Amigo Picante: Prepare to Die Edition

* I always like playing through all of the hostesses because you get fun flavor out of that, and I continue to be smug about the fact that I called Kiryu being an enka guy way back when I was still mid-Kiwami. Having him explicitly say it is just a victory lap at this point. 

Shizuka is my forever wife. More positive portrayals of deathcare workers, please. 🙏

* Although on the subject of hostesses, I always feel a little bad getting them to a full 20, taking them to the batting cages going to a hotel, and then dipping, but it’s ten times more heartbreaking with Kiryu. Because the guy replies like he legitimately feels strongly about the girls as the hostess game goes along (as opposed to Akiyama and Tanimura, who both replied with a “Thanks” after being told these girls were in love with them dflkjsf THANKS.) I dunno, it could be because of my own sad feelings around Kiryu’s disastrous love life, but the hostess minigame just hits different with him. 

* That said, he did basically out himself as not being a neat person in one of the hostess interactions, so use that as you will, Kazumaji cleanliness debate people. 

* Also this. Gotta love Kiryu hurting me at every turn: 

* Moving on to things other than me crying over hostesses (and Kiryu)... I cannot choose between which end game substory did more psychic damage to me: the baby one or the kappa one. Both gave me brain worms, however, so thank you for that, RGG Studios. 

* This Saejima face deserves a bullet point all on its own:

* Not going to go too into the end game plot because honestly, I kind of expect the inevitable procession of twists and backstabbing by this point (although I am still sore about the Yasuko thing, even if I saw it coming.) I will say that I laughed hysterically at the pyramid of money on top of Millennium Tower, and then Date showing up in a helicopter for the nth time. Never change, RGG. 

* Ok, actually, one thing about one of the final battles: when Kido started mouthing off to Saejima, my initial thought was “this boy has such ‘Step on Me’ energy.” And then Saejima said this and... 

( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) not gonna lie, I’m into it. 

* Actually, on the subject of Kido... It took me until the very, very end of the game to realize where I recognized his actor from - he was the shitty DJ/Ryuji’s sidekick in Tiger & Dragon, aka one of my favorite j-dramas of all time. 

I’ve been thinking about rewatching T&D for a while now (mostly since people pointed out how Kiryu has Nagase vibes, to the point of thinking Nagase might’ve been inspiration for Kiryu) and this isn’t helping that urge. I went ahead and pulled up the Special, so here, have fun imagining Kido’s dumb ass making these faces:

Also bonus because Nagase as Tora really was peak Kiryu, appearance-wise:

(He even has the silly ass white loafers, though you can’t see it from this angle.)

At the end of the day, Y4 was... alright. It felt less rushed than the ending of Y3 even if the plot felt even more needlessly convoluted, but at least it didn’t actively make me mad like the ending of Kiwami 2. That’s a pretty low bar to step over, however, so make of that what you will.