Hey, Everybody's Friday, January twenty sixth, twenty twenty four. Welcome to the Giant BombCast Revengeance. I'm your host jan Oshoa, and today we're doing another little review cast. We're gonna have an extended conversation about a video game, and just a singular video game. In that video game this week is like a dragon infinite wealth spoilers. Maybe who knows, I don't know. Maybe we'll say something I don't know and forget the rest of the GB crew.
I needed to assemble my own crime, my own crime family, an elite row of people with unique gimmicks that will endear our hearts that you will want to woo and have a drink with, perhaps maybe pass a cardboard cutout in a panic at night. Perhaps joining me today on BombCast Revengeance. Imron Khan, Helloha, Oh god, my friendship with you just went up, just skyrocking that like a little shaka to me, just like, oh God,
I'm filled with friendship now being talking about being filled with friendship. Jesse Vitelli in the building, Hey, what's going on? I'm gonna throw up two two shakas? Oh my god, one on one? Are you want to hear ship. I could hate all this. I know exactly what you do. Hear all right, last, but certainly not least friend of the pod, friend of the website. And I'm sorry that you had to show your parents' odd pictures of all of my compatriots Lex Buddy in the building.
Yeah that, yeah, yeah, they judge me. They judge me quite harshly on that one. I was gonna say, I have a heart out because I have like an orphanage album after this. Oh, I mean it's all right, the orphans can wait. I hope they're not shoot orphans or real orphans, I should say. But we've been playing a lot of like a Dragon infinite Wealth. I'm gonna be honest here, folks. I haven't finished it because I've spent too much time playing uh, because I've spent too
much time on the island. And then I found poker and it's been real bad for me. I don't know if you all know this, but I am going through my poker phase real bad right now, and it's well, actually, Jane, this is an intervention about your poker phase. So we're here because we love you and we want we want you to stop playing virtual Poker Jann I sent you that link to the Vogue like Poker game the other day and I was like, yeah, that is the test you failed.
Yeah I failed that test because then I immediately downloaded the demo. But I'm assuming and I believe all of you all have finished Like a Dragon Infinite Wealth. Yes, we'll just go around the room, like you know, immediate thoughts. Jesse will start with you. What do you think you hate this game? Is it the worst game you've ever played? So I feel like I'm on the lower end of the pole here. I like the moment to moment of that game a lot. I like all the sides, most of
the side stuff. I think that story just doesn't come together for me in the end, and it kind of left me a little disappointed. I've talked to a few other folks about it, and like, I think the more I talk about it, the more I'm just kind of like, didn't quite come together for me. But that being said, still had a blast playing through this game. I think there's a lot of great stuff here. Okay, Okay, lex, I believe you're on the other side of the fence
from Jesse here. I believe you gave it a ten out of ten on Shack News. Yeah, which everyone knows means perfect, means without flaw definitely. Yeah, Yeah, that's yeah, it's it's literally nothing could ever be better than it. All videos from now on start below this. But yeah, I really loved it. And I think something that will come up a
lot as I talk about my thoughts on it is it's quite. It's been quite a personal game for me, and I played through the entire series of the Like A Dragon Stuff pretty much all mainline games, Judgment Each and Bit of Dead Sols all in the last fourteen months, and I played Zero Went seven years prior, but I hadn't gone back to the previous games, so it's been like a long journey for me. And then story elements combined with things that have been like going on on my own personal life, led to
the story hitting really really hard for me. And I think that what they do with Qiu and Itchy Van and the way that those two characters play off each other really fucked me up. And I really love what they what they do with that, and and yeah, I think it's fan fu fantastic, lovely, lovely, lovely. Imron your your immediate thoughts I really love the
game. I gave it a nine on my on my Patreon review, and I was like, I I kind of the opposite of Jesse here where holistically like the moment the moment gameplay was like fine and compelling and like it's a it's a like a drag and slashiakas a game, but the the whole experience for me, including where that story went and where it meandered and where it
slowed down to a point where I didn't really know what was going. I think that all worked for me in a way that like like let's you said, the game has personal residents depending on where you are in your life and form me like I was I recently lost my job, such as the way Ichibon does early on in that game, and like that thing where he wakes up and just looks at his phone immediately, just like that as someone who was sitting on my couch in a shirt I had been wearing for a week
in my underwear and being like, yeah, no, that's that's what unemployment is. Like like that, there are a lot of little moments in this game where I went, Okay, this is they thought about what as fantastical and as stupid as this game can be, they thought about what a human being would would interact with this and how they would feel about this in a way that I don't feel like previous a game because the games did as successfully.
So I'm not as super familiar with the Yakuza series I've I've dabbled in, I want to say, most of them, but never completed a lot of them because of how gargantuan that task actually is. Except like a Dragon, the original one. I absolutely love that one. How does that iman you touched on that ranking it amongst all of them? But how does this land for all y'all in the greater pantheon of the Yakuza verse? I hate
saying verse. By the way, for me, I finished it thinking to go back to what LEXI was saying about, like top does not necessarily mean perfect. I think YAKXA zero has long been my favorite Yakasa game since I played it, There's never been any question about that. But I finished this game going, you know, I think this is my favorite Yakasa game. It's not better than zero in every single way, but it's better enough that I think maybe maybe with some distance that idea changes, But for right now,
I think that is my favorite game in the series. Okay. Yeah, and I actually did a ranking of Yakuza games this week because I was curious how my feelings had borne out on them. At the top, we have Neo Perfect video Game and that Infinite Way Health Lost Judgment, and Yakuza Zero. Then we have Absolute Bangers, which is like a dragon, the Kitle Files, Yakuza Kowami Judgment and The Man Who Raised his Name Pretty good Time, Yakuza six, Clammy two and Ishan Flat with some good moments,
four or five Dead Souls and Fuck Them Kids Yakuza three. Wow, you actually have a whole ranking system. That's okay, you came prepared. Yeah, I was willing to be brave enough to say fuck them kids and put it into like written word. I'm really going to interfere with the orphanage you have to help out. Yeah, you say three is not a game I'd ever recommend people play, but like, having played that game, there's payoff
in a Yeah. Yeah, there's so much actual good in eight and uh now with no name, Like, having played that game, you actually get like a big emotional bomb going off. Three is an important game. I don't know it's definitely not the best suck but important. It has aged really poorly. It's worse than some of those PS two games in a lot of ways, but as like a bit of storytelling, I think it's super important.
