New Review: The greatest finale the Wii U could have asked for; Breath of the Wild transcends and redefines open world gaming for a new era

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is a game that reminds me of why I fell in love with video games in the first place. It’s a game that transported me to a world so seamless and so fully explorable that I hadn’t thought it was possible. It not only re-defines my idea of an “open world” but my view of what video games can be. It’s a game where, by its end, the idea of leaving its gorgeous and vibrant world behind was nearly heartbreaking for me, and that’s something I haven’t felt from a video game in a long time.

It isn’t often that a game like this one comes along. This is a world that, nearly from the start, you’re fully capable of exploring, or attempting to explore. It’s a game that allows you to climb any wall or cliffside you see, reaching the top and jumping off, soaring perhaps for miles, with the ability to land anywhere you want, including seamlessly into bustling villages or into the depths of a dangerous forest. Not only does Breath of the Wild’s brilliant game design truly allow you to explore and interact with anything the eye can see, but it encourages it at every turn.

Watch towers dot the horizon; climbing them and activating the terminals at the top will fill in that portion of your map; from up there, you can take a look in every direction; those other towers in the distance? You can mark those on your map. Spot the red glow of a yet-to-be-discovered shrine below? You can mark it for later or even glide right down to it. As you approach the landscape below you’ll see no shortage of varied environments to explore and get to know. From the start the main quest location is always illuminated on your radar; but what makes Breath of the Wild such an incredible experience is the world in between, and how the game beckons you and then makes it so easy to explore it at every single turn.

The adventure begins with Link waking up in some sort of chamber. Futuristic tech dots his surroundings, as it does throughout Breath of the Wild. The first image you see upon exiting the chamber however is an untamed wilderness; a Hyrule completely taken over by nature and its often dangerous inhabitants, both the mechanical and the living.  

It took me some time to come to grips with such a melancholy setting. The bustling towns and villages where humans and familiar Hyrule creatures gather are warm and filled with life, making the descent back into the wilderness upon leaving them seem incredibly lonely. The music is beautiful but sparse, leaving instead the ambient sounds of the wild to take center stage. The charming and funny Zelda dialogue is present throughout, including for the first time voice acted sequences, some of them incredibly well-presented. But this is among the loneliest of Link’s adventures, and at first I wasn’t sure what to make of such a bleak setting. But as I progressed through Breath of the Wild, something else started to happen; I began to make this world my own.

Your impact on Hyrule is visible to you at all times; shrines that you complete (little puzzle rooms which give you the shrine orbs necessary to increase either Link’s heart or his stamina gauge) change their glow from Red to Blue, as do the towers you’ve activated. With each activated tower, more of your map fills in. As you explore on the ground, locations you discover are immediately labeled on your map as well. Once you free each of the four Divine Beasts, they point their weapons of light visibly at Hyrule Castle; the final dungeon and one accessible from almost the beginning of the game. You can see all of this, both explored and unexplored, off in the distance at all times. It’s theoretically possible to turn off your radar and the HUD entirely and simply play through the game without them, using clues from NPCs and the glowing lights on the horizon as your guide.

At first, the huge amount of freedom given, including the ability to enter some incredibly tough areas, can be a little overwhelming. Before you can purchase the adequate clothing, certain regions of Hyrule (such as the peaks of the coldest mountains or the depths of the hottest deserts) damage Link second-by-second. Various campfires scattered throughout the landscape can be used to prepare food; a source of nutrients such as health recovery and cold and heat resistance, for example, to help you on your journey. For the first time in this series, your weapons and shields are expendable; though almost every enemy drops a new one, it’s at first a challenge to get used to the idea that your weapons and shields will last for only a few enemy encounters before breaking.

Breath of the Wild is incredibly refreshing not only for the way it trusts you to get the hang of surviving its world and the freedom it gives you to form your own strategy, but also in the way that it doesn’t bog you down in tutorials or go easy on you in the slightest; something unusual for most Nintendo games and a huge break from the increasing linearity and hand-holding of some of the more recent Zelda installments. The auto-save feature is just frequent enough that it will usually help you out of a jam, but not forgiving enough where saving often from the start menu doesn’t come completely recommended as well.

The game’s main 4 dungeons can be tackled in any order. The shrines, of course, can be completed in any possible order as well; you’re given all of Link’s powers in the first hour of the game, afterall. Shrines serve as a source of many of the game’s puzzles. Once they’re visited, they’re added to your map and serve as warp points even if not successfully completed, further adding to your feeling of “discovering” the world. These shrines are generally short enough that they don’t feel like interruptions when you step off the path (so to speak) to take them on; the game audibly alerts you to their presence, and while there isn’t an infinite number of them, (apparently around 120) there never seems to be any shortage of them. With each completed shrine, you obtain a shrine orb, four of which can be redeemed at various goddess statues throughout Hyrule for an additional heart or an increase in your stamina; both are essential in different ways, and it’s ultimately up to the gamer how they power Link up, further adding to the sense that how you play through Breath of the Wild is entirely up to you.

Traditional Zelda dungeons exist, to an extent, in the form of the Divine Beasts which progress you through the main story; it’s here and almost only here where Breath of the Wild slightly stumbles. Boarding the Beasts, done with a partner character whom you meet over the course of the story, is almost always a thrilling and intense experience. The dungeons themselves, however, lack the sense of clockwork progression that Zelda dungeons typically are all about. Their respective bosses, despite slight differences, all follow the same basic blueprint, which feels like a missed opportunity given how well known this series has been for both its varied dungeons and boss encounters.

