Happy Life
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samurai block:
monochrome mobius
A "sort of" JRPG prequel to the masked Utawarerumono, about the life of Oshutoru and his buddies from the very bottom.
From a JRPG perspective, the same-game experience is probably more or less classic and normal; from mine—it's a bit weak. Ancient turn-based combat without movement; an unremarkable overworld—meaning both the general street where mobs are and the dungeons; side quests to bring resources or kill a mob, most of which lack any particular dialogue or story background; the biomes themselves are also poor in terms of variety—meadows and forests and that's it. I usually complain about the opposite effect, when games have mandatory lava, ice, desert, and forest biomes all neighboring each other and looking inorganic, but here it is actually maximally organic from a logic and world perspective, though it still looks poor. A separate joke is that the models of no-name NPCs in cities aren't just drawn indistinctly, Persona 5 style, but are actually deliberately made of ten polygons, underpainted, etc., as if they are just peasants beneath a major's feet.
But all this is first impression; over time, some individual features are noticed that do add something unique—for example, certain combat nuances like manipulating the same-turn and initiative, or suddenly realizing that almost the entire world consists of one seamless, long, huge external "street with mobs" to which cities and dungeons are attached, and that's sort of cool. These moments don't exactly make the gameplay much more fun, but at least they move its perception out of the "maximally default-skeleton" paradigm.
The first few hours are a slog, where given the above inputs there is minimum plot and maximum running through corridors with mobs, even with a decent amount of dialogue. But then, once the "prologue" is passed, everything shifts into masked-style mode, with a bunch of buddies, funny and silly (and in some places quite cultured) scenes, feelings of Slice of Life, liters of fanservice and references, and that already settles pleasantly on the soul. As always, excellently written core characters with their own motivations; some already familiar ones are fleshed out so that they can be viewed from a new angle—in short, it's up to par.
At this point, I regretted a couple of times that I started on normal instead of hard out of the two difficulties, because I had already gotten into the groove and the fights were too easy. But in the end, simply with the amount of grind required during the walkthrough, I think I made the right choice. I made up for the missing challenge toward the end when it was necessary (or possible) to farm several unique cryptids, which even on normal kicked my ass.
Overall, a fan of the title will enjoy it, especially if the gameplay doesn't bother them.
ghost of sushima
I adore typical third-person console open worlds with towers, question marks, and conveyor-belt side quests; I counted down the days until the release of this blinding wine, beloved by PlayStation fans, on PC—I even specifically bought a Soviet tear-off calendar for my wall; finally, I waited and was not disappointed.
Magnificent graphics, occasionally referencing the great Oblivion 4, caress the eye with their deliberate unkempt sloppiness designed to visually convey a heavy historical period, especially striking the imagination when you try to examine NPC models—in their deformed faces and mud-smeared low-poly clothes, one can really feel all the horror of that Japanese-Mongolian war. Fortunately, interiors in houses are practically absent, which allows one not to be distracted by fluff and fully devote oneself to contemplating the hills over which you'll have to gallop on a horse to the next marker.
The engaging combat hides behind external simplicity and four-button controls a maximally authentically conveyed samurai spirit of sword fighting—running into a group of enemies, parry a sword with one button, dodge a spear with a second, strike the body with a third, strike the shield with a fourth. Only by mastering these techniques can you consider yourself a master of bushido. And before the battle, you can challenge one of the opponents from the enemy pack to a duel, where you'll similarly need to press one button on timing to kill him. This doesn't get boring on the tenth, hundredth, or thousandth time.
The abundant number of interesting side quests is also very pleasing—here you need to follow a marker, here collect a collectible, over here you need to follow a marker again and press X, and here you need to follow a marker, collect a collectible, and then also press X. When the text "altars collected 1 out of 200" appears on the screen, you realize that the real world will lose you for a long time, but you'll return to it later as a veteran samurai, fully cultured in Japan according to American developers, having learned the secrets of existence.
The genius plot premise "Mongols arrived, now we fight" is wonderfully presented in rich dialogues brimming with an incomprehensible Eastern spirit: "we need to win back the island from the Mongols/defeat the bandits"—"yes, we should." Behind these seemingly routine words and the protagonist's monotonous answers, one acutely feels the burden placed on the shoulders of the unfortunate residents of Tsushima. The residents themselves, by their very nature, provide an excellent example of fortitude in the face of danger—during the time I played, I managed to meet three strong women who, contrary to all expectations, don't mince words and kill whole packs of Mongols no worse than any man; another one was mentioned in passing in a side quest that I didn't finish, and thus couldn't get to know her. It's a pity the men of Tsushima don't follow their example—two of them were captured, two more are incompetent, another is too rigid in his thinking, others have turned to banditry and betrayal, and of course the protagonist—a yesterday's boy tormented by doubts, unable to find an answer to the question: does the end justify the means used to achieve it?—and thus stains his samurai honor time and again with the lowest possible actions.