Something that's come up a lot with like the few criticisms I have seen to this game, and I was like talking out with someone, was that like people felt that Ichiban hasn't gotten as much character development as he did in
the previous game. And I think that that when you compare it to the other Yakuza games, is actually pretty common to the whole entries, where Kiru as a guy doesn't really change from beginning to end, like things happened to him, but he's still basically the same character, and he still has basically
the same motivations and feelings towards the world. And I think that this game is really interesting because it uses Itchiban as like that character that was really well developed in seven, and it uses him to round out the story to kill you in a way that they couldn't really do if it was just killing you.
And something that I think is really important about this game is like qu is obviously sick, and here they have shown in the marketing and Ichivan the kindness that he's shown others throughout the years through his party members is now being paid forward through his party members with the people that are hanging out with kre you and kill you with someone who isn't good at accepting help, and he is only able to start to accept help because of the people around him.
And I think that the way that the game wraps that up in the end, I don't want to spoil anything, but the choice of who kill you fights in the like who fights who in the final boss fights and is really interesting when you look at the series on a whole, because it is very much so k you like breaking a cycle and basically preventing like the Yakuza games from happening again for Ichiban, and I think it's really really fucking impactful,
and it is really quite like it's beautiful in a way for even the measure narrative around these games of ORGG having a new studio heads and having new leadership and take and changing the series name and just saying like no, this is now like like a dragon, this is into a Yakuza story, this is someone else. Yeah. I was in a when they revealed this game. I was in Tokyo at the actual event, and I was so disappointed when they showed Carrio. I literally I went to the RG head like the next
day is like, what are you doing? Why are we bringing carry you back again? And like I realized that what they said the answer was the pr Currier story is not done. But like I I realized now they had more to say and they had to like yeah, we as the audience gave Kiu closure. We agreed like, oh the stix was a good ending. It was weird. He came back in seven, but he needed to pass towards to Achibon. And then it comes back at eight and it's like what
why the story was done? Why are you just scared? But it no, it's about Kiru accepting that closure too. About Kiru. Like like when LEXI was saying, Kirio and Ichibon play well off each other, I think like Kiru needed a heart in that story and Ichibon needed a brain, and
they managed to work together and like form one fully functioning adult. And I think like Yakaza eight takes that idea and it actually gives it a lot of gravitas and a lot of uh strong Once again, I'm way over using the word resonance, but a lot of residents for people who have like suffered tragedies in their life, and like Truck, are trying to convince someone there's more to life than just the things you do. It's person you are as well.
Jesse, how'd you feel about Curio's haircut, Kurriu's haircut? Look, we all go through like a midlife crisis and we gotta change it up a little bit. Curious haircut is not great. I'm gonna be real with y'all. I don't love it, but uh I get it. Look, we all got a choice from really quick because like, yeah, he had black black hair in Infinite Wealth, which was like or in Man who Raised his Name, which was only a couple of years earlier, and he's just as
gray as a fox in this one. Yeah. Also, he just not flicking his hair back, Like that's the only change he's really making. He's just he's starting in the morning, like, nah, fuck it, I'm not gonna bother anymore. My my favorite moments in this game are honestly when they're like is that Curu? And then he like takes his glasses off and they're like it's cure you and I'm like yeah, I'm like, damn, we're just really doing the like oh, the glasses. That's why we couldn't
tell I had nothing else to do with anything. Now that the glasses are off, I know it's you, Kiri. I mean, with no name, he was still like he still had glasses on. Everyone's like, yeah, there's only one guy who fights like that. That's just carry you. Yeah. I just love that bit. It's so funny. I really do wonder like they never say this, and maybe it's to their credit they don't say it, but I kind of interpret it as like Kiriu does a shit
job hiding his identity because he doesn't want to hide it. He wants people to know. He's just like himboing accidentally, like I don't know who's Kiriyu, I'm Joryu whatever. Yeah, I'm the bare minimum to get by, Like sure were you? It's like, oh all right. It did start to grow on me, and then I thought about cutting my hair and just dying my hair silver again. But then I think I just need to get
a little bit more ripped for me personally. A big part of the like a Dragon games and Yaku's Games Arty is the supporting cast, Jesse, how'd you feel about the supporting cast this time around, including Kiriu. I guess I think they're all like pretty fantastic, and I think a lot of that comes through in the drink links. I would say, like if I had like one piece of advice for anyone playing this game, is like, absolutely make sure you're doing the drink links, because I think that they help round
out a lot of those moments for that cast. There's some stuff I wish kind of was in the Yeah, and that's absolutely true. You get some really good skills from that. There. There are like some drink links I kind of wish were in the main story a little bit more, Like I think Tony Zawa's was like something really important that happens early on that like I wish I would have seen more of. But I think the drinkling handles it well. But I think that cast is really good, and I think they're
doled out at a good pace. Like I felt like I was always kind of getting a new party member at the right time, and then they would come in and like have something to say and like something to bring to the table at that specific moment. But like even the new members like tony's Awa and Chuetose are like, I think, fantastic additions to this This cast of characters like Chuetose is absolutely like a standout favorite of mine. Yeah, and Ron, how did you feel about the crew this time around? I really
like them. I wish uh Song he had just a bit more to do in that game because she is just sort of like she is in like a not ephemeral but kind of a character that is there to move everything else along, and she has to sit together way more than everyone else. That's the thing. She had her shit together, so she's not part of like the drunken mess that everyone else is. But I do think what I loved about the cast is that everyone in their own way kind of exemplies the main theme
of can we redeem ourselves from a thing we've done before? And for like Tomazole, it's very obvious because he's basically fallen in with a bad element. He's you know, tried to rob Ichevon like there was he was not a good person until he Jiman kind of rubbed off on him. But like the overall thing with that game is the Yakaza. We're not good people before, but now they're back in society. How do we reintegrate them? Can we trust them to be good? And everyone in the cast thinks on that level.