Similarly, the lack of handholding and the game’s freedom hurts Breath of the Wild in only one way; it’s far too easy to miss talking to a certain Korok character early on in the game, which means it’s far too easy to miss out on the chance to expand your character’s weapon, bow, and shield inventory as the game progresses. I found out about this much later in Breath of the Wild than I was intended to, and as a result, I had to manage my inventory more aggressively than I actually needed to as I played through much of the game. This Korok quest also helps point you in the direction of the famous Master Sword, something I would have also missed out on had I not taken time before the final boss to go back and seek it out once it became clear that the story wouldn’t bring me there on its own.

There are other little quirks here and there; though still a gorgeous game, the 720p native resolution of the Wii U version (Switch version outputs at a better 900p) and the at times incredibly erratic 30 FPS framerate are a step down from the 1080p presentation and smoother framerates we’ve become used to with the Wind Waker and Twilight Princess HD Remasters, though Breath of the Wild's technical achievements otherwise dwarf those games in every aspect. Similarly, the more minimalist approach to the storytelling means that Zelda herself, though memorable, remains a mystery in many ways should you not choose to seek out the optional Memory sequences, which go a long way in helping flesh the character out. Though many of these Memories are fairly inconsequential, it’d have been nice to have seen a couple of the more important ones within the main story itself. In typical Legend of Zelda fashion, the game’s ending also disappoints slightly, never quite managing to feel as epic or complete as the adventure that lead up to it.

But those are just nitpicks; it may be true that no game can be perfect, but Breath of the Wild comes incredibly close. There are so many ways that Nintendo could have faltered; shrines could have taken too long or been too hard to find. It could have been far too difficult to escape a tough situation, which would have discouraged going after the game’s toughest monsters (You can warp from an area at any time, even in the middle of battle). You could have had to complete the shrine to gain access to it as a warp point (thankfully not the case.) It’s in this sense that while Breath of the Wild is often a challenging game, it knows to be forgiving in all the right places, and it’s an incredibly rare experience where almost all the pieces fall perfectly into one, where nearly every decision made in its development feels like the best decision. I didn’t think that Nintendo had it in them to produce a game of this magnitude and of this quality, one which puts even many seasoned “open world” developers to shame.

But a quick anecdote on Breath of the Wild’s world, as I near the review’s end. At one point I exited a shrine, its now-blue glow illuminating the walls of the nearby cliffisde. I’d stepped into a rainstorm, lightning threatening to strike my equipment and deal me heavy damage. Though I could have simply chosen to warp to a different location, I was aching to instead explore my nearby surroundings. There was a way; I could have chosen to replace my metal sword and shield before setting out into the storm, but instead I chose to stay under the shrine’s protective covering, watching as the fierce downpour eventually abated, the setting sun emerging and drenching the vast landscape. Up on a nearby hill, I could see smoke billowing from distant huts as night set in, the light wind gusting as the sound of the crickets began to take shape.

It’s been years since I remember playing a game like this one, a game whose world seems so incredibly filled with life, where the possibilities for exploring and evolving your character feel so simple and almost endless.

Breath of the Wild rightfully deserves to be called one of the greatest games ever made, and one of the greatest achievements ever in open world gameplay and storytelling. Much like Ocarina of Time back on the N64, I have little doubt that developers will be learning from Breath of the Wild for years to come. Whether playing this as the finale to the Wii U or as a first experience on the Nintendo Switch, it’s a beautiful, incredible game and one that arguably redefines open world gaming for a new era.

5/5

Note; this review is based on the Wii U version

New Review: Many will consider Yakuza 0 to be the best one yet. For me, the static gameplay outside of combat may have finally taken its toll

It pains me to say that franchise fatigue may be finally setting in for Sega’s long-running Yakuza series, which originated on the PS2 and which has seen an almost nonstop tradition of annual releases since.

The first Yakuza (known as Ryu ga Gotoku in Japan) was a breath of fresh air when it landed on Western shores in 2006; the game’s strong storytelling, fun combat system, and vibrant Japanese open world city took inspiration from everything from Grand Theft Auto to the Shenmue series. And though aspects of its game design were dated even then, the Yakuza series managed to strike a chord with a huge fanbase in Japan, and developed a cult following in the West, and I was eager to devour every non-spinoff entry Sega opted to localize.

Yakuza 0’s a strange one to review, because on the surface and viewed apart from the context of how many similar games to this I’ve played by now, I’m sure it can arguably be called the best one yet. It scales back a ton on the filler gameplay and characters which have permeated the series from parts 3 on, and being the first on the PS4, its graphics are a fairly noticeable step above past entries despite its obvious PS3 origins. It also features the battle system that Yakuza arguably should have had from the start, and fan favorites Kazuma Kiryu and Goro Majima serve as the sole playable characters.

It finds itself in the unique place where it can actually be a strong jumping in point narratively for newcomers, as it starts all the way back at the beginning, telling the origins of both characters and their battles from within the Japanese underbelly, offering something for both old and new fans alike.

And yet, somehow I found myself enjoying it far less than any installment to date. This is the 6th game, everybody, (the actual numbered Yakuza 6 will be out in the West next year) not including a host of spinoffs. So whatever improvements Yakuza 0 manages to make, it can’t escape the fact that we’ve done this all before. Sega’s been throwing more and more onto an old, rickety framework for years with this series to further and further diminishing returns, and with 0 I think I might have finally had it.

But let me step back a bit. Serving as a prequel, Yakuza 0 is a solid place to step in for newcomers, though many will be surprised by how dated it is, and it *is* dated. Newcomers may or may not be bothered by Yakuza 0’s various 6th gen quirks, including its use of the save point/item box system despite it adding nothing to the game, or the fact that accessing your Inventory in the heat of battle is still done by hitting the Start Button (far out of reach on the PS4 controller) and then scrolling through an Options menu, or that you still can’t do something as simple as placing a mark on your map, or of course that hours upon hours of Yakuza 0 are spent reading lifeless text boxes and the “not quite, but almost” random battles that take place frequently as you try to explore the town.

