Recent reviews by Cuhbrewin

Speedrunning crack.

There's something to enjoy in this game at every level of FPS competency and inclination for speedrunning optimizations. For casual players, you only need to do reasonably well on something like 60% of levels. The story is quite campy and intentionally "cringe", but I think it's a perfect amount of "owning up to" the cringe. I had very few negative moments within the story, though if you wish to skip it, you can with a fast forward button (not an instant skip but close enough).

If you're more inclined to hunt the Ace/"platinum" times, you'll find the shortcuts very intriguing and fun, as many of the levels are intentionally created to allow for several possible time saves (the game by default hints you toward at least one major time save, but you can turn that off if you'd rather find them yourself). Honestly, I think every player should at least attempt to try for Ace on each level, they're quite doable when you see the shortcut that the game hints at, and they're quite exhilarating to pull off. And finally, for enthusiasts, there are red/"dev" medals for completing a level in under a hidden time (or just look it up lol) which is generally quite faster than the Ace medal.

For the truly insane, there are community mods to add 3 tiers of medal above Red, and include more dedicated speedrunning tools such as x/y-axis speed, viewing angle, map coordinates, number of attempts, fastest session time, time delta between PB and recently finished run, etc. Quite frankly, without consulting the speedrunning discord or very niche tutorials, you probably have near-zero chance of getting the Emerald/Amethyst/Sapphire medals otherwise. And honestly, I don't plan on looking into getting Emerald+ on everything because most of those optimizations are insane and too unwieldy for me to use consistently.

The music is so ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ good. Holy moly it's just as addicting as the gameplay. Machine Girl dropped bangers for this soundtrack.

100% recommend this game, the story is probably the weakest part of the whole package (yet still enjoyable). Excluding the insane (in a good way) global leaderboards/community speedrunners but they're not really something I can criticize/talk about because a) I don't particularly care about doing weirdo physics-busting tricks, and b) it would pop up eventually because of the nature of this gameplay.

RC: CNB is an awesome tactical RPG/Visual Novel hybrid. A remake of the original doujin "Codename Bakery Girl" that MICA Team originally made in 2013, this 100+ hour journey through incredibly narrow victories is definitely proof that a remake can be done right. It has a very smooth presentation, great VA'ing (only Japanese VAs are provided AFAIK), immersive soundtrack (god the soundtrack goes hard), and a compelling story (with a decent localization, not impeccable but pretty good). The gameplay itself is... pretty fun, though stealth levels are still my bane so I didn't particularly enjoy a lot of those. Luckily, there are "panic buttons" hidden on most of the stealth levels that aren't possible to shoot your way out of, at least as far as I'm aware. The game has a roughly 50/40/10 split between forced loud, stealth recommended, and forced stealth levels.

Well worth the $25 asking price. In fact, I'd say it's worth getting the deluxe upgrade and OST (they are separate DLC instances that are not inclusive of each other), one to spite the targeted harrassers/trolls MICA gets on the CN side of the internet, and second to support MICA/Sunborn (their storytelling is grandiose and GFL kinda lost me after 2022, but they do seem to genuinely enjoy what they are doing). This game is set in the GFL universe (in 2092, around 30 years after GFL1's time frame of 2062-2064), though it would be more accurate to call it the MICA-verse. Also this game can potentially take 80 hours if you play on the easier modes and don't bother trying to S-rank everything.

EDIT: A small nitpick I do have with the gameplay is that it loves throwing in the surprise reinforcements (I would imagine to leave you on your toes and to enforce adaptability), and while I think the game does it in a way that is mostly adaptable, some people may not like it. There are a few occasions where I have had to backtrack quite a bit, due to losing S-rank conditions (yes I'm a sucker for trying to S-rank on the first "go" on a map instead of coming back to it later). Also the game does not easily tell you skill ranges of bosses (which can go beyond their normal danger range); you have to mouse over the boss's skill while it is selected to see the effective skill range.