They think like, okay, I did this, but can I be good? Can people trust me? Can society trust me? Or can I, you know, redeem myself from the circumstances of my birth and the way I was like brought up. And this even extends to Cire you like it's not I don't think a spoiler because it was in the marketing materials that he has cancer and he thinks that sickness is, in a more abstract way of thinking, an irredeemable thing that he's like, Okay, I've got this.
Time is up. And I love that the cast just kind of has this running thought process in the back of their head through this entire main story of where do I fit in in a society that has people like Itchibon in it?
And I think that's why itchi Bound's like such an important character to have in this because you see in the Man who raised his name like it's a very isolating game here you feels alone and you can clearly tell that a lot of that game is about regrets for the past and how things played out. And then this game he's with someone with Itchuban, who is just this epitime of like, no, you can like make another goal of it, like
we can start from the beginning. Anyone has another chance, and that starts to rob off on kre You, and for the first time in the series, you start to see kre You like think about redemption rather than just punishing himself because as a character that's been Kiru's character trait for like seven games now is like he'll do what's right, but it usually involves self flagellation, like it usually involves him excising himself, becoming a fucking taxi driver, leaving the
Yakuza, all those different things. And I think that Itchiban's like Itchiban's sense of positivity gives cure You something that he is he hasn't quite had in the other games, which is like a hope for things being better in the future. I really think it's like it's quite well handled those two characters and how they play off each other, even if they aren't interacting all the time.
We talked a bunch about the story and everything, but one of the biggest improvements for me personally is how they've ever so slightly fudged and adjusted the combat in this game. Specifically, I think it's very impressive to adapt carry you from a brawler and really adapt him really well with the style changes in the turn based combat lex Did you are you a fan of turn based combat? Did this turn you off at all? Or were you into it? So?
Like, I do love a bunch of turn based games, but right after this, I was like, ah, fuck it a persona three codes didn't come through. I'm going to just try out Soul Hackers too. And you know, when you go because I had had to install my PS fight for Ages and I was like, you know when you go from like watching an Indiana Jones movie and Harrison Fother is there and you're like, man, this guy's got it. This guy, this guy is the real deal.
And then you go and you watch like a really middling rock movie like Skyscraper, and you're like, oh, oh, this doesn't have this doesn't have it, This isn't it. That's the feeling I got, like, there's a real excuse me, Skyscraper is a cinematic masterpiece. Wasn't funded. It's all right? Sorry, but like it the game just has it in a
way that really fucking works. I think I've thought a lot about the small changes that they made, because I watch a bunch of the speed runs for seven, and something that they were always super annoyed with was like the combat
basically was do tenacious fists constantly and you'll get through most encounters. And I think that they do a really good job at bridging the gap between or PG and Bralo in this not just in that key you can break out into his brawler stuff later in the game, in that the combo attacks and the way
that you can follow up really quickly. It adds this pace and the snappiness to proceedings that like, straight up, I was like, how much trouble would I get in if in my review I said DRAWLPG, Because that would be stupid. I decided not to. But I really like the snappiness of the combat, and the great thing about that is that it also ties back into cure you being not the guy he once was, and like him meeting other people around him for the first time and to actually help him in these
fights. And I think that works really well narratively having this be and RPG. Jesse, you're a big Final Fantasy fourteen Freak. How do you feel me? I feel about these turns? I look like I like turn based combat just as much as anyone else. Something that really fascinates me about the series is that when you play a lot of turn based RPGs, you're usually on like a set map or you're just like standing in place right Like there's
some games mix it up, but it's really fascinating that. And like A Dragon had this two where it's like you just kind of get into a fight anywhere, and then you kind of like every single you have to think about every piece of the environment when you're getting into a fight, and so there were so many times where I was like, Okay, I could do this combo attack, but then what if that combo attack hits them into the street
and a car coming by hits them and then knocks them. And so it's like every time you get into like a random fight in that game, sometimes you just kind of like breeze through it. But it was really fun to be like, okay, well, like I can knock them over here against this wall, and then I could pick up this planter, and it's like you always felt like a slight change every time you did like a random encounter
that was really nice. And then especially some of the later fights like boss fights and stuff like start using the environment in really interesting ways, and that was like, that was fun to mess around with. But as far as
like the little changes go, I think they nailed it. Like being able to just move freely within a set space is like the biggest thing they could have done, because that was like such a problem in the previous game, and it was super nice to try and be like, Okay, well, I have a line attack and I'm just kind of waiting for this one enemy to like move two feet to the left left, and then I could get three of them and you kind of just wait for that moment. It feels
good. It rewards being patient, just like a little bit, but not too much, And I like that would it be would it be sacrilegious? I'm going to get in trouble for this. I think this game does like the hybrid turn based real time stuff better than Final Fantasy seven remake. I think you're incorrect, but I think I think seven take. Yeah. The thing I've always found with Best seven we make is like those bosses are super spongy, and then eventually you're just playing like a spongy hack and slash.
