Recent reviews by Gunjoshi

My expectations were pretty low considering how short the Kaito Files from Lost Judgment was and the devs statements on the length of the game being compared to that made me think $50 was pretty steep for it. But funnily enough this is probably my game of the year despite its length. With my only real gripe being the lack of NG+ for it, as I think the lack of it hurts the replayability especially with its shorter length. A first time playthrough (watching cutscenes and all) would probably take about 7 hours give or take. Hitting the Platinum only took about 25 hours (one of the easiest plats I've achieved honestly.)

The story (without getting into spoilers) takes place during Yakuza 7. And is pretty much the events of that game through Kiryu's eyes. And was far more emotional than I had ever expected it to be.

The combat reminds me a lot of the first Judgment game. With the 2 fighting styles focusing on crowd control and 1 on 1s respectively. Agent is like Crane where it focuses on crowd control (albeit more with gimmicky gadgets and not Yagami kicking everything.) And "Yakuza" being the slow, but hard hitting 1 on 1 style. Unlike Judgment though, the CC style is actually really useful in battles with bigger groups what with its speed, bombs, rocket shoes and wire grab. Kiryu can air combo now, and it's actually really cool setting up into them and getting creative with what you can do.

I was surprised with how much they actually managed to do with a game that supposedly only took half a year to make. But with how the studio does really well with their "less is more" approach to their open worlds, I guess I shouldn't be too shocked.

The story is very emotional with good fan service moments throughout, and we see Kiryu in a couple different ways we hadn't seen before. The combat is fluid and allows for a lot of creativity and shenanigans (though yakuza could be a lil faster) and the side activities are like a "Best of" collection from the series. This is probably one of my favorites in the series despite being like a third of the size.

I've played every mainline Yakuza that wasn't the original releases of 1 and 2 on the PS2. Since this year started I have played and completed 3,4,5, Judgement, and now 7 (or Like A Dragon). I played every other main title previously (0, Kiwami 1&2, 6)
I was initially skeptical about the switch to turn based combat but I've played my fair share of the genre so i accepted it pretty quickly. The new game play being how Ichiban sees combat was also a neat little explanation for it. The combat while being a turn based RPG with four party members and an MP system still manages to (at least to me) stay fresh with its positional mechanics. Which can be wonky at times but they'll just teleport characters as a fail safe.

Yakuza stories are always kind of ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ insane. That's the best way for me to describe it. It's the way they execute scenes despite how dumb some of the writing is that pulls me in. You know how a lot of the time when some one is reviewing something they'll say "It's a good idea, just executed poorly" I think of the opposite with this series "That idea was horrible, but it was executed amazingly." And Like A Dragon is a bit different as after finishing I can't really think of story example like that. By Yakuza standards it's pretty tame in the wacky plot writing. I also ended up liking the new protagonist a lot more than I had initially expected.

I sort of just wrote this for the steam awards thing but didn't want to just throw some half hearted meme review for it. The game is genuinely great and is a pretty good starting point for the series (0 or kiwami 1 is still better imo, but this works)

Please Sega port the rest of the games (including judgement)

I made snake shower 5 times today...

I haven't showered in 2 weeks.

I have played over 30 hours of this "glorified tech demo"

[This review has been taken down due to a copy right claim by Zoe Quinn. Sorry about that]