As someone who has been with the series since day 1, and someone who has seen its gameplay in between battles undergo very little evolution game after game, I find myself finally on the verge of losing interest.

But to some, these remnants of decade-old game design are part of the Yakuza series’ charm, and this is a series that has always had charm to spare. From the comically over-the-top violence in its beat-em-up combat system, to its hilariously-written sidequests and “more badass than badass” main characters, not to mention two at times truly immersive cities to explore, (both of course returning from past games) what makes a Yakuza game a Yakuza game is certainly still here and on full display, so fans who aren’t bothered by these frustratingly outdated aspects will likely have a blast. And I did too, up until a point.

One source of my enjoyment is that Yakuza 0 features a much-improved combat system involving the ability to switch battle styles on the fly, each feeling incredibly different from one another. Both Kazuma and Majima have their own variations on these styles, which adds a whole new level of strategy to the proceedings. The upgrade system’s fairly simple as well, with money serving as both the in-game currency and as the way to level up your characters, and it works fairly well for the most part. The difficulty has also been slightly increased from the too-easy Yakuza 5, which is a good thing and kept me on the edge of my seat throughout.

It’s a shame then that much of the combat is centered around nameless punks who show up to block your path as you wander through the streets, making battles feel more like an interruption than something to look forward to. It’s possible, but often difficult, to run away from these mundane pursuers, but in an industry where combat's increasingly being woven far more organically into the proceedings, Yakuza’s continuing effort to treat it like an interruption makes the minute-to-minute experience of going from Point A to Point B feel like a drag.

The frustrating thing for me is that these issues are not stemming from any sort of technical constraints; that’s something I’d at least be understanding of. Instead, they seem to stem more from a developer strategy to reuse much of the framework from game to game, even aspects of it that don’t make sense anymore. And aspects that did (such as Yakuza 5’s sidejobs or Yakuza 3’s photography mechanic) are inexplicably absent from 0.

Certainly the load times that the series once had when going into battle are basically gone, and the neverending stream of text boxes that convey much of the game’s narrative are, as in Yakuza 5, thankfully voice acted, albeit in Japanese, so eye strain when reading them is still very much a factor. That Yakuza 0’s well-directed, thrilling, and cinematic cutscenes have to often transition into text boxes is likely budgetary, but the game does additionally feature a few cool comic book-style cutscenes which could have easily been the solution to this, though it sadly only makes use of these once in a blue moon.

In the end, Yakuza 0, like its predecessors, offers improvements to its battle system, while the gameplay outside of it remains disappointingly stagnant. It still has the goons randomly appearing in the city streets to get in your way, it still sends you on uninspired shopping trips, it still forces you to wander aimlessly looking for …something to happen when the game occasionally opts not to provide you with a Radar Blip. The two cities you explore are almost identical to their appearances in other Yakuza games; Kamurocho is even missing its rooftop and underground areas. The phrase “more of the same” has never felt so appropriate, and after 5 games of this, that just isn’t enough to grab me anymore.

The story at least benefits greatly from an improved focus over the sprawling, multi-character storylines of Yakuza’s 4 and 5. Yakuza 0 provides helpful catchup videos when switching back and forth between Kazuma and Majima’s storylines, and there’s a part of me that will always find myself compelled by the intense, clockwork narrative this series presents. Here too though Yakuza 0 falls into some of the same traps of its predecessors; dialogue (in the non-cinematic cutscenes) circles the point again and again; nothing’s said without being said twice. Characters are written to be so “badass” that their deaths almost always feel like their own fault. In addition to Yakuza 0’s surprisingly light use of strong supporting NPC characters, we’re again treading down the same well-worn paths: those being of course the path of revenge, and that of fragile female characters always in distress. Any time the game seems to be edging into exciting new territory, it falls right back in line behind its tired ideas and narrative shortcomings; characters who waste their last breath telling others to RUN only to have the others stand there in total shock nevertheless, villains who are smug and slimy and not especially compelling, people standing around taunting and lecturing those who they intend to kill, and did I mention the most inconsistent kidney injury in the history of anything?

It’s sad because it leads to a truly beautiful ending, and a great closing point to both where the series has been and where it will go; a very impressive feat for a prequel and something that, as a longtime fan, was nice to see. In fact the finale itself is awesome and beats Yakuza 5’s pop concert by a mile. Reviewing this has been a challenge because I know that on paper, this is a Yakuza game, and it does that, well, the way it always has. People looking for this, or people new to the series, may find themselves enjoying this game, just like I did with Yakuza 1 back on the PS2, and several of them since.

All these games in, I guess it’s just no longer enough to do it for me.

3.0/5= Fair

New Review: Despite a terrible final act, FF15 proves to be a great open world game, if not quite a true Final Fantasy one.

Final Fantasy 15’s opening moments had caught me completely by surprise. 

All throughout the game’s massive time in development I’d cringed every time I’d seen footage, every time I’d heard details, every time I’d witnessed another shift in direction towards road movie territory and CGI films. 

But once I’d booted the game up on the brand new PS4 that I’d (doubts aside) purchased to play it, I was stunned to realize how much Final Fantasy XV’s opening moments grabbed me. It wasn’t the bland action scene that actually opens the adventure before flashing back, but the scene that followed it. My main characters found themselves in the middle of a vast open world, complaining about their predicament while pushing their car along the road, a very cool theme song from Florence and the Machine playing over the soundtrack. 

Shortly afterwards, they arrive at what resembles a rest stop, and immediately you’re free to wander around listening to NPCs, to progress the storyline, and even to take on Hunts and venture out into the world, and what a world it is. Final Fantasy XV instantly proves itself as something truly different for this series, and I fell in love with its atmosphere and characters almost from the get-go. By the end, it doesn’t quite live up to its promise, partially due to its lacking storytelling and a complete pivot towards blandness in its final third. But for much of the experience I was thinking of it as among my top “open world” RPGs ever, and while it never really felt right to me as a Numbered Final Fantasy game, I thoroughly enjoyed my journey through Final Fantasy XV. 