(fun side note: the game does keep track of how many restarts you do, I believe the "Experiencing World Line (X)" in the bottom-left of the mission select screen in freeplay mode correlates to how many times you pressed "Restart Turn/Battle")

Eh, this one's more of a "support indie devs" recommend than anything. (Bought Bright Memory - the demo - so that's why I've marked this as "received this for free")

If you want to go purely off of value, it's hard to recommend, as Infinite is very short for a single playthrough (2 hours), though there is a difficulty option locked behind completing it on "hard", if you're into playing on the hardest mode. If you previously bought Bright Memory (the initial proof-of-concept/"demo"), then I should say that this game is very different, as this leans towards a run-of-the-mill FPS campaign experience, versus the more abstract scoring and XP systems of the demo. (though, you still unlock your weapon/skill upgrades via enemy drops and searching around for "artifacts") If you want to unlock all the non-DLC cosmetics and achievements it might take you 6 - 8 hours (i.e. 3 or 4 playthroughs).

The fidelity is... pretty awesome for a project created mainly by one dev. Slicing and dismembering enemies is pretty awesome, and the explosive secondary ammo type on each weapon is cool, too. The shotgun and handgun feel way more OP than the AR and sniper IMO. The Exo Arm upgrades in general are nice to play around with for a bit as well.

There are some annoyances in game design I personally had with it though. There is a forced stealth section if you're not into that sort of thing, but I got particularly frustrated at one of the boss's arenas that has a lot of blocking terrain, and the boss just does not care about terrain as it breaks everything, so why is it there except to block me from moving...

Overall, I'm alright with this game (not what I had expected coming from the demo, but pretty good nonetheless). I had planned to support this dude from the moment I bought Bright Memory, so keep doing good, my man.

Scarlet Nexus is a surprisingly good anime-heavy, cyberpunk-ish, action JRPG/Visual Novel combo. To get the most out of this game, you have to enjoy watching a lot of story scenes. There are no QTEs during cutscenes, which I consider a plus in a story-heavy game like this. The game also incentivizes you to play through a second time on the opposite character to gather missing story details, if you're into the story (though some of it is covered while playing the other character's side, it doesn't tell the full story). You can also attempt to play through both stories at once, alternating every couple of phases/chapters. I've seen a few reviews mention this method, but - having tried it myself - while I enjoyed seeing both sides while the chapter was fresh in my memory, it is quite slow to slog through and you will find yourself repeating a bunch of areas and bosses this way. To some, incentivizing a second playthrough and/or playing both stories at once can be a negative. [There's an additional drawback for achievement hunters if you play through the story using this method, see below for info] EDIT: I dunno how I haven't mentioned the cyberpunk/"brainpunk" setting, but man I love some cyberpunk action. The environments are repeated a bit, especially towards the end of the game where they get reused a lot more, but they're pretty great aesthetically speaking (fidelity may be a little lacking).

The action gameplay itself is also pretty engaging and very fun. However, some bosses and enemies (especially in early-game, where you have no tools to use, and against human enemies in general) are particularly annoying with wide attack arcs, subtle or no reads (telegraphing moves), and little openings to punish. (not a problem with a bunch of unlocked tools later in the game, though) There are also quite a few fights that are classified as "just survive", which I don't mind since it's pretty clear you're not meant to finish the boss off, but there's one in particular that frustrates me. Because that one seems beatable, but since it's an early-game fight with no SAS assist allowed, against a psionic human that does not telegraph their normal attacks, it's pretty terrible. The reward from winning it versus losing is also very minor. I might as well have just lost anyway to save me like 10 minutes.

The systems themselves, on a positive note, are quite solid and fun to master. The SAS assist mechanic in particular is heavily utilized in the game, in that it is a power infusion system that counters specific enemies. Overall difficulty itself is not intensely hard like Dark Souls, but you will need to use your items a bit more than you'd probably be comfortable with. Scarlet Nexus should not be compared to Dark Souls or Code Vein, another Bandai Namco action game released relatively recently. I will hazard a wild guess and say that Astral Chain is probably the closest comparison you could make with Scarlet Nexus. (but I have not played Astral Chain, so no promises there)

NG+ is an option, as post-story there is not much to do. Side quests are quite the chore and do not add anything of notable value to the story or world. One playthrough will last roughly 30 hours, as long as you're reading the story (and doing a small amount of grinding, but this is a game that doesn't heavily emphasize grinding). It probably could get cut down to 20 or maybe 15 if you didn't care about the story, but it sounds like kind of a waste to skip it outright.

