Something went wrong. Try again later

baronvonamerika

This user has not updated recently.

13 14 26 57
Forum Posts Wiki Points Following Followers

Best of 2017

WIP. Hoping to add Nier (edit: added!!!!!), wolfenstein, cuphead, and night in the woods (edit: added!!!!). Life is Strange as well if that gets finished soon enough. No Switch so no games from there.

2017 has been the worst year of my life. Plenty of personal tragedy, and the country/world veers perilously towards ruin. Empathy is scarce, and as humanity grows colder, the planet burns up.

Thankfully, games were utterly fantastic this year. There were a plenty of times when it seemed a whole lot easier to just swim down, but a bounty of new releases kept me excited and my head above water. Maybe that's lame, but it's how I feel. And because of that, I'm grateful to the artform.

List items

  • Yakuza is a series I'd always held a distant curiosity about but could never find the time to get around to playing. The Beast in the East feature on this site piqued my interest enough to finally take the dive, and oh boy, what a game.

    At the core of Yakuza 0 are two dudes who, despite being big ol' tough guys, really want to be good and nice people. Unfortunately for Majima and Kiryu, good and nice are really not qualities that behoove a yakuza. Their conviction to do the right thing towards their friends, family, and even complete strangers put them at odds with the world they've chosen to inhabit. Kiryu just wants to do right by his adopted father and ends up chased through a sewer and shot repeatedly (to name a few things) for his trouble. Majima throws away his one big chance to get back in his clan's good graces by refusing to murder a disabled woman and ends up completely shattered by the end of it all.

    Most of the narrative is conveyed through compellingly shot and acted cutscenes, but the myriad of sidequests really reinforce our special boys' good nature. At the drop of a hat, Kiryu and Majima willingly join cults, write tax reform, give S&M lessons, produce music videos, and buy pizza for any struggling citizen within earshot. It's a real shame these are so woefully underproduced with no voice acting and lots of canned animation. Even with those shortcomings, they're among the highlights of the game based on the strength of the writing.

    There's just a real joy in playing characters who are out to help their community. Obviously, lots of games have sidequests where you lighten the load of beleaguered citizens, but it feels different in Yakuza, as there is no real impetus for Kiryu or Majima to lend a hand. The rewards for helping people aren't even that good, so the only motive to complete sidequests is to see their stories to completion. In fact, the most worthwhile reward is the one that makes finding sidequests a lot easier!

    I felt a lot of comfort and satisfaction leading Kiryu and Majima through their stories and helping out around Kamaroucho and Sotenbori. Thus, it is for that reason Yakuza 0 is my game of the year.

  • +style!!!!!!

    +characters

    +consistent themes/motifs

    +ost

    -redundant dialogue

    -restrictive time management

  • +music

    +sidequests

    +philosophy?????

    +pascal

    +endings

    -bland enemy design

    -budget/production values

    -hacking got old

    -gameplay in general cannot handle the burden of the game's length

  • +Murder of Roger Ackroyd

    +Characters

    +Voice acting

    +Ending!

    +debate scrum

    -Survivors

    -Production values

  • +graphics

    +bakers

    +mansions/initial settings

    -cliche big bad

    -enemy variety

    -last hour

  • +story

    +new classes

    +music

    -raid design

    -cutscenes

    -scions

  • +graphics!!!

    +story

    +aloys VO

    +world design (specifically, a more focused open world)

    -assassins creed

    -tribalism depiction

  • +story (mention slice of life)

    -meme-y

    -tropey horror

  • +animation

    +translation

    +cast (mightgaine)

    +ui

    -cast (boob island people, too many gundams)

    -too long

  • +writing!!!!

    -gear progression

    -ui/inventory management

  • +dynamic animation (best implementation of 3d anim, reminiscent of 2d games)

    +character design

    +-support system

    -very easy

    -not very "fire emblem"

    -lack of class variety

  • +very cute art

    +some clever dialogue

    +beatrice and gregg

    -dialogue a bit too clever at times

    -main character can be unlikable

    -very repetitive day-to-day gameplay and dream sequences can be bad
Load Comments