I love yakuza 0 and i've replayed it a good few times but for the life of me i cannot stand the caberet clubs there honestly the most boring part of the game for me and i've been trying to complete it but i've spent multiple boring hours into it and I havent even got to the 2nd cabert boss, I could really care less what part of the story the save file is in I just really want majima's legend style

Right off the bat, I'd like to apologize if some of these questions are too obvious to answer, my English is not that sharp, and given that the game only has subtitles in English, I felt like I missed a few important things.
-Why did Majima choose to join as a Yakuza again? I thought that, after everything he saw and realizing that he can't kill people, he'd just try to live on as a civilian and even be in a relationship with Makoto. And I know that he wants to see his bro, but there were probably a lot of other ways to do so instead of joining the clan that fucked him up so bad for so long.
-The reason why Sagawa got killed at the end was that Shimano blamed the death of the Omi dude on him just to save his own skin? Or just the Omi clan trying to punish Shimano for what he did?
-A lot of things that caught me off guard with Majima were not only his new clothes but his Dog of Shimano style and the ending when he finally meets Kiryu. He parkour'd from being a collected, cold man to just kind of insane without even a warning (other than his quote about how he's gonna "live crazier than any of 'em"). Even at his lowest points (like when he saw Makoto get shot by the hitman), he didn't seem all that on the crazy side, just very angry. Though his Legend style makes me feel like he got inspired by Nishitani, and I'm sure that getting tortured for years would drive anyone to insanity, he seemed relatively normal until the "Kiryu chan" part. Did something happen in between an unspecified amount of time that drove him there? Am I going to find out in Kiwami 1?
Thank you in advance

Man, Majima's take on Yakuza 0 is impressive, he can't compare to Kiryu. I think Majima gives more character in this part of the series, on top of that the ending was bittersweet, Majima you absolute legend!
I won't worry much about Kiryu's side because most of the Yakuza series revolves around him (Maybe I'm wrong)
Thank you for the awesome experience Kiryu and Majima!
I have four questions though:

1. What was the background music for the ending scene? (Not to be mistaken for the after story scene)
   
2. Should I replay Yakuza 0 just for the sake of "Mad dog of Shimano" style?
   
3. What was the title of Makoto's music watch?
   
4. Will Sega release a Yakuza game where you can play as Majima Goro?
   

Disclaimer: This isn't actually a review, but an opinion piece, though I'm guessing most people can't tell the difference anyway, with what self-proclaimed "critics" are doing nowadays. I'm keeping this as spoiler-free as I can, and I'll mark any spoilers.
What is this? I'm trying something new, because I 1. want to get better at writing these things, 2. want to play all the Yakuza games (except for 7, but I don't wanna get into that) and 3. want to finally finish some of the games I have (199 on steam acount, almost none of them actually played to the end). So I'm combining all that into these, and I'll be writing "reviews" of all the Yakuza game I'll have available (I'm limited to pc) once I finish them. The first one being 0, my intro into the series, and I already have the next 4 lined up and ready. "Why should I care about your opinion?" you might rightfully ask, "because I can explain my opinion" would be my answer, I'm never just gonna say wether or not I liked a part, but I'm gonna try and give a reason for my opinion.
Part 0: How I got into the series: I didn't actually get into the series through the memes. The first time I heard of the series was in a video, by the youtube channel "outsidexbox", about each of their favourite big bosses recently. And Andy talked about this game called "Yakuza 0" that recently came to xbox, in which you play as this guy called majima. It's a brawler-beat-em-up, something I'd never seen before (or since for that matter). He talked about how goofy the combat was, with you breakdancing to fight enemies or just using a large metal bat. He talked about a fight that, instead of being a big 1on1, was this long run through a building fighting an army of goons finish in a fight against a really strong single guy. Though I obviously didn't imediately get the game, it stayed in my mind and a large part of why I played the game was for the combat, which probably plays into my aversion to 7. Then the memes started happening and they somehow brought me to JFJ, one of my absolute favourite youtubers now. He played the games and I watched his videos on them, many times. At one point I decided that I finally want to play it, so I bought it for steam-summer-sale 2020 and played it for a good while, but then took a break on Majimas 2nd chapter. I continued watching jfj, and even rewatched his yakuza videos many times more, with me picking the game back up a couple days before silvester, it's been pretty much the only game I've been playing since. And just now, I finished the final chapter at 85,15% with 95:36 as in-game time and 106.1 hours on steam (boy, do I love data corruption) on Hard Mode (except the goddamn car chase).
Part 1: An Issue of controllers: When I first started playing i used a knock-off x-box controller, which the game wasn't made for, so shortly after new years I bought a knock-of wired playstation controller. Which massively improved my experience. Doing the disco with an 8 directional d-pad is really awful, with me randomly going on really fast diagonals.
Part 2.1: Combat: Kiryu: At first I only used brawler and beast, later changing to legend and beast, with rush only being used for weapon cheese. Rush is unbelievably bad, with the only use being the in-place dodges (which you need to learn first) and the 3 dashes, which can be abused when weapon cheesing. The damage output is pathetic and it has hardly any heatmoves early on, not like you wanna use them anyway, considering they reset you to slow-mode. brawler is a good middle ground, until you get legend, which is just a far better version. Beast is really op, but has painfully inconsistent abilities and is bad at blocking (one of it's main things) early on, since it actually takes a while to start the block with it. I actually only really started to understand quite how crucial blocking is, in the final bossfight. Legend is my favourite, even if it's lacking a lot, as it has my favourite style theme and i know I'm gonna have to get used to only using it. the combat is actually surprisingly complex, whilst keeping it simplistic, which it has in common with my favourite fighting game. If anyone calls it a button-masher, they're probably really bad at it, not to say I'm amazing either.
Part 2.2: Combat: Majima: I mostly used slugger, and when I got it, pretty much only legend. I know breaker is the strongest style of all, but I just never got very good at it, not really understanding the freeze-pose mechanic and being bad at timing the various secondary combos (the three square and then triangle being the strongest, by far). Also only has shit for heat moves, though that's okay this time. Slugger was fun, had high variety with the weapons, could easily block-break and had a lot of easy, high damage heat-moves. Thug is awful, and only worth it for the two dashes, which makes it get replaced by legend as soon as I got it. As soon as I got legend I pretty much only used it, and maybe once slugger and once breaker each. I felt like I had to, considering long time fans got this game for that exact style. I never really figured it out, since this game has no move lists, but it does have an easy infinite.
Part 3: Business and Minigames: I didn't really enjoy Kiryus business, since it has pretty much no gameplay, but I actually payed attention to the story, and enjoyed it. Majimas was the exact opposite, i loved the cabaret gameplay, since it actually has you doing stuff, but skipped all the story, since it didn't interest me in the slightest, saki was definitely my favourite, partly because I like her personality, partly because I accidentally made her creepy by giving her purple contact lenses, making her eyes look like they glow. The collection minigames are the other way around again, equipment search for majima is just afk-ing again, whilst kiryus pocket cirquit had actually engaging gameplay and story. I was surprised by how much I liked jcc, i was expecting to not be excited, but it's actually very reminicent of my favourite fighting game, DoA. I still suck at disco, and love karaoke. I also don't get pool and all of the gambling except for cee-lo, which i love and actually want to play irl with my friends, once i get any.
Part 4: Sidestories: For some people it's the most important part of the games, for me though, I didn't care much, there were so few that I found actually interesting, most being by majima, that I hardly have any memories of them (maybe also because I did most during the summer, which I hardly remember). They're probably so liked because they have some of the most memorable moments, but many of them also have absolutely no impact.
Part 5: Story: I wasn't expecting any plot-twists to hit me, since I watched JFJs videos so much, but I actually got hit by a lot, since he actually cut most out of his videos. I really liked the entire story, not just Majimas, unlike most people who start with 0. I actually enjoyed Kiryus personality a lot, considering I don't know a single other video game protagonist like him. Majima was fun too, but weird considering how different his personality is going to be in the next couple games. I love how serious it takes itself, which is quite rare for games to do nowadays.
Interlude: Timeline confusion: so makoto goes to osaka (which is in japan) looking for tachibana, then gets conned by oda, which is how she got onto the ship which lee saves her from, lee says he's taken care of her since, but we later find out after getting saved she went back to china when she and her mother found out about her grandfather in kamurocho, she says that they finally had a good reason to go to japan, except she was there already, then she learned japanese, disappeared and somehow got together with lee again, even though they were supposed to be together the whole time, and goes to sotenbori, then, unbeknownst to her, her mother and grandfather die and two years later the game happens. Okay I missed a line, that explains it.
Part 6: Conclusion and additional tidbits: I really like this game. a lot. Not much else to say but to reccoment it to anyone interested. I got some of the refferences, but could often also tell that there was a refference to one of the other games that I didn't get yet. music is great, but we all know that already. I'll replay it on legendary once i've finished 5, and then re-"review" it.
Next up: The original first one, on a ps2 emulator (it's the best i can do)
also, any tips on how I can improve on writing these? also what flair?

