Yakuza 5 remastered - Review

Its called Yakuza 5 because it has like FIVE layers of padding.

Genre: Brawler/adventure.

Developer/publisher: Sega.
Platform: PS4.
Official Site: N/A.

Release date: 11-2-2020.

 

After a brief rest and finishing up some substories in Y4 at premium adventure I decided

to get started on the next yakuza game! also I honestly wasn't even sure what else to play

right now but Y4 triggered some kind of itch which lighted a fire in me to get started on Y5.

Pro's

- Fun cast of characters and decent build up of the plot to go along with it.

- Great cinematography, its at its best here.

- Lots of side content if you know where to look.

- There is a pause menu.

Con's

- Length is a double edged sword, kinda overstayed its welcome for me.

- Padding, terrible pacing; especially in the finale.

- High encounter rate, there's item that reduce it but I only found them for Kiryu none with others

so it was pretty much suffering with other chara's. Why are there items to increase it? it high enough.

- Can't make clear save in premium adventure to carry over to NG+.

 

Let's get started with mostly good things.

The game left a pretty positive impression on me right from the bat

they really improved upon the previous two ps3 era games.

The cutscene direction, general gameplay it all feels real smooth now, especially

coming from Y3 and Y4, the latter already improved but this is chef's kiss.

There also appears to be significantly more voice acting so its no longer

going from no voices in a scene to a fmv with them. I will add that

you should becareful with pressing x during VN-like scenes as it does stop VA.

Another good point would be they finally allow us to pause the game during scenes

and you won't need to flip a switch in the main menu to skip them.

If only Y3 and Y4 had it but alas... those games show their age more than Y5 does.

Thank god because some scenes were quite long!

The story did seem to have a slow start but it did have some hooks

which kept me interested, this game however does start with Kiryu or rather

with him under a different name. He became a taxi driver known as Taichi Suzuki

but alas he shall never know peace because the yakuza can't behave for one minute.😩

The only downside is some pacing issues and some parts draggin on but still the presentation

was good like miles better than y3&4 so I mostly had a good time going through it.

Me neither man...

 

This game uses Y4's system of viewing the story from multiple characters

but by the time I was in Shinada's story it kinda felt like the dev's didn't even

wanted the player to finish the game, I mean what you end up playing as a guy with

a funny personality but is weak as fuck and he has no money. Everything is painful

while I am looking forward to what the game was building up to there's

shit unfolding with a brand new character that may be related?! damn.

Probably came off wrong somewhere in here but Y5 is still pretty good its just

very ambitious in what it tries to do, it either has you hooked or you slog through it.

I already started forgetting important story bits by the time I got to the finale. So maybe

it was a bad idea to waste 5+ hours on batting side stories and training Shinada.😅

That's like admiting you like older women...

The finale itself was long and I think the game was actually overstaying its welcome

which is sad since I was having such a pretty good time with it.

It took me 50 hours to complete the game with some side stuff sprinkled in here and there

yep this game is no joke, its twice as long as Yakuza 1 through 4. Even 0 feels short in comparison.

Don't forget to stock up on staminans/potions.

Gameplay wise its pretty much identical to Y4 everyone has their own style

and most characters don't feel any weaker, Kiryu was as strong as ever

however it was so obvious Shinada was the weakest out of all of them. 

Some substories were fun but most weren't very memorable except for a few.

The ones I liked would be little match girl, ending up dressed as a santa and uh the delivery guy

who forced Saejima to walk 5 meters to deliver someone his food, shit was hilarious.

 Kiryu helping some poor sob with his exams by being an emergency tutor

was pretty funny too, other substories just weren't that memorable.

There really wasn't much to share, most of Kiryu's substories felt like jokes or callbacks

to ones in earlier games like hey its that scam again. I did like the one with an

NPC who's also called Haruka who had a dog too. Unfortunatly by the end of the game

it took looking at old screens to even remember it. So most really are just nice in the moment.

