Battling the Backlog 2024 - November: A (Brief) Return to Kamurocho and a Shopping Centre Full of Zombies!!!

on

Games Mentioned:

  1. Yakuza 7: Like a Dragon
  2. Dead Rising (Original Version)
  3. Dead Rising 2

Completed on 13th November



Played on PlayStation 5

Yakuza 7 has a turn based system rather than the usual real time beat em up combat. At first I was rather worried about how the battle system would feel compared to the real time combat which I have always had tremendous fun with in previous entries.

Well, I am really surprised at how good the combat feels - it may have turn based combat but it still does have that visceral Kung Fu fighting feel. I admit that the combat, to me, is not quite as enjoyable as the free roaming fighting seen in the previous entries (and the spin off Judgment games), but it is still quite fun to play. One thing the turn based combat system does differently (from previous Yakuza games) is that the random street battles do seem to last longer in general.

Like a number of RPG's, Yakuza 7 has a job system where you can give a character a job with many different unique skills and you can switch them throughout the game. As I do not play many RPG this job system was rather new to me (Octopath Traveller is, I think, the only other game I have played with a job system) and I did enjoy it overall. 

Unlike many JRPGs that are set in a medieval kind of era, Yakuza 7 takes place in a modern setting so the job system has many modern jobs. Characters can take the roles of a Chef, a Japanese pop idol, a nightclub host, a hitman and other roles and each character has some unique battle moves all in the Yakuza bonkers way.

As with previous entries in the series, Yakuza 7 has an epic story with the usual Yakuza style twists and turns that leave me immersed in the story.

There are side missions (or Sub Stories) as with past Yakuza games and some of them have cool rewards that will help you in the main story - such as unlocking Poundmates (think Final Fantasy summons) that can be used in battle.

I spent a good chunk of the later half of October playing through Yakuza 7 and continued into the middle of November.

There is so much to be entertained by in Yakuza 7 in addition to the captivating story - I only completed around half of the sub stories (around 25 of 50). 

Yakuza 7 is now officially marked as finished and has been taken from my backlog, but I plan to go back to Yakuza 7 (every now and again) to tackle some of the optional content such as the many sub missions I still have left to complete.

9.5/10

Some Yakuza 7 Battle Music



Retired on November 20th





Dead Rising and Dead Rising 2

Played on Xbox 360

Since the game came out years ago I wanted to try Dead Rising, but at the time I did not own an Xbox 360 so I was not able to try it. Many years later when I did purchase an Xbox 360 I downloaded the demo for the first Dead Rising game, but I was disappointed. It was a timed demo so, I felt that I was never really able to tell if I did not like the game or did the timed aspect of the demo give me the wrong impression of the game.

Well, I finally bought Dead Rising 1 in the year 2024 for a whooping £3.00 and was finally able to play the full product.

Well, I tried my best but I decided to retire the game. I never thought the game was terrible, but the structure of tackling the objectives just felt rather tedious to me. The controls were clunky and the bosses just felt like clunky affairs. The most fun I had with the game was running around and exploring the Mall and ignoring the objectives but even that became rather tiresome after a while.

I did not have problems with the timed mechanic (if anything I thought that was a rather compelling aspect of the game), nor did I have problems with only being able to save at certain points - I do however wish that there were checkpoints at each boss.

I do see my self revisiting the game from time to time to just explore the Mall in the future, but I do not see myself caring about the story objectives.

I tried Dead Rising 2 and, well, I pretty much feel the same way for Dead Rising 2 as I do for the first Dead Rising.

Comments

Post a Comment