Samantha Lienhard's Blog, page 28

Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure is a Charming RPG

When discussing the 25th anniversary of the Rhapsody series, I mentioned that I had started playing Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure.

I played it as part of the NIS Classics Volume 3 collection and finished it on the weekend.

Rhapsody is a cute, charming game. You play as Cornet, a girl who has the ability to talk to puppets and recruit them to join her party. You can also befriend monsters to use as party members, although I mainly stuck with the puppets once I had a few good ones.

Cornet dreams of winning the prince’s heart, and all looks like it’s going well… until he’s kidnapped. Cornet then sets out on a quest to save him, no matter what obstacles stand in her way. The premise feels almost like a fairy tale, although the writing also has a good dose of humor that kept me smiling throughout it.

And while it’s fairly straightforward, there are also secrets and side quests related to the puppets you recruit, which made it feel like I was regularly discovering new things despite it being pretty short for an RPG (it took me 12 hours).

Battles play out similarly to a strategy RPG, with Cornet and her party on a grid to fight the enemies, although I’d say it feels more like a regular turn-based RPG with movement. It’s also easy. Very easy. There was a slight difficulty spike at the end of the game, but until then I rarely had to worry about anything.

Now, you might be wondering about the “musical” part of the title. Does that just refer to the horn Cornet plays to recruit puppets? No, not at all. It is literally a musical. At key points in the story, characters break out into song (fully-voiced, too, despite the game’s age).

As an example, here is the antagonist’s musical number:

The musical aspect adds even more charm to what is already a charming game, and it makes me wonder what they could do with a modern sequel.

While I’ve praised it a lot so far, there is one thing I have to criticize it for, however – the dungeon design. Rhapsody has some of the most mind-numbingly boring dungeon design I’ve ever seen. Not only does it employ the “maze full of identical rooms and dead ends” approach, but there are exactly two visual styles that almost every dungeon in the game falls into. A new dungeon will be either a dungeon-like room with stone walls or a cave. That’s it. I can only think of two dungeons that had different designs, and they were also much shorter. The one saving grace is that since combat is so easy, at least getting lost in a maze of identical rooms isn’t too dangerous.

With that gripe aside, I quite enjoyed Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure. I’m happy they released it as part of NIS Classics Volume 3 for new players like me, and I look forward to trying the sequels!

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Visions of Mana Due Out This Summer

One of the best surprise announcements from the Game Awards last year was Visions of Mana, a brand-new entry in the Mana series.

Yesterday, it was one of the games shown at the Xbox Developer Direct.

I didn’t watch the whole thing, but I did tune in for the Visions of Mana segment, which included a behind-the-scenes look at monster designs as well as other details and gameplay from the upcoming title.

The game looks beautiful, and the dog-like “pikul” you use as your mount is adorable!

The trailer ends with a Summer 2024 release window, narrowing it down from the general 2024 window given when it was announcement.

(It only lists Xbox and PC at the end, but that’s because it was from an Xbox event. The game is coming to PS4 and PS5 as well.)

To date, the only Mana game I’ve played is Sword of Mana on the Game Boy Advance. I’d like to play the recent collection and remake, and I’m definitely interested in this new one. 2024 is really shaping up to be an amazing year for JRPGs, and Visions of Mana is one more to look forward to!

Are you planning to get Visions of Mana?

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Virche Evermore -Error: Salvation- Was Certainly an Experience

Of all the otome games that came out last year, one I was especially excited for was Virche Evermore: Error Salvation.

Set on an island where people die by the age of 23 and following a protagonist cursed to bring death to those around her until she makes a deal with the “Watchman of Death,” Virche Evermore was described as being very dark and full of despair.

Fans were dying for it to be localized, and its reputation was such that I was excited to finally sit down and play it.

I actually finished it ahead of Yakuza last year, but unfortunately, I didn’t love it nearly as much as I expected to.

Not that it was all bad. The main character is likeable enough, with a tragic and sympathetic situation. The love interests were all right, with a couple standouts for me compared to the rest. The premise is intriguing, and I still love that. As for the darkness and despair, it probably hits harder if you don’t play a lot of darker games to start with, but it certainly had some hard-hitting moments and sad endings.

There’s one route I absolutely loved (Scien) and a few I found enjoyable, but Virche Evermore has one big problem that held me back from enjoying it as much as I wanted to.