I preface this with a little context: I have three comfort zone games that were pretty much the only things I've been playing for the last month or two: XCOM 2, Risk of Rain 2, and Overwatch. Until now, I guess. I'm also a modder for XCOM 2, and I'm currently getting burnout from coding a new mod for it. I've been playing ROR 2 since midway through its early access and have unlocked nearly everything on it. As for Overwatch, well...
So I suppose since I'm feeling some repulsion against my entire comfort zone, I might as well try to chew through my festering, bloated backlog - a lot of which are partially finished games. But as I rifled through them, I started to realize that most of them, if not all, were not designed to accommodate players who go through it until midway, then drop it for a very long time, then pick up again. Either I forgot about the controls, the ongoing story or objective, or both.
Case in point:

1. FFXII: Steam says my last milestone was Visions of the Dreamer (Set out from Mt. Bur-Omisace). My last save puts me at Rabanastre, with scant idea of where I should be next...or where my hunt objectives are. I've also forgotten about how to manage gambits in combat.
2. Hollow Knight: my last save puts me at the City of Tears. I have no idea where to go next, though at least the inventory does tell me how I can do nail arts.
3. Tales of Berseria: The minimap gives me a clearer direction, but I have completely forgotten about the combat mechanics. I am currently at Hellawes - Tranquil Boreal Capital.
4. Yakuza 0: Similar to Tales of Berseria, but I can at least still "mash" to get decent results in combat as both Kiryu and Majima since I've unlocked both characters' Legend styles. Completely forgot all the fancy heat move requirements, though.
5. Hard Reset Redux: The environment feels difficult to navigate a clear path through, and I've forgotten about how each weapon handles.

I'm currently replaying this game on my PS4 for the first time since the (localised) PS3 version a few years back. I'm enjoying it a lot, I've had a lot of fun revisiting the PS3-era Yakuza games in this collection since those were the ones I started with. Yakuza 5 is probably the best of the bunch and I'd happily rank it highly in the series.
Probably the most notable thing about the game is that it is far and away the biggest and longest game in the series - most Yakuza games only have one or two cities at most (Kamurocho always being one of them) and take around 15-20 hours to beat the story, some like 0 and Judgment taking closer to 30. That's assuming you focus on the main story with a handful of side activities sprinkled throughout. Yakuza 5 on the other hand has five cities, five playable characters and even if you're mostly mainlining it, the story can last you about 50 hours.
On paper having a long game with a ton of content isn't a bad thing at all, if the story is compelling then I say have at it. And for the most part, the story is pretty good. It's full of the betrayals, alliances, deceptions and drama you'd expect from any Yakuza game, and while there are some silly moments and the odd contrived coincidence, when you're in the moment seeing your character laying the smack down on self-righteous pricks, it's electrifying.
Like Yakuza 4, each character has their own part which is further split into chapters, but this time they're all set in different parts of Japan rather than just Tokyo. You start with Kiryu who has now become a taxi driver working in Fukuoka. It's not long before he ends up dragging back into the world of crime again. Since Kiryu was the last character you played as in Yakuza 4, it's good to begin the game with him this time.
After that you have Saejima who was introduced in Yakuza 4, and following the events of that game he's back in prison. His section of the game is a bit of a low point since you have to spend the first third of it in prison, which is kinda boring because of how restricted it obviously would be. After that you end up in a mountain village where you have to go hunting a couple of times, and eventually you travel to Sapporo, where you get some semblance of freedom, but it doesn't last super long. It's not terrible by any stretch, but it's notably very linear and on rails even for Yakuza standards. You fight a giant bear with your fists at one point, so, there's that.
Then we travel to Osaka (returning from Yakuza 2 and later seen in Yakuza 0) where we play as Haruka for the first time, and Akiyama who is also returning from 4. While Akiyama's gameplay is pretty typical for any other Yakuza protag, playing as Haruka is totally different because there are no combat encounters and instead you engage with opponents (mostly teenage girls) in rhythm game dance battles. This part of the game is definitely a bit "wait until you're home alone before playing" but it's honestly fun and refreshing to see the game world from a different perspective.
By the time you've finished part 3, you've probably put around 25-30 hours into the game, more if you spent a lot of time on side content, and most Yakuza games would be over by now. But you're still only about 60-ish % of the way through the story and you might be wondering when we're going to get to Tokyo (the end of each character's chapter has them deciding they need to travel to Tokyo to get to the bottom of whatever mystery they're wrapped up in).
It's at this point that the game decides to throw you in the shoes of Shinada, a brand new character. He's a former baseball star who was suspiciously banned from the sport and some 20 years later makes chump change writing for dirty magazines while avoiding his landlord and loan sharks. He's not a bad character, but after spending so long with the previous four, I was really ready to see the story reaching its conclusion. Kiryu's been the lead character since day one, Akiyama and Saejima were in 4 so we already know a good deal about them, and Haruka has been with us since the first game so naturally we're quite attached to her. You're naturally more inclined to want to see where their stories go.
Adding a new character into the mix isn't a bad idea but I feel like it happens way too late in the game. Not only are we still waiting on the conclusions to three other stories (that so far are only marginally linked and have their own sets of twists and conspiracies we're eagerly waiting for updates on), we now have to sit through a brand new guy's entire origin story, character development, and see how he fits into everything, and it's kind of exhausting. While his story is technically relevant to the overall plot, it's not until later that it really becomes apparent, and even then... it's not quite as strongly connected as the others, by virtue of him being kind of a nobody instead of a yakuza legend or related to a clan member. I'm tempted to say he probably could have been removed completely, but maybe that's unfair.
Another reason I think this approach is a little flawed is that each time you move on to a new character, you effectively revert to nothing in terms of upgrades and abilities. Each character starts at level 1 with no abilities unlocked, and thus the game's difficulty doesn't really escalate much until the final chapter. The bosses you fight 40 hours into the game aren't much harder than the ones you fight 5 hours in, because they have to accomodate you playing as character who has a different fighting style and probably doesn't have many moves unlocked. There's this stop-and-reset feel to it rather than a smooth increase in difficulty as you progress.
I think what makes this worse than the Yakuza 0 method (where you'd alternate between Kiryu and Majima every two chapters, spending maybe 3-5 hours with each before swapping) is that each part takes place one after the other, they all last probably 8-10 hours (compared to Yakuza 4 which is probably half that), and until the finale when all the pieces come together, they're all stories that involve their own unique set of characters and circumstances with very little overlap. So in each section you're being introduced to new people often and being given new information, new plot points and new twists, but they don't really pay off until the end of the game - and the longer you play, the more likely you'll forget things. It's not always easy to remember which Asian man in a suit is which, and some of the impact is lost when you go some 30 or 40 hours without seeing a character.
In Yakuza 0 you had the story split into two sections, each with its own small cast that you would jump back and forth between, and seeing it all slowly come together was very satisfying. You never spent too long with one character, and you were almost given just the right amount of story development and answers each time to keep you hooked.
Since this game has probably the most complicated plot in a Yakuza title, I found myself getting lost a few times. There is a section on the pause menu where you can read up on characters, but it's not very detailed and you can only read about characters who are present in that particular part of the game, so if you want to remind yourself what happened earlier you'll have to resort to Wikipedia or something. Naturally with the game being as long as it is, you might be playing it over several weeks if you're not someone who plays a lot, which can make things harder to keep track of.
For this reason it'd probably be better to beeline it for the main story objective whenever possible and finish it quickly, but it's a shame to miss out on the side content because a lot of it is really enjoyable and also beneficial to take part in, and it's not until the finale chapter that you regain access to that stuff - once you've cleared a character's part, it's on to the next and you can't go back until the end.
In terms of being an actual package, Yakuza 5 is undoubtedly one of the series highlights - the scope is huge, the combat is some of the best in the series and the amount of variety on offer is impressive. When the story works, it works. However, the structure of the game and its nature of being split into five parts can actually be something of a hindrance to its momentum.

