Yakuza 0

I purchased this on a whim because of two reasons. First, I saw someone on GAF rave about it and it was on sale; and I remember playing the first for an hour and never again. 

119 hours later, I would say this is one of my favourite games ever. It's clunky, it has low-calibre intro mission briefing, 80% of the city is non-interactive textures and it has a few technical issues like screen tearing. But on those, who gives a fuck when the rest is soooo good.

The story is gripping enough that I accidentally squashed my nuts when getting up to swap controllers  when my battery went flat in the middle of the final fight. The side-quests are endearingly silly, in the same kind of tone that few games ever manage to get right (Disaster Day of Crisis, Dynamite Cop 2, Katamari Damacy come closest). The combat is next-gen Streets of Rage with a smart upgrade system. 

The minigames in this will be instantly familiar to those who played Super Monkey Ball. The management of clubs and real estate portfolios make the mundane and cringe-inducing utterly engaging. My wife loved dressing up the hostesses, and helped identify things I had missed many times before.

Goro Majima is a phenomenon. His dialogue is part champagne comedy/80s dad jokes ("Slow your roll") and Die Hard ("Your turn is next"). I know cinty is a big fan, but in truth everyone should be. 

In order, the best bits of the game for me were:

1. Kuze, sewers.
2. Finale.
3. Beating Mr Shakedown 10 times
4. Being unable to breath on tele club. My wife was also incapacitated ("Tell me about baby ferrets").
5. Club Sunshine

Honourable mention goes to the real MVP, Nugget.

[10, the perfect chaser to BOTW and equal in its own special way]

Also, you don't need to pretend it was your wife that enjoyed dressing up hostesses. I dug that shit more than I could have imagined.

How's the combat for non-gamers? Wondering if Ev might like it after FFXV. She's looking for something 'epic and involving rather than arcadey' and at the minute The Witcher 3 is the most obvious choice.

Whichever we go for it'll be a joint effort cos I only got to Fake Ireland in W3, and now I have the Big Donger collection on PC

I mean, Yaz 0 is full-on batshit mental, lewd, melodramatic and violent as fuck, usually all with the space of a few minutes. It's also incredibly macho, yet has moments of unbelievable tenderness.

Witcher 3 is more tonally consistent, with occasional comedy quests and scenes. It also has tenderness, and some of the best voicework and writing ever seen in gaming.

Both games are obsessed with shagging, also, but Yakuza (while being more bawdy) is also more prudish about actually showing anything.

Tempy wrote:

Whichever we go for it'll be a joint effort cos I only got to Fake Ireland in W3, and now I have the Big Donger collection on PC

Fake Ireland was a decent way through the main quest, depending on what you had done before. So, even though you had a ways to go, you should have a good idea on whether she'd like it or not.

The Witcher 3 DLCs are also very generous indeed, but a step up in difficulty - especially on higher levels.

Liveinadive wrote:

Tempy wrote:

Liveinadive wrote:

Has she played through the Mass Effect games Tempy?

Nah but I don't think she'd have the patience for the first. We thought about 2 for a while though.

Yeah that is fair enough, the first has not aged especially well.

I really liked number 1 and still play it, but it's deffo much more old school in its approach to combat, inventory management etc. I can understand (even though I don't agree because it's WRONG) why some people jump in at 2 (even though its DEFINITELY WRONG!).

hylian_elf wrote:

I seem to be sharing Cinty's taste in games lately so I may have to get Yakuza 0.

Do it. Just...don't play it in front of the kids, k?

Tempy wrote:

But it's oh so right

...no words.

Tempy wrote:

How's the combat for non-gamers? Wondering if Ev might like it after FFXV. She's looking for something 'epic and involving rather than arcadey' and at the minute The Witcher 3 is the most obvious choice.

I can't say I really enjoyed playing the combat in Yak 0, but the OTT spectacle it makes of it is good fun. The other good news is it's mostly very easy - button mashing will get you far, and is in fact preferable to actually trying to be good at it. It felt like I got punished whenever I tried to do anything clever, so went back to pressing punch, waiting for a little icon that flashes up when a special move is available, and throwing chairs at people's heads.

Nina wrote:

Looking forward to be able to jump into Yakuza at some point (B is thinking of getting a ps4 after finishing BotW). I've never played one, but I've followed the thread (thanks all for keeping the spoilers in tags) and it seems worth a go.

I think there's a fair amount that you and B'd like on the PS4, knowing your tastes - Yakuza included.

I imagine BotW will take B a while, but once you get round to it I think you're in for a treat.

Nina wrote:

Yeah, I'm looking forward to a Last Guardian replay, Yakuza, Persona 5 and Nier. Horizon because B worked on that one, but I'm not expecting to like it as much as some.

B is also looking forward to The Order, mainly cause he still thinks it's the best looking console game out there (and it might be the reason een moved).

I'm pretty sure there's more, but I'm happy with the titles that just pop in my head.

Aye, that's a solid list - especially since several of those games are 40+ hours. That'll keep you both busy.

I don't think anyone's mentioned but the Yakuza series has an Easy difficulty level and I believe you can change difficulty at any point from the Options menu.

I completed Gone Home in one sitting. I loved it. Such a lovely...sweet story. I was delighted by the ending. Such detail in the game too..The pacing was rather unusual. I wanted to take my time,linger and soak up the atmosphere and try and find every detail I could but at the same time I wanted push forward to find out where the story was going.
My biggest gripe would be that some of the handwritten letters were quiet difficult to read.

Oh, and I did like the "give your Pokemans fussing and treats after a fight" feature, but there needs to be an alternative for the less, um, cutesy 'mons. Tickling Litten under the chin is fine, but I really didn't like stroking Incineroar's pects. Felt a bit off, that.

What Remains of Edith Finch is top tier.