All of y'all's year reviews made me want to do the same, so I wrote down a few sentences of everything I played last year. I was surprised it was so much as my partner moved in with me and I expected to have a lot less time, but that actually didn't happen and Corona did its thing. I'm a bit late to the review party, but I needed time to write down my thoughts and didn't want to do it in one session.
Standard platform is PC, everything else is labelled.
Done:
Darkest Dungeon – halfway through (most tier 2 bosses). it was a nice and interesting start to a game I thought I liked, but 40 hours in I realized I was in fact not having fun. It was repetitive and the payout was very low for me as rewards felt small and especially upgrades to the village took a lot of time. I did play the game with too much emphasis on keeping every character alive, in a game that wants you burn them, so maybe that’s one me. But maybe it’s just not my type of game. Visuals, presentation and the IDEA of the combat system were nice, though. 5/10
Kingdom Hearts 3 (PS4) – finished story. Kingdom Hearts has become a burning pile of tires, but I hold it dear since the first game and I want to know what is happening. The visuals are amazing and the combat system is engaging, at least, yet a bit much at times, with way too many special interactions going on at all times. But KH3 is basically if the story has an alignment which is just true chaotic. The main story is…there, for most of the game, but nothing happens with it. Each world has its own story and both them and the overarching plot are almost completely irrelevant to each other. What a pity. Also, so many minigame and once-and-gone game mechanics, what the hell. I had fun, but it could have been so much better. And they skipped over most FF elements. 6/10
The Wolf Among Us – 100%. Played it with my partner who had already finished it years before. It’s one of the prime Telltale games and the first that I wasn’t familiar with the source material with. It has a very interesting lore and visuals for sure. Other than that, very much a standard Telltale game and you either like it or you don’t. I did enjoy it a lot with its interesting plot and characters. 8/10
Starlink: Battle for Atlas (Switch, digital version) – finished story. I like me some occasional space game. Starlink was an oddball in many ways for me. I probably wouldn’t have looked at it as I thought it’s just a toy merch game, but Starfox and the existence of a toyless version drew me to this. I know I could have played nicer looking version, but the tie-in with Starfox was actually not that shallow and came with a small unique storyline, so that’s the most Starfox I will get until Nintendo releases (and doesn’t fuck up) another full game. Due to its toy origins, the game has a few unique quirks, like the weapon, ship and pilot switching on-the-go to match enemy vulnerabilities and combat styles. The mix of planetary and solar exploration and gradual faction growth with even a few RTS elements sprinkled in worked for me. It was a lot of fun! 7/10
Injustice 2 – finished story, some achievement hunting, trying out all characters a bit and dabbled in the multiverse mode. I’m not a huge Beat’Em’Up player, but some concepts are too interesting to pass up. Given how few Heroe League (Avengers and Justice League) games come out well, I had to take my chances here. The story is…forced, but it works for this kind of game. The interactions between the heroes are pretty entertaining to watch. I can’t really judge if the combat system was good or not or balanced or not, but it worked for me, although some fights were pretty frustrating. 7/10
Thronebreaker: The Witcher Tales – 100%. Gwent really got to me in the Witcher 3. It was kinda sad to see that this is an entirely different card game (although closer to the online Gwent), but it was still a great one. Telling the really interesting story of Queen Meve, the game not only expands the lore of the really intriguing Witcherverse, it also tells it through this mix of roaming through a map and army fights presented by card battles. The visuals weren’t all too exciting, although the art style worked for me. The score was awesome, though, maybe even better than the one from W3. I can absolutely recommend this game to any person interested in card games and in the Witcher. 9/10
Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden – finished story and most content. I have so many tactical RPGs on my backlog, all with very interesting settings, but animal mutants in a postapocalyptic Sweden? That’s one of the freshest ideas in a while. The top hat wearing duck really sold it to me. Unlike many other games of its genre like XCOM, the areas are connected with each other like in more classic RPGs. Stealth kills played a huge part in this game as open combat makes the game a lot harder. It’s not a very long game, which I appreciated. However, the initial premise of its animal mutants really fell short as there were actually not that many in the game. I also would have liked to have more of the characters in my team, but the stealth advantages made some characters a lot stronger than others, so there was little choice in which people to take. Itemization and progress were alright, the combat is pretty much as in XCOM etc. 7/10
Cities in Motion – played some scenarios. Preparing for Cities: Skylines, I figured I should play this first. It’s an alright public transport planning simulation that made me excited for planning stuff throughout several cities. However, I have some serious issues with it. For once, this game punished you hard for planning public transport like in real life and creating ridiculously tiny lines (like 2 stations per metro line) was the only way to any meaningful amount of money. Also, the German scenario pack has 12 scenarios, but only 4 cities (other packs are similar). It’s interesting to revisit cities in different eras, but to rebuild everything every time is annoying. And the tasks you get are borderline asinine, like building a line with three stations in far ends of the map, which I circumvented with temporary lines that I immediately deleted after completing it. In its core it had great potential, but felt lazily executed. 5,5/10
BATTLETECH – finished story, some flashpoints and fooled around with mech components for a bit afterwards. Been a while since I dived into MechWarrior games, maybe a good 17 years. Battletech is…GOOD. Maybe my favorite game I have played that year. The campaign is great, has a good plot, but also gives you an open galaxy to explore at your own leisure. The hunt for new mech chassis in the midgame was the most fun I think. Building mechs, balancing your finances, keeping your people alive and trained, random events on board of your ship and upgrading your ship all felt meaningful and well interconnected. It’s also a turn-based tactical RPG, but it works with its own rules (like weapon groups and destroyable sections) and does so very well. 9,5/10
Batman – The Telltale Series – 100%. A solid game for both Batman and Telltale fans. The story was original enough and I always enjoy a plot that isn’t focused on the way overused Joker – who has his part, but a very interesting one. Not really much more to say here. 8/10
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Switch) – finished story and most of the map. Finally, I tackled this behemoth of this generation. I haven’t played a Zelda since Majora’s Mask and the reason for that was a lack of drive to finish either of the N64 installments. Now, 20 years and a friend with a copy available later, I felt urged to play it as I wanted to give back the copy. Didn’t expect much despite the hype, but I have to say this game is (almost) as good as people say. It’s one of the few games that really lets you do whatever you want in the order you want (after a brief tutorial). My partner is playing it right now and it’s interesting to see how different our approaches to the order of quests and also specific challenges are. It rewards creative problem solving due to its physics engine. It is not perfect, especially the weapon system is weird and non-permanency in weapons feels just odd. NPCs are not very well written. The world is rather empty and while that has a plot reason, it feels like there should be more at times. But despite that, the game is a lot of fun and deserves its reputation. 9/10
Monster Hunter World + Iceborne (PS4) – defeated everything up to Furious Rajang, about 350 hours played with a fixed group of 3 and sometimes two other RL friends. Probably the game played most intensely this year. I bought a PS4 Pro in February and soon after – also thanks to Corona – I started playing this with two other friends, almost daily for several months. I had played Tri a decade ago and liked the general idea, but hated a lot of outdated conventions (both from Nintendo and the game itself) back then. World does most things I hated so much better. The monsters are engaging and (mostly) fun, the weapons are diverse and have their niches, the progression system is addictive, I love the Palicos & the private suite customizations and there is so much to see and find in the few maps they have. Great game if you like the combat and if you don’t focus too much on story because that one is paper-thin. 9/10
Uncharted 4: A Thief's End (PS4) – finished story. I liked U2 and U3 a lot, so this was a must-play after getting the PS4. It’s probably the most graphically impressive game I have played so far. The combat felt a little forced at times, but I guess that’s the genre. Although sneaking felt more possible and rewarding than in previous titles (as far as I remember). The story is a typical “one last gig” thing, but I liked the inclusion of Drake’s youth and especially how they concluded the Drake saga (maybe?). It’s a very solid game and definitely a must-play for PS4 owners. 8,5/10
EVERSPACE – finished story, post-story and most side missions. I don’t like losing progress, but like Rogue-likes with in-between progression systems, so despite my first hesitation, I picked up this game as I was craving a new space game. Though having a VR, I never got to play it in that mode, but still, I had a lot of fun with it. Some runs were intense and discovering new elements always put an excited wtf face on my head. The in-universe explanation for it being Rogue-like worked for me and getting funds to improve your ships between runs was addictive enough to try again and again. Same with weapons, they were different enough to try out different ones. Just don’t expect too much content out of this, it’s not a big game. 7/10
GRID (2019) – finished base game and some of the season pass content. I was a big fan of the first Grid and played all games in between. But like them, this one did not manage to be as engaging as the first one. While I enjoyed playing through the different leagues and liked the variety of cars and inclusion of a team mate, I did get bored to go through every cup as some of them had a severe lack of cars within them. There was no upgrading of cars, money was meaningless for 99% of the game and a overall career feeling of the ‘story’ mode was absent. At least I didn’t have to basically only race against Ravenwest anymore and other teams were still relevant. I feel like Codemasters could do a lot more with the foundation they have created here, but fail to connect the races in a meaningful way. 6/10
Star Ocean: Integrity and Faithlessness (PS4) – finished story and most side quests. This was one of my most wanted PS4 titles before Horizon: Zero Dawn came out. I loved Star Ocean 1, 2 and 4 so much. 4 in particular was just great enough to fill the small void that FFXIII had left back then. I heard about the mediocre reviews of IaF. And it was…actually mediocre. What I forgot or never knew was that I got released as a PS3 game in Japan first. And it really, really shows. The game was UGLY. Not ugly ugly, but playing it directly after Uncharted 4 was quite a shock. Not that it matters too much. However, the second problem I have with this game is directly aim at its soul. The other games had you jumping between planets and several distinct locations. And IaF started very promising, hinting at similar qualities. But then, it just…went into its climax and ended. Sure, some parts are in actual space. But you have seen about 80% of the locations within the first quarter of the game, which is ridiculous. It’s such a pity as the game’s story and combat are actually very enjoyable and I loved just grinding, which is quite unusual for me. But the narrow scope of the game wastes a lot of potential and that’s a real disappointment to me as a fan of the series. It could have easily done so much better. 6,5/10
Risen – finished. Oh boy, this game was sitting in my backlog for a LONG time – probably since its release I wanted to try it out. Unfortunately, this is a case of being TOO patient. The game is horribly outdated nowadays, the combat is not much fun and punishes you hard even on easy difficulty. The quest flow, general plot, start and choice of character skills are good, but I do think everything else – graphics, item flow, combat, sound, art design - was pretty bad. This was two years before Skyrim, but it feels like it’s been 10, honestly. I am still curious about Risen 2, 3 and Elex, however. But I might skip the first two after this. 3/10
Team Sonic Racing (Switch) – finished story. Yes, story. It’s as good dumb as you would expect from a Sonic racing game. Weirdly enough, I performed a lot better in handheld mode. The minigames are frustratingly hard as drifting is way overdone. The actual racing is nice, but no match to Mario Kart 8, although I do appreciate the idea of teams with ultimate boosts and item sharing. 6,5/10
Yakuza 0 – finished story and most major side activities. God, this game completely surprised me. I was absolutely 0 interested in crime settings, but Humble gave me this gem of a game. My partner suggested to try it out together, but lost interest in it, so we stopped for 2 months. I then picked it up again by myself and got increasingly invested in the story, the combat system and the bajillion of side things to do. THERE IS SO MUCH TO DO! And most of it is fun, doesn’t overstay its welcome too much and helps develop the main characters a little bit. The Real Estate and Hostess Club minigames are basically entire games-within-a-game, the pocket racer would also work by itself and the Karaoke songs were absolutely adorable and are a must-see in all of gaming. While I thought that the game got bloated a bit due to the two characters both having their own full-blown story, but sharing a single game, the interconnection made it kind of necessary to not separate them. But the game felt a bit long thanks to that (and all of the minigames that felt kinda mandatory at times). Anyway, I am now completely hooked on the series and look forward to the next entry – although I really need some time off lest I encounter the good old Assassin’s Creed-like fatigue. But given I couldn’t give two shits about Yakuza – even though I fucking majored in Japan Studies – this is an amazing feat. 9/10
Additional note: Getting into Yakuza memes alone is worth playing this, but the more I read and watch about this game and the series, the more and more I appreciate this franchise.
Endless Legend with a few DLCs – finished two full games (~38 hours). I was in the mood for a 4X game and this one was poking in my side for a bit. Endless Space was quite enjoyable and the overarching plot kinda works? I enjoyed expanding, researching and the quest system as well, but it felt just like Civ5 in general, with a few exceptions of course. It was weird that the ‘ages’ weren’t really differentiated visually and that you kept using the same units throughout the whole game – also there are not many of them, but there is an intriguing RPG-like customization system baked into it instead, which was cool enough. The winter and sea fortress system was also refreshing (but probably brought in from DLCs). Factions had some differences that went beyond what Civ would do, but the really deviating ones (like lava or fungus people that need different ways of city building) were hidden behind DLCs I do not have. Two games were enough for me, but I may come back in the future. 7/10
Need for Speed: Payback (PS4) – finished story. Being a PSN+ freebie, I got a bit excited over the silly F&F story that I felt like seeing with my own eyes. And the game delivered on that - but not much more. My last true NfS was Hot Pursuit (2010) (and my NfS favorites: Shift 1+2), so it had been a while. But I realize that I do not need that speed anymore. While the game was ultimately enjoyable, especially cruising around, finding stuff and customizing the cars, I especially disliked the offroad races with their weird rubber band perfect traction AI which was really frustrating. The driving in general revolved too much around drifting everything, but I guess that’s full arcade racers for you. And the automatic car reset was a bit too eager at times. 5,5/10
Rise of the Tomb Raider (PS4) – finished story and Croft manor side story. Also a PSN+ freebie. I have played the first game and was quite entertained by it. As I played Uncharted not too long ago, I was able to compare those two games a bit and while Uncharted looks undoubtedly better (and I prefer non-supernatural stuff in this kind of game), I think that Tomb Raider is the better game overall. This might be due to the usage of a skill and weapon customization system, which made exploring places and looking for XP, resources and parts fun. I also think that limiting the game’s world to one location (outside the prologue) helped immersion a lot. The game has quite a bit of a different feeling than the first TR, but mostly due to Lara being kickass from the start instead of allegedly being a frail grad student that 20 hours later massacres armies of armed and trained mercenaries. I liked it quite a lot of the backstory with her dad and caretaker were quite interesting as well. 8/10
Not done / on and off:
League of Legends – almost exclusively ARAM, sometimes bot games for trying out stuff. Not much to say to this, it’s a notorious, but ultimately good MOBA. The new items overhaul was a bit of a big change, but now I am getting the hang of it, I think. Some of the new champions of this year are fun to play, like Samira, Lilia and Seraphine. One of my friends quit the game for good, I think, so only one other is left, and it’s the go-to game if it’s just the two of us. Sometimes I play by myself, but I try to play more single player games then.
Animal Crossing: New Horizons (Switch) – some 70 hours to built my house, the island is my partner’s. This is my first Animal Crossing and after hesitating at the beginning, I did enjoy it quite a lot. It’s very relaxing, you can work towards small goals, but without any stress. Interactions with other villagers will become repetitive, but at the beginning it feels very sweet. It’s also nice that Nintendo supports the game with free updates every month. 8/10
Yu-Gi-Oh! Legacy of the Duelist: Link Evolution! (Switch) – played through story mode until midway ARC-V. I have my YGO phases every now and then where I watch a show and play a corresponding game at the same time. The Switch game is pretty nice as it lets me play through all TV shows’ stories, lets me play with most characters’ decks, has reverse duels for every story battle, but I also can always use my own decks which is sometimes very necessary as some matches are VERY one-sided. There are also challenge battles against very good decks which are as difficult as I imagine actual competitive dueling. Two things I don’t like about this particular YGO game: No free battle vs. CPU and only 30 custom deck save slots. The Tag Force games were still ahead in that regard. Still, it’s a solid entry that can provide hundreds of hours of entertainment for YGO enthusiasts and is a great travel companion. 8/10
Undertale – I just can’t get into it, sorry. This is my second attempt and I got a lot further than last time (about one third in). But something just doesn’t click with me. Maybe the humor feels forced, maybe the retro graphics do, or maybe I get too hype-talked by people. I don’t know.
Super Seducer – almost done with the first one. We mostly play it together or with other people, to have a good time. I got this from Dunkey, but I have to say the first one isn’t even that funny. A lot of the explanation in how to approach women are cringy at best and predatory at worst. I guess it does teach how to behave better for some very inexperienced guys, but in general it shouldn’t be used as a guideline in how to get girls to talk to you.
Katamari Damacy REROLL – almost done. It’s a fun game for a silly afternoon. The controls are garbage, but it doesn’t matter too much. The humour is great and rolling up increasingly bigger things is weirdly satisfying.
Borderlands 2 – Playing with friends every now and then. It’s still fun and I haven’t explored all characters yet (although leave me alone with Krieg), so there’s still more to get out of it.
Jackbox 1-7 – I was a huge fan of the early YDKJ games 20 years ago, so I’m happy they are still around and have adapted new technologies to further their game concepts. The Jackbox games have become staples in many parties and were a major driver during corona to get people together online around the globe to play a few rounds of whatever minigame we wanted to enjoy. Some games are not good, of course, but the ever-growing library of minigames always manages to add refreshing new titles to the list. My favorites are Quiplash, T-K.O. and Champ’d. 10/10
Risk of Rain 2 – unlocked all characters, had a couple of runs with friends and by myself. I have to say I might not like the game too much. The characters are interesting and the upgrade system is addictive, but losing progress without much being gained from a run (except lunar coins and unlocked characters/skills) feels like making no progress at all, in a way. It’s fun to play with friends and you can somewhat relax and chat while jumping and shooting around. 6/10
Beat Saber – half of campaign mode, but mostly custom songs. I LOVE Beat Saber. It’s the reason I got a VR system this year (a used 2017 Vive, but I don’t need more for that) and I had a lot of fun (and exercise!) with it. It’s sad when your wanted songs have not been mapped or mapped really bad, but the existing database is really big and a lot of fun to go through. There are a lot of gameplay additions (like one-handed, 90° and 360° modes), but the standard mode is still the best (or most-supported). The latter half of the campaign is dumb as hell, tho - hitting a specific amount of combos within a very small threshold in both min and max is such a dumb thing. Mods make the game a whole lot better and some stuff should really be in the base game. 9/10
Audica – played through campaign mode and some custom songs. Not as good as Beat Saber, but it’s still very enjoyable. It’s hits the same spot, but with a twist. Mod support is not a big here, but still there. 8/10
Cities: Skylines + most DLCs – still working on my first city after 40 hours. Depicted as the penultimate city builder, I had to get into this at some point. I have to admit, it’s pretty good. As good as imagined? Maybe, maybe not. The base formula is not that complicated, but the DLCs add a whole lot of flavor to it. I can definitely recommend it, but I still have a lot of time ahead with it.
Postponed:
Xenoblade Chronicles 2 (Switch) – I started and had a lot of fun with it, but stopped after roughly 5-10 hours as my partner was taking over the Switch with BotW (she played Witcher 3 before, so I was able to player with the Switch in the meantime) and switching cartridges all the time is a pain in the ass. Will continue soon and am very excited to do so.

