Figured I'd try to get a general discussion thread going on this comm. If there's interest I'll make a new thread every now and then.
I've been going through the Ratchet and Clank series on PS2 and am just starting up Going Commando. Emulating everything on PCSX2 (ask me about emulation for anything ever and I'll be glad to help you) which has been a really great experience so far. This franchise has lots of nostalgia for me and represents the best of the PS2-era platformers (although I did love both Sly and Jak). I think the reason I've always like the R&C series more than Jak is that the weapons were more creative/fun to use than those in Jak 2 onwards.
I'm thinking about trying out the System Shock Remake this weekend but never played the original. I'm aware it's a much older design-style of game but it looks like something I could really enjoy.
I just finished Shin Megami Tensei IV, so I guess the sequel SMT IV: Apocalypse.
The gameplay and music of IV are great, but the narrative kinda shits the bed around 3/4 of the way in at the alignment-lock. The game has a heavy neutral bias (1), yet makes it hilariously difficult to reach the neutral ending path without following a guide and they are a bit too self-referential especially when it comes to the older games. Just because a game released in 1992 on a 6mb SNES cartridge had a black and white morality and simplistic writing does not mean your 2013 release should be the same. Also there were some blatant undertones of Japanese nationalism in parts of the writing. It managed to avoid being racist, unlike Yakuza, but was still kinda :sus-deep:
(1) - Law in SMT - Following a greater power or ideology in the service of societal harmony, even at the cost of suppressing one's own desires. Usually led by the Abrahamic God (Yes really. In some games, you can fight him); Chaos in SMT - Freedom at any cost, as well as doing what you want. Usually led by Lucifer. There's games where these are more or less benevolent (like say law's good ending in Strange Journey Redux is basically communism, while Chaos in SMT 2 has a revolutionary nature against a fascist theocracy), while in others they go all in on the awfulness and are usually a choice between genocidal theocracies and an ancap criminal dystopia.
Still had a good time, despite the last stretch of the game pissing me off. Hilariously, the tutorial level boss is the hardest part of the game, but it never really gets as easy as Persona. [Mild NSFW - Booba + SMT IV Law path spoiler] This wins the writing award of shame .
B / 7,25/10
The sequel has a reputation for being weeb-brained and somewhat persona-y, and it certainly does feel somewhat different than usual in tone, but I kinda like the premise of
spoiler
the plot happening in parallel to SMT IV's.
:lenin-confused:
"Foreigners" (most often Chinese and Korean people) are portrayed almost universally as organized criminals, but not funny wacky nice criminals like yakuza. That's the main thing it does. Of course the games are going to humanize and make excuses for the yakuza, because those are the characters and its from their point of view I guess. But organized gangs from elsewhere in the world are all portrayed as ruthless, vicious murderers.
It doesn't help that every Chinese person in a Yakuza game is one of like two things. They're a simpering docile old man who sells noodles and lives in the one slum area. Or they're some gangster, but not like...a gangster. These guys are like fighters in the Boxer Rebellion from 1899. They're wearing queues and have giant piandao swords. They have staffs and do kungfu. They have hideouts that look like a Qing dynasty palace with antique vases and jade dragon statues. It's goofy and racist.
There are a few other instances of the games stereotyping black people as well, but the Chinese and Korean stuff is the worst.
I can agree with this for earlier games, althought it brings into question whether a piece of media can portray foreign crime syndicates in a negative light at all (like the Jingweong don't strike me as particularly Korean in some stereotypical way, they just are Korean. The Saio Triad from 6 seems a bit less stereotypically Chinese than the Snake Flower which has all the wacky Kung Fu shit, but that aesthetic is kind of predominant in fighting games in general. Not entirely sure if it is malicious, probably just :japan-cool: brainworms)
I'm curious about your take on Like a Dragon. I thought it did a good job of humanizing the Geomijul and Liumang and their struggles as Korean and Chinese immigrant groups in Japan. They have scumbags in them but are led by people who are mostly shown to be honorable and become your allies. Which honestly seems kinda problematic in that it whitewashed criminal organizations, but this is the Yakuza series lmao
Haven't played LAD7 yet but I'm glad to hear they've worked through some of the writing issues from earlier games. I do like how the games often have a sympathetic portrayal of stuff like poverty, losing family, or adapting to new environments. I also like the constant messages of how you should be nice to kids.
