It's all over.

 The Dark Side wins...

The allure of Live Service

You activated my 'Uno Reverse' card!

Kiryu has WHAT?

 Umm... 'Infinite Wealth' spoilers, I guess

How excited I was to tune into Like a Dragon's very first direct-style event, touching on the two brand new Like a Dragon games flying at us in the coming few months. I'm nowhere near ready to play either of the two games mind, I've a metric ton of Judgement and Yakuza games to get through first, but that just makes me even more excited about what I have awaiting me. One of these games is, of course, the action-based side series starring Kiryu as Agent Joryu, and the other is the next mainline entry: Like a Dragon 'Infinite Wealth' taking the franchise out of Japan to Hawaii for the first time... perhaps ever. I remember hearing that title 'Infinite Wealth' and trying to relate it to all the usual themes Yakuza might have. "'Wealth' could refer to something ephemeral like happiness, love and friendship- I wonder which way they'll go this game!" And then the bombshell landed and the clouds kind of parted.

To be clear, those looking to go into the next Yakuza game with no information don't want to carry on reading this blog and they don't want to watch the new story trailer for 'Infinite Wealth'. They should take my word that it looks like an incredible entry in a franchise that doesn't have any right to go on this long and still drop such consistent bangers- and if you want to see something than watch the gameplay trailer, that one is safe. As for those that already committed and are currently utterly flabbergasted at what the trailer-team decided was safe to reveal before the game was out, then I'm right with you. Who in their right mind thought the little plot point that Kiryu had damned cancer would be a fun little spicy warm up for those waiting for the game?

That's right, the Dragon of Dojima himself- the god like being of infinite mortality who solves all of his problems by punching, (and that's no exaggeration. Remember that in Yakuza 3 his solution for teaching the main villain the importance of friendship was to beat it into him) has been given the one foe he can't just Tiger Drop... unless... unless he Tiger Drops the back of his own head! (Imagine if that's how this plot point resolves itself...) Yes, like Arthur Morgan himself, Kiryu has been given a death sentence and it's bad enough to have the man coughing blood in the middle of the trailer, hamming home the themes of impermanence and the trickling sands of time in a narrative otherwise about...  Kasuga finding his mother? Damn, I totally forgot that was the lead-in; his mommy issues are overshadowed like they're nothing, I hope the game itself does a better job balancing his story.

It's a jarring position to put a character who is representative of so much strength in the face of adversity that he is being brought into stories nearing his mid fifties and the man still looks totally ready to kick some ass. It's not like a 'Sam Fisher' situation in the latest Ghost Recon where the man looks like he's been dragged out of an old folks home and thrown into an exoskeleton- Kiryu seems to be in the twilight of his fighting years and even his most beloved fans knew these next few games would be the last before ultimate retirement. I just... don't think we expected that 'ultimate retirement' to be a cancerous death like what seems to await our man. I don't think this is being introduced as a spectre to hang over Kiryu for the last few of his games either, the way it's being treated makes this sound like his big struggle throughout 'Infinite Wealth'; introducing the startling possibility that Kiryu might not actually survive through to the end of the  credits. (Let my man get back with Kaoru, dammit! He's suffered alone long enough!)

Cancer is, of course, quite the large bombshell to drop into any story, let alone the story of the man who seems to have transcended his mortality altogether through his sheer passion of beatdowns. Kiryu has been shot, stabbed, blown up, beaten to a pulp, tortured, mauled, hit by a car and everything else inbetween- yet through all that it was the damn cigarettes that got him! (And yet Akiyama is still okay enough to cameo through the Poundmates app? How does that make any remote sense?) In truth, I guess this really was the only way to further humble the character of Kiryu after the man faked his own death for the second time. I mean, there's only so many times you can cut to credits with Kiryu in a perilous state before it doesn't work anymore. You could have him be abducted by aliens just before the credits and I'll assume he'll beat him way before the end credits scene.

Of course, it's pretty surprising that such a perception destroying narrative as Kiryu facing death itself, a very concept designed to throw everything in one's life into perception, should occur without Haruka present. Literally the little girl that Kiryu devoted his entire life to raising, the love child of the woman he decided was the love of his life literally two seconds before she died. (Seriously Kiryu, I understand playing it cool, but you played that entire game damn near glacial towards Yumi!) You think that spending his time with Haruka would be the only thing on Kiryu's mind right now, but something has him tied not only to Honolulu, but to Kasuga and, eventually, the Tojo clan again! Isn't that the very life he's been trying to distance himself from since... literally the first Yakuza game? What on Earth could supersede his desire to be with his daughter, even if he faked his death in order to 'protect her' or whatever nonsense he came up with at the time. (I don't know, I haven't played that game yet.)