Summary: 2020 was probably the most intense gaming year for me so far, mostly thanks to Corona. My top three are probably BATTLETECH, BotW and Yakuza 0, with some honorable mentions to Beat Saber, MH:W and Jackbox. My gaming year 2021 is going to look similarily awesome and I already planned to play so many very high-profile games: Xenoblade Chronicles 2, Paper Mario: The Origame King, Fire Emblem: Three Houses, Starpoint Gemini Warlords (almost finished this one already), Darksiders 2, Horizon: Zero Dawn, Gran Turismo Sport, Persona 5 Royal, Final Fantasy VII Remake, Borderlands 3, GTA V.

Mafia IV story idea

Note: The particularly important details and music artist names are in bold text. Licensed music track names are in italics.
The year is 1973, five years after the events of the Mafia III, and 22 years since Vito Scaletta’s seen or heard from his old friend Joe Barbaro. The canon ending of Mafia III with this Mafia IV story is Vito taking over the city after Lincoln skipped town, however Cassandra and Burke are left alive and loyal to both Vito and Lincoln still. Burke was able to survive his liver cancer by getting a black market liver transplant in Mexico, like he did in his ending, except with Vito running the city. On Vito and Lincoln’s behalf, Burke and Cassandra agree to stay behind in New Bordeaux and keep the city locked down, incase Leo Galante and the Commission try anything.
The beginning cutscene is Vito answering his telephone after getting up in the morning in his new penthouse, on the top floor of the New Bordeaux casino he finished that was once Sal Marcano's, and grabbing a cup of coffee. It's Alma with some urgent news. Lincoln Clay came down to the cigar warehouse to visit her after 5 years of silence, and he has big news.
Joe is alive in Empire Bay and has been this entire time. However, as punishment for his actions, he's become Leo Galante's personal driver against his will and is forbidden from contacting Vito ever again, or else him and Vito will be killed. Alma then tells Vito to meet Lincoln at the airport to learn more, as he's already there awaiting Vito's arrival. When they're away from anyone who could listen in on their conversation, Lincoln tells Vito he has a friend named John Donovan he's going to introduce him to, hiding in the outskirts of Empire Bay, ready to help Vito and Lincoln with their new mission
Vito gets dressed in one of his signature trench coats with a suit and tie, ready to rain down hell on the Vinci crime family and their allies, and finally be reunited with his lifelong friend he previously thought was dead, Joe Barbaro.
Here is my idea for the kill list, all related to the Commission in Empire Bay and their allies.

Leo Galante - Top target on the list, Vinci family consigliere who's in with the Commission and the man you thought put Joe in the ground for the past 22 years. Bury this wrinkly old cocksucker.
Johnny Galante - Vinci family capo and younger relative of Leo's mentioned in Cassandra's ending, possibly Leo's cousin even. John Donovan knows that the two are close, and that Johnny's a valuable asset to Leo's organization. Kill him both to hurt Leo's earn and influence, and to hit him straight in the heart by taking away his family and everyone he loves
Michele Galante Jr. - Another Vinci family capo, and Leo Galante’s youngest brother. Killing Leo’s little brother will both take away one of his most reliable allies, and leave him stricken with grief and enraged, and more prone to making mistakes.
Nunzio Galante - Leo’s seasoned older brother by 3 years, and yet another Vinci family capo. He knows enough about smuggling that he worked out an ingenious plan for smuggling military grade weapons into the city. He pays off corrupt officials at Empire Bay International Airport, to allow guns to be loaded inside the walls and floors of planes, unknown to everyone onboard save for the palms the Galantes and Frank Vinci have greased to cooperate and keep quiet. The time has come to put this crafty old bastard in the ground.
Don Frank Vinci - Frank Vinci is the boss of the Vinci crime family, the family Leo's been a consigliere of for decades, and a lifelong friend of his. Kill Frank, and Leo loses more ground than he could ever imagine, and will be forced to deal with both the loss of his boss, and the loss of his lifelong childhood friend.
Don Ennio Salieri - Longtime close friend of both Frank Vinci and Leo Galante, Don of the Salieri crime family, and a third party Frank and Leo call in to crush Vito's uprising, when it becomes too big of an issue for Vinci alone to handle. Salieri was eventually able to grease enough palms while behind bars to have his life sentence overturned, and he got released from prison on good behavior in 1953, after he served 15 years of his sentence. He’s since relocated to his main operations to Empire Bay, having already had connections and men present there while he was in prison, backed by the Commission and the Vinci crime family. He's seasoned, but he’s nothing Mr. Scaletta can't handle. Give this tired old fuck the gangland ending he's had coming.
Isaac - Isaac is the personal assistant to an influential loan shark named Bruno Levine, who handles the money of the Commission, including the Vinci crime family and the Salieri crime family. He does anything from serve his boss coffee, to count incoming and outgoing money for Bruno. Because of his duties, he's aware of Bruno's location at all times. You’ll need to get to Isaac to get information on his boss out of him, and dispose of him afterwards if you want to get to Bruno.
Bruno Levine - Bruno is a Jewish-American loan shark who kicks up all of his earn to both Frank Vinci and Ennio Salieri, and the Commission in Empire Bay. Killing him kills a lot of earn for the Commission, and they loses a valuable asset. In addition to getting rid of him being practical, to add insult to injury, he gave your father that loan. It's about time to put this asshole out of business.
Mr. Chu & Mr. Chu Jr. - This old man has been leading the Empire Bay Triads with an iron fist since before you were even born. The bastard has a son too, who eventually went on to become his underboss. The Empire Bay Triads became a close ally of the Vinci crime family, the Salieri crime family, and the Commission shortly after Vito killed Don Carlo Falcone in 1951, forming a lucrative partnership with the Commission. Mr. Chu and his eldest son are valuable assets for Leo Galante who give him extra reach. Melt their iron fists and show these two pricks just who they fucked with.
Eddie Scarpa - This cocksucker used to be Carlo Falcone's underboss for as long as you could remember. After you whacked Falcone in the fall of 1951, he decided to throw in with Vinci to save his own skin. He took over the smuggling and dock union extortion that fat fuck Derek Pappalardo used to run. You know all too well how to deal with this sorry fuckin' rat.