The music is a BANGER of a soundtrack. The design/interaction with the gameplay is awesome in that it is reactive based on what battle mode your party is in (out of combat, in combat, in brain drive, in brain field). It's really unfortunate (and a bit odd) that some of the tracks are missing in the digital deluxe soundtrack, if you decide to buy that.

Also this game is very anime. Besides the aesthetic, obviously. It has "final boss has 3 phases" and "power of friendship" levels of anime trope (particularly towards the end), but I love that. Localization is actually pretty damn good, but while the VAs did a very good job, there are still quite a few misspellings, grammar mistakes, and re-written lines in the text, compared to what is voiced.

Performance is pretty optimized, did not drop below 60 FPS at all on a mid-tier rig. Game runs on Unreal Engine 4. KB+M support is there, but I have not tested this extensively as I do not like playing these 3rd-person action games with a KB+M if I can use a gamepad.

Recommended?: Generally yes, but if you prefer less story and more action you may be disappointed. Though I think the gameplay itself is quite fun and enjoyable, but skipping the story is like half the game. Also if you don't care for the anime aesthetic, then you were probably gonna avoid this one anyway. While I would like a Scarlet Nexus 2, it's fine if this ends up as a one-off IP. (as long as the anime and game count as one thing, lol)
If you want a score, 9/10

DIGITAL DELUXE SOUNDTRACK ISSUES: If you're a soundtrack collector, you'll unfortunately be disappointed because the Digital Soundtrack is missing at least 15 tracks (at least, according to my skimmed Youtube searches). It doesn't feel like a lot of effort was made into compiling the whole thing, because it's not even one whole section of songs missing, just bits and pieces from various areas in the game (skewed more towards tracks originating in the later stages of the game, though). Some battle tracks, some ambient tracks, some cutscene tracks, etc.

INFO FOR ACHIEVEMENT HUNTERS: You will need to do all the bond episode viewing on one file, i.e. you will NEED to play through the game again on NG+ in order to get the bond episodes with the other protagonist. The game does not track these over all your save files, so if you do the "play through both stories at the same time" method for your "first" playthrough, then just be warned of that. The bond episodes are unique on each side, yes, and the gifts are also unique to each side, but it's still rather annoying you have to do it on one file for the achievement to pop. The only ones that seemed to pop for me without going to NG+ was the Combo Vision Expert (use each combo vision once; honestly, this could be an error, it felt like a mistake when I got it) and the "watch the ending to both stories" achievements.

ULTRAKILL is a super-intense, bloody, breakneck-paced shooter where epicness is the standard. It's brought up the most intense feelings I've felt towards a shooter in quite a while, even beating out DOOM 2016, DUSK, and Bulletstorm. (mostly good, but I've raged quite a bit at times, due to my own fault after some thinking) As the game is right now, and due to Early Access, there aren't many levels. Though, this game does have secrets, challenges, and hidden bonuses akin to Quake and DOOM, sparking some sense of replayability. There is an endless mode which adds quite a bit of value to this game if you love nonstop action and violence. ULTRAKILL's focus on chaining together different kill styles to achieve maximum score (style) is what separates it from publisher New Blood's other current FPS offerings, AMID EVIL and DUSK. Overall, a phenomenal game, but be warned: it is very intense even on normal difficulty, because the lower 2 difficulties have not been released yet (unless you want to use assists to reduce the game speed and/or auto-aim).

What a line. I mean, so are the other two, but this one means more in terms of gameplay. Your only method of healing in this game is to get close to enemies and shoot them, bleeding them and letting you soak in their viscera. It's quite vicious, yes, but this style of risk-reward up-close shooting is an excellent alternative to DOOM 2016's Glory Kills. (plus, there are stone enemies in this game that also bleed for some reason)

[The other two lines, which accompany the heading quote here, introduce the prologue. They are "MANKIND IS DEAD." and "HELL IS FULL.", referring to the facts that you play as a machine and the enemies are hellspawn because you invaded their territory for their blood, respectively.]

Even on just Normal difficulty, I found it very hard to beat the final boss of Act 1 (Level 3-2). However, after getting used to his attacks, he is very manageable as long as you know the dodge timings of each combo he does. Timing is the key word here. Most attacks are telegraphed, but some come out super-fast, while others require a bit of delay to dodge properly. The game becomes a bit of a puzzle as you determine who to eliminate first, the horde of rushing fodder enemies, or the tanky high-damage enemy. Some enemies are also weak to certain guns, for example: the stone-face spider enemies are weak to the nailgun (overload at close range, attractor at far range), while the coin-trick revolver insta-kills the flamethrower robots on a successful coin shot and causes a mini-explosion that can kill nearby fodder (or hurt you...).