For others it be like Haruka almost got scammed into buying something

or another were was picked by a crowd to do some signing on the street. Ok.jpg

I did like the one where she had to help find some random photographer taking pictures

of her and another of an interview were the interviewers were totally not people

 she knew. Dancing Akiyama was also something we needed as well...

Shinada's were either funny or wholesome, he had spunk and was surprisingly

self aware despite also being kinda shitty, i'll let others be the judge of him.

There's side stories with special missions attached to them like Kiryu has taxi missions 

for some were you had to drive and an urgent fare was by far the worst but there's also a few

were you just chat with the passenger and Kiryu just autodrives.

Saejima has some hunting side stories which I never really finished

since while you can go back to the place I honestly couldn't be arsed.

I also couldn't be bothered with Haruka's side story which relates to Akari

to do it you have to do dance battles with NPC's a whole lot. No thanks.

The only training I finished was with Yoko for Haruka and others I couldn't be arsed

like I could not believe what Igarashi tried to make me do to lvl up Shinada's batting skills

but I managed to do most of them except the last which was enough for his sidestories

to the point I never had to buy any batting equipment. Wew saved me some monies!

Yep that's right the only sidestory I finished was for the hobo ex-baseball player.

Also Tatsuya was annoying, apparently this guy is based on some IRL celebrity

but he overstayed his welcome and doing his training was too repetitive, it may be useful

on higher difficulties or for some boss fight though, sadly the buff you gain is only temporary. 

I only completed Tatsuya's training for Shinada because he was weaker than the others

but honestly I can't tell if it was worth it or if I should have just drinked more potions.

There was this Ayanokoji guy and while the scenes were fun the training part

was not and just unfun, i'm not here for a hit and run session for 20 minutes

so I never finished that either like most other trainers.

Revelations returned as well but everyone only had like one or so due to substories

and sidestories existing its only natural there's less of it so it didn't bother me.

Honestly due to the plot being full of revelations itself it makes sense there wasn't a whole lot.

Yea she had one too, don't ask.

 

The new locations/cities were nice to explore, they weren't as big

as kamurocho but Tsukimino looked really nice. 

The streets were really pretty with those lights.

Kineicho, also had some nice sights to see.

I did think the encounter rate was a bit high though like one time I got out of a fight

and went straight into another.  There's items to increase it but I don't think you

would want that, unfortunately the item that reduced it was on Kiryu so I was 

suffering as Saejima a lot cuz punks kept picking fights. When I was in premium adventure

and tried to  do some more things it really did not seem to matter if I had them on

like holy shit so many fights right after another, I started thinking maybe it is

related to the lucky system but even with good luck and the thing on it was miserable.

I miss Yakuza 4's encounter rate it, seemed reasonable compared to this game.

TL;DR

No it isn't someone died there. /s

 Overall there's a lot going on but if you're just here for Kiryu you may like the first few hours

but then its 20+ hours without Kiryu. I didn't always have the same level

of investment or ability to care as much about the stories, it got good at times

but there were times it just dragged on. So you could say it has ups and downs.

Throughout I found myself caring about characters that wasn't Kiryu...

who felt like a stranger in his own game, it was like that in 4 as well

but for some reason I didn't mind him being a side character once.

Here you start with Kiryu and then its like 4 layers of padding, some of it is interesting

but near the end I couldn't keep track of everything happening and even forgot things.

Like characters that showed up along the way so by the end I was going

yea that guy but ugh... so and so right? it was painful.

Still the story did have hold on me because I constantly looked forward to what was next.

Shinada's story was the only time I got sidetracked.  It may not have been off

to the greatest of starts but I loved his minigames!

Y5 is a pretty good follow up but may also be overstaying its welcome and there's a lot that

could seem random as you progress even though most of it ties together pretty well.

There's also so much side content its easy to get overwhelmed but I wasn't here

for most of it so I only did what I wanted to do and moved on with the story.

Completionist may suffer with Yakuza 5... because there is a lot to do

honestly due to that I can't recommend doing everything as soon as you can.

