Since writing about Yak 0 (Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio), I have not gone back to it. I feel like I should and I have had several people tell me that I need to get through chapter four before making a decision. I read on the Google that Majima shows up in chapter three and he’s the other playable character. One guy said that if I didn’t click with it by then, probably wouldn’t at all. Which, fine, but I barely made it through one chapter, let alone four. Ian told me that the chapters vary in length, but I have not felt a pressing need to go back.
I bought Steelrising (Spiders) and Judgment (Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio) during the autumn steam sale because I was really intrigued by the former and Ian suggested the latter by the same company that does the Yakuza games.
Steelrising is a soulslike set in revolutionary France. The novel concept is that you are a sentient automaton programmed to take care of Marie Antoinette. Protect her, I mean. Not rub her out. I realized that ‘take care of’ could mean two very different things. The protag’s name is Aeigis and she’s great. I made her look as Asian as possible and chose Armoured Fans because let’s face it. I’m always going to choose fans if I can as my weapon.
There is no shield in the game, but you can block with the fans. There is a parry/deflect that if you get the deflect perfect, you stun the enemy for a brief moment. There is a mechanic of the automatons (all the enemies are automatons, too) is that they overheat. You as the protag overheat. So you have to hit Y at the moment of peak overheating in order to bring it back down. Or, at least that’s what I think is going on.
I’m not exactly sure because as I fought the first boss (th e tutorial boss), I could not get it to reliably work. Even when I hit Y, Aegis would refuse to attack for several moments. I had no idea why this was or what the point of the system was, but I found it very frustrating.
In addition, the whole combat system is too floaty. I felt as if I was fighing the camera the whole time. With a soulslike, the combat has to be tight as that’s the whole point. THis was not. At all. It felt loose and janky, and I never knew what was going to hit and what wasn’t. I will say that the stealth attack, I appreciated. If you managed to sneak up on an automaton without it noticing you, the reticule would turn red and you could hit RB for a stealth attack. That would immediate take out the enemy if it was a weak one or a huge chunk of health of a more stalwart enemy.
With the first boss, I could not rely on getting in, getting a few licks, and dipping out. If you wern’t aggressive, the surprise adds (which I fucking hated) would make themselves known and it was not a good time. That plus the fact that the whole stamina system is not well-explained or defined, and it was a frustrating fight for me. It wasn’t hard per se, but I never understood why Aegis wouldn’t move at certain times.
A system can be complex, but it has to make sense. This one did not. WHich is too bad because I like the environment of the game (though not the levels themselves). I don’t think I’ll be going back to this one, sadly.
I also installed Like a Dragon and decided to give that one a go after Ian told me there was magic in the game. Yak 0 is a straight-up brawler, which means fists, fists, and more fists. Learning that there are spells of a sort in LaD made my decision easy, and I gave it a whirl last night.
First of all, you can save in this game. That immediately gives it a leg up. I read that you cannot save during story missions, but otherwise, you can. And there are the phone booths as well. Like Yak 0, this game is VERY cutscene heavy. But in this case, I was actually interested. It’s more than just mafia stuff.
More to the point, I adore Ichiban, the protagonist of LaD. He’s hot-tempered, but with a big heart. And there is a system in which you can do deeds to pump up different stats like kindness. He’s great, unlike that mope-face, Kiryu. Yeah, I said it. Kiryu is hot, but he’s a major bummer.
I will say, though, that there are still a loooooot of cutscenes. A LOT. Gonna spoil an early storyline. One of Ichi’s duties is to look after the son of the head of the family. He’s called the Young Master, and he’s in a wheelchair. He’s roughly Ichi’s age, and I felt an instant revulsion when I saw him. There was something about the look in his eye that told me he was a major asshole.
I was correct. He was arrogant, cruel, and full of himself. It was his ‘girlfriend’s’ birthady, and he wanted Ichi to take im to where she works. Made sure Ichi hadn’t told his (Young Master’s (YM) father that this was happening. YM also wanted to make sure Ichi bought a gift for YM’s GF. At first I thought he meant that he wanted Ichi to buy it for him, YM, but, no. That’s not what he meant at all.
On the way to where the girlfriend works, YM pulls me into an alley and presents a needle to me. I don’t know what the hell to do with it. It turns out it was ephedrine and he wanted me to jab it into his heart. I recoil and tell him he’s crazy so he does it himself. it’s his girl’s birthday and he does not want to disappoint her. That’s what he said to me. Then, he gets up and leaves the wheelchair behind.
We go to a nightclub where his ‘girlfriend’ is working because she’s a hostess at the club and it’s pretty clear that he’s a client, not her boyfriend. She allows him to fawn over her, but she’s not into him. There are two frineds of hers who coo and caw that they wish they had a boyfriend like YM, but it’s pretty clear they are all trying to get what they can from him.
By the way, there’s about two minutes of gameplay in which I have to find the girlfriend by talking to people at the different tables. That’s it. The rest is cutscenes. In total, I did maybe five minutes of actual gameplay up until this point. I don’t mind as much because this is a much more interesting story than the Yak 0 one, but it’s still me very much not playing a game.
The point about the gifts. YM asked Ichi to give his girl the gift Ichi had bought. It’s some kind of coin purse? I think? One of the other hostesses giggles and says her mom has something similar. YM says, “Ichiban? more like Ichibad” and I want to punch him in the face. He ordered me to buy a gift for his girl and then made fun of the gift I bought to make himself look better? What a complete and utter asshole. His gift, by the way is a very expensive watch. He brags it’s the price of a condo and maybe he’ll buy a condo for them next.
When I found the woman, she was with a man at another table. He turned out to be the captain of the police or something like that? A high-ranking member of the police. YM was pissed off later that he wouldn’t be bought off, but the YM is pissed off about everything, really.
Anyway, Ichi goes to the bathroom and overhears the GF and the police dude talking about YM. The hostess is freaking out about the gift and the police guy is trying to get her to calm down. Superintendent? Maybe. He tells her to milk YM for everything he’s willing to give her and then sell it all. They laugh and leave, and when I turn around, guess who is standing there, having heard it all?
You got it. YM. That’s where I decided to quit the game for the day because thats’ a lot of story andvery little gameplay. I’m interested, though, and I’ll keep going. Then, maybe I’ll try Judgment on the side. It’s part of the Yakuza world, I think, but very very different.