Want to punch an enemy's shots back at them? You can do that.
Want to overpump a shotgun so hard that you explode everything around you? You can do that.
Want to headshot something with a shot ricocheted off a flipped coin in mid-air? You can do that.
Want to ground pound a group of enemies, eviscerating anything immediately below and sending the rest of them into the air, where you can explode them into fireworks giblets? You can do that.
Want to punch your own damn shotgun pellets into explosive pellets? You can do that.

Point being, this game revels in over-the-top style and defying realism.

+ If you die, you can immediately restart with a single key press (R). It very much alleviates the stress of the game laughing in your face at your death, something I have a bad track record with.
+ The soundtrack for this game is all sorts of genres, yet it all works together cohesively. The combat tracks have very fast tempos and get you pumped to fight.
+ The game is super lightweight, being under 1 GB in size. Most times the game will keep running at a stable framerate (I've had consistent 144 FPS on a fairly mid-range system), BUT it can drop down to sub-60 if you kill a lot of enemies with one explosion, or have gore/blood set to maximum settings. You can easily play this on a potato with a few graphics tweaks provided in-game.
= You can ignore the style portion of the game, but I believe it would be a disservice to the game to not engage with it at all. Besides, you need to get an S on total style points per level to get a P(erfect? Platinum?) rank.
= Like mentioned before, this game is super-intense and somewhat stressful. Thus, I ultimately cannot recommend this game for everyone.
- Actually, no real fundamental bad points to make, except that the first playthrough WILL be rough because ultimately every first playthrough of a super-intense shooter is.
- (Joke "con") I can't play more than 2 hours at a time without taking a breather. [Seriously, it's that fun]

I'm very excited for the future updates/Acts for this game!

goodbye kartridge, which was basically an NGU Idle launcher for me (and i experienced some performance issues on kong)

NGU Idle is an incremental game with wildly different mechanics that all integrate with each other so that it's hard to find the most optimal way to play. If you're one who likes managing many different "minigames" (as in a game such as Wizard and Minion Idle), then you'll definitely love this incremental. (for reference, my progression in the game is close to starting evil mode)

also "69 lol" and crude jokes are aplenty so if you like that sh*t play this

i normally do full reviews but tbh you'll either dislike this game because you hate incrementals/idle games in general or you'll love it.

More Majima, a sexy new game engine, and Cabaret Club Management has returned. I don't need anything else, this is perfect.

(Actual review below)

Kiwami 2 was made in the new "Dragon Engine" used for Yakuza 6 (can we get Y3-6 on PC, SEGA? thanks :), as well as the newly released Judge Eyes/Judgment. This game engine sports improved textures and reflections compared to Yakuza 0 and Kiwami. Loading times are slightly longer, though (specifically when you need to load the city streets). Kiryu moves smoother through Kamurocho and the returning Sotenbori (graphically; he has slightly less responsiveness on gamepad if you swing your analog sticks around wildly), and he can now walk into, do business with, and leave most businesses/restaurants seamlessly. Menus are significantly faster and more responsive than 0/Kiwami. However, be warned you will need a beefy PC to take full advantage of real-time reflections (otherwise, turn it off, it improves performance quite a bit that way). Also, there is some discussion that Kiwami 2 is not the most optimized port out there, so if you barely meet the minimum or recommended specs be advised.

Kamurocho and Sotenbori themselves are significantly different compared to Yakuza 0's versions. Streets have been slightly moved around as a result of new businesses and buildings entering the fray. Some businesses have gone away since 0 and Kiwami (even though it's only been a year in-game since Kiwami), and as a result both cities feel familiar yet very different. The Dragon Engine makes both cities look absolutely stunning, but Kamurocho is a tad too bright with all the neon lights.

