I started on Y2, finally! After a few days of trying to get over Nishiki's death. I was eager to see Ryuji and Daigo in action, also some... side events... involving Kaoru... ahem.
So. We start off strong, with Kiryu and Haruka being cute together and visiting the graves of Kazama, Nishiki and Yumi. All's well and then fifth chairman shows up to get killed lmao. Such a way to start the game! Haruka is like "Imma go back to the orphanage because lord knows you have yakuza stuff to attend to, just remember to get me when you're done." So I'm like "Bye Haruka!"
First thing I noticed when Kiryu stepped into Tojo HQ: Yayoi, Dojima's widow, is the acting chairman after 5th died. This woman is one hell of a lady! She's elegant-pretty, can wield a sword, slap a man (and potentially punch one) and her voice BOOMS! I like her!
Then there's the one I've been waiting to see due to all the funny fanart - Daigo, Yayoi's son. With his ridiculous marshmallow jacket and rugged look. He's got beef with Ryuji, but Ryuji's got beef with Kiryu, so it kinna plays out like the villain who was all "ahahah it is me, your nemesis!" and the protagonists go "...who?". That's Daigo and Ryuji in a nutshell. Daigo gets bitch slapped by Ryuji in one shot more than a few times and oh boy was it funny! I get where the 'Kiryu babysitting Daigo' fanart comes from now.
One hell of a lady count: 2 - Sayama Kaoru. Osakan cop, pretty in a strong-cute way. The classic case of 'I can't date because all the guys are scared of me'. Her introduction is really, Really, REALLY cool! VERY AWESOMELY COOL!!! My first comment upon her intro? "I like this woman."
Before anything else, someone I follow on twitter mentioned an event I'd like to call as the 'kiss that ruined me'. They said it was cute and hot at the same time, and lemme tell you, I didn't believe it at all. I was all "Isit tho????". I was looking for Kaoru's age and stumbled upon a trivia that said that she was the only one who shared a kiss with Kiryu on screen, TWO TIMES! Damn this girl is really something else!
Sadly... I didn't get to that part. Disc got stuck in loading screen in the 12th chapter, which means I won't be punching any tigers or saving Haruka from another kidnapping, also not being able to see the aforementioned 'kiss that ruined me'. That also means I missed the great scene which is Majima banging his head on a desk 8 times and him disarming a bomb based on instinct.
I was looking forward to the tiger-punching too! Damn!
What I did? Watched some playthroughs in YT. And HOLY JESUS BALLS THAT KISS WAS CUTE AND SURPRISINGLY HOT! Kiryu. Kiryu mah man. Is this the doing of 7 years of yakuza work??? You weren't like this before! Where did this confidence come from????? You can't even properly tell Yumi your feelings what is going on Kiryu????
So. Some other things happen, Ryuji has a sick tattoo, people die, AND THEN. A bomb was about to go off and Kiryu is too wounded to move. Date flies in a heli with Haruka in tow telling them to get off as quick as they can. Kiryu and Kaoru play out "I'LL DIE WITH YOU" with Date and Haruka watching, then showcase the intense desperate kiss, IN FRONT OF DATE AND HARUKA. Holy balls you dunno how intense that was! It was the one that made me go 'alright time out' in a public space which is my campus library! They were a bunch of ps2 grade polygons! I don't understand how it made me so hot and bothered! What is happening???
Gosh I feel sorry for Haruka. "Uncle Kaz is going to blow up!" No. Your Uncle Kaz is going to have a hot makeout session with a badass female cop before he dies. Dude is living his best life!
I'm sad that I don't get to experience the one-hit-kill end of Ryuji's boss battle, but can't do nothing about a broken game disc... It was a good experience while it lasted.
24 October 2018
20 October 2018
It hurts so much!
This is not going to be a video game review I swear...
October 8th was Nishiki's birthday, I made phone case art of Majima the day before, and so for mah best boi Nishiki, I decided to celebrate his birthday by making another phone case art. It was great! Drawing the carp and sunflowers, looking through other people's art... I was happy. The very next day I did the unthinkable. I suck at watercolours and I haven't been using them since the end of my last semester break, but for best boi, I opened my Mossery sketchbook, filled some water in a cup, and started painting. PAINTING! I CAN'T EVEN BELIEVE IT MYSELF! AND I DID PRETTY WELL?!
Except for the sunflowers... Those sunflowers are just... bad. I've drawn better sunflowers (phone case art, believe me).
I've finished Y0 for almost a month now and I still cannot get over Nishiki! I regret looking up wikis for his information because that was where I found out he wasn't in later games which means either he doesn't make an appearance or he's deceased and that he's the final boss of Y1 like??? OK HE'S DECEASED ALRIGHT.
