#this could mean Nothing from rgg of course. But

[kenzan-brainrot-mp4]

talk more about the white whale/whale symbolism in general whatever thoughts you have on the whale stuff i want to hear it 👂

GRAHHHHH YEAH (This one got. Long (again lol) So be prepared (series-wide spoilers but I feel like that's a given atp))

First of all I just wanna say that I love how rgg drags the player along around the final chapter title. With how upfront the other chapter titles are in what they're referring to, you might end up wondering why they chose White Whale for the final chapter title once you see the title card (or at least I did). Of course, this could just be referring to the treasure that everyone's been looking for, but with how nonchalantly they react to the fact that the treasure isn't actually there, it doesn't seem to completely fit the bill.

But then you beat the game (and by this I mean beat the final boss) and lo and behold, there's an Actual white whale, and so you think "Oh! Duh, the chapter's called White Whale because there's a literal white whale and it pretty much just finished off the final boss!" But that still doesn't make that much sense. Why name the final chapter (arguably the most important one) after some whale that appears in the last like 15 minutes of the game? Like, take the final chapter name of (Kiryu) Gaiden, it's literally the name of the game (The Man Who Erased His Name) so it's gotta be something more significant than that, right? (But then of course take into the account that by this point the player is still convinced that nothing really in pyih is too deep/serious, so maybe it could just be something as simple as that).

Then you get to the credits, and they reveal that the "elixir"/the ambergris is found in the stomachs of whales. Damn, that's pretty crazy/cool, but once again, nobody that was actively seeking the treasure (Rodriguez, Jason/Noah, Spade Tucker, etc you know the drill) seems to hung up on the fact that they didn't find it, and they didn't even encounter the whale, so they wouldn't get that same sense that they just missed it either, again, it's not a big deal really, so why make that the final chapter title?

Of course, we all know what this builds up to: the big reveal, the fact that Majima, who we've been following along with this entire game, was looking for that elixir this entire time, was the only one to actually encounter a whale in the game, and then there's the insane line drop from Saejima.

"Kiryu Kazuma. You never could give up on that one."

Ironically, the final chapter title has nothing to do with that whale you saw earlier at all, rather it's a summary of what Majima's motivations/actions for this game, and the past. Almost every game, has meant for him. It's what Saejima spells out for us at the end of the game, but said in even fewer words.

An all-consuming obsession that only leads to your destruction. An impossibility, something that you can destroy yourself over but never achieve/obtain. This is what the white whale means, metaphorically. And it is this, exactly, that Kiryu is to Majima.

Kiryu is larger than life itself, to just about everyone. He's a legend, he's the one Majima has had his sights on since the very beginning, the legend he chases after game after game and also what he destroys himself over game after game.

(see:

Yakuza 1 -> Majima just straight up taking a full-on stab wound for Kiryu. Like, buddy, I literally saw one of my favorite characters die that way in another game, there was No guarantee you were surviving that.

Yakuza 2 -> Majima fights off an army of yakuza for Kiryu. That man was beat to total Shit (which is Not something that happens often) and we all saw it

Yakuza 3 -> Majima re-enters the Tojo Clan for Kiryu even though he is (extremely likely) aware that it is already entering its steady decline that we see throughout the rest of the series up until its dissolution. And while he's willing to do it for Kiryu, we can't exactly say that he's happy about the situation as a whole.

Yakuza 5 -> Majima's willingness to die for Haruka, specifically stated because "She means more to Kiryu-chan than life itself." Like, of course he wouldn't just let Haruka get killed, but to choose to mention Kiryu as part of his reasoning in that moment? Christ

While I (surprisingly) can't say anything particularly self-destructive happened in (Kiryu) Gaiden and Infinite Wealth, you could argue that Majima trying to more and more directly tell Kiryu not to leave ("No need to rush outta here yet... Alright?" -> "Don't leave! Don't you dare leave, Kiryu-chan!"), knowing that it's likely pointless, knowing Kiryu, is not doing himself any favors.

Pirate Yakuza -> *gestures at the entire game*

Also his reaction to encountering that giant squid ("Sure is a helluva way to die. I think I'm into it!"). Like, okay. I don't want to try and read too much into it because it was very likely just a one off line. But I'm still gonna side-eye it.

Honestly now that I think about it, if Majima Had died fighting that giant squid (that is such a way to begin a sentence thank you rgg), you could argue that that would've been his nail in the coffin for the white whale metaphor. If he had, it would've meant that his obsession for Kiryu is what got him dragged down into the literal depths of the ocean, and even if it wouldn't be Kiryu physically dragging Majima down like the white whale to Ahab, this is a situation that is completely, entirely, fueled by Majima's obsession towards him (Majima had no real interest in the nuclear waste cleanup project, after all, Kiryu was his one motivation this entire time), and it would've drowned him.

Guess that means he got real lucky with the last part, but we all know he sure as hell isn't beating the allegations.)

All this and yet Majima seems to fail to reaching Kiryu time and time again.

Majima does not obtain the Heart of the Dragon, found in the intestines of the literal whale. He does not obtain eternal life for Kiryu. And he (arguably, though the final scene of him walking to Kiryu's hospital room could oppose this) does not resolve the indefinite limbo that has been sitting between them throughout the entire series. What he gets at the end of the game is the acknowledgement (through Saejima, everybody thank him) that he has been obsessing over this, and perhaps the realization that Kiryu was, in fact, this white whale that he would never truly reach ("Well, still just a dream in the end.") Of course this is something he already knows/has acknowledged deep down, and it's a feeling that is hinted at in some of his dialogue in scattered moments, but this is the first time he ever says it in such an outright manner.

I guess in a way, you could say that Pirate Yakuza is a story about the newfound success of all the people Majima helped and supported in achieving their dreams, and the continued failure of Majima in pursuing his own (Kiryu), and him needing to acknowledge/accept that. And the post-credits begs the question of what he decides to do with the aftermath and what he has left. (An oversimplification definitely but still. augh. Augh)

Naming the final chapter White Whale was yet another crazy move on rgg's part. Its so unassuming, seemingly straightforward yet also seemingly insignificant, but once the realization dawns on you it slaps you right in the face, just like everything else about this game does. It's yet another instance of how rgg managed to pull its big reveal so well, with all the small details, all the reframing, all pointing back to the same topic that it had spent the entire rest of the game dancing around.