I would argue that Wealth is also super spongy, especially towards the end, Like it doesn't have the same problems seven did where everyone was very spongy at the end, but like there are a lot of bosses that if you had not kept up on the attack power on your weapons, which you don't always do, considering you have like nine people, tend people to like keep track of like you were just going to be in for a long tedious grind at
uh, grind is not the right word. Long ted is chipping away in a boss that said, like most things in this bosism are better than seven's. They are. I think they've really cracked how this ballsism would work.
The problem is these are three D models working on a physics engine, so sometimes stuff just doesn't work out and you feel incredibly robbed of strategy because like there's like a combo attack you can do with your partners, but it works that like what sometimes the first person will sleep the legs and the other person
will like go for an air attack. Sometimes the legs sleep doesn't work and the air attack just goes over their head, or like sometimes the enemy will move with the very last frame that you're hitting the A button and you're well planned bounce them between these characters, thing doesn't work, or for some reason, some weapons or some job glasses don't actually go where the arrow says they will go. They will just go like to the left for some reason.
And again like a I plan to knock down a bunch of very reasons like a bully pin, like bully pins, and I only hit like one. It's that kind of thing that I think like they need to work on stuff like that if they really nail this, because I do feel like they are robbing the strategy of this and making it so it's more about fast menuing than
it is about taking a look at the whole board at once. I had a bunch of trouble with that actually when I was playing or whenever i'd switch over to carry you, and I could never get the heat actions to properly trigger consecutively. Like I'd have a dude up against a poll I'm like, all right, I did it one time where I crushed your nuts on it, and then have another dude similar position, and it could just not get
it to work. But overall, I really liked it. I'm a big fan of arrows pointing to a location of where they may be and where they might be, ars pointing down, airs pointing to the left. I think where it's I don't want to say it started falling apart from me, and
maybe this gets as addressed later in the game. But having to thumb through all of my specific skills to figure out who would be weak to what, I just wish like that process was streamlined, ever so slightly like that in Persona, where it's like, oh, you know, yeah, just switch me straight to the thing that it's weak too. Yeah, yeah, I would have enjoyed that. But something I've uh, I've spent a shamedly too much time and I very talked about it is a how do y'all feel that
they put animal crossing in the game? And do you like the animal crossing? Just as the first person to upload a one completed island and during the review process, and it felt real good. I know someone else who was guiding that and they were taken off it to go play Power World and they will I fuck. Like three days into having code, I had like a five star island and I was like, I was I uploaded it and I was just fresh and I was like, somebody, please, somebody else upload
an island. I need to see what this multiplayer stuff does. Yeah, I think I went to your island, Jesse. During it, I was like, Wow, this is just the way beyond anything I have. And I had already finished the Dundug Island story by that point. That's like the one thing I haven't gotten super. I have gone pretty far into it, but I haven't gone to like going to other people's island. How does that work? I actually have not done it yet. I think I Ron has
though. Right. It's basically like you see a list of people who have islands upload, you go to that you can Sujimon battle some people there, or just like you get you get like a checklist of things to do, and you get points for doing the checklist, so they like you're gonna change
those points for just items on the island. It's nothing super involved, but it's like a neat little thing of like, oh, I guess they like they hit this little thing in here to for one last thing to do in this minigame, Like there's a load of little things where you're like, oh, this is just a little thing, and like the game just keeps on having a load of little things, like the the mechanics in the Sujimon battles.
You're like, Oh, this isn't going to be that deep, and then you're like, oh, I'm evolving Sujiman and like I'm caring about like all of this and like his tactics to it. There's a gotcha system. Yeah. I did a lot of polls because I wanted to see if Kenny Omego was in there, but so like, I haven't seen him. So I don't know anyone who has completed Sujimon Darsia yet, but I almost have
one. I almost, and I haven't seen them. The really high end ones of the DLC ones, and those just fucking blake it totally, like totally break the system. All of the DLC characters that they give you have like two hundred movement speeds, so it's just always your fucking turn. Yeah. Can you do PvP with Sujimon like against other players? No? No, No, believe you can fight someone's uploaded team. So I fought Jesse's team and they've destroyed me because I was not that far in Sujiman yet.
Ringing Champ on the Island and the Sujiman Jesus Christ, just do I like what I like? I have to note this because I did not realize it until the credits. Muku and Gotchapin are real mass fields. Yes, yeah, Like I have no idea because they're like, why are they crediting Muku and Gotchapin And I looked it up and they're like they were in uh Thalas the tank engine. They were in like Ultra Man. They are. They
have been in a lot of things. They're like nnderoids of them. For folks that don't know Jesse, you, I don't want to say we coursed you to dress up into an Elmo costume during the Giant Bombaiton. Part of that was volunteering, but every time I saw Muku, I would just see you in them, just in the back, drinking, just supporting the crew, just powering us through a lot of it. Honestly, Muku reminds me a lot of Elmo, so I get it. I feel you on that.
