Wexter

@Ellie-Moo you should be okay. Yakuza 4/5 were late PS3 games (2010/2012) so worked through a lot of the kinks. It won't be as seamless as modern Yakuza games, but it will feel closer to Yakuza 0 than Kiwami 2/Yakuza 6.

@SalvorHardin I was mostly referring to Yakuza 1-6 and 0. The Ichiban games are their own thing. But Shenmu's scope while at the time AAA is not even close to open world game design of today. And Yakuza fits nicely into that Shenmu niche (densely populated city, with lots of meaningful things to do)... And after how bad Shenmu 3 was I'm never expecting that series to be finished.

@hcfwesker Yakuza is like the spiritual successor to Shenmu (very similar gameplay). It is a heavily serialized story that spans 7 games and follows the life of a singular protagonist. I won't spoil, but start with either Yakuza 0 or Kiwami 1 and have a good time.

If you like Shenmu you will love Yakuza.

@JayJ I mean in theory I'm not against it. Yakuza 3 came out in 2009 and remastered in 2019. It's a pretty old game at this point. But, my issue is it seems they did not really fix the issues Yakuza 3 had (the combat, the AI, etc.) and instead kept that, but made arbitrary changes in the story. The Dark Tides expansion does look cool (but I will never say no to more Mine).

Whatever this new sub series will be that remakes Yakuza 4&5 have a lot of work to do in my opinion to make it even worth it. As unlike Yakuza 3, I think 4&5 hold up far stronger.

@ROMhaiku Yakuza has been on a yearly release schedule since the PS2. We just have never noticed because a lot of the side games never left Japan. But now that we're getting those it's just more noticable in the West.

Edit: there are a few exceptions of a year break between releases, but they're few and far between in the release history.

I love the Kiwami games, but this is a rough one. Yakuza 3 is already one of my least favorites in the series so was hoping Kiwami 3 would fix some of that. But, sadly it does not...

I will wait for a sale. Still a 6/10 Yakuza game is an 8/10 for any other franchise. Yakuza 3 just the weakest of a pretty amazing series in my books.

@The_Nintendo_Expat bingo! Gaming is such a rich medium that when loose ROMs get tossed around as (at least a lot of the the times this discussion comes up) as the end all be all of preservation it is depressing. Especially when large swaths of the medium is just gone.

And I'm not just also referring to the source code and materials directly related to development. But, interviews, gaming videos and even entire gaming fansites lost to history. Preservation (at least to me), is such an important part of gaming and covers larges parts of the medium that is not just directly playing the game. At least that is how other mediums treat preservation like novels or films (and they get far more granular than even that like letters, email communications, journals, biographies, essays etc everything gets cataloged somewhere by someone).

But, I get where you were coming from as well. To a lot of gamers just playing the game is enough. But, the context or development assets is in a lot of cases is more important than the actual game (and sadly corporations have treated these materials with less respect than the ROM or ISO files and tossed them).

And I'm not saying all of this material needs to be accessible to the public. We all know the Vatican, the British Museum, the Tolkien Estate, don't have all of their materials accessible to the public. But, we know it is cataloged and preserved there. And just even having an official Database that is doing that same thing for gaming would be an academic godsend! Now getting I am getting highly academic for gaming fansites comment section though. So I will stop here, but I hope this helps highlight how I view preservation as a topic.

@The_Nintendo_Expat preservation is extremely important. Unlike Nintendo, a lot of Japanese companies were extremely bad at it. Square Enix completely lost Kingdom Hearts source code, and the project files for FFIX's CG renders.

It is a two way street unfortunately. And if we can recover these assets through sales, or private finds, that is fantastic! Otherwise sadly the most important parts of preservation is on the companies themselves... And I don't think it's gotten much better than it was in the 90s & 00s.

It's not up to one person, but a collective. And honestly I wish transparency and accessibility was a lot better.

@The_Nintendo_Expat Thanks for the clarification. I get my jimmies in a twist when it comes to the two being used interchangeably. But, I agree the fact these games are complete and accessible is a great step towards former cancelled projects for retro consoles being revived, cleaned up and shipped instead of being forgotten. Even if the original code and assets are preserved on a Nintendo server.