Majima recounting his story of how he went to Hawaii -> Majima recounts his story to Kiryu in the exact same way at the very end

The treasure everyone's been looking for/known about + Majima, the one guy who didn't have knowledge about any of this legend stuff prior? -> Wrong, he was after the treasure from the very start (before the amnesia at least). For Kiryu

Majima originally being on course for Hawaii so he could help with the nuclear waste cleanup even though he'd be bored as hell? -> Nah. For Kiryu (Ohhhhh you know what this is reminding me of some screenshots I took from near the beginning of the game)

(I'm sure this meant nothing of course. Lol. Lmao)

Majima's dream during pirate yakuza being to fulfill Other People's dreams -> Haha. Well, I think you get the point by now

Kiryu, Kiryu, Kiryu. It all goes back to Kiryu, every single time, without fail, in an obsessive loop that Majima has been dragging himself around over for Years. He is the white whale, seemingly untouchable, the constant object of Majima's attention and devotion in so many forms, his consistent weak point, that only seems to dig at him deeper as the games go on.

Like I said before, while the white whale metaphor is undeniable, and essentially spells doom for Majima, it's not over for him yet. Because, hey, he didn't drown at sea, or die on the beach. He was saved, and he's survived enough to retell that tale and reflect on it all with Saejima in the post-credits, brief as that reflection was. I mentioned before how he really only said one line of any actual substance during that specific part of the exchange, but the significance of it says so much.

"Well, still just a dream in the end"

As much as it hurts to here Majima address the hopelessness of it all, to hear him say something like that after Saejima basically just laid out his sheer devotion and refusal to give up on his dream for everyone to see, I think the bittersweetness is. Good, actually. Captain Ahab never gave up on that pursuit on the white whale, and it destroyed him; that whale dragged him down until he finally drowned, and it feels like all Majima has been doing over Kiryu since Yakuza 3 is drowning himself in him.

Don't get me wrong, I (for now at least) do not take that line as a complete admittance of defeat, or Majima finally giving up on Kiryu, on that dream he could never let go of. (Like I've been saying, it's an acknowledgement, not exactly a declaration.) I do not think it means he is just letting go, full-stop.

But I do hope it means he can stop himself from self-destructing completely. I hope it means that he can slow down with the wild chase, (and that he and Kiryu can just. Sit down and talk like fucking normal people. Which i guess they are doing in the post-credits, supposedly) and I hope it means that he won't drown completely, especially in the case of the worst possible scenario.

[undercooked-spaghetti]

There are SO MANY chances RGG had with showing off how Higashi and Sugiura interact without anyone around, but they're always OFF-SCREEN and we never see any of it!

Sugiura and Higashi bring Kaito to some back-alley doctor (Emoto Medical Clinic, perhaps?) to get him patched up after being shot. There's no way they didn't talk a little. Sugiura would have still had the device to listen in on the Matsugane office, and it's clear he overheard what Higashi was doing in terms of going against Hamura's orders and getting beat up as a result of his defiance. It also explains how Sugiura knew where to find Yagami when he and Kaito got ambushed by Hamura.

After Saori agrees to a date with Kido at the batting center in Kamurocho, Yagami mentions that Higashi and Sugiura are going ahead to keep an eye on the place.

After Yagami and Sugiura get back from Shono's secret lab, Kaito leaves Higashi in charge of staying with Sugiura.

In Lost Judgment, after Sugiura and Yagami bring Mamiya over to Charles for questioning, Yagami leaves them to go meet up with Kuwana.

It's obvious that the two interact enough to get on friendly terms by the end of Judgment. Higashi gets uppity when Sugiura grabs the Charles phone and hands it to Yagami, and Sugiura briefly mentions that Higashi acts like he's hot shit. But after Matsugane dies, Sugiura lends his van to Kaito and Higashi to keep an eye on Kuroiwa. It could be that Kaito just can't drive and Higashi can, but it feels trusting for Sugiura to allow Higashi to drive his vehicle.

After Sugiura and Higashi stay together at Charles and that month passes awaiting Kuroiwa's trial, Higashi taking the time to stop in the middle of action to direct Sugiura to go with Yagami feels like he knows that it would mean a lot for Sugiura to help get Shono.

Even at the end of Lost Judgment, Sugiura comments on Higashi's boredom in Kamurocho. Which means at some point, the two caught up on what's been happening in however long it had been since they saw each other. Higashi probably told Sugiura that Charles was doing better, but it left him with too much time on his hands and nothing to do.

Don't get me wrong, the lack of screen-time together means that for me, as a writer, I can fill in the blanks with my own interpretation, but... man, I just would love to get an idea of how they are together alone. RGG has put them together in situations, but of course we don't get to be flies on the wall for any of them.

And yeah, it doesn't further the plot to see how they interact with each other, but I feel like them getting along by the end of Judgment was character development for the both of them. Especially when you consider that, really, they were in similar circumstances during Judgment and just doing their best to get by.

[tanimuradefender]

Characters I think deserve full games

...or at least characters I feel like could play an important role in a game. Not that I'm upset that Majima is getting is own game, but I believe it sets a principle that other characters getting the spotlight is very much possible!

Spoilers for Yakuza 6, Kiwami 2, (minor) Like a Dragon

1. So to get it out of the way: Tanimura Game. Please. Or at least bring him back in one way or another.

I don't exactly mean a complete standalone game just for Tanimura but I would love it if he was connected to the Judgment series. He's already around Yagami and Kaito's age and very likely went to the same school as at least one of them. And especially if we don't get Yagami back, I think Tanimura would be a really good inclusion for an important side character in the event with get Judgement 3. Hell, give him the Kaito Files treatment and give him his DLC - as long as he's in Judgement Id be happy.

Or, or or, even a game that happens during Yakuza 6 and possibly investigating the Little Asia fire. Of course it would be unlikely they could do this within the framework of 6 but getting an insider perspective to the whole event and focusing on the community again would be wonderful to see. To me, it was so wasted not to have that perspective.

As much as I don't like Shinda, I think having a partner game with Tanimura would be appropriate considering their introduction in one game and complete disappearance in the following game, even though there were places for them to show up.