The plot is already complicated as is so you will likely lose all threads you caught thus far

so only thing I can recommend is just do some substories here or there along the way

and save the rest for a second play or premium adventure. Speaking of you can't

make a clear save in it unlike previous games, they had 1 job here but they couldn't do it.

7/10

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I'll write a little more after the jump which is mostly character related there's not many spoilers

but I had to vent a little about the finale so here's the usual spoiler warning!

Yakuza 4 Remastered - Review

The Yakuza FOUR.

 Genre: Brawler/adventure.

Developer/publisher: Sega.
Platform: PS4.
Official Site: N/A.

Release date: 29-10-2019.

 

Alright, its time to get started on the next Yakuza game which is 4!

This game stars 4 different protagonists so it not just Kiryu anymore

as he is being joined by 3 more lads or like a dragons.

 

Also if you're wondering how I finsihed this game so fast, that's cuz 1; Yakuza games

aren't that long to begin with. 2; i'm not out to be a completionist so I can clear them within

reasonable amount of time. 3; I actually started this while on Eli/Finn's route in honey vibes.

 

Pro's

- Decent story, and good pacing.

- The four main characters were all great.

- Substories were fun, as well as the dialogue.

 

Con's

- No way to pause during cutscenes/fmv's.

- Certain aspects during Saejima's part such as a certain boss.

- NPC's could have used a remaster treatment as well...

Story is a direct sequel to 3 but trouble brews again in the underworld

and some people get to the bottom of it, Kiryu gets involved as well.

Due to that this game is incredibly hard to recommend to start with as it just builds on too much

that is already established. TBH just go at your own pace and if you're here for the main

story + some substories, it shouldn't be taking someone that long to begin with.

Moving on: This game does not start with Kiryu however, it starts with a guy 

named Shun Akiyama and you won't be playing as the same guy for too long

unless you really are going to complete every substory as they drop.

Akiyama was being real right from the start and he's never going to get more real.

Rather than switching through characters like in Yakuza 0 you stick with one character

till his part is finished before moving to the next chapter featuring another.

I quite liked this since it kept stuff consistent, sadly if you don't do substories

the chapters can at times feel hilariously short and at times there's not even a moment

to do them, thankfully you can do them in the final chapter

where you can switch to whoever you fancy at will.

At first I thought there was a decent amount of voiced scenes but it seems

the amount of scenes that're unvoiced increased as the game went on. 

So it pretty much like a trails game where there's some occasional important

cutscene with voice and the rest is... unvoiced till its time to up the budget with an fmv.

Moving on to better points; the encounter rate wasn't as high as Y3 and thus I didn't

fight as many punks on the streets which was honestly a relief. Enemies still block

but battles didn't feel nearly as drawn out as in Y3 which is all a plus in my book.

Revelations are also back but I didn't do them all, this time it was easy to overlook them

and you didn't always get a notication when they popped up but I got most of them

for Shun, Tanimura and one for Saejima in the finale.

Everyone also did a unique pose and way to remember it, Shun was like Kiryu

but Tanimura used his notebook and fucking Saejima just carved some wood.

  I actually liked that Kiryu seemed to remember his revelation moves from Yakuza 3

and he really is like a big guy now who's stronger than most. He only

 got two because of it while the others get like 4 or so.

For a PS3 game it all looked pretty great to me, I wasn't even hard

on Y3's graphics to begin with but its all a step into a better direction.

I did think the the graphic model of main characters vs npc's was a bit jarring

like npc's look like hobo as their outfits are lowpoly while the mc's look like kings.

---Hotspring. No better screenshot than to illustrate the hobo npc design even Hana looks better

 

In regards to gambling minigames.

Substories: The first one I did was quite a lengthy one, not a quick&dirty

over in 5 minutes but literally 20minutes of teaching some guy how to run

a business and sometimes you gotta downsize. It was an experience indeed, sadly

it had a lot of sequels so I was kinda tired of that one by the time it was finally over.