Battles in the streets are also (sort of) seamless. You can enter a battle with delinquents/yakuza/thugs, give em the good ol' Kiryu smackdown, and come out of the battle without seeing a fade-out. (Obviously you'll see a few perspective changes and Kiryu will stop for a bit while the game switches between exploration and battle modes) Fighting as Kiryu at the beginning is better than the beginnings of Yakuza 0/Kiwami, as you can already do double finishers and grab throws, but his quickstep is vastly nerfed. Even with improvements, his quicksteps in this game don't hold a candle to his maxed out Rush style of the previous 2 games. Kiryu also gets knocked down less often than before (he just staggers most of the time; he doesn't even go down when shot or sliced just once, finally). Enemies (and Kiryu) ragdoll way more often, and while very hilarious a lot of the time, can bug/spazz out on occasion. Heat actions are just as brutal as ever, and on average finish faster so you can get back to the brawl. Fighting bosses is, once again, hard to do with just fists (unless it's one of the few "fair fights" in the game - where the game explicitly locks you out of weapons, heat actions, or healing items).

Experience points have once again been reworked into a 5-category system, where skills are unlocked using various amounts of 1 or more of each category of EXP. This is a change that I don't mind, but am basically indifferent about. EXP is gained by doing basically anything once again, whether that's doing Completion Tasks, eating, completing substories, fighting dudes, etc. A friendly reminder that, like Yakuza 0 and Kiwami, the story difficulty WILL outpace your own progression if you don't do any of the side stuff. (Although it might not be as bad here) Also, there is only 1 fighting style to unlock perks for, rather than the 4 styles of Yakuza 0 and Kiwami.

Substories are, of course, one of the main selling points of the Yakuza series. And unlike Kiwami (where I felt most of them were uninspired, and did not complete a lot of them as a result), I really enjoyed the substories here in Kiwami 2. There were much more imaginative scenarios. (granted, quite a few were ALSO scams, but at least they had some fun coming up with ideas on how people conned Kiryu)

Minigames are back! Here they are:
Cabaret Club Grand Prix: The best ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ side activity is back, baby. As with 0, has a pretty lengthy side plot, though so far it seems slightly shorter than 0's the storyline Grand Prix competitions can be completed fairly quickly (within 5 or so shifts of each other if you're good). This is both good/bad as it cuts out filler matches in between the main events, but means overall there's less money-making. (granted, you'll probably be swimming in cash by the 4th event). Preparation music makes a comeback but the new shift music has me conflicted (it's still great, though).
Clan Creator/Majima Construction: Uh... Not what I was expecting so this took me by surprise. It's a sort-of hybrid between RTS and tower defense. Still have to play more to figure out if I enjoy it.
Batting/Golf Centers: Controller is a nightmare; Mouse precision destroys this mode / Damn the wind in this enclosed space, and my lack of depth perception
Karaoke: Now has 8 (actually it might be 9?) songs! Most of them are indeed bangers.
Toylets: The best thing to have been added to this game.
Claw Games: Nerfed, now it's really hard to get prizes when you're only looking at one side of the play area. Wait I actually had no idea you could tilt right on the right stick and change perspective, am i just dumb (granted it doesn't help too much anyway...)
Virtua Fighter 2: I suck at this and I have no idea what I'm doing
Virtual-On: ^ see above
Shogi/Mahjong: ^^ see above
Gambling: There's less variations of them in Kiwami 2, and there's cheat items so they aren't too bad now I guess.
Darts: uhhh... okay

Unfortunately, bowling is gone :(

Kiwami 2 makes good on 0's legacy - on PC anyway - compared to Kiwami. Smoother looking combat (though ragdolling and actual item physics may spazz out every now and then), a vast array of minigames, and hours upon hours of content definitely earns a recommendation from me. $30 is higher than Yakuza 0's $20 asking price, but if you're already invested in the Yakuza series you would be amiss to not play Kiwami 2. If you're new to the Yakuza series, try Yakuza 0 first since the entry point is lower.