2. Formation of the Dojima Family / Kazama's raise to power.

This has always been a major blind spot in the Yakuza history, so a game involving younger Kazama, Kashiwagi, even Shimano and their younger years would be a great thing to expand upon. Of course nothing that interferes with current canon, but I would love to see more of these characters. Especially even more Kashiwagi content would make the one guy who likes Kashiwagi at RGG very happy. You can also freely bring up older characters that haven't been seen in a while to establish them more and introduce characters they can kill/never see again in the main series for no problem.

3. Ryuji game?

I'm a massive believer that Ryuji should've lived after the events of 2, and I would argue there is some room for him to still be active within the Omi, or even a game focusing about his departure from the Omi in the event they want to use that as an explanation as so why he's not involved with the Omi in later games. I'd say they would have a lot of freedom within this framework and actually being within the Omi would make for a refreshing experience - they could even establish pre context for the events in Like a Dragon.

As a bonus, not really character focused, but... Dead Souls 2 / Kiwami Souls

OKAY SO hear me out, I think it would be absolutely hilarious if we got a Dead Souls 2 as an official continuation to the first one, but making a Kiwami would make Dead Souls much more accessible and (hopefully) much better to play. Or at least even a remastered port as long as they improve the game play. Plus I think more people need to experience Daigo in feminine clothing and make up. regardless I would find it hilarious if they did this.

Regardless, all of these would be fun to see in one way or another but I won't be upset if we don't ever get these.

[itsybitsylemonsqueezy]

Please now I am desperate for a Baba breakdown from you. Favorite part of him? Least favorite? What would you change? What do you think is unchangeable? *pleading face*

Oh, I see I��ve sparked an interest ^^; Of course I’ll talk about the best little whore in all of Japan, Baba Shigeki xp 

I joke, but like... have you seen Y5? He’s not leaving much up to interpretation, tbh : | And I love that! Baba is a really fantastic and well-executed RGG character and it’s a shame so much of fandom is sleeping on him. (I know mostly it’s that it takes people awhile to get to Y5 ^^; )

Baba occupies a really important space in the Yakuza universe, the assassin. He’s an important reminder that not Everyone in this universe is a moralistic do-gooder. People like Majima and Kiryu are in fact in the minority. Most of the yakuza are thugs, people ready and willing to hurt others and even kill. And we’ve had assassins before in Kazama and Sera, but they’re mostly out of our hand. We don’t know them too well personally. and that makes sense, they’re the previous generation, their values and choices are reflective of a different time. Our time is largely shaped by Kiryu, he is the yakuza messiah. But just because he’s king god of the criminal underworld doesn’t mean that the underworld isn’t still... y’know, dark and harsh. Especially since Kiryu renounced his throne. 

And Baba is the stark reminder of that. I had been waiting for a long time for us to come into contact with a yakuza member who didn’t fall in line when we finally got to Baba. Because, as we all like to point out, Kiryu’s version of this job is pretty rose-colored and naive. HE might be able to only fight bad people and to use his power to help others, but so few of us are in that position. Kiryu is king god, there are no challenges for him, there’s nothing stopping him, literally. So he CAN just do whatever he wants, up to and including being a good person. Most of us aren’t that lucky, just look at Majima. But even Majima, after a time, gets to be a good person and amasses enough power that he can be nice without it being a death threat. But they’re gods, legends. Your average yakuza member is some punk kid who grew up to being a punk adult who has a shitty boss to answer to and dues to pay. Sometimes there isn’t a convenient bad person to pick on. Sometimes, to save your own neck, you gotta take money from people smaller than you. Sometimes you gotta intimidate and scare people. Sometimes you gotta do unpleasant things to please the boss, to make ends meet, to hold up your end. Not all of us have the luxury of making moral choices. 

And Baba is in a worse position than most. Baba isn’t big and tough. He doesn’t have the physical might to be a brawler, so he can’t be some street thug. His options in life likely weren’t great. Probably an orphan, probably had no one to look after him. So he grew teeth fast and figured out quick that ain’t nobody gonna take care of him, he was gonna have to take care of himself. With a body and face like his, he could easily enter sex work of some kind but that job is punishing for a whole other list of reasons. And Baba’s no dummy, he’s canny, he’s strategic. No, he’s smart enough to use his body to dupe others. He knows people trust his angel face. And there’s more money and more security to be had in a job of violence than selling himself to the highest bidder and forever being at someone else’s beck and call. My bet is Baba’s plan was to make enough money as an assassin that he could retire and live out his life in peace where no one would bother him. And his training as n assassin would keep people off his back. Baba decided a long time ago it is MUCH better to be feared than loved. Can’t rely on love, can’t trust it. But fear, people listen to fear. 

So I LOVE that we finally get the perspective of someone who didn’t get any breaks in life, who wasn’t blessed with divine strength, or lucked into a special position. Baba had to struggle for everything and it made him sharp and it made him paranoid. He doesn’t like killing people, it’s not fun, but he’s so scared of what will become of himself, he can’t bear to stop. He can’t afford to make moral choices. He has to survive, above all things, he has to survive. So another assignment in a prison? Sure, why not. Get close to a guy he has to take out later? Sure, he’s done it before. He’s a great spy, a great flirt. And it makes him feel better to sneer over people too stupid to see through him. They get what they deserve if they believe his honeyed lies. He doesn’t have to mourn his actions if they deserved it. Wash his hands, move on to the next mark. 

Saejima should have been no different. And for awhile, it’s easy. Saejima’s a big dumb hunk of meat. All Baba has to do is bat his pretty eyes and look like he needs help. Piece of cake. But Saejima... is different. Oh, he’s duped, sure enough, he’s gentle and sympathetic and protective, all the things Baba needs, but... One of the reasons Baba hated his past marks so much and felt no remorse killing them, is they all wanted something from him. Every last one of them thought they could get something from him, usually his body, but sometimes not. Every one of them was a selfish piece of shit who would have used him just as surely as Baba is using them right back. But Saejima... Saejima doesn’t want anything. He doesn’t try anything. Even when Baba flirts, even when Baba offers, Saejima acts like he doesn’t understand. The fuck??? It starts to anger Baba, the way Saejima just looks at him blankly and shrugs off invitations. Who does this guy think he is, think he’s better than him? Baba will make him understand, make him want him. Still Saejima is stunned and still he seems to only respond because Baba is asking him to, not because deep down Saejima was trying to use him to. 

