Some thoughts on video games : February 1980's Edition

In the past February would be a month devoid of new games to play yet that isn't true anymore. Not quite a crazy as last month but it still looks like it'll have a few gems. Like last month I'm trying to stick to a theme and it should be interesting to see if I can find a way to tie all these games to the 1980's. I'm mostly interested in checking out some games from the 80's that I never played before. Although the game itself might just be set during that period too or maybe the music came from that era. Anyway, let's get into what I was interested in playing this month.

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Yakuza 0 : Drama, humor, side quests and brawling action. All via just 4 screenshots. This game takes place during the real estate boom in 1988 Japan. Even if it doesn't quite get all the touches right seeing Japan during this era is super interesting on its own.

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Golgo 13 : Top Secret Episode

Can't really show you but this game has some great 8 bit music too. Once someone looks into Golgo 13's eyes they know their fate is sealed. Although most of the time they don't even see him. The biggest flaw of this game is that you never really use the M16.

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Drakengard: Well I can't really spin this in any way that somehow relates to the 1980's. Even if I count one of the crazy endings. More than anything else the crazy part of this game is the main impact it left on me. Which is why I randomly decided to play through it again.

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Drakengard 2: I never played this game till now. In so many ways this is an 180 reversal compared to the first one. Gameplay flows a lot better in the skies and on the ground. The addition of the parry move added a bit more strategy to combat too.

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Drakengard 3: Never really mentioned the Japanese name till now but I don't see how it wouldn't have worked over here. Didn't mention it below but I liked the dragon stages a lot more than the previous games.

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  Yakuza 0

  It has been a while since I really sunk my teeth into a Yakuza game. I've kept up with the series but never really got deep into the narrative or all the silly side content. The first two games was when I was super into the serious narrative the US games went down even if they are laughable now. Yet now I'm much more captivated by the spot on mixture of humor and super serious drama.

  Yakuza 0 tells the dual origin stories of Kiryu and Majima that show off how they transformed from rookie yakuza's into the legends they become later in life. It does start off a bit slow but once all the pieces start coming together it was hard to stop playing. In the end, I pretty much knew what Kiryu was going to do but Majima in this game feels like an entirely different person.

  Combat wise the main new mechanic is having 3 different styles per person. The fast style comes down to fighting quick either by being fast or by using dance to bust a groove on all the fools in your way. The normal style is about as basic as you might think although both of them have a different stance that changes up how they fight. The last is the weapon focused heavy style that can really rip up a group of yakuza. Ended up using that last one a lot more than I expected. Usually I hate being the slow strong type but it tears through enemies quick.

  More than anything this game has a metric ton of side quests to go through. I'm giving the translators of this game 5 stars for the style of humor they went with. Hard to not smile at all the silly side quests that have you fight fake zombies for Michael Johnson or the dumb quest to get a porn magazine for a kid. Plenty of side mini games too like bowling or dancing in the night club. At some point if I didn't stick to the main narrative most of the time I could have easily put in 80 hours instead of 40. Especially the real estate or hostess club side quests that are full on mini campaigns.

  Overall I really enjoyed my time with this game. All of the pieces are put together in a way that can keep just about anyone entertained. Might be worth checking out if any of this sounds interesting to you.

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  Golgo 13: Top Secret Episode

  Jeff brings this up randomly on the Bombcast occasionally and it just so happens that the release year is 1988. A good time as any to check out a game I've never played before. This is a licensed game based on Golgo 13 who is the greatest hitman ever. Game wise he has been hired to stop a bioterrorist who is willing to go to any lengths to succeed including using clones.

  Storyline and gameplay wise this game is ambitious for something that was released on the NES. 4 different styles of gameplay are mixed together. Sidescrolling on foot, in air/sea, first person shooting and a first person maze. All of this adds a ton of variety yet the issue is that none of them are balanced well. Starting off Golgo can only jump kick that has the shortest range ever yet it is the most effective skill. At least it would be if enemies gave any indication that I was damaging them. Half the time I wasn't quite sure if I actually hit them. This also comes up in the first person segments too. The fact that he also constantly loses health without killing something just ramps up the difficulty more. Luckily the developers knew it would be impossible without infinite continues so they included that feature.