I'm thinking Vito and Joe work with Lincoln Clay and John Donovan to split up Empire Bay and distribute territory to three other factions not unlike what Lincoln did with New Bordeaux. This time though, this is a much larger city in a much, much different part of the United States. The empire building mechanics would be a lot smoother, more robust, and streamlined compared to Mafia III. They would work similarly a more modernized version of how the hit city sandbox game Scarface: The World Is Yours handled it's empire building and management mechanics, minus the whole switching to other characters lower on the ladder to do your bidding. This would be ideal for a story rich organized crime game in my opinion. Here are my ideas for those factions, all close allies of the up and coming Scaletta crime family.
The Cuban mob led by Alma Diaz. Vito goes way back with Alma, and she does not hesitate to answer him and Lincoln's calls to save Joe's life and royally fuck both Leo Galante and the Vinci family.
Conti crime family, led by Enzo Conti. This Conti crime family formed sometime in late 1968, months after Lincoln helped Enzo flee New Bordeaux and drop off of Sal Marcano's radar. It turns out he fled north to Empire Bay and finally formed his own family, having more than enough years of experience in the underworld to handle the job. Lincoln's tight with him and manages to recruit him to Vito and Joe's cause.
The Yakuza, based out of Empire Bay's Japantown. Longtime sworn enemies of the Empire Bay Triads, with bad blood going back decades. They would greatly enjoy seeing Mr. Chu and his son's heads mounted on pikes, along with whacking everyone who's ever supported their organization. You don't know them well, and they're known to be very unpredictable and ruthless. Use these traits to your advantage when taking on the Commission of Empire Bay and their friends.
I should mention as expected, this entire 1973 section where you play as Vito is much shorter than Mafia III. Vito's takeover is shown much more quickly over time than Lincoln's, and there's time skips during it, to keep it short and sweet, and to show onscreen only what's important. There is also no option for your underbosses to betray you, as to reduce confusion and keep the story consistently the same each playthrough, like the first two Mafia games.
However, unlike Mafia III, after all of these tasks are completed and every single assassination target on Vito’s kill list is dealt with, the game does not end. In fact, it's not even anywhere near close to being over yet. Vito's 1973 section was merely the beginning act. It was really a lead up to an entirely new Mafia story, centering around a newcomer to the American mob. Fast forward two years following Vito’s rampage that led to him taking over Empire Bay and the Commission, in the year 1975 him and Joe now rule Empire Bay, with Vito as the Don of the Scaletta Crime Family, and Joe working as his loyal underboss. You play the rest of the game as a young up and coming soldato named Louis in his 20’s, who’s a rising star in Vito’s organization. Do right by Mr. Scaletta and Mr. Barbaro, understand kid?
My basic idea for the character and his backstory is that he's a young Italian-Canadian mobster from Toronto, Ontario, or whatever Mafia's equivalent of it could be called. Let's call him Louis DeSimone. His family hails from Tuscany in Italy and moved to Toronto, Ontario in 1939, shortly after World War II broke out in Europe. Louis DeSimone was born in July 1952 in Toronto, and was raised in Toronto's Little Italy. Being northern Italian and hailing from Tuscany, Louis has blond hair and green eyes, making him visually very distinct from past series protagonists, who were all dark haired brunets with brown eyes. Louis fled south to Empire Bay when the feds started cracking down on his old family and put his boss in prison, and he ended up finding a new home with the Scaletta crime family. The first few missions playing as Louis DeSimone involve shooting your away out of an arrest by a Toronto Police Service SWAT team in Toronto in December 1974, seeing the rest of the members of your old crime family either get arrested or shot in front of you as you make your escape. You spend the next two missions fleeing Ontario through Quebec and upstate New York, before finally arriving in Empire Bay in early 1975, late January to be exact. Winter is in full force with snow everywhere, Louis' arrival to Empire Bay for the first time in his life mirroring Vito's return to Empire Bay in 1945 30 years earlier, except under far different much more dire circumstances. Louis' older brother and his father, both capos in his old crime family in Toronto, are shown to be arrested by the TPS SWAT team in his first mission, the same one that attempted to gun him down when he resisted arrested. Louis knows someone had to have ratted out his old crime family, and he wants to find out who someday. The thing is though, he doesn't just want to kill them. He wants to get out of them why they did it before he kills them. More than anything else, he just wants to find out why his crime family was betrayed and served up to the feds on a silver platter, having most of his biological family sent to prison in the process. He’s out to uncover the mystery of why his family fell apart, and he’s more than willing to help people like Don Vito Scaletta and his underboss Joe Barbaro to eventually get the answers he seeks. In the end, he’s not even after revenge primarily, more than that, he wants answers and information regarding the fare of his old crime family, and wants to know why his family fell apart. I came up with the idea for this character because I figured that playing as a fugitive from the law made sense for the mob life, and I'm surprised we haven't had a fugitive protagonist in the Mafia series yet.
In the 1975 chapters while playing as Louis, the Watergate scandal, President Richard Nixon’s resignation, and the official end to the Vietnam War are all discussed on the in-game radio during news segments. In the last 1979 chapter, the beginning of the Soviet-Afghan War is also the subject of a news segment on the radio.
The story eventually transitions into the 1980's as years pass, with the scenery, cars, and music changing accordingly, and historical events of the time discussed in the game. In the 1989 section of the game, the murder of the infamous former Sinclair Parish Sheriff Walter “Slim” Beaumont is mentioned on the in-game radio, as just over 21 years ago Slim and his corruption ring were the top headline of national news. the time the game ends, it's 1992, and significant historical events from the past few years at the time that are covered on the radio in-game include anything from the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Gulf War, the collapse of the Soviet Union, to the 1992 L.A. riots. The rise of the internet and home computers are briefly touched upon during news segments on the in-game radio during the early 1990's section of the story, but not greatly delved into given their relative infancy in that time period. During this entire 1975-1992 stretch of the story, Vito is no longer playable, and Don Scaletta takes a backseat in the story as a main supporting character, similar to Don Salieri throughout Mafia: Definitive Edition. You now play as the Italian-Canadian Scaletta family soldato Louis DeSimone, who is later promoted to being a capo in 1985. At the end of the game in 1992, Louis is promoted to Consigliere of the Scaletta crime family, and it’s revealed in the epilogue that he became the don of the family in 2006 at the age of 54, and his now released from prison older brother serving as his underboss, and and Enzo Conti’s grandson Giovanni Conti serving as consigliere, taking over from Louis’ previous position which before that belonged to his father and Enzo’s only son, Lorenzo Conti from 1973-1992. It is worth noting that unlike Don Salieri, Don Scaletta has much more integrity, and has more genuine loyalty for his men and his associates. If you've beaten Mafia 1 or Mafia: Definitive Edition, you'll know this is something Salieri lacked in the end. Over time, Louis also goes from having a strictly business relationship with Vito and Joe, to bonding with them and becoming a genuinely close friend and trusted member of the family, seeing Vito as something of a second father, and coming to see Joe as the fun uncle he never had. Another major character development theme is Louis DeSimone adapting and assimilating into Italian-American culture in his new home in the Northeastern US, it seeming like something new mixed with the familiar Italian-Canadian culture he was raised in back in Ontario just north of the border.
The game will include a number of hit music from the 70’s that played on the radio back then, such as Bobby Womack’s Across 110th Street and Tony Christie’s (Is This the Way to) Amarillo, The Grateful Dead's Casey Jones and at least a few songs by the then new American rock band Cheap Trick, as well as popular songs from the 1960’s people still listened to at the time, such as Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs’ Wooly Bully, King Crimson’s 21st Century Schizoid Man, Zager and Evans' In the Year 2525, The Zombies' Time of the Season, and Nancy Sinatra’s These Boots Are Made for Walkin'. When you progress through the game, especially after you switch to playing as Louis DeAngelo for the rest of the story, years change, and the music changes. Different songs start playing on the radio, such as Sylvester's You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real), Randy Crawford's Street Life, and The Village People's Y.M.C.A., Cheryl Lynn's Got to Be Real, Gloria Gaynor's I Will Survive, and the Bee Gees' Stayin' Alive start playing in the 1979 portion of the game. After you've completed the 1975 section of the game, Foghat's Slow Ride starts playing on the radio. Starting in the 1977 section of the game, Cheap Trick's I Want You to Want Me and Heart's Barracuda start playing on the radio. In the 1980's portion of the game, Thomas Dolby's songs Hyperactive! and She Blinded Me with Science, in addition to Night Ranger's Sister Christian also start playing on the radio. If Hangar 13 can afford the licenses, I also think a few Michael Jackson and Madonna songs should definitely be on the radio during the 1980's portion of the story, given the immense popularity and regular radio airtime those two had in that decade. If this ended up being possible, I imagine that Michael Jackson's Smooth Criminal, Beat It, Bad, and Billie Jean being on the radio in the 80's sections would be a must, Smooth Criminal especially because of how well it suits the series. Madonna's Lucky Star, Burning Up, Like a Virgin, and Borderline would also be perfect for the 80's portion of the game to me. Also mentioned by NPCs and civilians in the game are topical events of the time period, such as the release of the groundbreaking 1973 horror film The Exorcist at the end of Vito's playable portion of the game.
Other music of the 1980's segment when playing as Louis DeAngelo for the remainder of the game includes hits of the era such as Joe Jackson's Steppin' Out, The Buggles' Video Killed The Radio Star, Corey Hart's Sunglasses at Night, Laura Branigan's Self Control and Gloria, The Weather Girls' It's Raining Men, A-ha’s Take On Me, Men at Work's Down Under, Kim Wilde's Kids in America, The Gap Band's You Dropped a Bomb on Me, Culture Club’s Karma Chameleon, Michael Sembello’s Maniac, Twisted Sister's I Wanna Rock and We're Not Gonna Take It, Bon Jovi's Wanted Dead or Alive and Bad Medicine, Soft Cell’s Tainted Love, Robert Palmer’s Simply Irresistible, Rick Astley’s Together Forever, Whenever You Need Somebody, and Never Gonna Give You Up, Cutting Crew’s [I Just] Died In Your Arms, Loverboy's Working for the Weekend, Dead or Alive's You Spin Me Round (Like a Record) and That's the Way (I Like It), Tiffany’s I Think We’re Alone Now, Daryl Hall & John Oates' Maneater, Aneka's Japanese Boy, Mötley Crüe's Dr. Feelgood, Girls, Girls, Girls and Kickstart My Heart, Billy Joel's We Didn't Start the Fire, Huey Lewis And The News' Hip To Be Square, Bill Medley's (I've Had) The Time of My Life, The Police's Every Breath You Take, Whodini's Magic's Wand, Guns ‘N Roses’ Welcome to the Jungle and Paradise City, Tears For Fears' Everybody Wants To Rule The World, Rockwell's Somebody's Watching Me, Regina's Baby Love, Nena's 99 Red Balloons, Earth, Wind, and Fire's Let's Groove and September, Billy Idol's Eyes Without a Face and White Wedding, Rick James’ Give It To Me Baby, Olivia Newton-John’s Physical, The S.O.S. Band’s Take Your Time (Do It Right), Kenny Loggins’ Highway to the Danger Zone, Wham!’s Everything She Wants, George Michael's Careless Whisper, Toto's Hold the Line and Africa, Blondie's Heart of Glass and Atomic, and Mai Tai's History.
**Note that not every single year and moment of the 17 year 1975-1992 section playing as Louis DeAngelo is playable or chronicled. My idea is it would be handled similarly to how the time skips in Mafia 1/Mafia: Definitive Edition were handled. Time skips of two or more years, or in this case, even longer such as 4 years sometimes, the game skipping from 1979 to 1983. This is to keep the game and story length ideal, and not risk it getting boring or repetitive, or going on for too long. Repetition was a big problem in Mafia III even if I still thought it was a superb game, so I think it'd be best to learn from that for the next big entry. The games story will skip ahead and show onscreen only what's significant, similar to the first Mafia game and it's remake, as well as certain aspects of Mafia II. Louis starts his section as a 22 year old fugitive soldato who got picked up by another crew south of the Canadian border, and in the epilogue of the game in 1992, is promoted to the consigliere of the Scaletta crime family at the age of 40, being set to take over the family once Vito and Joe become too old to run the day to day on a regular basis. Louis DeSimone is promoted to don of the Scaletta crime family following Vito and Joe being officially retired as of 2006. They’re both still involved and paid huge amounts of money by Louis out of respect, but keep a much lower profile by then since they have handpicked successors and aren’t worried about where the business is going.
The years chronicled in the main gameplay segments are as follows:
1973
1975
1977
1979
1983
1985
1987
1988
1989
1990
1991
1992
Much more of the rural areas and countryside outside of Empire Bay are included than what was available in Mafia II. The way rural environments are handled for this hypothetical Mafia IV is akin to how Mafia: Definitive Edition and Mafia III handled their rural environments outside the main cities, except much larger in scale, given the increased power of the current new consoles such as the PS5 and Xbox Series X. This region is based off of upstate New York and the surrounding areas across multiple states in the Northeastern US, and includes forests, fields, mountains, rivers, lakes, beaches, and small towns. Also included are other cities and towns, based off of other large cities in New York like Syracuse, Buffalo, and Rochester, where other story missions, business activities, and side missions take place, along with smaller notable places like Ithaca, Binghamton, and Utica. The entire states of New Jersey, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, Delaware, Maryland, and Ohio are also included, including places based off of all of their major cities and most of their notable towns in between. Large portions of Pennsylvania are included as well, including Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and Scranton. All of the province of Nova Scotia including the city of Halifax, and Large portions of the eastern half of the Canadian province of Ontario are included as well, including cities based off of Toronto, Ottawa, and Niagara Falls. There's even a small portion of Quebec included, including Montreal and the surrounding countryside of the province outside that city, including a few small towns in southern Quebec. The player must pass a quick border patrol check when crossing the US-Canada border in a car or other ground vehicle.
Wildlife is present in the game, mostly to add to the background, scenery, and immersion in rural environments on the map. These are all animals native to the Northeastern US, ranging from white tailed deer, coyotes, bobcats, Canada lynxes, rabbits, hares, groundhogs, gophers, beavers, raccoons, opossums, bats, chipmunks, red and gray squirrels, mice, and rats to more formidable and potentially dangerous animals that may sometimes attack the player, such as grey wolves, black bears, mountain lions, and moose. These last four animals are known to spawn in the mountainous regions, especially in New York, Ohio, Vermont, Massachusetts, and Ontario, including the rural regions based off of the Catskills and the Adirondack mountains. Dogs are present in the cities, towns, and settlements where humans live and keep them as pets, being walked and sometimes found in people's yards. Some are used as guard dogs by enemies and are aggressive towards the player on sight. Domestic cats are also present in the background of residential areas, and both Louis and Vito own them as pets throughout the game in their safe houses, as well as other onscreen characters we see the homes of throughout the game.
Aircraft make their first usable appearance in the Mafia series too, from airplanes to helicopters. Vito cannot use planes or helicopters in his playable 1973 portion of the game, as he does not know how to pilot, being a paratrooper in World War II who never actually flew any of the planes himself. Aircraft are unlocked to use when Louis DeSimone gets his pilot’s certificate offscreen in 1977, and at the end of a chapter set that year, Louis has to fly Vito in a helicopter to a penthouse in Downtown Empire Bay acting as a family safe house, equipped with a helipad. Louis frequently serves as a personal driver and pilot for both Vito and Joe afterwards, having done a lot in his time serving the family to earn their trust and respect.
Melee weapons also make a return from Mafia: Definitive Edition, with even more variety this time. In their respective sections of the game, Vito and Louis may use anything from baseball bats, pipes, shovels, brass knuckles, golf clubs, police batons, switchblades, kitchen knives, bowie knives, ice picks, 2x4s, claw hammers, crowbars, tire irons, chain links, machetes, meat cleavers, pickaxes, hatchets, sledgehammers, to fire axes. This amount of melee weapons is so no matter what environment the player finds themselves in during a mission or any other game activity, there is usually a weapon of some sort nearby. If the player has obtained piano wire, you may also strangle an enemy to death with it from behind as a stealth kill, this being a classic assassination method infamous for being used by the Italian Mafia. Rope can also be found and used for similar strangulation stealth kills, appearing in the gameplay environments where piano wire can’t be found. There is a wide variety of new guns and explosives to use in this concept for Mafia IV, going with the new weapons of the time the game takes place that criminals quickly got their hands on. This includes the SPAS-12 combat shotgun, the Beretta 92 pistol, the AK-74 assault rifle, the mini uzi, the MAC-10 submachine gun, both suppressed and unsuppressed variants, the Beretta 92 pistol, the Taurus raging bull revolver, Glock handguns, the TEC-9 machine pistol, illegally modified to be full auto, the Ruger Mini-14 full auto variant, and even Vietnam war era flamethrowers, which I think is only natural given that as of Mafia III, we already have RPGs and grenade launchers. Late in the game from the 1989 section and onwards, the Benelli M3 combat shotgun becomes available. The Milkor MGL grenade launcher becomes available beginning in the 1983 portion of the game. Attached grenade launchers are also available for the AK-47, AK-74, and M16 assault rifles. More advanced rocket launchers of the 1970’s and 1980’s are naturally included as well.
Free ride makes a return in Mafia IV, with the player having the options to change the weather, time period, and an option to play as Louis, Vito, Joe, Lincoln, or John Donovan. Naturally, a multitude of new free ride missions are available as well.
I previously posted a much earlier and less detailed draft of this on the old Mafia3 subreddit 3 years ago back in 2017 as an idea for a hypothetical Mafia 3 expansion where you play as Vito, but have since updated and revamped it to a possible Mafia IV plot, and fixed any plot holes I noticed and made it much more fleshed out and in depth, and focus on more than just Vito in the end. You may view my original here if you so desire, to compare. https://www.reddit.com/Mafia3/comments/6sldhp/spoiler_mafia_iii_vito_dlc_basic_plot_idea/
Feel free to give me constructive criticism on this, as I encourage this discourse and believe it is integral to growing and improving, to build upon or improve these ideas I've come up with, or say whether or not you think something like this should happen in the future. Thank you for reading!

