Fallout TV Show Review

Initially I wasn’t going to bother with this. Admittedly I didn’t watch any trailers, but I’m still wary of videogame adaptations even after Castlevania and The Last of Us, and the imagery I’d seen made it look a bit too clean and Fallout 4-inspired. Don’t get me wrong, I love Fallout 4, but it’s no New Vegas, and it bothers me that Bethesda’s more clean cut, safe approach is what Fallout IS now. Then I heard the show was really good actually, and more importantly it’s canon and has some pretty severe ramifications on the games. So I gave it a go, because even if it’s shit I’ll have something to talk about, and I love Walton Goggins.

It is indeed canon to the games, but isn’t based on any one of them. Set in California in 2296, after every game has taken place, it centres on three protagonists from three wildly different backgrounds. First up is Lucy, who’s spent her entire life in a vault, a life that’s torn apart when raiders break in and kidnap her father Hank. She’s going to make the trip to the surface to bring him back, while her brother Norm sticks around, eventually realising there’s something dodgy going on and launching a covert investigation. Meanwhile, on the surface, Brotherhood of Steel aspirant Maximus is regularly beaten up by his fellow recruits, but that changes when his squire friend is brutally maimed and Maximus is selected to take their place. Now Maximus is out in the world, in power armour acquired from his recently deceased arsehole of a knight, and ready to enact his vision of what a BoS Knight should be, living up to the ideal created when a knight rescued him from the ruins of his destroyed hometown. Lucy and Maximus are two lovable goofs who are clinging on to their ideals no matter how hard life makes it for them, especially Lucy. Despite her martial prowess her first choice is always talking her way out of bad situations and de-escalating conflict, a characteristic people find hopelessly naïve. Her arc is developing a steelier edge and learning what it takes to survive in this world both physically and ethically, while determined to stay a good person.

Rounding out the protagonists is Walton Goggins’ Cooper Howard; a US Marine and veteran of Operation Anchorage turned beloved actor who has spent the last two hundred and nineteen years as a ruthless, bounty hunting ghoul cowboy. He’s highly reminiscent of Westworld’s Man in Black; flashbacks show him as a good, kind man who was emotionally broken by a dramatic event, he has close ties to the world the show’s events take place in that are revealed gradually in those flashbacks, and these days he’s a violent, unstoppable killing machine with few scruples to speak of; not quite a villain, but certainly no hero. His flashbacks tie into one of the biggest changes this adaptation makes to the canon, and make him the coolest, most interesting character in the show. See, he knows exactly who’s responsible for the absolute state the world’s in, he has good reason to believe they’re alive, and he really, really wants a word with them. Lucy and Maximus are living in this world, Coop is thriving in it. Also, and this isn’t a spoiler per se but it is a reveal so skip to the next paragraph if you don’t want to read it. It turns out that, through doing advertisements for their vaults, Cooper is the basis for Vault-Tec’s, and indeed Fallout’s, iconic Vault Boy mascot. Now normally if an adaptation felt the need to explain something like who Vault Boy’s based on, I’d find that quite annoying and superfluous, but this reveal really worked for me. It’s partly because I like Cooper so much as a character, but also because it’s a physical representation of him being wrapped up in Vault-Tec’s malevolent capitalist machinations; just another piece of their horrifying puzzle.

So then, those are the key players, but what’s the show actually about, and how is it as an adaptation of Fallout? It’s hard to go into details about the plot for spoiler reasons, but it involves an Enclave defector on the run, with the BoS on his heels for unknown reasons, and Cooper after him for the bounty on his head. He tasks Lucy with taking his severed head to Moldaver; the leader of the raiders who attacked her vault and a woman who knew her long-dead mother. Norm’s investigation of the shady stuff going back in the vault ties into who Moldaver is and what she wants with Hank, all culminating in a brutal, climactic showdown where Cooper takes centre stage and shows just why he’s so feared in the wasteland. As an adaptation of Fallout it uses plenty of the series’ imagery, with easter eggs and references for fans, but pleasingly it doesn’t get bogged down in fanservice. Things from the games are here because it’s set in the same world, and it makes sense for them to be here. Visually it does take a lot of inspiration from Fallout 4, but has plenty of grime, nastiness and a clear love of New Vegas, not least being Cooper’s whole cowboy deal. As a big fan of the games it felt like the show was made by likeminded people, but I never felt like I was being pandered to. Now, I want to talk about the major shake ups it makes to series’ canon and this will be spoilery, so if that bothers you then skip to the next paragraph. Still here? Okay, so there are three big things to talk about. Firstly, NCR capital Shady Sands was nuked- that’s Maximus’ destroyed hometown. This wasn’t too big a deal for me because although I’ve played the first two games, I’ve barely scratched the surface. I do know the NCR though, and by the end of the show they’re all but wiped out by the Brotherhood. More importantly for me, the last shot and ending credits of the season finale are of New Vegas, with its gate blown open and looking rather worse for wear. It’s unclear exactly what happened, but between the show’s villain fleeing there (with Coop and Lucy in hot pursuit) and a pre-war cameo by Robert House, it sure seems like it’s going to be important next time around. Apparently people have been bothered by the apparent destruction of New Vegas, but I’m cautiously optimistic. There’s nothing to say it’s unsalvageable, and everything in season 1 has been done so well that I feel like my beloved Strip is in safe hands. Finally and most dramatic is what breaks Cooper, back in the pre-war days. His wife, a high level executive at Vault-Tec, not only encourages other companies to use their vaults for all manner of heinous human experiments, she reassures Mr House that a return on their investment in said vaults WILL be forthcoming, because Vault-Tec are going to drop the nukes themselves. Now, I read about this before I watched it, and I wasn’t sure about this change at first. Like the rest of us I foolishly assumed the USA was nuked into oblivion as a result of its on-going war with China, but nope, it was corporations. Having watched the series and let it settle in, I love this change. It’s entirely in-character for Vault-Tec, pure evil as they are, and it makes sense that corporate America would consider a little thing like destroying the country to be a minor price to pay for 1) More money and 2) The chance to reshape said country in a manner they see fit.

The Fallout series is superb; two likable, kind-hearted leads trying to navigate a horrible world without becoming horrible people and one ultra cool piece of shit on a quest to deliver cowboy justice to the monsters responsible for the end of the world. It uses the world of the games well without it being a crutch, its story takes risks, makes changes and genuinely shakes things up. Its use of pre-war flashbacks add an extra layer of depth to Cooper being a ghoul, as he has feet in both worlds, and makes that pre-war period just as important as the post-apocalypse. It’s funny, violent, engaging and satisfying. I loved it from start to finish and most importantly it just gets Fallout. I can’t wait for more.

By James Lambert
@jameslambert18

Persona 3 Reload Review

Could’ve sworn I reviewed this already…oh no wait, that was the console port of P3P last year. This is the full on remake of Persona 3 I’ve wanted since the dancing spin off Dancing in Moonlight’s updated character models showed me that Atlus still cares about this game. Much like Akihiko, I’ve been waiting for this, so let’s get into it.

