Wow! You played THAT?! Vol 9 - A wizard from the East

He cast a curse on you! You must finish reading this post!

Deltarune isn't quite Undertale 2, more like a refining and scrambling of the original, a Deltarune if you will. The game describes itself as the parallel story to Undertale, and who better to describe it than itself. Player the you assumes control of Kris, on their adventure through the various worlds that Deltarune explores. Instead of the human/monster above/underground divide present in Undertale, Deltarune instead focuses on the idea of the light and dark world(s). The game's story sees you bouncing between these worlds, with the light world acting as a relatively chill hub of sorts where you are free to run around and talk to the town's various colourful inhabitants, many of whom Undertalers will recognise (tragically Papyrus does not make a physical appearance, we must be content with the mere trousle of bones in the distance). The dark world is where the adventure happens, with the familiar gameplay of Undertale returning anew. This time however, there's a party! You are accompanied by Susie at first, then Ralsei, then Ralsei AND Susie, who remain as the core party throughout the game, forming its tritagonists. You now have multiple actions you can do each turn, letting you ACT to gain mercy and then SPARE in the same turn, potentially! It's the same system as Undertale i'm not explaining it again you probably already know it. And that's the skeleton, sort of. Deltarune's main, well, thing is how often it subverts the expectations of its genre and its own systems, it would be pointless to pretend it all plays like this from here on out. Each 'battle' is a tailored experience, bringing something new to the table while remaining familiar. The ACT options are far more expansive than in Undertale, the majority of them require you to complete some sort of secondary task to get maximum effectiveness out of them. For example, the Bloxer (an enemy in the first chapter) requires you to rearrange their body parts into the right order in order to gain mercy - an action that likely would have been relegated to a text exchange in Undertale. Do you remember the Mettaton fight? Every encounter has some of that level of interactivity.

Like Undertale, it has some of the most ridiculously likeable characters ever found. Papyrus is my favourite character in the franchise, but the fact that Susie comes so close is an incredible achievement. Deltarune has an underlying theme of personal growth, all of the protagonists develop some aspect of themselves throughout their adventure. Experiencing Susie's school bully exterior crack to reveal a fiercely loyal and brave companion is some of the most satisfying character development i've experienced recently. She's the girl with hope crossed on her heart, after all. Also the Susie/Lancer dyanmic is incredible, god i love that little idiot. The antagonists are similarly entertaining, my favourite is the 2nd chapter's big 'bad' - Queen. She's just so, so, SO goddamn funny. Every time she's on screen it's a treat, some quirk of dialogue or her way of speaking sends me. Whether it's her truce with Kris partway during the level, her almost instant regret at recruiting Berdly to her team, how everything she touches seems to explodes, it's so entertaining. Chapter 3's Tenna is great too, there's not much about the main biggest bad yet to say but knowing the franchise's history they'll be incredible too.

i'm so excited for more Deltarune, to see where this story goes. It's such a fun experience getting to play this adventure where you can tell the creator was just 'yeah that's funny chuck it in somewhere', it's such a refreshing display of personal creativity.

Ufo 50 does not exist, at least it shouldn't, but it does and it doesn't, and it is real but it's not and it doesn't feel real but it is. Ufo 50 is a collection of 50 minigames, composed entirely of 8 whole bits. The mission objective with Ufo 50 is to recreate a familiar 8-bit aesthetic typical of gaming's early days while utilising modern game design theory to make them, well, fun. Each game comes with a little and completely fake history about its release and backstory, creating the vibe that it's not real but it is but it isn't. Each game can be completed and COMPLETED, earning a gold and cherry disk respectively. The gold disk is achieved by completing the game, and the cherry disk is achieved by completing some sort of additional or secret objective, usually quite a bit harder than normal. And now, a small selection of minigames.