So before I get down votes I mean it’s like a bad dream for Kiryu
Coming off of Yakuza 0 I was pumped. I felt so good about the ending and just the story in general. The game made me feel emotions (which is rare for me haha) and I genuinely felt sad or in awe of certain characters. Majima was definitely my favorite character in that game although, as it’s been discussed profusely, I still think is “crazy” personality into kiwami was a little to be desired.
So here’s what I actually wanted to talk about! Kiwami, I just finished it. I think it’s unfair to compare it to 0 story wise because it’s a remake of an older already established story but still. I rated 0 a 9.2/10, for Kiwami I rate it an 8.5/10. I had more fun playing 0’s side missions and I felt like all the stories were about Kiryu learning how the world had gone to shit with everyone trying to con him. It’s fair, he had been in jail for 10 years but still. I also wanna criticize the game cinematography (I think that’s the right word to use). It was horrendous how the did cutscenes in Kiwami, they were sudden and sometimes as little as 5 seconds long. Also having me walk from 1 point to 5 feet away to begin another poorly executed cutscene was a bit annoying. Don’t get me wrong the voice acting as always is superb and I enjoyed the actor’s performance. I just think they really need to redo how they place cutscenes and make it more enjoyable for the player to read in some instances. I kinda like 0’s dialogue scenes where it was just a still/slightly moving image where the 2 character talked in a stylized way. BUT PLS REMEMBER I LIKED THIS GAME haha I really did!
So story wise, it’s honestly just a bad dream for Kiryu. It made me happy to see he was a successful yakuza and was gonna get his own family but that really hit hard when his life spiraled out of control. Not to mention nishikiyama betraying him made me really sad cause they were kyodai’s :( I thought the florist was a cool concept and I enjoyed Date-san. The host club was interesting to learn about cause I could understand hostess clubs being popular but a host club blew my mind on how relations between Japanese men and women are. The ending was a little lack luster in my opinion, idk I felt more for Tachibana and Makoto couldn’t meet each other and the events that followed. Still it was a fun game and I enjoyed how cool and manly it was
So I gotta say it, I miss Majima. And I wish I could have played as him, it felt like such a tease that he had all of the moves from 0 so I could tell what combos he was going for haha. I hear Kiwami 2 has him in it so I’m excited.
Just overall I liked Kiwami and I’m glad they fleshed out the Legend fighting style cause I had no idea how to use it in 0 lol. Wish me luck on Kiwami 2! And thanks for reading my messy review/rant!

To give some backstory, I bought Yakuza 0 a few years ago but didn't get far into it because I've read how scary hard the platinum is and I only finish a game once I've gotten every achievement.
A few weeks ago I saw people saying Like a Dragon was a good entry point, and I saw others saying it relied heavily on prior knowledge. Having completed the game now and almost earned the platinum, I'd love to give my two cents on what the game is like for a newcomer and why it got me the motivation and drive to play every other game.
While I barely touched Yakuza 0, I'm relatively familiar with key concepts like the Tojo Clan, Omi Alliance, that Kiryu is a badass legend and that Majima is a cool meme. Without knowing the history of the Tojo or Omi, I felt like I understood all of the key parts of this game's main plot. It was pretty obvious when things were giving nods to previous games, i.e. Kiryu's comment to Joon-gi, Kiryu mentioning how he must pretend he doesn't exist, and whatnot. However these blatant nods were very sparse on only really present in the last few chapters. Most earlier nods seemed mostly limited to sub-quests like the adult baby gag. In other words, these didn't get in the way of me enjoying the key story of Ichiban's struggle with the Yakuza and reuniting with Arakawa. The nods towards older games, actually, just made me want to learn what was being teased.
The easy-ish platinum and turn based combat are what made me most excited for this game, but everything else about it left me amazed. I cried multiple times during the story. 10/10 games and I highly suggest it as a way for other people, especially JRPG fans, to get a feel for the franchise's atmosphere and style.

I am playing yakuza for the 1st time with 0, I found out about the legend styles and maddog of shimano looks really fun so I want to get it, and it says I have to finish majima’s business. I thought this would be fine, but it takes forever to take over an area and the 1st club battle against Hino is freaking impossible. Any easy way to go about this?

>!Spoiler goes here!< 

This should go without saying but MAJOR SPOILERS to the other Yakuza games, avoid this post if you haven't played Yakuza 1 - 5.
After playing all the other localized games I decided to replay Yakuza 0 and noted down all the references I noticed to the other games. There may be others that I've missed so feel free to mention any in the replies. Here's what I found:
Yakuza 1

• Shinji makes his first chronological appearance in Substory 20 - A Shining example.
• Nishiki mentions that there's nothing he wouldn't do for his little sister, foreshadowing his eventual downfall.
• In Substory #1 - The Visionary Fortune Teller, the fortune teller states that Kiryu will be 'shouldering blame for another's sin."
• She also mentions that the girl's (Haruka) real father will have to atone for what Kiryu has done.
• In the end of Chapter 6, Kiryu says to Nishiki they are no longer sworn brothers. Years later, Nishiki repeats the same words back at him.

Yakuza 2

• Daigo (major character from Yakuza 2 onwards) makes his first chronological appearance in Substory #19 - Heir To The Family.
• Ryuji makes his first chronological appearance in Majima's Substory #51 - Rise of the Dragon.
• Ryuji then appears again in Kiryu's Substory #1 - The Visionary Fortune Teller. In this Substory the fortune tellers says to Kiryu "Today a young man will meet you, your and his fate will be entangled", moments later Ryuji bumps into Kiryu.
• Majima and Komaki have the following conversation during the last training session

"To trade unarmed blows with a tiger with a wild tiger would be a fool's errand indeed"
"Only a dumbass would would take on a tiger barehanded" which Kiryu LITERALLY does in Yakuza 2.
Yakuza 3

• The fortune teller mentions that Kiryu will be fighting a viper in Okinawa, this is referring to his fight against Rikiya in Yakuza 3, who has a viper tattoo.
• The fortune teller mentions that Kiryu will raise 8 kids in Okinawa.
• When we hear about Kashiwagi in Yakuza 0, Kiryu & Nishiki talk about his love for cold noodles, and when we first meet him, he is slurping cold noodles. This is first mentioned in Yakuza 3. When doing one of the substories with Rikiya after Kashiwagi's death, you have the option to either talk about the kind of man he was, or how much he loved cold noodles.