God, It's just like every time i'd see his face, he would give me a quick jump scare, but I'd be calmed down at the same time because he shares my same existential dread. I've seen a couple folks and I've talked to a couple of folks that have, I don't want to say complained, but been a bit down on the side content. In terms of like the side stories, I haven't explored too much other than anything coffee related,
because, as y'all know, I have a problem. I have multiple problems, like back to the Grind, back to the Grind, Grind, and uh, I need to stop documenting all my my, my problems on this website. But how have y'all felt about all of the side story stuff in some of the side games, Like I wasn't. I didn't think I'd
get much into the dating as much as I did. But I just really enjoyed the texting mechanic that you started to do with like their fake Tinder, because it just felt fun to pretend like I was texting on a t nine. I stopped comes up across the screen is so funny. I end have stopped stopping doing that, because I like, I did everything right up until like the the choose the emoji thing, and I like I chose the wrong one and it like I ruined the whole thing, and she didn't want to
talk to me like this sucks. I'm looking about basically why I stopped online dating in the first place, Like it's it was fun, but like a lot, I do think a lot of the psycontact does take a backseat to the rest of the stuff, And like I maybe did the door dash thing twice. I did, Like there's an entire like Pokemon snap thing where you take pictures of perverts, so I only did once, Like there was simultaneously too much of it, and also the stuff was not suit like not as
engaging as previous stuff. But also there's never gonna be one as good as the cabaret club like host thing was, so I'm always just gonna be chasing that dragon. Yeah, And I think something that you mentioned is something that I talked about on Twitter and some people disagreed with a bit. And I think that like the FMV stuff that they do with the dates is way way worse than when they were like just people in the game who you would go
on dates with and have stub stories with. And it is way fucking creepier and it's way more uncomfortable when it's like these voyeuristic, like one on one live action things like they're funny for a bit, then you go on to your third one and you're like, this is fucking weird. And I think that like the most telling thing about that is that he the character who's like
always fucking cursing, and she's like just curses up a storm. She was one of the cabaret people in the Man who raised his name and she yeah, and she had no story in that thing other than just like being boobs and you get rewarded for saying the right thing. And then in this she has a story and she's like an actual interesting character, and it's like, oh yeah, you can still like have interesting women characters at the side.
You can even do like love interest characters. But then you just have this whole segment that's like fucking kind of uncomfortable. And I think like they should be better than thatsh at this point because they've done it better before. Yeah. I so like, we recently moved my wife's office, which is why it's a mess down back here, like from this room to the living room. Uh, my wife plays this theory, she knows all about it.
I was still embarrassed with those FMV segments with her in the room. Yeah, yeah, I've reconfigured my desk situation so my partner doesn't really see my screens anymore. Because when we do the BombCast, when I was still streaming out of a kitchen, she'd occasionally look over and be like, why is there? Why are there anime boobs on your screen? Like why do we have to have this talk every Friday? I'm like, God, sorry, it's just it's just how it goes here. Just got normal, is it?
And you normal? Just stop sending you all of those boobs? Yes, Sean, please stop? Uh? Anyway? Uh? And Ron, you touched on this? Is there too many things in this game? Uh? I think So I finished the game at like roughly eighty hours, given like not a review timeframe, I probably would have rounded one hundred. Uh yeah, I think there are maybe too many, Like I didn't even finish all the side quests or all that stuff, like stuff I really wanted to
do. But I think at some point I was there's a part where you are as as cure, you just going to places that like mean something to him that he reminisces about, and I was like, oh, I need to get all this stuff because like I want to know all this stuff before I get to the ending, and like, I want to finish Curious Story.
And when I finally got the mom I'm like, there was not really a point in doing this, Like it's it's neat, but I don't feel like particularly more enriched for having to cram all this in for one in one day. I think this it is a lot more palatable if you were playing at a not review pace, But like the trying to cram it all in,
it's all just overwhelming and not a great way sometimes. Yeah, the way you always have to think about it is like, hey, if I have more than two weeks to play all of this, would I be enjoy it more? Like if I wasn't up lace, if I didn't have to get up early to play some fucking more of this, would I be enjoying this side bullshit more? And like, yeah, it actually becomes way more
fun when you're not rushing. I like some of the key you reminiscing stuff, especially the more involved stuff, and I think some of those are really really good, and they bring back some characters who were done dirty by the series, and they also don't bring back some characters who shouldn't be bought back because the actors are problematic? Mm hmm, he thinks about Yeah, she's like, oh, she's off in the upstate farm. He's doing great.
How do y'all feel about the torch being passed to Ichibon? Here? And I mean it kind of already happened, Scout, I swear to God right now, that's true, that's true. How do you all feel about the keeping this on the podcast though she's she's gonna initiate a fight with someone right now probably hell yeah, wins. How do you all feel about the torch being passed? Like the future of this series being in Ichibon's lovely but dumb
hands. I think this game has set it up almost better than seven did, because seven was like a very blank slate of like, Okay, the Yakiza is gone, what do we do now? And this game kind of reinforces the idea of we it's gone, but that doesn't mean it's actually gone. That means that we still have just a lot more problems to deal with. And I think now I feel very good about Ichibon being the next like
protagonist in the series, the next like main role. I do think with as much as I have praised what they have, done with Kiriu in this game. They did make Ichibon look small a little bit in this one, and they need to come out bombastically with the next one of him being the sole driver of the plot, not sol the main driver of the plot. With the next one or else he's it's going to feel like he's less shaping the direction of the series and more just being taken along for the ride.
