Recent reviews by Burns

Damn, where to begin?

7 games, 930 hours and about a year later here I am at the end of the saga of the Dragon of Dojima. What a journey it has been.

Has it been all sunshine and rainbows? Heck no, there were times I cried like a baby, there were times I laughed till it hurt, I still hate fishing with every fibre of my being, and I never ended up learning Mahjong. Still I am so very glad I got here.

I will be going through my general opinion on the game. I am by no means a critic and this is purely from a standpoint of someone who loves the story of Kiryu. I will hold it in relevance to all 6 games that comes chronologically before this. (I know Kiwami 2 came after this).

I am not going to do a proper Pro and Cons list. I will just list the things of interest that I found:-

• Dragon Engine visually – Kamurocho and Onomichi comes alive with this new engine. Crowds are heavy and always bump into you and I love it. Walking down Tenkaichi Street is nothing new but this time it feels special, the sounds are deafening, the light from signs practically fight with each other to grab your attention. Its amazing.
• Dragon Engine in action – Here is where it all falls apart. Combat looks flashy as hell but lacks impact. Each hit feels like grazing the enemies. The physics are all over the place. A single hit can mess up all of your combos and effects. God forbid if it’s a heavy attack, you will be flopping about like a dead fish. The ragdoll is crazy. Kiryu also feels like he is floating all over the place, there is no weight to his movement in combat. It’s clear they didn’t get the chance to test out the engine before this game like they did with Kenzan for 3 and Ishin for the 0 engines.
• Fully Voiced – For the first time in the series, each and every spoken line is fully voiced. This adds a whole new layer of intimacy to the game and adds a bit more life to the world.
• Kiryu is Kiryu – The Dragon of Dojima has not lost his claws. He proves once again why he is a living legend, the way he does best, beating the ever-living daylights out of everyone. This time, he takes no ♥♥♥♥ from anyone, and I love it so very much.
• Green Exp – The green xp will be the bane of your existence.

• A LOT of cut content – I mean a LOT LOT. If you are like me and have come through 0, Kiwami, Kiwami 2, 3, 4 and 5, you will notice it in an instant. Here are some of them –
o No weapons – You can no longer carry weapons on you. All you can use are the ones you find during fights. Lame.
o No Armour Sets – Gone are the old armour sets which gave you any set bonuses, heck there are barely any accessory item with significant boosts, its all just stat boosts. Also you get 2 Accessory slots, that’s it.
o No Masters – Maybe a good thing, maybe not. You choose.
o Blocked Map areas – The entirety of Park Boulevard (The street in front of Kamurocho Hills) and the Champion District are blocked off. Dude why? It’s the last time I get to walk about as Kiryu, let me have the whole map. I would have loved to just sit down and have a drink one last time at Earth Angel. The okama has been there since 0.
o No gambling – With Park Boulevard blocked off Ryugajou is off limits. So no gambling.
o No Purgatory – I has vanished. I am not kidding; it has just straight up vanished. In fact, neither Purgatory or The Florist is ever even mentioned once. So, you guessed it, no Coliseum either.
o No Locker Keys – You no longer get to pick up the billion keys you used to before. So, there are no cheat items either.

• Messed up map – The map is all over the place. The streets are not where they used to be, buildings have also moved all over the place. I know that doesn’t sound like much but I practically had Kamurocho memorised like the back of my hand and now it’s all different so it feels weird.
• Reduced Substories – You get a grand total of 51 substories which is tiny compared to older games.
• Drinks – Vending machine drinks are quite useful in a pinch early on. Problem is, you buy one and you can't store it, you carry it on your hand, and you have to drink it as you buy it. No keeping it for when you need it. Kiwami 2 fixed that but come on, story wise it was 4 games ago.
• A billion pockets – You no longer have to worry about inventory management on what to bring with you to battles, every kind of item is available for you to use. They are all there, only you get a certain amount of each kind.
• Restricted Moveset – Heat Actions, which are the staple of the series are very limited than what Kiryu had access to in older games. Also, most of your Heat actions wont work unless you invoke Extreme Heat which is stupid. That means you will have to repeat the same 4 or 5 heat actions unless you activate Extreme Heat.
• Amon – Gone are the days when you had to complete all substories to get to fight Amon. That was the testament to your dedication to the game. Now you can fight Amon only after finishing 2 specific substories. Yes, just 2. You can just ignore all others.

Now, Story wise I will not spoil anything. Its touching, not the best, 0 has that spot, but its not that bad. It follows the Yakuza tradition of taking a word and hammering it in your skull over and over. 0 had ‘Empty Lot’, 4 had ‘Rubber bullets’, 5 had ‘Dreams’ and this game has ‘Secret’.

There are a lot of important recurring characters missing. If this is supposed to be Kiryu’s swan song, I would have loved to see some of the characters that we have spent so much time with. No Komaki, no Florist, No Tojo allies, no Kazuki, no Kamiyama, no Minamida to name a few. Sure, don’t give them full-fledged mechanics, but let me have a substory with each of them, to say goodbye to the allies and bonds we formed over 10 years of Kiryu’s life. But hey, we do get our blazer wearing kicky boi, Akiyama so that’s a blessing.

However, that one this I will say is that WHERE IS MAJIMA?
We went from Majima Everywhere to Majima Nowhere. Till 3 he was such and important character, a flip side to Kiryu’s coin but it’s a shame that from 4 he starts to appear less and less. Here he is there for 2 minutes during the Prologue and 2 minutes in the Epilogue. That is. THAT’S IT? I figured after 0 they would have realised just how popular he is but no. So if you expected the Dragon of Dojima and the Mad Dog of Shimano, two legends that you have been playing as and following since they were 20, to fight side by side one last time, sucks to be you.

All in all, it’s a decent game, nothing ground breaking nor something to hate. It’s the end of a saga of a beloved character and I am happy we get to see it through. I would give this game a generous 8/10, but that may be tinted by my love for Kiryu and the whole series.

Play the game, laugh, feel excited, angry and then cry. Let the credits roll. Then load up Premium Adventure. Walk around Kamurocho in that grey suit one last time. See the city you have walked through for countless hours before this, fought in, fought for, bled for, played though and lived though, one last time though Kiryu’s eyes.

Once you are satisfied, head to Karaokekan, choose TONIGHT, sing it, see the pictures of a young Kiryu and Nishiki and let it take you back to the memories of Yakuza 0, back in 1988, where this journey began.

So long Dragon, thank you for everything!

Well, where to begin. Growing up hearing all about Halo and never being able to play it because we couldn't afford it, or the lifelong expectation that one day, I will be able to sit down and play it. Well that day has come, god knows after how long. Now I cannot give you a breakdown of gameplay or a critical review from an impartial standpoint because there are plenty others better qualified than me. All I can say is that if there is that kid inside you that held Halo as something close to your heart, give it a shot, its good to be a kid again, especially at this time.

There are some games that hold your hand and drag you to the finale, while some force you to grind for years. This game strikes that perfect middle ground which doesn't force you to grind forever but also punishes you if you are not prepared. You have every way to customise your own character. Builds, Classes, loadouts and everything. No two worlds will ever be the same given how many items there are in this game. You will be learning something everyday. This joy is magnified tenfold if you play with your friends. So don't doubt yourself, grab a copy and give it a go, you wont regret it. Have fun

If this is the conclusion to the trilogy, then its a damn good one.

Just a simple sentence. Buy it and play it. That's all you need to know. Its worth so much of your money. You will not regret a single second of it. Also trust me, there will be a lot of seconds when you play it

Oh dear lord, what a game!