It's not even just that they learned to wear kevlar. That would be too simple. It's that they orchestrated the entire thing to make it seem one way without Saejima knowing. It's super convoluted. I could even deal with it if I thought it made Saejima better, but it actually made him less cool.

I still like the game, but that is probably my least favorite story twist in the entire series.

Yakuza 5 to me is representative of every thing Yakuza. All the good. All the bad. I spent 70 hours with it and I think it's a top 5 Yakuza (including Judgment, FoTNS, etc). Some people really hate it. I'm interested to see your take on it.

Dang. I don't remember having too much of an issue with Y4's combat. It's been a while though. Were you playing on a higher difficulty?

The story on the other hand I remember. Saejima has the best introduction ever and they perform complete character assassination by the end of the game. I actually try to pretend the whole rubber bullets thing isn't real.

Y5 also has some major story issues toward the end. Nothing as egregious, but it's still messy. Y5 has some of my favorite side content in the series though. It's not for everyone, but I loved every minute of it.

I never played SH4, but I remember every one hated it when it came out. Then the rest of the series happened and suddenly SH4 isn't so bad.

I played Homecoming. It's not that bad. It just retreads some SH1 and SH2 themes and story beats in a less interesting way.

I could write a 10 page essay on SH2. What it does, how it does it, and how it makes me feel. I will spare you though.

I will keep in mind that it's been over 20 years since it's release and every horror game since has been utilizing it's same themes ever since. At the time though, it was doing things no one else was in a way no one else had.

Except maybe the original Resident Evil 2, I do actually believe it's the best survival horror game ever made. The dungeon design, the story, the characters, pyramid head, no where, the way the endings work, that monster that's behind the prison cell, the well, Angela's fire, the hole that isn't there anymore, that room in the apartments that sometimes whispers to you and sometimes it doesn't, the box with the string. Just everything.

I respect your opinion. You're dead to me though.

I'm kidding. You going to play the remake? Any other games in the series after 3?

I know people that like SH2. I know people that don't like SH2. I don't think I've ever seen someone say that it's less nuanced. It's entire gimmick is how it's characters and story are dripping in so much nuance it's disgusting.

We just talk about certain games longer in general. My sister in particular played several games that are pretty mechanically dense, so there is a lot to talk about. We've also begun splitting the recording between two days, which I probably makes it easier to keep talking. By the end of the old recordings, we were ready to be done with it.

That's basically how I felt finishing it. It's just my least favorite Yakuza so far with some of my favorite characters. The only thing that kept me going was interactions between them.

They've been working the the new site for a long time now. I've messed around with it a bit and think it's going to be an upgrade in most respects. Still, it seems it's "going to be rolled out soon" all the time. So, I'm just going to be patient.

Hell yeah. Hope the Yakuza journey is a good one.

I think that was what I liked best about Desert Child. Just being in the world. The rest was whatever, but the world was pretty neat.

Yeah, it's an odd game. I think I end up liking Tanimura the best and then the establishment of Saejima (ignoring the character assassination moments). I want to like Akiyami, but something is off about his personality. Kiryu just exists.

I like the game, but it's probably the most standard Yakuza experience outside of having multiple characters, which is less exciting now than it was when Y4 originally released.

Oh. You weren't kidding. It's Yakuza time I see.

That's a lot of Yakuza.

I beat 6 last year. That felt like a lot. I wish you luck though.

It'll be done before you know it. Certainly before Infinite Wealth comes out.

Well, let's drive it home dude. Take it to the credits.

Don't worry, as long as I have Persona 4 up there you probably have time to catch up lol.

Merry Christmas!

Good luck with the gaming! Try and keep up.

I loved the original Half Life. I probably like it more than it's sequel. It does is weirdly hard and unbalanced in certain levels.

I've come to the realization over the years that usually within the first hour or two of a game you've seen pretty much the entire gameplay loop. If you don't like initially then you're probably going to continue to feel that way.

Yeah I can get the "must play classics" thing. I just made my way through Grim Fandango for the same reason. I can see why people liked it at the time, but it just didn't hold up to me.

Then why are you continuing to play it?