170 lines
5.6 KiB
HTML
170 lines
5.6 KiB
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content="I’ve been a bit sick over the past week. Not the ‘rona as far as I can tell. Just a flu. Probably.
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I spent most of that time playing Yakuza Zero, then Kiwami, and now I’m in the middle of playing through Kiwami 2. ">
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<h1>phil@bajsicki:~$</h1>
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<h1 class="content-title">Heaps of fun (Yakuza)</h1><span class="content-meta"><p class="author">[Phil Bajsicki]</p><p class="date">2022-10-17</p><span>2 min read </span><a href="http://localhost:1313/tags/yakuza">yakuza</a> <a href="http://localhost:1313/tags/review">review</a> </span></section>
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<section><p>I’ve been a bit sick over the past week. Not the ‘rona as far as I can tell. Just a flu. Probably.</p>
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<p>I spent most of that time playing <em>Yakuza Zero</em>, then <em>Kiwami</em>, and now I’m in the middle of playing through <em>Kiwami 2</em>.</p>
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<p>An observation that occurred to me is that the Yakuza games fit very neatly into Warren Spector’s “one block” ideal. The areas are relatively small, realistically sized, and chock-full of content, interactable items, and a story that is very localized. TONS of localized content is present, which adds a lot of life and <em>flavor</em> to Kamurocho (and the other areas the characters visit in the course of the games)</p>
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<p>This leads to a very enjoyable pattern of go-fight-go-fight, with combat being rather frequent (and excellently executed).</p>
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<p>And that’s not even getting into the dozens of mini-games, and the side-quests (or, stories, as the game calls them) which explore and give some insight into the everyday lives of regular people in the crime-infested world the games portray.</p>
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<p>Another thing that I’ve noted is that the Yakuza games have A LOT of Souls-like elements. The combat is snappy, rhythmic, and patterned in a way that punishes getting ‘greedy’. It’s really enjoyable, particularly since the difficulty balancing is very precise, and doesn’t lead to complete blow-outs very often (I played the games on Normal - this may not be true on Hard).</p>
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<p>Then there’s the plot. It’s consistent, has few to no plot holes (I didn’t notice any myself, but I can imagine they exist), and goes into truly dark places, psychologically.</p>
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<p>My only criticism is that at no point (well, we see this at ONE point at the beginning of Kiwami) do we see the main characters engage in violence against civilians. The story relies on the trope of a ‘bad good guy.’ Which isn’t necessarily bad - but it does stick out like a sore thumb when you take a step back for an overview of what’s happening.</p>
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<p>Otherwise, I have nothing but good things to say about these games. The only other games I can say this about are <em>Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater</em>, <em>Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory</em>, and <em>Deus Ex: Mankind Divided</em>. Off the top of my head, at least.</p>
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<p><em>Yakuza Kiwami 2</em> is by far the best of the PC titles - the developers paid attention and introduced a number of quality of life changes that truly make it a joy to play.</p>
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©2024 Phil Bajsicki
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