The main story hasn’t changed since the old version, so if you’re new to Persona 3 and need a primer, he’s my review of P3P from last year: https://thereviewingfloor.wordpress.com/2023/02/02/p3p-persona-3-portable-review/

Right then, no female protag in this one, so you’re the male lead Makoto Yuki (his generally accepted name; he doesn’t have an official one). One of the biggest and best new changes is a greater emphasis placed on interacting with the members of SEES. Male members still lack social links, but they have new “Link episodes” that act the same way, and you can now watch DVDs, read, study, cultivate plants and cook with every member of the team. They grant powerful new abilities and skills, but crucially they make SEES feel like a proper group of friends who love and care for each other. They grow closer through overcoming adversity over the course of the plot, but it’s in these optional side interactions that they show their depths. Akihiko is a warm, caring senpai when he isn’t focused on pushing himself to his physical limits. Ken is a kind soul who needs encouragement and gently pushing in the right direction; his grief over his mother and Shinji is seen as part of a whole character rather than just relegated to a handful of conversations. Yukari is more openly friendly from the get-go and Junpei worries that his life is directionless, and needs something to aim for. They’ve changed the way relationships work too, so it’s in line with P4 and 5 now; you choose whether or not a social link will turn romantic with a clear, explicit dialogue option at rank 9, so now you can actually be friends with girls. Rejecting Mitsuru’s advances causes her to take an entirely positive stance on the matter and talk about how you’ve helped her uncover, express and be true to her real feelings, and that by turning her down you’ve stayed true to yours; you end that social link as true companions with an unshakable friendship. Same goes for Yukari and Fuuka, and you can hang out with all three without them accusing you of cheating and reversing their social links. It takes the rock solid base of Persona 3 and adds a whole lot of depth to its characters, making it feel richer and more engaging as a result. Persona 3 is a beautiful, bittersweet tale of companionship and finding meaning in a life that inevitably ends; as the credits rolled on this new version I briefly wondered if I actually prefer it to Persona 5. It’s something that will require more consideration, but if you know how much I love Persona 5 (and Royal in particular), even raising the question is saying a lot.

Persona 3 portable took the important step of adding in direct control for each party member, and in that spirit, Reload has some major additions of its own. Healing in the lobby of Tartarus now requires a finite item also used to unlock chests, but you no longer get tired when exploring, so as long as you’re able to heal you can stay there grinding as long as you want. The post-battle “Shuffle Time” mechanic now includes major arcana, earned from boss fights and clearing out the Monad Passage side area, that offer a variety of buffs like increased all out attack damage, persona stat boosts and one I took advantage of to get Messiah; the ability to fuse personas five levels higher than yours. You don’t make money from fights now unless you get the coin arcana in shuffle time, but major arcana can let you choose more than one card at a time, and Tartarus is saturated with sellable items. Fuuka has a variety of skills like mapping out the entire floor and teleporting you back to the lobby, and each character has multiple “Theurgies”; special moves that do a lot of damage, ignore resistances and rely on a meter that charges in ways unique to each party member. In addition to these changes, the full moon bosses have been tweaked, for example Priestess has a move that accelerates the timer counting down, Wheel of Fortune is now dictated by the game, you don’t stop it yourself, and Hanged Man only has one statue now, not three. This collection of changes and new features gives the game that classic “Familiar, but new” feeling a lot of good remakes have; it maintains Persona 3’s satisfying combat, creepy atmosphere and level design and keeps things fresh for people who think they know what’s coming, while hitting all the right notes that made its source material so good. Also, as low as the first floor of Tartarus you’ll see familiar black feathers silently floating down from the ceiling; a foreboding hint at what’s to come.

That’s all good then, but what about the new voice cast, and the soundtrack? Well, I was worried the new voices might put me off but that’s not the case at all; everyone does a good job and many of them sound rather similar to their original versions. I’m not a fan of Aigis’ new thing of saying colloquial turns of phrase and then adding “As they say”, but it phases out as she steadily becomes more human. Aigis does a lot of the emotional heavy lifting, and Dawn M Bennett handles it well. The soundtrack, unfortunately, doesn’t come out so well. Some of the songs are the same, like The Battle For Everyone’s Souls, some have been re-recorded like Mass Destruction and When The Moon Reaches Out For The Stars, which both sound good but there’s something about the former that’s just a bit off. There are new songs like the ambush battle theme It’s Going Down and the gorgeous after school track Changing Seasons, and finally we arrive at Reginald LeDoux. Sorry, force of habit, I mean finally we arrive at Burn My Dread. The version of Burn My Dread that plays during the last fight in the old version is my favourite song in the game and one of my favourite songs ever. It’s been my ringtone for years now. The new one’s just not as good, and it did stifle my enjoyment of that last fight a tiny bit. It still got me; I was wiping away tears, but it could have been better.

So then, is Persona 3 Reload a good game, and is it a worthy remake? Yes, it’s excellent, and it’s absolutely the remake the original game deserves. A greater emphasis on the characters and far more opportunities to spend time with all of them, a bunch of gameplay tweaks and additions tied to the same great story, atmosphere, tone and combat of the original. Is it better than the original? Personally I think it is, but it shouldn’t overwrite it; both pieces should stand alongside each other, especially as there are apparently no plans to add the female protagonist from Portable. I love Persona 3, and I love what they’ve done with it in this new version. It’s a rich, emotionally satisfying experience and I’m so glad P3 is getting such love from Atlus. They’ve announced P3 FES’ “The Answer” is coming out in September as DLC, and I can’t wait, having never finished it but finding the whole scenario really interesting, and wanting to fight its final boss.

Also, right, before I go, this is the Persona game where I finally killed The Reaper. Twice. I don’t fear the reaper. Indeed, perhaps it is the reaper who ought to fear me.

By James Lambert
@jameslambert18

Tekken 8 Review

It’s been a patchy time for big fighting games. KOF XV and Guilty Gear Strive were great, but more recently Mortal Kombat 1 felt like a big step back from its predecessor, and although it played better than the series has in years and had a fun, if uninteresting, story mode Street Fighter 6 was stricken with bullshit microtransactions that have soured me on the whole game. Now it’s Tekken’s turn to bat; Tekken 7’s endless treasure battle mode, customisation and packed roster (with some stand out newcomers as well as an appearance by my favourite South Town crime lord) make it a game I’ve spent a lot of time with, and the demo for 8 had me looking forward to it.