I mean I don't know. I don't think the developers meant for the players to feel sorry for Nishiki in Y1. There's nothing much to know about him apart from his identity as Kiryu's brother who turned evil. I doubt anyone actually felt this strongly about Nishiki when they first played the original game. For me though, because I started with Y0 it's not surprising that I'm heartbroken by what happened in Y1. I was ready to see it happen.
Come Monday, October 15th. I was determined to see it happen. I went ahead and actually bought Y1 and Y2 for the PS2. I had no class on Tuesday or Wednesday, so I spent mornings doing assignments and afternoons playing through Y1. I thought I was ready for a lot of things, but clearly I wasn't. When Nishiki showed up on screen... I JUST CAN'T! Almost cried immediately, and he's just a bunch of low res polygons! I managed to go through the prologue without much incident, but when Kiryu steps out of prison and finds out his kyodai just turned evil... my lords that was not a good feeling. I PHYSICALLY FELT THAT PAIN.
There were some fun moments with Majima, Haruka was cute, and then chapter 12 happened... 3 people died... I cried... I saved the finale for Thursday night.
I spent the whole of Thursday restless in class until I got back home and quickly finished the last of my assignments. I went straight to playing the finale, ready for what's to come. It was harder than I thought. I'm not describing the gameplay. I'm talking about the emotional toll. The lift dings and Nishiki comes in, all prepared to fight. There's a love triangle, Nishiki has an inferiority complex, Kiryu doesn't have a choice... all the heavy stuff comes crashing down on me.
Then the brothers perform a battle strip and I lost it! I cried right before the final boss battle. The music didn't even start yet and I was already sobbing! I almost couldn't bring myself to beat Nishiki because I was crying so hard I can't see and I have no motivation. I braved through the final boss, Nishiki's out cold, Yumi gets shot by stupid Jingu, Nishiki redeems himself as Kiryu's brother by sacrificing himself, taking Jingu with him. Holy shit. You have no idea what a sobbing mess I was at that time. What offended me the most was that Kiryu still had the time to have a heart to heart with a dying Yumi and not address the fact that his oath brother fucking died. I guess you have to hold on to the ones who are still alive.
Credits roll, amazing grace plays, I cried another round. Took a bath afterwards to continue crying. I didn't expect it would be this painful with a bunch of low res polygons. Can't even make out the detailed facial expressions but I KNOW KIRYU IS DYING INSIDE. AND NISHIKI'S FACE WHEN HE SACRIFICED HIMSELF HOLY!!! I can't imagine what it'll be like when I play Kiwami! I just wanna kms!!!
At least there were good times. Two Majima battles, Haruka calling Kiryu Uncle Kazuma AASDFGHJKL MY HEART!!!!! Me talking shit about Shimano, Chairman Sera's polygonal but still distinctly charming face, Yayoi Dojima coming outta nowhere, demanding answers on her husband's death... Oh and I can't wait to play Yakuza 2 where I can finally meet Daigo! DAIGO MARSHMALLOW JACKET!!!
October 8th was Nishiki's birthday, I made phone case art of Majima the day before, and so for mah best boi Nishiki, I decided to celebrate his birthday by making another phone case art. It was great! Drawing the carp and sunflowers, looking through other people's art... I was happy. The very next day I did the unthinkable. I suck at watercolours and I haven't been using them since the end of my last semester break, but for best boi, I opened my Mossery sketchbook, filled some water in a cup, and started painting. PAINTING! I CAN'T EVEN BELIEVE IT MYSELF! AND I DID PRETTY WELL?!
Except for the sunflowers... Those sunflowers are just... bad. I've drawn better sunflowers (phone case art, believe me).
I've finished Y0 for almost a month now and I still cannot get over Nishiki! I regret looking up wikis for his information because that was where I found out he wasn't in later games which means either he doesn't make an appearance or he's deceased and that he's the final boss of Y1 like??? OK HE'S DECEASED ALRIGHT.
I mean I don't know. I don't think the developers meant for the players to feel sorry for Nishiki in Y1. There's nothing much to know about him apart from his identity as Kiryu's brother who turned evil. I doubt anyone actually felt this strongly about Nishiki when they first played the original game. For me though, because I started with Y0 it's not surprising that I'm heartbroken by what happened in Y1. I was ready to see it happen.
Come Monday, October 15th. I was determined to see it happen. I went ahead and actually bought Y1 and Y2 for the PS2. I had no class on Tuesday or Wednesday, so I spent mornings doing assignments and afternoons playing through Y1. I thought I was ready for a lot of things, but clearly I wasn't. When Nishiki showed up on screen... I JUST CAN'T! Almost cried immediately, and he's just a bunch of low res polygons! I managed to go through the prologue without much incident, but when Kiryu steps out of prison and finds out his kyodai just turned evil... my lords that was not a good feeling. I PHYSICALLY FELT THAT PAIN.
