rather be left wanting more than feel exhausted at the end of a game.

My only major complaint about Super Mario RPG is the janky mini-games and platforming. Many of the game’s side activities are mini-games such as Yoshi racing, minecart riding, or drifting down a river in a barrel. I think all these are all wonderfully fun ideas, but I never quite got a hang of them. They often feel like they go on for far too long and have underwhelming rewards. Anything platforming related in particular just felt awkward do the camera angles. 

I never played the original Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars that this game was based on. However, from what I can tell Super Mario RPG is a fairly faithful remake. It added a lot of quality-of-life features like more frequent saves and being able to quick-swap party members. Additionally, the player has access to powerful special attacks after filling up a gauge as a reward for successfully timing attacks and blocks. I will say that while all these features are nice, they do make an already pretty easy game even easier. Personally, I didn’t mind the easier experience but perhaps more hardcore RPG fans might be let down by the lack of challenge.

Aside from the quality-of-life updates, the most important change that the remake made was to the visuals. Super Mario RPG does a phenomenal job of modernizing the original art style while keeping its toy-like feel. The games vibrant visuals and bright color palette make it feel like a wonderland. There’s also a handful of cutscenes in the same style that look great.

Overall, I was pleasantly surprised by Super Mario RPG. It was a rollercoaster of goofy characters and classic environments. It’s not an RPG that you should reach for if you want a crazy story with twists and turns, but its smaller scope lets it speed through content at a breakneck pace. It goes to show that not every RPG needs to be a hundred hours long and that people can appreciate a more concise adventure. It is for these reasons that I give Super Mario RPG an 8/10. It’s not a grand adventure, but it is a fun one.

Pacific Drive (2024)

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Pacific Drive is not what I expected it to be. And unfortunately, after playing the game, I can’t help but feel like the game I expected would have been better than the game Pacific Drive actually was. It’s certainly not a bad game. Pacific Drive does many things very well, and I hope other games take inspiration from its successes. But even aside from not being what I expected, there are some other major issues that I have with the game.

What I expected was an ominous road trip across the Pacific coast. I thought I’d be looking for bastions of safety to spend the night away from some sort of eerie threat as I made my way across the country. And that is the general idea of Pacific Drive. But instead of being a straightforward road trip with a start and destination, the game takes on a looping format. You plan a route from the safety of the garage, collect resources while avoiding sci-fi dangers, and then drive into a wormhole to return back to the garage where you can upgrade your car and tools. While the vibes here are immaculate and exactly what I expected, I found the roguelite looping structure to have a few aspects that I wasn’t a fan of. 

While Pacific Drive didn’t turn out to be exactly what I wanted, I can’t deny that the game does a ton of things right. First and foremost, I love a good safehouse and Pacific Drive has one of the best in gaming. After a stress-inducing journey I loved rolling into the shop to do some repairs on my car. There’s an ever-present checklist of tasks to accomplish: filling up the gas tank, charging the battery, healing up, restocking survival tools, organizing loot, swapping out beat-up car components, and spending resources to upgrade. It may be a little repetitive after a while but I feel like the calm and safe environment itself is the reward for a successful trip into the wild.

The car itself is an extension of the player’s character. It starts out as a piece of junk that can barely make it down the road without falling apart. But as you play you will unlock upgrades to the panels, doors, engine, bumpers, trunk storage, as well as being able to slap on some special additions. Going from a car that’s panels that are duct-taped together to a radiation-shielded vehicle with wind turbines on the side, extra batteries in the back, and a radar on roof is a satisfying progression. Driving in this game is wonderfully terrible. This isn’t a racing game, and you have to take care of your surroundings as it is easy to lose traction and slip down a hill and crash into trees and rocks. All the time you spend with your car, upgrading it, learning its ins-and-outs, mastering the driving, detailing it, and repairing it makes the car an excellent tool that you really feel attached to.

What Pacific Drive really excels at is the vibe and atmosphere. It’s a wonderfully isolated experience. You don’t meet any other humans outside of limited radio interaction. You simply drive around the lonely landscapes of the Pacific Northwest and avoid dangerous anomalies. The anomalies themselves aren’t really sentient beings or scary monsters, just unnaturally occurring science-fiction phenomenon. It’s a tense but oddly relaxing experience. It distills the feeling of a solo road trip as you listen to the radio, navigate back roads, and try to make it to your next safe stop without running off the road and getting some dings on your car. 