Gotcha, gotcha? Yess yeah. I think that, like there's like a really important scene that happens pretty later on where Eachibon and kir You have like a really good conversation, and I think that's like the moment where they're like the future is in your hands now sort of sort of deal, and looking at where Eachibon is at the end of this game, I think, like Mron said, there's a lot of work that needs to be done to just get him like kind of back up to where he needs to be for this,
but they've clearly given him like a very clear runway to do so, and they've given Eachibon like very clear like here's what Ichibon is going to do next. And just because the Yakuza has been dissolved or whatever from seven, like the real work starts now, and I think that's the important message for Eachibon is like he has a clear thing ahead of him that he needs to do, and it was very nice to see kre you kind of be like
here you go. Yeah. I think they also do a really good job of I mentioned it before, but like setting him up to not just do the same things again, not just get in the same like fights with different clans, not just get in the same fights. Like all of the Itchuman stuff that we've seen so far has been a lot more focused on societal ills than like clam melo drama or in fighting or families or anything. Something. I think that like the ending of this game Fucking Nails is allowing to you
to have a moment of weakness and like just sit with it. And I think that that's so powerful for Like, something that I've always said about these games is even from the first game, Ku starts out as like a dhy he's got He goes to jail for like ten years, and then he comes out and everyone's like, Oh, he's a fucking dragon Adolgima. He's like already a legend. And then this game at the end just allows him to have a really nice, quiet moment where he's not the strongest guy in the
room. He's not like the most powerful person, and it was something that the character like desperately needed and was just to have a moment where he's allowed to just be a guy. Uh. Y'all could probably speak to this better than I could, just because of y'all's familiarity with these series. But I was pleasantly surprised a lot playing this game with the social issues that they were touching on, and specifically of like, oh, oh, y'all are gonna
mention the homeless population and how expensive it is to live in Hawaii? Oh cool? Yeah, yeah, all right, and then just generally their tone with this game about treating like unhoused folks and the homeless population across the board, and also touching on stuff like police brutality and yeah, just like a lot of problems of even colonization in Hawaii that I was like, oh shit,
y'all are going there? Is that par for the course for like the series as a whole, or is that's something that may be unique to like a Dragon. They really hone their teeth on that in the Judgment games. I think because first judgment is all about medical malpractice basically, and then the second judgment is all about high school bullying, and I think they got way
better at reating those issues with like the respect they deserve. The Yakuza franchise has always loved to bring in big issues but then not really tackle them a whole lot. Like Yakuza six is all about Chinese triads bringing immigrants over and their meeting shelter and being undocumented, but it doesn't really do a whole lot with that story or address or give its opinion on it even And I think the Judgment games have given them a chance to like actually figure out what the
opinions are are on a lot of these things. I will say, this game does say a cab with like its entire time, Yeah it does. Yet like there is not a single good cop and the only cop like except Adachi, I guess, and he's not even a cop, so like it's it like you go through there and they you can clear clearly see they came up with a mentality of yeah, cops are real shit in America, right,
and like, yeah, you are correct. This is roughly how a lot of things would probably go if you were an immigrant in Hawaii, like you would, you would find a lot of like racism and uh classism and corruption and on the police force. I was talking to the homie, Michael Hyam, and one of the things one of his issues of the game was, uh, the there's a tonal whiplash with a lot of like the side
stuff. And I can kind of understand that because like, there there is fun side stuff of let's help this rock band create a storm so they can fill a music video. And then you go from that to this woman is being forced into sex work by a cop and we would probably beat the share of this cop and stop this. Like I do think this game like there are a few social issues that it hits on with as much bigger as it hits on. Cops in America be bad. Yeah, the the cop that
you encounter through the main story in the early bits. His conclusion that that was reached was shocking, and I was like, God, damn, are we gonna talk about that afterwards? Oh, we just left them there. Huh, that's that happened. And like I was like, this is a Simpsons joke. This happened in the Baseball episode of The Simpsons as a joke, but it's actually not that unrealistic to happen here. Something I'm not gonna
say I loved it, but oh, let's go ahead. Something I was gonna say was I really liked some of their villains having a bit more complexity than they did in the lat Then in seven, I think ya Maya is a really fucking good character. I really like Jamie and he's a great counter to Itchi Ban in the same way that Magima was a great counter to Cure You, and like he's just a fucking dirt bag, but he's also like
she does the right thing every now and again. And then when they reveal why he does what he does and why he feels the way he does, I think that that's a really good character moment of like letting that villain breathe.
And I do also think that like he is totally coming back because some of the postgame stuff that they do where they get you to fight bosses again with the DLC that they that they've released, one of them is like, oh, do like boss fights and against imaginary versions of the enemies, and one of them is Yamaya Magima, and it's like, oh, they know
what they have on their hands. They know that this character is like totally I think he is this game song he where they will be so popular they will have no choice but to bring them as like a party ember next game. Yeah, Ichiband seems like he he follows the Goku archetype of like I'll fight you, but then I'll befriend you and you a sense who being and then we're homies forever. Now we were talking about this internally at GB.