Bug Hunter is a game where you hunt bugs, on an alien planet. You do so by interacting with a GRID, which you can move or shoot or miscellaneous upon. You have 6 of these actions per round, each of which you can use once. You can get new actions by spending energy cubes, which spawn each round and can be collected by moving into them. This can get you new attack and movement options, and also new miscellaneous! These can be very powerful, like refreshing adjacent actions, adjusting the terrain or ORBITAL LASER STRIKES!!! Swapping in new actions also refreshes them, so you can have some crazy chains if you play your cards right. The objective of all this action tomfoolery is to KILL BUGS!! You complete a level by killing a certain number of bugs, that spawn each round, within the time limit. These bugs each have different passive abilities, like resisting direct fire or corrupting nearby energy cubes, and evolve at the end of the round, if they're alive. Evolving twice turns them into an EGG, and if that egg is allowed to hatch then you lose. By being overran with bugs. Did i describe everything well? No! Should you look for a description that does? Yes!

Avianos is Civ with dinosaur gods. Need i say more? Alright fine. Your goal is to control 4 castles for a turn, you control a castle by having units on its tile. On your turn you pray to a dinosaur god to get three actions, which vary based on the dinosaur god. These will be some combination of moving, recruiting, generating resources, building and magic spells. Each dinosaur god has a different approach to things, for example Brontor is a peaceful resource generator and utility spell-er, while Rexadon is an aggressive recruiter and attacker. Each time you pray to a god you'll also gain favour, with every three favour granting you a boon. This allows you to upgrade one of that god's actions, making it substantially more powerful. Upgrades like reducing the cost of building, granting bonuses to movement like being able to go through mountains, and upgrading the units you can recruit. Moving your units into the enemy player's units will trigger a battle, and you have some level of control during this battle. You can tell your units to attack, defend, retreat or raze, depening on how the battle is going. If you're defending with powerful aerial units it might be best to send them out to attack rather than hang back, or if you're going to lose this battle consider razing the tile so your opponent doesn't gain the benefit of any buildings you've constructed. It's surprisingly complex for just 8 tiny bits.

Party House is a game where you plan a party, a radical new world for someone like me. Your goal is to satisfy the win condition for each level within the time limit - ie getting a certain number of 'star' guests in a single party. Each round lets you invite people to the party, which will be randomly selected from your rolodex. These guests generate popularity or cash (or both!), and you get the respective amount when the party is complete - either when the house is full or you decide to stop. The main danger is ROWDY GUESTS, having 3 such guests will cause the party to get out of hand and call the cops - wasting a party night! Between parties you have the option to add new guests to your rolodex, by spending popularity, and expand your house, by spending money. The goal is to fill out your rolodex with useful partygoers that support your chosen gameplan - until you can add the star party guests to win within the time limit. Such guests can have powerful abilities, like being able to fetch a specific guest or kicking out an unwanted one. As the summons are random you'll want to keep your roster as lean as possible to maximise your useful guests, and there are a few ways you can do this. One of my favourite tactics was climbers, when they enter the party they permanently gain +1 popularity (up to 9) and they combo very well with the grillmaster, who when interacted with refreshes the party and empties the house - letting you buff climbers as quickly as possible. It's really fun, and there are 50 games with the same or even more thought put into them than the ones i've spoken about.

Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth. Savour that title for a moment, Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth. It's such a grand, symbolic name for a game, promising so much (and it delivers!). The 8th game in the Yakuza franchise following up from the soft-reboot Yakuza: Like a Dragon, which if you were to ask me what i think about it, i would say: 'yeah it's alright i suppose' - one of my favourite games of all time. Those are some big boots to fill, but luckily Yakuza 8 is a big game. As in, my first playthrough took me just under 150 hours big. That's a lot to explore.

Let's start off with the combat. There is no other word for it, Y8's fights are DDDynamic with 3 capital Ds. It follows the same skeleton as Y7's combat, party-based turn-based skill-based fights, but this skeleton has been enchanted by a combat necromancer to have sickass green glowing eyes. And a sword. Made of Radium. An important new part of this system is grappling and guarding, when enemies (or you) guard on their turn - all damage they take gets slashed in half. You can break through a guard by hitting a guarding enemy with a grapple attack, dealing bonus GUARDBREAK damage and ending their guard. This adds extra utility to attacks as GUARDBREAKERS and makes it so you can't just spam your most powerful attack on an enemy. Familiar attacks from returning characters have had the grapple attribute added to them, providing a fresh way to use these old abilities. Like Adachi's Breaking Top, a swing attack that allows the player to grab an enemy and freely move around while swinging them into other enemies. That's the main essence of Y8's combat - your opponents are not just there to be hit, they're there to be used as a weapon against the other enemies. Another type of attack is knockback attacks, as the name implies these will send enemies flying directly backwards after being hit. If they strike an obstacle or another enemy they'll take bonus damage - both of them if it's an enemy. Oh, and you can knock enemies into your other party members and they'll give them a bonus whack and send them flying again! It's like human pinball! Various battle arenas will also have 'weapons' littered around - bicycles, crates, sofas, explosive barrels, that sort of thing. Using a basic attack by these weapons will result in a weapon attack, dealing bonus damage and effects depending on the weapon used.