You see, despite what seems to be an overtly supernatural premise, this game fancies itself as a sci-fi story. Since people can’t live past 23, they’ve developed cloning technology that allows them to clone themselves and download their memories into the new bodies after death. These clones can’t develop past where they were at when they created the backup, and emotions like love can’t transfer with their memories. This is the sort of dubious science I was willing to overlook for the sake of the story, but to my dismay, Virche Evermore depended more and more on its questionable science as it went on.

Click for major Virche Evermore spoilersWhen we got to the big reveal that the reason people can only live to be 23 is because the soil contains a toxin that eats through a pair of chromosomes each year, so when you lose your last pair of chromosomes, you die, that was enough to take me out of the moment even without the additional explanation that Ceres’s curse is because she was born in a field of flowers that absorb the toxin, causing her genes to be half-human, half-flower, and therefore she absorbs the toxins and releases them around people.

And then when Le Salut got around to explaining Ankou… I didn’t mind the reveal that he was a time traveling Adolphe from a timeline where Ceres died; it was all foreshadowed well enough and should have been a compelling story. But the game’s attempts to explain all of Ankou’s supernatural elements through handwaved science (he was experimented on until he gained amazing regeneration powers) and magic tricks (his mysterious disappearances are just him throwing a smoke bomb and hiding) ruined it for me.

I think I would have liked this game so much more if it just let the curse and Ankou be supernatural instead of trying to explain everything with “science.”

Look, I know I’m a Professor Layton fan, I can accept huge leaps in logic for the sake of an emotional story, but the science needs to make enough sense for me to suspend my disbelief.

I was also disappointed by its structure. You need to get all of the Despair endings before you’re able to go back and unlock the Salvation endings, so I assumed there was a story reason for that. I expected the final route to include a big reveal that would involve either us going back in time to change things in the routes, or more information for the player that would unlock additional choices on subsequent playthroughs. Neither of those is true; you just go back through with the same choices as before but get a better outcome this time. In other words, there’s no reason for the Salvation endings to be locked, and that made it feel pointless to me.

Before I played it, I thought Virche Evermore had the potential to become one of my favorite otome games. Instead, while I certainly enjoyed parts of it, I felt disappointed by it overall.

If the fandisc is ever localized, I’ll consider picking it up for Scien the characters I liked, but I doubt I’ll be rushing to make it a priority.

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Like a Dragon Gaiden Review: A Shorter, Fun-Filled Experience

Yakuza: Like a Dragon was the last game I finished in 2023, and Like a Dragon Gaiden is the first game I finished in 2024! Can you tell this is one of my favorite series?

was announced during that thrilling 2022 RGG Summit as a shorter game that would follow Kiryu during the time between Yakuza 6 and 8 (Infinite Wealth).

While it’s digital-only in the west, Japanese or Asian copies can be played in English if you’re someone like me who really likes having physical copies.

It is impossible to discuss the premise of Gaiden without touching on the ending of Yakuza 6, so if you haven’t finished Yakuza 6 yet and want to avoid spoilers, all you need to know is that Gaiden is a great game with lots of fun side content and some intriguing story developments. You should stop reading here to avoid Yakuza 6 ending spoilers.

For those of you who are still here, let’s continue.

Gaiden picks up with Kiryu, who is now working as an agent for the Daidoji faction after they faked his death. The ending of 6 portrayed this as being Kiryu’s choice to best protect his loved ones, but here it feels more like a threat they’re holding over his head to make him comply. So Kiryu is pretending to be dead and acting as basically a secret agent under the codename “Joryu.”

Things go badly, and soon Kiryu finds himself on a mission to investigate what the Omi Alliance is up to in good old Sotenbori.

The combat system returns to the action brawler style rather than the new turn-based direction, and this is where Kiryu’s new role as a Daidoji agent is most apparent. In this game, you have two combat styles: Agent Style and Yakuza Style. Yakuza style is a slower, heavy combat style based around charging up for powerful hits. Agent Style, meanwhile, is a faster type of combat that makes use of gadgets.

Kiryu starts with a “Spider” gadgets that lets you shoot out lines to restrain enemies and swing them around, and more gadgets are added as the story progresses. I did fall back on regular attacks more often than not, but having some fun new options to turn to did make the combat feel fresh.

There’s also a special counter system when you dodge certain powerful attacks, and I enjoyed using that, too.

Although Gaiden has been described as bridging the gap between Yakuza 6 and Infinite Wealth, most of the game runs concurrently to Yakuza: Like a Dragon. If you’ve been wondering if you should play Gaiden before or after Like a Dragon, the answer is definitely after. It spoils many major plot events from Yakuza: Like a Dragon.