I appreciate that Pacific Drive was committed to environmental threats rather than enemies. You aren’t running from monsters, just avoiding puddles of radiation, explosive mannequins, and electrical towers. The hilly and densely forested landscape can make it a tricky problem to go off-roading to avoid these obstacles, but I enjoyed the environmental threats. Moreover, I think Pacific Drive does a great job at maintaining tension throughout the experience. The game never loses its teeth, even as you upgrade your car’s defenses. You always have to play cautiously and keep a watchful eye on your fuel, battery, and other resources to make sure you can make it back home.

I found that Pacific Drive had distinct issues in its beginning, middle, and end. The start of the game is arguably when the game is at its best. You are dropped into a terrifying world and have to figure out how to survive. Your car is a rinky-dink piece of junk that constantly needs its parts swapped and it struggles to go up a mild hill. You have to navigate through a variety of hazards and sci-fi phenomena to gather materials. Upgrades come fast and the learning process is fun, but I do think the game has some problems when teaching the player about its systems.

The game introduces you to 3 characters over radio who spend much of the early portions of the game technobabbling in your ear. Much of it is nonsense, some of it is story related, and a little of it tries to teach you how to play. But it’s hard to spend your brain’s bandwidth listening and discerning what is important while also anxiously navigating the world’s environment. The game is very punishing early on, and certain resources are exceedingly scarce. I was annoyed when the game encouraged me to fully repair all the car’s crappy components with the fairly expensive repair putty item. I also had no idea about the game’s “storm” system which encloses the map in extremely dangerous radiation if you take too long in any given area. It’s a good way to give some urgency to the player, but I don’t remember it being taught to me, maybe I missed it in the waterfall of technobabble. Regardless, I was enormously frustrated when my first encounter with the storm was an anomalous “fast storm” which closed faster than usual and caused me to die. 

Once you’ve gotten comfortable in the world of Pacific Drive, you’ve entered the middle of the game. Despite how frustrating the beginning can be, the constant tension and process of learning and upgrading can be rewarding. The middle of the game is unfortunately far more repetitive. The game devolves into a monotonous cycle of collecting materials, returning to base, repairing and upgrading, and then doing it again. I get that this is the standard survival gameplay loop, but I feel that it’s particularly unrewarding in Pacific Drive. My favorite survival game is Subnautica, which has a mixture of upgrades, exploration, and story to keep the game interesting as you repeatedly dive for resources. Pacific Drive doesn’t really excel at any of those aspects.

After getting the basics at your garage and in your car, the upgrade system in Pacific Drive is a little underwhelming. I never felt particularly thrilled when I could finally upgrade my panels to gain some radiation resistance, or my doors to be insulated from a little electrical damage. These never felt like big momentous bonuses that would allow me to do things I didn’t do before. Just that it would give me a little protection when I made a mistake. I would have loved if upgrades fed more into exploration, but unfortunately the game’s roguelite format squanders a lot of opportunity there.

It would be phenomenal if there were areas that were in permanent thunderstorms that required components insulated from electrical damage. Or areas that were heavily radiated that needed lead shielding. And if those areas had huge rewards and lore drops it would be a great incentive to want to visit these areas. The game does have a single example of this, an area that is permanently shrouded in darkness that also rapidly saps electricity. I enjoyed planning for this area as it presented a unique challenge and made me think about what upgrades and tools I needed to bring. So much of the game is randomized and it results in many runs feeling same-y, I wish there were more zones that had unique layouts, anomalies, and conditions to plan for.

The late game of Pacific Drive is fairly short, which is probably a good thing because by the time I got there I was feeling burnt out on the gameplay loop. The final area is pretty tiny and there’s only one or two story missions there. I didn’t get a single late game upgrade because they weren’t necessary and by the time you get to the final zone, the game is basically over. Again, I’m actually kind of glad that this is the case because it’s a major pain to traverse all the way to the deep zone and I was already ready to be done with the game. My real issue with the late game is that the story has no climactic payoff. I wasn’t super invested in the story in the first place, but there are a few excellent and emotional moments building up to the finale. Things start to make more sense; you understand the characters more and get attached to them. But the actual ending just kind of… happens. It doesn’t really resolve most of the game’s major plot points and it ultimately just feels disappointing. 

