#dimension drive

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Dimension Drive System: PC (Steam) Genre: Dual Screen Shmup

This game had a free weekend around E3 Month. I found out about the free weekend too late to get through the entire game, but what I played was crazy impressive. I have to pick this up when I can, the dual screen gimmick is mind-bendingly impressive!

Touhou Soccer Moushuuden System: PC Genre: Sports RPG

While this isn’t my first time playing Touhou Soccer, this was my first time actually completing the Main Scenario... yes, my first time playing this game was solely on its side mode. I actually cleared Travel Mode, on the hardest route, and even beat that monstrosity that is Travel Mode’s final match... though I may have used more than a few retries for that last one ;D  

One thing that struck me is that this game is really, really good at building the hype. More than having some of the most ridiculous, over-the-top animations ever, the game’s use of cuts is honestly masterful; they really know how to build the tension. Another thing struck me, but this was less of a positive; this game’s difficulty is kinda broken. Maybe it was my previous playthrough of the game, but almost nothing about the Main Scenario troubled me. The only match I actually struggled with was the final match... and only because the other team had a literal gamebreaker on their side (i.e. PC98 Reimu and then Rinnosuke).

The exact same thing happened with my Travel Mode replay too. I breezed through the game (mostly. I mighta “lost” the first fight against VIVIT, though I technically had more points) and then Rinnosuke, again, literally stopped me in my tracks because he’s just that broken in Touhou Soccer. Finding the game to be too easy (except for the times the CPU had a literal gamebreaker on their team) really ruined some of the magic for me. I still beat both modes and I still had a fun time, but it’s disappointing to find it doesn’t hold up so well.

Ratchet and Clank (2016) System: PS4 Genre: Platformer / Third-Person Shooter

I finally got around to playing this and honestly? It’s fine. Just fine. The discourse around the game “being inferior” to the original made me expect a bad game. It’s not a bad game at all. It’s perfectly fine. I can only see this being bad if you thought this was an attempt to replace the original game which... it wasn’t. In fact, it was a pretty obvious attempt to cash in on the (bad) movie adaptation. 

Yakuza: Like a Dragon (aka Yakuza 7) System: PS4 Genre: JRPG

Unpopular opinion but: I didn’t think this game was terribly great. I didn’t hate my time with the game. But the stuff I enjoyed about Yakuza 7 had little to do with the actual change in gameplay. The actual RPG gameplay just isn’t there... yet. At its worst, the game is janky (like with its targeting system), frustrating (like with its difficulty spikes) and uninteresting (with its dungeon design). At its best, the game is still incredibly imbalanced. No joke, some of the best skills are the ones unlocked first (like Ichiban’s Teamwork skill, or a certain assassin’s Head Trauma move). That this mediocre gameplay came at the expense of certain aspects that I enjoyed about the series (like the fast-paced levels, the tense boss fights and the brutal heat moves) makes the game even harder to love. 

Now while Yakuza 7 wasn’t terribly good, I will admit something; it did get me excited for the series again. I was big on the series during the PS3 days but fell off around the time of Yakuza 0. Yakuza 7 may not be that great in and of itself, but it sure has me excited in the series again. Aside from making me want to catch up (just so I can see how Kiryu’s story finally ends) the game has me hopeful of Yakuza 8. I may not like the RPG combat, but it really does have potential. Also, for all my rattling on about gameplay, I didn’t hate Ichiban and his friends at all.