Operation Backlog Completion 2026

After 6 Years, I Returned to Ys I

 Reviews, Video games  3 Responses »  Tagged with: ,
Mar 192021
 

Six years ago, I decided to play the very first Ys game, which I have through the Ys I & II Chronicles+ collection on Steam.

Then I got stuck on a boss fight, so stuck that I quit the game and never returned.

…Until this year, when I decided to finally restart Ys I and play it through to the end this time.

Ys I is an old game, and one of the most unusual things about it is its combat system. The “bump” combat system is a form of action combat where instead of swinging your sword or anything like that, you attack enemies by… bumping into them. Hitting them straight on lets them damage you as well, so you want to hit them off-center to safely deal damage.

It’s a strange system, but it’s fun once you get used to it. Boss fights are a little different, where it becomes more a challenge of getting close enough to bump the boss without taking damage.

(Oh, you also bump into NPCs to talk to them, too.)

You play as Adol Christin, a swordsman who tries sailing through the wall of storms that surrounds the land of Esteria and gets shipwrecked there, after which he decides to investigate what’s going on and why monsters have filled Esteria. Now, for as much as people describe Ys as being more focused on gameplay over story (especially compared to Falcom’s other big series, Trails), there’s a surprising amount of interesting lore, frequent new dialogue from NPCs, and even a journal with descriptions of every single character you talk to.

So I was pleasantly surprised to find myself enjoying the story and lore. It’s straightforward, but it’s also a fairly short, old game.

What I didn’t care much for was the “what if we make everything a maze?” approach to dungeon design, as well as the boss fights. Aside from the dreaded boss that stopped my playthrough six years ago, the final boss was so annoying that I might have given up again if I wasn’t almost at the end.

Anyway, I’m happy I finally returned to Ys I after all this time, and since I’ve been assured Ys II has better boss fights, I’m looking forward to playing that as my next Ys game.

Yakuza 3 is Actually Really Good!

 Reviews, Video games  No Responses »  Tagged with: ,
Mar 152021
 

My journey through the Yakuza Remastered Collection began last year when I started Yakuza 3 Remastered, but then it got put on hold for Bloodborne (which got put on hold for 13 Sentinels), so it took me a while to get back to it.

But once I finished Bloodborne, I returned to Yakuza 3 and reached the end this weekend… and even though it gets a lot of criticism, I actually really enjoyed it.

There are two main things people often name when criticizing Yakuza 3.

The first is the combat. Enemies block nearly constantly, although in return it felt to me like Kiryu’s attacks hit a lot harder when they do land. You end up spending a lot of time waiting for an opening, so while the combat is fine, I’d agree that it’s less fun than in the others I’ve played.

The other big point people bring up is the slice-of-life sections. Kiryu has moved to Okinawa to take care of the orphanage, and you spend a significant amount of time there early on.

So while the main plot is teased before flashing back to the events that built up to it, your early objectives will involve playing with the kids, helping them with trouble at school, dealing with conflicts that come up between them, and so on. It’s a quieter, calmer look at life in the series with a lot of cute moments, and I enjoyed it.

The main story itself is also really good. It starts out with a bit of mystery and goes through some entertaining twists and turns as it builds. Some moments late in the game are seriously emotional, and the main antagonist is great.

Click for major Yakuza 3 spoilers
The whole Chapter 11 section was impactful, and Rikiya’s death hit especially hard. He was such a pure, loveable person, and losing him like that was just too sad.

Meanwhile, Mine was unsettling in how he could appear so quiet and mild-mannered and then suddenly go berserk, and yet by the end, I was pulling so hard for him to redeem himself and stick with us as our ally.

(Mine’s sacrifice required some suspension of disbelief; I feel it would have been better if he grabbed Richardson and immediately pulled him off the roof, to show there was no other way to stop him. But since they wanted him to give that final speech, we instead get the awkwardness of him holding Richardson on the edge of the roof for about five minutes while talking.)