As a fan of typical console open worlds, I will give this product a solid, well-tailored 3.5/10 for the four hours I managed to play before clearing space on my hard drive, and I recommend it to everyone. Be sure to buy it with all DLCs and play—but only after registering in PSN, because otherwise this product will be unavailable to you on Steam—and enjoy this game of the year, or essentially a game from two years ago if you count the preliminary release of its beta version on PS4 several years earlier. And do not believe for a second those few negative reviews on Steam that you might see, as they were left by hater review-bombers raging solely at Sony's decision to move the game to PSN and do not reflect the actual state of affairs.
yakuza ishinn
It obviously doesn't compare to the Ghost of Kyiv; even real Japanese found it hard to beat such a hit, but as an enjoyer, it worked perfectly for me.
A Yakuza spin-off in historical times; as far as I understand without being an expert, it layers its plot with conditional assumptions over more or less real historical events, in which talking heads familiar from the series take the place of historical figures. In the prologue, it seemed to me that the plot would go in a cringey direction, but in the end, it wasn't so, and any occasionally popping up questionable questions were backed by hard logic.
There is no reason to once again dwell on things that are gold standards for the franchise like core character development, world design, various fun side activities, etc.; it makes sense to highlight the differences—for example, the combat seemed even more diverse and bold to me than in other parts where it was considered so before, simply because the four fighting styles differ fundamentally from each other in tasks and capabilities. Fighting bosses with a sword is also cool and authentic; every strike is felt, and overall the fights seemed more "piano-like" (complex) than usual.
There's a cool moment with "fighters"—when the plot provides an opportunity to put together a support squad of guys for each of your fighting styles, who boost your stats and give passives/actives to the already diverse combat.
The economy surprisingly pleased me—unlike in "regular" parts, there isn't such a huge income in money, but there are things to spend it on at any stage (mostly on crafting weapons/gear, as full equipment is implemented here along with a branched crafting system requiring lots of money and materials), while there are many possible sources of earnings, but most of them are inconsistent. This creates a cool feeling that you aren't throwing a spear 8/5, but are some historical warrior drifting through life, earning wherever possible for your necessary needs.
There is also friendship and reputation with NPCs, which later flowed in a modified form into Judgment, where you befriend them by visiting their establishment or doing things for them, eventually getting rewards or substories. Unlike Judgment, there's a bit of overkill here because there are too many potential friends, but on the other hand, no one forces you—go if you want, don't go if you don't. But when you've done a lot of good in one of the city districts, you can walk down the street and everyone bows to your feet. Actually, there is much more, but I'm too lazy to remember.
Overall, it's a bit grindy if you go for completion, but top-tier. A separate plus is being able to slap the same old British colonizer.
monochrome mobius
A "sort of" JRPG prequel to the masked Utawarerumono, about the life of Oshutoru and his buddies from the very bottom.
From a JRPG perspective, the same-game experience is probably more or less classic and normal; from mine—it's a bit weak. Ancient turn-based combat without movement; an unremarkable overworld—meaning both the general street where mobs are and the dungeons; side quests to bring resources or kill a mob, most of which lack any particular dialogue or story background; the biomes themselves are also poor in terms of variety—meadows and forests and that's it. I usually complain about the opposite effect, when games have mandatory lava, ice, desert, and forest biomes all neighboring each other and looking inorganic, but here it is actually maximally organic from a logic and world perspective, though it still looks poor. A separate joke is that the models of no-name NPCs in cities aren't just drawn indistinctly, Persona 5 style, but are actually deliberately made of ten polygons, underpainted, etc., as if they are just peasants beneath a major's feet.
But all this is first impression; over time, some individual features are noticed that do add something unique—for example, certain combat nuances like manipulating the same-turn and initiative, or suddenly realizing that almost the entire world consists of one seamless, long, huge external "street with mobs" to which cities and dungeons are attached, and that's sort of cool. These moments don't exactly make the gameplay much more fun, but at least they move its perception out of the "maximally default-skeleton" paradigm.
The first few hours are a slog, where given the above inputs there is minimum plot and maximum running through corridors with mobs, even with a decent amount of dialogue. But then, once the "prologue" is passed, everything shifts into masked-style mode, with a bunch of buddies, funny and silly (and in some places quite cultured) scenes, feelings of Slice of Life, liters of fanservice and references, and that already settles pleasantly on the soul. As always, excellently written core characters with their own motivations; some already familiar ones are fleshed out so that they can be viewed from a new angle—in short, it's up to par.
At this point, I regretted a couple of times that I started on normal instead of hard out of the two difficulties, because I had already gotten into the groove and the fights were too easy. But in the end, simply with the amount of grind required during the walkthrough, I think I made the right choice. I made up for the missing challenge toward the end when it was necessary (or possible) to farm several unique cryptids, which even on normal kicked my ass.
Overall, a fan of the title will enjoy it, especially if the gameplay doesn't bother them.
ghost of sushima
I adore typical third-person console open worlds with towers, question marks, and conveyor-belt side quests; I counted down the days until the release of this blinding wine, beloved by PlayStation fans, on PC—I even specifically bought a Soviet tear-off calendar for my wall; finally, I waited and was not disappointed.