If I had my way, Pacific Drive wouldn’t be a roguelite at all. I still would like to play a version of this game where you don’t warp back to the same garage but instead drive across the Pacific Northwest on a long journey and try to find sanctuary in gas stations, rest stops, and cabins along the way. Regardless, I had other issues with Pacific Drive other than its genre. Some better teaching in the early game, better rewards and exploration in the mid game, and a better conclusion would have done a lot to make Pacific Drive more enjoyable for me. I will say that Pacific Drive does so much right. The atmosphere, the garage, the environmental hazards, the car’s handling, and the lonely vibes are aspects that I hope other games can learn from. It is for these reasons that I give Pacific Drive a 7/10. It’s not the game I expected, but I appreciated its unique approach to the survival game genre.

Pepper Grinder (2024)

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Pepper Grinder is a wonderfully retro game. Its detailed pixel art, gorgeous environmental backdrops, charming cast of characters, and focus on fun gameplay concepts made me feel like I was playing a classic SNES platformer.  Pepper Grinder may be short, and it may not do anything revolutionary, but it is remarkably polished and is purely distilled fun. There’s no fat on this game, every level has its own ideas and mechanics that put a twist on the drilling and digging platforming.

 The key mechanic in Pepper Grinder is the drill. You tunnel through sand, earth, and snow, avoiding obstacles along the way. As you pop out of the ground you can boost yourself and launch yourself from platform to platform. It’s a remarkably smooth mechanic that the entire foundation of the game is built upon. Digging through the ground is intuitive to control, fast-paced, and allows for some creative level design. And Pepper Grinder delivers that in spades.

While it may be a short game, Pepper Grinder makes up for that with the sheer variety in its levels. Every level is distinct in some way. There are grapple points to swing between patches of earth, falling chunks of snow to flow through, cannons that blast you across the sky, gatling guns to mow down enemies, and a variety of locations to explore. One minute you’ll be gunning down goons in a volcano and the next you will be diving in shark-infested waters and splitting boats in half.

What makes Pepper Grinder feel like a retro game is its charm. There’s no dialogue or much of a narrative at all. The main character, Pepper, washes up on shore and has her treasure stolen. The rest of the adventure is just using her newfound drill to hunt down her missing treasure. But what makes the game so endearing is the visual story that is told. Traveling through the lands and encountering a handful of friendly faces like a farmer mole and a friendly giant is reminiscent of SNES era games such as Super Mario World and Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island. And this retro influence is also obviously present in the art style of Pepper Grinder.

The game is full of lovingly crafted pixel art and animations. The levels, environments, and characters all come to life in its high-fidelity pixel art style. Even with the bright colors and fast-paced platforming, I felt that visual clarity was extremely good. I never lost track of where I was or where I was supposed to be going. The presentation is further bolstered by a great soundtrack of mixed genres: jazz, rock, drum and bass, and even drum and bass. 

There’s no arguing that Pepper Grinder is a short game. There’s only two dozen or so levels and each can be completed in 5-10 minutes. But I don’t think being short is necessarily negative. The developer obviously did not want to pad that game out with repetitive levels or filler content, which can be seen from how every level has its own gimmick or trick. Additionally, there are 5 hidden coins in every level to be found if you are interested in collectible hunting. And I found quite a bit of fun in the time trial mode, trying to get the gold medal on every level. It never felt overly challenging, but I loved finding shortcuts or optimizations to spare a few seconds.

The only major flaw with Pepper Grinder is the boss fights. There are only four of them, but none of them are particularly fun. They are neat concepts, but are unfortunately in cramped arenas that feel awkward to maneuver in. The last boss in particular is a huge difficulty spike, I could see tons of players giving up before seeing the credits because of how frustrating that fight can be. And to make matters worse, if you are doing the time trial mode you will have to deal with 30-second unskippable cutscenes on every single attempt of every boss. Truly maddening.

Pepper Grinder definitely isn’t a revolutionary game. It doesn’t dwell on any of its ideas or mechanics. If you are looking for a platformer that slowly evolves as the player gets better, Pepper Grinder may not be for you. It’s a game that delivers on a fun and fluid base movement system while throwing a bunch of different ideas at the player. Sure, many of those ideas could be explored further and expanded upon, but I appreciate the brevity of the game. And if you are looking to master the game’s mechanics, time trial mode can provide a decent but reasonable challenge.

I love when a game focuses on just being fun. And that’s what Pepper Grinder is. It may be on the shorter side, but that’s only because there is not any fat on this game whatsoever. Every level is its own idea. And the basic drilling movement is just pure fun. Although it doesn’t do anything revolutionary it manages to feel nostalgic and reminiscent of classic Nintendo platformers. It is for these reasons that I give Pepper Grinder a 7.5/10. Definitely give this game a shot if you want a quick burst of platforming fun.