This gives the story a bit of an odd feeling since I had a rough idea of how everything would end up. It felt less like an important story on its own and more of simply showing what Kiryu was doing during the previous game. That’s not to say it was without emotional moments, though – it had some pretty heavy-hitting scenes despite the nature of its story.

It also has a ton of side content. Back when Gaiden was announced, fans were concerned that its shorter size might mean little to no side content, but the opposite is true. My playthrough lasted 25 hours, and I’d bet over half that time came from substories, mini-games, and other optional activities.

The live action cabaret club is awkward but entertaining, some of the best mini-games make a return, substories are as brilliant as ever with a lot of fun callbacks, and there are also smaller missions scattered across the map that give you simple requests like finding a lost item or photographing a specific spot. Then there’s the coliseum, which has several different modes, including a team battle mode where recruited characters fight alongside you (and you can even change who you control as the team leader). You can also customize Kiryu’s outfit, which is the best thing I never knew I needed.

Despite its immediate ties to Yakuza 6 and Yakuza: Like a Dragon, Gaiden felt in a lot of ways like a love letter to Yakuza 0, and as someone who started the series with 0, it felt almost nostalgic.

Much of the experience felt focused on its side content and all the Yakuza goodness that brings. However, the story ended with some truly emotional scenes, as well as a few intriguing story hints that leave me curious about where these plot points are going in the future.

Click for Like a Dragon Gaiden spoilersThat implication that Hanawa is actually someone from Yakuza 5 is… strange. A lot of fans seem to believe it’s Morinaga, which could at least help explain why the Aizawa & Morinaga plotline made so little sense.

Between that and the Daidoji grabbing Nishitani and Shishido to make them agents (oh yeah, this seems safe), I’m really curious if we’ll end up fighting the Daidoji in Infinite Wealth.

Because honestly, the Daidoji come across as villains even at the end of the game. I want Kiryu to break free of these people.

I had a great time playing . It’s a shorter (comparatively speaking) Yakuza experience, but a great one, and I can’t wait to see what Infinite Wealth brings.

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NIS is Celebrating the 25th Anniversary of Rhapsody

Nippon Ichi Software has opened up an anniversary website celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Rhapsody series.

Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure first came out in Japan on December 17, 1998, which puts us a bit past the actual anniversary, but hopefully that means they intend to do more than just commemorate the date.

For a long time, the first game was the only part of the Rhapsody series to ever get a localization, but that changed last year when NIS America announced and released Rhapsody: Marl Kingdom Chronicles, a bundle of Rhapsody II: Ballad of the Little Princess and Rhapsody III: Memories of Marl Kingdom, as well as Steam releases for the two games separately.

While I didn’t play the first game ahead of its sequels coming out after all, I actually started it just the other day. I had no idea about the anniversary at the time, so that was a pleasant coincidence.

And since I’m enjoying it so far, I can’t help but hope this anniversary will include new announcements.

While those three games make up the major part of the series, there was also a fourth game set far in the future called Princess Antiphona’s Hymn: Angel’s Score. If that game got a remaster and localization like its predecessors, it would be a wonderful way to celebrate the anniversary. Alternately, maybe the series could continue with an all-new game. If we’re really lucky, maybe both of those things will happen!

Or maybe they’ll just celebrate the series’ history without any new announcements. Nevertheless, I’ll be hoping for new things from Rhapsody!

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Yakuza: Like a Dragon Creates an Almost Perfect Combination

We’ve been waiting a while for this one, since I named Yakuza: Like a Dragon my favorite game I played last year in my New Year’s Eve post!

If you’ve been following my blog at all, you know I love the Yakuza series.

Ever since I played Yakuza 0 back in 2018 and found it to be an absolutely incredible game, up to my emotional experience with Yakuza 6 a few months ago, this franchise has risen up from one I never gave any mind at all to my second favorite video game series of all.

That brings us to Yakuza 7, titled Yakuza: Like a Dragon in the west, for which the developers made the bold decision to introduce a new protagonist and change the combat from action brawler combat to turn-based combat.

(To me, Yakuza was already an action JRPG series, but no one can deny it with Yakuza: Like a Dragon.)

I’ve seen enough series I love change their core gameplay dramatically to sympathize with fans who were displeased by this radical decision. On the other hand, that change usually goes in the opposite direction, so it almost brings a sense of balance. Plus, I just love turn-based RPGs.

Anyway, the point behind this rambling is that Yakuza: Like a Dragon feels in some ways like a match made in heaven for me. All the wonderful aspects of the Yakuza series I’ve grown to love, paired with my favorite genre? What could be better than that?

