Just finished Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth on PS5 after 65 hours of playtime.

This game suffers from severe pacing issues by forcing you to do numerous side activities throughout the story. So many times I wanted to progress through the story, I was met by a substory or a side activity. It was just so annoying.

The last five chapters were an absolute blast as there were barely any side activities in the story missions. I did some of the story, then some substories, then some fun grinding and then continued with the story. This structure was much more enjoyable compared to my experience of the story missions previously.

The story itself was decent enough, but it wasn't anything to write home about. The plot just feels like more of the same from what we've seen in previous Yakuza games. What I did appreciate was the Hawaii setting. It reminded me of Okinawa, i.e. a more warm setting. On top of that, it was cool to play a Yakuza game that takes place in a different country. It felt like I was on vacation, which is fitting for the summer period.

I feel like I would've enjoyed this game much more had they not forced me to do so many side activities in order to progress the main story. My playthrough could've been 10-20 hours shorter if they had removed these sections, and I think 40-50 hours would've been a much more reasonable length for this game. Regardless, it was a fun game but it's hardly one of my favourite in the series.

With that said, I'm really looking forward to playing the next LAD game: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii. According to HLTB, the main story is 17 hours and 30 hours with extras. Now that's something I can get behind!

@LtSarge Replying before I forget (again) First off congrats on finishing the game. Like I said to you previously that game was such a journey for me and it was mostly down to how long it actually took to finish. The side content was welcome at first, then it just dragged on and because I yearn for completion and did go for one-hundred percent. It was such an ordeal, seeing all of that content, being there, doing it all. Once I finished I lay on the floor and told myself never again. I'm not sure about the plot when compared to the older games but I will say this for a newcomer it went above and beyond to introduce me to the characters, previous happenings and some of the history. For the rest I read about the history of the series/it's world in a book, published only in French so it's not widely available but I really liked it. I'm glad you stuck with it and powered through, I'm sure I played something really casual afterwards, probably a Paw Patrol game or the Cat Pirate one. It was such an exhausting experience, one we can now both share, survivors of one extremely long and drawn out game. What's up next or are you still recovering?

@GirlVersusGame Haha yeah, I sure am glad that I managed to survive after all of that.

Thanks! It's absolutely crazy how you managed to do everything in the game. I never would've had the patience for that. So definitely major props to you! For me, I still can't believe this game is over. It was the only thing I've been playing for probably a month now. I am going to miss the characters, but I'm definitely relieved it's over.

One thing I'm curious about: what entailed you to jump into the series with this entry and not the first one? I'm also curious if you will be checking out other Yakuza games and if so, it would be interesting to hear your thoughts and comparisons to Infinite Wealth. Yakuza games are infamous for taking a long time to 100% complete, just so you know.

I really am in a mood to play something new right now but I'm unsure what. I was planning on grabbing a month of Game Pass Ultimate just to play Halo this week and Beast of Reincarnation next week, but now I feel like clearing out my backlog some more. I'm thinking maybe a shooter like DOOM (2016) or Wolfenstein II. Also, all our talk about Sonic has gotten me in the mood for it. I might give Sonic x Shadow Generations a shot in all honesty, since it's on PS+ Extra. We'll see!

@LtSarge One thing I'm curious about: what entailed you to jump into the series with this entry and not the first one?

• This won't be the answer you were expecting but if you know a game called eenie meenie miny moe? That's often how I select what games to play, or I write them on paper then mix them up, close my eyes and pick one. The other option is to accept recommendations from people, which I've been doing for months. I look at Plus+ as a kind of extension of that system. I could play any game at any time on any system but my wires are a little crossed and an abundance of choice has left it extremely difficult for me to choose things for myself. Most of the games I enjoyed last-year and this year were Plus+ titles. When I first started gaming it was more about having things because they were there and because I could, the result was very little ever got played. I see hints of the same thing when talking to people on here 'too many games not enough time', I had both and spent more time trying to decide what to play than actually playing them. In a way it destroyed Triple-A games for me, or big titles in general.

Narrative plays into it too, some games have huge open-worlds, others have huge story driven narrative, sometimes it gets lost in translation, other times it's emotions and not really understanding what they character is experiencing or why. It makes it easier to avoid games when I know a game has both an open-world and a lot of complex narrative. Yakuza was for me exposure therapy, the urban open-world was a nightmare agoraphobia and the narrative was intense and really taxing. I didn't do it for fun, I wanted to put myself in a really uncomfortable situation and see how I fared. Everything I read said the game was sometimes hard to follow, a little convoluted and packed with side-content. I knew my something for completion would kick in too so I'd have to not only finish the game but all of the content too. In hindsight it wasn't healthy but I did appreciate the characters, some story-beats and even related closely to one character which was entirely unexpected, dialogue was word for word how I explained certain things to someone, it was a little freaky. I'd gone in there expecting a culture clash along with the usual world clash from most games. Instead it was a little more forgiving.