What gets my full praise is the vast, fully explorable world. Having begun the series with Final Fantasy X before working backwards, I never got to experience what it was like for PS1 owners back in the day to be blown away by the worldmaps in VII-IX, but when I managed to unlock the Chocobo-riding feature in XV and got to ride across the plains, I caught a glimpse of what that must have felt like. XV’s world isn’t an especially populated one; outposts, (which usually consist of resting quarters, a diner, a couple shops, and that’s about it) dungeons, and campsites dot the otherwise empty world. You only visit two actual cities over the course of the adventure, and even there many of the NPCs your characters meet serve very little narrative purpose and get nothing resembling development. 

Instead, Final Fantasy XV presents itself as a road trip; many of the events in the actual story, regarding warring kingdoms and empires, are mostly only glimpsed by listening to the radio. The journey is instead about Prince Noctis, Gladiolus, Ignis, and Prompto (names I had to Wikipedia the spellings of to write this review, a first for FF for me) as they travel the kingdom in a car, taking photographs of each other, listening to music, and stopping at camp spots along the way. Make no mistake, this is a full-on open world game; most people you meet outside this main group of four characters serve almost no purpose except to sell you items, give you quests, or provide small banter in towns. Though there are cutscenes throughout, much of the story and character interaction takes place as you play. It’s similar in that regard to games like Grand Theft Auto and Red Dead Redemption. 

What helps Final Fantasy XV to stand out is how wonderfully Japanese it is. Its Japanese roots shine through, in everything from the character designs to the art direction (which is most like Final Fantasy VIII) and the combat system, which, while action-driven, thankfully never enters button-mashing territory. The dynamic among the cast of characters is surprisingly lighthearted, at times feeling almost more like a Tales game than what one might expect from Final Fantasy. The dialogue is very well-acted and it, along with the writing, gives the game a natural feel. 

Exploring the vast world is pretty painless, though I wish the characters ran a little faster. The car can almost always be set to auto drive, allowing you to sit back and enjoy the gorgeous 8^th gen scenery. (This can be skipped for 10 gil.) Letting the car drive itself is recommended, as it can only move along paved roads anyway and its controls aren’t the best. Other means of travel include of course Chocobos, which you can rent and take pretty much anywhere, and yes, on foot as well, though it isn’t recommended for long journeys. The world’s seamless, with no load times separating the field from towns or outposts, and combat’s much the same way. 

A big issue I tend to have with action RPGs is that they become far too grind-heavy and button-mashey. Final Fantasy XV avoids this in two different ways; its combat system is more about holding buttons rather than pressing them, and its difficulty is kept fairly moderate throughout, which will likely be appreciated by turn-based fans but may bum out those who are well versed in action RPGs. Fans may also be upset that Noctis is the only controllable character, and that you can’t even issue commands to the others, though thankfully it didn’t prove to be a huge problem for me. 

Hunts, which can be taken on at diners and other eating establishments, are fully encouraged, not only as a primary source for gil (which does not come from winning battles) but also for EXP points. Interestingly, Final Fantasy XV doesn’t allow your characters to make use of those EXP points to level up except at campsites, inns, or other save points. AP, which allows you a ton of character customization across an upgrade grid, can be used anywhere. It’s a clever idea that further enforces the “road trip” theme, and I ended up appreciating it. The game features a very clear quest menu, both for main story quests and sidequests, and allows you to set blips on your radar accordingly, making stepping off to do side missions something that’s fun and rewarding, not something that feels like an interruption. Doing these is a major part of the Final Fantasy XV experience, and just breezing through for the story might not prove nearly as satisfying. 

It's good that exploring the world itself winds up being such a treat. I’d have loved for the locations you visited to have more of a narrative purpose, but the graphics, which are gorgeous, and the music, which is good if not exactly Final Fantasy caliber, helps bring a lot of personality to the adventure and its world, and it was a world that minute-for-minute I had a blast exploring. 

What goes wrong with Final Fantasy XV isn’t enough to break the game, or to make the game un-recommendable. But these are issues that oddly enough give a game that spent over 10 years in development the feeling of being rushed. Everything plot-wise in the first 2/3 of the game left me wanting more; the characters are so likable (Prompto though feels like a next gen version of Zell, which gets old fast) and the cutscenes so well directed and acted, that I was dying to see more of them than what the game shows you. Snapshots that Prompto takes can be viewed at the end of chapters and at save points, and they show the characters laughing and having a great time at the locations you’ve visited. Why not show some of this to us in cutscenes? Why do characters mention things in passing, (“hey, I noticed in that town you were talking to this person….”) that the game never shows you? Why are almost all the characters outside your main party forgettable RPG templates with no motivation or development? Why is a character’s fate revealed but given not even a second of explanation?

As much as I loved much of my time spent in the game’s first 2/3s, its shortcomings in story and character development, while nothing new for the open world genre, feel bizarre in a Final Fantasy game, especially one given the Numbered treatment. The characters interact very frequently as they traverse the world, and the little plot that’s here moves at a decent enough pace and is well-presented, so it isn’t a silent slog across barren plains like Final Fantasy XII was, which was also sparsely-plotted. But there’s no denying that if you buy FFXV entirely for the main storyline, there’s no way that you won’t come off at least slightly disappointed. 

