Narumi Nitpicks: Ryu ga Gotoku Ishin!
Full disclosure, my Japanese skills is somewhere between Kindergartner and Elementary School Student so I consulted KHHSubs' guide for most of my time with Ishin. Ishin is that game that gets a lot of revere and praise for being that lost or hidden gem never released in the West, with some people preferring it over 0 or 5 as the best game in the series. Is it? Hell no, and I'm going to briefly break down why in the following review.
Let's start with story. It's a self contained story that's pretty interesting and decently written. It's like AssCreed where it takes place in an established historical era with actual historical characters but tells a completely original story that deviates from actual history quite a bit. So not knowing anything about the Bakumatsu era isn't a big deal, you just need to know some basic background info on each character to get going. Unlike the other Yakuza games (bar 0), there isn't much downtime or filler in this. Pacing is decent and doesn't drag too much or isn't too rapid, and important beats are punctuated nicely. However, since my Japanese is extremely poor, I spent my time reading through KHHSubs' summaries after every few cutscenes to reaffirm whether I truly understood what was going on. Which isn't ideal since the summaries get increasingly succinct towards the late game, where characters talking for 15 minutes get summarized as "We see Character X talk to Ryoma then they fight". You are going to miss a lot of ques and character stuff by just reading the summaries.
The characters are fine. As I said, I hoped Takechi got more time to shine in the story. Most of the characters are modelled after their Yakuza counterparts, so it's fun to see if their arcs are any similar to their model characters from the original series. It can be quite surprising to see some characters act out of character. There's no real character development for Ryoma/Kiryu, he's pretty much the same man from start to end, but his reactions and interactions with the world around him is what makes each Yakuza game special, even if his own character development in the main games pretty much ended after 3. The kind but stern and incredibly innocent personality is just so charming, it's what I thought was lacking in Judge Eyes with its more cynical approach to its main character. The other characters are just there. They're fine, Okita is a highlight as always. There's always an air of mystery to each major supporting character's motivations within the Shinsengumi so that element of mystery is kinda nice. Nagakura's appearance is very much lacking though. He's just there.
More on story, it's fine for what it is. One of the better stories in fact since there is no easy way out the writers use (Florist), but I played this after playing Judge Eyes which story is easily the best in the entire series, so expectations were skewed and all that. The story does have flaws in it, I'd say not enough time is dedicated to Takechi's role in the story, but still, for what it is it's still a good story.
Gameplay wise, the combat system is really shallow. You get 4 styles to choose from, but none of them particularly satisfying to use. Hand to Hand is limited compared to the rest of the series, Sword is what I assume the devs want you to use most the time, but the limited moveset and reliance on crafting for good swords make it not much fun to use. Pistol is pretty OP and the guns are easy to get, and is what I used for the late game almost exclusively, but it's not much fun since all it is is just holding R1 and mashing square a whole lot. Wild Dance is completely useless. One thing the series fixed going forward is the integration of each style into each other. In Ishin, there's no real reason to switch styles during combat unless you want some variety.
Side content wise, Ishin has a lot of content, but with barely any depth to them. This is a recurring problem with the series not exclusive to Ishin, but I feel 0 struck gold with this by incorporating entire story arcs within some of the minigames to make them more memorable. 0 also had depth to some of its minigames. Ishin however has very little of this. The chicken minigame for example is a holdover from 5, but in that, you could customize your chicken and actually take part in races and stuff. Here it's pure betting. The Another Life section is pretty shallow too, cooking is kinda fun for the first few recipes but after cooking everything I just decided it's more efficient to just buy health pills instead. Haruka is cute but her scenes are lacking and you don't really see her and Ryoma bond unlike in the main series. The courtesan minigames are nowhere near as deep as the hostesses in the main series (here you only talk to one girl, play a few minigames and that's it. no real talking or anything). Arena battles are completely optional for once, but you don't get anything good you wouldn't get from the far more lucrative Dungeon Crawling.
Speaking of which, Ishin is very grind heavy. This was the first game to include Vita integration for things like Minigames, Battle Arenas , Another Life and Dungeon Crawling.Wherein you can take your vita anywhere and continue on the grind elsewhere. Crafting materials are all hidden in Dungeon Crawling and it's really tedious. Long empty hallways with enemies and mazes that vary in difficulty aren't fun. And the shortest grind to get the Model 14 pistol is still a few hours of my life I'll never get back.
The substories are cute. Some of the better ones in the series, some on par with 0's in fact. I haven't played them all since I was rushing through the game, but they really outdid themselves in certain parts. I think a personal favourite of mine would be when Ryoma had to pretend to be a mom when playing House with a few kids and deliberately choosing the wrong answers was fun.
Overall Ishin is okay. Should you play it? I mean it's not bad or anything, but the hype it sometimes gets from the Western fandom is too much. The Japanese in this game truth be told isn't too difficult. Most characters imported from the main series speak in modern Japanese with their respective accents from the main game, and there is an in game glossary for some archaic terms they sometimes use. If your Japanese is around chuugakusei level you'll do fine. I'm glad to have played it but I still prefer other games over it. It's not something worth localizing as far as I'm concerned.