So firstly, and perhaps least importantly but still worth discussing; the story mode. Tekken 7’s was complete shit; the climactic chapter in Kazuya and Heihachi’s blood feud, one that started when Kazuya was a child, and it’s told from the perspective of a journalist who reads every line like he’s taken a load of sleeping tablets and is fighting to stay awake. He hated Jin for collaterally damaging his family, and so was essentially unconnected to the story of Heihachi and Kazuya, but was looking into it for…reasons. Jin was in a coma for most of it and previously he started a world war to awaken a big monster that feeds on discord in order to kill it or something? I played Tekken 6 a bunch and this one has recaps, but I’m still not really sure what went down. Anyway, Jin’s awake and he’s gunning for Kazuya, but an initial clash leaves him defeated and unable to tap into his Devil form. Buoyed, Kazuya announces a new King of Iron Fist tournament, because of course he does, one where countries will send representatives and will either receive vast riches or be destroyed depending on whether they win or lose. I think they’ll be destroyed anyway, they’ll certainly be punished for failure. The tournament’s over in a flash, which shows the problem Tekken’s story has, something that’s reinforced in the recaps of previous games: anyone who isn’t in the Mishima/Kazama family just does not matter. They have their own stories going on, as seen in their personal arcade mode endings throughout the years, but they have very little affect on what’s actually going on. Near the end of this game a big battle between the warring Mishima Zaibatsu (run by Jin) and G Corp (Run by Kazuya) takes place in a field and you control different side characters in a Tekken Force sort of way, but it ultimately solves nothing because the point of the story is Jin coming to terms with his Devil side, remembering the teachings of his mother Jun and having one final showdown with his dad. All that stuff is great; Jin melding the awesome power of both sides of his family tree and channelling them in a brutal, rain-soaked punch-up with Kazuya is really entertaining and played for the drama it deserves. It’s not a bad story mode, and certainly better than its predecessor, but it clearly has its priorities and everything else is largely filler. Before I move on, just a quick note about much anticipated newcomer Reina. Right, so Jin encounters a cheery girl in the tournament named Reina, a student of the school he and Xiaoyu attended, and who seems like a nice, peppy young woman. Turns out it’s all an act, and her true personality is a sadistic blood knight out to grind her enemies beneath her heel with a mix of martial arts and Mishima Style Karate techniques, something that throws both Jin and Kazuya. Ooh how mysterious, I wonder who this mysterious, violent badass who uses Mishima techniques is? Probably exactly who you think, but that’s fine. Anyway she’s easily the best new character Tekken’s had in years; the facade of a cheerful student disguising bloodthirsty villain out to beat the shit out of anyone who opposes her, complete with her own thrown, awesome moves and a penchant for looking down on her inferiors with a smirk. Quality-wise she’s Tekken’s Manon and Marisa.

Gameplay wise, the focus this time around is on being aggressive, with the big new addition being “Heat mode”. Certain attacks will activate it, or it can be done manually with the same button press for each character. While in heat mode you do chip damage during blocks, certain attacks are easier to pull off and you can spend the bar to rush in with a big hit. Pressing the button again while in heat mode launches a damaging special attack; some characters can do multiple per bar, some can only do one. You’ve got one bar per round, so you’re encouraged to use it. My one problem, though it’s not a big one, is that the certain attacks that trigger it will always do so if they connect, so unless you want to use heat mode you’re limited in the moves you can use. Speaking of universal inputs, each character’s rage art (a highly damaging move available at low health) is now the same exact button for each character, and everyone has a throw on up diagonal and both punch buttons. Apart from that it’s business as usual; Tekken has such a lovely flow that feels unique, at least to me. Leaving aside ten-strings and prolonged air juggles, the core mechanics enable such satisfying fights based on timing and distance, knowing when to throw out attacks and how likely they are to hit. Tekken has always felt great to play, and 8 is no exception, though the punchy sound effects and heavy impacts do give it a boost above the other games in the series. Alongside Reina are two other newcomers; French U.N Ninja Victor, played by Vincent Cassel, and Azucena; a cheery Peruvian “Coffee Queen” who advertises her personal blend by beating the shit out of people in MMA fights. I’ve not really got on too well with Victor, but Azucena’s fun; she’s got a bounce to her moves that feels fun and dynamic, and some nice counters mixed in with kicks and a massive punch that sends your opponent flying across the arena.

A couple of quick things to bring up before I take it home; firstly, Tekken Ball is back. It’s been years but they’ve finally brought back the “What if instead of fighting directly you smacked a beach ball at each other?” mode and it’s just as good as it was in Tekken 3. Also, it’s a small thing but the music is a lot better than it was in Tekken 7. I’m not opposed to techno or dubstep but Tekken 7 mashed both together in a way that did a disservice to both genres simultaneously.

Tekken as a series has always felt great to play, and Tekken 8 carries on that tradition. Punchy, impactful and with a satisfying flow to combat based on timing, with a far better story mode than last time, better looking customisation items, the return of Tekken Ball and a focus on aggression deftly handled with universal inputs. The only downside is the lack of something like 7’s infinite Treasure Battle mode, but that doesn’t stop Tekken 8 from being an excellent fighting game and a worthy entry in the series.

By James Lambert
@jameslamber18

Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth Review

It’s been a while, and we had a brief check in with an undercover Kiryu, but we’re finally back in the company of Ichiban Kasuga; the best boy who ever best boyed and new face of the Yakuza series, which is now called Like a Dragon in the West too, rather than just Japan. Please note that while I will be avoiding story spoilers it will contain some information that you might want to discover yourself, playing the game. This is an important game in the series and it’s hard to talk about why without talking about the plot.

A few years after the Omi and Tojo called it quits, Ichiban is a contractor for Hello Work, where he helps ex-Yakuza use their skillsets in legal jobs; his way of honouring Arakawa’s wish for all yakuza to live peaceful, honest lives. Unfortunately an immensely popular V-Tuber called Hisoka Tatara torpedoes his attempts by misrepresenting him as a criminal, and through his association with Nanba and Adachi they’re all fired from their respective jobs. Yokohama’s Seiryu clan is seeing a sudden massive increase in new members, so it’s time for Ichi to grab the hero’s barbwire bat, get his hair back to its wild best and go stop his last ever client from making a terrible mistake. Fortunately it turns out that the Seiryu are recruiting ex-Yakuza for pretty dodgy sounding but legal work; maintaining a warehouse filled with sensitive things other countries want kept out the way. The new captain Ebina assures Ichiban that he has also bought into Arakawa’s vision and is working on a second great dissolution to fully end the Yakuza once and for all. All of that can wait though, because Ichiban’s old captain Sawashiro has a mission for him; go to Hawaii to meet his mother, Akane. This makes up the bulk of the story, and is what I’ll be calling the A Plot; Ichiban running around Honolulu making friends with people who screw him over, beating down all the local criminals and enlisting the aid of Kiryu, who’s been sent here by the Daidoji to track down Akane for unknown reasons. The A Plot is, in my opinion, nothing special. It’s not bad but it’s one of the weaker Yakuza game stories, and is definitely a step down from Yakuza 7, which has fully cemented itself in my mind as RGG’s magnum opus. That’s not to say it’s bad, it’s just that the character interactions and gameplay are by far the stronger aspsects. Before I get onto Kiryu in more detail, I just want to say that Infinite Wealth has reinforced Ichiban Kasuga as one of my favourite videogame characters. Much like his previous outing, Infinite Wealth is a showcase of a man filled with optimism and positivity, who can see the good in anyone and constantly pushes forward no matter how hard things get. Several characters comment on just how charismatic and influential he is; he makes you want to do your best, and even though he’s a complete goof and a himbo he’s someone you can believe in and rely on, and if something needs doing he’ll see it through, no matter how dangerous. He’s just so likable, and though the story isn’t great he and Kiryu carry it because they’re such strong characters that are easy to get invested in.