Yakuza: Like a Dragon follows new protagonist Ichiban Kasuga, a former member of the Tojo Clan who finds himself in the Yokohama district Isezaki Ijincho after… things go rather badly for him. If you don’t know what happens from the trailers, I won’t spoil it here. He and his friends get mixed up involved in a widespread conspiracy, and high drama ensues as is typical for the series.

In the meantime, he also encounters the wacky and heartwarming substories that make the series shine so much, plenty of fun mini-games, a business management side activity that’s strangely addictive, and of course, fun references to Dragon Quest, which they got permission to mention by name.

You see, Ichiban is a huge fan of Dragon Quest, and that’s the in-game justification for the turn-based combat. He loves Dragon Quest so much that whenever he gets into a fight, he imagines it playing out like a turn-based RPG fight. It doesn’t end there, though. There are plenty of nods to Dragon Quest, as well as some to other series like Pokémon.

(And by a nod to Pokémon, I mean all enemies are classified as “Sujimon,” and you meet a professor who takes you to the Sujimon Center and asks you to fill out the Sujidex for him. You don’t get to build a team of Sujimon to battle with, though. …That’s in the sequel.)

They could have stopped at that and had it simply be a Yakuza game with turn-based combat and fun references, and I would have been happy. But by introducing a party system, they went above and beyond.

Yakuza: Like a Dragon has a party chat system. You know, like skits in Tales? That’s a feature I wish more games had, and I love it here. Some of the conversations are so funny! Meanwhile, there are also party conversations triggered by eating certain food at restaurants. Every party member has a social bond you can level up to advance their own mini stories by hanging out with them, too, and Ichiban also has personality stats that gate a handful of new things.

You unlock jobs for combat, as well, with some skills that carry over between jobs while others remain job-exclusive, which forces you to think about what you want your party composition to be. There are so many things I love in this game that I could gush about it all day.

Now, it isn’t perfect. They made the puzzling decision to have a combat system where position matters, yet give you no way to manually control your characters. All you can do is attack an enemy and hope your characters end up where you want them, or watch in dismay as a character gets stuck on a wall and runs against it until the game finally gives up and phases them in front of the enemy. A small degree of manual movement is being added to the sequel’s combat system, and I couldn’t be happier.

It also has a huge difficulty spike partway through. The game introduces an optional combat arena and strongly hints that you should use it – because the next boss fight pretty much assumes you have. I went up 10 levels and barely felt strong enough.

And the middle section of the story felt slow and meandering to me. I loved the first few chapters, and the last few chapters kicked up the excitement again, but the chapters in the middle just didn’t have that same emotional pull. Still, when it does pick up again, it does so with some of the most exciting moments imaginable.

Yakzua: Like a Dragon isn’t a perfect game, but it’s a game I loved from start to finish. Even in those slower moments, there were excellent substories and fun mini-games to hold my attention. The upcoming Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth (aka Yakuza 8) looks like it’s made some big improvements, so I can’t wait to see what that game brings.

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Hakuoki: Chronicles of Wind and Blossom Localization Confirmed

Back when I tracked down physical Vita copies of Hakuoki: Kyoto Winds and Hakuoki: Edo Blossoms, I wondered what the chances were that they’d come out on the Switch before I played them.

Turns out the chances were quite good!

Today, Eastasiasoft announced that they’ve partnered with Idea Factory to bring the Switch version that includes both Kyoto Winds and Edo Blossoms to the west as Hakuoki: Chronicles of Wind and Blossom.

Despite having those Vita copies already, I’d actually been hoping this would happen, because Kyoto Winds and Edo Blossoms are two halves of one game. Not just in a Great Ace Attorney / Trails in the Sky sense, either, but rather that Kyoto Winds contains the start of all the character routes and Edo Blossoms finishes them. The recommended way to play is to switch between the two games to play each character route all the way through before moving on to the next. Having them together in a single release sounds much more convenient.

Not only that, but Eastasiasoft also said this new release will have a revised localization based on feedback from fans. I’ve seen criticisms of the Kyoto Winds / Edo Blossoms translation, so that should be good.

Hakuoki: Chronicles of Wind and Blossom will be out in 2024. Physical editions will be available through Play-Asia, including a Limited Edition that includes the game, a manual, a soundtrack CD, an art book, a sticker sheet and a numbered certificate, as well as a collector’s box. Preorders for both the standard and limited editions will open this Thursday.