I'm pretty sure Japanese media standards are stricter than you'd see in North America, yeah. There are state censors in Japan, and most pieces of media need a license to have a mainstream release from what I know. There are various laws concerning games/movies that would glorify crime or actions against the government. For instance, you'll notice you never actually fight a police officer in the Yakuza games. I'm pretty sure that's why there are so many lines about that Saejima's prison island in 4 being illegitimate or not connected to the government. Sega didn't want to risk glorifying a prison breakout and getting censored or denied release.
Maybe this is part of why the games have an easier time portraying the rival gangs as more malicious? I don't know.
Interesting detail about the state censors in Japan, but not all that surprising. I'm reminded of when I recently watched Kurosawa's Drunken Angel, which was made in 1948 and takes place in a bombed out Japanese town and was subject to the censorship of the American occupation.
During the final long battle of Judgment, you fight a shitload of cops. No twists, just straight up cops. And it fucking rocks. Aside from that, I think your theory probably holds water.
Which kinda sucks, as the infamous plot twist from that game throws away his arc of
spoiler
"I'm a murderer and I fucking regret it". The Colosseum speech to the bloodthirsty crowd he gives is one of my favorite moments from the series.
Many of the Yakuza games for some reason always end up with Chinese, Korean and similar villains. who are shown to be utterly ruthless monsters until le wholesome crime man Kazuma Kiryu shows up to defeat them and let the Japanese mafia (the good one, the Tojo Clan - only because it's the one the MC usually belongs to) return to power.
I mean we are shown again and again that the Tojo Clan fucking sucks like pretty much all the other yakuza clans, who are also filled to the brim with irredeemable monsters. Is it any surprise that the foreign crime syndicates might also be filled with monsters? Perhaps better diversity within these groups could have helped, and this is something that I feel later games have handled well (Like a Dragon). I have a hard time accepting that it is racist to portray criminals who happen to be foreign as bad when they basically fit the same mold of evil schemers as literally everyone else. Kiryu just wants the Tojo to leave him alone but keeps getting dragged back into their affairs because his personal life somehow becomes intertwine, and he also feels he owes it to Daigo. I do see where you're coming from with how the Tojo problem is sometimes portrayed as simply being a matter of the wrong people running it, but LAD also kinda put that to rest.
Yeah, I haven't finished Like a Dragon yet. I was going by the 0-6 series.
Understandable, I'm of the opinion that the writing of this series has continously improved and has come to rely less on the campy tropes of the past, which happens to include le spooky and mysterious foreign crime rings. They'll always be a part of the series because these tropes are pretty much baked into the genre, but the way in which they are handled has improved imo
Yeah, like how in Yakuza 2, the Koreans were shown to be extremely ruthless and cruel by just murdering any member of the Jingweon mafia that did something bad once, unlike the highly civilized and honorable Yakuza, who just demand you chop off a finger
I know the games have different writers, but it's sometimes so frustrating when they can't decide if the Tojokai is actually good or not. Kiryu will spend an entire game trying to dismantle them, or get away from them, and then in the next he's rebuilding the Tojo to fight against the dastardly Omi. That happens like 4 times.
Still really good games though. Better written than most games. Cool characters, neat plots, side stories are hilarious. I'll love them until I die.
While SMT/Persona have never been a series that's done it for me (I've never cared much for turn-based games), I absolutely love reading about the shenanigans general plot insanity that happens in those games.
Thanks for the write up. If you ever want to expand on other funny/bizzare/whatever things in those games in spoiler tags I'd be glad to read more.