So, the A plot’s nothing special. The B Plot, however, is excellent, albeit bittersweet. Kiryu has cancer, and he’s been given six months to live. About halfway through the game it starts really affecting him and he flies back to Japan, but rather than take it easy the game splits in two; team Ichiban keep trying to find Akane while back in Japan team Kiryu investigate a potential connection to the Seiryu clan. More importantly Kiryu’s unique side content makes itself known; he writes a bucket list, which partly manifests as the same combat/exploration/minigame challenges Ichi has, but also in the form of visiting spots around Yokohama and Kamurocho so Kiryu can reminisce about his life and adventures. His old friend Detective Date sets up scenarios where Kiryu can be close to key figures from his past and hear them talk about him (the best he can get without breaking his vow to the Daidoji), and through conversations while running around town and the Persona-style social links returning from 7, Kiryu grows close to his party and learns the importance of friendship and letting people help him shoulder the burden. Kiryu is a big deal to a lot of people; he’s a beloved character who’s been around since 2005, and RGG clearly love him; this is the finale he deserves. Slight spoilers but by the end of the game he’s still alive, so he could potentially stick around but in terms of running around punching bad dudes in the face this is it for the Dragon of Dojima; this is his final adventure, and by focusing on his bonds with those he cares about and living his life to the fullest, it’s a worthy send off for a legend.

So then, this is the first game in the series to leave Japan, and it has a good time with it. Honolulu is vibrant, colourful and filled with people Ichiban can make friends with by simply calling out to them in the street. You can swim in the ocean, you can smack trees to knock down coconuts and the whole area feels broader and more open than any of the Japanese cities from previous games. It still feels like a Yakuza game, but it’s not just Yokohama with leis and people speaking English instead of Japanese.
The combat has the same framework, but new features make it more dynamic. Your currently controlled character can now move around within a ring around their feet (which grows as you level up), allowing you to get close to improvised weapons, get closer to enemies for a damage boost, or manoeuvre behind them for a back attack that ignores blocks and gets an even bigger damage boost. As your bonds increase with your party you unlock special tag team attacks as well as combo moves where you and a friend will both attack in sequence, and a third person might follow up with an attack on a downed enemy. It reinforces that central theme, carried over from 7, about the importance of having friends you can trust and rely on. Ichiban’s ultimate special move, an all-hands tag team attack, is literally called “Essence of friendship”. Enraged by someone threatening his party, Kiryu’s ultimate move is him breaking the turn-based U.I and being able to move and attack freely for a brief time. All of this is augmented by some excellent new jobs (the best of them being a cowboy and, surprisingly, a housekeeper who batters people with jet washers and irons), and overall the turn based gameplay is still done really well.

There are two main pieces of side content this time around, one of which pulled me in and made me finish it and the other I just bounced off. The former is Dondoko Island; a resort Ichiban ends up at that’s filled with garbage dumped by a gang of pirates. It’s an Animal Crossing-type thing where you clear out the rubbish and build various houses, recreational buildings and other fun things for guests to stay in and use. You fish, you catch bugs, you clobber pirates with a baseball bat, you fill the space with bars and karaoke joints and golden statues of Kiryu and Majima for people to admire. I enjoyed this quite a lot; it has clear goals and it’s fun to have a few bevvies and listen to some music or a podcast while you run around harvesting materials to make structures, spruce up Ichiban’s living quarters and invite guests. Good stuff. The other one, which I couldn’t be arsed with, is basically Pokemon but instead of monsters it’s dudes. The enemies you fight can be recruited, trained and used in fights with other enemies, working your way through a league with its own Elite Four. I recruited a bunch of Sujimon, as they’re called, and I did a few fights but it just didn’t appeal to me at all. Fair play to RGG for continuing to put these big, detailed sidequests into Yakuza games but they’re not always for me. It’s no Ichiban Confections, that’s for sure.

Yakuza 7 was a tough act to follow, and while story wise Infinite Wealth is a step down, it balances out through excellent character work, particularly in the way it handles Kiryu’s last adventure. Spending time in the states is a bold new step for the series and it handles it well, the tweaks made to the combat are fun and make it feel more involved, and Ichiban continues to be a superb protagonist. Great game overall, great new instalment in what I’ve come to think of as the most reliable, enjoyable videogame series, good new adventure for Ichiban and a worthy final adventure for the Dragon of Dojima. Good stuff.

By James Lambert
@jameslambert18

Game of the Year 2023

I’ve never had this much trouble writing one of these lists. Normally I might have a spot of bother choosing between two games for first place, or I’m planning to give it to one game only for another to swoop in and beat it, but once that hurdle’s cleared the rest is smooth sailing. Not so here; 2023 was a strong year for games, and whenever I thought I had the list sorted I’d remember another great game I reviewed. Spider-Man 2 came out in 2023, remember that? That was October and it feels like a lifetime ago. The Dead Space remake might as well have come out during the Reagan administration. After some deliberation, I’ve finally come up with the usual five games and two honourable mentions. Baldur’s Gate 3 is not on this list, because I haven’t played it. Not even to romance Karlach. Anyway, let’s get into it.

Honourable Mentions:

1. Marvel’s Spider-Man 2

So this didn’t make the main list, but I can’t let the follow up to one of the best superhero games of all time, one where I got to don the black suit and go toe-to-toe with my favourite Spider-Man villain, escape without a shout out. Kraven was great, Venom was great (that one line I mentioned in the review still haunts me) and the whole thing felt tighter and more focused, with the padding in the open world cut right down, and the focus placed on the more meaningful sidequests. Its take on the black suit saga was brutally personal, as was its take on Venom, and the whole thing felt like the quality of the superb first game, but more tailored to my Spidey preferences. In a less stacked year, or if I didn’t limit the main list to five, this would have placed, but sadly under the circumstances it just gets an honourable mention. Still, it’s an opportunity to say once again that it’s really, really good.

2. Amnesia: The Bunker

For better or worse, Frictional created a new type of horror game with Amnesia The Dark Descent. After iterating on it with Soma and Rebirth, they innovated with The Bunker; a procedurally generated, tight and lean immersive sim. It’s you and one monster trapped in a world war 1 bunker that’s dilapidated, soaked with gore and filled with locked doors and obstacles. Your objective is to escape, but as you discover more and more blockades arresting your progress you explore the bunker; striking out from the one safe place, revolver loaded with two bullets at the ready in case a lock needs blowing off, or you need to stun the monster and flee. It feels like a big step forward for the developer, and while I don’t think it’s as easily replicable as Dark Descent, I’d happily play more games like this.