Baba can’t... he can’t accept that. That can’t be real. If Saejima really was just helping him because... because he likes him or something, because he’s nice... no, that’s wrong. No one’s good and no one’s nice. Everyone’s out for themselves. No one goes out of their way for each other. Because if they did... then why did no one ever help Baba before? He wraps himself in sureness that Saejima’s just stupid and his selfish instincts are really in there, they’re just slow to appear. He’s just like all the others, he’d kick Baba to the curb the same as anyone else and then... Baba doesn’t have to feel bad about killing him. Then Baba can pull the trigger and all of this will be done. 

He’s sure, without a doubt in his mind, when he feels his hands slip off Saejima on that snowmobile and he’s sent flying, his last conscious thought is that he’ll die here. He’s almost happy. Because then he’d be right. Saejima will have left him and he’d be right. And, maybe just a little, he’s happy that he won’t have to kill Saejima either. Maybe this is best. 

It is the shock of his life when Baba wakes up. He wakes up and he’s warm and indoors and there’s a fire going and weak broth and Saejima hovering over him with a spoon going “You’re awake!" Baba starts crying and Saejima assumes it’s the shock and holds him, actually fucking holds him and... Baba doesn’t think he can do this anymore. How is he supposed to kill the one person who’s ever been nice to him? How is he supposed to look Saejima in the eye and shoot him? Oh god, Saejima should have left him there to die, he should have, he should have... why is Saejima so fucking stupid, why doesn’t Saejima suspect? 

The next couple of weeks are some of the worst Baba’s ever spent. Saejima’s nicer than ever, cuddly and affectionate and warm, and Baba feels sick with guilt. See, this is why he only kills stupid people. This is why he only killed people who deserved it. He can’t... bear this. Pointing the gun at Saejima is the hardest thing he’s ever had to do. But he has to, his whole life has been about this, his life above anyone else’s. If he can’t kill Saejima then... what was it all for? What had it all been about? He’s crying. He’s actually fucking crying like a little bitch and he can’t stop. It’s weak, it’s pathetic, but he just wants Saejima to take the gun out of his hand, to tell him it’s going to be okay, to take him home. Saejima screams at him and Baba falls apart. Saejima swoops in on him, holds him close, takes the gun and tells him it’s all going to be okay. It won’t... in the back of his mind, Baba knows even if he fails here, he still has half a job to do. But the fact that... everything out in the open, true colors showing, Saejima is still hugging him and refusing to let go... Baba sinks into that for a minute and believes that maybe there is something else he could do with his life. 

Oh... I have feelings about Baba Shigeki ^^; I love him to death I wouldn’t change a thing. The only thing I want is for Saejima to take Baba home and bring him into the Tojo and then we’re all a weird dysfunctional family together ^^; That’s my dream. Friends and family for Baba X3

[joyandeggs]

3, 6, 19, 33, 34, 60 for the video game ask!

3. Favorite childhood game?

Oh gosh...there are too many. A lot of them are n64 games or gamecube games, which nearly all of them I watched my older brother play. Since he was much older than me, he wouldn't let me play "his" games majority of the time. He would literally take up every save file and tell me not to mess with them. 😧 Despite that, I do have fond memories watching the games I loved like a movie. Like...Ocarina of Time, Banjo-Kazooie, and Paper Mario, off the top of my head. Paper Mario was the biggest one I always loved watching. For gamecube games, Luigi's Mansion, Super Mario Sunshine, and both Pikmin 1 and 2, off the top of my head. There are too many for me to list that were big parts of my childhood.

One of my most favorites will always be the original Animal Crossing. I have such great memories from it. My mom would it every morning when she woke up and made coffee, she absolutely loved the game. We'd both drink coffee together and I'd watch her play. Something that I miss severely. I would watch her play Wild World, and I would play New Leaf, and we'd just sit side by side in bed playing and showing each other our games, even though that was during college, so not too long ago. But I still miss that. My mom doesn't play video games at all anymore, but she still enjoys them. Even whenever I talk to her about newer or different games she hasn't heard of, she's just like "Oh, cool!" (She actually saw a picture of Iori on my phone one day and I think she fell for him. LOL She was just ahhh!!! Couldn't get over how pretty he was!!) She is so cool. ❤

If I could pick a whole series, I would go with Smash Bros. Ever since the original on the 64, the series has given me the greatest hits in my life. The series means the world to me, I love it so much. Not only has it given me joy, but helped me get to know characters I would never know and love today. Melee and Brawl were both such a big deal to me, Melee because of Marth and Roy, and Brawl because of Sonic and Meta Knight. Which is crazy to think back on. I never had internet until Brawl came out, so looking up more about Kirby and Sonic blew my mind when I was younger. Now, we have Ultimate with everyone along with new characters, and... This is a whole story by itself. Maybe another time. 💌

6. An underrated game from the last few years?

I actually need to look up what games came out in the last few years... I actually really loved Dragon Ball Fighterz! Playing it with Corin was always fun. I loved the story mode, how the characters interacted, and just...ahh, it hit a soft spot in me, but that's because I really enjoy the series. Jump Force I actually liked, even though nobody ended up liking it. I just always love how they get all these characters together to fight. Even though...there's a lot of more obscure characters missing from the newest game. Huge bummer. And of course there's Judgment and Fist of the North Star: Lost Paradise. Those two are heavily underrated. I love them both a lot, but I enjoy all of the games from RGG Studio. There I go back on anime again. wwww Whoops. Oh! And Shenmue 3, of course! I absolutely love the Shenmue series! Severely underrated. That game is so good, and so beautiful. I'll never understand why people wouldn't love it.

19. Hardest game you ever played?

Truthfully? ...The King of Fighters games. I've tried playing them, but I am so awful at them. I can't even beat a single match, nor do any input moves. Even set to level one, and the games just...kill me. When you really love video games, but you're absolute garbage at them. 💔 I love the series so much, I want to cry. Maybe I'll get better one of these days!