Anyway most were good and made me laugh at some of the funny dialogue

sure there's a few that overstayed there welcome or just boring ones but I can't complain.

Tanimura: Record scratch *freeze frame* how did I get into this situation?!

More ramblings after the jump, there's not really any plot spoilers.

   --------------------------------------------------------------------------

 I gotta say I liked Shun Akiyama, idk if he's popular but wouldn't be surprised if he was.

I was pretty much hooked to the story right from the first chapter as well

and the scene direction/graphics all are a step up from Yakuza 3.

Looking back at this scene now I am hurt man....

I had no issue's with the pacing as well, sadly there's no way to pause during

cutscenes still which is really the only downside I noticed within an hour of play.

Shun is all kicks and no punches I kinda laughed at this cuz back in Y2kiwami

all I did was run around kicking and screaming but his style is actually really nice

and didn't feel barebones, Shun's a professional kickboxer. My only real complaint

about Shun is that he smokes too much like damn he's a walking fumigator.

Did they really start a chapter with a fucking meme?!

For Shun's part, I didn't dislike the story being told, there were obvious

hints at there being more to it, him as a character was quite interesting as well.

Kiryu took a while to grow on me like multiple games but Shun did it with one game.😅

The ending of the game also made me ship Akiyama with Hana-chan a bit more

but it seems they're going for the comedic aspect of it, still better than nothing! 

Also I liked the one substory where she told him he had 30min's to find a guy

who liked girls like her. It was a bit of a hassly but definitely one of the better ones.

In premium adventure aka a mode where you can free roam and play as whichever

guy you want and do substories/minigames or completionist stuff I noticed that a lot

of Shun's substories are all crammed into his office so god forbid you wanted to do

substory B but then you trigger A or C instead cuz they all started or reconvened there.

Everything just stacks on top of each other in one zone till you do it which is actually

very reflective of the state of his office, yea just dropping that in here.

ANYWAYS while I do like Shun, finishing some more substories

with him made me realize I don't like him that much, he's cool but often

seems to know everything a little too well like he already has it figured all out

but since his heart is in the right place ends up doing more good than bad.

That's likely why he's so likable and I can't hate the guy, so don't get me wrong.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

 Taiga Seajima: Unfortunately this is where it took a slight nose dive in terms of enjoyment.

The initial cutscenes started with a bang but then it was just so long before you could save

because it turned into a movie. It also took me 5 to realize Hamazaki was our buddy here

and oh man this guy well okay he definitely redeemed himself a little! LMAO.

Anyway it seems the dev's really liked that one show called prison break huh?!

that part actually sucked donkey balls cuz early game Saejima is pretty weak

but gets better with upgrades, Saito was such a shitty boss and way overtuned making

the whole segment unfun cuz you couldn't even take a break inbetween.

So you had to have an hour or two to play through it comfortably. I lost count of how much

you had to fight Saito, I'm sure it was 3 times no 4 if we count dodging a sniper.

Then the second Saejima chapter is essentially a giant cutscene with 1 boss fight

so uh yea we almost had another chapter 9 the plot except without infodumping.

LMAO holy shit, Saejima's segment was just such a disaster and definitely one of those

parts of a game you never want to go through ever again, so replays never work out.

His story isn't necessarily terribly written but... its just a pain to play through it.

This substory was funny atleast too bad I couldn't finish it till the finale

which I did while stocking up on potions for him.😔

Kitten's were a sight of comfort really... who wouldn't save them?!

I could have named them Kiryu and Majima but eh... I like other characters too.

I'm joking but yea these screens below go hilariously well without context.

At the end of day I actually felt bad for Saejima and Y4 may have been

his game but he couldn't do it alone and he wasn't alone he made allies and friends

which considering everything that happened is what tugs my heartstrings a little.

Edit: I actually finished like all of his substories in premium adventure

and gotta say his were pretty good, brother and sister was a bit long but

liked it more than the Shiobara stuff. Also that green thing... bothers me.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Masayoshi Tanimura: This guy I had my eyes on ever since he briefly popped in

during Shun's story cuz what a hot stud. His voice actor was changed to Toshiki Masuda

due to some scandal, someone I haven't heard in quite a while too which was nice.

