RedShell

No thread for this!? I'll assume most people have already played it elsewhere, but for anyone that perhaps hasn't, do not miss out on this game!! I've played through it on GamePass, mobile and most recently/extensively on Steam (with the DLC), so 3 times now and yet I'm still here contemplating "quadruple-dipping" on Switch! A word of warning though, Vampire Survivors is one hell of an addictive game! It doesn't appear to be up to all that much at first glance, or even when you initially start playing it, but eventually it will get its hooks into you and it becomes practically impossible to stop! If you ever wondered what a NES game with no sprite restrictions whatsoever would be like, here's your answer. When you get a good run going the screen is literally crammed with enemies, items and projectiles, it becomes complete and utter psychedelic madness!

Cheers for the games! And for not stitching me up with characters that I can't use... for the most part. Seriously, I tip my hat to anyone who can use Rosalina & Luma proficiently, I simply cannot get my head around how they control. @Glen-i & @BowserBasher, hope you guys enjoyed the festive custom stage. I just threw that together in about 30 minutes earlier on today, but it turned out pretty well I reckon.

Had a go at a few classic races. It's a nice addition, I like how the game reverts to a 4:3 aspect ratio for it too. Just a shame that it's single races and not GP format, although you can just keep jumping back into it for the duration of the event anyway so it's not that bad. It does seem like the amount of active players in this has already taken quite a hit though. Here's hoping Nintendo has even more updates planned for the future to try and keep it going. I reckon if they added content from BS F-Zero Grand Prix/2 or even the GBA games, that would get player numbers up again.

A few more vids from my time with the game that I finally got around to uploading: Interview with the actress for Akame: I'm glad she ended up in that role rather than just being a hostess, it made Akame a great character.

First no Vampire Survivors thread, and now this!? Come on N-E, pull your socks up. I only played through the first Dragon's Dogma fairly recently, and felt like a complete fool for not having got around to it sooner. Had a really great time with the game though, and would say I even enjoyed it more than Elden Ring! So yeah, definitely hyped for the sequel, which is looking very good indeed.

And all with a development cycle of only six months! Remarkable. I was slightly concerned about the fate of this series following the departure of Toshihiro Nagoshi and several others from RGG Studio, but if Gaiden is any indication, then Yakuza/Like a Dragon is going to continue being great. Anyway, glad to hear you enjoyed it.

The credits have rolled... But yeah, what a game. Bring on Infinite Wealth!

I managed to get myself stuck doing coliseum and substory stuff all over again. But yeah, have completed every battle in the coliseum now, so at least that shouldn't distract me from the main story any more. Well, unless I find myself in need of more cash (it's crazy how much money you can earn there!).

I did indeed love it, game is an absolute no-brainer for anyone that enjoys the Souls formula. BTW, you just reminded me that I need to try and get back to Wo Long at some point! Not played it in a few months, but was pretty far into it I think.

Nice. What was your playthrough time?

Yep, we still don't even have Yakuza 5 over here, and there's no guarantee we'll be getting this one, but here's a thread for it regardless. Will be the first Yakuza game built exclusively for PS4 (which is pretty damn exciting) and will feature the likeness/voice of Takeshi Kitano!: Awesome stuff. So yeah, everyone buy Yakuza 5 when it finally appears, and then pray. Otherwise...

Whoa! Looks like I was actually further through the main story than I thought, as... I'd heard this game's story was shorter than your typical Yakuza game, but that still came as quite a surprise. However, I've done so much side content stuff now that I'm approaching 20 hours of game time anyway, and I still have a few substories left to do, quite a bit of mini-game stuff, plus a big chunk of the coliseum as well. So I reckon 100% completion will probably end up taking around 30 hours. But for anyone that isn't a fan of the extra content in these games, if you were to focus purely on story I get the impression you'd be done with it pretty quickly indeed.

That’s awesome. I love seeing how the Yakuza series has been steadily gaining fans, not just here at N-E but in general. Long may it continue! It’s mad to think that since I first started playing this series back in 2015 (with Yakuza 4 on PS3) I’ve now played through all 8 of the mainline games, 13 games in total if you include the spin-offs, and that’s without even including the two Judgment titles! Still not sure when I’m going to be able to squeeze those in. But yeah, it’s a phenomenal franchise that has produced many games in a relatively short period of time, without dipping in quality. Sure, there is a lot of asset recycling going on between the various titles, but even so, the rate at which RGG Studio has been releasing these, and the ongoing quality and entertainment value of them is simply amazing! And you know what else, it’s just so nice to also have a series that gives zero fucks about political correctness or conforming to certain social ideologies. The devs behind the Yakuza/Like a Dragon franchise know their target audience (very well indeed ) and are not afraid to cater specifically to them, regardless of what that means for sales or public perception. You’ve gotta love that kind of integrity, and especially at a time where seemingly everything else is primarily concerned with… not being offensive, having enough diversity, virtue signalling etc., often at the expense of entertainment. Anyway, I’ve rambled on enough. Can’t wait to get back to playing Gaiden tonight (I’ve actually started making progress on the main story again! ) and I’m also looking forward to you lot starting that game. You’re gonna love it… trust me.