Yakuza 3 CODEX save file location?

Comprehensive Gou Theory: Satoshi Hojo, In The Hidden Room, With The Onigari-no-Ryuuou

Alright, here it is- my comprehensive mega theory on what I believe may have been happening through the whole of Gou that we have seen so far. It does involve crazy amounts of extrapolation and could very well be invalidated by the next episode.
TL;DR version - Shion is hiding Satoshi in her closet. Satoko knows. The Hojo brother is awake, crazy, running around and has been either directly or indirectly responsible for much of the bullshit in the arcs so far.
Now here it comes. The long version. The crack logic. Grab onto your baseball bats, buckle up your airsoft guns and don't let go.

:: BEFORE SERIES - JUNE 1982 ::
Satoshi Hojo kills his aunt Tamae and runs away. In the original Higurashi, he had contracted Hinamizawa Syndrome Level 5 and was subsequently abducted by the Yamainu and demoned away underneath the Irie Clinic.
Things happen differently in Higurashi Gou.
Satoshi doesn't completely hit L5 and actually runs away, fleeing for his life when the scary men-in-vans come to abduct him, taking his baseball bat along with him. The Yamainu successfully cover up his murder anyway, but because they botch their retrieval attempt Takano and Tomitake have been searching for him ever since.
How did he escape the Yamainu for a whole year?
He had a helper: Shion Sonozaki, his girlfriend. He told her he was being hunted by mysterious men-in-vans who murdered his aunt and who he had seen talking to Rika Furude.
Shion believed what he said.
Remembering her uncles had a saferoom in the Sonozaki Saiguden and family rumors of a secret passage leading outside the estate, she goes to her closest uncle - her employer at Angel Mort - and is able to acquire a copy of the key to the saferoom. She then sneaks Satoshi through the passage into the Sonozaki Saiguden and into the stockpiled saferoom, helping him disappear and hide from the Yamainu.
Satoshi has been hiding in the Sonozaki Saiguden ever since, using the same saferoom Keiichi was put into by Mion, living off the food rations stored in there and the resupplies brought by Shion, whenever she has the time to swap with Mion and make a visit.
How did he not succumb to Hinamizawa Syndrome for a whole year?
Shion Sonozaki finds out that like his sister, Satoshi was on "experimental medication". This is a problem, because she cannot take him directly to the Irie Clinic when he's supposed to be hiding. She comes up with an alternative plan - she suggest to Irie that, like his niece and nephew, their uncle Teppei Hojo may have the same illness that runs in the family, knowing this will prompt Irie to prescribe medication to the man.

Teppei Hojo is put on a medical prescription.

She finds out where Teppei lives in Okinomiya and raids his mailbox every time there's a delivery, stealing the prescription and replacing it with generic tablets instead. She then brings the pills back to Satoshi every time she swaps places with Mion and gets to sneak into the estate, such as in Watanagashi-hen when Mion takes her place at Angel Mort.
Unfortunately, Satoshi's pills are only meant for "low-level" L1-L3 symptomatics. Anything higher requires Satoko's version, the C-103. With his murder of his aunt, Satoshi is now at the upper end of L3 or past it. Having Shion caring for him helps, but even with his pills, over the course of the year he slowly slips further and further into L4.
Thus come the events of Higurashi Gou, June 1983.

:: ALL ARCS - JUNE <10 ::
An older Rika Furude wakes up in the body of her younger self.

"What's wrong?"

Satoko, as her best friend and someone who has been living in her house for a whole year, immediately realizes something is wrong with Rika. This is a Rika who has been openly acting like a teenager for years and can't quite fake being her 10-year self again enough to fool Satoko. But Satoko doesn't push the matter up front.

:: TATARIDAMASHI-HEN - JUNE <10 ::

Teppei Hojo is shown living by himself in a studio apartment in Okinomiya.
When talking to Keiichi on June 13, Irie neglects to mention Teppei living with anyone else when explaining how he ran from Hinamizawa in fear of Oyashiro's Curse after Tamae's murder.

Teppei has never met Rina Mamiya in these timelines. He lives by himself, but in Tataridamashi he gets evicted after the neighbors complain about the smell coming from his unit and he abuses the woman who came to check in.
He decides to move back to Hinamizawa.

:: ONIDAMASHI AND WATADAMASHI ARCS - JUNE 11 ::
Shion uses her weekend break to meet up with Satoshi, promising to treat Satoko in Okinomiya after visiting her brother in the saferoom. While Satoko and Shion visit Satoshi, Satoko mentions Rika was acting funny in the last few days and making phone calls to the police asking for some unknown guy named Akasaka.
With his Hinamizawa Syndrome at Level 4, this immediately triggers Satoshi's paranoia the moment he hears about it and he starts to believe Rika has been possessed by Oyashiro and is part of a massive conspiracy involving brainwashed police and the men-in-vans.

:: TATARIDAMASHI-HEN - JUNE 11 ::
Because of the baseball game taking place, Shion decides to postpone the visit to Satoshi to the next day.

Keiichi does not get a chance to bat during the baseball game.

This is because it takes too long for them to find him a spare bat. Satoshi's old bat is not in his locker; he retained it on himself after killing Tamae Hojo and all while escaping the Yamainu. The bat seen in the locker in Gou's Episode 1 is not Satoshi's - it belongs to one of the other little leaguers, possibly Satoko herself, and they refused to let him use it.

:: TATARIDAMASHI-HEN - JUNE 12 ::
The BBQ happens.

Shion shows up during the BBQ, already on very good terms with Satoko this arc.

She does not forget her promise, because Satoshi reminds her every other time she visits him. Shion and Satoko skip out before cleanup and make the visit they otherwise make on June 11, before heading to Okinomiya to do evening shopping. While out shopping, they meet the newly-evicted Teppei Hojo who was wondering why Satoko wasn't at home. Shion helplessly watches Teppei drag Satoko back to the Hojo residence.
The evening, Shion calls Satoshi through the line in the safehouse and tells him about Teppei taking Satoko away.
Satoshi leaves the saferoom early, without telling Shion.
In a paranoid fit, he rushes out that very evening to Okinomiya to buy all the equipment necessary for making a corpse disappear. However this also results in him being seen in public, possibly after getting into an altercation with the same bikie gang that he saved Shion from before, alerting the police that he'd shown up.

:: ONIDAMASHI-HEN - JUNE 12 ::
In Tsumihoroboshi, this is when Rika and Satoko's game club punishment of wearing Angel Mort outfits occurs but as Onidamashi is running on Onikakushi events, the picnic happens instead.
At some point after Rena returns home, her father is visited by Rina's pimp, who is not Teppei, and gets punched in the face.

:: TATARIDAMASHI-HEN - JUNE 13 ::

Ooishi drops by the Hinamizawa Branch School the next day.

He intends to tell Satoko about her brother being sighted, but Satoko is late and he gets stonewalled by Keiichi, triggering his rough-housing and Keiichi's subsequent visit to Irie.

Satoko shows up late to lunch instead of being completely absent as in Tatarigoroshi or Minagoroshi.

Teppei's threats to mess up her brother's room are less effective than normal, as she knows exactly where her brother is and misses him much less than normal. The fake pills being given to him by Shion may or may not play some role, alongside with the apparent absence of Rina Mamiya and any stress of the police or yakuza coming after him.

:: ONIDAMASHI-HEN - JUNE 13 ::

Instead of cards, Mion proposes a scavenger hunt. This ends with Satoko getting ink on her face instead of Keiichi, Rena leaving early and Satoko chasing after her.

Rena leaves early after seeing Satoko getting hit with the jack-in-the-box, as this reminds her of father getting punched the previous night. This is the day when her father in Tsumihoroboshi-hen usually sends her to Okinomiya to pick up a delivery and when she eavesdrops on Rina and is told about Rina being a scam artist by Shion and Kasai at Angel Mort.

:: ONIDAMASHI-HEN - JUNE 14-17 ::
By Tsumihoroboshi's timeline, Rena murders Rina Mamiya and hides the pieces of her corpse in the junkyard on June 14.

Keiichi catches Rena by surprise and scares her when he shows up at the junkyard on June 15 looking to help her with the KFC statue.

The murder has already happened by June 15 and Rena is hiding bits of the bod(ies) in the junkyard. Rena has likely hit Level 4 Syndrome at this point. On June 17, Keiichi, Rena and Mion run into Tomitake on the way back from school and Keiichi makes a joke about him being a spy.

Following the joke, the camera refocuses on Rena's face.

Rena's paranoia makes her suspect Tomitake may in fact BE a spy (which technically he is, just not out for Rena) and she starts watching him closely.

:: TATARIDAMASHI-HEN - JUNE 14 ::
Satoko is completely absent.

Rika tells everyone to leave it to Chie, preventing Keiichi from visiting Satoko and seeing her uncle. Chie phones Child Services and pays a house call to the Hojo residence, starting the arc's pivot from being Tatarigoroshi-based to Minagoroshi-based.

After Chie leaves, Satoshi arrives. He has brought his bat and all the equipment necessary to make a body disappear. He barges into the house, kills Teppei and transports the body outside to bury it with Satoko following after him in horror. When the body is dealt with, he pets Satoko on the head with a "mattaku" and ushers her back to the house to sleep, making her promise not to tell anybody about what happened.
Child Services arrives to knock on the door while Satoshi and Satoko are out burying the body and finds nobody home. The case worker retires for the night and calls their house phone the next morning, which Satoko picks up.

:: TATARIDAMASHI-HEN - JUNE 15 ::

Satoko shows up and has a breakdown. During Minagoroshi-hen, she was absent on this day; in Tatarigoroshi, this was when Ooishi showed up at the school and Satoko came late and left early to do Teppei's chores.

Her words "nii-nii tasukete" are mistaken by all present for meaning "Help (me), big brother"; they are instead intended to mean "Help (my) big brother". Her continuous apologies are for the guilt she feels at having turned her brother into a murderer.

Rika mentions Satoko receiving only a phone call from Child Services.

In Tatarigoroshi, Satoko mentions that Child Services gatecrashed her house and caused a big disturbance for her and Teppei. Here, it is apparently only a phone call that caused the trouble. Why would a mere phone call cause trouble?
Because Teppei is no longer around to answer and she had to give Child Services all the excuses on his behalf while pretending he was still alive to cover up his murder.

Shion Sonozaki shows up after school to abuse Keiichi, completing the pivot to being based on Minagoroshi-hen.

She is wearing her school uniform; she came straight from Okinomiya after being told to "take care of Satoko" on the phone by Satoshi. Satoshi did not tell her about the murder and she thinks Teppei is still alive. She hears about the breakdown when she arrives at the school and assumes Teppei was the cause. She joins Keiichi when they visit Child Services in Okinomiya and goes back to St. Lucia from there.

:: TATARIDAMASHI-HEN - JUNE 16 ::

Satoko is absent the whole day.

Either hallucinating Teppei being alive or more likely simply pretending he is in order to cover for Satoshi's killing, she spends the whole day avoiding Child Services while making calls to the school and doing non-existent chores for Teppei to keep up the appearance of him still being alive.
However when the Child Services worker assigned to Satoko becomes fed up enough to intrude into the Hojo residence, they notice something wrong about the scene - his prescription medicine hasn't been taken in the last two days, even possibly not collected from the mailbox at all since his last visit - and calls the police.
Shion turns up to Hinamizawa branch school as Keiichi rallies his class and brings them to Okinomiya. She is wearing her St. Lucia uniform; she has again come straight from Okinomiya and has cut class to do so. She has not called Satoshi or told him about the breakdown in order to avoid causing him anxiety and has not had a chance to visit the saferoom. She will not do either until at least June 18 when the weekend comes. She hopes to find a solution to Teppei before she next speaks with her boyfriend.
Ooishi, hearing from Child Services, immediately suspects Teppei has disappeared and that someone in the village with a grudge is to blame. He visits the Sonozaki household (the prime suspects) to question them on the disappearance but their alibis are solid and he walks away empty handed.