But where do y'all think Echybond ranks in the RPG protagonist? Uh, pantheon, Like on the on the greater scale, and that the scale can be towards your personal scales depending on how you feel about someone like Cloud Strive for whoever above the guy from the bouncer, that's for sure that guy. How dare you who never speak ill on Seon Barsad's name ever it tooks you a
moment to amembush, I would just overcome with emotion, all right. I will say he's like he's very close to like top end I okay, and that he has a character and that like that character is someone who is fun to play ass and fun to watch what they do. Like I really loved in the game that every time Ichabon mentioned running for office and was like, you mean for like school, you mean like you read for office. But like, I will also say, one of the down parts of this game
is that Ichibon doesn't really have an arc. He ends it roughly the same place he does at the at the beginning, which is, I mean great, nothing can break him, But I would like to I would like for
them to use further games to actually explore more. Most of Itchabon in this game he find like very early on, he finds out his mother is alive, and yeah, you get some degree of development with that, but like, they kind of write it off real fast, and I wish Ichibon did have uh I hesitate to make it sound this dramatic, but I wish he had a little bit of pathos to like at least further and arc for him. I'm willing to let it go this time. We'll see what they actually
bring for the character next time. But to actually be like one of the best JRBG protagonists, he needs a bit more to him than just golden retree for boyfriend. Okay, okay, Jesse, do you where do you fall with that? Uh? He is? He is in the upper end. But I kind of like exactly agree with him Ron on this one. It's just like it feels like a circle, right, it feels like there's some high highs in this game, but then he ends up in the same place,
almost like to a t, exactly where he began. Uh. And it's it's a little frustrating, and it's like one of my gripes with sort of how the story pans out in this game. But like he's so lovable that you like can't not want to take a bullet for him, you know what I mean, Like you, like I love you, Jesse, He'd take the bullet for you. Yeah, and then I'd push him back out of the way, and this bullet would be going very very slow, and
it would be just us pushing each other back and forth. So it's hard not to love him because like he is so lovable, but like, yeah, we've only had two games with him, uh, and like here you we've had eight, nine, ten, I don't even know how many games at this point. Uh. And so like I think there's more work to be done. But I think, like, if I'm betting, I think that by the time we have seen more Ichi Bond games, will will lead
if not as in love with Cri like him, is cure you? If not more, I think there's more to love and I can't speak ill of my husband, So just well, I was gonna ask, y'all. Okay, now we've we've established roughly where each bomb lands in the Greater Protagonist rpg UH pantheon. How close is he from Daddy to Zaddy or is he in between? Or is he completely still in the hymbo scale of things. I
struggle to see Ichibon as any sort of sex positive character. Like I mean, he is objectively he is, but like for me, he is a child and he falls into that. He occasionally falls into He occasionally falls into the he occasionally falls into the UH. The beloved fan theory that Captain America Steve Rodgers MCU is a virgin where he's just continually fighting for puritanical things, and that's that's where he may not be quite Daddy or Zaddy yet. I
will say so. Yakuza seven had a thing where you could date everyone in the game, and there was a side quest where all the women would get mad at you and try and beat each a ban up. That might be the only non canon side quest I have seen in this series because of this
non canon stuff. In the DLC, they sell you it you there is canon sub stories where Ichibond fucks though in this game I will say, yes, okay, but like in the beginning of yak our beginning of Like a Dragon eight, he does like say, I've never really been on a date, so he is not. This was the first real thing in this game of him being like so girls, huh. I will I will say like he might have had sex by time credits role in this game, but I
don't think he knows what sex is. Yeah. Yeah, he's a very Goku like like, oh yeah, is it like some kind of food? Yeah, every situation he's in in the sub stories I have done where like there is implied sex, he's very much like what do you mean, what are you talking about? What is this? And it's like, oh boy, oh that was my day. I will say. This isn't to say that the romance that is in the in the Aplosh is bad, but I do think the best romance in this game is between a craw fish and a
lobster. Oh absolutely, yeah. I mean you know, love knows no bounce. We all know that. I do really like the scene which has no other purpose because I just like getting showing their friendship where Namba takes Itchab on his side and goes like, hey, Chetose is cute? Are you? Are you murting with Herb's like she's like twenty, and I was like
yeah. So my favor scene in that, probably in the entire game, is when Ichibon is sitting down with uh Nanba and Adachi and they're going over his date from the night before, and the two of them there's this moment where Ichibon explains what happens and Nanba is just quiet and he's like holding a soda and he just shakes it and you just hear the ice ruffle, and then he just doesn't say anything, and it's like this perfect moment. It's
like a wide shot of the restaurant. It's Itchibam like slowly explains and greater detail the things that he said, like beef by bees. Yeah, they're just like, dude, you can't fucking say that. Man. I know you've been in prison, but like Jesus Christ, due So the most realistic thing is she says she's not mad, but then you find out hours and hours later when she's talking to Carriou. Yeah, I was pretty pissed off
by that. She she just told him like she wasn't mad, and she was like, oh good, I think, uh problems, problems of being a Himba problem, problems of being a little dummy. But he's he's my favorite dummy. Folks, we've almost gotten to the end of our time here and I'm gonna I mentioned this at the tippy top before we started Recording'm gonna ask Hell to give this a arbitrary score, but not how you think. We're gonna go around the room and give it an emoji, all right,
the best emoji to encapsulate your feelings. You can do up to three. I'll give you all time to maybe look at you're recently used and think about what series of emojis you would like to give to, like a dragon, infinite wealth. I'm like a six year old in a twenty three year old body. I don't use emojis. Well, well, lex, you're gonna have to explore the rich world of emojis you can use like a building. It doesn't even have to be any of the faces audio listeners. Everyone is
concentratedly looking down. I have to look at emojis and figure it out. This was this was this was a good pick. It's gonna take me a second, though, Folks at home, if if you'd like to play along, feel free to throw in your specific emojis as well. I solicited some questions from the chat, and there were not really a lot of questions, So and we'll go with this. Okay, I think I think I have two at least so A lightning vault because my baseball bat had a lightning effect
and that's pretty cool. Okay, yeah, a rainbow because this game, in its final sequence has one of the most whole mob archic shots in any video game ever. Okay, it was just very tired uh light in a rainbow and a cruise ship. Okay, okay, all right, all right, I like this. I'm gonna go American flag, uh huh, lobster and the two guys wrestling because I like that cry in beast mode was just basically a get behind other character and throw them for a lot of damage.