There were some fun moments with Majima, Haruka was cute, and then chapter 12 happened... 3 people died... I cried... I saved the finale for Thursday night.
I spent the whole of Thursday restless in class until I got back home and quickly finished the last of my assignments. I went straight to playing the finale, ready for what's to come. It was harder than I thought. I'm not describing the gameplay. I'm talking about the emotional toll. The lift dings and Nishiki comes in, all prepared to fight. There's a love triangle, Nishiki has an inferiority complex, Kiryu doesn't have a choice... all the heavy stuff comes crashing down on me.
Then the brothers perform a battle strip and I lost it! I cried right before the final boss battle. The music didn't even start yet and I was already sobbing! I almost couldn't bring myself to beat Nishiki because I was crying so hard I can't see and I have no motivation. I braved through the final boss, Nishiki's out cold, Yumi gets shot by stupid Jingu, Nishiki redeems himself as Kiryu's brother by sacrificing himself, taking Jingu with him. Holy shit. You have no idea what a sobbing mess I was at that time. What offended me the most was that Kiryu still had the time to have a heart to heart with a dying Yumi and not address the fact that his oath brother fucking died. I guess you have to hold on to the ones who are still alive.
Credits roll, amazing grace plays, I cried another round. Took a bath afterwards to continue crying. I didn't expect it would be this painful with a bunch of low res polygons. Can't even make out the detailed facial expressions but I KNOW KIRYU IS DYING INSIDE. AND NISHIKI'S FACE WHEN HE SACRIFICED HIMSELF HOLY!!! I can't imagine what it'll be like when I play Kiwami! I just wanna kms!!!
"I'm sticking with you till death do us part." sounds like a sappy romantic confession, but it's not. It's a heartwarming declaration of loyalty between two sworn brothers before facing what would potentially be their demise.
They survived the ordeal, but not for long. Fate is a bitch and screwed them over. Their brotherhood didn't last till death. Time and envy are cruel things. But at least during his last moments, one of them reverted back to the brother that was once loyal and righteous.
A seemingly unbreakable bond that lasted almost 20 years easily crushed to pieces by 10 years of separation. A manhunt and cut ties couldn't break it, but taking a fall meant for a brother and some jail time did the job.
Fate really did screw them on purpose. They are nothing without each other. One paid the ultimate price; the other is doomed to live in loneliness and constant unrest. How sad is that?
At least there were good times. Two Majima battles, Haruka calling Kiryu Uncle Kazuma AASDFGHJKL MY HEART!!!!! Me talking shit about Shimano, Chairman Sera's polygonal but still distinctly charming face, Yayoi Dojima coming outta nowhere, demanding answers on her husband's death... Oh and I can't wait to play Yakuza 2 where I can finally meet Daigo! DAIGO MARSHMALLOW JACKET!!!
19 October 2018
I got a sunburn
Uuh, I'm back! Did yall catch the last review? My video game schedule is screwed for life!
Apart from the blatantly obvious (my semester break ending and me finishing Yakuza 0 within a week), life has been pretty good. Last July I went to Indonesia as part of a summer program, which doesn't feel like summer AT ALL because it was freezing in West Java due to the winds from Australia.
The 13-day trip passed quite quickly - I brought RM300 to Indo and spent them all on food and some cloth (heard they were pretty cheap). Not to brag but I'm quite proud of my own travel-planning skills. My classmates? Not so much... They ran out of cash to spend, didn't bring important toiletries, had luggage bags full of useless shit in them, and then said bags were over the weight limit so some things happened... there's a bunch of things I could list down about their incompetence when it comes to travel planning but I'm going to stop here. No use fretting over stuff you can't control.
After visiting Indonesia, even just a small part of it, made me realize that Malaysia had nothing. The Malays has 'lost' their culture. It really says a lot when Indonesians still have dance and clothing from the small ethnic groups of the islands, but all we had were merely what used to be Indonesian. No one will call out this BS because it's an all-time controversial topic about the real origins of who we call the 'bumiputeras' aka Malays of Malaysia. We're not going to go into that shithole of arguments because our country is not as free as people think it is. Let's jsut focus on the good parts eh?
Malaysian food is quite similar to Indonesian food. For instance, what they call terang bulan is actually apam balik. The kuihs? We have most of them, just with different names. Some things that I couldn't recognize (from looks or taste) is this mofo right here:
My classmates picked this dish because it looked weird, but didn't dare eat it afterwards. So, I took it upon myself to taste test this. It's delicious! It's small fish, very salty, so I guess you can't eat it on it's own. And they thought it was maggots! There's also seblak to the left, which is one of the only few 'exotic' foods I bought for myself during the whole trip, during the last few days. I also bought lumpiah, which are apparently spring rolls, but the ones I bought look nothing like spring rolls! I guess the filling is the same... I have a confession to make. Indonesian tempeh tastes better than Malaysian tempeh! There! I said it, don't at me! In all seriousness I was not fond of local tempeh for some reason. Then Indonesia blew me away with their tempeh. Just... magnificent! Never ate that much soy in two weeks!