:: TATARIDAMASHI-HEN - JUNE 17 ::

The roadside altar near the Furude Shrine is vandalized with the effigy and bowl of offerings knocked over from behind.

Satoko drives Teppei's motorbike up to the Furude shrine, kicks over the roadside altar and makes sure the motorbike is heard so that people think Teppei was the one responsible. Nobody actually sees the culprit, as the act itself has all been done under concealment from the woods behind the altar.

The Oyashiro statue in the Furude Saiguden still has its arm attached.

Satoko, in contrast to Teppei who fled Hinamizawa out of fear of Oyashiro's Curse, is largely unafraid of divine punishment from Oyashiro as the incident where she was locked in the Saiguden never occurred and moreover, she knows full well that her brother was not actually disappeared by Oyashiro and the curse never actually happened in 1982.

Ooishi attends the Watanagashi Festival meeting on June 17 along with Keiichi.

The meeting Keiichi attended in Minagoroshi-hen was on the 16th but Mion implies there are multiple such meetings and it seems Keiichi attended a later one in this loop. Ooishi attends at the same time possibly to gauge the reactions from the elders over the idea of helping Satoko, looking for potential suspects behind Teppei's disappearance.

Keiichi's visit to the Sonozaki residence happens that same evening, rather than the next day.

Shion still hasn't had a chance to pop down to the saferoom and check on Satoshi that week.

:: TATARIDAMASHI - JUNE 18> ::
Read this thread.

:: ONIDAMASHI AND WATADAMASHI ARCS - JUNE 19 ::
Satoshi has grown up on the legends of Oyashiro and of the ritual sword hidden in the statue used for killing demons. He is well into Level 4 and in his paranoia, he has decided that he must exorcise Rika from the mortal plane on the day of Watanagashi.
Without informing anyone, he leaves the Sonozaki saferoom and breaks into Kimiyoshi's residence, stealing the key to the Furude Saiguden, knowing Kimiyoshi will be at the festival and not at home. Before Takano arrives, he breaks inside and raids the Oyashiro statue for the Onigari-no-Ryuuou and absconds, locking the gate behind him.

The Oyashiro statue in the Furude Saiguden is now empty and its head replaced badly enough to fall off when bumped.

Satoshi then returns to Kimiyoshi's house, either to ambush him and interrogate him on Rika or the Yamainu or else just to replace the key.

:: WATADAMASHI-HEN - JUNE 19 ::
Satoshi ends up killing Kimiyoshi in the ensuing confrontation at his house.
Takano and Tomitake, upon inspecting the Oyashiro statue, realize that it was opened recently and that the intact lock on the gate means someone with a key recently entered the Saiguden and stole the sword. They visit Kimiyoshi to inquire and arrive in time to see Satoshi, who flees the residence (likely in a vehicle belonging to Kimiyoshi) causing them to give chase and co-opt the nearest vehicle they find in the course of their desperate pursuit.

Tomitake and Takano steal a truck heedless to the numerous witnesses nearby, who report them to the police.

Shion is in town for the festival and and follows Tomitake and Takano, hoping to catch a glimpse of the men in vans that Satoshi claimed attempted to abduct him.
She arrives near Kimiyoshi's residence too late to see the actual incident; however she hears about Takano and Tomitake fleeing in a stolen truck on police radio and sees the Yamainu vans circling the residence as their clean-up crew moves in to disappear Kimiyoshi's body. Putting two and two together, she assumes the mysterious men-in-vans were chasing Tomitake and Takano down.

Keiichi is both accosted by Ooishi and called by Shion that evening, a full day before the equivalents happened in Watanagashi-hen.

The police are on doubly high alert due to the extra disappearance of Kimiyoshi this loop. Realizing the police suspect the Sonozakis were the ones doing the chasing (or even thinking it possible that the police might be working with the men-in-vans to frame them) she hurries back to the Sonozaki estate and immediately calls Keiichi to check he's still safe, fearful that with her actions she's now put Keiichi at risk of abduction or being accused of aiding the Sonozakis - and is told that the police have also just approached him about Tomitake and Takano. Wanting to speak with Satoshi about these developments, she heads down to the saferoom - only to promptly discovers that Satoshi is also gone.
Completely freaking out at these sudden twist of events, guilty with the realization that she's dragged Keiichi into life-threatening danger, she breaks down to her sister in panic and tells Mion everything about having hidden Satoshi in the saferoom and how the shady men after him just disappeared two people in front of her.
Mion, knowing about the Yamainu, vindicates Shion's belief about Rika's army of "minions" existing, but doesn't believe her friend Rika herself could possibly be involved. She instead thinks Kimiyoshi could be behind it and is mad at Shion for getting Keiichi involved.

:: ONIDAMASHI-HEN - JUNE 19 ::
In Onidamashi-hen, because Takano and Tomitake do not waste as much time in the Saiguden telling ghost stories to Keiichi, they discover Satoshi's burglary sooner and also intercept Kimiyoshi before or at his house, averting his murder. This still ends up with Satoshi fleeing the property and them giving chase in the same way as in Watadamashi-hen.

Unseen by Keiichi, Rena watches Tomitake and Takano post-cotton-drifting.

Going by Watanagashi-hen timeframes, this would have been after they broke into the Saiguden. Unlike in Watadamashi, Shion is not present for the festival. Instead, it is Rena who follows Tomitake because in her paranoia she fears he is a spy out to get her.
She follows and sees them fleeing in their stolen truck, but does not see the Yamainu as they were not called in to clean up Kimiyoshi's corpse. She wonders if they were running from Oyashiro.

:: ONIDAMASHI AND WATADAMASHI ARCS - JUNE 19 ::
In both arcs, the pursuit of Satoshi ends badly for Tomitake and Takano.
Whether he somehow gets the better of them or whether they manage to apprehend him but he wakes up prematurely in the back of the truck before they can get to the clinic, Satoshi ends up causing them all to crash the stolen truck into the back of the Irie Clinic, critically wounding Tomitake and Takano in the process and causing enough structural damage that the Yamainu are forced to immediately "remodel" the clinic.

In the aftermath of the festival, the Irie Clinic undergoes "remodelling" such that it is closed on June 23 in Onidamashi.

The stolen van, along with Tomitake and Takano's bodies are vanished by the Yamainu to cover up the incident and are never found by police. Satoshi manages to escape from the clinic in the chaos of the crash by stealing Takano's gun and one of the Yamainu's builders' uniforms and impersonating a grunt, but breaks or somehow loses the Onigari-no-Ryuuou along the way, though he retains his bat.
Because of Tomitake and Takano's disappearances, the police have the Sonozaki estate under tight surveillance, rendering Satoshi unable to return to the safehouse even through the secret passageway. He instead is forced to run and hide in the school and raids the infirmary there to treat his wounds.
He locks himself in a cubicle in the men's room and hides there the whole time, well into the next day.

:: WATADAMASHI-HEN - JUNE 20 ::

The ending credits list only Mion as having any speaking role in Episode 8.

The only Sonozaki sister Keiichi ever speaks to on this day is Mion.

Mion admits about having stayed up to 3 AM, instead of having an L5 fever she tries to pass off as cold or a hangover.

Mion had spent long hours the previous night grilling Shion over her confession and straightening out all the known facts. She does not have any sort of fever and Shion herself is currently still hiding at the Sonozaki estate worried about getting abducted. Rika, in her Bernkastel-funk, assumes this staying up late was a consequence of ShMion working double time on her murders and speedrunning Kimiyoshi, Oryo and her sister all in one night.

Mayor Kiichiro Kimiyoshi is declared vanished a full day before he usually goes missing in Meakashi-hen and Watanagashi-hen.

Because of his disappearance, Rika is briefly separated from Satoko at some point before or on the way to school to be questioned by the police. Ooishi does not come to the school itself; the police are stretched thin conducting their manhunt for 3 missing people instead of 2.

Satoko is not shown in class during the announcement and does not give her usual reaction to Kimiyoshi's disappearance.

Satoko, during her separation from Rika, has been intercepted near the restrooms by her brother. He tells her to keep his presence there secret, that he's found out things about the men-in-vans, to be careful of Rika and to come see him again after school.
Rika is not invited to play dodgeball. During this time, Rika instead talks to a Yamainu agent behind the school and this is witnessed separately by both Mion and Satoshi, who has line of sight from the toilet windows. Both of them take this as hard confirmation that Rika is responsible for everything. It's made even worse when Mion also hears about Rika talking scarily to Keiichi.
As soon as Rika is alone, Satoshi grabs his baseball bat, climbs out the toilet window, ambushes her with a blow to the back of the skull and then crushes her windpipe using the handle of the bat. He throws her body into the nearby septic tank.
When Mion mentions hearing about Rika talking to someone in a construction uniform in class Satoko assumes it was her brother, panics and attempts to shut down the discussion.

"But there's no one like that at our school." Satoko says with a peevish look.

This particularly dumb response backfires, causing a manhunt to start for Rika.
When the manhunt begins, Satoshi climbs out the window and up onto the roof to hide (possibly with assistance from Satoko) while everybody is searching inside. And then heads back into the building through the second-floor window, sneaking back down to the toilets when everyone is outside.
Mion catches a glimpse of him sneaking back through the second-floor window near the septic tank and tells Keiichi to check the roof and then has her small breakdown over Rika apparently being an evil serial killer out for the heads of the Hojos. She thinks Rika's fatalistic rant was a declaration of her intent to kill Keiichi right to the poor boy's face and that now she's run off with Kimiyoshi to set her plan into motion.
Satoshi, not knowing that Shion has told Mion about him, stays in the toilet until he can meet up with Satoko again as she leaves the school. He tells her he's found out that Nurse Takano was involved with the Yamainu and tried to kidnap him - her gun with her fingerprints is the proof - and the whole Irie Clinic is suspect. He tells her that he has already killed the suspected ringleaders, gives her Takano's gun and tells her to go to the Sonozaki estate and contact Shion. They can protect her and maybe, with the gun as evidence, they can expose the Irie Clinic and end Oyashiro's Curse.
Satoko eventually goes to the estate and is let in. Mion returns home and receives the new information. Thinking the "masterminds" behind the Yamainu are all dead, Mion suggests trying to negotiate with them while Oryo and Shion rendezvous with Satoshi in order to secure him as a police witness against the Yamainu if necessary.
Sometime after Mion gets home, she decides to call Keiichi and escorts him to the house and locks him in the saferoom hoping to make him look like a victim in order to prevent him getting caught by the Yamainu or arrested by the police as a Sonozaki accomplice.

Mion changes into a kimono meant for formal occasions.

Shion and Oryo make preparations to flee Hinamizawa while Mion prepares to greet the Yamainu and convince them to back off.

"...that, or they've caught on."

The Yamainu, having either seen Shion following Takano and Tomitake and finally realizing that Satoshi was hiding at the Sonozaki estate the whole time - or else possibly because Rika told them ShMion had hit L5 - show up and raid the estate before the preparations are complete.
In the ensuing attack, the Yamainu intercept Oryo and Shion escaping through the secret passageway, torture them for Satoshi's location and then toss their corpses in the well. They bust open the door to the saferoom but find only Keiichi's unmoving body and leave him there.
They shoot both Mion and Satoko when they attempt to negotiate and plant Takano's gun to make it look like a mutual killing between Mion and Satoko, two individuals from families known to have a mutual grudge, pinning all the recent deaths and disappearances onto Mion.
Satoshi is intercepted at his rendezvous point by the Yamainu and disappeared forever.

:: ONIDAMASHI-HEN - JUNE 20 ::
Ooishi comes to the school the very next day to speak with Keiichi.

Keiichi faked going to toilet in the original Onikakushi in order to use the time to plan a cheating strategy with Rena in the club game - but here he took a real toilet break.

From inside his cubicle, Satoshi hears Chie calling Keiichi out and then overhears Ooishi's voice, panics and decides that it is too risky to stay on the premises without knowing what Ooishi was there for, given the possibility someone saw Satoshi sneaking into the school and could be here to investigate the premises. He immediately climbs out the window and flees out the back of the school.
During this time, the Yamainu find out that Rena was following Tomitake that night and raids her house rather than the Sonozaki estate to check whether she might have been involved with Satoshi. They silently intrude, search, find nothing and leave furniture slightly out of position when they exfiltrate, gaslighting Rena even further in her paranoia when she returns home. She wonders if Oyashiro paid a visit to her house.
The police are still watching the Sonozaki estate and the Yamainu are crawling everywhere. Satoshi ends up spending the night in the abandoned van in the junkyard.

:: ONIDAMASHI-HEN - JUNE 21-22 ::
Satoshi is forced to wait longer for an opportunity to kill Rika, unable to go anywhere with the Yamainu and police both out in force. There are cops patrolling around the estate, "construction workers" at the Furude Shrine watching over his sister, "gardeners" at the school and even a van near his old house. On June 21, when Mion mentions Takano and Tomitake disappearing, Rena muses about Oyashiro, privately hoping they were taken - and wonders if the reason Oyashiro visited her house was because Tomitake and Takano successfully escaped the curse and he needed new victims.
On June 22, Satoshi is finally driven out of the junkyard by sheer necessity. It has been 2 days since he last ate anything.

Rena goes to Keiichi's house to look for evidence of his connection to the police.

