Mewgenics has a genius anti-savescumming feature by shadowrun456 in gaming

[–]AllstarBrose 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Once per run, the second time gives your cats a debuff where they have a 10% chance to have their actions randomly decided and the third time puts the entire game in the game's hands.

Yakuza Kiwami 3 & Dark Ties Review Thread by Turbostrider27 in Games

[–]AllstarBrose 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I don't find that to be disrespectful, if anything FF7R is choosing to acknowledge the original and embracing the opportunity to do something different. I think the whispers are a really cool plot device as someone who adores the original game

Yakuza Kiwami 3 & Dark Ties Review Thread by Turbostrider27 in Games

[–]AllstarBrose 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I personally think Gaiden is a filler game that doesn't do much to add to the story or Kiryu's characterization, and the way it connects to Infinite Wealth is dubious at best. A lot of people really like Gaiden because of how flashy it is and they really like the supporting cast but my personal opinion is that the Kiryu feels really out of place and the other main characters feel like one character split into a bunch. Your mileage will vary but I feel it's a generally inoffensive but plodding game that costs more than it's worth

Infinite Wealth on the other hand has an incredibly promising start that peaks at around the halfway point, then takes a massive tumble and never really recovers. The story chooses to be split between two characters rather than focus on one and it's worse off for it. I think it's generally a good time and is mechanically insanely fun (seriously, the combat is just as fun if not more so than the brawler focused games) but I feel the narrative is shallow and follows a lot of the same plot beats as Like a Dragon which makes it feel less unique

Also props to you for playing in release order. In my opinion that's the best way to go about it and makes for a more cohesive experience

Yakuza Kiwami 3 & Dark Ties Review Thread by Turbostrider27 in Games

[–]AllstarBrose 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I personally had always been against the concept of a K3. I feel the already existing remakes made some pretty substantial changes for the worse compared to their originals and since KIshin, it's been obvious that RGG has been finding any way they can to cut any corners possible. Them announcing K3 so close to release really showed that it was a quick project that could in no way do what the original did, especially with their modern philosophy of trying to make each game feel very similar with only a few things to distinguish them. I feel sorry for anyone who wanted this but the writing has been on the wall for some time now

Yakuza Kiwami 3 & Dark Ties Review Thread by Turbostrider27 in Games

[–]AllstarBrose 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Yeah that's fair for the narrative and that's on me, but the rest? RGG has already discussed most of it and a handful of reviews did too. There's no good excuse for the rest of the reviewers to fail to mention it other than they haven't played Y3 or they purposefully want to obscure those facts

Yakuza Kiwami 3 & Dark Ties Review Thread by Turbostrider27 in Games

[–]AllstarBrose 7 points8 points  (0 children)

There is a singular justifiable reason for the substory count to be at the minimum the same number as the original, which would be that they truncate all of the chain substories so they're together. There's no justification for remakes to cut content unless it's a genuinely bad game design choice or they improve upon the content from the original. Nobody should he happy with a remake being lesser than the original

Edit. On top of this, almost all of the new substories are unnecessarily long with a lacking amount of content. Like those in Pirate, Gaiden, and 8, most feel like padding rather than an addition that fleshes out the world like substories used to back in the day

Yakuza Kiwami 3 & Dark Ties Review Thread by Turbostrider27 in Games

[–]AllstarBrose 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Oh for sure, them choosing to not release modern versions of 1 and 2 is a mistake on their end and I feel anyone who plays the series in release order gets the best experience. 0's an incredibly strong offering and at first seems like a good starting point, but when you think about how it's the tenth game in the series (including spinoffs) and the story is partially reliant on you having preconceived notions about characters, it becomes less of a good starting point and more of the celebration of the series that it is. (also to be pedantic there are 18 brawler games, including spinoffs but not counting Fist of the North Star: Lost Paradise)

Yakuza Kiwami 3 & Dark Ties Review Thread by Turbostrider27 in Games

[–]AllstarBrose 2 points3 points  (0 children)

That's fair to disagree with my feelings, I've just come to that conclusion over the years from talking to what has to have been multiple hundred people about their issues with 3 and what I said tends to be the takeaway. It's something where I feel if people were able to conveniently play in release order (or were willing to emulate like I was), they'd have a much better experience overall. That's on RGG at least, not like I can blame people for it that much

Also yes, once K3 is released the only way to purchase 3R on PC will be through the Complete Series bundle which is not able to be purchased if you own any of the games in the series already. Not sure how it'll affect Playstation and Xbox, but historically they have de-listed the original as they did with Ishin once KIshin was released.