Speaking of your party members, you can do more than hit enemies into them. As you progress through the game and raise your bond level with each member of the team, they'll unlock new abilities during combat. The ability to attack an enemy when they're knocked to the floor, the ability to perform a combo attack when a basic attack is performed in proximity to each other, even powerful Tag Team skills that deal damage and provide the party with buffs. There are 7 attack types in the game - the mundane blunt, gun and slashing - and then the elemental fire, ice and lightning. But i thought you said 7?? I DID. There exists exactly one poison-type attack in the game, in Ichiban's 'Sujimancer' job. Jobs are what provide your characters with the skills they use in combat, and provide a different style of fighting or supporting. Each character has an exclusive job (apart from Kasuga who has 3), like Adachi's Detective, Tomizawa's Taxi Driver and Seonhee's Assassin. One blessed glorious incredible improvement over the job system from Y7 is the ability to freely swap out the skills each job gives you. As you progress with each character's bond, they gradually unlock more skill inheritance slots. This allows a skill from any job they've previously had to be kept in their moveset, with a maximum of 5 regular skills at a time. Hold on, why did i say regular skills?? Because each job has 2 supremely powerful 'Essence of:' skills, that treat the unfortunante opponents to a cutscene and a bizarre level of pain. For example, one of Nanba's exclusive Homeless Guy skills is 'Essence of Bigass Bird', where he summons a flock of pigeons to form a massive pigeon which he rides and swoops through a line of opponents. When an ally's bond level is maxed out, they can inherit one 'Essence of:' skill from any past job, making for some eclectic combinations.

A third paragraph has hit the combat section. There are 4 jobs in the game that have slightly deeper mechanics than the others, all of the exclusive jobs for the game's 2 main protagonists. Yes. Starting with the least more deeperer, Ichiban's 'Freelancer' doesn't have a weapon slot, and instead considerable buffs stats as your job rank progresses. Freelancer skills are generally stronger than similar skills in other jobs, with lots of grapples, critical hits and even chances of instakills. It's also only got one Essence skill, Essence Of: Roadside Weapon. This is a hugely powerful blunt damage skill to a single opponent, that does different damage and effects depending on the surrounding environment. Next is Ichiban's 'Sujimancer', this is a special skill tree that's tied to the extensive Sujimon minigame/substory. This is a creature-collector Pokemon parody, where you recruit various enemies you defeat and get them to fight, becoming the very best of the Suji League. Sujimancer allows you to summon your Sujimon for powerful elemental attacks based on their type, increasing in power as your Sujimon become stronger. Rounding it off for Ichiban is his 'Hero' job, which has various skills that increase in power as various aspects of Ichiban's personality improve. Various challenges and dialogue choices will increase one aspect of Ichiban's personality, like picking a clever-sounding response will increase his smarts. This will then in turn increase the range of his 'Hero's Wisdom' skill, providing a critical hit buff to every ally in a ring around him. Finally, Kazuma Kiryu's 'Dragon of Dojima' job. Like Kasuga's Freelancer, this has no equippable weapon but makes up for it with substantial stat buffs. Like Kasuga's Hero, it also grows in strength based on how Kiryu's personality develops through the game - by improving his Body, Tech and Soul. Progressing through this categories improve the abilities of the different styles available in the job, that's right, stance character babyyyyyy. Rush Style makes Kiryu much faster, making his turn come round much faster and increasing his movement range. It also comes with ability to perform 2 basic attacks in sequence, with later upgrades providing these attacks a chance to stun opponents. The downside is that Kiryu won't perform follow up or combo attacks with allies, and won't pick up objects to perform weapon attacks. The second style is Brawler, and this is the balanced stance. Intermediate range and speed, with the basic attack being a 4 (later 5) hit combo. This stance also comes with the ability to perform powerful heat actions when performing a basic attack, like 'Essence of Throwing', when a basic attack is used by a railing Kiryu will chuck the unfortunate enemy over said railing. Finally, Beast Style. This has low range and speed, but comes with increased attack and defence. This style's basic attack becomes a grapple that damages an area of enemies, as you swing an opponent around and send them flying. This stance's weapon attacks are also enhanced, dealing bonus damage and affecting a wider area.