My guess? Kiryu won't die in this game. I don't think they'll magically cure his cancer, but I suspect it to go into remission. The only reason I say that is two-fold. Firstly, I can't possibly see them letting Haruka go on thinking her father figure is dead and not being there at his death bed. Sure, there's a possibility that she sneaks her way in at the end, but I just don't think Japan is going to be featured in this game much at all. Secondly, no self respecting proprietor of this franchise is going to let Kiryu die alone, not after all he's been through. How deeply disrespectful would it be for the character to have him die in the gutter coughing out his guts? This isn't that sort of franchise! If Kiryu's going out, it's going to be out into retirement in order to live surrounded by the people he loves most. And I'm not sure Haruka is going to be in this game and I know that Kaoru isn't going to be. (The made her a Poundmate but that isn't anywhere near enough, dammit!)

Still, at least this confirms that the franchise is adamant about their desire to move on from this being the 'ongoing story of Kiryu', despite that being severely questionable when it was revealed they couldn't go a single full game without bringing the ol' zombie back. I was waiting for Komaki to confer upon Kiryu the secret of his own inexplicable immortality, but unless that ol' bugger knows the secret technique for banishing Cancer I guess our man is on his own. I've always believed that Like a Dragon has had it in itself to expand it's horizon, and now they've lit a fire they can't put out it seems they're going to have to prove that with action in the years to come. Just like everyone else I can't wait to get my hands on the game and cry those darn ugly tears that Yakuza always tries to get out of me. (And sometimes does!)

Devil May Cry 5 Review

Don't you dare say it -

Onwards to the end. It's actually a little surreal to think that my first real desire to play the famed and beloved Devil May Cry franchise was spawned the very first time I played the demo for Devil May Cry 5- and now I've finally had the chance to satiate my curiosity for What lay beyond that small snippet I played and what context defined it to begin with. Whilst speeding through over 2 decades of video game history I can finally deduce that the answer to one of those questions is at least- nothing, never once has this franchise ever deigned us worthy to learn why it is that Demons just populate the world every now and then. I mean sure, we can blame the Qliphoth but why? Why does a demon tree mean demon summons? Why did the events of DMC 4 suddenly summon demons? Why were they summoned in the prequel Vergil cutscene? DMC 3 one's kind of make sense, there was specifically a portal to the underworld mentioned- but otherwise: are demons just a natural thing that people of the DMC world deal with?

Questions that shall go an unanswered because at this stage in the game no one involved in this franchiser was interested in deconstructionism, especially not after their last game, just named 'DMC' was lambasted for attempting exactly that through a reboot of the franchise. Casting a younger Dante, reframing the elements of the story in order to tell a founding narrative that was a bit more constructed and deliberate in the style of DMC 4 ended up slightly erasing all the things that fans loved about these games, the history they shared with them. As well as the personality quirks of post DMC 2 Dante by some people's reckoning. The result was that when time came around to do Devil May Cry once again, the team decided to abandon the new universe and do their best to return to what DMC fans wanted in such a hard U-turn that they low-key kind of just retold DMC 3 in broad strokes- albeit in a totally new fashion.

In many ways DMC 5 is an amalgamation of everything I've wanted from a DMC game up until now; it tells a active and fairly engaging story with properly written characters that have actual stakes in the plot's events, (Weep harder: DMC 2) and it brings memorable set-pieces, decent missions and fun bosses. Unfortunately it never quite catches the level of difficult intensity that DMC 3 boasted, but on the flipside the combat this time around was so smooth, flashy and brimming with character, (between the three playable characters. 4 with DLC) that I never got bored. Despite being about 4 years old now, Devil May Cry 5 looks pretty enough to put most modern games to shame both in cutscenes and in the heat of battle, which might be a comment on how we're reaching the edge of the visual fidelity arms race, but I just like to appreciate the pretty looks.

I quite like the effort that went into the visual design of both gooey bubonic terrain of the demonic tree which has infected the world called the 'Qliphoth', (Yes, it's another random word from mythology that the team borrowed and used without any thought put into it's potential thematic significance.) and the red-phone boxed streets of a demolished city called 'Redgrave' which that tree is growing out of, a city I would have found instantly identifiable as this universe's version of London even if I didn't already know that because I'd see a making of video years ago. The solid design work, much stronger than this franchise's earlier days, actually persists to the various monsters and bosses you'll encounter and stops only short of the main bad guy, who is back to being a sludge monster. (What the hell is it with this franchise and sludge monster main villains?) At least his final form for the last two missions is more... shall we say... palatably familiar. 