I liked his rough OWARI DA whenever you successfully completed a chase

and well his voice did suit Tanimura so IMO they did not choose the wrong seiyuu.

Tanimura is a rather bad cop who goes and play mahjong on duty LMAO.

I loved his character because he is extremely self aware, also he's not that bad since there

were times he knows how to do his job. Tanimura walks the line of the grey area

with almost perfect balance. He's such a bad boy and he knows it!

Wtf was that substory man... felt like an episode out of a tv show.

I also did more substories during his part than Akiyama or Saejima combined.

Also you think Tanimura is a bad cop, its hilarious how much of a good boi he is

to what was revealed in his story like oh man... where do I start?

Alright.

 Tanimura was a character that was just a delight to see, makes you realize that while not all

cops are good even the ones that slide slightly into darkness still have light within them.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Kiryu... well it is been four games so its only natural he had to wait for his turn

and watch 3 chapters go by for once. Grandpa Kiryu: Its been 48 years...

I thought that his story was the shortest by far but then again I did not stop to do any

substories and just trucked through sadly this meant Kiryu's part 4 was a little harder.

But eh its okay I welcome a lil challenge & you get enough exp during it, just

make sure to buy some healing pot's and you're good to go! I did do some of

Kiryu's substories in the finale, some were funny like the curry adventure & tubby guy

the former was actually annoying because I was like what if it just goes cold on the way back?

so I just rushed over there as fast as I could like Kiryu's ass was on fire.

Also the fake kiryu was around again and all I can say is hope he learned this time!

Okay my dude...

The  dialogue really was selfaware in this game... holy shit.

---

OMG all I did was some substories and stock up on potions and this scene

happened when I got back to new serena...

NGL it caught me off guard but it was funny as heck cuz everyone reacted

in their own way and Kiryu is just as stoic as ever and just gently carried on.

Unfortunately Kiryu really was just a side character in this game

but it was nice to have him back and that he still retained his skills

like he was the only one that already had skills unlocked.

I can see why some people are disappointed Kiryu did not do much

but let's be real he did take a backseat but still affected things and stepped in accordingly

and after three games (4 if we include 0) its only a good thing this happened.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Also got my ass beaten at pingpong when I randomly visited that hotspring place

due to thinking I had to go in there from the police radio jitter Tanimura gets.

But eh is it really an L if you get headpatted after a loss? 

Awww...

---

Final thoughts

WTF why was this game such a goldmine?!

 Well I think I may have found another favorite yakuza game!

maybe it was because of the many perspectives but the characters, pacing

and overall plot was pretty engaging and I was hooked.

The twist was fun this time and I chuckled a bit, its honestly amazing

how they used what they had written as a foundation to craft Yakuza 4's story.

Sure I didn't like Saejima's part as much but I didn't dislike him as a character and

at first I was indifferent towards him but by the end of his part I liked him.

Akiyami was also pretty fun! as was Tanimura he made me caw at the audicity he has.

Tanimura's final fight was not fun at all it was the hardest

for stupid reasons, with ball's out kido being the easiest atleast for me.

Tanimura's probably my favourite out of all of them and Shun's a close second

like they both had really great lines, comedy gold both mainstory and sub.

Yakuza politics this time felt minimal which is maybe why I enjoyed it as much as I did

even tho some scenes were long there were no long infodumps. All was paced well.

The only thing I didn't understand was the post credit scene, it seems like a hook for Y5...

also while this game concluded itself decently enough it didn't do it as good as Y2.

Yea you got to name it and I chose Rikiya, may he become a true viper.

 Also I really liked the way you level up in this game, it adds more of an RPG feel to it

as well as oh yea can go learn new skills now only to realize you are still missing an orb or two.

