![]() It's also packed with both side quests and mini-games, many presented in a comical manner with action-packed music and slightly madcap presentation. Combinations and skills are unlocked as you go along, and most of what you'd want in an action-RPG is here in the form of items and upgrading your equipment, or getting new ones. Usually you're in combat against a group of four or five enemies, or more difficult one-on-one challenges against more high-profile characters. Fighting with the sword alone feels best so that's how I do it for the most part. Either you fight with your fists, with your katana, with your firearm or with both gun and sword in a style called Wild Dance. ![]() Tactics and the importance of defending yourself and changing your playstyle feel well balanced. The focus on action and combat is smooth and reasonably rewarding in all respects. But still not near what we would expect visually in 2023. There are also places that shimmer a little extra, and when I compare to the original it's clear that it's still a pretty neat change, in places. To round off my dissatisfaction, however, it should be added that the cutscenes are neat, with pleasing camerawork, and the lifeless characters suddenly seem to take on new life in these sequences. As I turn onto the main street in Kyo, the feeling still manages to creep up, and some vivid details pop up from time to time, but the overall impression is simply nowhere near where I'd like it to be. Because many areas and details feel almost a little neglected, as if they've put energy into a few places but forgotten the rest. And while the comparison to the modern titles in the series - where neon lights and paint in particular bring the streets to life - may seem unfair, it's the one I constantly make as I run around. When night falls in Kyo, however, the surroundings are transformed slightly thanks to the light, which gives it a cosier atmosphere. Small details like trees and vegetation not moving, empty alleys with a total lack of detail and a kind of stiffness don't exactly make for a technically good visual impression. ![]() Especially when we're offered so much else in the gaming world that sets the bar high. When you think of Ghost of Tsushima, for example, which despite a different time period still has to be the closest comparison (except for the rest of the games in the series, of course), it feels even more like the visuals don't quite reach where we expect them to be today. Even the surroundings feel like flat backdrops more than living places. There's a ghostly stiffness about the characters, and their animations make the characters feel like wax dolls that often jerk around. Because even though this remake significantly improves things from the nearly decade-old original, everything still feels pretty dated. We'll sift through those cracks I mentioned earlier. Ryōma is on a constant quest to find the truth so we get a revenge story with a bit of detective work thrown in. There are a lot of names and faces to keep track of, but at the centre of it all is a character on the run, forced to live under an alias and trying to exact revenge for what forced him away from his home village. There's a momentum to what we're experiencing here, and once you start investing hours in it, you're naturally eager to see where it all leads. A chaotic time, to say the least.Īs the hours pass, I begin to see through the obvious cracks and find several good things. Because, unlike the other modern parts of the series, we move here to the last years of the Edo period. So, in other words, it's time to get acquainted with Japan in the 1860s and take on the role of a Samurai. I guess a growing Western interest in the Like a Dragon/Yakuza games, and its spin-offs, means that the rest of the world is now getting a chance to get in on this action. Namely, the original, which was released in 2014, was only released in Japan, and so unless you're versed in the Japanese language and imported it, this title is one that's only now being made available to more people. However, with Like a Dragon: Ishin, also of course visually reworked, there's another reason I'd say why this game is highly relevant for a remake. ![]() That's where we are, I suppose, with this constant stream of older games reappearing with a prettier finish. ![]() What justifies a remake? A completely redesigned graphical basis is, some would say, a perfectly legitimate reason to re-release a title. ![]()
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