I got my first batik in Indonesia. As a Malaysian I should've gotten one but no, my first is Indonesian batik in the form of a wrap skirt. There's also my obsession with Indomie OH GOD YOU DON'T KNOW HOW OBSESSED I WAS WITH INDOMIE. There are over 20 flavours and I only found 17, including the Kuliner Indonesia series. And now they have salted egg flavour oh god. I came back with a whole backpack of Indomie and my mother was not impressed. Neither are my classmates and friends. The looks they give me are saying 'you went to Indonesia just to come back with a bunch of instant noodles?' Yes. Yes I did.
Speaking of souvenirs, I did not buy any. The keychains I own were all given to me by the facilitators (who were amazing people). I bought a fridge magnet but that was so I could decorate the world map in the living room.
Also, I got awful sunburns and a suntan!
Coming back from my first school related overseas trip I am grateful for this experience. I caught an eel. I performed really bad silat. I played angklung. I learned some Indonesian words. But one thing I won't do is play water activities. That's a no-no. There's some unpleasant days, uncomfortable living conditions, but like PLKN, it's fun.
Apart from the blatantly obvious (my semester break ending and me finishing Yakuza 0 within a week), life has been pretty good. Last July I went to Indonesia as part of a summer program, which doesn't feel like summer AT ALL because it was freezing in West Java due to the winds from Australia.
The 13-day trip passed quite quickly - I brought RM300 to Indo and spent them all on food and some cloth (heard they were pretty cheap). Not to brag but I'm quite proud of my own travel-planning skills. My classmates? Not so much... They ran out of cash to spend, didn't bring important toiletries, had luggage bags full of useless shit in them, and then said bags were over the weight limit so some things happened... there's a bunch of things I could list down about their incompetence when it comes to travel planning but I'm going to stop here. No use fretting over stuff you can't control.
After visiting Indonesia, even just a small part of it, made me realize that Malaysia had nothing. The Malays has 'lost' their culture. It really says a lot when Indonesians still have dance and clothing from the small ethnic groups of the islands, but all we had were merely what used to be Indonesian. No one will call out this BS because it's an all-time controversial topic about the real origins of who we call the 'bumiputeras' aka Malays of Malaysia. We're not going to go into that shithole of arguments because our country is not as free as people think it is. Let's jsut focus on the good parts eh?
Malaysian food is quite similar to Indonesian food. For instance, what they call terang bulan is actually apam balik. The kuihs? We have most of them, just with different names. Some things that I couldn't recognize (from looks or taste) is this mofo right here:
My classmates picked this dish because it looked weird, but didn't dare eat it afterwards. So, I took it upon myself to taste test this. It's delicious! It's small fish, very salty, so I guess you can't eat it on it's own. And they thought it was maggots! There's also seblak to the left, which is one of the only few 'exotic' foods I bought for myself during the whole trip, during the last few days. I also bought lumpiah, which are apparently spring rolls, but the ones I bought look nothing like spring rolls! I guess the filling is the same... I have a confession to make. Indonesian tempeh tastes better than Malaysian tempeh! There! I said it, don't at me! In all seriousness I was not fond of local tempeh for some reason. Then Indonesia blew me away with their tempeh. Just... magnificent! Never ate that much soy in two weeks!I got my first batik in Indonesia. As a Malaysian I should've gotten one but no, my first is Indonesian batik in the form of a wrap skirt. There's also my obsession with Indomie OH GOD YOU DON'T KNOW HOW OBSESSED I WAS WITH INDOMIE. There are over 20 flavours and I only found 17, including the Kuliner Indonesia series. And now they have salted egg flavour oh god. I came back with a whole backpack of Indomie and my mother was not impressed. Neither are my classmates and friends. The looks they give me are saying 'you went to Indonesia just to come back with a bunch of instant noodles?' Yes. Yes I did.
Speaking of souvenirs, I did not buy any. The keychains I own were all given to me by the facilitators (who were amazing people). I bought a fridge magnet but that was so I could decorate the world map in the living room.
Also, I got awful sunburns and a suntan!
Coming back from my first school related overseas trip I am grateful for this experience. I caught an eel. I performed really bad silat. I played angklung. I learned some Indonesian words. But one thing I won't do is play water activities. That's a no-no. There's some unpleasant days, uncomfortable living conditions, but like PLKN, it's fun.
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