Yakuza 3 has a number of entertaining substories, too. Some are bland, but others are really good. Then there are some of the fun little details in this game, such as how Kiryu learns certain special moves by witnessing wacky events in the city and blogging about them.

It was also interesting for me to see not only how the Yakuza series progressed, but also what seemed to be the earliest groundwork for systems used in Judgment. Chases, a substory where I had to follow someone… and one of the most fun substories was even a murder investigation!

(Oh, and that samurai movie substory? Yeah, that’s not making me want Kenzan and Ishin any less!)

Overall, I had a lot of fun with Yakuza 3 and was delighted to find out that it’s such a great game. I’ll be taking a break from Yakuza for now, but I expect to return to the Yakuza Remastered Collection later this year to start Yakuza 4!

If you’ve played Yakuza 3, what did you think of it?

Hopes for the Recent Pokémon Announcements

 Video games  4 Responses »  Tagged with: , , ,
Mar 122021
 

While we were still discussing romance games near the end of February, there was a Pokémon Presents live stream celebrating the 25th anniversary of the series.

In addition to an overview of the series and a new trailer for New Pokémon Snap (which looks absolutely beautiful), they also made two new game announcements.

The first was for Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Pokémon Shining Pearl, remakes of the fourth generation games. These had been widely rumored for a while.

But then they followed that with the announcement of an all-new game called Pokémon Legends: Arceus, set in ancient Sinnoh as you work to create the first Pokédex.

Let’s talk about these games. First, while the chibi graphics of the Diamond/Pearl remakes has proven to be controversial, I don’t mind it. Yes, I was hoping to see them remade in the graphic style of the newer games, but Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl look pretty good.

There’s only one thing that has me uncertain about Brilliant Diamond/Shining Pearl, and that’s the potential lack of Pokémon Platinum content.

See, Pokémon Platinum introduced new aspects to the plot that weren’t in the original Diamond and Pearl, and I really liked that part of the story. But since these are remakes of Diamond and Pearl, there’s a chance they’ll stick to their original storylines, like how Pokémon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire followed the stories of Ruby and Sapphire respectively.

If Brilliant Diamond/Shining Pearl include the Platinum story content, I’ll probably get one of them. If they don’t… well, then I’ll wait to see what else they have to offer.

(On the other hand, I admit I didn’t actually play Diamond/Pearl, only Platinum, so maybe I ought to get them even if they lack the Platinum story content, since they’d be newer experiences for me.)

Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl are also being developed by a company called ILCA instead of Game Freak, which is an interesting decision. ILCA has worked in a support role on several big-name game, but it appears as though this is the first time they’re the lead developer.

Moving on, Pokémon Legends: Arceus has caused quite a stir since it looks fairly different from any past Pokémon game.

Much of the hype comes from fans who see it as an open world game along the lines of Breath of the Wild, and as someone who isn’t a big fan of open worlds and couldn’t stick with Breath of the Wild, that has me less enthusiastic.

On the other hand, they haven’t clearly said that it will be open world. The closest we get to anything official being said is the trailer calling it a “vast wilderness.” That might just mean the areas are big, without being fully open world. If it’s some sort of Xenoblade-like structure with large areas to explore and a world that opens up more as you progress through the game, I’d be pretty excited for that.

(It’s being widely reported as an open world game, but Wikipedia also thinks it’s an action RPG despite us clearly seeing turn-based or ATB combat in the trailer just because it has some action elements, so don’t take anything as fact if it doesn’t come from an official source.)

Meanwhile, there are some really interesting story theories out there due to a potential connection to Team Galactic. I’d love it if there really is a direct connection between Legends and the main Sinnoh games (or maybe even, you know, Pokémon Platinum’s story).

I was a little disappointed that they still haven’t said anything about the new Detective Pikachu game announced for the Switch, but I’m cautiously optimistic for both Brilliant Diamond/Shining Pearl and Pokémon Legends: Arceus. What are your thoughts on these upcoming Pokémon games, and what do you think they’ll be like?

 Older Entries  Newer Entries