33. Favorite female npc?

Hm... Let me think. There's Pauline from the Mario series! She's the best in Odyssey, along with Princess Peach and Princess Daisy. Even though Peach and Daisy are both playable in most games. Technically Chuchu is playable in Kirby's Dreamland 3 as a friend, but she isn't usually. She's very obscure, but I love her so much. Ribbon and Adeline from Crystal Shards, too! So many cute girl characters from the old games. For some reason I'm having a hard time thinking of human characters! Off the top of my head...I think of Maria from Sonic Adventure 2, and Yuki from King of Fighters. Oh! There's Roll! From Mega Man Legends. There are many, many more I'm sure, my mind just blanks so bad.

34. Favorite male npc?

Well...there's Ren from the Shenmue series! I want to say someone like Bowser...or even Meta Knight, but they're playable in most games. And I still love Papyrus and Sans from Undertale, even though my love for the game isn't as strong as what it was years ago. Wow, I'm so much better at naming characters that I can play as rather than nonplayable ones, aren't I?

60. The game you are best at?

There's another game from my childhood that I can actually say I am the best at, and that's Pokemon Puzzle League. It's been years since I've played it, but I use to play it all the time. I got so good at making combos and everything that I was just super fast at it. I loved it. I really miss it. I remember just sitting in a chair in my mom's room relaxing with it. ❤ More good memories.

Smash Bros as a whole I'm quite good at! Nothing fancy or up there with people who play it competitively or anything, but I am pretty good. And Mario Party!! Ahh, I'm a master at the joystick rotating from the first one! Along with the face lift and pizza eating minigames, too. 😛

And I'm also surprisingly good at Rocket League! I played it with Corin and his cousin over the weekend, and I was great at it, without ever playing it before! It was too much fun. I'll have to play it with Corin again.

[kinogane]

Essence of Combat, Part 3: The Pinnacle

(major Yakuza: Like a Dragon and other Yakuza spoilers below)

(previously)

In the waning moments of Yakuza: Like a Dragon, Ichiban and crew defeat governor of Tokyo Ryo Aoki and his flunkies after successfully exposing Aoki's true nature and unsuccessfully trying to bring him back from his excessively paranoid megalomania. As the battle proves to be ultimately too strenuous for the party members, Ichiban sets off on his own to end it all and settle things one-on-one. But not with Ryo Aoki, governor of Tokyo, political phenom, ruthless schemer, two-faced hypocrite, the man behind the murders of Ryuhei Hoshino and others, and the source of just about everything that's gone wrong for Ichiban since New Year's Day 2001.

No, he's settling things with Masato Arakawa. The young master. A man who he served without hesitation, a man who he saw and still sees, despite everything, as his own brother.

Besides the obvious emotional weight behind the final battle, there's also a few mechanical quirks. The first is that Ichiban is in a battle by himself for the first time since he teams with Adachi to infiltrate the Omi Alliance meeting in Kamurocho. The second, and what I find significantly more interesting, is that Ichiban is automatically reclassed into the Freelancer job that the vast majority of players will not have used since the aforementioned bat-drawing scene that gives players access to Ichiban's Hero job.

I find this switch to Freelancer interesting, because it reflects another hallmark of the Yakuza action combat. Or, more accurately, a hallmark of Yakuza combat in the context of its plot: the final boss fight.

The Yakuza games have a long history of having one-on-one climactic final boss fights to mark the end of gameplay. As you would expect, these bosses tend to be among the toughest in the whole game, and the choreography of the cutscenes in the fight, along with the usually highly dramatic circumstances surrounding it, generally mean that they rank among the most memorable encounters in the series as a whole.

Going back to the Freelancer switch, it's worth noting that for this fight, the game reasonably assumes that most players haven't leveled the job at all and helpfully gives Ichiban access to the entire skillset of the Freelancer job.

The Freelancer skills, in order, are:

Tenacious Fist: A windup right hook.

Rock Swing: A headlock into a hip toss.

Headbutt Barrage: A collar grab into two headbutts, then a jumping headbutt.

Hyper Swagger: A taunt that raises attack and evasion.

Dropkick: A standing dropkick.

Ruffian's Kick: A jumping side kick.

Atomic Drop: An atomic drop, as seen previously in Yakuza games as Essence of Knee Slam.

Release German Suplex: A release German suplex.

Notice that all are unarmed techniques, befitting of a job that has no weapon type and must be unarmed, and all of them wouldn't really be out of place in a Kiryu Saga protagonist's moveset. (Again, Shinada and Kiryu can already perform an atomic drop as Heat Actions in Yakuza 5 and Yakuza 0 and Kiwami, respectively.)

As a bonus (and a bit of a reach), every previous mainline Yakuza protagonist can learn the ability to build Heat by taunting, often through the White Tiger Spirit upgrade, and at least in 0 (and possibly other games), having Heat can increase your damage and evasiveness. What does Hyper Swagger do, again?

To really drive things home, the top level Freelancer skill is the job's Kiwami Action, Essence of Roadside Weapon. In many situations, it's simply the Essence of Might Heat Action that's been in many previous Yakuza games, but as its description suggests, performing it in other specific contexts has you instead performing attacks that may be, let's say, familiar to series veterans.

So the framing is really clear. For all intents and purposes, the final battle against Masato is the climactic final boss fight of Yakuza: Like a Dragon, further punctuated by Ichiban's Freelancer moveset making him the closest to a standard Yakuza protagonist he can possibly be. In this moment, Like a Dragon most closely and deliberately resembles the Yakuza games of the past.

To which I can't help but ask: if you're going to go this far in embracing Yakuza tradition, why not go all the way and let you control Ichiban in action combat?

Of course, there's a very obvious answer. They can't, because introducing an entirely new control scheme at the final hour in a game explicitly intended as a soft reboot for the franchise would be an ill-advised move. Additionally, while I've no insight into the intricacies of working with the Dragon Engine, I would not be even remotely surprised to find out that implementing action combat in Like a Dragon would be exceedingly difficult; making video games is very, very hard. And even if was feasible or even relatively simple, I would not be surprised if the testing and debugging necessary to make sure it was up to snuff would be considered too prohibitive to be worthwhile. Again, making video games is very, very hard, and making good video games is even harder. (And all of this is without considering RGG Studio's prolific output. They've put out games of this scope, almost every year, for over a decade.)