5: Laika: Aged Through Blood

Laika: Aged Through Blood is a strange one. Its story is a depressing examination of free will and violence, with one of the darkest plotlines I’ve ever seen in a videogame, nay, any piece of fiction. Its gameplay, by contrast, is side-scrolling metroidvania action that you control like an extreme sports game. You spend most of your time on Laika’s motorbike; speeding around the place, roaring over jumps, gunning down enemies and reloading by doing sweet backflips. You might think this would be at odds with such a heavy story but it works, with the two sections being connected but compartmentalised and equally as engaging. It’s a harsh, upsetting game, but if you can deal with that then its easy to learn, difficult to master gameplay and affecting story make it worth experiencing.

4. Resident Evil 4 Remake

Having built themselves a rock-solid foundation out of excellent remakes and new instalments in the previously flagging Resident Evil series, Capcom decided to tackle the big one. There are many people who think of Resi 4 as being a perfect masterpiece unable to be improved upon, but that’s just what Capcom did, at least in my opinion. The environments are larger, denser and feel like they could actually support the people living in them. The combat is intense, brutal and shockingly violent; fights feel like a desperate struggle as you’re swarmed by baying mobs out to murder you in horrible ways. The characters are nigh-universally improved, especially Ashley, who feels more like an actual character now rather than a wailing cardboard cut out. Having said that, I do love himbo Leon and his stupid catchphrases (They kept the bingo line but tragically “No thanks, bro!” is nowhere to be found), but I prefer the darker, more serious tone here. A revisiting of one of Capcom’s finest hours handled with the same level of skill they’ve been showing off since 2017. Superb.

3. World of Horror

I was worried I wasn’t going to be able to put this on here, but fortunately between my review and the time of writing the glitches have been patched. A simple but beautiful idea brilliantly executed: What if the board game Arkham Horror was set in the world of Junji Ito? Investigating spooky bullshit in a small Japanese coastal town, coming across body horror, eldritch beings, human cruelty and awful urban legends come true. Its text-heavy interface can appear daunting, but get to grips with it and it sucks you right in, solving mysteries, navigating a variety of change encounters and fighting off all manner of horrors. It’s the kind of game that comes around rarely, made by someone with a great deal of passion and a vision, and I’m so happy it paid off. Now the game-spoiling glitches have been dealt with I fully recommend World of Horror; it’s unique, inventive and deeply engrossing. I’ve put thirty five hours into it and I expect to put that much in again unlocking all the achievements.

2. Robocop: Rogue City

Oh look, it’s a game made specifically for me. I adore Robocop, and since it was announced I was looking forward to this. It absolutely nailed it; the writing, the art direction, the issue of Murphy’s humanity and the conflict that arises, both internally within his psyche and externally with his rights, or lack thereof. It’s satirical, funny, violent, touching and most importantly it made me feel like Robocop from start to finish. Were it not for a certain other game this would easily be my game of the year; I adore it. Developer Teyon just GETS Robocop and I love them for it. But alas, that certain other game exists, and given that it hasn’t shown up on the list yet, you may well have guessed what it is.

1. Alan Wake 2

Alan Wake 2 is my game of the year. It had some stiff competition, but Remedy’s magnum opus; a sublime slice of survival horror dripping with atmosphere, tying together almost the entirety of the developer’s catalogue in a way that feels coherent, well-realised and manages to be meta without being annoying, takes the cake. Saga’s treks through hostile woods are unnerving, her fights are intense and her story; seeing the effects of Alan’s reality warping powers on a larger, more dire scale is excellent. Alan’s haunting journey through a rainy New York, surrounded by shadowy figures whispering his name in aggressive tones filled with venom is anxiety inducing, as he uses his powers to warp impossible space and traverse the loop. It’s funny, it’s scary, it’s emotional, its use of music is excellent, and I never thought I’d say this but I actually love the live action parts of the game, which is a first for me. Normally I find the use of live action in videogames pointless but here it’s used to great effect. I love Ahti the janitor as a supernatural big good watching over Alan and Saga. I love Sam Lake being in the game as three different characters. I love Mr Scratch changing from a cool, fun-loving serial killer to a roiling mass of blood-thirsty rage. I love the shade of green the game uses, and of course, I love the musical section. Alan Wake 2 is a masterpiece, and the best game I played in a year filled with great games.

There were a bunch of good games I would have put on the list, but sadly I didn’t have enough spaces. I still want to put a spotlight on them though, so shout out to Lisa Definitive Edition, Cyberpunk 2077, 40k Boltgun and Blasphemous 2. Cyberpunk was on the short list but it lost to Resi 4.

So that’s 2023. I would say hopefully 2024’s list will be easier to write but Tekken 8, Like a Dragon Infinite Wealth, Persona 3 Reloaded and FF7 Rebirth are all coming out in the first two months. Besides those I’m looking forward to the console ports of the System Shock remake and System Shock 2, as well as Space Marine 2. Still holding out hope for a PS5 port of the first Space Marine to get ready for the sequel. See you later this month for Tekken 8 and LaD, which are out on the same day, so it’ll be whatever I finish first.

By James Lambert
@jameslambert18

Robocop Rogue City Review

Robocop is my hero. Yes the film is a satirical screed against capitalism, the value it places on human life and the idea that if you’re deemed profitable then not even death is an escape, but it’s also an awesome, gory action film about a cyborg cop blowing away scumbags and regaining his humanity. It’s one of my three favourite films and very dear to me, so when they announced this, a videogame that seemed to tackle the subject matter in a way that acknowledged its multitudes, I was obviously excited.

Set after the events of Robocop 2 (which is also great), Detroit is beset by a shadowy crime lord known only as “The new guy in town”. Local gangs are causing trouble to prove themselves worthy of his vast funds and to complicate matters, Robocop is experiencing glitches that stop him in his tracks and bombard him with nightmare hallucinations of his wife and son. The game places great focus on who Robocop is as a person and how he interacts with people, contrasting the more mundane parts of his job with all the exciting gun fights. OCP assigns him a therapist, and through his conversations with her Robo can express the belief that he is human and that his face beneath the helmet is how he sees himself, or that he’s a soulless machine with no connection to Alex Murphy. Most locations have a variety of side missions that involve talking to the locals and often choosing whether to stick rigidly to the letter of the law to their detriment, or throw them a bone, bend the rules and help them out. This is reflected in Murphy’s prime directives; he can uphold the law, or he can serve the public trust. Among others there’s a drug addicted police informer desperate to do right by the family of a cop who looked after him, a journalist aiming to take down OCP and a rookie cop hired to keep tabs on you by OCP who you can either ignore and badmouth to your co-workers or nurture and train into a competent police officer. It feels rich and rewarding to develop these relationships as Murphy over the course of the game, directed by what he believes and how he views the world. Just like the films, the game realises that Alex Murphy as a character is three dimensional and ripe for exploration, that his thoughts, feelings and interactions are just as important as him fighting crime.

