mento

@r_matey: Oof, tell me about it. Ran into this feature title issue a lot back when I was covering UbiArt Frameworks games and the Microsoft-owned Ori and the Blind Forest too. We're still missing a good term for "sufficiently small downloadable game" in the lexicon.

Hey folks, we're just going to lock this thread down after that last outburst.

Besides, after two months I think everyone's had time to say their piece and move on.

@arbitrarywater: That's absolutely true of the Yakuza games being very similar. I've had to space them apart in the past - in fact, this is the first time I've played one less than two years after the previous. (Thanks to my regular "Games Beaten in [Year]" lists, I know it's 2010 for Yakuza, 2013 for Yakuza 2, 2015 for Yakuza 3, 2017 for Yakuza 4, and now 2018 for Yakuza 5. Almost caught up.)

I know Yakuza 0 went through a lot of changes, and I think one of those might've been to greatly condense the amount of content because it really is bananas in Y5. It feels like they went out of their way to make things take longer than they should too, like not doubling up on identical food items sold in different establishments and having to complete the coliseum with all four of the fighter characters for the completion tick. Mechanically it's a little sharper than 4 with all the tweaks you'd expect from a sequel, but it's way too bloated in comparison. Still, you certainly get what you pay for.

As for that kid: I was a little skeptical too at first, but that Flash game became a meme during Y5's development and at one point the kid's pitches vanish into thin air and reappear inches from your bat. I don't think it's a coincidence.

The discourse in this thread doesn't seem to be heading anywhere positive, and rarely does with farewell threads, so I'll just lock it and say that you're welcome back to the community any time OP.

@jeffrud: Weird. I didn't think to fact check that because I played it in a Club Sega arcade sandwiched between the Virtua Fighter cabinets and the claw machines full of Super Monkey Ball and NiGHTs figurines. I wonder what kind of deal Sega had with Namco?

A little more effort into the OP next time, please.

Get better soon, SB. We need our adventure game expert back.

@generic_username: I think a huge benefit for a game as silly and weird as this is that it's super accessible in spite of its perplexing time-travel trickery. That can mean it errs on the side of being too easy at times, especially seeing as there's all sorts of ways to effectively cheat, but that's what the Helladeck is for.

I suppose I could see folk getting put off by that blocky pixel look, but people seemed to like that aesthetic in Superbrothers well enough.

@arbitrarywater: I have very tentative plans to finish off Xeen sometime between tomorrow and when E3 begins in earnest, since I'm eager to get back to it given how close I was to completing Cloudside. I'll be spending way too much time on my dumb E3-related features once that hype-bedevilled behemoth rolls into GB town to worry too much about what Alamar is up to. I hope I can get around to some games made this century before the month is over, also.

The big thing I had planned for the end of this year's May Maturity if I'd managed to complete all the games on my list was to finally try my hand at a playthrough of KOTOR 2. If I keep on the bucket list train of thought, I could probably add Neverwinter Nights 2 (and the expansions, of course), Titan Quest, Severance: Blade of Darkness, and maybe a Gothic or two. Just a bunch of really grungy-looking but well-rated polygonal stuff from the 2000s. Ideally, I'd probably want to find some way to break those big RPGs up with smaller palette cleansers, but maybe upgrading decades next year is the way to go. I mean, we're going to be entering a new decade before too long...

@cubidog: It's a hell of a thing to beat Link to the Past for the first time with a randomizer run, but then the core game is very "traditional Zelda". If you've played enough of its sequels, the original game probably won't throw too many surprises at you. Still, getting through without knowing where half the secrets are sounds like it would be challenging. Kudos.

@generic_username:Yeah, I'd written that one off a few times before realizing I'd already figured out a way past the rocks to get to that item on the ledge behind the graveyard. There's so many weird cases I'm finding - like getting into Desert Palace via the back door - where I think I need a specific item but actually don't. I'm slightly worried that the Zora Flippers might be somewhere weird that would normally require swimming but perhaps doesn't.

At any rate, thanks for your brainstorming ideas. Hopefully I won't get as close to stuck again for the rest of the run, even if it will mute the drama somewhat.