But putting aside the pragmatic reality of the matter, I do think it's worth interrogating the implications of Ichiban adopting the most mundane job and using the most mundane techniques against Masato but retaining the turn-based structure. Ichiban, by all accounts, is well within his rights to hold nothing back against Aoki, who's callously ruined innumerable lives in the name of his own need to attain absolute power and avoid being among the used at any cost. Ichiban could absolutely brain Aoki with a bat and give him the definitely not fatal concussion to end all definitely not fatal concussions, and it would maybe be a step too far, but not by much. (And as a consequence of transferrable skills and battle items, it is actually somewhat likely that you, as Ichiban, can do things like stab Aoki with a katana, throw dynamite right in his face, or blast him with a rocket launcher.)

But again, Ichiban's not fighting Aoki. He's fighting Masato. No one would blame him for not holding back, as he did back in prison against the three prisoners, but he still does. The Freelancer job switch means his stats are almost certainly objectively lower, across the board. He becomes unarmed, and loses access to many of his most powerful skills. And he still approaches the fight with his turn-based mindset, letting Masato get his hits in, just like every other enemy he's faced up to this point, because it's only fair. Because in spite of everything Masato has put Ichiban and his loved ones through, Masato is still the young master, still a brother to Ichiban. He just does not have it in himself to go all out against Masato. He's not fighting Masato to prove he's stronger; he's fighting Masato to stop him from losing himself further to his worst excesses and fears. To help him start over from rock bottom, just as he has.

Tremendous resonance between gameplay and story, to be sure, but it leaves an intriguing door open. Veterans who've played Yakuza 5 and 6 may remember that those games openly toy with the idea that while Kiryu has not purposefully killed in cold blood, he knows and more or less states that doing so is never fully off the table. So even if it somewhat obviously never comes to fruition, the specter of that possibility is played for drama in those games. Will this be the step too far that drives Kiryu to kill?

I posit that the Masato fight in Like a Dragon poses a similar question. It's not the case this time, but in future Yakuza games, will Ichiban ever be in such a dire situation, and come across an opponent who he deeply hates so much, that he drops the turn-based mindset entirely? And if so, will he be controlled like Yakuza games of old?

I've said as much before, but I don't think this is a given or even necessarily a good idea. Knowing what we do about Ichiban and the kind of person he is, it might very well be the case that this final boss fight is an intensely personal one and therefore special, and future final boss fights will be more along the lines of the more traditional (in a Like a Dragon sense) boss fight against Tendo, which would certainly be more in line with most turn-based RPG final boss fights. Hell, there are already people who treat Tendo as the true final boss fight and both fights afterward as bonus story fights.

Personally? I'm of two minds with this. On one hand, sure, I would have a lot of fun controlling Ichiban in action combat, even if it was just for one boss fight, because I do have considerably more fun with Yakuza action combat, hitting counters and performing Heat Actions, and the character implications of doing so would be a lot to chew on. But on the other, I also find the turn-based combat satisfying in a different way, I know that the action combat I prefer isn't going away any time soon in other games, and I think that it'd be better for the Ichiban games as a whole to make a clean break. The circumstances of the Masato fight are a neat throwback and acknowledgement of Yakuza's past, but I suspect if they do something similar in future games without going all the way, it'll land considerably flatter.

In other words, regardless of what direction they choose to take final boss fights (and to a lesser extent, combat mechanics like Kiwami Actions writ large) in the Like a Dragon sequels, I'm saying they should follow Saejima's evergreen advice.

[rubiaryutheroyal]

Discord Event 1

Since AO3 is being a real pain in the rear end with account invites, I’m gonna have to post this here. Sorry for the cramped tumblr page, but it’ll have to do.

Title: Paulownia Tomentosa Timeline: Yakuza 0 Spoilers: for endgame of above Shipping: N/A Legal stuff: Submission fanfic for the Springtime Festivities event on the Yakuza/RGG Fanworks Discord. All characters are ©Sega. Description: A tribute to Tetsu Tachibana and his now headcanon’d indoor zen garden. Warning: Name puns ahead. Proceed with caution.

Here is the empty lot.

It’s but a small patch of land caught between towering buildings. There is nothing here but abandoned scraps of wood chips, trash, and broken dreams.

A beautiful bouquet of lilies and balloon flowers lies still on the ground at the center of the lot. Though there is a gentle and swift breeze, the buildings that surround this lot make it difficult for the breeze to glide smoothly by. Thus, the flowers remain unmoving.

The sound of footsteps cracks through the silence. A towering man in a gray suit steps over to where the flowers have been laid. He’s carrying a small bag of mandarin oranges in one hand. With his other, he gently slips one out, a bright and crisp color with a single-leafed stem still attached, kneels down and sets it before the bouquet. He then steps back to view the scene.

It’s a moment of pause before he finally reveals a soft smile. He speaks in a low and deep tone: “Good news, Tachibana… They’ve been growing splendidly.”

He looks up to the sky, giving a deep sigh. Even if he’s only been employed as a real estate agent for a few months, they were some good few months.

“…I still don’t know a thing about gardening or plants altogether, but at least I’ll keep it going for as long as I can. It’s… what you would have wanted, right…?”

~

Several months prior…

Kazuma Kiryu is the newest recruit to Tachibana Real Estate Enterprises, and yet people can’t help but know his name. He’s the yakuza-like one. He’s the CEO’s pet. He’s the brash upstart who doesn’t know his place and would damn well have been fired already if it wasn’t for the boss.

Such words mean little to him, though. He’s well aware of how he ended up working for this company – but he doesn’t yet understand why he was accepted. The boss just came up to him one rainy night when he was just expelled from his family, and soon, he was in. And just a few days later, his supervisor Oda calls him up out of the blue.

“Yo, Kiryu-kun. The boss is looking for you.”

“Me? What for?”

“I dunno, but he said it was important, looked pretty solemn too… You didn’t do anything to piss him off, did you?”

“Of course not. I’ve only been working for three days!”

“Yeah, and in that span of time, you’ve managed to piss me off too many times to count.”

“…I’m still learning.”

“Save me your excuses. Anyway, you’d better get back to HQ and pronto. There’s only so far you can take a man’s patience before he snaps…”

“I got it already. I’ll be there.”