@The_Nintendo_Expat what does actual preservation mean in this case? It's quite clear Nintendo preserved their work here or else these ROM files would be lost to time. It's not like people were chomping at the bits to rerelease these relics of the Virtual Boy. Nintendo even doing this is way out of left field considering and shows they preserved their work.

Preservation is not the same as accessibility.

@poyo_pie they won't. VR has proven it's very safe to play games like this. The reason people got headaches was mostly due to the red/black colour combo combined with the 3D effect.

But, your vision will be more than fine.

Last time I stepped into a GameStop there was a single small wall that only had Switch 1/2 and PS5 games. No Xbox, and the rest of the shell space was backpacks, Funko pops, toys and other crap. If that is indicative of other stores... I'm not surprised. It's not a game story anymore.

@Nep-Nep-Freak it's probably to differentiate it from Switch 1. They don't want a repeat of the Wii U, so they're trying to give the Switch 2 a similar, but distinct look.

They'll probably give more colors options for the entire joycon once the Switch 1 is out of production. Which probably won't happen till they beat the PS2 sales record.

@WaveBoy if this happens I guarantee if Wii games get added to Switch Online, Nintendo will release a Wiimote, Nunchuck and sensor bar accessories. They've done a good job porting Wii controls to work with the joycons, but it's not the same.

@FernandoMachado Prime 5 will probably be a back to basics kinda game. Prime 4 had a lot of experimentation (honestly felt like a natural progression from Prime 3) and I doubt Retro wants to commit to another 6 year dev cycle. They'll probably want to pull back on the next title especially after criticism.

@OldGamer999 I think the only reason it suits Xbox is because no one is buying an Xbox anymore. The Xbox One almost sold half of what the 360 did and the Xbox Series has sold (so far) about half of the Xbox One. And some of that is yes Halo and Gears falling off, but also not having meaningful exclusives.

It is a snake eating its own tail. It's going 3rd party because no one are buying their consoles anymore, but also not giving consumers a reason to own an Xbox over the PS5 and/or a Switch 1/2.

It's just what happens when you canalize your console to prob up other parts of the Xbox brand. Halo on PlayStation (and probably Switch 2 in the near future) is the end of the Xbox console in my opinion.

@nessisonett a bit harsh really. It's a mobile game that tried to do something different. It clearly is trying to invoke the Awakening/Fates era designs by Yusuke Kozaki. But it's not very good. And as for the Smash appearances people do need to relax a bit on that. That's not FE's fault it's a popular franchise and Sakurai put too many FE characters in the game.

Fire Emblem still has a strong reputation which is probably why this game coming out is so shocking (I know Engage was very different aesthetically but still an extremely well made game)... It is clearly some side project that they should had cancelled though. It's biggest sin is it's just so damn bland. Shockingly bland considering the franchise it's from.

@WaveBoy yeah it's kinda the mandatory appearance by franchise faces (Chris/Leon). I almost wish it was Jill and just Jill as she's been MIA since RE5 for a mainline game. Oh well Capcom being Capcom.

@Spedfrom it's an RE game. When was the last time in a mainline RE game did we not see Chris or Leon? RE3 on the PSOne? Not even sure if that counts as it was originally planned as a spinoff.

It's tradition at this point. If it's no Chris showing up it's going to be Leon.

@MARl0 of NeatherRealm can survive the bankruptcy of Midway Games, then they'll survive this. We may not see a new Injustice game, but Mortal Kombat will live on as it's always been a multimedia franchise since the 90s. Netflix won't pull the plug there. Or they'll just selloff NeatherRealm and the MK license.

@the_beaver honestly I'm going to disagree. I actually like how deliberate the parkour feels compared to later games where it feels you can stick to anything like Spider-Man. I especially like how freeform Unity was.

To each their own, but I think climbing felt better in the older games.

@Metazoxan it's all good! I completely understand. It's annoying for sure because I guarantee most of the people making the comparison have never touched a PS2 (and probably a Xbox 360 or PS3 based on how old they are now). So it's frustrating to see them make comparison to either doctored screenshots (I know they are because I was following the news when the companies released them) or to selectively snipped screenshots.

But, at the end of the day people are going to hate on Pokemon and Nintendo just because. Not even for legitimate reasons, but just because it's popular. And Z-A looks about as on par with a late-gen PS3 game and that tracks and that is okay.