Penny’s Big Breakaway (2024)

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Penny’s Big Breakaway is a game that gets better and better as you play it. As a lover of 3D platformers, I was excited for Evening Star’s debut game. These guys gave us Sonic Mania, the best Sonic game in decades. Once I started playing it though, I thought Penny’s Big Breakaway was just alright. I had trouble with the innovative control scheme and never quite found a satisfying flow to the platforming. But as I progressed through the game, I slowly got more and more familiar with the movement. And that’s where the game shines. Once it clicks, Penny’s Big Breakaway is immensely fun as you dash, swing, and zip through levels. Maintaining momentum and combos is not easy, but the satisfaction of going fast makes it a reward worth earning.

Penny’s Big Breakaway takes place in a brightly colorful world of performers and penguins. Penny is a performer who has to go on lam because her sentient yo-yo ripped off the king’s pants during a performance. The story itself isn’t all that exciting or worth talking about, but that’s ok because it definitely isn’t front and center. What makes Penny’s Big Breakaway interesting is the platforming.

Penny herself is a rather slow and clunky character, but that’s made up for the array of abilities that her yoyo provides. In the air you can sling the yo-yo in any direction using the control stick, and from there you can either dash to the yo-yo or swing from it. These both have their own uses to build speed, height, and distance. Moreover, you also have a small double jump. On the ground you can roll on the yo-yo or spin it around you. The roll is key to maintaining momentum while the spin attack is mostly used for maintaining combos.

With all these possibilities it can be tricky to get a grasp on how to string these moves together. Especially because Penny’s Big Breakaway has a unique control scheme that can take some getting used to. Like I mentioned, Penny is slow and rather boring to just walk around and jump like a normal platformer. The key to having fun is utilizing slopes and stringing her moves together to create a fast-flowing performance. For instance, dashing into a roll on a hill is an easy way to build up a ton of momentum. You can then swing out of the roll to fling yourself across big gaps. An additional consideration is that timing these movements is critical. If you attempt to roll from too high up you won’t keep most of your momentum. And of course, you will fling off tangent to your swing arc whenever you release a swing.

There’s lots of nuances in the movement in Penny’s Big Breakaway. Aside from all the basic moves that I listed above you have to contend with enemies, poles to swing on, power ups, bouncy pads, dramatic slopes, and other complications. Learning how to go fast is what makes Penny’s Big Breakaway fun. And it’s also why I think the game has a steep learning curve. I didn’t really start having a lot of fun until about halfway through because I wasn’t good at chaining together my movements and timing things so I could reach top speeds.

Aside from going fast, another omnipresent objective is to maintain a combo. By masterfully manipulating your entire moveset you will rack up a combo that steadily increases your point total. At first, I thought this is what the focus of Penny’s Big Breakaway was as it is in your face. And don’t get me wrong, maintaining a combo can be fun, as long as you are doing it with speed. If you are new at the game, floundering around to make sure you never drop the combo can be more discouraging than it is fun. And there’s plenty of places where you can just combo back and forth for minutes at a time to rack up a big score. Honestly, I suggest just ignoring the combo system altogether until you start mastering the movement. 

I wish Penny’s Big Breakaway would have emphasized the need for speed a little more. It’s the most entertaining aspect of the game, but the game does very little to encourage going fast. Your score at the end of the level is independent of the time it took to complete it. If you want a high score, you could just combo back and forth as I previously mentioned. Getting a point multiplier based on your speed of completing the level might have encouraged speed. There is a time trial mode, but there are no developer-set baselines. I think this was a big misstep. After completing the game, I was looking to replay some of the levels to get a fast time, but without a benchmark to measure myself against I had no idea if I was doing well or not. Playing against your own times can be fun once you master the game, but I would have liked a point of reference to try to beat.

One of the biggest appeals of Penny’s Big Breakaway is its speedrun-friendly level design. Levels are cleverly laid out with some diverging paths that encourage experimentation. Moreover, there aren’t invisible walls or other tricks to keep the player from finding huge shortcuts. If you do master the movement, you can skip huge chunks of the levels if you find the right gaps and walls to scale. Even if you aren’t a speedrunner, the levels are well-designed that flow nicely and still encourage smaller shortcuts. Sadly, the boss fights are fairly underwhelming compared to the standard levels. My other major gripe with the levels is the optional objectives.