The game also realises that you want to blow scumbags into dog food with the Auto-9, and so made doing so feel fantastic. Murphy moves quite slowly but he feels big and powerful; your melee attack is a massive punch that sends people flying. A variety of guns can be equipped in your one alternate weapon slot, with the other reserved for the Auto-9, which can be upgraded to not only improve its stats but also swap in modifications, things like spread rounds, armour piercing and removing the need to reload so you can shoot indefinitely. How good the Auto-9 feels to use is make or break for the combat, and they nailed it; it sounds right, it looks right, it feels powerful and blows off heads and limbs. The other guns vary in how good they feel, with SMGs and the standard pistol feeling weak and underwhelming while shotguns, assault rifles and heavy machine guns feeling better. They’re largely superfluous until the end of the game, when robot enemies and armoured humans take over from squishy street punks. Pleasingly, taking a leaf out of film Murphy’s book and shooting people in the crotch is an effective tactic. There are also light RPG elements, though unfortunately they don’t come up very often. Your stats include the obvious health, armour and weapon damage but also psychology, engineering and investigation; early on I lacked the stats to work out a safe code without finding it, or interact with a junction box to open a locked door. These instances quickly dried up, and none of them are required to progress anyway. It’s less immersive sim or choosing a character build, more a change to get a bit of extra XP or feel like you’re interacting with the environment in a unique way. Finally there are physical skills tied to your stats; a couple of them are useful; super armour for a short time and a quick, massive forward dodge. One of them, an electrical discharge, I barely used and the ability to slow down time is largely useless, especially when using the burst fire Auto-9. These skills and the light RPG elements feel like a nice addition that are ultimately unnecessary to the gameplay at large, but they don’t take anything away.

Robocop Rogue City gave me exactly what I wanted from a Rocobop game: I felt like Alex Murphy in everything I did. Whether walking around the streets of Detroit giving people parking tickets, helping people in need, turning a blind eye to people down on their luck involved in crime for relatable reasons, asserting my humanity and disdain for OCP and stomping through a building as the main theme kicks in and I start blowing scumbags away with the Auto-9, I felt like Robocop. I felt like Robocop, and I loved every second of it. I needed this game to be good, and it did not disappoint.

By James Lambert
@jameslambert18

Laika: Aged Through Blood Review

Laika: Aged Through Blood is one of the darkest games I’ve ever played, which is funny because in several ways it reminds me of Rayman Legends. There’s a content warning at the start of the game about sexual assault, suicide and violence being enacted upon children, and they’re really not messing about with that last one. I’ll be talking about it here, so if that sort of thing bothers you then leave now.

The game starts with your young daughter Puppy telling you, via walkie talkie, that her friend Poochie, also a young child, has been crucified with his own guts. You find his body shortly thereafter and confirm it for yourself, and when you find his father bleeding out having failed in an attempt at revenge, he outlines the gory details; Poochie did not die well. This horrible event sets the tone; the world is a desert wasteland scarred by a past bombing campaign and a brutal army of birds are advancing through it, slaughtering and torturing any non-bird anthropomorphic animal person they find. You are one such anthro animal person named Laika, living in a village called “Where we live” (all locations have descriptive names like that). The women in her family are stricken with a curse; when they reach their teens they’re hit with a catastrophic fever and either they die or they have their first period, after which they become immortal and their mother, who previously had that power, becomes a normal person. Normal as in mortal, she doesn’t stop being an animal. Laika is currently immortal, and her mother Maya trained her to be an incredible biker and shootist; now that the elder’s declared war on the birds, Laika’s the one who’s got to go out and get things done. Laika views herself as “A pawn in someone else’s game”; she’s explicitly referred to as a weapon useful as a bargaining chip, and after having and losing multiple daughters to the curse the elder and her own mother forced her to have Puppy to keep the line going. Her life is not her own, something she treats with grim resignation, but she it’s not all doom and gloom. She adores her daughter and insists she’s too young to even think about starting any kind of training, and there are a whole host of side missions where you help the residents of Where We Live with requests that are often inane and banal, but it’s important to Laika that her friends live, and not just survive. When you’re out and about she’ll sometimes ask what Puppy had for lunch and when told she’ll respond with the likes of “Yummy! That sounds great, honey!” Contrast this with a later scene where she delivers the most genuinely horrifying threat of torture I’ve heard in quite some time, and the ruthless detachment with which she guns down birds. She’s well-rounded; bitter, cynical and ground down by the world, but with a solid vein of humanity running through her. It’s a story of hope and humanity persevering in the darkest and most violent of situations, free will and the darkness people are capable of in certain circumstances.

The game is described by its developer as a “Motorvania”, basically a 2-D metroidvania but outside of Where We Live and a few specific moments, you spend all your time on Laika’s motorbike. The controls take some getting used to, especially under pressure; a shoulder button accelerates and the left stick spins Laika around on an a 360 degree axis, a face button brakes and another, when held, makes you turn around. The trick is the accuracy required when orienting Laika; if you land with her touching the ground instead of the bike, she dies. If you land on a part of the bike that isn’t the wheels then you can salvage it, but it’s tricky. You aim with the right analogue stick and reload by spinning Laika backwards 360 degrees, and do so forwards to refill your bullet-reflecting parry move. It doesn’t take a great deal of momentum or hangtime to reload, but it’s the only way to do so. Where the difficulty comes in is where the Rayman Legends comparison I made right at the start comes in. Enemies are well spaced out either alone or in small groups, and the environment is full of ramps and angles. This, combined with the camera sometimes pulling out and the bosses often requiring you to move away from an advancing screen is reminiscent of Rayman, at least to me. Having to put all these controls together and consider your momentum, under time pressure and with a zoomed out camera and/or smoke obstructing your view of Laika can result in lot of improper landings, and most of the bosses took me several tries. Having said that, the combat is satisfying. Time slows down when you aim and any bullets that hit your bike are blocked, so when the controls properly click and you roar over a ramp towards a trio of birds, block their shots, shoot them dead and reload by doing a backflip it looks and feels really cool.

Outside of combat, the metroidvania elements are limited; you get three abilities that alter how you travel, one of which is barely used and the other only activates right near the end and renders the third and final one superfluous. The exploration is mainly worth it for the environment, seeking out sidequests and to listen to the gorgeous soundtrack, more tracks for which can be found hidden away.

Laika: Aged Through Blood is dark, harsh and poignant. It’s an engaging story about free will, humanity and horrible violence married to a unique, satisfying approach to 2-D metroidvania action games. It’s not for everyone, but if you can get over that initial horror it’s a rewarding experience I fully recommend.

By James Lambert
@jameslambert18

Persona 5 Tactica Review

Persona 5 Tactica is the latest in the long line of games Atlus have made instead of Persona 5 Arena. More like Persona 5 Tantalus, am I right? For now though we have this; essentially Persona 5 XCOM with a more cartoonish art style where everyone has giant hands and feet are often a mere suggestion.