Yakuza 4

• The flashback we see with Majima and Saejima is taken straight out of Yakuza 4 (with an added black and white filter).
• The Ueno Seiwa hit is mentioned multiple times in Majima's story.

Yakuza Dead Souls

• Kiryu mentions when ending Substory #12 - Miracle On Tenkaichi Street that he hopes he'll never has to fight zombies again, which he literally does in Dead Souls.
• Majima say's "It's SHOWTIME!" when we first see him in Yakuza 0. He first says this in Dead Souls, in one of the substories before entering the quarantine zone. This reference may be a bit loose but I've chosen to include it since the way he says it in Yakuza 0 is VERY reminiscent of the way he said in Dead Souls.

Yakuza 5

• Ogita makes his first chronological appearance in Substory #30 - Maharaja Showdown.
• Ogita states how he wishes to be a coach, which he is by the time of Y5.
• "If you ever have kids, send 'em my way. I'll teach 'em how to dance" which Kiryu indirectly does in Y5.
• The fortune teller tells Kiryu that he will be a cab driver in Fukuoka.
• The fortune teller mentions that she sees a vision of a kid running out of a concert. (Y5 after credits scene)

General / Misc

• One of the background songs used in Club Sunshine is the same one used in the hostess club Shine in the other games.
• Komaki makes his first chronological appearance as Majima's training master for the Thug style.
• Jo Amon makes his first chronological appearance as Majima's secret boss fight in Substory #100 - Sotenbori in Peril before becoming Kiryu's rival exclusively in all the proceeding games.
• The title of 'Dragon of Dojima' is first mentioned at the end of Yakuza 0, in the Kiryu vs Shibusawa boss fight. Kiryu wins the fight, cementing his legend as the Dragon of Dojima for the rest of the series.

Hope you guys enjoyed reading this!

If you haven't played a Yakuza game before then it's highly recommended to play Yakuza 0 before starting this game. If you liked Yakuza 0 then you already know what type of game you're getting into and you will definitely enjoy Kiwami.
Story (spoiler free)
Kiwami takes place in the familiar city of Kamurocho but much has changed. Due to various plot reasons I won't spoil, you are back in the same city as Yakuza 0 but much has changed and it feels a lot different. It feels darker with surprises around every corner, full of some incredible sub stories that really kept you on edge as you went around the city (although this might have been partly due to Majima). Coming off of 0, I went in blind and was blown away with the story and the direction it went in. The blend of serious tone, comedy scenes and light hearted moments made for some really great moments.
Everywhere Majima
"Kiryuu- chann"
This still haunts me every time I hear it, you never know what quite to expect and some of the unexpected moments were hilarious (although Goromi has possibly left me scarred for life...). It did become a bit frustrating in the premium adventure as once I had unlocked all the abilities and completed all the level up missions they become more of an annoyance and time consuming.
Substories
Some of the substories that were tied to the main story have VA and cutscenes which was a nice surprise. Pocket racer, karaoke, bowling, darts, pool and all the other minigames you loved are back as well as the Japanese gambling games you are forced to learn if you want to get 100% CP. There is a lot that this game didn't have that was in 0, the Cabaret Club and Property Management minigames being the notable exceptions. I really enjoyed those two in 0 and it's a shame they weren't in Kiwami.
In their place we got "Haruka's requests" which is essentially dragging Haruka around the city while she will ask for various items found in shops or to complete minigames and reach certain scores. This is not nearly as fun and some of the request are ridiculously difficult. Although the addition of MesuKing and being able to be a customer in a Cabaret club more than made up for it...
Gameplay
VA is solid, soundtrack is solid, cutscenes look great, game runs really well and I came across no issues in my ~50 hours of gameplay. I had heard people say this was a PS2 port so I wasn't expecting much but the visuals look great and matches the quality in Yakuza 0.
Common complaints & my thoughts (that initially put me off playing this game)
Overall, it is a weaker game and the city isn't as fleshed out as Yakuza 0 with much fewer mini games / side content as you only play as Kiryu in this game. However, the impact of the story will be much less as you don't have that backstory of the characters and understand why they act the way they do. Which is why I recommend playing 0 first. For reference, my first playthrough off beating the main story, 100% on substories and 50/55 achievements took me about 50 hours.
Another common complaint is the random difficulty spikes and enemy type placement makes combat a lot weaker in this game than Yakuza 0. I played through Kiwami and although a few boss battles were a bit tedious, as long as you stock up on health items and have a few weapons you can get through the game without too much trouble. Once you unlock the Dragon of Dojima style you have access to some OP abilities, it does take a while and some effort to get there however. I can't comment on the Legend level as I haven't attempted that difficulty.
Overall
I really enjoyed this game and continuation of Kiryu's story. I'd give it an 7.5/10 and maybe one day I'll be back to get the Dragon of Legend achievement.
As I move onto Kiwami 2 (no spoilers please!), it's a shame it's unlikely that we will get a "kiwami 3" and as a PC player it looks like I won't be able to see how the rest of story turns out unless SEGA releases a remaster on PC but it seems that may be unlikely as they are focusing on the new "Like a Dragon" for now.

So after 2 weeks of grinding to complete the business quest line in yakuza 0 I finally got the legend fight style. I’m on vacation now and I’m planning on playing the game when I get home and I was thinking of doing one of 4 things. 1 continue the main quest line so I can grid majima’s business quest line. 2 grind til kiryu’s maxed out in every ability tree and then continue the story. 3 do some random side stories just because they are probably my favorite part of the game or 4 try to get completion points because my next target is limit break. Which should I do first or should I do something else I’m not sure what to do because I want to finish the game to play kiwami 1 but at the same time I want to enjoy everything the game has to offer before I continue