This is a great way to start 2024! And if Eastasiasoft is getting in on otome localizations, things could be better than ever for otome fans.

Are you planning to pick up Hakuoki: Chronicles of Wind and Blossom?

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2024 Writing Goals

Here we are again at the start of a new year not only for video games, but also for writing.

Last year at this time, I was lamenting how my numerous Oak Island horror novel rewrites, as well as other distractions, prevented me from completing any of my writing goals.

So I set more focused goals for 2023… never expecting that I would run into similar trouble with another story.

I did write a new novel draft during NaNoWriMo, but aside from that…

My goals for the cursed Oak Island novel were to first rewrite it, then later revisit it to see if it was in good enough shape to be edited for a beta reader, or if it should be shelved. I actually never touched that novel at all the entire year.

Nor did I “send out regular batches of queries” as I planned to do; in fact, I sent out only a single query letter in 2023.

I didn’t revise any of my other novel drafts, even with as open as I left that goal, and I all but ignored my side websites.

What I did do is meet my goal of writing 5 short stories. In fact, I wrote twenty-eight, short stories last year, despite ignoring all the other goals I set. You see, I was trying to finish one specific story that ended up taking me until the very end of the year, which meant I didn’t want to take on another “main” writing project like revising a novel, so whenever I didn’t have the motivation to work on the short story, I wrote other short stories instead. Lots of them.

So there we have it. 2023 was simultaneously one of my most and least productive writing years, and I’m ready to set new goals for 2024.

By 2025, I will:

Resume sending out query letters for at least one finished novel.Revise at least one finished novel.Continue working on short stories.

Those goals are very vague. I know that.

Between all of that short story writing and the fact that I barely sent out any queries, I feel like I lost some of my drive to pursue traditional novel publishing last year. I’d like to regain that spark, of course! But if short story writing is working better for my motivation at the moment, then I’ll stick with it for now.

Who knows, by next year things might have turned around again. As long as I keep writing, no matter what form it might take, that’s the important thing.

Do you have any specific writing goals set for this year?

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Operation Backlog Completion 2024

So, how are we doing with that backlog?

Last year, I had an optimistic hope of completing 100 games in 2023, but I ended with 66 games finished instead. That’s two years in a row I missed the 100-game mark by a fairly wide margin, so this year I’m scaling it back to a more reasonable 75 games.

Operation Backlog Completion 2024

Meanwhile, out of the 24 specific games I said I wanted to play last year, I finished… 3 of them.

All right, I’ll put the remaining games on my list for this year as well, along with my 5 most-anticipated games of 2024… but if I don’t make significant progress through the list this year either, I think next year will be the time to stop pretending these games are even remotely prioritized.

Batman: Arkham Knight (followed by Arkham Origins)The Witcher 2: Assassin of Kings (followed by Witcher 3)Dragon Quest XITales of Vesperia: Definitive EditionYooka-LayleeAurion: Curse of the Kori-OdanDies IraeThe Great GaiasTrails in the Sky SC (followed by Trails in the Sky the 3rd and Trails from Zero)Triangle StrategyGod of War RagnarokThe Good LifeXenoblade Chronicles 3Tokyo Xanadu eX+Alan Wake IIEiyuden Chronicle: Hundred HeroesFinal Fantasy XVIApollo Justice: Ace Attorney TrilogyFantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals TimeMetaphor: ReFantazioFinal Fantasy VII RebirthLike a Dragon: Infinite Wealth

Last year I ended up prioritizing the Yakuza / Like a Dragon series above anything else, finishing four of them instead of the two I had on the list, and I didn’t anticipate finishing the Danganronpa series, either. If last year was my Year of Yakuza, maybe this year can be the Year of Trails?

As expected, my backlog grew terrifying last year due to all of those last-minute 3DS and Wii U eShop purchases, not to mention deals and bundles… but someday, the backlog will be defeated! Let’s see what we can do this year.

Are there any specific games from your backlog you’re hoping to finally play this year?

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Top 5 Most-Anticipated Games of 2024

Happy New Year!

After discussing my top 5 games I played last year, it’s traditional for me to follow that up with a look at the five games set for the new year that I’m looking forward to the most. Only games confirmed for 2024 qualify.

Of course, who knows what exciting games have yet to be announced… but as it stands right now, here are my top 5 most-anticipated games of 2024!

5. Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney Trilogy

I was torn for quite a while on whether or not I should put the Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney Trilogy on this list. After all, it’s a collection of games I’ve already played, and I might not even play it at launch. Surely a new game I’m excited to play is more deserving of this spot?