Oda promptly hangs up on him without so much a goodbye or thank you. Kiryu sighs, wondering to himself. Oda, I can understand… but why would the boss be upset with me? It’s been pretty quiet from him lately… I hope it’s nothing too serious.

He sets back the pay phone into its receiver and hurries off.

~

Knock knock.

“Come in,” comes the gentle reply.

Kiryu steps inside with a wary look on his face. Tachibana is standing by the window, hands behind his back, looking over the cityscape. He turns back around to greet him with a gentle smile.

“Ah, you’re here, Kiryu-san. Sorry to interrupt you from your work.”

He steps forward at attention. “It’s alright, sir. Oda said… er, Oda-san said you needed to see me for something?”

“Yes. It’s a little sudden, but I recalled something we had forgotten to do shortly after your initiation.”

“Huh? Oh, what is it? Is there something I have to fill out, or…?”

“Oh, no, nothing so formal.”

“Huh?”

Tachibana begins walking toward him, or rather, the door behind him. “Come with me. I need to first show you something.”

“…Alright, sir.”

He follows Tachibana out of the office, down the hall to the elevators, and steps in after him. He watches his boss press the number to the 49th floor, and the doors slide closed. In the next several minutes as the elevator cruises smoothly down to their destination, there’s an uncomfortable silence between the two of them. They both remain completely still, though Kiryu’s tensed face gives himself away.

…Sheesh, I haven’t felt this kind of nervousness since the first time Nishiki and I were sent to the disciplinary counselor back in grade school…

Finally, the elevator slows to a stop and the doors slide open again. Tachibana, without missing a beat, steps out. Kiryu follows along with a much stiffer stride, to which he tries to shake away the nerves.

He follows Tachibana to a large room in the back, noticing the placard set beside the door: Zen Garden.

“…A garden? In here?”

Tachibana nods silently and pushes open the door.

Inside is a beautiful arrangement of various tropical flowering plants native to East Asia, circular stone paths around a small pond, with window panes that line the entire back wall of the room. There is even the rhythmic clack of the shishiodoshi to the makeshift stream that runs along a little “hill” to the pond.

“…Nice place you got.”

“Thank you. I’ve probably spent a bit more than I needed to decorate it, but in the end… I rather like the outcome.”

“Hm…” Kiryu nods, but his attention strays to a spot near the back, where there sits an empty plot of earth. “Hm?”

“What is it, Kiryu-san?”

“I see there’s an empty space there. Are you going to fill it?”

“Ah, yes. That is what I wish to talk to you about.”

“Oh?”

“I had been contemplating what sort of plant to set there when I received that letter from Kazama-san about you. Since then, I’ve reserved this space just for you when you finally come to meet it.”

“…Is this the initiation thing you were talking about?”

“Well, it’s not exactly custom for us to treat every new recruit we get with a new plot in the garden, but I’m willing to make an exception this time.”

“But why me? I haven’t done anything outstanding yet… aside from making trouble for Oda-san.”

“It almost seems like a flight of fancy… but when we first met, I think I may have seen something else in you.”

“Huh?”

“Potential… to achieve greatness.”

“Um, I don’t know… I’m still getting used to proper etiquette and all that…”

Tachibana then chuckles, to his confusion. “It doesn’t have to be soon or even within the extent of this company, but it is there, lying in wait for the right time.”

“…” Kiryu doesn’t respond because he isn’t sure how. On one hand, it seems Tachibana is praising him, but on the other hand, there also seems to be some hidden motive behind it. Thinking about it, his boss does look awfully content with himself… maybe it’s the garden atmosphere?

“…In the meantime,” he casually continues, “How would you like to help me choose?”

“Um… choose what?”

“What sort of plant would you like to put there?”

“O-oh. A plant, huh…” Kiryu takes a moment – which only lasts a few seconds before he replies, “No idea. I don’t really know many plants.”

The blunt answer amuses Tachibana, who smirks back. “Well… what about something that could represent you or your connections to this company? Sort of like leaving your mark on it.”

“Hmm… I only really know about the common ones, like roses and tulips, sunflowers…” He pauses to think a little further. “…Oh, wait.”

“Yes?”

“Ah… I remembered a conversation I had with a childhood friend of mine about our names. When we asked the caretaker at the orphanage we lived in, she mentioned that the ‘kiri’ in my name was a kind of tree or something…”

“Ah, the Empress Tree.”

“E-empress?”

“Yes. It’s also called the foxglove tree because its flowers somewhat resemble foxglove flowers.”

“…Empress…”

“Don’t think too much into it, Kiryu-san. It is a beautiful and often prized tree.”

He clears his throat. “Anyway, would that be a good choice to put here? It’d sure stand out, but…”

“Hmm… I don’t think so.”

“Huh?”

“To grow a tree like that, we would need a much larger expanse of land, as its roots can grow rather deep. It’s not so fitting for a simple garden like this one.”

“Oh.”

“If you’re having trouble coming up with suggestions, may I offer a hint?”

“A hint?”

“You could try something that would better represent your connections to this company, for instance.”

“Connections… Well, I came to this company because of you, sir, so I guess… Tachibana, tachibana… Oh!” He looks rather excited when he comes out with it: “How about a mandarin orange tree?”

Tachibana seems to be taken aback in surprise.

Unsure of whether his attempt at a joke got across, he adds, “…’Cause you know, ‘tachibana’ written another way is…”

“…” And now he looks unamused.

“Uh… I-I’m sorry, sir. That was improper.”

He shakes his head. “No, it’s not you, Kiryu-san. I simply recalled something from my childhood. My apologies for spacing out like that.”

“I-it’s no problem, sir.” Whew.

He smiles again, peering over to the plot of soil, “Well, a little mandarin orange tree…” and back to him, “…for a young real estate agent. It’s quite poetic, really.”

“Yeah… um… I’ve been meaning to ask, sir.”

“Yes?”

“Do you like mandarins?”

Once again, Tachibana seems to freeze and doesn’t reply right away. Just as Kiryu is getting worried again, he does speak up: “They’re fine with me. I don’t particularly like them, but I certainly don’t dislike them.”

“Hm, I see… Are you alright? Should I not have brought up that question?”

“I’m fine,” he replies flatly. Thankfully, he has an incredibly strong poker face, so Kiryu doesn’t suspect a thing.