Substories were more quality rather than quantity this time and added a bit more perspective

to things and aren't just quick&dirty weird stuff going on. There's still funny ones but it seems

they're becoming side stories now with the amount of text. Despite some gripes almost

everything about this game was great and I generally had a good time with it!

8.5/10

Anyway the addition of other perspectives prevented it from getting stale after 3 games with

just Kiryu, speaking of he did feel like a supporting character at first but its nice to see

the baton being passed to others. Also when Kiryu had his appearances it was always great.

 

I'm definitely up for the sequel some day but not anytime soon, I need a breather.

I also found out Y5 is one of the longer games surpassing 0 in length, maybe later!

most games so far have been 20 hours at best and I do really like how RGG studios

is able to tell a story within that time and keep adding to it in meaningful ways.

Like I can just boot this game up in the evening, play a little and just enjoy the chara's & story.

 

I'll see what other games I still want to play but all in good time, as much as I liked

how I just casually started this game I don't want to do this a lot.

2-11-24 edit: Added few more screenshots and fix some minor things.

Honey Vibes - Review

Honey, there's landmines on da beach.

Genre: VN.

Developer/publisher: Otomate.
Platform: Switch.
Official Site: https://www.otomate.jp/honey_vibes/

VNDB: https://vndb.org/v49600

Release date: 3-10-2024.

 

I wasn't originally going to get this but after the last game I played

something like this seemed appropiate, the premise sounded fun tbh.

Moeyo otome doushi fell off the radar after I learned its really short

so I just decided this would be the last otome of the year instead.

 

Pro's

- Fluffy and Spicy; romance oriented otome game.

- Character focused rather than plot focused.

- Length; doesn't overstay its welcome.

- Gorgeous art & music fits the vibe.

 

Con's

- Plot isn't really its strong point, its hidden away in a corner called the finale.

- Some of the less than good ends can be a killjoy.

 .

Artstyle is pretty unique, at first reminded me of bad apple wars/dairoku but its

not the same artist, I guess its because the eyes and it having a similar look.

While most CG's were gorgeous there were a bunch with weird angles

or with the heroines face not shown or it cutoff near the edge but everyone

had a decent amount so I didn't mind if it that much. I will say that there was

one thing that I find unnacceptable and Theo was a victim of it. One of his ending CG's was not

positioned right which is a criminal offense, I could see another background behind the CG.

Another gripe is that they weren't evenly spread out through the routes and in some cases

there were a lot of them right after the other like at the end of Elijah's route.

Music is nice and felt really relaxing and gave it chill vibes

but I wasn't sure what was with the ar tonelico/NIER bgm's as this

made it seem more ambitious than it was.

Plot:

The protagonist Nagisa seems to be a pretty normal girl going about her day

till she rescues an animal CV:Toriumi Kousuke (Hello Simeon from Kai no kiseki!)

Something appears to be up and Nagisa starts tripping and next she finds herself

in a room full of antique with an unusual chessboard; usually the pawns are only

for two people but this board is for three? weird. The furball introduces himself as Colt

and the room they're in is some sort of space between worlds so he offers her a chance

since Nagisa seems to be a kind person that he wants to place his faith in.

Colt has basically chosen her to help save beings like himself

and hopes that she can offer them happiness till the last moment.

Next she wakes up she is in another world called Libalium and Colt isn't a

furball anymore and a human with wings as ears (Like Meteion I suppose...?) 

Colt is more or less like a priest or kind of like a god.

Meanwhile Nagisa just thinks she is having a dream, lol.

Colt tries to explain she is in another world, and she's not dreaming

and eventually meets a bunch of guys who live in that world.

At first Nagisa doesn't have any idea what is going on really and the games begin.

 ---

 

I liked Nagisa, her reactions to some things were quite natural but I wish she had

a sprite in the corner, its weird since when you go to the backlog she has a sprite there.

She could seem a bit unsure in the beginning but there were times she really shined.

 

With there being a game going on and all I think this game was shameless

about the fact that this was a reverse harem, boys don't fight over me but

then it is literally about that since Nagisa fell into the role of queen

and most guys are divided into different camps red,black and white. 