When Satoshi catches sight of Rena running past the junkyard to infiltrate Keiichi's house he leaves the van, breaks into Rena's own house and grabs whatever he can eat from her kitchen.
By the time Rena returns, Satoshi has gone back to the van. However she notices the missing food and in her rampant paranoia, concludes that not only is Oyashiro haunting her house; Oyashiro is hungry.
Takano and Tomitake still have not been found; Rena decides they must have run away, leaving Oyashiro unsatisfied. She becomes convinced that if she does not do something, her father will be consumed. She resolves to carry out Oyashiro's Curse herself by killing Keiichi - the police's spy - and then making herself disappear as an offering to satiate Oyashiro, all to protect her father.
This, she will do the next day.

:: ONIDAMASHI-HEN - JUNE 23 ::
On the night of the 23rd, the Yamainu presence has decreased and Satoshi can finally head out to murder Rika. While on the way there, he overhears the fight at Keiichi's house and enters to see Rena and Keiichi apparently both dead, has a moment of inspiration to pin Rika's impending murder on Rena and takes her knife.
He goes to Rika's house and attacks her. In the process, Satoshi either hallucinates his sister being something else and kills her too - or else leaves Satoko alive, but the event causes her to hit Level 5 and commits suicide. Satoshi either escapes, running back to the safehouse again, or else is caught by the Yamainu on the way and is never found.

Xbox Deals with Gold & Lunar New Year Sale - Region by region comparison - Including Brazil Gift Card VPN method

The description of this deal was not provided by this subreddit and it's contributors.
Xbox.com Store
Price based on currency conversion as of 10/02/21.
For purchases using fee free credit / debit cards:
You are largely limited to the Hungary, Norway and Czech stores - the following list identifies which store is most cost effective per game and also notes where you are better off sticking with the UK store.
For purchases using gift card method e.g. Brazil
Xbox gift cards may be purchased from a number of online retailers including CDKeys, Eneba, MTC, Seagm and G2A.
**NOTE - Argentina and Turkey remain difficult region stores to purchase from, therefore prices for these countries are not included.
Instructions for redeeming codes:**
1) Via PC download a VPN client suitable for use with preferred region
2) Go to xbox.com& login into your account
3) Now go to redeem.microsoft.com/ent…1.0
4) Enter your code/s and confirm
5) Proceed to purchase game in the usual way.
NOTE: Codes may also be redeemed and purchases made via the Xbox iOS app without the use of a VPN, simply by changing location (providing you have not updated to latest version of the app).
To compare cost vs UK store please see the UK Deals with Gold post for this week:
https://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/xbox-store-uk-deals-with-gold-spotlight-sales-publisher-sales-bioshock-collection-ps799-hitman-2-gold-ps1199-more-3664650

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Zoo Tycoon: Ultimate Animal Collection GAME PASS EG Egypt £3.32
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A Baker's Dozen: My 2020 in Review

I'm not sure how many of you are also subscribers to 12in12, but it's a great way to look at your backlog. I typed this up for the sub over there, but I also thought my fellow patient gamers might be interested, so here is my 12 in 12 for 2020!
This year I managed to complete 13 games (and like most of you, what I completed is a mere fraction of what I played), so I guess COVID was good for something! Here's what I finished, and how I felt about it, in no particular order:

Yakuza Kiwami (PC) - Back in 2017 or so I took a gamble on my first Yakuza game, Yakuza Zero, and I loved it so much I swore I would never miss another Yakuza title. Here we are 3 years later and I finally finished... one more of them (I guess that means I'll be playing Like a Dragon in 2040 or so). Man, these games are so good. The characters take themselves so seriously for a game this wacky. How can you not love an RPG that features a TCG wherein bikini models wrestle each other while dressed as sexy insects? The side quests are hilarious and the main quest is interesting enough that I actually remember what happens when it's over! My only complaint with Kiwami was that I felt the chapters are front-loaded with side quests. If you're diligent, you'll be done with most of them by about halfway through the main quest... which makes the last 5 or 6 chapters a terrible slog of nothing but cutscenes and boss fights. And given that most of the "boss" characters have 4-6 health bars, it just becomes tedious. Finally, there is a mechanic where Majima Goro is supposed to jump out and challenge you randomly-- I don't know if this was a bug, but he only challenged me once or twice... until I cleared all the side quests. Then, he attacked me about every 2 or 3 minutes for the rest of the game, and considering Majima is a mini-boss that I'm running into while slogging my way through nothing but bosses and cutscenes... yeah. Kinda rough ending. It didn't sour me on the series though, and I look forward to Kiwami 2 in 2021.
Flashback: The Quest for Identity (Switch) - This game is a deep and intrinsic part of my childhood gaming history, but I didn't see the end until this year: I was nine or ten when I found the Genesis cart in a "$10 and Under" bin at a pawn shop in the mid-90's. Almost my entire NES and Genesis collections were loose carts from pawn shops, bought on box-art alone, "Hello, Ironsword and Demonsword, meet your new orphan brother, Flashback." Since then, I've always been fascinated by Flashback; it was one of the first titles to use rotoscoping, it was developed by a now-defunct studio called Delphine Software, and the licensing rights have been such a confusing mess that the game has long been considered vaporware. So I was a little peeved when I saw that some indie "developer" somewhere had grabbed a ROM of Flashback, cleaned up a few of the more ugly visuals, slapped a "rewind" function into the game and put it up on the eshop for twenty dollars. That, my friends, is FUCKED. They have ZERO rights to that game, because the rights aren't available, because they don't exist anymore. Give the game away? Sure. Sell someone else's decades-old work for TWENTY DOLLARS? Get fucked. Thankfully I noticed it in a sale for like $2 at one point and had enough eshop points to get it for nothing. But on to the game: Flashback: The Quest For Identity is a genesis-era ripoff of Total Recall, and you play as space fugitive Conrad as he attempts to piece together his memories after escaping from alien kidnappers. It's a great little sci-fi romp for its time, but the real joy is in the locations the game takes you, including space stations, jungle planets, and giant dystopian future cities. The gameplay is famously unforgiving, and that little rewind function ended up helping me a LOT in the second half of the game. For a title I started about 30 years ago, it was nice to see the end credits (except the part where the end credits gave ZERO credit to the original developers).
What Remains of Edith Finch (XBox Game Pass) - This one was recommended by my girlfriend, who likes story-based games and puzzle games. Edith Finch is definitely more of the former than the latter, but it does have some entertaining puzzles. For the most part though, this game is a walking simulator that takes you through a few generations of a mentally ill family that lives in a big house on a high hill. Each family member is kinda their own, “level,” and many of them have interesting themes like “Baby in a Bathtub,” or “70’s Pulp Comic Book.” Overall I found the story to be a little melodramatic and wishy washy, but for a video game script it was “great.” You can unlock every achievement in a single playthrough, but it’s gonna take you awhile; there is no “run” function and the walking speed is stuck on molasses.
Death Stranding (Playstation4) - I waited until this game was $20, and it was absolutely worth that price. I assume if you’re on this thread, you know about Death Stranding, so you know most of the time you spend with the game is full of questions: What am I doing? Who is Fragile and why can she teleport? So I’m some kind of ghost mailman? Why is this a video game instead of a movie? How did Hideo Kojima explain this scene to Mads Mikkleson when he made him act in it? Why exactly does Kojima make video games at all? Why is Guillermo Del Toro in this game? What does the plot have to do with the gameplay? Why is the ending 2 hours long? Was that Geoff Keighley? Did they make that poor girl pronounce english phonetically because she can’t speak it? A lot of the systems like shared travel networks, delivery points, etc. actually worked extremely well in this game. But in the end it became a third-person stealth/shooter like most of the other action Kojima has made. I know a lot of people complain that Kojima’s stories are too confusing, and I understand that complaint and overall I agree, but my bigger problem isn’t that the plots are complex and obtuse; with Death Stranding, my issue is that the plot doesn’t actually connect to the gameplay in any meaningful way; yes, you are delivering the next “network node” or whatever in your deliveries, but basically you are just walking from cutscene to cutscene… the first is gameplay, the second is plot, and they don’t really overlap.
Carrion (Xbox Game Pass) - Oh, what a delight Carrion turned out to be. This was one of two games that caught my eye in the always-bizarre Devolver Digital video they did this summer for virtual E3 (the other being Fall Guys). Carrion is a simple game with a simple premise: It’s a monster movie, and you are the monster. You slide your disgusting, amorphous shape into vents and tubes and use your terrible array of teeth and tentacles to lay waste to the scientists and laboratory that spawned your gruesome form. The 2D graphics reminded me of SNES/ Genesis era games like Jurassic Park and, yes, Flashback: The Quest for Identity. With delightful references to movies like Alien and The Thing, Carrion was what more games should aspire to be: a simple concept, done well. I really hope we get a sequel!
Shadow of the Colossus (Playstation4) - Not my first time with this title. I love Shadow of The Colossus, and I’ve played each release since the original PS2 game. I feel like if I have to tell you what this game is at this point, you’re probably on the wrong sub. The PS4 remake was pretty fun, and while it looked lovely and controlled better… there is still something about those games that makes the controls infuriating. I rage-quit the final boss and didn’t pick it up until weeks later… actually I did that a few times. I’m not just talking about SoTC here though, which brings me to…
The Last Guardian (Playstation4) - I bought this game at launch, played maybe the first half of it, and got distracted by Final Fantasy XV. For whatever reason, I never went back until this year. I actually played this before Colossus, which I only played because they gave it to us for PS+. The Last Guardian is another story about a boy without a name, who is all alone in a big spooky deserted fantasy world. Except not TOTALLY alone, you’ve got a big dragon dog friend thing to help you! This game is all about your relationship with Trico, the titular dragon-dog. You guide him through puzzles and over obstacles, use him to destroy your foes (your character cannot attack on their own, so you have to rely on Trico to save you in a few tense moments), and feed him magical blue barrels that apparently make him like you more or something. Just like Colossus, the controls in Last Guardian will drive you right up the fucking wall. There are thousands of youtube videos of Trico doing LITERALLY ANYTHING except what you asked him to do. But when the game is working, it actually manages to tug on your heartstrings a bit. The end is sad like all the Team ICO games, but it’s a nice payoff. Still not sure why it was in development for like seven years though…
Horizon: Zero Dawn (Playstation4) - I’m telling you guys, the best way to play Playstation exclusives is 2 years later for $20. Picked this one up in a sale and it sat on my hard drive for a couple months before I got bored and fired this up. What can I really say that hasn’t been said? SONY makes slick, polished, AAA exclusives, and this is that. The core premise is neat, but the plot is EXACTLY what you expect it to be, and the twists and turns are as predictable as any high-budget movie or game these days. The combat can be fun, but the world is actually overpacked in terms of enemies: If you engage that Thunderjaw, you will absolutely aggro every single animal within a thousand foot radius, and when you’re done there will be 70 dead robots around you. I’ve got two beefs with this game. Beef #1 is that the objects and animals have lazy, uninspired names. Like, zero effort there. You know what you make ice arrows with? “Chillwater.” Hey, what’s that really tall thing over there with the long neck? “Tallneck.” Wow, look at that alligator snap his big maw! “Actually, that’s a Snapmaw.” Alligator is a more interesting word. Like yeah, we have animals called woodpeckers, but we came up with NAMES for animals, like bison, giraffe, ostrich. Split the difference here guys, put in a little effort. Beef #2 is a little tougher to explain, so I’m gonna try and tiptoe through this minefield here… Why do “gamers” (as in the stereotype of the greasy, basement-dwelling, no-girls-allowed neckbeards) like this game? Shouldn’t it be a laundry list of things they hate? It’s got dumb collection quests and map-tower-climbing. It’s got a cast of mostly unforgettable characters. In fact, besides Sylens I can only remember one other name, and that’s Aloy. And speaking of Aloy... she’s a strong woman who doesn’t need anyone to tell her what to do. She actively rebuffs any romantic attempts and rolls her eyes at even mundane compliments. Doesn’t Aloy perfectly encapsulate the positive feminism that is supposedly “destroying gaming culture?” Shouldn’t “gamers” have boycotted this game or demanded a reskin? Why wasn’t hashtag, “GiveUsManAloy” (or “Maloy”) trending? Is this all it takes to reverse the vile spew? Some robot dinosaurs and an “exclusive” sticker? I guess I’m just confused as to where the lines are drawn here. I thought she was a great protagonist but I just kept thinking, “shouldn’t the internet hate her?” Horizon is GORGEOUS, and I really loved a lot of the different areas of the game, and having lived in Colorado for 15 years made the world an extra special treat. It’s eye candy pretty much the entire time, but I need to give a special shoutout to Meridian and the surrounding areas. Something about the design called up images of ancient Egypt for me… so much so that I ended up buying and completing Assassin’s Creed: Origins in 2019 before doubling back to wrap up Horizon in early 2020.
Pokemon Moon (3DS) - I’ve been playing video games since around ‘88 or ‘89, but I didn’t play my first Pokemon game until 2016, when I picked up Pokemon Y on a whim. I thought it looked like a simple, casual JRPG that I could wander around collecting and slowly moving through while I did other things like laundry or binge-watching Red Dwarf. Y did exactly that, and Pokemon Moon is more of the same. It’s simple, it’s cute, it’s fun, it’s easy, and I totally get why you can just keep playing them. The monster catch/ battle/ evolve/ collect element has a real hook. I’ve started a playthrough of Omega Ruby, but haven’t finished it yet (and to be honest it’s been more than 6 months since I played). Now that I think about it, I especially loved Pokemon when traveling, and I played almost all of Y and Moon on airplanes or in airports and hotels. Maybe if we ever go back to normal, I’ll mention Omega Ruby in a future 12 in 12. Final Team: Incineroar, Raichu, Fearow, Mudsdale, Lunala, Lapras
Untitled Goose Game (Xbox Game Pass) - We all know Untitled Goose Game. I thought it was very fun, very charming, and easy to play. It’s a delightful game that will only take you a couple of sittings, and it sticks with you after you put it down. Just like Carrion, more games should aspire to this level of polished simplicity.
Resident Evil 2 Remake (PC) - I know I’m late to the party, but this game was FANTASTIC. I played it fairly early in the year, January-February, and as soon as I started it I was hooked until I finished it. I loved the… it’s not quite Metroidvania (which I have always considered to be a combination of upgrading/ unlocking abilities and backtracking to previous areas to use those abilities… Carrion does this really well), but more like… Puzzlevania? I really liked the whole gathering keys to new areas and then carrying items back and forth between them. I only played Leon’s storyline, so I might pick up Claire next month and do an anniversary replay! Fun Fact: I played the SHIT out of the original Resident Evil 2 on PS1, which I acquired in the most 90’s middle-school way ever: A kid gave it to me in exchange for a VHS of pornography taped off stolen pay-per-view.
Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice (Xbox Game Pass) - This one was really nice. Hellblade is a very emotional game about love, loss, and the people that live inside our heads. It’s told in a very compelling way, couching parables about guilt and grief within the stories of Norse mythology; very similar to themes explored in God of War (which I didn’t quite finish and will talk about next year). There isn’t much here in terms of groundbreaking gameplay; it treads the very familiar paths of puzzles, secrets, and combat. Levels are fairly linear, but you’ll have to do a bit of poking around in corners to get every single story beat and lore note. This is one of those games that really highlights the value of Game Pass: I never would have paid for this game, but I’m glad I got to play it and I’m keeping my eye on the sequel.
Animal Crossing: New Horizons (Switch) -- This one is cheating, but technically I did see the credits, and I’ve been playing it every goddamn day since launch like it’s a new job. I like it! I don’t like the focus on crafting. I wish there were more things to collect for the museum, and I wish it had some of the functions the old game had (remember when you could play Excitebike in Animal Crossing?), but I keep logging in! I think the game’s longevity is tied to friends a bit… My girlfriend plays Animal Crossing with me, and so do her parents. So does my brother, and his wife, and a few other friends. You wouldn’t think that the multiplayer would hold so much attention, especially given that there’s very few ways to actually interact with other players… but I keep logging in! I guess that means it’s fun… right?