This looks (and sounds ) absolutely glorious! I really hope they also plan to release it outside of Japan.

OK, I've never been so damn distracted by side content in a Yakuza game as I have with this! Over 12 hours played but I'm still only at the very beginning of chapter 3! Once the game opens up it really opens up, and is packed with so much highly entertaining stuff to do. I love the way substories are handled in this version as well, it's super streamlined compared to previous games. Also, the coliseum mode in this is pure crack, cannot get enough of it. Especially since unlocking... more on that bellow: So yeah, that's where I'm at with the game so far. I should probably get back to focusing on the main story, but they really are making it extra difficult to do so this time around.

Have they changed his English actor since Like a Dragon? That's the only game in the series that I've ever played though with the English dub, but yeah, don't think I ever will again.

It's Pocket Circuit time!:

Those vids I posted before are from the PC version though (managed to refrain from quadruple dipping on the Switch version ) so it’s definitely an across-the-board optimisation, just a pretty rare one probably.

How calm is the geezer that got caught up in the fight with the bicycle? The combat in this feels just like Yakuza 6 but with physics and particle effects dialled up to 11! I bloody love it! They've also made some crazy additions to the gameplay with... While I eventually ended up loving the new turn-based direction with Like a Dragon, playing Ishin recently and now Gaiden has reminded me how much fun the real-time combat is too. Hopefully RGG studio is planning to keep using both gameplay styles going forward, because they're both fantastic.

Shame about that D/C just now, I was about to call it a day anyway so I won't bother to rejoin. Enjoy the rest of the session and thanks for the games!

Oh yeah, forgot about that. I imagine all that video footage for the hostess stuff is a pretty big chunk of it too.

Holy crap, this comes in at almost 90GB on PC! Played through the opening section, loving it already. Man, Kiryu's movement in this is crazy! The way he picks up weapons off the ground is so slick! And what's with this Spider-Man web move!? This is absolutely insane, even by Yakuza standards.

Not exactly what I had in mind, but I'll take it: Suddenly Banana... Suddenly Green Shell?: I literally spent most of those races constantly beeping the horn, especially as Funky Kong... that sound! Cheers for the games.

I started playing this about a month ago and finished the story last night. The final product was a lot better than the demo implied, and those annoying UE4 stutter issues have been (for the most part) completely fixed. They say you shouldn't judge a book by its cover, well I guess the gaming equivalent is don't judge a video game by its demo. If you look back a few posts you'll see that I did exactly that earlier this year, but it was a mistake. The reality is that Sega just put out a really bad demo for Ishin, on PC at least. That, or they sorted it via patches since, either way, the game is all good now. So yeah, I ended up enjoying yet another Yakuza game, what a surprise! Was great to play one with real-time combat again as well, as it's been a long time since Kiwami 2. Anyway, there are a total of 4 different play styles available in Ishin, but I mainly stuck with the swordsman style for my entire playthrough and just dabbled with the others. Each has its own unique weapons/skill tree and it's easy to switch between the various styles at any time, but the katana just felt the most appropriate given the setting of this game. Definitely looked the coolest too, some of the moves were super flashy and blocking bullets with a sword is always entertaining. As for the story, it was fun seeing so many familiar faces from across the Yakuza series pop up, but everyone (well, almost) having different names than usual made it incredibly confusing, and I struggle to follow the plot on these games as it is! It's cool how the Yakuza cast of characters are portraying historical figures and that it's based on a true story though... I imagine quite loosely. Yep, pretty sure they added some zazz here and there! But regardless, the main story is still often slow paced and dramatic, perhaps more so than any of the games from the main series. Luckily the substories are here to provide comedic moments, and there are some absolute doozies in this, like... Minigames are on point too, you get all the usual stuff like Karaoke, fishing, gambling etc. but also cooking (it's Yakuza x Cooking Mama ) and farming! Which comes in handy for making extra cash or satisfying the vegetable lady. And there's quite a bit more content that I've not really had the chance to properly check out yet, but with Like a Dragon Gaiden having just launched I'll be turning my attention to that for a while now.