Recent reviews by TheMonolith

Look... it's fine. It's an AFL game.
We've always known they don't have the same budget as your 2K / FIFAs, it's a niche game for a niche sport and they've done remarkably well considering.

There are bugs aplenty. Inputs don't register, players rubberbanding in single-player, marking contests feel like a coin flip sometimes and often textures just don't load.
The price is not indicative of quality, and is far too high. This is a $50 AUD game tops, and I mean *tops*.

However... it's pretty fun. Admittedly, I'm playing with the sound off, listening to podcasts and videos on another monitor, and I've only messed with season career mode. Beyond that I couldn't say much, but if your expectations are reasonably low and you're looking for something chill, and can look past that abhorrent pricepoint, you should have a decent enough time.

TL;DR, budget game for a premium price, is good enough fun if you're an AFL fan.

I wanted to like it more than I did.

The combat is superb, lots of weapons, abilities and party combos to play with and a fine enough selection of enemies to try them out on.

The writing is bad. Like... really bad. I don't mean the PLOT, I thought the story and characters overall had great ideas behind them, but it's delivered so poorly with absolutely no nuance or substance. "Saturday Morning Cartoons" is reasonably accurate. This doesn't effect everything equally, some characters are very lovable (and hate-able), and there were more than a few "WOW!" moments throughout the main story.

If you like Dragon Age, and wanna see the series through like I did, you should have a fine enough time... Just don't expect too much. Keep an open mind and prepare to roll your eyes a few times, and you'll get to enjoy some pretty spectacular and sweet moments.

TLDR, it's mid. It's not bad, it's not great. Wait for a sale.

The factory must grow.

It's alright

I have never cried so hard playing a video game.

Gaiden is fun, quirky, funny, gripping, exciting, heartwarming and heartbreaking all in one.
If you've been following Kiryu's story through the mainline series, this one will hit hard, and only helps to cement this series as an all-time favourite of mine.
Mechanically it feels like the Yakuza games have been perfected. Combat is smooth and flowy, but still feels heavy and impactful when it needs to.
The usual minigames are back, and feel amazing to play. Notably, the karaoke returns and for the first time in the series so far, actually plays on time with 60fps display. In previous entries, it has lagged behind and been unreliable.

The completion list is very forgiving, not requiring EVERY SINGLE facet of the game to be 100% explored to be completed. This means no more grinding Virtua Fighter, or hunting down every single pocket circuit part.

I wouldn't recommend this as an entry point to the Yakuza / Like a Dragon franchise, as much context is left out with the assumption that players are returning and understand who most characters are...

But for fans?
This is not a side-game, this is required reading.

Unpacking is a lovely little puzzle game. It is relaxing, sweet, and the storytelling across the different levels is engaging and emotional.

I really enjoyed reading into little placements and ideas, and considering what everything meant and what the "main character" was going through.

My only real gripe is length. The albums at the beginning implied to me that there would be multiple stories, and I was quite disappointed to find that they were just save selects for the single experience.

I think the price point is a little steep for a game I 100% completed in 2 sittings (and not particularly rushing through), but as an experience, I highly recommend it.
I would personally love to see more stories added in future, as it feels a little strange to be uninstalling a game not 2 days after purchasing.

TL;DR - Unpacking is wonderful, and it's biggest flaw is that there isn't more of it. Check it out on gamepass or wait for a sale, and you'll enjoy every second <3

Just got started with the first game, and it's everything I could have hoped for.

It's still the same game, but with improvements and tweaks here and there to make it accessible for current gamers. The original had some pretty nasty jank, and so far I've encountered none.

An FOV slider would certainly be nice, and some character's faces could have been cleaned up a touch, but remembering that it's a remaster (not a remake) of the game I adored? I'm very happy.

Highly recommend thus far

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Update
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Mass Effect 2 is perfect. That is all.

It's rad

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Does this soda taste dirty to you?