And that’s my Baker’s Dozen! Let me know if you agree or disagree!

Baker's Dozen: My First 12in1 2 Report Card

Long time listener, first time caller! It's the end of the year, and I'm pulling together my 12 in 12! This year I managed to complete 13 games (and like most of you, what I completed is a mere fraction of what I played), so I guess COVID was good for something! Here's what I finished, and how I felt about it, in no particular order:

Yakuza Kiwami (PC) - Back in 2017 or so I took a gamble on my first Yakuza game, Yakuza Zero, and I loved it so much I swore I would never miss another Yakuza title. Here we are 3 years later and I finally finished... one more of them (I guess that means I'll be playing Like a Dragon in 2040 or so). Man, these games are so good. The characters take themselves so seriously for a game this wacky. How can you not love an RPG that features a TCG wherein bikini models wrestle each other while dressed as sexy insects? The side quests are hilarious and the main quest is interesting enough that I actually remember what happens when it's over! My only complaint with Kiwami was that I felt the chapters are front-loaded with side quests. If you're diligent, you'll be done with most of them by about halfway through the main quest... which makes the last 5 or 6 chapters a terrible slog of nothing but cutscenes and boss fights. And given that most of the "boss" characters have 4-6 health bars, it just becomes tedious. Finally, there is a mechanic where Majima Goro is supposed to jump out and challenge you randomly-- I don't know if this was a bug, but he only challenged me once or twice... until I cleared all the side quests. Then, he attacked me about every 2 or 3 minutes for the rest of the game, and considering Majima is a mini-boss that I'm running into while slogging my way through nothing but bosses and cutscenes... yeah. Kinda rough ending. It didn't sour me on the series though, and I look forward to Kiwami 2 in 2021.
Flashback: The Quest for Identity (Switch) - This game is a deep and intrinsic part of my childhood gaming history, but I didn't see the end until this year: I was nine or ten when I found the Genesis cart in a "$10 and Under" bin at a pawn shop in the mid-90's. Almost my entire NES and Genesis collections were loose carts from pawn shops, bought on box-art alone, "Hello, Ironsword and Demonsword, meet your new orphan brother, Flashback." Since then, I've always been fascinated by Flashback; it was one of the first titles to use rotoscoping, it was developed by a now-defunct studio called Delphine Software, and the licensing rights have been such a confusing mess that the game has long been considered vaporware. So I was a little peeved when I saw that some indie "developer" somewhere had grabbed a ROM of Flashback, cleaned up a few of the more ugly visuals, slapped a "rewind" function into the game and put it up on the eshop for twenty dollars. That, my friends, is FUCKED. They have ZERO rights to that game, because the rights aren't available, because they don't exist anymore. Give the game away? Sure. Sell someone else's decades-old work for TWENTY DOLLARS? Get fucked. Thankfully I noticed it in a sale for like $2 at one point and had enough eshop points to get it for nothing. But on to the game: Flashback: The Quest For Identity is a genesis-era ripoff of Total Recall, and you play as space fugitive Conrad as he attempts to piece together his memories after escaping from alien kidnappers. It's a great little sci-fi romp for its time, but the real joy is in the locations the game takes you, including space stations, jungle planets, and giant dystopian future cities. The gameplay is famously unforgiving, and that little rewind function ended up helping me a LOT in the second half of the game. For a title I started about 30 years ago, it was nice to see the end credits (except the part where the end credits gave ZERO credit to the original developers).
What Remains of Edith Finch (XBox Game Pass) - This one was recommended by my girlfriend, who likes story-based games and puzzle games. Edith Finch is definitely more of the former than the latter, but it does have some entertaining puzzles. For the most part though, this game is a walking simulator that takes you through a few generations of a mentally ill family that lives in a big house on a high hill. Each family member is kinda their own, “level,” and many of them have interesting themes like “Baby in a Bathtub,” or “70’s Pulp Comic Book.” Overall I found the story to be a little melodramatic and wishy washy, but for a video game script it was “great.” You can unlock every achievement in a single playthrough, but it’s gonna take you awhile; there is no “run” function and the walking speed is stuck on molasses.
Death Stranding (Playstation4) - I waited until this game was $20, and it was absolutely worth that price. I assume if you’re on this thread, you know about Death Stranding, so you know most of the time you spend with the game is full of questions: What am I doing? Who is Fragile and why can she teleport? So I’m some kind of ghost mailman? Why is this a video game instead of a movie? How did Hideo Kojima explain this scene to Mads Mikkleson when he made him act in it? Why exactly does Kojima make video games at all? Why is Guillermo Del Toro in this game? What does the plot have to do with the gameplay? Why is the ending 2 hours long? Was that Geoff Keighley? Did they make that poor girl pronounce english phonetically because she can’t speak it? A lot of the systems like shared travel networks, delivery points, etc. actually worked extremely well in this game. But in the end it became a third-person stealth/shooter like most of the other action Kojima has made. I know a lot of people complain that Kojima’s stories are too confusing, and I understand that complaint and overall I agree, but my bigger problem isn’t that the plots are complex and obtuse; with Death Stranding, my issue is that the plot doesn’t actually connect to the gameplay in any meaningful way; yes, you are delivering the next “network node” or whatever in your deliveries, but basically you are just walking from cutscene to cutscene… the first is gameplay, the second is plot, and they don’t really overlap.
Carrion (Xbox Game Pass) - Oh, what a delight Carrion turned out to be. This was one of two games that caught my eye in the always-bizarre Devolver Digital video they did this summer for virtual E3 (the other being Fall Guys). Carrion is a simple game with a simple premise: It’s a monster movie, and you are the monster. You slide your disgusting, amorphous shape into vents and tubes and use your terrible array of teeth and tentacles to lay waste to the scientists and laboratory that spawned your gruesome form. The 2D graphics reminded me of SNES/ Genesis era games like Jurassic Park and, yes, Flashback: The Quest for Identity. With delightful references to movies like Alien and The Thing, Carrion was what more games should aspire to be: a simple concept, done well. I really hope we get a sequel!
Shadow of the Colossus (Playstation4) - Not my first time with this title. I love Shadow of The Colossus, and I’ve played each release since the original PS2 game. I feel like if I have to tell you what this game is at this point, you’re probably on the wrong sub. The PS4 remake was pretty fun, and while it looked lovely and controlled better… there is still something about those games that makes the controls infuriating. I rage-quit the final boss and didn’t pick it up until weeks later… actually I did that a few times. I’m not just talking about SoTC here though, which brings me to…
The Last Guardian (Playstation4) - I bought this game at launch, played maybe the first half of it, and got distracted by Final Fantasy XV. For whatever reason, I never went back until this year. I actually played this before Colossus, which I only played because they gave it to us for PS+. The Last Guardian is another story about a boy without a name, who is all alone in a big spooky deserted fantasy world. Except not TOTALLY alone, you’ve got a big dragon dog friend thing to help you! This game is all about your relationship with Trico, the titular dragon-dog. You guide him through puzzles and over obstacles, use him to destroy your foes (your character cannot attack on their own, so you have to rely on Trico to save you in a few tense moments), and feed him magical blue barrels that apparently make him like you more or something. Just like Colossus, the controls in Last Guardian will drive you right up the fucking wall. There are thousands of youtube videos of Trico doing LITERALLY ANYTHING except what you asked him to do. But when the game is working, it actually manages to tug on your heartstrings a bit. The end is sad like all the Team ICO games, but it’s a nice payoff. Still not sure why it was in development for like seven years though…
Horizon: Zero Dawn (Playstation4) - I’m telling you guys, the best way to play Playstation exclusives is 2 years later for $20. Picked this one up in a sale and it sat on my hard drive for a couple months before I got bored and fired this up. What can I really say that hasn’t been said? SONY makes slick, polished, AAA exclusives, and this is that. The core premise is neat, but the plot is EXACTLY what you expect it to be, and the twists and turns are as predictable as any high-budget movie or game these days. The combat can be fun, but the world is actually overpacked in terms of enemies: If you engage that Thunderjaw, you will absolutely aggro every single animal within a thousand foot radius, and when you’re done there will be 70 dead robots around you.I’ve got two beefs with this game. Beef #1 is that the objects and animals have lazy, uninspired names. Like, zero effort there. You know what you make ice arrows with? “Chillwater.” Hey, what’s that really tall thing over there with the long neck? “Tallneck.” Wow, look at that alligator snap his big maw! “Actually, that’s a Snapmaw.” Alligator is a more interesting word. Like yeah, we have animals called woodpeckers, but we came up with NAMES for animals, like bison, giraffe, ostrich. Split the difference here guys, put in a little effort. Beef #2 is a little tougher to explain, so I’m gonna try and tiptoe through this minefield here… Why do “gamers” (as in the stereotype of the greasy, basement-dwelling, no-girls-allowed neckbeards) like this game? Shouldn’t it be a laundry list of things they hate? It’s got dumb collection quests and map-tower-climbing. It’s got a cast of mostly unforgettable characters. In fact, besides Sylens I can only remember one other name, and that’s Aloy. And speaking of Aloy... she’s a strong woman who doesn’t need anyone to tell her what to do. She actively rebuffs any romantic attempts and rolls her eyes at even mundane compliments. Doesn’t Aloy perfectly encapsulate the positive feminism that is supposedly “destroying gaming culture?” Shouldn’t “gamers” have boycotted this game or demanded a reskin? Why wasn’t hashtag, “GiveUsManAloy” (or “Maloy”) trending? Is this all it takes to reverse the vile spew? Some robot dinosaurs and an “exclusive” sticker? I guess I’m just confused as to where the lines are drawn here. I thought she was a great protagonist but I just kept thinking, “shouldn’t the internet hate her?” Horizon is GORGEOUS, and I really loved a lot of the different areas of the game, and having lived in Colorado for 15 years made the world an extra special treat. It’s eye candy pretty much the entire time, but I need to give a special shoutout to Meridian and the surrounding areas. Something about the design called up images of ancient Egypt for me… so much so that I ended up buying and completing Assassin’s Creed: Origins in 2019 before doubling back to wrap up Horizon in early 2020.
Pokemon Moon (3DS) - I’ve been playing video games since around ‘88 or ‘89, but I didn’t play my first Pokemon game until 2016, when I picked up Pokemon Y on a whim. I thought it looked like a simple, casual JRPG that I could wander around collecting and slowly moving through while I did other things like laundry or binge-watching Red Dwarf. Y did exactly that, and Pokemon Moon is more of the same. It’s simple, it’s cute, it’s fun, it’s easy, and I totally get why you can just keep playing them. The monster catch/ battle/ evolve/ collect element has a real hook. I’ve started a playthrough of Omega Ruby, but haven’t finished it yet (and to be honest it’s been more than 6 months since I played). Now that I think about it, I especially loved Pokemon when traveling, and I played almost all of Y and Moon on airplanes or in airports and hotels. Maybe if we ever go back to normal, I’ll mention Omega Ruby in a future 12 in 12. Final Team: Incineroar, Raichu, Fearow, Mudsdale, Lunala, Lapras
Untitled Goose Game (Xbox Game Pass) - We all know Untitled Goose Game. I thought it was very fun, very charming, and easy to play. It’s a delightful game that will only take you a couple of sittings, and it sticks with you after you put it down. Just like Carrion, more games should aspire to this level of polished simplicity.
Resident Evil 2 Remake (PC) - I know I’m late to the party, but this game was FANTASTIC. I played it fairly early in the year, January-February, and as soon as I started it I was hooked until I finished it. I loved the… it’s not quite Metroidvania (which I have always considered to be a combination of upgrading/ unlocking abilities and backtracking to previous areas to use those abilities… Carrion does this really well), but more like… Puzzlevania? I really liked the whole gathering keys to new areas and then carrying items back and forth between them. I only played Leon’s storyline, so I might pick up Claire next month and do an anniversary replay! Fun Fact: I played the SHIT out of the original Resident Evil 2 on PS1, which I acquired in the most 90’s middle-school way ever: A kid gave it to me in exchange for a VHS of pornography taped off stolen pay-per-view.
Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice (Xbox Game Pass) - This one was really nice. Hellblade is a very emotional game about love, loss, and the people that live inside our heads. It’s told in a very compelling way, couching parables about guilt and grief within the stories of Norse mythology; very similar to themes explored in God of War (which I didn’t quite finish and will talk about next year). There isn’t much here in terms of groundbreaking gameplay; it treads the very familiar paths of puzzles, secrets, and combat. Levels are fairly linear, but you’ll have to do a bit of poking around in corners to get every single story beat and lore note. This is one of those games that really highlights the value of Game Pass: I never would have paid for this game, but I’m glad I got to play it and I’m keeping my eye on the sequel.
Animal Crossing: New Horizons (Switch) -- This one is cheating, but technically I did see the credits, and I’ve been playing it every goddamn day since launch like it’s a new job. I like it! I don’t like the focus on crafting. I wish there were more things to collect for the museum, and I wish it had some of the functions the old game had (remember when you could play Excitebike in Animal Crossing?), but I keep logging in! I think the game’s longevity is tied to friends a bit… My girlfriend plays Animal Crossing with me, and so do her parents. So does my brother, and his wife, and a few other friends. You wouldn’t think that the multiplayer would hold so much attention, especially given that there’s very few ways to actually interact with other players… but I keep logging in! I guess that means it’s fun… right?