In gameplay Devil May Cry 5 is exactly what you would have come to expect by now only refined to it's flashiest and, in my opinion, best feeling. Of course, now that we have three protagonists there are some curious points to each hero that makes their playstyle tantalisingly unique. Nero, for example, features a collection of robotic 'Devil Arm's' that replace the one he lost, all providing new functionality to the 'B/O' button (Some much more useful than others) and each will break if Nero takes damage whilst using them. A curious risk and reward style mechanic that can spice up your combo chain in a manner that feels flowing and dynamic depending on whatever arm it is you have lined up, making Nero's playstyle feel just that little more than 'Dante without the variety'.

Dante plays much the same as he did in 4 with the insta-switch melee weapons, ranged tools and styles to back up a movement set that has never quite gotten old. He's still perhaps one of the most utilitarian fighters in this genre-type, made even more accessible with the modern simplification of his 'Royal Guard' stance making dodge play obsolete if you know how to time a quick switch or two. (It can make those more frantic boss fight moments flow like wine when you catch that perfect block/retaliate combo.) He almost feels like the Kiryu of the franchise, the baseline you just can't go without. And with the focusing down on Dante's close combat tools rather than ungainly briefcase canons- there is an unparalleled smoothness which makes his levels a blast.

V is the newcomer to the rooster bringing with him a quite unique take on 'Summoner gameplay'. V himself isn't capable of hacking or slashing, but his retinue of demons, including a tiny version of Griffon, a panther and a special rock golem, all fill different roles of combat in his stead. However as individuals, each creature has a certain amount of health before they get knocked out of the fight for a bit, and V himself is helpless if all his critters are knocked out at the same time, so there's a curious aggression versus defensive rhythm to get into whilst playing his levels which is quite unlike any other character in DMC. It can hardly be disguised that his levels are slower and can be somewhat frustrating even if you have a decent hand of the basic moveset of the game, but for the change of pace alone I rate V's levels as adequate. 

Now as I've teased, this time around the team actually tried to tell an evolving narrative in the vein of where DMC 4 went and in doing so created a very straight forward and digestible campaign with memorable story beats- only this time starring a plethora of well performed and distinctive personalities to breath life into the sillier moments. I particularly am a fan of the fact that Dante's constantly breathy performance now perfectly fits since the character is getting a little older, and the fact that newcomer Nico is just... the best. She seems designed from the ground up to seem like she's going to be a forgettable and unlikeable character but she just... isn't. I really like her. More so than the other reoccurring girls who, with all due respect, were utterly superfluous throughout the entire game. I have no idea who the girl opposite of Trish is, but she ain't the badass character Lady we got to know back in DMC 3. For Nico's sake I hope she managed to stay away from the core team lest she get her personality sapped dry until she's just a mindless valley girl archetype eye-candy waste of screentime.

Devil Trigger is back and being useful in this game, with a brand new extra mode tacked onto the late game called 'Sin Devil Trigger', which adds a new game changer transformation capable of stunlocking and performing just gross amounts of damage. It takes a while to build which is supposed to be the trade-off, but when you go SDT it's practically like you take over the entire fight for a brief few seconds of unbreakable carnage. You don't even heal during SDT, nor are you invincible, because either would be too broken. Honestly, and this might be the first time you'll ever hear this said about the franchise, I might actually prefer how DMC 2 did it's alternative Devil Trigger. Desperate Devil Trigger only activated when you were on the last slither of health and that would change a losing beatdown into a heroic resurgence anime-style. However, Desperate Devil Trigger didn't come with the Devil Sword Dante, now did it? And I love the summon sword powers of the Devil Sword Dante. Finally Dante feels as cool as Vergil to play as, it only takes half the game to unlock it.

And finally there is the music, which is indeed good enough this time around to deserve it's own shout-out because wow- this game has the best soundtrack without any serious competition. To be absolutely transparent I did actually know about both 'Devil Trigger' and 'Bury the Light' before I played the game to experience them, but what I didn't know was that both of those insanely catchy, great tracks were standard battle music! Most games would save epic handbangers like those for epic character moments but not Devil May Cry! They want the desire to hear the songs themselves to be enough to dry you into each fight, and you know what? It absolutely is! I will prolong fights as Vergil just so I can absolutely annihilate alongside announcements of how "I am the storm that is APPROACHING! PROVOKING black clouds in isolation!" Nero and Vergil got down right by this game's soundtrack, which I suppose is fighting when you think about it...