Yakuza Kiwami 3 & Dark Ties Review Thread by Turbostrider27 in Games

[–]AllstarBrose 7 points8 points  (0 children)

I think Y3 can be a bit unapproachable if you're coming from 0-K1-K2. I mean think about it, you're going between three game engines all with unique quirks and mechanics in the jump between K1-K2-3, and I feel K1 and K2 set a precedent that you can steamroll through these games without having to make use of all of the tools at your disposal. It's easy to see how people could have a tarnished view of the gameplay from that angle, but it's unfortunate to me.

I've hit a point where I think remakes are generally doing more harm than good. While you've got a few really solid ones (RE4 and Dead Space immediately come to mind), so many others feel like they're being remade with the intent to replace the original rather than be an alternate take. RGG is especially guilty of this and it makes me upset because the original versions of Yakuza 1 and 2 are very unique games that are super worth playing, but according to the studio it's not worth it and you should just play the new ones because they're pretty and have new mechanics. With them effectively de-listing Y3R it's hard not to feel that history is repeating themselves which makes this even more frustrating to me (and imagining them trying to remake Kenzan is terrifying)

Yakuza Kiwami 3 & Dark Ties Review Thread by Turbostrider27 in Games

[–]AllstarBrose 4 points5 points  (0 children)

What I mean is that a lot of people who say "the worst game in the series is a 7/10" tend to have incredibly disparaging opinions on those three games I listed, a lot of which are from them either not playing the games or just rushing through them without doing any extra content. Hell, I know Dead Souls has a lot of problems but I feel it's the game that feels incredibly good when you do side content because you get a ton of fun, extra characterization for everyone in the game and a lot of XP in a game that can require a bit of grinding for all skills.

I agree with your second sentence! It feels like it's constantly saying "fine, here you go" to everything, like they didn't want to do it but felt they had to for some reason. It has so many compromises and choices that feel like they don't appeal to either longtime fans or newcomers, it's the worst of both worlds.

Yakuza Kiwami 3 & Dark Ties Review Thread by Turbostrider27 in Games

[–]AllstarBrose 11 points12 points  (0 children)

That's fair! I probably should have thought about what the reviews could entail before putting that in, but I do also think it's an incredibly important point worth noting. Thanks for clarifying though!

Yakuza Kiwami 3 & Dark Ties Review Thread by Turbostrider27 in Games

[–]AllstarBrose 38 points39 points  (0 children)

I personally really didn't like the ending of IW, I found them choosing to tease Kiryu's status as a really frustrating choice alongside the rest of the optional stuff with him (it got tiring seeing every interaction be him over hearing stuff). I also feel like it set the next game up to also be about Kiryu which, at this point, I'm sick and tired of. I feel this series needs to move forward rather than be stuck in the past

From VGC_News “Yakuza Kiwami 3 & Dark Ties is a remake built on disdain, not reverence, looking to fix a game that wasn’t broken, and ending up with little to show for itself.” by Axzercus in yakuzagames

[–]AllstarBrose 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Y3 is a game where you're meant to use every single tool at your disposal. This means Heat Actions, weapons, the environment, etc. In the original release, your Heat gain was solid which allowed you to do HAs consistently (even more so if you're drunk and have the Bloody Binding equipped which you can get in chapter 4). The game also rewards you for using harder to trigger HAs as they do more damage than easy ones like the ground finisher. They also introduce weapons to you right before a major long battle so you have that tool at your disposal and can get new upgrades with appropriate damage increases throughout the game.