6/10
Personal ranking:
0>5>6>Judge Eyes>Ishin>Kiwami 2>Kiwami
(didn't play 3 or 4 but I watched walkthroughs of them)
Let's start with story. It's a self contained story that's pretty interesting and decently written. It's like AssCreed where it takes place in an established historical era with actual historical characters but tells a completely original story that deviates from actual history quite a bit. So not knowing anything about the Bakumatsu era isn't a big deal, you just need to know some basic background info on each character to get going. Unlike the other Yakuza games (bar 0), there isn't much downtime or filler in this. Pacing is decent and doesn't drag too much or isn't too rapid, and important beats are punctuated nicely. However, since my Japanese is extremely poor, I spent my time reading through KHHSubs' summaries after every few cutscenes to reaffirm whether I truly understood what was going on. Which isn't ideal since the summaries get increasingly succinct towards the late game, where characters talking for 15 minutes get summarized as "We see Character X talk to Ryoma then they fight". You are going to miss a lot of ques and character stuff by just reading the summaries.
The characters are fine. As I said, I hoped Takechi got more time to shine in the story. Most of the characters are modelled after their Yakuza counterparts, so it's fun to see if their arcs are any similar to their model characters from the original series. It can be quite surprising to see some characters act out of character. There's no real character development for Ryoma/Kiryu, he's pretty much the same man from start to end, but his reactions and interactions with the world around him is what makes each Yakuza game special, even if his own character development in the main games pretty much ended after 3. The kind but stern and incredibly innocent personality is just so charming, it's what I thought was lacking in Judge Eyes with its more cynical approach to its main character. The other characters are just there. They're fine, Okita is a highlight as always. There's always an air of mystery to each major supporting character's motivations within the Shinsengumi so that element of mystery is kinda nice. Nagakura's appearance is very much lacking though. He's just there.
More on story, it's fine for what it is. One of the better stories in fact since there is no easy way out the writers use (Florist), but I played this after playing Judge Eyes which story is easily the best in the entire series, so expectations were skewed and all that. The story does have flaws in it, I'd say not enough time is dedicated to Takechi's role in the story, but still, for what it is it's still a good story.
Gameplay wise, the combat system is really shallow. You get 4 styles to choose from, but none of them particularly satisfying to use. Hand to Hand is limited compared to the rest of the series, Sword is what I assume the devs want you to use most the time, but the limited moveset and reliance on crafting for good swords make it not much fun to use. Pistol is pretty OP and the guns are easy to get, and is what I used for the late game almost exclusively, but it's not much fun since all it is is just holding R1 and mashing square a whole lot. Wild Dance is completely useless. One thing the series fixed going forward is the integration of each style into each other. In Ishin, there's no real reason to switch styles during combat unless you want some variety.
Side content wise, Ishin has a lot of content, but with barely any depth to them. This is a recurring problem with the series not exclusive to Ishin, but I feel 0 struck gold with this by incorporating entire story arcs within some of the minigames to make them more memorable. 0 also had depth to some of its minigames. Ishin however has very little of this. The chicken minigame for example is a holdover from 5, but in that, you could customize your chicken and actually take part in races and stuff. Here it's pure betting. The Another Life section is pretty shallow too, cooking is kinda fun for the first few recipes but after cooking everything I just decided it's more efficient to just buy health pills instead. Haruka is cute but her scenes are lacking and you don't really see her and Ryoma bond unlike in the main series. The courtesan minigames are nowhere near as deep as the hostesses in the main series (here you only talk to one girl, play a few minigames and that's it. no real talking or anything). Arena battles are completely optional for once, but you don't get anything good you wouldn't get from the far more lucrative Dungeon Crawling.
Speaking of which, Ishin is very grind heavy. This was the first game to include Vita integration for things like Minigames, Battle Arenas , Another Life and Dungeon Crawling.Wherein you can take your vita anywhere and continue on the grind elsewhere. Crafting materials are all hidden in Dungeon Crawling and it's really tedious. Long empty hallways with enemies and mazes that vary in difficulty aren't fun. And the shortest grind to get the Model 14 pistol is still a few hours of my life I'll never get back.
The substories are cute. Some of the better ones in the series, some on par with 0's in fact. I haven't played them all since I was rushing through the game, but they really outdid themselves in certain parts. I think a personal favourite of mine would be when Ryoma had to pretend to be a mom when playing House with a few kids and deliberately choosing the wrong answers was fun.
Overall Ishin is okay. Should you play it? I mean it's not bad or anything, but the hype it sometimes gets from the Western fandom is too much. The Japanese in this game truth be told isn't too difficult. Most characters imported from the main series speak in modern Japanese with their respective accents from the main game, and there is an in game glossary for some archaic terms they sometimes use. If your Japanese is around chuugakusei level you'll do fine. I'm glad to have played it but I still prefer other games over it. It's not something worth localizing as far as I'm concerned.
6/10
Personal ranking:
0>5>6>Judge Eyes>Ishin>Kiwami 2>Kiwami
(didn't play 3 or 4 but I watched walkthroughs of them)
Comments
Post a Comment