@Metazoxan don't engage. It is obvious with anyone with eyeballs the game does not look like a PS2 game. The level of geometry in the character models alone the PS2 could not run it (exhibit A: Vaan's painted on abs in FFXII). The game does look a bit like a late gen PS3 game, but that is expected because the Switch 1's hardware wise is somewhere between a PS3 and a PS4. So yeah it has similar limitations with rendering a cityscape (similar limitations you can see in Assassin's Creed II and Brotherhood).

Don't engage with him. It's not worth your time or patience.

@SuperEndriu honestly don't let it. Just go play Yakuza Zero. If you enjoy that go play Kiwami 1&2. The series is serialized, but only till Yakuza 6. Yakuza 7, 8 and the Judgment series are basically their own thing. So if you just want play the games staring Kiryu (the protagonist of Zero-6) just go enjoy Zero and the Kiwami games (I almost bet they'll get to remaking 4&5 in the near future).

@Samalik have you played Xillia and Xillia 2? They're complete on their own. It's almost as if both games came out at $60 USD on the PS3 individually and have enough gameplay on their own to last up to 80-120 hours and multiple playthroughs to see everything. That is a complete release.

So you want Bandai Namco to delay the release of Xillia 1 up to a year (because PS3 games are a notorious pain in the arses to port) so they can change $70-80 to include a game good chunk of Xillia 1 fans don't like, most likely have Xillia 2 not be on the cartridge (because this is a Switch 1 release)... Instead of keeping Xillia 1 a budget release and give people the option later of buying Xillia 2 (on the cartridge guaranteed) or wait for a potential bundle or a sale... Yeah...

@Vyacheslav333 you know what made that bundle possible? All those games already being released. We don't even have a release date for Xillia 2 yet. So should they delay Xillia 1 to give you your bundle?

And don't tell this is not true that people complain about this exact same thing in every bundle release ever. Go back to articles about Final Fantasy X/X-2 Collection, or when Bayonetta 2 came out with Bayo 1 as a digital pack-in, or the Batman Arkham Collection, the BioShock Collection, Spyro Reignited, Boarderlands Legendary Collection. Go reread the comments on those and you'd see I'm right!

@Samalik You know as well as I do if bundled both games together it would not be for $50. Look at stuff like the Batman Arkham Collection came out in Switch it was $70 USD.

And once again as I repeat as the point keeps missing you. I'm not against bundles! I keep repeating over again that someone saying "it should had been a bundle like the original" is not the same as "it would had been nice if it was bundled with the original." Two completely different tones. One sounds entitled and whinging about a game that is already a budget release. The other is a I" would have preferred this."

But you also missed the point that Xillia 2 does not have a firm release date! That means it started later in development when remastering Xillia 1! So should they delay Xillia 1 to meet some arbitrary release of a bundle? How is that pro-consumer! Hey guys we're going to delay this fan favorite release so we can slaps the 2nd game in, increase the price and it's a game a good 1/3 of you don't even like!

How is that pro-consumer! You think they're just going to giveaway Xillia 2? Where did you pull this $50 price out for this hypothetical bundle? Also you neglect my point that Tales of games constantly go on STEEP sales.

The this is dumb comment was about the idea they should package in a game that does not even exist yet! Xillia 2 could come in 3 months, 6 months maybe a year! We don't know. Oh yes magically Ethier this game into existence for me so I'm not inconvenienced and can just have both games at once is entitled as *****. And you know as well as I if by the moons both games came out in a single package you're not getting both on the cart. One will be forced on you as a download just like Final Fantasy X/X-2 HD and every other PS3-era game in a bundle on Switch.

And we'd instead be hearing whining of "I'd pay more for Xillia 2 to be on a cartridge. Give the consumer an option to buy both separately physical Namco! Such greed" you know as well as I do that is the childish comments we'd be seeing if it was a Xillia 1+2 bundle.

I'm a massive Xillia fan, you know how much I'd love it if both games game out in a single package at $50? I'd be over the moon! But if you actually read my original comment I said as a fan that this makes sense. Both games are massive titles and let's be frank here Xillia 2 felt like a cash grab sequel even at the time and rubbed fans the wrong way.

@johnedwin lockdowns didn't really end till the end of 2022 to maybe May 2023. Just cause there were vaccines did not mean lockdowns ended. Return to Office orders only really became a thing starting in late 2022-2023. I'd say we only really got back to normal in late-2023 when people stopped socially distancing all together. So yeah Legends Arceus was a tail-end of the COVID game buying spike.