  I could go over more flaws but that isn't needed since the game is still cool for what it tried to do. If I played this when it was first released I'm sure it would have been a game that I would have remembered fondly. It has just the right amount of crazy that I love seeing in a video game.

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  Drakengard

  Drakengard is a unique game that mixes on the foot brawling with the ability to fly on a Dragon. Depending on if it's an on-foot mission or in the skies the gameplay changes. In the skies, it is similar to Panzer Dragoon with a heavy focus on locking onto enemies. While on the ground it comes down to a simple combo system like Dynasty Warriors while also letting the player jump on the dragon to bombard non-magical enemies. Which changes up the gameplay just enough to keep it interesting.

  Meanwhile, the story appears to be a generic dark fantasy tale of a man named Caim who makes a pact with a dragon to stave off his death.The cost is that he cannot speak which is actually a good thing going by the fact he is a big jerk even if he has valid reasons for being one. Anyway most of the game is spent traveling to different battlefields to save his sister or meet new companies. By the way everyone in this game is messed up in one way or another. Forgot about that aspect when I decided to replay this. Altogether by the 3 ending everything goes crazy. Fitting in some way that the first ending is the most happy ending while the rest just keep going deeper into madness.

  I don't want to go into any details since that is one of the reasons you should check out Drakengard. Overall it held up a bit better than I expected. Combat is kinda stiff but it does give the player tools to change it up a bit. Like a dodge roll and the ability to level up. Plus it has multiple endings giving it replayability although it isn't too hard to get 4 of the 5 endings without putting to much extra time into a playthrough. In the end, this isn't a game for everyone but if dark fantasy nightmare fuel sounds like something you may like it might be worth checking out.

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  Drakengard 2

  I have never played this game till now. Not playing this when it was originally released surprisingly doesn't diminish its value at all. Combat was improved on by letting the player parry attacks making most enemies look silly. Not sure how Nowe is doing it but parrying a giant is dumb fun.The additional magic attacks add a bit of flair to battles too. Plus even the dragon is a lot faster making the flying sections a lot better.

  All of this would be great if the narrative didn't feel so cookie cutter. Almost every time I was thinking that the story keep going down a predictable path. Sure it wasn't for everyone but the first game certainly knew how to set up some crazy things. I may not have been as quite invested in Nowe the dragon child's journey but the gameplay kept me hooked till the credits rolled.

  The darkest of timelines is missing here too although it does show up a bit near the end. Something about getting progressively worse endings in the first game was kinda novel. Anyway, even with those negatives I still think this game is good. Might even be better than the first game if you prefer better gameplay over a crazy storyline.

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  Drakengard 3

  Really not sure how Yoko Taro keeps getting Square to sign off on all of his projects. At least for now, Drakengard 3 is his finale for the series and once again it goes in a different presentation than the other two games. Timeline wise the story is set before Drakengard. It follows Zero and her Dragon Mikal as they rampage through the land killing her 5 sisters. Which will seemingly upset the balance of the world and cause its ruin.

  I'm not really going to go into any details but the full cast of heroes is really not likable at all. Only with some patience and the willingness to check out every ending do things start to begin to get interesting. Meanwhile, the gameplay pulls together a little bit of everything this series has to offer to make a solid character action game. Like before being able to swap between 4 different weapons type gives the player the tools to deal with any situation. The standard light/heavy system is still in effect and it feels good to wipe out anything that stands in their way. But unlike before the stages are a lot more linear. Everyone is narrow path that constantly leads to rooms full of enemies that must be killed to continue. The game even comments on this fact since it loves to break the fourth wall. To bad that doesn't make the game better.

  Because of that fact, this game feels the most repetitive of them all. Everything leading up to the first ending doesn't give the player much of a reason to continue. Yet if you do get past that it has some crazy stuff to show you.

  Now that I've played the entire series it is pretty easy for me to say this is the worst one. To many frame rate drops and bad lip syncing in cutscenes make it bad on a technical level too. For people that like the series this still has what you like but anyone else shouldn't check this game out at all.