I usually enjoy finding hidden secrets or doing challenges in platformers. But Penny’s Big Breakaway is all about going fast. Having to slow down and look around for potential secrets is annoying. Each level has 3 hidden items and 3 short quests. The quests also are frustrating because they start as soon as you walk in the vicinity of the NPC, and are often timed challenges. Meaning you quickly have to read what your goal is and look around to find where you are supposed to go all while the clock is ticking. If you fail, you have to reset from the checkpoint. I realize the side objectives aren’t necessary to beat the game, but are required if you want to unlock the bonus levels. And the bonus levels are some of my favorites in the game.

Unfortunately, we can’t talk about Penny’s Big Breakaway without mentioning its performance issues. I had many instances of clipping into terrain and walls. During a boss fight I just fell through the floor and died. Certain sloped surfaces also have Penny sliding on them very strangely. These collision bugs aren’t the end of the world, but they are common enough that they can’t be ignored. Luckily, the developers seem to be aware of these bugs and are actively working on patching the collision issues.

As for presentation, I found Penny’s Big Breakaway to be almost too colorful. I understand that the game is trying to harken back to the days of Sega consoles and the dominance of Sonic. But I found the art style of Penny’s Big Breakaway to be garish. Fortunately, the soundtrack is stellar. It’s a nice mix of jazz, funk, and electronic beats that do fondly call back to retro games.

Penny’s Big Breakaway is the epitome of “high skill floor, high skill ceiling”. It’s a game that, if you put the time into mastering it, is an immensely fun fast-paced platformer. Conversely, it can be tricky to find the fun in Penny’s Big Breakaway if you aren’t proficient at building speed. The movement can be slow, clunky, and unintuitive until you learn the timings and sequences needed to gain momentum. It is for these reasons that I give Penny’s Big Breakaway an 8/10. It’s a game that experienced platformers and speedrunners will love to master, but newer players may find it slow and frustrating.

Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown (2024)

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Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown is a game of two qualities. The meat of the gameplay, the combat and platforming, are superb and have an enjoyable flow to them. On the other hand, the game’s presentation, story, and exploration elements are woefully underdeveloped. It’s disappointing because Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown had a ton of potential, but I was ultimately underwhelmed by the experience as a whole. 

You play as Sargon, one of the seven Persian immortals who go on a mission to rescue the prince from the cursed Citadel. Time flows strangely in the Citadel, some people age and turn to dust in the matter of hours, while others are seemingly immortal. The god of this land, the Simurgh, has been missing for 30 years and is somehow tied to the prince’s kidnapping. It’s a decent hook, especially considering how actual Persian mythology is woven into the game. But unfortunately, the actual story is just bland once the plot starts developing further. It’s predictable. And I found it difficult to care about anything when all the characters are just entirely forgettable, which isn’t helped by the uninspiring and unenthusiastic voice acting. Not to mention the handful of plot holes and obviously cut content that left me scratching my head. I don’t think a game like this needs an excellent story, but I’d rather minimize the story elements instead of placing a half-baked tale front and center.

When the central gameplay mechanics are so excellent, you don’t need a riveting story. Look at Super Mario or The Legend of Zelda for instance. While they have a story, it is often in the background as you adventure through a variety of creative areas. The environments and gameplay mechanics are at the forefront. I wish that were the case in Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown, as it does have a solid gameplay foundation. But the game is filled with boring cutscenes, mundane dialogue, uninteresting characters, and paragraphs and paragraphs of lore. 

 Combat in Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown is satisfying and fast-paced. The game encourages combos and juggling to wreck enemies. There’s a handful of ways to launch enemies into the air: upward swings, low trips, and kicking out of a dash. Keeping enemies airborne and within your attack range is a fun but rewarding method of fighting. An interesting decision about the combo system is that the final attack in the basic button-mashing combo is intentionally terrible. It’s slow, has a long recovery, can’t be canceled into a parry, and knocks enemies far away making it difficult to follow up with more attacks. I think this was smart as it encourages players to come up with their own strategies and combos. I personally loved getting some basic attacks, knocking an enemy up, hitting them a few more times, then knocking them to the ground and finishing the combo with a charged ground slam. 