Summary

I've reached the point in reviewing these games wherein I know them all well enough to be arguing semantics. They're all some baseline version of good (apart from 2) so rating always comes down to splitting hairs and personal preference over what I think makes the better action hack'n'slash. Or rather, whatever features bring the experience closer to Metal Gear Solid Revengence, which is objectively the best action hack'n'slash game that exists. (That's just a fact.) Still 3 presents the most interesting challenge experience, and 4 takes you on the best feeling journey. But 5 looks the best, brings the best characters and now, I can slip this accolade off of 4's shoulders, feels the best to control by a country mile. I once speculated that 4 might be the game I keep installed on my Xbox to come back to when I'm feeling the need for "Motivation", but 5 supplanted that. In many ways, 5 is the experience I was kind of looking for out of this franchise, and I'm glad it rose to this point. That final fight could have laid on the fire a bit more, but I came out wanting to jump right back in and that's the kind of excitement these types of games are born to engender.

So of course I'm going to be recommending this game. You already knew that was coming just from how I'm talking about it. But what you didn't know was that I loved this game enough to slap it a solid A grade on my arbitrary grading scale. That's right, this game manages to be as fun to me as Metal Gear Rising is, thus earning the exact same grade. That is as high praise as I can dish for a game like this, because I absolutely loved my time and I'm still playing even now because of how kick-ass of a game it is. Coming to this franchise I was expecting slightly more at times, especially out from the characterisation of characters which the gaming world have told me are untouchably iconic, but I can't deny that the level of reverence this franchise has enjoyed feels just about well earned by the time I reached 5. And it was the general overall quality of this game which pushed me over the edge, because I was shaking on whether we'd ever reach the 'A' bar until now- but 5 just brought the whole package, in pristine wrapping, and solidifying the Devil May Cry games as one's I will try to trick people into becoming helpless addicted to in my years to come. 

Now I've finally put this behind me, it's time to get back to a franchise I was right in the middle of so I can finally get around to capping off- what do you mean there's been 5 Yakuza games either released or announced since I stopped reviewing them? And the franchise changed name? Oh god... I'm never going to catch up...

Jackpot!

A change of plans for the Exclusivity industry?

 Of Execs and Exclusivity

Determination

It's quite filling, I'm told

Konsole Kombat

 Switch it up, Boon!

The all-digital future

 Are friends electric?

Tetsuya's Nomura's dream stretches on

 Somebody stop this man

Unity done lost their minds!

 Up in here, up in here!

I need to talk about Immortals of Aveum

If I can even remember it...

Overwatch- how to ruin everything

 Then they came for our lore, and there was no one left to speak up for it

One piece is good?

 I'm a different kind of Netflix adaptation

Mexican Aliens, huh?

 This one feels familiar...

A new gaming franchise is born

"Waku Waku!" Read in the voice of a disturbingly Spy-obsessed kindergartener. 

Starfield Review

What's out there?

Peter Molyneux is 'Sorry', everyone!

 That just makes it all better!

'Commercial Success'

 Never heard of her

Starfield and the saga of paid modifications.

 'Unity' indeed...

Bloodlines 2 again again

 I've just been in this time before...

Skull and Bones: The invisible game

 Go away Spectre! We gave you a Beta, what more do you want?

About the ending of Starfield...

 New beginnings

I guess I hate Assassin's Creed

 What happened to us?

The bow on the Baldur's Gate cake

 If I could ask but one more boon.

The art of the cut

 I may have gone a bit far in a few places.

To steal a Starfield

 Phantom Thief of Games

I want to live

The clock won't stop and this is what we get...

There goes Volition

Pour one out

Entering the Starfield

First impressions don't always tell the whole picture

Cyberpunk 2.0

 Anthem's dream

So here we are. After all these great many years mocking and prodding and laughing and weeping and being lightly gas-lit as to the quality of Cyberpunk original, we stand on the cusp of a game that CDPR can feel proud of. Okay, that's being a bit cattish- I actually think that from a narrative stand-point Cyberpunk is a genuinely fantastic experience and though great swathes of the narrative were ceded to the dulcet tones of Keanu Reeves' Johnny Silverhand- I loved exercising that story and thought Reeves did a fantastic job! Still, it's hard to swallow the game around as being anything more than the best faux-RPG ever made in a subgenre resplendent with Far Cry's and Assassin Creed's and all those other titles that try to walk the line between genuine gameplay systems and more standardised action gameplay. It failed to really went beyond just the narrow scope of story consequence or the small number of ways to interact with the glorious and fascinating Cyberpunk world beyond shooting holes in it- I just didn't really feel like a RPG character.