9/10

Yakuza Kiwami is a remake of Yakuza (2005) for the PS2. It's Yakuza 0 but with the cabaret club management and real estate "side businesses" replaced with the Majima Everywhere system. (to be honest, it's an alright replacement because it's hard not to love Majima) Slight improvements to load times, saving (thank god for auto-saves), and menus (R1/RB + X/A to skip any text!). Lots more random NPC dialogue out on the streets of Kamurocho (but sadly, no Sotenbori). Some of the dialogue also helps steer you towards your objective (Some are just random conversations which don't help in that respect). Still has the same problem with 0 where the main story's difficulty outpaces your progression if you only head for the story. Seems to have less side activities than 0, probably due to the lack of Cabaret Club Czar and Kamurocho Real Estate Royale. Also has no Disco or SEGA arcade classics, and JCC has been replaced with MesuKing (basically the same except now it's a CCG with the same rock-paper-scissors gameplay)

Kiwami adds Climax Heat Actions, but for some reason you have to unlock them first in order to use them. (Took me a while to figure that out...) Kiwami also replaces the "invest in yourself" skill tree system with normal experience levels, which you get by doing almost anything in the game that isn't a mini-game. By extension, the amount of yen you always have has been leveled out to around 100k-10m, instead of holding billions of yen by the end of the game. (This ties into the timeline of the game; it's 2005 - way past the economic bubble of 1988 Japan) You also start with the 4 fighting styles Kiryu has by the end of 0, but with none of the upgrades unlocked.

A lot of the substories in the game (at the beginning at least) are just variations of scams, cons, shakedowns, or back-and-forth quests. Even some of the main story contains back-and-forth quests.

The combat in this game is still good, against mooks. Against bosses (particularly in this game) I dislike the fighting system. Lots of the bosses just guard or quickstep or super-armor so it's really hard to get combos in [if you're using Brawler or Beast, which I was mainly using]. If you get hit in the back there's nothing you can do [as Brawler or Beast] because Kiryu staggers and you can't quickstep out of the way or guard in that direction so you just get combo-locked. And there's the exact same problem as in 0 where you get knocked down by one gunshot or melee weapon hit and you're basically losing 20% of your health in one second because you can't rebound.

[EDIT: If you have abilities unlocked that you can take advantage of in the Rush style, then it's actually really easy to back-attack bosses AND avoid combo-locking by quickstepping (up to 5 times, no less) and/or weave-blocking. Still doesn't cover up the fact that Brawler and Beast are bad (Brawler especially, and Beast if there's no large objects around to swing with) at faster boss-types, though I suppose each style should have its advantages (Rush being good against boss-types and single targets). And Dragon of Dojima style has, for me at least, been lagging behind constantly in terms of upgrades unlocked. Chapters 5-7 is when I had a really hard time against the forced fights. Cramped areas (especially the Gambling Den) were particularly annoying to fight in, as the camera spazzes out if your FoV is set high enough. Also there's a LOT of gun enemies in the latter portion of the game, who are all insanely annoying because of the knockdown mentioned earlier.]

Kiwami is an alright game, but I think you're better off playing 0. Or if you've already played 0, and loved 0's story, you might like Kiwami just for the story. In my opinion, Kiwami is meant for people who already played 0 and liked it (or for very veteran Yakuza fans who want it on PC) and wanted just more of 0's feel. (although for some reason I can't shake the feeling it's somewhat of a downgrade from 0) For what it is, it's not bad, but definitely harder to love than 0.

6/10

[EDIT: I've been thinking my 6/10 was a result of the end of the "honeymoon period" of being new to the Yakuza series. It's probably a little better than I gave it credit for but still is not as good as Y0.]

This game is about destroying dudes with bikes, singing karaoke, managing real estate, and running a cabaret club. (Welcome to 1980s Japan!) Also there's some plot line revolving around the dark underbelly of the organized crime syndicates in Japan, or something like that...

Jokes aside, Yakuza 0 is /technically/ the 6th-released game in the Yakuza series, but the first to make it to PC. Y0 is a prequel to Y1, which makes it both good (chronologically) and bad (release order) to play first compared to Kiwami (also on Steam). Yakuza's reputation as "japanese GTA" is not entirely unfounded, but it is definitely distinct from GTA. Combat in this series is mainly beat-em-up style, with a focus on fisticuffs (although you can also use melee weapons and firearms). The Heat Actions you can perform are kinda like finishers (they do large chunks of damage, and come with their own camera angles and animations, but do not always KO), and they are extremely satisfying to watch. I'm not a big fan of the narrowness/strictness of getting some of the Heat Actions to perform though.

Getting knocked down in this game is seriously annoying, as you mash X / A to get back up, but it takes at least 5 seconds regardless of how fast you mash. It also happens fairly often too - whether it's from a boss's combo or a goon with a bat/katana (how does slicing someone knock them down...). Enemies sometimes don't relent from stunlocking/knockdown-chaining you either. Luckily, you can pause at any time to use a health/Heat-restoring item (although it does technically break the flow of combat), as well as equip an OP weapon such as a shotgun (which is markedly more OP than you would think).