I wish I could say something else drew me to the game, it really was just way to push some boundaries and try to experience something fun at the same time. Some of it really was fun and I think the (turn-based?) combat really complimented the approach and made it more manageable, it allowed me to go at my own pace and provided some fun moves/weapons/costumes/etc, things stayed interesting. I generally don't seek a series out, it's often just the luck of the draw.

Genre is different. I do experiment with different types, that's how I found games like Disgaea 5, Unicorn Overlord, Slay the Spire, Vampyre Survivors, and so many others but there is a kind of blind leap with every game I play even Palworld. I didn't know Pokemon when I found Palworld on Steam, I only knew Sylveon and the rest was and still is a mystery. For The King 2 another recent Plus+ game was completely blind and I did enjoy it. I think also because my old Clan only played shooters it limited my exposure to the existence of other genres. I'm behind on almost every flagship franchise.

I wasn't seeing games on the news (if that's a thing?) or visiting sites like this, so when I stopped gaming with other people all of these new genres exploded like the Big Bang and I'm still slowly catching-up, but because that universe is expanding (constantly) I'm sort of randomly grasping titles and genres as they come in and out of view. I can't name another Yakuza game, or guess how many there are, but like most blind picks it didn't disappoint. I suppose in a way it all goes back to using technology/gaming to better understand certain things and build skills. Like what you said about your own experience in a previous thread. I'd like to say I game for fun, I try to, I'm mainly there for task completion and that feeling of having eared something. Yakuza was one of the biggest 'you did it', feelings associated to a game in a very long time and I really respect the game because of that.

I checked and after Yakuza I discovered walking simulators (because of TheSolut1on) they were perfect for recovering from Yakuza. I think you'd appreciate Edith Finch/Everybody's Gone to The Rapture, if you haven't already tried them, The Invincible was fantastic too. Either of the three might help with keeping busy but not over taxing yourself either, they were to me about living in the now and offered something really special.

I will neither confirm nor deny. What I will do, however, is continue to hope you enjoy!

And thanks for tagging me on that front page story about Catalyst as well, as it served as a heads-up about the news and you're right, now there's no need to rush! Although I'm assuming that means you're not all that interested in Legacy of Atlantis, perhaps because it's a remake...?

@Werehog Well I’d definitely play Legacy of Atlantis but I’ll probably have to wait until it hits PS Plus or something, especially if second hand discs are becoming a thing of the past!

Beat the final boss (not the real final boss) on Returnal earlier today and completed Act 1. Quite an achievement for me as I've bounced off the game more than a couple of tines... Checked the in game counter and it said I'd died 37 times and played for a total of 21hours or so... Not too bad. Weirdly it also took me around four and a half years to do which is slightly less impressive timescale! Still I had given up on the game a few times so I'm only on here as I'm pleased with myself for going back and getting to grips with it.
Reckon it took me maybe 10-15 attempts to get past the first boss, around 3-4 to beat the second then did the third/final (not final) on the first attempt. Think I got a bit lucky with the weapons, artefacts and parasites I had picked up but it did feel good at the time.

Anyhow got to see some plot and then dumped back on the planet which has somehow now changed and become a bit swampy and overgrown. Looking forward to getting back to it.

@sorteddan
Great stuff, Returnal is brilliant and I found that once you start having the majority of guns levelled up then it gets much easier, or I just got gud but I doubt that,
The first boss is very much like the first mandatory boss in Bloodborne, a royal pain in the behind and I always fail to understand why the devs do things like that.
PS the first boss took me a couple of goes so perhaps I was always gud but I doubt that and was probably lucky.

@LtSarge LaD: Hawaii Pirates (or whatever the official name is) is just fantastically silly fun. The Yakuza/LaD games can get silly in places but the juxtaposition against some of the seriousness it what makes it so unique but fully leaning into it is also great fun.

The return to the more button mashing combat was quite nice and the two combat styles work well. The story is alright but does tie into the LaD games nicely and they reuse the Hawaii locations well but also have huge new areas.

I hope you enjoy it!

@Thrillho I'm going to be honest, while I enjoy turn-based RPGs, it just doesn't fit this series. It just doesn't feel as intense with turn-based compared to real-time combat. Not to mention that it takes away the seriousness when you suddenly transform into cowboys, idols or what have you.

To be fair, the Yakuza series has always been silly but the turn-based aspect just takes me out of the experience completely, unfortunately..

Thanks, I'm looking forward to it!

