I assume the Lovecraft game Alex was thinking of is Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of The Earth. He was correct that it`s based on a Lovecraft story, but confusingly it`s not actually based on the story Call of Cthulhu, but it`s instead based (loosely) on another Lovecraft story, The Shadow Over Innsmouth. I assume they used the Cthulhu name because it`s more recognized than both Lovecraft and Shadow Over Innsmouth.
I actually really really like the Shinada stuff and it might be my favorite part of the game. It is definitely way stronger than the Tanimura part of Yakuza 4. I just find him a really likable character with really understandable problems. It may be all a bit convoluted how it works out but his emotional arc is probably the most complete in the game. In a lot of ways the Yakuza games and 5 in particular are about people at the edges of society and power structure (even the underworld) with no place or family of their own struggling to achieve their ideals and dreams in the face of it all.... and Shinada might be the best embodiment of that theme.
Shinada also has the best supporting character in the game in Takasugi (the loan shark). The two of them has such a great chemistry and every scene with them is such a delight.
@zeik: I'll never tell someone they shouldn't play the most current game if the other option is never play the games at all. But it is just very difficult to recommend anyone do that with this series. At least you can pretty much mainline the earlier games in the series because the super silly fun sidequest thing doesn't really start kicking in until around Yakuza 3-4 and doesn't really hit current standards until 5. Plus they really aren't that long until 5 and 0.
I guess its one of those perfect world things but I just cant imagine someone missing out on how Yakuza 5 does this incredible thing of taking all the previous games and themes and shooting for the fucking moon. For me the ending sequences of that game was such an emotional experience unlike I have had in other games because of all the build up, character development, and thematics from the previous games leading into it.
I totally agree. While it stumbles in a couple of places the end of 5 it`s absolutely amazing and it`s one of the reasons why 5 is still my favorite in the series.
This game seems like it does some neat things, but like a lot of VR games it kinda looks more like a prototype than a finished game. It`s kinda insane how bad this looks visually.
Really nice to see Divinity on this list. I still making my way through that game, but what I have played so far is great. It`s also nice to see Persona 5 and Yakuza 0 get spots on the list. Persona 5 had such a seemingly big backlash against it that I didn`t expect to see it so high on the list and the Yakuza series has been such a niche series in the past.
I find it telling that Abby also said that the game is not her style, she doesn't like the gameplay (a somewhat common criticism of the game), she thinks some of the story elements are heavy-handed (a point that Alex and Vinny both agreed on to a degree), and she doesn't care for the art style. They even agreed to some extent about the character's costume. This is not nearly the same as her comments on Bayonetta, which had a design that she didn't care for without ever playing it.
Yet people latch onto one part of her criticism--a criticism that is shared to some extent by at least two of her male colleagues--and I just cannot imagine why.
It's sexism.
As you said people generally agree that the gameplay is the weak part of Nier, the heavy handed story thing was not a large part of the discussion if I remember correctly and female character design is a divisive and hot topic in video games right now, so it`s natural that more people will end up discussing that aspect of the game.
If the two male colleges agreeing you are mentioning are Alex and Vinny then I would also add that Alex argued against Abby pretty much the whole time (bringing up lore and theme justifications for why the characters were designed they way they were), so that`s why people are not latching onto his part in the discussion as much. Vinny agreed with her and you have a point there, but Abby was the one who initiated the discussion and took the largest part in it, so I think it`s natural that she is also mentioned the most in the comments.
My point is that while some people are being too passive aggressive and someone is probably fueled by sexism (it is the internet after all). Dismissing all the people disagreeing with Abby and mentioning her and this specific point in her argument as sexists is both kinda rude and also completely destroys the potential for a rational discussion of the topic. I think this is especially disappointing because there are people in this thread who have taken time to formulate a detailed argument for why they disagree with Abby such as Sweetz above. That does not mean you have to agree with them, but dismissing them as sexists and leaving it at that is kind of a jerk move.
odinsmana's comments