The developers’ answer to this comes in the game's final third, where a series of events abruptly plunge the narrative into full gear. Though at first I was excited by this more story-driven direction, it turns out that finding yourself suddenly on rails after a whole adventure of freedom just doesn’t work. Granted, you can return to the open world if you choose thanks to a time travel mechanic at save points, but it no longer takes place in the context of the story, which instead forces you through drearily industrial-looking environments and a narrative that somehow feels so simple and yet so ridiculously hard to follow. The sudden melodrama might have meant more if we’d gotten a basis for how these characters became friends and how much they truly mean to each other, but in the far more easygoing first 2/3s, there just wasn’t enough of this to allow me to really care about the events which unfold in the game’s final hours. 

The penultimate Chapter 13 proves to be the biggest offender, where your weapons and party members are removed from you for an unbearable amount of time as you’re dropped into a set piece right out of Resident Evil 6, wandering through sprawling corridors looking for security access card keys as the villain cackles at you over the loudspeakers. Beginning with Final Fantasy XII and continuing with Final Fantasy XIII, this series has developed the unfortunate habit of forcing you into one giant, long dungeon as you near the end of the game, and with Chapter 13, Final Fantasy XV again falls victim to it, dragging what little goodwill still exists in the game’s final third down with it.

In the end, it’s the narrative elements that wind up being Final Fantasy XV’s biggest roadblock to true greatness. There are other issues here and there; the camera can be all over the place during battle, magic is ridiculously hard to use, summons show up seemingly at random, load times after loading up a save file or dying are incredibly long, and the jump button serves little purpose except to make your character jump when you’re trying to talk to other characters. But by far the biggest issue with Final Fantasy XV is that as enjoyable as its first 2/3s are, I just wished that we’d had a beautiful, character-driven storyline running through them. The attempt to provide one towards the end backfires completely and hurts the game more than it helps it. There was a time where Squaresoft was able to release games with central exploration elements, while still managing to tell truly memorable, character-driven storylines. Final Fantasy’s VII-IX are really all that Square-Enix has to look at to see that. 

Final Fantasy XV though proves to be a mostly awesome experience. Despite its lacking narrative aspects, I loved the little road trip through Eos that serves as the basis for this adventure. It’s something XV almost manages to fully pull off, and though its linear and melodramatic final act holds it back from greatness, in the end it doesn’t stop me from recommending Final Fantasy XV. 

I just hope that Square-Enix realizes at some point that you can still tell a great story in a game with open world elements; and that doing so doesn’t require throwing their characters into endless dark corridors. 

3.5/5= Good

(New Review) An HD Remaster that led me to rediscover and enjoy what had once been one of my least favorite Zelda adventures

Hard to believe it’s actually been 10 years…

Twilight Princess was a game that I’d found tough to enjoy when I first played through it. I’d been new to the Zelda series at that point, having only had real experience with Wind Waker and really liking it. But though I’d been looking forward to Twilight Princess up until its release, the game’s strong emphasis on dungeon crawling prevented me from really having fun with it.

Since Twilight Princess, I’d gotten to experience Ocarina of Time and Majora’s Mask on the 3DS, along with Skyward Sword, which I thoroughly enjoyed, on the Wii. My love for the Zelda series and appreciation for its dungeons developed as I became more familiar with it. Going back to Twilight Princess now, I’ve discovered a game that, while I can completely see where I was coming from 10 years ago, I’ve grown a new appreciation for and one that I’ve had a ton of fun with this time around.

It’s still important to note however that Twilight Princess follows Ocarina of Time’s more dungeon-driven direction, with the game’s long, sprawling dungeons making up by far the bulk of your playtime. It’s something that likely appealed majorly to fans of the dungeon crawling aspects of this series, while those of us who were just as much into exploring the world, interacting with other characters, and appreciating the narrative aspects of the series maybe felt let down by Twilight Princess as a result.

In that sense it’s hard to go back to my original review of Twilight Princess and say that I was wrong, because I still agree that this game features (at least) one or two dungeons too many, and that its story and cast of characters seems to disappear for hours on end at various points throughout this adventure.

But having developed a familiarity and fondness for the Zelda series’ dungeons over the years, I found Twilight Princess HD 10 years later to be an incredibly fun, surprisingly lengthy action/adventure game with some of the series’ best boss fights, atmosphere, and combat. Some of its dungeons, such as the Fire Temple, have become favorites of mine, but even the aspects of Twilight Princess that don’t stack up to other entries in this series don’t change the fact that this is another Zelda adventure, and it comes with a lot of the charm and the fun that Zelda games almost always come with.

The HD upgrade has served Twilight Princess incredibly well. It’s true that its graphics style may not be as timeless as that of Wind Waker’s, and every once in a while it becomes apparent that this was originally a Gamecube game. But for the majority of the adventure, I’d forgotten that this was an old game and enjoyed seeing its beautiful art direction, once hindered by aging Gamecube/Wii hardware, given the chance to really shine.

This is an interesting world; mellow in tone and a good deal less cartoony than we’ve come to expect from this series, Twilight Princess exists in a fantasy setting that you view in both light and dark capacities; a curse which turns Link into a wolf, along with the will of his traveling companion Midna, brings him back and forth between the two worlds. Earlier in the game, which version of Link you control is dictated by the story, but as the adventure goes on you are given the ability and the need to change between them on the fly.

It’s a gameplay mechanic that helps Twilight Princess stand out from its fellow Zelda titles. Inevitably the time spent as the wolf (where you have far fewer moves and items) is less fun than the time spent controlling Link, but this HD version helps remedy the problem by reducing the Tears of Light that you’re required to collect as Wolf Link early on in the game, which kicks up the pacing of Twilight Princess’ earlier hours just enough to make a difference.

The various dungeons you’ll encounter are exactly what Zelda fans have come to expect; the formula of picking up one key to unlock a nearby door, before reaching a dead end/mini boss and earning a power that helps you to access a new area, ultimately leading to another key or two until you unlock the Boss Key and retrace your steps to use it and fight the dungeon’s baddie….are all in full effect here. There are one or two situations where this is switched up (Temple of Time) but for the most part the formula is followed to varying degrees throughout. The dungeons were designed to be incredibly epic in scale, and though many are well-paced and fun to explore, and though they usually use the unlocked powers in clever ways, they’re all quite expansive. It’s a real show of their great design that only in the last several hours of the game (on this playthrough, not on my first) did I really begin to face dungeon fatigue and want it to end.