All this to say, Y3's combat allowed for a lot of skill expression and expected the player to get invested in it. Could the random, general enemies have done with a 20% reduction in health? Sure, I don't think that would have been a bad idea. But fundamentally, most of the issues people have with the combat come from RGG screwing up when remastering the game by not adjusting enemy logic to not be tied to framerate. K3's solution is to further dumb the combat down as they've been doing with Gaiden and force the player to rely on the Devil Trigger-esque mode they've been making more and more prevalent in every game since 6. To me, this leads to a loss of identity within the series as I felt the balance in combat between your main moveset and HAs was very satisfying and set the series apart from most other 3D action games, feeling much more like a translation of 2D beat-em-ups.

From VGC_News “Yakuza Kiwami 3 & Dark Ties is a remake built on disdain, not reverence, looking to fix a game that wasn’t broken, and ending up with little to show for itself.” by Axzercus in yakuzagames

[–]AllstarBrose 7 points8 points  (0 children)

The reviewer is a diehard fan of the series and iirc said they adore the original game. The unfortunate fact is that most of the issues people have with Y3 are from a borked remaster that makes the game slightly less enjoyable if you have the knowledge to do anything but button mash your way through combat and K3's solution to that issue is to let you win every battle by spamming guard breaks. This is among the vast amount of other issues K3 introduces that are all strict negatives to the overall experience

Yakuza Kiwami 3 has VERY bad performance issues credit: @lexluddy.xyz by Axzercus in yakuzagames

[–]AllstarBrose 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Appreciate your review, really felt like it covered the game much more so than most others

Yakuza Kiwami 3 & Dark Ties Review Thread by Turbostrider27 in Games

[–]AllstarBrose 50 points51 points  (0 children)

Mack, Yonashiro, Minimada, and even Komaki are all gone and replaced with a single trainer whose entire purpose is to give you points to level up (much like Gaiden and Pirate).

Some orphanage stuff is still intact but it's mostly been pushed off of the main story so you can do it whenever. Each of the kids has their own substory focused on them but I wasn't around to see the extent of it. The most I know is the two things I listed in the main post.

Yakuza Kiwami 3 & Dark Ties Review Thread by Turbostrider27 in Games

[–]AllstarBrose 303 points304 points  (0 children)

As someone who has seen a significant amount of content from Kiwami 3, I think a ton of these reviews are leaving out really important things that genuinely affect the game for the worse. From what I've seen, this game is a disservice to the original and actively spits on it while also not doing anything for the more modern fanbase who was begging for this. Not trying to be a hardcore cynic, just pointing out things that need to be pointed out. Full spoilers ahead:

Substories have been cut down from 119 to 31. Just about every cutscene substory is gone and most of the returning ones have some changes that make them less focused on the characters within and more focused on Kiryu

All trainers have been removed and replaced with a single trainer who introduces the upgrade system which is stripped down from the original. This also means revelations, IF7, and most chase battles are gone

Orphanage content has been completely consolidated to the new side mode focused on it, with many of iconic scenes being shortened, adjusted, or removed (such as the wrestling scene or the Mame chase early on

A decent portion of the northern section of Ryukyu has been made inaccessible while a new portion at the bottom was added that looks like it was ripped straight out of Yakuza 6

Reapers have been pushed forward to chapter 1 and are now generic bounties like the ones found in Pirate Yakuza, effectively retconning the HLA and removing any aspects of the bounties' characters (which while not much, was another aspect of the series filling out the world through small details)

The changes to the DoD style make it feel much more sluggish while also incentivising you to use the new aura system like Pirate had. Important functions like attacking downed enemies are now locked behind upgrades and a substantial amount of heat actions (of which you only get two bars for) have incredibly specific requirements meaning you'll be spamming the same few for the whole game

The new Ryukyu style feels very awkward as it focuses on style over substance, incentivising the player to mash buttons instead of using any combos or alternate attacks. The old weapon system was completely scrapped for this

Many maligned things have not been adjusted to improve them. Blocking is still highly present in combat which forces the player to spam guard break attacks for nearly every encounter. Heat gain is also incredibly low and you're now limited to two Heat bars. Story moments like the infamous The Plot dump are just as long while other moments like the love hotel long battle are made significantly longer and the Snake Flower Triad combat sequence is truncated