Character. Yes I am. I'm going to go magnifying Glass because this game is introspective. I'm going to go Salsa dance Lady Emoji because this game is fun and I'm going to go praying hands emoji because there's some there's some some cult like activities something like that. Yeah. Something that's worth mentioning is that this game straight up like does the RPG thing of like, hey, you're gonna fight God by the way, it goes full residueval four by the end
of it. Yeah, okay, okay J five Right, Yes, yeah, it basically does that towards the end where it's like, actually, turns out you're just finding the concept of religion and organized religion in particular. Oh hell yeah, I'm all about that. Can I say that that character who I'm not gonna name because they're like villain turn is actually like a thing. But that character in the Japanese language, Yes, he has the most insane
English voice acting I have ever heard. It's wild to listen to. It's like, how do they get like, I think because they make a big deal about people who speak English and people who don't. Japanese actors like Tomas I was a Japanese actor and he speaks like some English and like it has a Japanese accent, but it's not as egregious as this character. It is clearly like this old Japanese man who is being a white guy. Yeah, and like it is kind of wild when all the other characters they try to
line it up or fudge it a bit more. It is weird. Also, I was convinced that that character wog Too was Daniel Daykim. Turns out Daniel day Kim is an Eva and I was like, oh what that wrong tone looks exactly like him? Like yeah. I also learned that Danny Trejo's character obviously does not voice the Japanese dubya, but doesn't they don't pull his English lines for when he does speak English in that it's a different person entirely,
And I'm like, why didn't you just pull the English ones? And it was like a contract thing or like they can have it for one language track or what. I very strange. Also, just real quick, I think this game plays real fast and loose with who Kenon cannot speak Japanese in this world, to the point where I'm like, there's like one substory and I'm like, why do you know how to speak Japanese? Nothing about your
character says you could speak fluent Japanese. Everyone he speaks Japanese occasionally, somebody like people will speak English, and the main story there's there's a whole substory about a guy who's like, oh, Japan, Japan stuff is for webs like I like America and I'm like, bro, you are speaking to me in fluent Japanese. What do you mean you don't you don't like Japanese? What are you saying? Well? Thank you everyone for your emoji reviews.
The Emoji scale is going to be the new review scale here at giant bomb dot com. Sorry to our sister website Metacritic for having to figure out the math on that, but folks, thank you for sharing your time, sharing your time. I feel like I want to take all yell to an island and we'll just roll around on our segues and just shaka the denizens and citizens of Hawaii Lex Where can find Where can people find you on the Internet?
I usually wind up on this website every now and again, But when I'm not lurking in tash and annoying Jeff web and you can find me over at start Menu. I'm on that website. It's for young people trying to break into the games industry and cool. We're doing cool things there. You can follow us on Twitter at the start menu. I also freelance. You can find me on Twitter at basically lexi both spelt with eyes at the end of them. And I also live in Mike Minatei's waves. Yep, it's a.
It's a It's a warm place to be. It smells like churos and popcorn because those are the scented candles that Mike Manatti has, uh and he totally got them at Disney World, at Epcot, im ron Con. Where can folks find you? I am now a free agent. You can find me on Twitter at m ron zu MG. You can find my Patreon at pros cons p R O S E K h A n S dot com. Uh. Patreon recently fucked me over because they dropped everyone who is from has
international currency and did not resell them automatically. So if you guys want to come sub to my Patreon, please do. I apparently really need the money. Jesse, where can folks find you on the Internet? I am also a free agent. You can find me on Twitter, x, blue Sky whatever you want to do all the platforms at Jesse Vitelli j E S S E V I T E L L I. I'm doing some guys for hrack News right now for infinite wel So, if you need that help, you
know where to find me, and yeah you might. You might meet pop up a few other places throughout the next coming weeks. But who's to say, Yeah, yeah, I love all of you. I'm gonna I'm gonna maybe convince you all to perhaps play poker with me online on this very website. Sure, in the near future, I might try and infect all games media with poker, and uh we we'll get along that way because we all just need a massive amount of debt. That's what the games media has been
lacking. We'll play for like I don't know, like uh, seashells or something, and we will trade seashells each other. Doc boos the Imron. I've bought too many books on poker and I still don't understand shit. So it's gonna be great when we all eventually play poker. Folks, thank you for joining us for an episode of BombCast for Vengeance. A lot of lovely things going on the website and across the internet. Follow these lovely people.
Please please, please please, I've been jaanmed forgot. I was gonna say, oh my god, what just happened. Oh god, yeah, I've been join coffy and it just start crashing and I just start thinking about like coffee and then my own place in the universe. But my place today has been right next to Lex Luddy, Imron Khan, Jesse Viteally and you find folks at home, have a fantastic weekend. Kisses on the cheek, Pour a cup of coffee for your boy. Actually, maybe don't pour another cup
of coffee. I've had too much today. Drink water started at a lex. It's one where I'm at, so I can maybe warrant one more cup of Joe. But that's it, folks. We have got to go see you next week for another episode of John podcast Revenge Its I buffered for a second. Is what actually happened? Maya ran out a ram? What happens the state is instance