Just finished DOOM (2016) on PS5. Fantastic game, albeit it did get a bit repetitive towards the end. Also, I encountered a bug where I killed the final boss but I didn't get the death animation and so I had to restart the fight. Kinda annoying, but at least it didn't ruin my overall experience.

Again, it's really cool that I've finally played this game after all these years. Looking forward to checking out DOOM Eternal in the future.

@LtSarge Just saw this after already responding on the other thread. I’m glad you ended up liking the game. As I mentioned over there, I think Eternal is a longer game, and so I have been worried about the repetitiveness being a bigger issue on it. I’ll be curious to hear how you like it when you get to it.

@Th3solution The thing is that with 2016, it basically introduces all enemy types and weapons in the first half of the game. So the only thing keeping things fresh in the second half is upgrading your arsenal and experimenting with whichever weapon mod that's the most appealing one to you. But once I found my favourite weapon loadouts, there wasn't much else to try out. The boss fights in the second half did make things more interesting though!

I think if Eternal spreads things out a bit more, it could make for a more consistent experience from beginning to end despite the increased length. I'll just have to see once I get around to it!

@LtSarge I believe I heard that Eternal also introduces a lot more verticality to the levels, with a grappling hook too, if I recall correctly. Dark Ages also evolved the gameplay as well, although to mixed reviews. So there’s a decent chance that it they will feel fresh.

If you enjoyed the dynamic nature of the DOOM gameplay, I can recommend Returnal and Saros, if you’ve not tried those yet. Like I mentioned, there’s a lot of differences with the third person viewpoint and the whole roguelike/lite nature, so not sure if that will click with you, but it feels so incredibly good to play, with such smooth and constantly moving combat. Keep those in mind after playing a turn based, or other slow paced game like a walking sim or story game to mix things up.

@Th3solution I think Returnal was actually the very first "actual" game I played on my PS5 (besides Astro's Playroom) when I first got the system. Fantastic experience, albeit very tough. Definitely looking forward to playing Saros down the line as well.

@LtSarge @Th3solution Eternal had a bit too much platforming for me which is not what those game are about. I was also disappointed with the overall story which is also something you don't play DOOM games for but I thought 2016 had an interesting story without getting too bogged down.

@Werehog Tagging you here as we talked about Shadow Generations in another thread.

So I just finished Shadow Generations on PS5. First of all, I'm glad that Sonic x Shadow Generations was added to PS+ Extra as I probably wouldn't have bothered buying the game just to get access to Shadow Generations since I've already experienced Sonic Generations.

This new content was absolutely phenomenal, it pretty much felt like its own game. Shadow plays very differently from Sonic as he has different moves and abilities. It made the gameplay more compelling compared to Sonic, as you can't just boost through every level. The levels were brilliantly designed and the story was great. I genuinely adore Shadow's backstory, I just can't get enough of the times he says "Maria!". I have to say it with him every time, lol.

I dare say that I enjoyed Shadow Generations more than Sonic Generations. It's just more refined. Even the hub area was fun to run around in, instead of being on a 2D plane like in Sonic.

@GirlVersusGame We talked about Sonic music the other day. If you're interested in checking out a Sonic game, then I highly recommend Sonic x Shadow Generations. If you have PS+ Extra, then it's available there.

@LtSarge Sorry notifications got away from me again, I need to get back to civilization and off of the internet. It is a kind of unique time for the industry at the moment so there's that too. I do have that tier of Plus+ and did see it listened then thought 'I bet Sarge mentions it' and you did. I really need to power through the originals on the PS4 Sega Collection. Games back then weren't easy, but the collection does offer saving/rewinds (no more mistakes) so I really should try again. It looks like (checking) Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic the Hedgehog 2, Sonic 3D Blast, Sonic Spinball, Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine, were all included. No Sonic 3 or Sonic and Knuckles. Still a great collection which is probably why it was delisted so fast, you can still buy a physical copy on eBay/etc.

Defeated Ophion (second attempt), completed Act 2 and saw credits roll on Returnal.... So I guess that's an ending of sorts though I don't think I'll be done with it for a while. This game still looks and plays amazingly, even if it does unfairly kick my backside sometimes!

Can't believe I put in on the backburner for so long. Convinced myself I was nowhere near competent enough to survive the game but I think it's probably a mindset thing as much as a game difficulty thing. Glad I gave it another chance and looking forward to see what the next run wants/needs me to do.

@sorteddan
Well done Dan, it really is an awesome game and the free dlc is very much worth playing, don’t worry though as it is easier than the main game.
Generally I thought the difficulty of Returnal was very much overstated, I’m rubbish at bullet hell stuff and fail hard when the bullet colours mix things up, however I found Returnal quite manageable although there was a biome (5 I think) which I thought was grossly unfair.

My latest game completed is Avatar which was better the more you played.