A large portion of the content in this game is reserved for minigames. There are a lot, but here's a list of them and a quick sentence or two on each:
Kamurocho Real Estate Royale: Kiryu's main source of income, and a very long side gig. Has its own story and easily takes 20 hours to complete the storyline.
Sunshine Cabaret Club: Majima's main source of income, and also a very long side gig. Like Real Estate Royale, has its own story and about 20 hours of storyline content. (plus waifus! :^)
Karaoke: JUDGEMENT (Yes this minigame is so fun, albeit short-lived with only 6 or so songs)
Disco: Fun, with really nice songs. Takes a bit to understand how it works though. Also kinda short, but has 3 difficulties to play through.
Erotica vids: [Phew...]
Tele-club: Erotica vids but with gameplay that admittedly takes a bit to get used to.
Arcade machines: Space Harrier, Out-Run, Super Out-Run, Fantasy Zone - all nice, but Out-Run 5m points is straight bullsh*t.
All the gambling card/dice games: eh, they're okay
Mahjong/Shogi: i'm too dumb to understand them
Bowling/Darts/Pool: also kinda okay
Fishing: Pretty easy; also used to do a few substories.
Catfight Club: BlessRNG the game (I *hate* this "game" with every fiber of my being)

Oh yeah, substories. Another large chunk of the game which, quite frankly, takes an order of magnitude more time to finish than the main story. They all have a neat little story attached to each of them, and add to the bustling ecosystems of Kamurocho and Sotenbori. Honestly the game could've done away with half of them and there'd still be enough side content without becoming too cumbersome for 100% completion.

If there's one thing this game lacks, it's a sense of urgency between story AND game. The story seems to play out over, like 2 (in-game) weeks, but you could easily spend 2 (in-game/figurative) months playing anything else and the game doesn't comment on it. You may take it to be very ludo-narratively dissonant, but personally I don't mind the fact that the story takes a side step for all the other content in the game.

Some side notes because I couldn't fit it in:
>Dialogue menus take a long time to respond after choosing an option. This is particularly annoying if there's many sub-menus you have to navigate within one conversation.
>God, I love the soundtrack. Like, basically all of it. It's insane.
>This game easily has about 100-120 hours of content to 100% complete. Plus, it requires an additional playthrough on top of that to get the "Plat" trophy (100% achievements), since Legend difficulty is only unlocked after beating the game once.
>Oh yeah, and the main story is actually really good. Figured it gets a side note in this game's review :)
>This port was done by Lab42 (they also worked on Kiwami), and it's a pretty good port tbh. However, there is the occasional corrupted inventory bug that showed up about 3 or 4 times for me in 100 hours.

Overall, a great open-world game filled to the brim with varying side activities. Has a very serious plot about underground crime, power struggles, and drama... but you'll probably get distracted by the side content. 8.5/10

A well-polished sequel (gameplay-wise) to EBF4 that still is missing a few QoL features, but is otherwise an excellent turn-based JRPG. This entry into the Epic Battle Fantasy series is a soft reboot of the main games, where our four heroes - Matt, Natalie, Lance, Anna - and their lord and savior pet cat NoLegs re-meet each other and l00t everything save Earth from the invading cosmic monoliths.

So... story. I am horrible at saying if a story is objectively good or bad, but I will say it was a very entertaining narrative for my first playthrough, even taking itself seriously for at least a few hours. It took me 50 hours (somehow this game was supposed to be 30 hours according to the promo video on the store page...) to do most of the content in the game aside from a few chests I was missing and end-/post-game bosses. As is usual for this series at this point, expect many parodies of and references to games (not just JRPGs) and other forms of entertainment (anime being a rather obvious one).