Cyberpunk's 2.0 update, to coincide with the release of their first and last DLC, seems to be on the way to solve that exact problem and in doing so I honestly find that promise to be more interesting than Phantom Liberty itself. I'll still probably pick up Phantom Liberty just to see how CDPR have managed to expand upon what I consider to be a fairly open-and-shut narrative, but the thing that's really going to bring me back are all these crazy overhauls to the very core of the game which, whilst not amending the woefully underutilised open world like I might hope, (They couldn't make a more immersive world for the life of them, huh.) still, at least, zap a dose of interest back into the prospect of playing the game in a different way again.

Back when I played Cyberpunk, I did find myself slipping into the rhythm of a playstyle suited to the way I was enjoying myself, specifically I was a quick-hack casual stealth enjoyer- but that more came about as a realisation of that game's itemisation, rather than a navigation of the painfully overstuffed and under built RPG tree. Cyberpunk's RPG tree is an ARPG-like nightmare of obtuse stat increases and actually intriguing stat upgrades locked behind upgrade paths you have to dig out with a magnifying glass and a fine tooth comb. Why are successive levels of item crafting all presented in separate nodes like this is a game of 'find the right stat to improve'? It's asinine, unspecific and it makes the process of levelling up feel more like a chore to navigate than an exciting boost in personal power.

I wasn't actually expecting CDPR to address this at all, particularly after that candid comment where the team tried to gaslight the entire gaming world into believing that the original release was actually totally fine and the tidal wave of negativity spawned from that most vacuous of foes 'The Haters'! But lo-and-behold- a totally reworked perk system that scraps stat increases in favour of new abilities and substantial change so that you can really build a... well- build. Finally, the prospect of starting again in the City of Dreams doesn't feel so daunting to consider now that I won't have to wait until level 30 midway through the game before I actually feel distinct somewhat. Genuinely the most exciting part of the entire update for me, right there.

Of course, the second most interesting change to the game comes in the introduction of car combat, a very surprising proposition given the rather stern declaration that the original game had perfectly serviceable car combat made around about the time of launch. (Fact check: The game featured a couple on-the-rails shooting sections that were so standard and lacking in depth that they couldn't even be called 'RPG action moments.') What we have in front of us are actual car combat scenes, with shooting from the windows of cars and car based weaponry where appropriate- it looks pretty cool! Of course, I wonder how much opportunity anyone will get to actually engage with these systems given that the main game rather purposefully featured no car combat outside of those scripted scenes. (Did they add in car combat moments retroactively or will this be unique to the new DLC district?)

And to match that the team are 'rehauling' the police system. Which is a marble-mouthed way of saying that they developed a police system for their crime game finally. The tweaks they made over the years did little to nothing for the game and personally I only met the Police a couple of times during a playthrough and both times they were more "Damn it, I can't save because of these annoying gnats that are shooting pebbles at me" then an actual factor to be considered in gameplay. Now we have an actual progressive police aggro system which is, fancy this, exactly like Grand Theft Auto! Higher 'heat' means more cops, eventually MaxTac come after you- (Which is cool. I don't even remember if MaxTac exist in the main game outside of that one cutscene from the intro.) and at the topmost level the team even teased 'minibosses'. (Whatever that shapes up as.)

Finally the Cyberware system is getting something of a reworking in order to make the act of embracing the transhuman question just that little bit more involved than it previously was. Which to remind everyone, just kind of shaped up as 'interact with the menu and select your new super power'! It's not quite clear the extent to which CDPR are going to go here, some have speculated about more visual repercussions for implant overloads and there's even going to be some sort of limiting system with limitbreak potential that sounds... peculiar to say the least. All I want is for Cyberware to do a little more than act exactly like 'ARPG gems' and I'll be happy. Because I didn't buy Cyberpunk to play an ARPG. I came to play Cyberpunk.

I like Cyberpunk 2077, and if the game had been left the way it was patched to be I would have considered to be a good game, not excellent, but certainly good. I feel like this might be CDPR's attempt to establish excellence back into their portfolio and in that pursuit I'm willing to give it the second chance. Too often I've seen grand statements from headline hungry articles that 'Cyberpunk is Back!' everytime CDPR so much as fix a typo in their captions, but this will be the real test to see whether or not cranking up the system requirements and rewriting the face of the game was enough to create an experience that at least feels like the game that CDPR pretended the base game was all those years ago. Even now that dream still bounces around my head at night, and even now I wonder if the greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing us that miracles don't exist. We will see. Soon.