Aside from combat, there is a main story. It begins on the same path and then diverges, splitting into Ichiban and Kiryu's stories in Hawaii and Yokohama respectively. Both of their personal stories are largely separate, but their goals are the same and they're essentially fighting two sides of the same international coin. They're not the only characters with their own personal stories, there are a total of 8 party members (aside from Ichiban and Kiryu) that have their own personal stories of growth and development. Returning from Y7 are Adachi, Nanba, Saeko, Zhao and Joongi - while the newcomers are Tomizawa, Chitose and Seonhee. It's a nice balance of new and old characters, and their individual stories are a mixture of meeting new characters and seeing what fresh difficulties returning characters are facing. Whether it's Zhao coping with life after retiring as the head of the Yokohama Liumang or finding out about Tomizawa's past being an involuntary fall guy for a local gang, they're all endearing and engaging personal stories. The only story downside is that i didn't feel that the main antagonists were as strong as the previous title, that could be because Y7's big bad was S++ tier but it's still a step down. Supporting antagonists make up for it though, Yutaka Yamai might be one of my favourite supporting antagonists ever. They really nailed everything about him, the role he plays, his motivations, his design, his backstory, even his fighting style and animations fit him so well.

But the main story isn't all, by far. i've briefly mentioned substories with regards to the Sujimon, but that isn't the end of it. There are an incredible amount of sidequests available for you to complete, with a mix between silly fun and genuinely heartwarming and emotional stories. You've got Ichiban helping a man to get his dying wife to see snow one final time, convincing a street fighter (!!!) to focus on his love for combat and channel it into MMA, but you've also got Ichiban getting his pet crayfish Nancy a date with Oliva the hermit crab. It's a delightful blend of emotion and silly fun, one of the Yakuza series' signature characteristics. Commonly, as a reward for these endeavours you'll get a Poundmate. These are special summon attacks you can use in battle, often dealing lots of damage or providing the party with helpful effects. It's really cool to have these special attacks be people you've personally helped in some way, like you're expanding your inner circle of contacts. Some substories are substantially larger than others, and come attached to minigames. i mentioned Sujimon earlier, but there's also Dondoko island which is a full on Animal Crossing style resort construction storyline, and Miss Match which is a dating minigame. Dondoko Island is crazy as a minigame, it genuinely probably could be a standalone game by itself. As you meet people around Hawaii and even in Japan (thanks Kiryu!) you'll invite them to stay at Dondoko Island, as you struggle to reclaim its status as a 5-star resort. You improve this ranking by building lodgings, amenities and decorations - while fighting off the trash marauders that threaten the island's natural beauty. Your reward for this endeavour is your own paradise, along with bucketloads of cash from profits and the ability to invite important story characters to your resort, which is funny. Oh yeah, and you get an orbital laser you can summon in combat.

Trying to do a game of Infinite Wealth's GIRTH justice in this small review/recap series is near impossible, even if i give it 2 game slots. Really fun, great story, great characters, it's just a really good Game. A capital G Game. Once i get all the achievements, then it's onto the next one. But what will it be? Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name, or Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii? We'll just have to wait and see.

Hello, it's me! The end of post goblin! Just saying that this might be the final WYPT post. Dry those tears, there's an upside. If you've been paying attention on the main page the ARCADE OF SOULS is now open for business, where (hopefully soon) a series where me and my good friend Will shall be located, where we each play and review a game on a regular basis. i'm considering moving all game reviews (calling these reviews feels very grandiose) to there, and leaving the blog open for everything else written. That might not happen though so don't hold me to it. Thanks for reading!