I mean when have mainline Pokemon games ever been the best looking games on their respective systems? Ruby and Sapphire don't look nearly as impressive as Golden Sun. Diamond and Pearl were not nearly as technically impressive as Dragon Quest Monster Joker or other 3D RPGs on the system. X&Y and Sun and Moon were not nearly as impressive as Yoki Watch, Monster Hunter games or Resident Evil Revelations... I mean Pokemon has always coasted on looks good enough.

The franchise has never strived to be graphical marvels. It be nice to have better graphics, but people have never played Pokemon for the graphics.

@johnedwin also Arceus came out during COVID. There was a massive game buying bump during that time because people were looking for things to do during lockdown. Still 5 million in a week are insane numbers and this game will probably be a Switch 1/2 best seller within the year.

@Samalik except some people don't like Xillia 2. Some people really just want to replay Xillia 1 and that's kinda of it. There is nothing wrong with there being an option for someone to just buy the original at a lower price point. And as I said in my original comment there will probably be a bundled release with both games on the eShop/Steam/PSN etc.

I'm not arguing against bundles in principle either I just don't like bemoaning for the sake of bemoaning when it's already a budget release. And we legit saw the exact same bemoaning in the inverse with Galaxy 1+2 just a couple weeks ago.

What's wrong with there being an option to just buy Xillia 1 on its own. And odds are the developers only originally intended to do Xillia 1 because they don't even have a firm release date for Xillia 2. So they probably got a good chunk of the way through the first game and decided to do the 2nd game. So should they just delay the original just so it can release day-and-date with a sequel that was probably a later decision to remaster? And one that got lower scores than the original?

Notice how dumb this all sounds?

@Samalik and how many times do we hear people go "ughhh $70 for a bundle of two PS3 games wish they'd just release this part of the bundle separately as that is the one fan actually want!"

And I'd have the exact same argument there. Most of the time it is whining for the sake of whining especially for what is essentially a budget release for a remaster of one of the best JRPGs of the 7th generation.

So yeah... I'm more annoyed about the tone and attitude that was directed at me when I literally said they'd probably do a bundle release on the eShop as well.

@Samalik yeah, by pointing at a very obscure bundle only released in a single region. And both releases are already $40 each and if they bundled them together you have a $70-80 collection. And Tales of Graces and Tales of Vesperia got individual releases so why should Xillia 1/2 have to be bundled together due to a obscure release?

If this was a $70 release I'd be like yeah... It should be a bundle, but these are already budget releases... And it gives the consumer an option to only get Xillia 1 if they don't like Xillia 2 and at a cheaper price point than a full release. And unlike other franchises the Tales of franchise constantly has steep sales not long after release so you'll probably be able to get both cheap soon anyways.

It just seems like complaining for the sake of complaining honestly.

@Vyacheslav333 congratulations??? You do realize that came out well after the fact right? My point was each game was pretty sizeable and worth individual releases (if you plan to 100% just Xillia 1 it's going to be 80-100 hours, and Xillia 2 is 120-150 hours). And if you read my comment (instead of finding a random eBay listing) you'd notice I said they'd probably do a bundle on the eShop as well once Xillia 2 comes out.

So congrats you missed the point so no "own" here at all. Now find a North American listing as that was a EU listing and there was never a NA bundle. The bundle was not available in every region.

@AndrosEGD that and each game takes 30-50 hours to finish a single playthrough and if you want to play all paths you need to play each game at least twice. I'm sure Namco will release a bundle on the eShop when both are released. But seperate releases make sense here.

Underrated sequel! Such a great story!!! But be warned those priming for Xillia 1. Don't look up the trailers or gameplay as spoilers everywhere in this game.

@RupeeClock you'd think, but the Turok games are on NSO... So not completely out of the norm.

@Sirko I could see a port. But, I think the issue is they'd need Mistwalker to sign off on it.

My guess is Banjo Tooie and Conker will go to Switch Online. Probably they'll announce Gears and Halo for Switch 2. That is the most likely announcement as Halo Master Chief Collection was rumored forever for Switch 1.

I would be surprised if they announced any Rare 360 games or Sea of Thieves. But, it be a good surprise.

@RupeeClock still a pretty gross display... Really makes you realize how other companies value their talent and actually push through the hard times together if they believe in them...