The world above features many nooks and crannies to explore; ranging from forest to desert, from lakebed to sky, this is a large world with much to see and unlock. This version of Hyrule Field sadly isn’t one of the series’ better worldmaps, and with its iffy horse controls and both natural and unnatural barriers preventing you from going from Point A to Point B on foot, most gamers will likely be making heavy use of the available warp feature to get from one place to another. It always bums me out a little to use this type of feature, knowing how long it took the developers to create this world and knowing how many secrets there are to stumble across along the way. Twilight Princess however seems to have been designed with this warp feature in mind, and eventually I stopped fighting it and warped to my next location most of the time. Not doing so would have added many hours to what’s already a pretty lengthy adventure.

The locations you explore once you pass the empty fields are a sight to behold, especially in HD. The opening Ordon Village and the deep, windswept forests surrounding it are ridiculously atmospheric, while Castle Town feels appropriately bustling. The swordsmanship in Twilight Princess may actually be the series’ best yet, as the system in which you unlock new powers and abilities is a fun one and continues to evolve throughout much of the game.

The music of course retained the mostly MIDI format of the series’ past, (something thankfully finally updated in Skyward Sword, its successor) but it bothered me a lot less here than it did 10 years ago, along with the lack of voice acting; these are the quirks of the Zelda series, and at this point I think I’ve simply accepted and gotten used to them. The interactions you have with other characters, whether in town or in the cutscenes, have that perfect Zelda charm that’s so hard to explain but so easy to like.

It’s all this that makes me wish even more that Twilight Princess didn’t have what I see as its big weakness: you don’t get enough time with this world or its characters. The game early on relies heavily on the capture of the village kids, who remain in captivity for what basically amounts to about 1/3 of the adventure, yet you hardly get to experience a resolution to this story before you’re whisked off to the next plot point, usually involving dungeons to complete and objects to collect. Twilight Princess has a tendency towards this sort of storytelling; big events do happen, though they’re hardly talked about again. Zelda is given such little screen time (about 3 scenes) that she hardly registers, and the less said the rarely-present villain Zant, the better. Castle Town’s a bustling hub, but it serves very little narrative purpose and it too fades into the background. Twilight Princess is a Zelda game where Link barely feels like he’s a part of the world or its events, and it builds to what’s meant as an epic series of battles. It’s just hard to feel that much of anything is at stake.

I’d have gladly sacrificed a dungeon or two for some more character-driven content, or for a couple more story scenes or adventures in Castle Town. I felt the same way about Ocarina of Time, though Ocarina definitely featured a stronger story and characters. All in all, Twilight Princess HD falls just short of what it could be: something that a stronger narrative and a couple less dungeons would have helped make reachable.

Verdict:
But Twilight Princess HD is still a lot of fun. It’s an HD Remaster that I’m glad I played, one that allowed me to go back and re-discover a game that in the past I’d never really understood. It’s a shame that a weaker than expected plot, an abundance of dungeons, and a heavily used warp mechanic bury the game’s world so far in the background, as it’s one brimming with the same charm, sense of adventure, and discoverable secrets that make The Legend of Zelda such a great series. With its strong boss battles, fun (for the most part) dungeons, great art direction and atmosphere further enhanced by this HD upgrade, Twilight Princess HD remains a worthy installment to the Zelda series, and one that I’m glad I took the time to rediscover.

Pros:
Gorgeous HD graphics and atmosphere
Some cool use of a light/dark mechanic
A vast array of fun dungeons and bosses

Cons:
Never really makes the most of its interesting world
Amount of time spent in “dungeon gameplay” becomes excessive
One of the modern series’ weaker storylines

4/5

New Review: Though badly in need of an overhaul, Yakuza 5 again delivers the fun in the series' largest installment to date

In spite of it all, time really does fly.

It was a strange moment when, partway through Yakuza 5, I just so happened to look back and find myself hit with the realization that it had been almost five years since I’d played and reviewed Yakuza 4. In some ways it hardly feels like it; Yakuza 5 is immediately quite familiar, and easing myself back into this world didn’t prove to be too challenging.

In other ways, the degree to which life inevitably changes as it moves along with the flow of time somewhat blew my mind as I played through Yakuza 5. In fact this bit of soul-searching may have proven to be one of the more impactful facets of playing the game, and one very much unintended by the company that released it: a company which provides Japan with a new Yakuza installment every year.

But I digress. It has been three years (!) since Yakuza 5 made its Japanese debut, while a full five years (!!) have passed since its predecessor landed on Western shores. In that span of time we’ve seen many changes in the gaming industry, both in the games themselves and out, but Yakuza 5 is, simply put, Yakuza 5. It refines the formula introduced in its predecessor, with the adventure being broken into chapters each devoted to a different playable character with their own storyline. Where Yakuza 5 differs the most from Yakuza 4 is that it adds new cities into the mix, with the adventure spanning 5 characters in 5 different cities, easily making this the biggest Yakuza to date.

For those unfamiliar with this franchise, the Yakuza games take the form of story-driven beat-em-ups with a heavy “open world” aspect. A GTA-style radar exists in the bottom-left corner, indicating your destination along with the many sidequests available to you over the course of your adventure. The series takes its storylines incredibly seriously, with very well-produced cutscenes, some spanning close to thirty minutes, occurring throughout.

The gameplay in between grants you the ability to explore these richly atmospheric cities, where you can buy food and items from shops, visit and run Hostess Clubs, enjoy the use of batting cages, arcades, and other such mini-games, sing karaoke, drive a taxi, find items, and much, much more.