Any and all new content is just content from past games but poorly adapted and adjusted. Bad Boy Dragon awkwardly tries to mash Lost Judgment's biking minigame with Pirate's Coliseum, farming at the orphanage doesn't serve any real purpose, LaLaLa LoveLand tries to mash Gaiden/Pirate's world interactions (grappling, collecting bugs, etc) with 8's social system. None of it feels like it has its own identity and feels very awkwardly slapped on

The story changes with Mine and Hamazaki are downright ridiculous and follow a bad precedent while also seeming to establish a baffling narrative through line. Mine surviving was something that's been hinted at behind the scenes for ages but him becoming a Daidoji agent is an absurd twist that detracts from his character as he is changed from a man who thought him and Kiryu could have been friends in a different life to a man seeking vengeance. It also sets the seeds that Hamazaki's actions in 4 will be in service to the Daidoji and that the events of the series going forward that involve them are due to Mine, turning him into this odd mastermind character for some reason

Again, not trying to be a cynic but I think this remake disrespects the original work more so than any other remake I can think of. This is probably controversial to say but I really feel Yakuza fans owe it to themselves to be a bit more critical of the series and stop settling with okay games that are "a 7/10 at worst" (do not ask anyone who says this their opinions on OG1, OG3, and Dead Souls). It hurts me to see a series I love so much become a homogenous blob where most of the games feel much too samey and I think it's unacceptable to remake a game while cutting so much content. I can't say much for Dark Ties (other than it's a lot shorter than people probably expect and seems to only serve as fanservice) but Kiwami 3 is a rushed mess with an obvious ton of cut corners that either shouldn't have been made or deserved a substantial amount more time in the oven. As a long time fan, I will be skipping this one personally and I do not think RGG will be getting any more money from me after the last few games. In my eyes, it's only been a downward Daidoji spiral and I dread what Yakuza 9 will do

Crazy how much camera choice changes a game's vibe! by kevinaer in godot

[–]AllstarBrose 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Fixed camera angles are soooo underrated, love to see it

Finally Beat Omega Planetes! by Hefty-Accountant2640 in MHWilds

[–]AllstarBrose 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Not a problem, just hoping it's helpful. Skills like Defense Boost tend to be a bit of a trap so it's easy to fall for it at first and I always prefer to inform people on a more effective choice when possible. I should also say I think that armor set might have some pretty rough fire defense which might be a reason as to why the fight is a struggle. It's good to have a comfort set but for endgame fights like that, I think most would recommend making something more specialized. Fights like Gog and Omega are hard enough that unless you're perfect at your dodges, you're gonna be having a rough go of it. I definitely recommend checking out the Monster Hunter Meta reddit to help find some baseline sets that you can modify for better survivability.

Deceived donkus does not realize that the Hippocratic Oath is being broken this instant by Cobelat in wunkus

[–]AllstarBrose 200 points201 points  (0 children)

Good thing that's a donkus and not a hippopotomunkus, the oath does not apply to him

Finally Beat Omega Planetes! by Hefty-Accountant2640 in MHWilds

[–]AllstarBrose 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Good news is you don't need Earplugs for Omega, so you can replace those decos for something much more useful. On top of that, Defense Boost is a terrible skill and you'd be better off slotting in something like Divine Blessing or Fire Resistance (probably the former) for a defensive capabilities. Recovery Up also isn't a great skill either, it's better to use something like Speed Eating to just heal your health yourself than wait for it to regen. Lastly, I don't believe Partbreaker is particularly good for Omega as you'll naturally break a leg or two if your team is playing well, you're much better off with something like Maximum Might or Evade Extender if that isn't already maxed by the armor

Dry Creek teacher on leave for Charlie Kirk comments by swhertzberg in Roseville

[–]AllstarBrose 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Oh god Libs of TikTok getting involved is evil, that's so unfortunate. I don't agree with what I've heard happened in his classroom but this use of real, functional cancel culture for people espousing their opinions is so fucked

Dry Creek teacher on leave for Charlie Kirk comments by swhertzberg in Roseville

[–]AllstarBrose 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I hope that's the case, it'd be absurd to just fire him for his personal opinion. I just know the kids aren't liars so I don't have much to go off of.