This is awful and generally mass layoffs have a net negative at studios post firings.

@EarthboundBenjy or this could be a different Pauline? Maybe this takes place before the Country Games... The lore is vast and full of terrors

@arabiansanchez don't listen to the Steam Deck crowed in general. In total it has sold between 4-6 million units within 3 years. Which is perfectly fine numbers for a niche gaming PC. But, in any reality if this was compared to a console, it is more Wii U than Switch... Or even Xbox One.

I like the Steam Deck fine enough, but when you look at the cold numbers... It was not a Switch killer like so many people predicted. It is almost as if general consumers don't want a gaming PC and are perfectly happy with buying consoles.

And this is coming from a PC gamer.

@Cyrax77 it's simple cost to time investment. If you know the game will be a centerpiece of your gaming/family/date nights it's an easy purchase.

Mario Kart 8 has been a part of my gaming rituals with my family for over 10 years now. Of course $80 for Mario Kart World is a no brainer purchase for me.

The $80 price tag I think is harder to swallow for folks for games they know will be a one and done. Which is very fair! But, for those there are always sales and despite what people think Mario Kart goes on sale a LOT so Mario Kart World will too.

@Arawn93 anyone could tell these people the Steam Deck won't ever get mainstream attention for one simple reason... Mainstream consumers generally don't like gaming on a PC. They don't want to fiddle with settings, the possibility of a game just not working or deal with the the thought of viruses.

The thing has sold 4 million units in 3 years... Which is fine! That is great sales for a niche product... But the idea of it ever replacing a Switch to mainstream consumers was a out there idea in the first place.

I also highly doubt the Xbox Rog Ally will do much to change that perception for mainstream consumers either.

EDIT: for context this coming from someone who does most of their gaming on a custom built PC.

@Grumblevolcano I bought up FFVIIRE more as a point illustrator. Square Enix recently admitted having the Final Fantasy VII Re Trilogy and Final Fantasy XVI as console exclusives was a mistake. 3rd parties as canaries in the cole mine sometimes if they are saying exclusives are unprofitable without substantial investment from Console manufacturers then the in-house games must on some level be even more unprofitable especially by Microsoft.

@Arawn93 I think my point was missed. I was just saying is that people acting like the Nintendo bullet is some holy symbol that can keep a game from going multiplatform are fooling themselves.

Wonderful 101, Devil's Third (Online), Fatal Frame 4&5 all have appeared on PC. Yes the context around these releases need to be taken in account. I was more so just saying this could be true... Or it could had been an article written by AI that just told a big old fib... Like AI does.

Though the idea that Sony puts their massive sellers on PC because their games don't sell enough to earn back their budget is a key point here. At some point the same will also be true of Nintendo. Let's use Xenoblade as an example as the franchise despite being a critical darling does only really sell in the 1-3 million unit category. Compared to Zelda, Mario, Pokemon and Animal Crossing that is not a lot.

Odds of us seeing the oddball low selling Nintendo franchise on PC might not happen during the Switch 2, but I think it is closer than some realize.

@Sindayl platform exclusives are dying a slow painful death. In this market where games are so expensive to make it makes almost no sense for these games to not be on PS5, Switch/Switch 2 and PC. Xbox as a brand is dying as ever since the 360 Microsoft has been struggling to remain relevant; outside of buying large publishes like Bethesda, Activision-Blizzard. It makes sense that after the struggle to sell people on the Xbox One and now the Xbox Series S/X they'd start publishing on Sony and Nintendo systems. Even Sony is dipping their toes in on this idea as even PlayStation games are now on PC (development costs are just so damn high).

I mean there is a reason Final Fantasy VII-Re trilogy is coming to Switch 2. I think Nintendo still has some runway to keep their games exclusive this gen just do to their ability to keep budgets lower, but at some point it is likely even the Big-N will publish at least on PC.

@Woodyshoe it is possible they are doing what Sony does and releasing a few "last gen" games on PC. Probably a few outlier franchises like Xenoblade or Fire Emblem. I mean they have allowed Nintendo owned franchises like Wonderful 101 on PC and other consoles before.

However... It was probably an AI mistake as I doubt Nintendo is doing this as Xenoblade X is still fresh in gamers minds.

@VoidofLight fair. I'm hoping for a sequel to Xenoblade X... But I can dream