My one complaint about the combat is the boss fights. The game encourages players to parry enemies to create openings to unleash a combo. Unfortunately, most bosses don’t follow this pattern. The vast majority of their attacks are unable to be parried. Moreover, you can’t launch bosses into combos, you can usually only get a couple of basic hits off. Most fights boil down to just memorizing the boss’s patterns, learning how to dodge them, and then retaliating with a couple basic attacks. While this is usually completely normal for boss fights in games, I think it’s a little disappointing in Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown. I wish I could utilize more of the fast-paced and aggressive play that is encouraged by parries and juggling combos.

The Prince of Persia series has always been known for its platforming prowess, and Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown is no different. Stringing together wall-jumps, dashes, grapple-hooks, and time-bending shenanigans is a ton of fun. The game starts a little slow when it comes to platforming, but once you start unlocking abilities each challenge is almost like a fast-paced puzzle to determine the order you should be using these abilities in. It’s smooth, snappy, and just the right level of difficulty to feel tough but reasonable. 

While combat and platforming are fun, I was exhausted by the unfulfilling exploration. Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown is a metroidvania, exploration is a key tenet to make these games enjoyable. When backtracking becomes tedious the genre falls apart. The issue with exploration in Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown is twofold: empty space and rewards. I felt like there was so much wasted space with no enemies or platforming that made getting around the map just boring. Running is slow in relation to how big each area is, and for some reason you have to re-click dash to run through every single screen transition which is annoying. I felt no desire to hunt down collectibles and go for 100% because it was slow and uninteresting to explore areas that I’d already been through. Moreover, the rewards for exploration were underwhelming. Getting steel to upgrade my weapon or health upgrades were nice, but there were so many lore items that I just didn’t care about. When the story of the game is dull, I have no desire to read further about the lore.

The biggest flaw of Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown is that it simply lacks personality. There’s so many fantastic metroidvanias to play, each with their own aesthetic. When you look at Ori, Hollow Knight, or Blasphemous these games are oozing with charm. Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown is bland all around. Visually, the game looks generic and cartoony, the characters remind me of something out of Fortnite. The environments look fine but are just uninteresting. The Raging Sea was the exception as it was a visual spectacle of a stormy ocean frozen in time. The soundtrack is Persian inspired but unfortunately forgettable. As previously mentioned, the story and characters are generic. There’s just nothing that makes Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown feel like it stands out amongst the pantheon of metroidvania greatness. 

It’s a shame that a game that has such great gameplay misses on the rest of the execution. Even though combat and platforming were superb, the exploration, story, art style, and music were utterly forgettable. It’s like putting a nicely cooked steak atop a pile of mushy and bland oatmeal. It is for these reasons that I give Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown a 6/10. In a genre that is chock full of games brimming with personality, Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown doesn’t do much to stand out.

Yakuza 0 (2015)

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I’ve put off playing the Yakuza series for years because of its reputation of having a ton of side content. Most people see this as an inherent positive, but as I’ve gotten older, I have less time to game. I appreciate shorter, tighter experiences that trim the fat and only leave the good parts. When I see a game averages 50+ hours to complete, it feels daunting. Most of these behemoth open world games are padded out with repetitive quests and meaningless filler. But this is not the case in Yakuza 0. Indeed, Yakuza 0 is a lengthy game with a ton of side quests and minigames, but these distractions perfectly supplement the serious crime drama that is the main story.

Yakuza 0 is a game about the seedy underworld of Japan’s entertainment districts. You follow two protagonists who have both been expelled from their crime families for different reasons. Kazuma Kiryu is seeking to clear his name after being framed for murder and uncovers a proxy war between factions vying over a small piece of real estate worth billions of Yen. Goro Majima will do whatever it takes to be accepted back into his organization after disobeying a superior, even if it means humiliating himself as a pawn for his keepers. 

What I appreciated most about the story was how it took time to establish its characters and make me care about them. Usually, I’m not a fan of long cutscenes or expositions, but nobody will be able to forget Majima’s 20-minute-long introduction. The characters have their own ideals, goals, friendships, and limits to what they are willing to do. The protagonists are lowly grunts who are relentlessly bullied by their higher ups, but withstand the brutality to do what they believe is right. The slow burn of character building and drama is what makes the story so compelling. And while it may be a little over the top at times, the organizations and drama feels entirely believable. Long cutscenes where family Lieutenants chat in an office and subtly make ploys to outplay each other for a 10ft-by-10ft piece of unoccupied real estate feels like something that is scarily plausible. 

