Extra Punctuation: How Yakuza 4 Grabs You

[Proverbial Jon]

Good article and I totally agree.

I had a similar experience with MGS4, in fact when I learned that you returned to Shadow Moses Island I went out of my way to get a copy and play the game, despite not owning a PS3 of my own! I always loved the Shadow Moses facility setting and to return to it was amazing. To see how it had decayed and to remember all the things I had to do there. Also, simply being able to walk right through the front door was a joy for me! That Otacon and Snake both commented on their past adventures there was just the icing on the cake.

When playing The Longest Journey: Dreamfall, my mind was blown away when I got the chance to return to Venice and see the Borderhouse and the Fringe. I guess I'm easily amused.

 

[Kojiro ftt]

Fatal Frame 3 did this well, too. They had your house that you wake up in every day. But then you start seeing things in the house and start questioning if you are really safe there...

 

[tcurt]

When playing The Longest Journey: Dreamfall, my mind was blown away when I got the chance to return to Venice and see the Borderhouse and the Fringe. I guess I'm easily amused.

I have got to get that sequel still! Arg!

While slightly different, I enjoyed revisiting STALKER:SoC locations remade and expanded in STALKER:CoP. I liked actually being familiar with what buildings were just around the corner sometimes. Of course, as the games have gotten bigger and more detailed, there sometimes was now a building next to the building that now had a doorway leading to a room filled with newly added beasties. And of course, they tore me to pieces as I confidently rounded the corner fully unaware of my incomplete knowledge of the situation. Darn it.

 

[Gottesstrafe]

But I appreciate what they wanted to do, and I love it when games get it right. The Suikoden games always feature a home fortress from where you spread your rebellion, and it evolves throughout the game, shops opening, character moving in, dancing shows and cooking contests being organized for the inhabitants, your barracks, your troops, the war room, the rooms of your allies and friends... All growing and becoming more sophisticated as you transform from a guerilla rebel into a liberation army leader.

That's one of the little things I loved about Skies of Arcadia: building up your home base straight from the ground as you progress the storyline and recruit more characters. At first you end up on this barren, uncharted floating rock purely by coincidence and are forced to scavenge whatever nature offers you and any falling debris from the sky. Soon after you acquire enough to escape the island on your own, you come come back later with your crew to build your home base and recruit contractors, merchants, cooks, entertainers, doctors, engineers, and others to help you in your endeavor. My favorite bit was seeing what used to be an unburied, unmourned old corpse I gave a hasty burial for after looting his valuables and treasure map when I first arrived on the island turn into a proper memorial later on when I acquired myself a mason.

 

[Tharwen]

Random question: Why is this article still on the top of the front page? I'm just curious since there have been about 6 new articles since it was uploaded.

 

[BluesHadal]

It reminds me of something wild arms 1 did(you can tell they were trying their hardest with that game).

there's a town where they have a monster detector(no other town has it, and they had no monsters), and one of your characters is a smart talking rat that gets shocked when he tries to go through. After clearing it with the town they tell you that if you keep him really close to someone's body he'd probably go undetected.

Cut to after a mission is done and you see the town has gone to hell because the monsters used the same trick you did to get through. They like infested the people who had gone out and those people mutated.

An earlier town was also attacked in the middle of a festival(reminiscent of Chrono Trigger) with the sky falling apart. Both times were pretty out of nowhere and unexpected.

 

[thepsychogamer]

Yakuza would have been better if it wasn't in the same market as GTA. Not that I'm raving about how GTA is the greatest game ever made, because I'm not, but after reading a lot of reviews the general gist I got was that it was Japans knock off of GTA, or GTA tokyo or something along those lines. Given Yakuza 4 wasn't an incredible commercial success, I imagine if the franchise is going to survive it will require a bit more innovation next time around.

It's almost nothing like GTA, nore is the game trying to be GTA.

Gow has given players the excact same gameplay in all of them, yet each one sells like hotcakes in the US, Yakuza is sorta like that (with the exception that the Yakuza series has actuality evolved over it's life) in Japan, The last two sold over 300,000 copies on the first day in Japan.

 

[Blue Musician]

I was quite disappointed in DMC3 for all the backtracking that you had to make to continue the story. I'm fine with backtracking, the problem is that it was all fucking same, no difference at from what you had already passed. That was quite disappointing for me. But oh well...

 

[Sir Bames Jond]

I get the same feeling of recognition from Portal 2, which has you backtrack through some of the later test chambers in the beginning, now overrun with plant life and decay.

 

[beefpelican]

OT: As nice as that kind of experience can be, it's still no excuse for nine out of every ten sandbox games having you retread NYC over and over again(We're looking at you, Rockstar).

If it's for reals NYC instead of "Liberty City" it can still be fun. I found where my brother's apartment building would be in Prototype and threw a zombie at it!

 

[Aries_Split]

The most profound example of this I can think of was MGS4, when you return to area MGS1 took place in.

Not only did I love all the metal gear solids, but metal gear solid was one of the games that got me into gaming, and to walk around the setting of the first one was an excellent design decision.

 

[mrhappydude]

icewind dale does that early on, after a quest, the main town is getting attacked and you have to rush and save everyone

 

[Edager6882]

I remember the first time a location of a game felt like 'home'. It was Midgar from FF7. When Cloud and gang left the city if felt like I got kicked out of my home. And later when I came back to the city it felt like coming home but it didn't feel the same anymore. It felt like when you leave for college and you come back and your mom has already redecorated your room. It's the same room but its no longer "your" room.

 

[Akiraacecombat]

I think that yahtzee found the appeal of Japanese anime and Japanese games storyline,the problem with them is the usage of teenagers characters with their stupid personalities,the thing about stand or manage to resist this aspect and try to follow their storyline,Japanese narrative is very good at this because it builds up story momentum after 15 of 20 percent of the game,that is why they became so popular, different games uses different paces,and the most popular are the ones who manage to get the momentum right,something that is missing from western but exploited by some of them,games like Halo reach and Brother in Arms road to hill 30 build up momentum to have a great or memorable conclusions,the same can be said about popular games like half life and more recently portal.

So,yeh I guess that you right in that one,places like some locations in GTA San Andreas and the Getaway are a great example of this,I say that Driv3r can be included as well,but that was a dreadful game with gorgeous environments like Turkey.

 

[DoctorObviously]

Yahtzee, I'm a huge fan. But can you please stop the autistic jokes? Not every autistic is like the stereotypical autistic. It's getting really old.