As you venture through the cities you’ll frequently be challenged by thugs to street fights, which give you the opportunity to beat the crap out of countless people, netting you money and Experience Points to level up your characters. It’s a concept that at first seems incredibly bizarre, something that these games are certainly aware of and treat with a definite sense of humor. Amazingly, at this point in the series’ existence it doesn’t even occur to me to question the system, or to wonder why the police never seem to show up despite the fact that a person was just physically beaten with a motorcycle (yes a motorcycle) in the middle of the street in broad daylight with a crowd of onlookers cheering their approval.

The combat system, while in as much need of an overhaul as the rest of this game, is as fun as it sounds, and that’s saying a lot given how much time you’ll spend with it in Yakuza 5, and how much time we’ve spent with it in the many games prior. Though each character has their variations in combat style along with their strengths and weaknesses, battles usually feature little beyond mashing some combination of the Square and Triangle buttons, with the occasional throw move or weapon thrown in for good measure. It feels dated and not nearly as fluid as it could be, especially when compared to more modern combat-driven games like Bayonetta; Yakuza made its debut in 2005 and the combat system has changed little since, something becoming more evident with every new entry.

I can’t deny though the fun that playing Yakuza 5 brings, something I’ve probably pointed out in each of my previous reviews for these games. The combat system offers moments of jaw-dropping and hilariously over the top brutality, and despite its dated feel it still manages to be addictively fun to fight thugs and expand your character’s stats and abilities. The pattern of wandering through cities that feel almost real, partaking in entertaining sidequests and beating up countless enemies along the way, while the story and its incredibly likable characters brings you to the edge of your seat, is what really keeps me coming back for more, and it’s an area where Yakuza 5 again delivers. It delivers in such a major way that, as with each Yakuza game before it, some of the series’ larger flaws are, if not necessarily forgiven, at least able to be partially swept under the rug. Partially.

As fun and involving as each game can be, my issue with the Yakuza series continues to be that, while it tries, it still doesn’t even know how to come close to matching the truly immersive feel offered by games like GTA or (especially) the Shenmue series. The world’s certainly atmospheric, but the amount of restrictions placed on almost all exploration, including driving cars, riding bikes, entering shops, and even taking certain roads, constantly forms a barrier between the true immersion that I know the series is attempting to deliver. As lifelike as these cities feel and as cool as it is to wander through them, the limits the game imposes on your exploration breaks me out of it at every turn. Many of the inviting buildings you pass by remain completely off limits to you, the game allowing you to enter very few of the locations you see. Force fields exist to prevent you from accessing various roads, and even dictate where you’re allowed to cross the street in certain cities. This is something more evident in Yakuza 5’s new cities, which don’t offer even a fraction of the explorable area or interactivity as the two returning cities (Tokyo and Osaka, known here as Kamurocho and Sotenbori, respectively) from Yakuza’s 1 and 2. Even in those, however, it’s the general rule that a major portion of the areas you see in the Yakuza series remain un-explorable, and it’s a fact that continues to form a barrier between the player and the games' world.

The basic and limiting inventory system, making use of a small grid for item storage and forcing you to send the rest to item boxes, also remains stubbornly stuck in the past, as does the need to pause the game to scroll through the main menu to access recovery items, even in the midst of combat. Yakuza 5 continues to require you to access save points to save your progress, something which isn’t a big issue for the most part, though make sure to set aside plenty of time for the final battles, as you’ll at that point be forced to go for hours without the opportunity to save.

It’s strange that none of these design choices actually manage to make the game more challenging. Whether it’s because I’ve mastered the formula or whether it’s because the game’s too easy is difficult to say, but Yakuza 5 for me was by far the easiest installment I’ve played. Few of the enemies you face until the game’s final chapter put up much of a fight, and with money and HP recovery items proving ridiculously easy to come by, there rarely seems to be much of a reason to lose a battle.

As alluded to previously, Yakuza 5 continues to make use of part 4’s multi-character format. It sees some improvements, partially due to the overarching story being much stronger, and as a result it doesn’t feel as much like “starting over” when you jump to a new character as it did previously. Even with a stronger central plot, however, it falls victim in the same way the other PS3 iterations have of getting in its own way with filler content. This includes an entirely pointless mountain segment where you’re required to spend a good deal of time learning how to hunt, even though the game never once requires you to know this skill after learning it.  Playable character Haruka’s gameplay, which centers on a bland “rhythm game” format, is so dull that I once actually fell asleep while playing it. Yakuza 5 also re-uses, almost beat for beat, the “prison break” sequence of events from the 4th installment, and it’s no less annoying this time around. This series has always featured a degree of filler content, but with the PS3 games it has become almost dangerously in love with its gimmicks, and the sense of urgency present in the first two Yakuza titles is similarly only available in bits and pieces in part 5, as it was in parts 3 and 4.

Still, a stronger and more focused narrative keeps Yakuza 5 on track, despite falling victim to some pretty major clichés. The sniper from the building across the street always manages to shoot his victim at the exact point before he’s about to reveal key information, as if the shooter were able to hear the conversation. Masks are used a bit too frequently as plot devices, and each time the game betrays its secret almost immediately before its reveal with a poorly-chosen camera angle. Still, these nitpicks aside, the Yakuza series knows how to hook you into a plot and how to keep you guessing, and Yakuza 5 is certainly no exception.