A good slow burn needs a satisfying payoff to make the players feel like the time they invested was worth it, and Yakuza 0 makes sure to have a ton of payoffs. The story is split into chapters, and every couple of chapters there is a massive story moment paired with amazing action sequences and set pieces. Sure, some of these action sequences can be a little silly and over-the-top, but they are fun and the game earned the right to get a tad carried away. However, I was a little disappointed with how frequently the game pulled its punches. There are definitely severe, often fatal consequences for characters, but there are also a ton of fake-out deaths and miraculously healing bullet wounds. A character unexpectedly surviving is fine, but not when it happens 5 times through the course of the game.

What really makes the Yakuza series unique is its ability to supplement its dark and violent crime drama story with ridiculously goofy side content. One moment you’ll be fighting through a building full of grunts for your life, have a man chop off his finger in front of you, and walk dejected through the bustling streets of Tokyo and the next moment you’ll be singing karaoke and having a dance battle with Michael Jackson. There are a ton of minigames and side quests to get distracted by, and there’s a few reasons why I love the side content in this game. The main reason is that it’s almost always hilarious. Like teaching a professional dominatrix how to humiliate her customer, or bowling a turkey and finding out your prize is a live chicken that you keep and turn into a manager at your real estate firm. All of the side quests are so silly and ultimately wholesome that it balances out the brutality of the main story. 

The other reasons why I like the side content in Yakuza 0 all have to do with how unintrusive the side content is. First and foremost, while Yakuza 0 is an open world game, the map is incredibly dense. You can run a loop around the entire thing in maybe 5 minutes. This makes it so you don’t have to go out of your way to hunt down quests, you just naturally stumble upon them. Side quests are also typically very short. You can complete most of them in 10-15 minutes. They are good for a quick distraction and laugh, and you don’t have to commit hours to see one through to the end. Lastly, they typically don’t have many material rewards. You may get a small trinket or piece of gear, but most of the time the reward is inconsequential. I like this approach for Yakuza 0 as you never feel obligated to engage with side content, you only should do it if you feel like it.

All that being said, the biggest side quests in the game are the antithesis to all these observations. Each character runs a business, and engaging in those quest lines is the best way to make money in the game. Furthermore, doing these quests unlocks additional abilities in combat and a secret fighting style if you complete them entirely. This makes it feel necessary to spend time on these quests. The worst offender is the real estate business that Kiryu runs. It’s a huge time sink that consists of investing money in properties, waiting 15 minutes to collect payouts, and then immediately reinvesting that money to buy more properties. It’s a massive investment of time to complete this. Majima fares a little better here because he runs a cabaret club which at least consists of a short mini-game of running the club. It’s more engaging and less time-consuming, but both of these quest lines were fairly boring, extremely long, and felt necessary if you wanted cash or to unlock new combat abilities.

Combat in Yakuza 0 is solid, but it’s not the main appeal of the game. It’s a fairly simplistic beat em’ up action game with a handful of style variations. You have light attacks, heavy attacks, and guard breakers. Combos consist of 1-4 light attacks followed by a heavy attack. Each style has its own niche that can be fun to figure out and mess around with. The most enjoyable aspect of the combat is the context. Your opponents are often the scummiest men in the Yakuza who taunt, torture, and disrespect you. It was immensely satisfying to unleash some powerful combos on them. Moreover, attacks feel weighty as they stun enemies and knock them to the floor. You also build up a heat gauge which can be utilized on heat-attacks that do a ton of damage. I wouldn’t say the combat is amazing or revolutionary, but it is definitely fun.

Aside from combat, the other main bit of gameplay in Yakuza 0 is mini-games. Most mini-games aren’t even related to the main quest or numerous side quests, they just exist for the player to discover. While I didn’t spend a ton of time playing Mahjong or Shogi, I did become an expert at the various karaoke and dance songs. There’s also bowling, batting cages, various gambling games, toy car racing, a few arcade games, and of course fishing. They’re all simple enough to get the hang of quickly and serve as a nice distraction from the intensity of the main story.

Open world games often grow repetitive and outlast their welcome, but I didn’t feel that way about Yakuza 0. The map was so dense with mini-games, side quests, and main content that it never felt bloated with unused space. The rollercoaster of the deadly serious story about organized crime and the outrageously goofy side content is something that is entirely unique to Yakuza, and I loved it. I’m upset that I’ve waited so long to jump into this series, and Yakuza 0 has me wanting to play the rest of the games as soon as possible.