Magnificent graphics, occasionally referencing the great Oblivion 4, caress the eye with their deliberate unkempt sloppiness designed to visually convey a heavy historical period, especially striking the imagination when you try to examine NPC models—in their deformed faces and mud-smeared low-poly clothes, one can really feel all the horror of that Japanese-Mongolian war. Fortunately, interiors in houses are practically absent, which allows one not to be distracted by fluff and fully devote oneself to contemplating the hills over which you'll have to gallop on a horse to the next marker.
The engaging combat hides behind external simplicity and four-button controls a maximally authentically conveyed samurai spirit of sword fighting—running into a group of enemies, parry a sword with one button, dodge a spear with a second, strike the body with a third, strike the shield with a fourth. Only by mastering these techniques can you consider yourself a master of bushido. And before the battle, you can challenge one of the opponents from the enemy pack to a duel, where you'll similarly need to press one button on timing to kill him. This doesn't get boring on the tenth, hundredth, or thousandth time.
The abundant number of interesting side quests is also very pleasing—here you need to follow a marker, here collect a collectible, over here you need to follow a marker again and press X, and here you need to follow a marker, collect a collectible, and then also press X. When the text "altars collected 1 out of 200" appears on the screen, you realize that the real world will lose you for a long time, but you'll return to it later as a veteran samurai, fully cultured in Japan according to American developers, having learned the secrets of existence.
The genius plot premise "Mongols arrived, now we fight" is wonderfully presented in rich dialogues brimming with an incomprehensible Eastern spirit: "we need to win back the island from the Mongols/defeat the bandits"—"yes, we should." Behind these seemingly routine words and the protagonist's monotonous answers, one acutely feels the burden placed on the shoulders of the unfortunate residents of Tsushima. The residents themselves, by their very nature, provide an excellent example of fortitude in the face of danger—during the time I played, I managed to meet three strong women who, contrary to all expectations, don't mince words and kill whole packs of Mongols no worse than any man; another one was mentioned in passing in a side quest that I didn't finish, and thus couldn't get to know her. It's a pity the men of Tsushima don't follow their example—two of them were captured, two more are incompetent, another is too rigid in his thinking, others have turned to banditry and betrayal, and of course the protagonist—a yesterday's boy tormented by doubts, unable to find an answer to the question: does the end justify the means used to achieve it?—and thus stains his samurai honor time and again with the lowest possible actions.
As a fan of typical console open worlds, I will give this product a solid, well-tailored 3.5/10 for the four hours I managed to play before clearing space on my hard drive, and I recommend it to everyone. Be sure to buy it with all DLCs and play—but only after registering in PSN, because otherwise this product will be unavailable to you on Steam—and enjoy this game of the year, or essentially a game from two years ago if you count the preliminary release of its beta version on PS4 several years earlier. And do not believe for a second those few negative reviews on Steam that you might see, as they were left by hater review-bombers raging solely at Sony's decision to move the game to PSN and do not reflect the actual state of affairs.
yakuza ishinn
It obviously doesn't compare to the Ghost of Kyiv; even real Japanese found it hard to beat such a hit, but as an enjoyer, it worked perfectly for me.
A Yakuza spin-off in historical times; as far as I understand without being an expert, it layers its plot with conditional assumptions over more or less real historical events, in which talking heads familiar from the series take the place of historical figures. In the prologue, it seemed to me that the plot would go in a cringey direction, but in the end, it wasn't so, and any occasionally popping up questionable questions were backed by hard logic.
There is no reason to once again dwell on things that are gold standards for the franchise like core character development, world design, various fun side activities, etc.; it makes sense to highlight the differences—for example, the combat seemed even more diverse and bold to me than in other parts where it was considered so before, simply because the four fighting styles differ fundamentally from each other in tasks and capabilities. Fighting bosses with a sword is also cool and authentic; every strike is felt, and overall the fights seemed more "piano-like" (complex) than usual.
There's a cool moment with "fighters"—when the plot provides an opportunity to put together a support squad of guys for each of your fighting styles, who boost your stats and give passives/actives to the already diverse combat.
The economy surprisingly pleased me—unlike in "regular" parts, there isn't such a huge income in money, but there are things to spend it on at any stage (mostly on crafting weapons/gear, as full equipment is implemented here along with a branched crafting system requiring lots of money and materials), while there are many possible sources of earnings, but most of them are inconsistent. This creates a cool feeling that you aren't throwing a spear 8/5, but are some historical warrior drifting through life, earning wherever possible for your necessary needs.
There is also friendship and reputation with NPCs, which later flowed in a modified form into Judgment, where you befriend them by visiting their establishment or doing things for them, eventually getting rewards or substories. Unlike Judgment, there's a bit of overkill here because there are too many potential friends, but on the other hand, no one forces you—go if you want, don't go if you don't. But when you've done a lot of good in one of the city districts, you can walk down the street and everyone bows to your feet. Actually, there is much more, but I'm too lazy to remember.
Overall, it's a bit grindy if you go for completion, but top-tier. A separate plus is being able to slap the same old British colonizer.
My sword, my trusted ally, unphased by my aspect.
