Recent reviews by Subiectus

Started with Dark Ties. My first impression is that it's more like Lost Judgment's The Kaito Files DLC than it's own game (Gaiden). It feels like some kind of add-on content meant to be played after the main game. Some of the story moments at the very beginning seem to be really fast-paced... How to say it nicely... Just like in modern movies? ;D But as the story progresses, it actually turns out to be quite good. Anyway, so far my first impression is more positive than negative. I'll update this as I go along!

EDIT: So I finished Dark Ties. The story was short for sure! (Only 3 Chapters)

Here is the side content that I did:

-Kanda Damage Control –
Good Deeds: 100%
Helping the Little People: 100%
Damage Control Challenge: 67%

Total playtime was around 18 hours (with a bit of idling included).
If you are Yakuza Completionist, you’ll probably enjoy what this "side game" has to offer. It has 13 substories, Kiryu Gaiden like smaller quests, arena and last but not least, minigames (Bowling is back!).

Overall, I think the game is too short, but pretty good.


YAKUZA KIWAMI 3:

Achievements: 100%, training list not fully completed

Yakuza 3 Kiwami isn’t a great remake, but it’s not a bad Yakuza game either — quite the opposite. It’s actually a really solid addition if you’ve already played the original Yakuza 3. What I mean by that is, even though the game doesn’t include everything that was in the original, it brings a lot of new and good elements alongside the old. In my opinion, these two games can coexist without replacing one another.

As for the post-credit scene, while I personally think it shouldn't have been changed, I choose to see it as an alternative path in the Yakuza series timeline.

Final thoughts:
I understand why many people are angry at a certain actor. I’m disappointed with the studio for hiring him as well, but if I were to criticize the game solely on that basis, I wouldn’t be completely honest with myself or with others. In the end, my overall experience with both games was positive, and I plan to continue playing the series.

It’s still Yakuza. It’s very good!

It is Yakuza. It is very good. #restorerikiya

Mushroom.

Very NES colors

I went into this sequel to an almost perfect Trails game with fairly low expectations, for I had already read some mildly negative takes beforehand (yes, I do read other people's reviews sometimes). So far, however, I've been positively surprised. Granted, this game does feel, for better or worse, like an extended DLC to the first entry, padded with a dozen minigames. That said, the same could be said about every other Trails title really.

I think for most players the problem here is that the story feels somewhat a filler and they are just eager to move straight on to Horizon (I know I am!). Still, I wouldn’t recommend skipping this entry. Trails games are the kind of experiences you only get to play once (the second time won't be the same), and this one is very much part of that journey.

My New Year’s resolution was to focus on single-player games.

Naturally, a friend gifted me a multiplayer game.

Guess I’m a dwarf now.

Rock and stone!

Very neat!

Where One Trail Ends, Another Begins…

So, so — we’ve finally made it all the way to Republic of Calvard. You probably know that feeling when you’ve heard something talked about for ages, and you start processing it through thalamus in such a way that a very specific mental image begins to form in your visual cortex. And then, at last, you get to witness it for yourself…
And then…
Then it turns out to be completely different from what you had imagined!

By now, I’ve gone through nearly twelve Trails games? (counting the Sky 1st Chapter remake) And what a journey it has been! Calvard has been talked about extensively throughout the previous arcs, and here we finally are — the entry where the majority of players would probably want to begin their journey into the world of Trails. To that, I can only say… Welcome!
That said, I’m personally grateful that I started from the very beginning with The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky – First Chapter, because now that we’re finally here, everything makes so much sense right from the start, and the impact of the world-building feels downright level heroic.

Speaking of heroic — enter Van Arkride! The Trails world’s very own Han Solo and Ash Williams. (What? Ash is a stretch? Both kill the possessed undead , love their car above all else, and wear blue — checkmate :P)

Ridiculous comparisons aside, it’s a refreshing change to have a protagonist whose methods can be morally questionable — and whose choices you, as the player, can actively influence. Granted, previous entries also had choices, but here they feel far more meaningful, thanks to the Law, Gray, and Chaos morality/alignment system. At the time of writing, it’s still unclear to me just how deeply this will affect the main story’s trajectory, as so far the consequences have been mostly combat-related.

And speaking of the main story, it is noticeably darker than its predecessors and clearly aimed at a more mature audience. It breaks away from the Trails arc’s usual lighthearted-to-deepening structure, which is also a welcome change of pace.

In summary, Trails Through Daybreak is like the Persona 5 of the Trails series. It's a bit jazzy, smooth, stylish and its Soundtrack is second to none.

Calvard was not what I expected - it was even better.

It was early 2025. I had just finished Pirate Yakuza and knew I’d be waiting a good while for the next Yakuza game. So I started looking for something to kill time with. While watching YouTube, a certain unnamed YouTuber known for Yakuza content (you can probably guess who) passionately praised the Trails series in one of his videos.

At first glance, it looked like a fairly standard JRPG. I thought to myself that I probably wouldn’t like it as much as Persona (4 is the best btw), which I consider the greatest JRPG series of all time. Fast forward ten months from the first Trails game I played, and I’ve now completed ten games from the series.

So it only feels right to end the year with Trails in the Sky: 1st Chapter review. And here it comes: this is my Game of the Year. I’ve only played through the prologue so far, but I can already say that this is the most successful and visually impressive remake I have ever seen.

I moved straight from the demo to the full version, so at the time of writing I don’t yet have a huge number of hours played. Including the demo, I’m already well over ten hours in—and there’s plenty more to come. I often find myself smiling unintentionally while playing this. It’s strange that I would feel nostalgia while playing a remake of a game I finished just ten months ago, but there’s really no better way to describe that feeling. This is peak!

Just like a movie! (But maybe too expensive one for what it is)