Visually this is a tough one to judge, as it’s a three year old game and this series was never exactly known for pushing its hardware. Comparing it to parts 3 and 4 does show some subtle but noticeable graphical improvements, and the fact that almost all main events are now voice acted is a huge step in the right direction for these games. On the other side of the coin, Yakuza 5 has one of the series’ weaker soundtracks; what’s there is great, but songs repeat incredibly frequently, and the game lacks the standout tracks that made Yakuza 4 such a memorable audible experience.
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Verdict: Yakuza 5 may have taken far too long to get here, but I’m very glad that it did. Though it doesn’t do too much to deviate from the established formula, an improved central storyline from the previous two entries and new locations to explore help to shake things up. That main events are almost all presented with (finally) full voice acting also helps Yakuza 5 stand above its PS3 brothers, even if it still no longer allows itself to carry the same urgency of parts 1 and 2 on the PS2. Though I keep waiting for the series to evolve, especially with regard to letting you fully explore its open world and to bring its combat system up to date, and though I wish it would leave behind some of the gimmicky filler, it’s impossible to deny that what’s here continues to be a blast to play. Those new to the series might have a hard time jumping in at this point, but fans will most definitely be stoked by what’s offered here.

Presentation: By far the biggest improvement is that nearly all the main storyline cutscenes are voiced, making a huge difference. The plot and pacing still doesn’t compare to those in the first two Yakuza titles, and features some true corniness, but stands above those in its PS3 counterparts. Cutscenes look amazing, load times are further shortened. One glaring type-o during the game’s ending is really the only mark on an otherwise superb translation.

Graphics: Art direction and use of color are excellent. As a three year old game Yakuza 5 shows its age, though it features subtle graphical improvements over parts 3 and 4.

Gameplay: This is Yakuza through and through. Core experience feels dated and in major need of an overhaul, but remains enjoyable to play. Addition of new cities is nice, even with it being clear that not as much work went into them as compared to the returning cities of Kamurocho and Sotenbori. Cut down on the filler and give us more to explore and we might one day have greatness.

Audio: One of the series’ weaker soundtracks, but the Japanese voice acting remains top notch. Great ambient environmental sound design.

Replay Value: Probably the longest Yakuza game to date, plenty of post-game content as well. This one will keep you busy for a while.

Overall: 7.5/10

(Yakuza 5 is available as a digital download on PSN.)

(My reviews operate on a .5 scale.)

Preview: Fatal: Frame Maiden of Black Water

 (Long time, no see, everyone.)

Let me begin these impressions with two disclaimers; one is that I'm completely new to the Fatal Frame series. The other is that these impressions are not based on the full game, but rather based on the Prologue and the first two chapters, as these are what Nintendo released for free on the eShop.

Like many, I was frustrated with Nintendo's decision not to release Grasshopper Manufacture's Fatal Frame IV on the Wii in Western territories, and only slightly less frustrated with their decision to release now the 5th Fatal Frame game in North America in a digital-only format despite being on a console with next to no internal storage.

Many people share this frustration, as the game's Miiverse page is mostly filled with people discussing their inability to play the game. It's unfortunate because not only are games like this one badly-needed on Nintendo systems (and frankly, any system) but based on my time with Black Water's early couple hours, it seems as if it's something that some will enjoy, even if my own thoughts on it are fairly mixed.

For those who don't know, Fatal Frame is a long-running Japanese Survival Horror series where the game's spirits are fought with a camera instead of a gun. Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water is structured into chapters featuring different characters, with the action taking place mostly on a mountain and in a shop. It borrows elements from both the old school and the new (for better or for worse) as far as Survival Horror goes; controls are suitable, though probably clunkier than gamers today are used to. The environments are quiet and creepy, with heavy atmospherics, drawers to open, and notes to read. As with most modern survival horror, it's broken up into chapters, with a chance to see your stats and purchase items in between, and though one of the environments in this "demo" is quite expansive, you still seem to explore in a mainly linear fashion, with the game providing you abundant clues about where to go next and auto-saving your progress along the way. Taking the time to explore rarely seems to yield more than the occasional item on the ground or an enemy ambush, but maybe this changes as you get further into the game.

The "creepy" factor is definitely ever-present, including one or two disturbing scenes right at the end, but for the most part I didn't find myself particularly scared or immersed despite the game's efforts. Enemies aren't frightening in the slightest, and you're hardly provided with a decent look at them. Assuming there isn't more variety down the road, I can see the encounters getting redundant fairly quickly in the full game. 

The combat demonstrates both the best and worst aspects of the Wii U Gamepad. Lifting the controller up and looking through it as a camera is fun and works well. I just wish that, over 3 years into the Wii U's life, I didn't continue to feel distracted by having to tear my eyes from the TV to look down at a Standard Def screen. Aiming with the camera can thankfully be done with the Right Analog stick if one doesn't like moving the controller, which was one of the better decisions the developer's made, though turning the camera vertically seems to require you to tilt the Gamepad, something which in this demo always threw me off. I still think it has potential, with a variety of different lenses and techniques in place that could theoretically prevent things from growing too stale.

The presentation's on the uneven side, with fully voice acted and produced cutscenes sharing exposition with PS1-era paragraphs of text which explain, with zero pizzaz, the game's happenings to you. The art direction's gorgeous, with the environments looking incredibly pretty, though from a technical aspect not exactly cutting edge. I didn't mind the English voice acting, though a Japanese track is also available for those who want to enjoy the game in its native language.

So it was with mixed feelings that I reached the end of this trial, with a screen prompting me to pay $50 for the full title (my progress would carry over) and the news that the full download would almost literally wipe out my Wii U's remaining space. Had Nintendo priced the download at $30, which seems fair based on what I've played and which frankly would have made it more palatable for Nintendo fans to pony up for an external hard drive, it might have been a Day 1 purchase for me.

It's unfortunate that many will not be able to play the game. It's a game that I might still end up purchasing in the future. I can see its flaws, but I can also see myself having a good bit of fun with it. Survival horror fans who own a Wii U should consider giving the Free Trial a try.

Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water is out now, exclusive to the Wii U and (in North America only) the Nintendo eShop.