Nagisa basically made it so the guys have to convince her to choose them

and well gonna say some of the guys had varying levels of how they went about it.

Honey Vibes was for the most part a fun isekai, there's a sense of seriousness but it also

doesn't take itself too serious and just rolls with what it tried to do without shame.

It wasn't too long or that anything dragged, the game's length is fine. Common route introduces

things and there's enough time to get a feel of everyone's personality before going into a route.

Sadly the bad ends were such a killjoy idk what but had I gotten them by accident

the mood would be ruined and I don't think I would even want to see the best end.

This game shared some writers with 9rip and it definitely had a little bit of suspense

so I can see why this game suddenly went off the rails but still I don't remember

9rip being as bad as this?! the bad ends in honey vibes legit killed the mood.

While I won't complain about there being different outcomes some felt out of place or a bit

extreme and not what I initially came here for or fit with the setting. I will admit I didn't

do a lot of research on Honey Vibes but expected it to be dark was the last thing on my mind.

How interesting the plot in the route was varied a lot since Honey Vibes focused more

on romance and the character's personal issue than whatever plot there was which felt

like an after thought to me in routes such as Alvin. Finn's route complimented Alvin's

in a way its like the otherside of the same coin, both routes also had great romance.

 In some routes the bad ends are also worse  like Eno for example. Milo's route still good

not just in terms of romance but since I understood more in the grandscheme of things

and unlike other routes, Milo's bad ends atleast made me understand why its the way it is.

Theo's route was also decent, his personal conflict together with the overall plot was just

beautifully written, unfortunately he has some of the worst bad ends in this game.

Elijah was the only route that I thought was well rounded and actually focused on the

story/lore but even then it was still just character focused like all the rest which means

 even if it seems more involved it isn't. They saved it all for the finale route.

So while in most routes the overall plot was never amazing, it was still pretty decent

since if you do all routes it connects well enough.  If you come here for the

romance & your favourite voice actor is in here you'd likely be satisfied.

Story can peak in some routes and just dips in others, the characters carried this game hard.

As for the game as a whole, its fluff and spicy! I don't play a lot of otomes where things

get THIS steamy but honey vibes was on another level that most others felt tame.

Sadly most desire ends were awful, it just felt like another bad end where the one tied to rationality

is the only good outcome which all things considered is kinda lame.The LI's were all pretty good

but for some I immediately went like oh no! looking at you Milo but he as well

as Alvin were among my fav's so look how that turned out. The only one

I didn't like was Eno really. With 6 LI's there might be a favorite for anyone.

This game could be interesting to play blind but honestly i'm glad I used a guide

since there are just way too many landmine bad ends you could trigger.

Bad ends did at times contain minor plot revelations so I'd say its still worth

checking them out just don't be surprised if you get burned while doing so.

The actual story is left for the finale route which wraps everything up in a grand way

perhaps there is room for a sequel or FD? idk but it may need one since

after the finale most best ends just has me going is that it really?

8/10

I can't hate this game because its literally the best and worst of otomate in one package.

Its likely it will be picked up for english release and will be disappointed if it won't

since there's definitely an audience for this, no I know there is.

TL;DR Honey Vibes is quite enjoyable but if you're just here for an romance novel

i'd stay away from the bad ends if I were you unless you like to live dangerously.

This game is not all sunshine and rainbows and can get surprisingly dark in bad ends.

If this sparks your interest then by all means I will recommend this otome game.......

For playorder there weren't any restrictions so I just picked one in the moment:

Alvin > Eno > Milo >Theo > Elijah > Finn > Finale.

You can do whatever camp you want in any order due to no restrictions

the best I can recommend here is to just stick to one camp before moving to the next.

 

More rambles after the jump, just the usual some of my fav cg's etc

if you want to play don't read further.

 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Kai no Kiseki Farewell O Zemuria - Review

Genre: RPG.