And that’s my Baker’s Dozen!

2020 Results and 24in12 for 2021!

I can't believe that it's been a whole year since I last posted! D: A lot went on during 2020, so it really was not a productive year in anything for me. Obviously other than the obvious pandemic, I was sick for 1 1/2 to 2 months (with lots of fun medical scans), did a big move, had to reschedule my wedding ceremony twice (not even sure if it will happen in 2021), and my grandma passed away. Thinking back on all that, it's no wonder that I didn't beat that many games... I know changing the year doesn't magically fix everything, but I'm glad for a restart in the new year.
Since I haven't posted anything about the games I beat in 2020 here, I'll be doing some brief thoughts on all of them here. I only beat 15 games in 2020, so nowhere near my normal 30ish-40ish anyway lol. I'll go worst-ish to best-ish cause I like saving best for last :P

Needs Improvement (Forgettable or just bad)

Root Letter (Vita): Easily the worst game I played in 2020 (that I beat at least, I don't really remember my DNFs lol). This visual novel/adventure game had an interesting premise, with the MC going to a small town to find out what happened to his penpal and if she really murdered someone, but it really fell flat for me. Really confusing interrogation mechanics, confusing on what the game wants you to do, plenty of pixel hunting in areas, and the MC is just an incredibly awful person yet other characters end up liking him for some reason. Just a big nope for me.
Ever Oasis (3DS): I keep forgetting I even played this game in 2020... It wasn't particularly awful, but nothing about it was particularly exciting either. It seemed promising, as a cute Zelda-esque action RPG with a small town management portion really sounded awesome to me, but it just ended up being bare bones and kind of tedious.

Disappointing (Still good in some places, but has some big problems)

Yakuza 3 Remastered (PS4): I loved playing Yakuza 0, Kiwami, and Kiwami 2, but 3 isn't quite as good as the others. I felt like the plot was a little confusing and kept on diving into different tangents not related to the main story. It still was mostly fun to play, but it was nowhere near as impactful as the previous games.
Chaos;Child (Vita): This VN has some really interesting ideas, but it's heavily bogged down by some (imo) unnecessary fluffy school scenes. Also there are some parts in here that aren't even translated. Most of them you'll be fine even if you don't understand them (and I knew enough Japanese to understand the gist of what they were saying anyway), but the worst of it is when you need to pick several locations on a completely untranslated map. Also pretty annoying is that this kinda spoils some things from the prequel, Chaos;Head, but Chaos;Head isn't even officially localized! I still liked the overall idea of this VN, but it's really frustrating cause it could have been so much better.
Robotics;Notes DaSH (PS4): I really liked the prequel, Robotics;Notes Elite, so I was really excited for this one. Unfortunately it had a very small amount of important and interesting plot. The small part in the beginning (which arguably still even isn't that important), and the final route (which you have to wade through all the other, non-canon routes to get to) are really the only interesting parts. The rest is either fan service, or character building moments that could potentially be good, but I'm pretty sure that none of them are even cannon. Super disappointing :/

Good (Enjoyable but not quite the best)

A Hat in Time (Switch): For the most part, this is a pretty enjoyable platformer that takes a lot of inspiration from Super Mario Sunshine. The only big thing I really don't like is that there are quite a few frustratingly difficult stages. However, that might be a me thing since I don't tend to do well in platformers anyway. Still, I'd say that I mostly enjoyed my time with this.
Wattam (PS4): A bit glitchy at times, but a really fun and silly game about making friends. Also there's a lot of turning characters into poop. I am easily amused.
Senran Kagura: Peach Beach Splash (PS4): Not particularly polished, but it was really fun to blast around the arenas with water guns. It's super rare for me to like anything resembling a multiplayer arena type game, but this really hit the spot (not that I ever played in multiplayer lol). Bonus points to it being just plain silly 90% of the time.
A Short Hike (PC DL): A really chill experience about hiking through the mountains. I had a few problems here and there with some platforming, but still a very charming little game.
GNOG (PC DL): I tend to get frustrated at these sorts of puzzle games, but this one makes the experience of trying to solve the puzzles fun and engaging. I did get stuck here and there, but it still ended up being fun to just mess around with.
Robotics;Notes Elite (PS4): A VN that starts out being a breezy look at some high schoolers who want to build a giant robot while exploring how they view dreams for the future, that eventually spirals into a huge conspiracy that must be stopped. It's probably the most chill out of the other mainline games in this series (other than Robotics;Notes DaSH) but it does a good job balancing the slice-of-life type sections and the deeper plot sections.

Amazing! (New favourite)

Fault - milestone two side:above (Steam): I don't have a very firm grasp on all of the specific plot points in this VN (I started and beat it on January 1 2020 so give me some slack lol), but I do remember that it had a ton of amazing moments. It's very short (took me 4 hours to beat), but it's well produced and gripping from start to finish. I just wished more in the series could be make quicker!
Dragon Quest Builders 2 (PS4): I really liked the first Dragon Quest Builders, but this one takes that and improves it in every way. A better story, more interesting areas to explore, some well appreciated quality of life additions, and a whole area where you're free to build whatever you want (instead of resetting every few areas like the first game). This was a treat to play and I'm glad they decided to make a sequel in the first place.
Atelier Firis: The Alchemist and the Mysterious Journey (PS4): I love this chill, alchemy, RPG series, and I think Firis is a highlight in the series (especially after the last game, Sophie, which I didn't like that much). While it could use some polish, as usual for this series, I just had a blast making stuff and exploring the new open-ish world.
428: Shibuya Scramble (PS4): Originally coming out for the Wii, this VN somehow perfectly balances a series crime drama about a kidnapping, with crazy and wild antics that come out of nowhere. Not sure how else to explain it, but this VN is most certainly very unique and probably now one of my top VNs of all time.

New list! (24in12)

There are way too many games that I want to play that I couldn't settle on 12, so I decided to choose 24. Even that was tricky to narrow down lol. I know in 2020 I didn't get close to 24 games beaten, but normally I beat 30-40ish game so hopefully it should be doable. Not a big deal if I don't though :) Some of these are must play ASAP for me, and others I chose semi-randomly so I wouldn't get stuck from choice paralysis haha. Anyway, here is the list:

moon (Switch)
Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition (Switch)
Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky FC (Steam)
Spirit Hunter: NG (PS4)
Atelier Iris (PS2)
Atelier Lydie & Suelle (PS4)
Cat Quest 2 (PS4)
Utawarerumono: Prelude to the Fallen (PS4)
Nier (PS3) - A rebeat cause I think I might want to play the remake next year too lol
Dragon Quest XI S (PS4)
Farming Simulator 19 (PS4)
Slime Rancher (PS4)
Shiren the Wanderer: The Tower of Fortune and the Dice of Fate (Vita)
God Wars: Future Past (Vita)
Dungeon Travelers 2 (Vita)
Pikmin 2 (GC)
Bravely Second: End Layer (3DS)
Style Savvy: Trendsetters (3DS)
Shenmue (PS4)
Culdcept Revolt (3DS)
Chocobo's Mystery Dungeon Every Buddy! (Switch)
Avalon Code (DS)
La Pucelle Tactics (PS2)
Swingerz Golf (GC)

Anyway, that's all I have to talk about I think! If you read all that, thank you! Hope you have a great 2021! :)

yakuza 0 game pass save location video

$Save anywhere: In AppData\Roaming\Sega\Yakuza0 in the settings.ini set SaveAnywhere=1$ Yakuza 0 Saving on PC - YouTube

To do that; Open File Explorer from the taskbar. Select View > Options > Change folder and search options. Select the View tab and in Advanced settings, select Show hidden files, folders, and drives and OK. It’s end. I hope “Yakuza 0 Save Game File Location” helps you. Feel free to contribute the topic. Yakuza 0: Where is the save file of the game located? Close. 3. Posted by 2 years ago. Archived. Yakuza 0: Where is the save file of the game located? 5 comments. share. save. hide. report. 80% Upvoted. This thread is archived. New comments cannot be posted and votes cannot be cast. Sort by. best. level 1. I now would like to share my yakuza 0's saves to you guys. They serve as my favorite events checkpoints in the game which are Permissions and credits Credits and distribution permission. Other user's assets All the assets in this file belong to the author, or are from free-to-use modder's resources; Mega Man X Legacy Collection - Where Are The Save… Bad North - Where Are The Save Game Files Stored? Mega Man X Legacy Collection 2 - Where Are The Save… Shadow of the Tomb Raider – Where Are The Save Game… Shenmue I & II - Where Are The Save Game Files Stored? MONSTER HUNTER: WORLD - Where Are The Save Game… Thanks to /u/Lynch47 for an excellent find, EA Play is currently on sale for the first month on Steam and Origin. It's $1 or 80p on Steam, 99p on Origin. I know this isn't Game Pass or EAP within GP, but since people are interested, this seems like a fantastic deal to not spread the info about. Would have been nice of the game to bloody make it obvious.... lost hours after a crash because I assumed it auto saved at points at least and now really don't feel like playing this. I'm in the same boat lol I was about an hour in, the game never told you how to save, so I assumed it autosaved, and shut it off. Yakuza 0. All Discussions Screenshots Artwork Broadcasts Videos News Guides Reviews Location of Save Files ? Looking to backup my saves Thanks < > Showing 1-2 of 2 comments . Dogu. Aug 1, 2018 @ 10:04am I found something in C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Local\Sega\Yakuza0\backup_data. Not sure if it's the thing. Save game data location. System Location; The game includes a low-quality depth of field pass that some might find unwanted. Disable with 3D Vision Fix Tools for unpacking the par archives and modding the PC version of Yakuza 0. Disable Xbox 360 Controller Vibration. Yakuza 0 has arrived a few days on Steam, marking the debut of the historic Sega series on PC. The system of saving the game, which allows you to save progress only at certain checkpoints, was not liked by its players who have found a simple alternative. To enable an additional menu in Yakuza 0 […] XBox Game Pass for PC Compatible Trainer Releases. A Plague Tale Innocence. Trainer. Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition. Trainer 101.101.45340.0 (STEAM+GAMEPASS) Age of Empires III Definitive Edition. Trainer 100.12.14825.0 (STEAM+GAMEPASS) Yakuza 0. Trainer 1.0.16.0. Yakuza 3 Remastered. Trainer (GAMEPASS) Yakuza 4 Remastered.

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Yakuza 0 (PC) - Save Anywhere via an INI tweak - YouTube

Save anywhere: In AppData\Roaming\Sega\Yakuza0 in the settings.ini set SaveAnywhere=1 THE LINK IS GIVEN BELOW!!!http://www.savegameworld.com/pc-assassin-s-creed-3-save-game/PLEASE SUBSCRIBE AND LIKE THIS VIDEO IF IT WAS HELPFUL FOR YOU About Press Copyright Contact us Creators Advertise Developers Terms Privacy Policy & Safety How YouTube works Test new features Press Copyright Contact us Creators ... The specifications that I use to play this game:ASUS X455LFProcessor: Intel Core i3-4005U (1.9 GHz, 3MB Cache)4GB DDR3 1600MHz memoryVGA NVIDIA GEFORCE 930M ... In this video I'll show you how to uninstall Xbox Game Pass for PC games.See more videos by Max here: https://www.youtube.com/c/MaxDaltonTimestamps:Steps to ... [ENG]Hello!Do you have problems with saving game? In this tutorial i will show you how to fix this![PL]Cześć!Czy masz problemy z zapisywaniem gry? W tym pora... Cheap games with instant email delivery: https://www.instant-gaming.com/igr/helpdapoorguy/_____***If you're looking for a URL or similar that I s... Yakuza 0 Save game FIX *NEW UPDATE*#patch#fixupdate#fix#Yakuza_0_Save_game Looking for something to play on PS4 in 2020? We've got you covered with this comprehensive list of our most anticipated titles.Subscribe for more: http://yo... Best web site for cards: http://eunsetee.com/n0R8 FULL GAME: http://eunsetee.com/n0AY 100% SAVE GAME FILES: http://triabicia.com/3dg2 GAME LAUNCHER (onl...

YAKUZA 0 SAVES at Yakuza 0 Nexus - Mods and community

yakuza 0 game pass save location

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My year 2020 in gaming