Get ready for a massive fucking wall of text built with my feels. I just finished Yakuza 0--so far, the only Yakuza game I've played--and promptly spoiled myself on the rest of Goro Majima's anti-hero arc throughout the series due to a combination of a quarantine situation and my unhealthy obsession with his lore, which I'm purging by writing this. While somewhat inconsistently written over the years, his transformation between Y0 and Y1/Kiwami 1 and ensuing characterization carries undiscussed literary depth within the context of details like his tattoo. It goes without saying that spoilers follow in the discussion, though I've blacked out some character reveals or deaths in the main post.
Biography/Character Development As series fans are aware, at some point between the end of Yakuza 0 (1988) and the start of the first Yakuza game/Yakuza Kiwami (1995/2005), our favorite one-eyed boi's personality does a 180 from a calm, collected gentleman to the Joker counterpart to Kiryu's Batman--at least, from the point of view of someone who started with Yakuza 0. Hell, Mark Hamill even voiced him in the English dub.
Fan discussion varies on whether Majima's crazy side (shown in most of the series and around the other yakuza post-Y0, and particularly in Kiwami 1) is an exaggerated defense mechanism for him to operate efficiently in the yakuza underworld, if his sane side (shown around civilians and occasionally Kiryu/Saejima, particularly in Y0 when he's imprisoned in his 'gilded cage' in Sotenbori) is a repressed/depressed act, or if both represent him accurately (à la Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde) and he's not acting. The only consistencies in his character seem to be his loyalty and his respect for people who display courage, honor, and independence. Out-of-universe, he debuted as an insane character who was later given backstory and depth; in-universe/in-game, chronologically, his seemingly gentle nature gives way to a maniac with touches of sanity. It is worth noting that the lead English translator for the game, Scott Strichart, has said that Majima "makes a conscious choice to... let loose," though this is never alluded to in-game.
To recount the rest of Majima's history: 1985 - We are unaware of how he acted pre-Yakuza 0, but know that he endured a year of isolated torture for insubordination to his superiors out of concern for his oath brother. 1988 - Yakuza 0 takes place. Even in Y0, Majima acts a little crazy at times in karaoke and in his Breaker Style, more so than Kiryu would. Additionally, during Y0, we see the loss of people he admires or who died to defend him, including Lee, Awano, Sagawa, and especially Nishitani--all of who contribute to his later personality. His wild persona is partially inspired by how he's treated while he's acting like a gentleman, including him being used by Sagawa and Shimano throughout the game--hence the 'dog' part of his 'mad dog' title--and giving up Makoto so she can have a happy life, both of which could have their own textposts. 1992 - As revealed in Yakuza 5 in 2012 anecdotally by his pop idol/superstar ex-wife Mirei Park: sometime between Y0 and Y1/Kiwami 1, he goes through an ill-fated marriage at 28 with a then-18-year-old, hits her after finding out she aborted their child without telling him, and divorces her in part to save her career. 2005 - The original Yakuza game/Kiwami 1 takes place. Majima stalks Kiryu every chance he gets. 2006 - After the events of Kiwami 2, Majima also temporarily leaves the yakuza to begin a construction company--a venture that recalls his business acumen and many dualities (civilian/criminal, destruction/construction, and the ultimate duality of the Yakuza series itself: strategic management minigame set against a lighthearted story/cartoonishly violent beat-em-up set against a serious story). (Majima continues to show up in future Yakuza games, but I haven't seen any character development easter eggs in his reactions to major game events like his oath brother Saejima being released from prison. Every biographer is biased, though--I believe I've underplayed Saejima's role in Majima's motivations simply because I've only played Y0, a game in which Saejima was barely mentioned. See character analysis by Scott Strichart in an AMA here) (contains major Y5 spoilers).
I argue that Majima's tattoo, which existed pre-1985, foretells his arc and represents the conscious dualities of his nature.
The Tattoo Concept art of Majima's tattoo Y0 Majima wearing the tattoo on his front Y0 Majima wearing the tattoo on his back
Every Yakuza (game) character's tattoo has an animal or figure that symbolizes them to some extent, but I believe Majima's has a deeper connection to his story arc as opposed to just his personality. (The same could be argued for Nishikiyama's koi in relation to Kiryu's dragon and Japanese folklore, or how four of the protagonists' tattoos from later games represent the four Eastern Guardians, but those are their own walls of text.)
According to the Yakuza fandom wiki (emphasis mine):

[Majima's tattoo] covers his biceps, upper chest, and stretches from his neck to the back of his thighs. It consists of a floral motif (similar to Shimano's), with a Hannya on his back, and twin snakes wrapped around his arms and chest.

I'm going to analyze Majima's tattoo in two parts: the symbology of the twin snakes in relation to his arc and the symbology of the Hannya.
Snakes - Analysis Why the snake, of all animals, to represent Majima? Why not the dog, given that his nickname is 'The Mad Dog of Shimano'? While Majima matches the energy and loyalty of a dog, a dog would represent only the acted, artificial facets of his personality: him being 'leashed' in Sotenbori or 'barking' at thugs. Even this nickname is a red herring; if he were called 'The Serpent of Shimano,' that'd ruin the point of his entire façade(s). The serpent, in addition to a plethora of more specific cultural and historical symbologies associated with it, is hidden, agile, flexible, cunning, and deadly. This suits both of Majima's personalities more completely--even as his 'Lord of the Night' persona, in his Y0 introduction, he uses calculated, indirect methods to deal with a disruptive customer as the manager of The Grand. (In my opinion, all of the Youtube video clips of this introduction leave out the best part: the end of the night, when the player controlling him returns to a tiny, bare apartment on the trashy side of town after having just made 100 million yen managing his lavish cabaret, and collapses sleeplessly on a bare mat on the floor for another night of PTSD flashbacks.) In battle, especially in Y1/Kiwami onwards, Majima's style is quick and knife-like, relying on his speed and agility rather than brute physical force. We also see in multiple cutscenes, especially in Y0 (if you don't already believe he's acting most of the time either way), that he's capable of deception and guarding secrets when needed.
This begs the second question--why twin snakes? As you can see in the concept art linked above, one of the snakes--the one prominently displayed on his chest--has its mouth open as if to strike, whereas the other--less visible and hanging off his shoulder--does not. They may represent the series' recurring theme of the Yakuza way of life being a dichotomy between criminality and civility. The snake alone represents the infinite cycle of death and rebirth in the classic symbol of the ouroboros, where it eats its own tail, and also has been portrayed for the dual contrasts of medicine/poison and good/evil. Whenever Majima embodies one of his personas, he 'sheds' the skin of the other, because much like pedestrian life (blood/married family, legitimate business, honesty, civility, tuxedo used for work, and long hair tied back) and Yakuza life (crime/sworn family, illicit business, manipulation, violence, snakeskin jacket that he chose, and loose short hair), the two are incompatible. His eyes are also symbolic in this way: one eye sees normally, while the other is mutilated and covered with a black eyepatch. This duality is displayed in Majima's many "snake skins," for (minor Kiwami 1 spoilers ahead) Majima is neither female (Goromi), lawful (Officer Majima), dead (Zombie Majima), a beloved celebrity (in-universe, anyway--Everyone's Idol Goro), nor a domestic service worker (at least in Kiwami 1--Taxi Driver Majima). We'll cover his last persona, Hannya-man, in the next section. The reason for Majima's duality existing is that psychologically, Majima needs both in order to be healthy and true to what he is: he needs to ground himself on occasion so he doesn't totally fly off the handle, and inversely, he needs to let his 'crazy' out in order to stay sane.
Hannya - Analysis According to the Wikipedia article for Hannya:

The Hannya mask is said to be demonic and dangerous but also sorrowful and tormented, displaying the complexity of human emotions. When the actor looks straight ahead, the mask appears frightening and angry; when tilted slightly down, the face of the demon appears to be sorrowful, as though crying.

The original Japanese legend of the Hannya tells the story of a jealous, hideous she-demon-slash-beautiful woman twisted by betrayal. The 'frightening' side of the Hannya is Majima's crazy side that he shows in battle and when dealing with other yakuza, whereas the 'sorrowful' side is Majima's life outside of the yakuza. In real-world Japanese culture, the face of the Hannya is a mask used in kabuki theatre; Majima is wearing a mask at all times (both figuratively, and also on the tattoo on his back). There is no one in the world whom Majima can show both his sensitive/caring side without being hurt or manipulated, and his bloodthirsty/criminal side (he joined the yakuza of his own free will multiple times and seems to enjoy the thrill of a fight) without being feared or putting others in danger, to except for possibly the powerful but righteous and emotionally-balanced Kiryu, which helps explain why Majima's so drawn to him.
We now focus our attention on Hannya-man, one of Majima's masks that he literally wears in a battle against Kiryu. In Kiwami 1, the main reason he fights Kiryu, despite threatening to kill him, is conversely to make Kiryu stronger after Kiryu gets out of ten years of prison. At the end of Yakuza 0 and Kiwami 2 (this entire section is gonna be one big spoiler about Majima's personal life through Yakuza Kiwami 2 and Yakuza 5 - I wouldn't click past the next spoiler if you haven't played Kiwami 2), Majima goes out of his way to avoid revealing who he is to Makoto in-person, even though he loves her; his ignorance of her in order to shield her from the yakuza life is his greatest act of love. It's interesting how much Makoto and Mirei compare and contrast in their personalities and relationship with Majima. This addresses the question of why the Hannya mask appears "sorrowful, as though crying" from a different angle. Majima never fully got over Makoto, the only character who understood what his year of torture and losing an eye was like; when Makoto gives him a massage and some closure by chance at the end of Kiwami 2 after she reveals that she ended up having a son with the doctor who saved her, Majima mutters to himself that by thanking him and telling him that she's been happy, she's untied some loose knots he's had "for 18 years." He's kept count of this in his head. The game executes the 'show-not-tell' rule of storytelling masterfully here--Majima never directly shows her nor tells anyone that he's in love with her. We only get this impression by his body language, actions, and dialogue from other characters like Shimano. Majima doesn't discuss his civilian life, at least in-game. We wouldn't even know about (major Y5 spoiler) his failed marriage and dead baby from 1992 if it weren't for another character's dialogue in Yakuza 5. For all we know, Majima could really want to become a father, but can't--in addition to his actions (again, Y5) towards Mirei upon finding out what she did, he displays fatherly instincts multiple times during Y0's civilian substories/hostess training, especially towards Yuki, and throwaway lines of dialogue during those trainings indicate he's not completely averse to having a kid. Unlike the Hannya in her jealous fury, Majima accepts that he would never receive a 'happy ending' from his relationship with Makoto, only a bittersweet one. Yes, that was a symbolic massage pun. His civilian life is, in some ways, ironically more tragic than his yakuza one.
To conclude, Majima's tattoos tell their own lore--that of the multiple dualities of his story and character arc.
I'll wrap up with a quote from Kurt Vonnegut, a 20th century writer who turned to the absurd to sculpt the effects of PTSD:

We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be.

Additional miscellaneous credit for this writeup goes to commenters on Youtube, Tumblr, Reddit, and various gaming forums.

So I just finished Yakuza Kiwami 2 just last night, done both the Kiryu and the comedically short and kinda pointless Majima campaign, and I gotta say I am quite disappointed in it. It's not a bad game, but it's combat system a large step back from Kiwami 1. Keep in mind I played this game on hard because I found Yakuza 0 and Kiwami 1 too easy on their normal difficulties and wanted a challenge. Everything else about the game is fine and great, it's just the combat I have a grip with.
To start off, the combat in this game is a downgrade from Kiwami 1. I understand that Kiwami 1 and Kiwami 2 use different engines, but the issue isn't really the engine they used more than it is how the combat was designed as a whole. Why were the styles from Kiwami 1 removed? They kept the basic combo for Beast as part of the charge attacks and some counter moves from Rush, but the styles from 0 and Kiwami 1 gave much more depth to the combat system and were fun to experiment with, especially how much more refined they were in Kiwami 1.
The styles gave you tactical options for approaching different combat scenarios, you could use Rush against an opponent that is fast on their feet or quickly build up heat, Beast was good for dealing massive damage against enemies with large pools of health and good for crowd control, Brawler was a middle ground and good for knocking down enemies and breaking their defenses, and while Dragon Style kinda sucked in Yakuza 0, it was awesome in Yakuza Kiwami as a sort of super style to use, especially once you fully upgraded it. I know some of you say that Kiryu should only have one style, but that's like saying that Dante in Devil May Cry should only have one weapon, which is kind of how we got Devil May Cry 2 and look how that game turned out (Has three different weapons but all have the same exact moveset).
This new style Kiryu has, Legend (I think that what it's called?), is a bit of a mesh-mash between Dragon, Beast, and Rush, which doesn't sound like a bad thing, but the thing is that it's not as experimental, there's really not much you can do with this style alone compared to what you can do in Kiwami 1 with just two out of the four styles alone. You had a massive amount of heat moves in both 0 and Kiwami with the different styles you could work with, but a good chunk of the heat moves in Kiwami 2 are related to random pedestrians throwing stuff at you that you then use on your opponents, some even having the same exact animation, these heat moves are also location sensitive, you can't trigger them unless your in a particular vicinity. I know they gave the ability to equip three different weapons at once this time around with some having infinite durability, but most weapons only have one heat move, some locked behind mini-games, whereas weapons in both 0 and Kiwami 1 have more than one heat move most of the time and were mostly accessible.
Heat moves are seriously OP in this game, what probably only knocked down a quarter or a third of a health bar in 0 or Kiwami can now knock down two and half health bars immediately against what are supposed to be tough as hell bosses. There's also this Extreme Heat move thing you learn from Komaki that turns Kiryu into a super saiyan that makes most of the enemies in this game a breeze to push through, especially when certain finishers trigger a grind attack that can knock a boss's health bar down a couple colors.
Speaking of bosses, most of the bosses in this game are an absolute joke (keep in mind I played this game on hard). The only story-related bosses I actually found challenging were The Man In Black, Goro Majima, and that one guy who sexually assaulted Daigo's mother. The rest were easy peezy lemon squeezy, even the two tigers Sengoku sicks on you were a joke (The fight lasted no more than 30 seconds for me! Again, on hard!). There's also street bosses you fight when you defeat a certain amount of enemies, but they were mostly easy too. The Final two fights against Ryuji were also painstakingly easy, I don't know if it was the fact I was overpowered or something, but I started the final fight with like 10% of my health left and walked away with barely 7%, and it's not like I used weapons or tiger dropped him repeatedly or something, the fight didn't even last long, like a minute or two. Maybe the bouncer missions have tough fights, I don't know.
But my biggest issue with this game's combat system is the god forsaken ragdoll physics, why does it feel like I'm fighting a bunch of blow-up dolls in this game? No joke, during the first against Ryuji, I sent him flying across the courtyard about 10 yards away with an attack that should've only knocked him back a couple feet or so. Characters don't feel like they have weight to them, you so much as punt them and they fly like they got hit by a truck. It's kinda funny and ridiculous, I'll give it that, but the thing I hate about the ragdoll physics the most is how when you trying to do a finishing hold move (Which involves Kiryu grabbing an enemy after combo-ing them and throwing them around) and if you so much as brush an enemy against the smallest of environmental objects, Kiryu immediately cancels the move and drops the enemy. I never had that happen in 0 or Kiwami and it's very annoying here.
There's also the fact that taunting doesn't even provoke enemies anymore, it's only really used for building up heat. This honestly undermines the combat system this game has, Yakuza 0 and Kiwami 1's enemies felt like real people who had actual weight on them who reacted differently depending whether or not they were kicking your ass or you kicking their's and would get genuinely pissed about you taunting them, hell they'd even taunt you if they were kicking your ass, how many games can you think of have enemies that legitimately taunted at you? Another major problem is the targeting system, it's kind of broken, you press R1 to lock to an enemy and Kiryu or Majima won't even face the enemy half the time, you have to move them in order to properly face them.
How in the world do people think this game's combat system is a step-up from Kiwami 1's which had none of these issues? The only thing I can say I like about this game's combat system is how you can take street fights into shops now, which temporary bans you from them, but at the end of the day, Yakuza 0's and Kiwami 1's combat were a lot more refined than Kiwami 2's. But I digress, at least Kiryu's gameplay had the ability to equip different weapons and armor, Majima's gameplay on the other hand was even worse, he only had his maddog style with zero upgrades, no weapon or armor customization, nothing. So fucking disappointing.

Just recently build my PC and a friend of mine was kind enough to gift me Yakuza 0. So even though I've already played it on PS4 I've decided to replay it on PC. The thing is though I would love to unlock both Kiryus and Majimas legend styles, but I don't want to have to go through the grind of their respective business minigame/storyline. So I was wondering if anyone knows about a mod that potentially unlocks the two styles? Or at least speeds up the process to unlock em?

