XIII is a game I'm mixed about, more than any other. Great visuals, soundtrack, good story, not-so-good gameplay. I'm assuming you can tolerate jank since you're reading this review right now on GOG, but the amount of jank makes it feel more like a late 90's game. I played the game on XXX (the hardest difficulty) since it was too easy for me otherwise. First off, despite having a quicksave feature, the game uses checkpoints. I can understand checkpoints for a console game, but checkpoints in PC games annoy more than aid. Second, the unfair difficulty spike after the first boss. Most enemies can die in one shot, making the game easy for experienced FPS players with one HUGE catch, the bosses. They're bullet sponges made even worse by you dying in a few hits. I changed the difficulty to Realistic (second hardest difficulty) by the ending, and the difference between it & XXX is appalling. Save yourself the frustration, change difficulties before boss fights if playing on XXX. Third, stealth mechanics. This game has terrible stealth mechanics. You could shoot a guy right next to another, and the other guy won't notice unless he's facing him. If you get spotted, the AI instantly knows where you are, no matter how hidden, while they stand there, sometimes shooting before you kill them. You can easily cheese the AI with doors. Fourth, without spoiling anything, the game ends on a cliffhanger only resolved in the comics. I still enjoyed the story overall, but it's something to be weary about if you're looking for a completeness. And finally, fifth. This is more of a nitpick, but you have to restart the game to play previous levels without NG+, killing the replay value for me, with secret documents hidden all over said levels. There's also a pretty fun multiplayer with servers available if you install the unofficial 1.4.2.1 patch. I'd still recommend the game for $2 on sale, but I probably won't play it again.
I've heard VERY mixed things about this game since it came out, wanted to play it since I built my new PC, and thought now was a "better than ever" time to play, since the Ultimate Edition just released. I still have mixed feelings. Starting off with the common "RPG isn't actually an RPG" criticism, I really don't feel like I'm playing as my own character, ESPECIALLY since I can't change my name, or choose another voice outside of the default Male/Female choices, a thing that's been around in RPGs since the early 2000s (albeit, a minor complaint). I'm also really not a fan of the Stealth/Combat mechanics, since there's basically no reason to go stealth-y, and you can easily run-and-gun your enemies, on hard. Graphically, the game looks STUNNING, but is ruined by a need for high-end GPUs to get a decent framerate with RT, and even without it, framerates fluctuate MASSIVELY, which is really more of a problem for modern PC Gaming in general. I like the game, but not enough to keep it, ESPECIALLY since it's now 4 years old, and almost $60 for the *actual* full game. CP2077 is a prime example of why modern PC gaming just... sucks. Released unfinished, only fixed with years of patching, all for a worse experience than games you can buy ON THIS VERY SITE, for a quarter of the price, at least. Save your money, and wait for a price reduction for those who'd still like to play.
For the emulation folks out there, this collection's removed the licensing test, if you go through the effort to extract these ROMs, ROM Hacks & Replays won't work. Not a huge deal, but annoying for those looking for "clean" ROMs, unless you manually patch them back.
For anyone who doesn't know, this remaster has plenty of bugs that weren't in the original game, music cut due to licensing problems, and the biggest issue, censorship. Every version of the game is censored, with a series of side missions taken out due to transphobic stereotypes, clan logos seen as offensive in Asian countries, and more. I highly recommend Yakuza 3 as its arguably the peak of Classic Yakuza (pre-Yakuza 5 mechanics), but this remaster is censored and buggy. Buyer Beware.
While this remake of Yakuza 2 isn't nearly as disappointing as Kiwami 1, it still suffers from missing content and issues that weren't in the original PS2 version, like how the combat's based off of Yakuza 6, the worst combat in the series IMO. But for the game itself, its a major improvement over Yakuza 1, with almost nothing to do with the original game. If you liked Yakuza 1, you'll like Yakuza 2. Enough said.
The original Yakuza is a great game, but Kiwami shoves Yakuza 0's combat into a game that clearly wasn't designed for it, while removing sidestories (Which is half the replay value OF Yakuza Games), and overall making the game worse than its PS2 counterpart, while adding a glorified meme to shove more content into the game (Got 'ya now, Kiryu-chan!!). If you have a PS2 (or better yet, the Japanese exclusive HD remasters on PS3), go play that instead, you'll have a much better time.
For anyone new to Yakuza, I'd *highly* recommend playing the original Yakuza instead of Kiwami as this game that spoils one of Yakuza 4's main plot points/characters, starts with a game that has a combat system miles away from other Yakuza games, and (sort of) spoils the original game's plot. Kiwami in general's a pretty sub-par remake. Play 0 after Yakuza 5. Ladies and gentlemen, the game that revived Yakuza for the western audience. With great Story, even greater Gameplay, and Karaoke. I can't say much without spoiling the game, but I can say with certainty, if you love RPGs and beat-em-ups, you'll LOVE Yakuza.
Finished this game recently on PS5. While I'm more of a Judgement fan, the turn-based JRPG mechanics are a nice but tedious change of pace from the beat-em-up/RPG hybrid of the older Yakuza games. My biggest complaint about Y:LAD is how they totally killed the pacing, with game events feeling noticeably slower than its older Yakuza counterparts. Other than that, its a totally killer JRPG that I recommend to anyone into turn-based JRPGs and the Yakuza series.