So the Phantom Thieves have entered into a mentally constructed world with a despotic ruler, as is their shtick, but there are two twists here. Firstly, they can’t leave, and each new map has a version of Leblanc they use as a hideout. Secondly, there’s a young woman named Erina spearheading a rebellion, so they join up with her to set about toppling the local dictator; a giant, pink woman called Marie (Marr-Ee-Eh, not Mah-ree) who’s obsessed with the perfect wedding. Along the way they find verbose, cowardly but determined to be responsible politician Toshiro Kasukabe, who recently vanished from the real world. It quickly becomes clear this is his story, and as the game goes on the bosses of each area are all closely tied to him and his miserable life and backstory. For the most part the story is good: Toshiro is likable and his development into a more confident, active person who learns from the Phantom Thieves and Erina is well done. Erina herself is charming and scrappy, and has good chemistry with the more responsible Toshiro, particularly early on when he’s desperate to run away and masks it as a tactical retreat, in contrast to her tendency to sprint headlong into danger. Toshiro’s backstory is grim and harrowing, and culminates in a really cool boss for what should be the final fight, having remembered the secret those who wish him harm insist is some terrible crime he committed. It should be the final boss, but it isn’t, because Persona 5 Tactica plays the same card the other games in the series do, as if it’s inextricably bound to the trope regardless of how tired it is. You beat that boss and confront Toshiro’s past, then it turns out it’s all down to the machinations of a god who wants to control how people think and feel for “The greater good”. Again. Four times this has happened and there’s only one of them I genuinely like. To add insult to injury, the game acts like you’re going to confront it for a final showdown only to be met with a boss rush, something I personally hate by the way, including that aforementioned really cool one, with all the weight and impact removed. I understand that a series about rebelling against injustice and those who seek to control others for nefarious purposes lends itself to a big bad who’s trying to control all of humanity, but I’m tired of it, and I really felt like it damaged the pacing and overall quality of the plot in this one.

Gameplay wise, it’s a lot like XCOM but with some key differences. Rather than a series of brutal, tactical skirmishes it feels more puzzle focused; you can move freely until you act, and scoring a critical hit on an enemy resets your movement range, letting you move indefinitely until you don’t get a crit. Said crits are guaranteed on enemies in certain circumstances; if they’re out of cover, if they’ve just been attacked with a Persona skill, things like that. There are a variety of enemies that have to be tackled in different ways, and every character other than Erina can have precisely one Persona in addition their own. These additional Personas have access to a variety of abilities but can only have two equipped and there are no items, so having a balance of attack, support and healing skills is key. The game also integrates height into combat; anyone on a higher level automatically gains the benefits of partial cover to anyone attacking from below, and if you melee an enemy off a high ledge towards an ally on the ground they’ll follow up by shooting them, gaining a “One More” extra turn. Speaking of cover there’s partial and full but it’s directional; full cover completely negates damage but only head on, if you’re flanked then it acts like partial cover. So that’s how it works, but how does it feel to play? The shift towards a less punishing, more puzzle-focused approach separates it from XCOM, but it feels enough like it to satisfy me, as someone who loved XCOM 2. It’s fun, and crucially still feels like Persona; the turn-based gameplay and implementation of skills, melee and firearms suit the IP more than the musou approach Strikers took. It’s not a patch on proper Persona combat but it’s an interesting approach that’s enjoyable and satisfying, and although easier and far more forgiving than XCOM (dying is a slap on the wrist; you can swap in fresh phantom thieves and all that happens to the dead ones is they start the next level without a buff), has enough good ideas to scratch that particular itch.

So then, how does the fifth (not including PQ2) Persona 5 game stack up? Better than Strikers, not as good as Dancing In Starlight, P5 or P5R. It’s an interesting choice of gameplay mechanics that are less punishing and tactical than XCOM but make up for it with a more puzzle-focused approach, and apart from the final act it has a good story with likable characters and well-done revelations and arcs. I have no idea how long they’re going to keep making games about the Phantom Thieves or if they’re going to make P5 Arena, but I’ll keep playing them. Don’t forget about Persona 6 though, yeah?

By James Lambert
@jameslambert18

Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name Review

Two RGG games in the same year, what have we done to deserve such a treat? That comes across as sarcastic, but I’m being sincere; I love Ryu Ga Gotoku studios and having such their games coming out so regularly is a pleasant bit of certainty in an otherwise unpredictable videogame landscape. Their last one, a remaster of feudal Japan-set Ishin! was solid but not really my cup of tea, but this is more my scene: a side story about what Kiryu was up to during Yakuza 7 to provide a bit more context before he returns in Infinite Wealth next year.

So, in exchange for keeping state secrets and the ensured safety of Morning Glory orphanage Kazuma Kiryu has faked his death and gone into hiding in a temple. The group he made a deal with, Daidoji, are a ruthless, shadowy bunch of killers and black bag men who only let Kiryu leave now and then to work for them, under the paper-thin disguise of the codename “Joryu” and a pair of sunglasses. An operation to smuggle a truck full of gold to a revolutionary goes sour when the Omi Alliance turn up and batter every Daidoji agent they can see and their leader Tsuruno offers Kiryu a chance at escaping the Daidoji in exchange for the death of his handler Hanawa, something Kiryu obviously isn’t into. Things work out so that he can help the Omi anyway however, and it moves on to the more interesting part of the story; Kiryu’s involvement in the dissolution of the Omi Alliance and Tojo clan, as seen in Yakuza 7 when he makes his glorious entrance. In events reminiscent of Red Dead Redemption 2, Watase Captain Tsuruno makes the case that the time of the Yakuza is over; modern law enforcement and politicians make the life untenable, and they should all just choose a different path for themselves, dignity intact. Also not every Yakuza can share Kiryu’s nobility and moral compass; some of them are complete monsters, and collapsing the Yakuza will greatly limit the power and influence people like that can hold. One such scumbag is Homare Nishitani, ruling over a gaudy monument to excess and cruelty on a massive cargo ship, presiding over a fighting arena and gambling where people in debt are stripped to their underwear and forced to pull carriages with passengers who whip them mercilessly. By the time Watase himself gets out of jail and joins Daigo in announcing the dissolution, this guy’s got to be out of the picture, and that’s where Kiryu comes in. Our man’s got to find a way to get Nishitani somewhere less fortified and beat him so badly he won’t cause problems. I won’t say much more for spoiler reasons, but I will say that you get to play Kiryu’s part in the dissolution, and it ends with a great boss fight against a man desperate to keep the Yakuza alive because that’s all he knows. Despite their similarities of coming from nothing and living in a world of violence, he maintains that Kiryu can’t understand how he feels because he was able to get out of the life, something he can never do. It’s not quite on the level of Lost Judgment’s final boss, but it’s good.