>!Spoiler goes here!< 

So basically, I just started playing Kiwami 2. I finished Kiwami yesterday. Kiwami was.... alright I suppose. The styles are slightly different, combat is harder but I adapted to it on the way. I just got pretty sad about all the important people that were in 0 being killed, and the ending broke me. All the things that could be easily prevented if Kiryu just made sure that the people he faced were actually finished and there was nothing around to mess with them (Shimano killing Kazama/Jingu killing Yumi/Nishiki killing himself). I watched some 0 gameplay again today, so I just played the ending again, and while i'm having a great time on Kiwami 2, I really do miss everything about 0. The characters, the timeperiod, the substories, the non Dragon Engine (don't know what it's called), the different styles, Majima being playable, being rich af buying anything I want without worrying about money, and alot more. I replayed 0 once, after finally unlocking Majima's Mad Dog style which I didn't even have a clue about on my first playthrough. 0 really sucked me in to the story, and I loved it. I've teared up multiple times whilst playing 0, and the intensity of the boss fights still struck me on my second playthrough. I'm really fucking sad that I can never get to play it for the first time again, with young Kiryu, with Majima's road to becoming the Mad Dog of Shimano, with Nishiki being by Kiryu's side, there's too many things to say and i'm sure everyone here is already aware of those things. 0 was the perfect game, and got me back into the Yakuza series again and now i'm not even sure if Kiwami 3 is being made or the remaster coming to PC any time soon. I get emotional thinking about the fact that it's over, i've never actually felt this way about a game before. I also don't know if I should replay Kiwami again, I finished it on Hard but never played on Legend, and compared to 0 all the effort I stuck into leveling up and getting that 48/48 on everything really took a while.
Does anyone else feel me on this one? I get that Kiwami/Kiwami 2 are also great games, and ofcourse let's not forget Yakuza 3-6, but 0 really beats all the other games in my opinion.

I've been working through my backlog this year (I actually started in December) and thought I'd drop mini-reviews for the games I've played so far. My backlog is NOT a list of all the games I own (like many of you I've picked up many games for free or just because they were super cheap and bought on a whim) but a curated set of games I actually WANT to at least try out. I am not hesitant to drop a game if I feel like I've given it a fair shot and it's just not working out.
 
Games I Completed
 
Dr. Langeskov, The Tiger, and The Terribly Cursed Emerald: A Whirlwind Heist This entire game is about 30 minutes max and is essentially a very poor man's Stanley Parable. The only gameplay is walking around and pushing a couple buttons while being guided by a narrator. It's an extremely short romp that will make you chuckle. It's free to play and I would say it's worth it for that price. If you just want a quick palate cleanser between games or just like the feeling of crossing a game off a list I would recommend it. Just don't go in with any expectations and I think you'll enjoy yourself.
 
Virginia This game feels like somebody wrote a crime/mystery movie and then adapted it into a computer game because they had no budget. On the positive side, I really love the way the story is told - there's virtually no exposition and you're essentially playing as the main character in this movie. It all feels very cinematic and the setup for the mystery is intriguing. There are some lovely moments throughout the early and middle parts of the game. Unfortunately it really goes to hell at the end and maybe I'm just stupid but I didn't understand the ending AT ALL. Reading about it online after-the-fact really didn't provide any additional clarity either so I don't think I was the only one who was confused. It was still a mostly positive experience over about 2 hours and the game does differentiate itself from other games in this genre. The atmosphere is strange and cohesive and the music is INCREDIBLE. If you like walking sims I think you will enjoy playing this, but don't expect to feel satisfied when it's over.
 
The Turing Test This is actually the poor man's Portal although I don't mean that in a strictly negative way. It's a first person puzzler where you navigate from room to room using your totally-not-portal gun to manipulate balls of energy to lock/unlock doors and move platforms to reach your objective. You're guided by a Glados-like voice with questionable motives (and without the humor) and are presented with some philosophical and moral questions to consider along the way. In the end you'll be given a choice in how to resolve the story. In my opinion it's the perfect length to not wear out its welcome. The puzzles are just the right difficulty (for me) and I think I only had to look up the solution to one room nearer to the end when I was losing patience. It is linear although there are some challenge side-rooms which I skipped. If you are a fan of Portal I think you will enjoy a play-through of this game but don't go too far out of your way to purchase it. It is definitely worth $20 on sale though.
 
The Wolf Among Us This is the only Telltale game I have ever played and I had an absolute blast with it. I had zero familiarity with the lore of this game (I learned much more about its origins and the Fables series after completing the game) and I found it all very interesting. It is well-paced and has plenty of genuinely surprising, shocking, and touching moments. The ending felt pretty anti-climatic but it didn't really bother me as I really enjoyed the entire journey. The first meeting and confrontation with Bloody Mary was easily the high point for me. Unfortunately the fight with that same character near the end of the game was one of the low points.
 
Rayman Legends I wanted to try a Rayman game because I had never played one. Honestly I expected I would see what it's all about and then put it down and move on but instead I got hooked. Once you get in the flow of the game it's really as much of a rhythm game as it is a platformer. The levels are just so damn much fun. The game doesn't try to be anything it's not and instead just does the few things it does exceptionally well. The incredible music and sound design adds so much to this game and the musical levels at the end of each chapter are an absolute pleasure. The only thing I found disappointing were the alternate characters which are basically just palette-swapped versions of the same person. I kept this one installed so I can revisit it to free the Teensies that I missed and maybe visit some of the unlockable Rayman Origins levels. Really such a fun and pleasant experience all the way through.
 
Quantum Break I really wanted to love this game and it had so much potential but ultimately let me down. Based on the games you've already seen in this review and the rest of my backlog you can obviously tell I have no aversion to narrative-heavy games and while it definitely has its moments it ends up being too ambitious for its own good. The story premise is simple enough at the beginning but I found it virtually impossible to follow with each passing chapter. There are time travelling conundrums and paradoxes galore and I couldn't even begin to explain the full plot of this game. Each chapter consists of 3 sections each with their own problems. 1) In-game story-telling and action sequences/gameplay. The 3rd person shooting is passable although there is little weapon and enemy variety. Movement is stiff which wouldn't have been a big deal if they hadn't tried to shoe-horn in a bunch of frustrating Uncharted-like platforming. The time-manipulation powers are fun but again, there is little variety and other games have done it way better. 2) Live-action FMV movie. Weirdly this was the most enjoyable part of the game for me. The acting is top-notch and it was a joy to see Littlefinger (Aiden Gillen) take up the bad-guy mantle again. Despite the plot contrivances, the characters are convincing and have a lot of great interactions. There are a couple of real holy shit moments that made it worth watching. It's not perfect though, and it's weird that the main characters of the live-action movie aren't really the main characters of the game you're playing, but it does provide some nice perspective on the events surrounding your playable character and his mission. 3) At the end of each chapter you are provided with a plot-altering A or B decision to make. This for me was the most confusing and ass-backwards part of the game. My main problem was that you are making this decision from the perspective of the bad guy for some reason. So making what I would consider to be the "best" choice would be actively working against the protagonist character I spend most of the game controlling. So I really had no idea how I should be making these decisions and therefore felt little connection with the consequences of these actions. They could easily improve this game simply be removing these sections of the game and making whatever decision was best from a story-telling perspective. Overall I enjoyed my time with this game but certainly won't be going back to see how alternate decisions play out and I was happy when it was over.
 
The Messenger Like Rayman, this is another game I expected to try out and ultimately put down. But again, I got hooked immediately. It's essentially an easier but prettier Ninja Gaiden (from the NES days) with more platforming-type challenges faliciated by additional movement mechanics. It's whimsical and humorous, doesn't take itself too seriously, and the music is just so so rad. The first 1/3rd of the game is linear and then it opens up slightly into a very LIGHT metroidvania-style adventure. I don't think the abrubpt switch in genre hurt the game as much as many others seem to but I don't think it added that much to it either. The boss fights are challenging but fair (think melee Cuphead) and once you get into the flow of the platforming it's quite satisfying. It's weird and jarring the way the backstory of the game is delivered essentially all at once at the end of the game - I did not appreicate the long cutscene before the final section of the game at all. Overall I liked this game way more than expected.
 