Developer/publisher: Falcom
Platform: PS4/5/PC.
Official Site: https://www.falcom.co.jp/kai/

Release date: 26-9-2024.

 

Alright feels like its almost tradition for me to play a falcom game in september every year...

and I kinda feel old when I realize i've been at this for over 10 years.

There's a lot to think about but I tried to go into this game with very little expectations

but honestly it was hard, it seems falcom really pushed this a certain way and tried to get

old fans to come back for it because it promised a lot.

 

**I feel like I need some permanent disclaimer that this is just a blog where I ramble

about games I play, a place to write some thoughts on the wall.  If you don't like it

then close the tab, you can always play it yourself and form your own opinion.**

 

Pro's

- Rean route and Kevin's route were great.

- Grimgarten is kinda fun actually.

- Storywise it really delivered... and a lot of things makes sense now.

 

Con's

- Van's route was a slowburn and just boring compared to the rest.

- Maybe not make characters unplayable in grimgarten if they joined up prior.

- Gameplay balance is weird; its either easy or made to make your life miserable.

- 

 Anyway on to the game itself! it is structured similarly like reverie and there's a new and

improved marchen garten but with a twist if ouroborous decided to mess with it. OK I guess...

its like snake gang improved the original. Whenever I had to go in there for the story(early on)

 it wasn't really interesting. Some of the events may've been amusing in there, however it still felt

like it was but an after thought. It seems they can't let go of gacha mechanics so that's there as well. 

Grim Garten is just a grind dungeon where you can freely decide who to play as but sadly there's

some exceptions depending where you are during the story. I am grateful to the gacha gods for

gifting me Risette's black dress and some accesorries as well as Rion's bath towel.😅

Combat is pretty much the same as the kuro games except with improvements

so I won't be going into that, newly improved so it doesn't get stale I guess.

 

In terms of graphics the game looks great, they seem to take a different approach with scenes

at times; to try and make it more movie-like. Falcom sure has improved with this.

Music was pretty good, I loved the OP and I always listened to it when I booted up the game

except for when I took a short break to do whatever like chores. The final dungeon theme

this time was amazing and I loved it, like you just knew this was it!

 

I liked how everyone was covering each others eyes in this scene LMAO.

 

Things I enjoyed were mostly the little things like character interactions as shown above 

and it was great  when the main story actually progressed but depending on the route

I found it varied heavily and not every route was as great as the other.

Some parts were a bit of a slog especially early on not much happened.

Dog aggro is serious business, Van's a real magnet.

The prologue was kind of exciting but things calmed down quick for a bit  in chapter 1, honestly

it was like a reintroduction to everything I still knew & then some. I know my memory is not

great but its not that bad, I struggled to keep playing during those parts. I know all games

have their boring or slow moments but at times it could seem they focus too much on small

matters to stall or kill time till something happens that requires immediate attention

till then you focus on doing random requests so Van doesn't go out of business

which is what most of Van's route felt like which was not great.

 

Damn he wastes no time... huh?

 

It took me 50-60 hours to finish the game and the reason for that was mostly

because I did side quests so chapter 1 took me like 15 hours, maybe i'm slow but when

I closed the game I saw the completion at 40% in ps5 menu I was shocked because not much

of note had happened really, thankfully it picked up from then on in the different  routes.

If I had to rank them it would be Rean > Kevin > Van.

Hello good sir, this is a no smoking zone.

I did however stop doing sidequest during ch3, because I felt like it was time to get back

on track with no distractions. Had I skipped sidequest ands just focused on the plot then...

I think I would be done a lot sooner. 

 

TL;DR while I don't think Kai is a bad game, it can be very enjoyable however I think

Van route just spins it wheels for too long while we get big reveals elsewhere till we finally

get the bang for our buck with Van but at that point it is the end which sure was something.

I'll recommend this game to long time trails fans but if you're new to the series

this is not the place to be, there's lots of games you could try first but Kai is not one of them.

More ramblings after the jump but there's some complain'o-jutsu

but I feel like I should get it across that I generally enjoyed the game!