Gameplay wise it’s back to Kiryu’s brand of 3-D beat ’em up style over Ichiban’s turn based stuff, with a new fighting style in the form of “Agent”. It’s a more technical style Kiryu learns at the temple to kill time, and augmented by four gadgets that are completely unnecessary apart from one. That one is a cable that shoots out of Kiryu’s watch, used to throw enemies around, pick up weapons from afar and grab items during free roam. The others I had no use for; an exploding cigarette that takes ages to go off, drones that fly in and bump into enemies, and honest to Hastur ROCKET SHOES that make Kiryu speed around the arena too fast to attack anyone. The shoes in particular seem like a weird addition, and they were all rendered moot because I just stuck with the other fighting style. It’s the one Kiryu’s been using since Yakuza 6 and with the right upgrades you can end a combo chain with three finishing moves that can all be charged, giving them super armour, and you can dodge directly into a strong attack that does good damage and enemies rarely block. Apart from a brief stay in Yokohama where you just miss both Ichiban and Kashiwagi, the game’s set mostly in Sotenbori and the majority of the substories are part of the “Akame Network”. Tsuruno tells Kiryu to seek out the titular Akame, who turns out to be a young woman who helps out the homeless in Sotenbori in exchange for them acting as her Sherlock Holmes-style intelligence network. She wants to help people out around town but lacks the muscle to get anything action-y done, which is where Kiryu comes in. People have requests ranging from wanting certain food and drink, to seeing pictures of things around town, to trying to find their lost child (lost as in separated in town, the kid’s not gone missing or anything) and stuff like wanting to see Kiryu wearing clothes that remind them of their dead husband. The substories are more involved but there aren’t that many of them; my favourite was the one where there are rumours of Ryuji Goda still being alive. He appears in the main story too, in the form of a man impersonating him in the fighting arena whom Kiryu has to beat, and views with nothing but disdain. Ryuji’s my boy and it’s nice to see him get a look in, and that Kiryu remembers him fondly. The main minigame this time around is the return of Pocket Racing from Yakuza 0; no cabaret club to manage, no tower defence or anything like that. The whole thing is a quite stripped back affair; it’s half the length of a normal Yakuza game and has fewer things to do usual, but it doesn’t hold it back for me. I enjoyed doing Akame’s requests and I liked the fighting arena enough to get to the highest of the three ranks, but didn’t bother with Pocket Racing.

The side stuff is limited compared to normal and I found the new fighting style superfluous, but otherwise this is another great game in the Like a Dragon series. The combat is as fun as ever, and the story is strong, particularly in the latter half when it focuses on the nature of the Yakuza as an organisation coming up against the modern world and the changes that brings. A nice, snacky interlude to get ready for Infinite Wealth in January. I saw a review that said this is a good jumping on point for new fans and I completely disagree; this is very much integrated into the on-going story, but once you’re caught up this is another shining brick in the glorious golden road that is Like a Dragon. Can’t wait for Infinite Wealth; there’s a demo included here that I haven’t played because I want to go in blind, but briefly seeing my boy Ichiban again has me excited.

By James Lambert
@jameslambert18

World of Horror Review

I’ve been waiting to get my hands on this for years. It spent ages in early access on steam, I had a go at the demo but apart from that I’ve been patiently waiting for the planned console port, and it’s finally here. I was going to unlock everything before I reviewed it, but unfortunately glitches are preventing me from doing so. More on that later.

Put simply, it’s like if the board game Arkham Horror was transplanted from 20s New England to 80s Japan, and written and drawn by Junji Ito. You pick a protagonist from a list of young adults with their own unique skills, pick a backstory that has a potentially drastic effect on gameplay, then set out to solve five horror-themed mysteries in the town of Shiokawa. There’s a whole bunch of gory, spooky bullshit going down in the otherwise sleepy seaside town, and solving each mystery gets you a set of keys you need to enter the lighthouse, ascend to the top and stop the incursion of your chosen Old God; eldritch horrors who, if allowed to awaken, will wipe out life on earth in a variety of entertaining ways.

Right off the bat the tutorial gets you into the swing of things. It’s a series of increasingly large and complex playthroughs starting with just playing the most curated mystery that’s set entirely in one location and teaches you the basic mechanics and ending with a full playthrough with everything customised by the player. This is all optional; you can skip straight to the full playthrough but it’s worth working your way through them to get to grips with how the game works. There’s a lot of text on screen; stats, a log of all your actions, status ailments in the form of injuries and curses, what items you have, what perks you’ve taken, your health, sanity and “Doom”. That’s before you even get into a fight, where you have a whole load of options depending on what you’re fighting, what you’re fighting it with, how high the threat level of the area is and whether anyone’s helping you out. It’s tied together with gorgeous 1-bit artwork and music, but there is a lot of text to read, and you really need to get used to it in order to get the most out of the game. The gameplay loop involves “Investigating” areas by completing a random event there; some of them are tied to your character, old god or background, but a lot of them are universal. This is where the meat of the game lies, and one of its strongest horror elements. The game treats these as cannon, because any positive or negative effects of them carry forward, but the mystery playing out in text at the top of the screen never takes them into account. During my investigation of a suspicious new ramen joint, in between ordering and receiving my food I suddenly appeared on a subway train where I found a box with my name on it and containing something awful, then right afterwards I blipped right back to the ramen line like nothing happened. Whatever you’re doing can and will be interrupted by, to name a few examples, you running into old friends, being attacked by body-horror monstrosities or finding strange, eldritch entities and objects. Some of them can have a positive outcome if your stats are right, others just always hurt you, like for example finding an anatomical model of a torso that seems to be alive. All of this, combined with the protagonists explicitly becoming tired, frustrated and freaked out by what’s happening lends the whole thing an almost dream-like quality, where it feels like whatever god you’re trying to stop is playing tricks on you, only the scars left show it was all too real. Each mystery has multiple endings that are often tied into optional objectives, though there’s very little actual detective work required on the part of the player. Personally I didn’t mind that at all; the mysteries are well-written, spooky stories and investigating them opens you up to all the other scary stuff the game has to offer, but don’t go in expecting Sinking City or anything like that.

Combat is a turn-based affair, with all the player’s actions relying on timing; some characters are faster than others and perks can speed up your combat actions. Most characters can dodge and attack once in one turn, or prep that one attack so it always hits (normally it’s based on a percentage chance tied to the skill the weapon relies on), but as you get faster you can string together strong blows and cut enemies down in seconds, which is especially useful with the stronger ones and bosses. Every enemy does damage that depletes your health and/or sanity, or increases your “Doom” meter; a percentage at the top of the screen that raises with each area you investigate and lowers under certain circumstances. It represents how close your chosen old god is to waking up, and once it hits 100% it’s game over, no questions asked. Each old god has their own unique complication; things like making you unable to run from combat or increasing the doom penalty of resting to regain health and sanity, which is crucial as the mysteries go on.

So then, that all sounds good, but what about those bugs? I ran into two. Firstly, when I fortunately hadn’t unlocked all that much I discovered that quitting to menu during a run just wipes your save; everything you’ve unlocked vanishes. I came back from that and started knocking off achievements (in-game ones that are each tied to an unlockable) left and right, only to discover that two of them disappeared after turning the game off. One of them, beating three particular enemies to unlock the game’s version of Cthulhu, vanished repeatedly. As much as I’d like to unlock everything I can’t because in its current state the game won’t let me, and although the developer is aware of at least the first bug, at the time of writing there isn’t a patch.

That’s a pretty big issue, but I still love World of Horror. In its current state I’d say wait for a patch, but when there is one I fully recommend it; it lived up to my expectations. It’s a gorgeously drawn, scored and written slice of horror goodness that combines the best of Junji Ito and H.P Lovecraft into a unique, satisfying hybrid of text-based adventure and RPG. Games like this don’t come around very often; this is a real gem. Just a shame about the bugs.

By James Lambert
@jameslambert18