The status effect combos (Chill+Wet = Freeze, Dry+Burn = Scorch (I thought this was the case but as it turns out it is inflicted separately from Dry/Burn), Bad Luck+Doom = Instant Death, Good Luck+Death = Damage infliction + Stagger) and elemental damage increases from certain status effects are excellent ideas -- even if it's not unique (it probably isn't), it's the first time I've personally engaged heavily in something like it. I also really enjoyed stacking up buffs on the players and debuffs on the enemies (except against Flybots, f*ck those inverting b*stards). The game does allow for some build diversity with different equips, which I also invested a bit of time into (I dabbled in a physical-damage Anna with the Sharanga, Royal Crown, default Ranger Skirt, and War Paint accessory; a status-inflicting NoLegs with the Riot Shield Toy and Pirate Hat; and a defender Matt with Genji Armor (or Spartan Cuirass), Agnry Faic (later Target Badge), Lucky Clover, and Lightning Shard/Heaven's Gate during my first playthrough. Currently I am trying out a support Matt for the beginning of my Epic difficulty playthrough)

Graphically, the game is not breaking visual standards, though should it really at the expense of a good story and gameplay? The paper construction motif for the cutscenes was pretty nice though, and they make for some good wallpapers. (psst... if you buy the game check the install folder) In terms of music, Phyrnna returns to score EBF5 and she ended up with an absolutely stunning original soundtrack* to accompany the tides of turn-based battles.

*You can buy the soundtrack here on Steam as DLC for $5, but as I found out it is missing 1 track: Lacrimis ex Anima. (the optional dungeon theme, which is quite good imo) Her Bandcamp[music.phyrnna.com] has the track though (#27), and you could buy it for $1.

If there was something to criticiz(s)e, they are mostly UI issues. Things such as:
-SPOILER but also annoying once you realize it's happened to you: When Lance kidnaps Natalie from your party at No Man's Land, her extra Skills are returned to the shared pool, but her armor and flairs are not. In other words, Matt and NoLegs cannot equip the flairs she had on when you get ambushed by Lance's tank. Once Anna joins your party, she does not have access to whatever female armor Natz was wearing at the time. (until Natalie rejoins the party before fighting Lance) This could be fixed by addressing the next point...
-You can't quick-switch/remove equipment. (...i know this can be misconstrued so pls i only mean in terms of gameplay) To switch equipment from person A to person B, you have to get person A to switch to a third equip, person B to switch to person A's old equip, then person A switches to person B's old equip. It takes more clicks than necessary, in other words. This minor complaint also extends to extra Skills and Limit Breaks.
-You can't have more than one copy of any individual Summon at once, even though some of them are used as crafting material for forging equipment. This one is actually kind of annoying if you don't remember where to find more of the material monster, and would be a way worse blight on the game if you were playing the free version, which does not have access to the Grand Gallery and Temple of Trials.
-You can't remove all Summons at once, nor switch an "in-use" Summon with a backup Summon. (only when moving from in-use to backup, not from backup to in-use) This is in the Summon main menu, not the Summon sub-menu in battle.
-There is no "Auto-Use" or "Use All" function for stat steroids. Especially since the game touts that there is "no need to save them for later", I'm surprised there was no "Use All" function. (Maybe if this was implemented replace the inventory with amount of steroids used)

All in all, though, EBF5 is a really great game and worth $15. Great story with a lot of self-/meta-aware humor from the characters, some build diversity, intricate turn-based JRPG gameplay, and marvelous music. Score spoiler: 9/10

Estimated time to finish first run: 45 hours (with side content done)
100% Achievement Completion time: possible in 60~70 hours if you play on Epic from the start, otherwise if you're like me and played on Normal the entire way through it would take a second playthrough, meaning an additional 60~70 hours.

EDIT: How could I forget the performance disaster of EBF4 and not consider it when playing this? Well, I did tweak something at the beginning of my playthrough: I bumped the process's priority in Task Manager to above normal (dunno if that did anything though, lol). The performance of EBF5 is leagues better than 4 for me, even when running on "Ultra" Anti-Aliasing (I guess it's just "high" AA now) @ 800p window size (whatever the hell this resolution actually is...), rarely dipping into "running noticeably slow" territory.

EDIT 2: As I'm going through another playthrough to get the Epic difficulty medals, I realized that I really under-appreciated out-of-battle HP regen. It's a subtle, yet very effective way of cutting out menuing between fights to heal and cure statuses (although cooldowns still take a while to recover if they're >5 turns). I also under-appreciated the fact that there's no "random" encounters, only ones that you're supposed to fight because they block your path and they provide much-needed EXP. (I did most if not all the side-encounters anyway, which is worth it since the loot from the side paths are valuable enough to partake in another battle)