Gris This short and simple platformer has wonderful style and atmosphere but that is really where the enoyment ends for me. I did not find it that memorable and looking at reviews I feel it's a bit overrated even on the artistic side of things. I didn't hate it but I finished it right before the new year and already find it difficult to remember much about this game.
 
Currently Enjoying
 
Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night I am playing this on Switch and liking it a lot so far. It does some things well and others less-so but I'm hesitant to give too strong of an opinion until I'm farther into the game.
 
Yakuza 0 So far I have very mixed feelings about this game. My main gripe is that everything just seems to take so damn long to do. Like I'm hesitant to start a conversation with anyone because I might be commiting the next 20 minutes of gameplay to it. Walking down the street normally involves unavoidable fights with peons not even worth your time. Some of the mini games are kind of fun but everything just kind of feels like it takes forever and wastes my time. I do think the melee combat is fun but I don't know if it's going to be enough to get me through the game. That said, I am super interested in the story and characters so far and would really like to see how Kiryu's story plays out. I'm in the middle of Chapter 3 which means I haven't even gotten the full setup for Majima's story yet. I am going to finish Chapter 4 before deciding whether or not to carry on. As of now I'd have to say it's a fun game but a bit over-rated as I'm not really getting drawn in to the aspects of the game that other people seem to enjoy the most. I might end up watching the story elements on Youtube if I'm still enjoying the story but tired of the gameplay.
 
Dragon Quest XI Pretty sure I've barely scratched the surface of this epic RPG but it's good enough so far. I'm making a point to play it in short bursts for now. If it really hooks me later I will commit to it a little more.
 
Likely Giving Up On
 
Broken Age Every year or two I trick myself into trying out a point-and-click adventure game even though I've never really enjoyed one. It looks like I'm very near to the end of Act 1 but I simply lack the interest to continue. I might complete Act 1 before making a final decision. It's more of a genre issue than an issue with this specific game.
 
Breath of the Wild Don't @ me! I have defeated 2 of the 4 Divine Beasts and honestly I feel like I've experienced most of what this game has to offer. I've enjoyed my time with it but nothing about it is compelling me to finish it as I feel like it will just be more of the same. It is a good game and I don't fault Nintendo for taking it in a new direction but it doesn't feel like a Zelda game and I'm just not motivated to finish it.
 
Mario + Rabbids Kingdom I did enjoy this game a lot at first but once the novelty of the style/setting/atmosphere wore off I kind of felt like I was playing a much much worse version of XCOM which is one of my favorite games of recent years. Don't get me wrong - I tried this game out specifically BECAUSE I thought it was gonna be like XCOM-light but it is just TOO light. There's not much weapon or enemy variety, very little character customization, and most importantly I just wasn't getting those feelings of tension and anxiety I get with the high stakes of XCOM. Also the overworld between battles essentially consists of obnoxious little puzzles instead of strategic planning which was an aspect of XCOM I didn't realize I'd miss so much. It's a nice game but ultimately just reminded me of much better games.
 
Into the Breach Similar to Mario+Rabbids, I thought I would enjoy a simple rogue-like take on XCOM but it just fell really flat for me. This game is much more challenging than M+R which I appreciate, but the art, atmosphere, and story were all very dull. I never even got off the 1st island so maybe the game gets more enjoyable but I don't see myself picking this back up to find out. Perhaps the popularity of this game has something to do with its pick-up-and-play accessibility, but the next time I get an urge for a turn-based strategy game I'm just going to play XCOM instead.
 
Hope this was helpful to someone. I'm happy to answer more in-depth questions about any of these games.

Does anyone else think Ivori and Kobalt are kind of lame?
I mean, you have Flynt and Neon, both are inspired by music of some kind, Flynt being jazz and Neon being rave music.
I always thought that the other two would have musical inspiration as well, like one of them could be inspired by rock and metal and have an electric axe guitar, as in a guitar with power of electricity and an axe built on it, like a mix between Clementine from Brutal Legend and Nevan from DMC3.
Or a hip hop music guy who could use capoeira or break dance fighting like Eddie Gordo from Tekken and/or Majima’s Breaker Style from Yakuza 0.
But no, instead we got a guy in a white suit with a whip and a guy in a blue suit with a gauntlet.
I’m just saying, there’s so many genres of music, it should have been so easy.
I love Flynt and Neon, they’re some of the most interesting characters theming and design wise, at least in my eyes.
I’ve fallen out of watching the actual show, but I still like RWBY, but just for the potential the characters have for characterisation, like teams NDGO, BRNZ and ABRN, they are literally blank slates, you can do whatever you want with them.
Too bad they’re never gonna show up again, I’m pretty sure team FNKI only showed up because they were the only ones that were even sort of interesting, that and the Vytal Festival Attack all but stating they’re all dead.

After finishing Yakuza Kiwami and 2. I had felt pretty bored, since there I had beaten all 3 of the Yakuza games on PC. So I decided to go back to Yakuza 0 and grind for both secret "Legend" battle styles. This journey was a bit lengthy but I'll try to put it as short as I can.
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KIRYU (Dragon of Dojima Style/Dojima No Ryu.
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Doing the real estate mini-game felt rather tedious a few times, sometimes you had to lose your 10% of property because you quite literally can't win the mini-games the RE Kings challenged you to, (I'm looking at you Electronics King and Media King). So I had to grind back my 10% which wasn't as hard as I thought. The idea of forcing Kiryu/Majima to gain a friendship with one of the workers of one of the properties in each area, was a pretty good move on SEGA's end, since if you had enough money, you could grab any property/partnership.
The kings battles felt pretty refreshing after doing so much work in an interface, so being able to beat up a bunch of people for your properties felt pretty nice.
So for me, the Real Estate Royale felt like a grindy but fun mini-game.
How about the Style?
The style feels pretty refreshing to be using the Komaki style that I had gotten accustomed to in Kiwami (I got all abilities for the style, would say the grind is better than the REY and CCZ), so using it I had been a bit used to the style, although it is missing some parts from Kiwami, which i'm glad is added into Kiwami. I don't know why people say the style is the worst in the game, I find it pretty fun to use than the other styles.
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MAJIMA (Mad Dog of Shimano/Shimano no kyōken)
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I had felt reluctant to do this since I felt like I had already grinded my soul out of me and I didn't really like the cabaret gameplay, and to this day I don't have much fond feelings of it.
The cabaret mini-game felt like a bigger chore to do than the Real Estate mini-game since at least it the RE mini-game gave a big sum of money to compensate for the grinding. The cabaret mini-game gave out little money, the highest I ever got was around 70 Million yen, I know that is large, but compared to the real estate mini-game, it was basically peanuts. The gameplay felt okay most of the time although it is a bit hard to start out since club mars beats your ass if you dont have high enough hostesses, but after Mars, the rival battles felt pretty easy (I beat Club Moon with a 25 million yen difference, I don't know why people say its the hardest).
How about the Style?
Honestly it felt pretty cool to be (halfway) crazy Majima fighting. The style has a bit less diversity than Kiryu's, but I enjoy both of them. Using the style gives me memories of the Majima Saga in Kiwami 2. And if I had to say which one is better, I'd say the Dragon of Dojima style, although I hadn't done a NG+ run with the styles so I guess I'll edit this later for my final opinion on them.

So after I beat Yakuza 0 it gave me the option to do Premium Adventure, I figured, I'd grind to get the legend styles for Kiryu and Majima in Premium Adventure and then do New Game+ and beat it on hard with those fighting styles, But for New Game+ it won't give me the option to load the saves from premium adventure, so did I just fuck myself and waste like a week of my life for nothing? Or is there something else I'm doing wrong?