But I can’t help it.

It might not be a new Ace Attorney game, but a collection of games 4-6 is something we thought might never happen – and an obstacle between new players and a potential Ace Attorney 7.

Seeing the series get so much attention has me so excited and optimistic for the series that I’m hyped for the Apollo Justice Trilogy anyway (and tempted to replay it just in case the unlockable art is a tease of something new). It’s less than a month away now, and I couldn’t be happier.

Now… is there a chance that at this time next year, we might finally have a new Ace Attorney game to look forward to? All we can do is hope!

4. Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time

Early last year, Level-5 made a dramatic comeback after years of silence by announcing several upcoming games! This included Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time, a sequel to the 3DS RPG Fantasy Life, which I loved.

Fantasy Life is an action RPG that features a robust class system. Each class, or Life, has its own quests and challenges. Some lives are combat focused, while others are focused on crafting or gathering, and the game is designed so that you can finish the game’s main story as any Life you want. From what they’ve shown so far, Fantasy Life i appears to be building on the original’s systems while also adding a new feature where you can landscape and customize your island.

If this sequel is anywhere near as charming and addictive as the first game as, it will be well worth the wait to summer 2024.

If only Professor Layton and the New World of Steam was still set for 2024, it would have earned a high spot on this list for sure. As it is, we’ll have to talk about that one next year.

3. Metaphor: ReFantazio

The long-awaited Project Re Fantasy from Atlus was finally unveiled last year under the title Metaphor: ReFantazio, and it looks amazing. The announcement trailer left me with the impression that it was basically Persona in another form, but subsequent trailers and details emphasized the fantasy world and what sets it apart.

It looks stylish and exciting, and I can’t wait.

Metaphor: ReFantazio is scheduled for fall 2024, which is good – it’ll give me some time to finish the great games coming out ahead of it, such as the next two we’re about to discuss…

2. Final Fantasy VII Rebirth

When the Final Fantasy VII remake was originally announced as a multi-game release, I was skeptical. However, the first part won me over by being an epic experience… if one that sparked a lot of controversy.

Now the second game, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, is almost here.

Due out on February 29, it looks like exactly what I’ve been hoping for. Gameplay demonstrations showed vast areas to explore, a beautiful world, and a bunch of mini-games. I’m as nervous as anyone to find out exactly what they’re doing with the story of this remake, but everything they’ve shown has left me confident that I’ll at least enjoy the ride to get there.

Yet for as excited as I am about Rebirth, for as much as I gushed about it when it was shown off this summer, there is still one more game I’m even more excited for.

You can probably guess what it is.

1. Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth

This time last year, I probably wouldn’t have believed I’d be caught up on the Yakuza series in time for the upcoming Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth.

After all, I rarely play games from the same series too close together, especially when they’re as long as these games are.

However, last year I finished Yakuza 5, played Yakuza 6, and played Yakuza: Like a Dragon in time to name it my #1 game I played all year. For that matter, I even found time in the middle to play the spin-off Like a Dragon Ishin, because I just couldn’t get enough of the series.

Three of them made my top 5 list, with another as an honorable mention, and Infinite Wealth looks like it might top them all. With an improved combat system, a ton of fun side content (including an Animal Crossing-esque side mode where you manage a resort island for guests), and a story that already has me on the edge of my seat worrying about what’s going to happen, it sounds like it will be absolutely amazing.

I still need to play Like a Dragon Gaiden before I’ll be ready for Infinite Wealth, but since that’s a shorter game for the series, I should be able to finish it with time to spare before Infinite Wealth comes out on January 26.

Yes, that’s right, January 26. My #1 most-anticipated game of the year is due out in less than a month, one day after the Apollo Justice Trilogy. My only question is how in the world I’m going to balance Infinite Wealth with Final Fantasy VII Rebirth when it comes out!

Conclusion

2024 is stacked with exciting games already. To narrow this list down to my top five, I had to pass over games like the Trace Memory remake, Death Mark II, Granblue Fantasy Relink, Persona 3 Reload, Eiyuden Chronicle (which was on last year’s list, but got delayed), Stellar Blade, a new Shantae game, the Cupid Parasite fandisc… games that could have easily made the list any other year. It’s going to be incredible.

My poor backlog…

So, out of all the amazing games set for this year, the Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney Trilogy, Fantasy Life i, Metaphor: ReFantazio, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, and Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth are the ones I’m anticipating the most. What 2024 games are you most looking forward to?

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