“Alright. Is this all you wanted to talk with me about, sir?”

“For now, yes. In the meantime, keep up the good work. I’m sure you’ll get used to how we do business very quickly.”

“Right. Of course, sir.”

Tachibana moves to head for the door while Kiryu takes another peek back at the plot. “Oh, sir?”

He wheels back around. “Yes, Kiryu-san?”

“Should I go fetch those seeds for you?”

He smiles with that familiar yet mysterious look in his eyes. “Don’t worry about it. I can search for them on my own time. Now, come along.”

Once they’re out the door, Kiryu bids his boss a polite bow and excuses himself. Today was an odd day for sure, getting called up by his boss out of the blue to talk about plants and oranges, but all in all, it was pretty fair and relaxing.

~

Kiryu snaps back to attention. He’s still here, standing in the empty lot, carrying a bag of mandarin oranges, staring off at the back wall. Of course, Tachibana is no longer here.

Nonetheless, it’s been a long time since Kiryu has felt this relaxed. He’s stopped by for a quick visit in his former boss’ honor and left an offering to his departed soul. That’s all he needs to do here. No point in moping about or feeling sorry for either of them. What’s happened has happened.

He peers back down at the bouquet and single mandarin orange he set beside it.

“… I might not have learned much about gardening, but at least I did learn some things from you. Thank you.”

And so he struts off with that bag in tow, wondering to himself what he’s going to do with the rest.

“…This is a lot of oranges for me. Maybe I’ll give them away?”

While he muses to himself, a shady fellow with an eyepatch hiding behind a nearby vehicle parked along the curb is now sitting on the ground, having a smoke to himself. At first he was going to ambush Kiryu, but on second thought, he realizes he just wanted to find out where the guy was headed with that bag of oranges. Now that he does know, all of a sudden, he’s not interested in picking a fight. Perhaps it’s for the best.

There’s always next time, after all.

[tapatapreview]

November 04, 2020 at 06:30PM https://ift.tt/3l12HQb Gaming

After the conclusion of the sequence’ earlier anthology with Yakuza 6, there have been large Kiryu-sized sneakers to fill. As our new protagonist Kasuga Ichiban steps into the highlight for Yakuza: Like a Dragon, developer RGG Studio proves it could nonetheless seize its signature mix of gripping melodrama and absurdist humor whereas creating one thing genuinely recent for the long-running franchise. The reinvention is not simply within the transition from action-brawler to turn-based fight, which is a good tackle conventional RPG battles. It’s that the celebration dynamic in Like a Dragon permits a brand new form of storytelling that the sequence hasn’t explored earlier than, one which focuses on the ability of embracing friendship and combating collectively each step of the way in which.

Like a Dragon begins anew, offering an entry level for individuals who have by no means performed a Yakuza recreation earlier than. But it would not be a correct sequence entry with out the core tenets that outline Yakuza–things like charming exposition-heavy cutscenes, thrilling over-the-top fights, and a wealth of aspect actions that flood the streets of a lifelike Japanese metropolis. In true Yakuza style, the tangled net of alliances, betrayals, secrets and techniques, and shifts in energy throughout totally different organizations function the muse for a lot of its character-driven story. And it is as candy as ever right here.

Kasuga, Number One

Ichiban has a well-known background: born from nothing, scraping by in Kamurocho till a father determine with yakuza ties digs him out of significant hassle. Ichiban’s life revolves round that man, Masumi Arakawa, and he ultimately follows in his footsteps by pledging himself to the Tojo Clan. Much of what propels Like a Dragon is the connection these two share–from Ichiban taking the autumn for a household crime to uncovering why he’d been left for useless in one other metropolis after his 18-year jail sentence. Things change in time, and that good-natured child who grew up loving Dragon Quest (actually in-lore) and doing innocent errands for the gang now has loads to study in regards to the felony underworld as he re-enters society.

Loud, goofy, naive, however all the time well-meaning, Ichiban typically lets his immaturity get the very best of him. Others are there to assist him study and develop, and he by no means wavers in his dedication to the folks round him. It rubs off on his companions, whose circumstances unite every of them as you unravel the thriller behind Ichiban’s exile to Ijincho, Yokohama (the place a lot of the recreation takes place). Your core squad of Adachi, Nanba, and Saeko enter the scene for their very own reasons–Adachi is the ex-detective whose aim is tied to yours, Nanba is the homeless man who saved your life and has extra to him than he lets on, and Saeko is the barmaid who reciprocates the unconditional assist she will get from the crew after a private tragedy.

The Friends You Make Along The Way

Sometimes their motivations for sticking round for Ichiban’s messy yakuza enterprise aren’t all the time convincing, however over time, the friendships they kind develop into all of the conviction they want. The acquainted theme of deep emotional bonds is what Like a Dragon makes use of to deliver one thing new to the sequence’ sturdy, established type of storytelling–the celebration system is not simply an excuse to give you a group through the RPG fight. Throughout the story, the solid will get into hassle, fights their method out, drinks, and celebrates collectively, they usually carry one another to the tip. Much of the Yakuza sequence to this point was in regards to the struggles of Kazuma Kiryu, a person who has a coronary heart of gold, but all the time stored everybody at arm’s size. Like a Dragon, nonetheless, flips the script and explores the ability of letting folks in, and it embraces the uplifting social dynamic its characters create.

Each principal solid member has their very own life tales to inform and will get a little bit of the highlight with Ichiban all through the principle marketing campaign. But a number of the extra private moments come via in what are referred to as Drink Links–basically Persona-style social hyperlink situations the place celebration members open up about their private lives over glasses of whiskey at their house bar referred to as Survive Bar. You improve a bond ranking with them, enhance social stats, and unlock fight perks alongside the way in which; extra importantly, you actually get to know the characters who’re combating alongside one another.

The Drama Of Yokohama

That normal sentiment can be utilized to the Ijin Three, the trio of gangs that uphold a fragile steadiness in Yokohama–it consists of the Japanese Seiryu Clan, the Korean Geomijul, and the Chinese Liumang. The unnerving pressure between them enriches the narrative, as these organizations develop into vital for chasing the reality. Just a few of their members (who I will not reveal for spoiler causes) are nice standouts because the story develops, and likewise deliver out a little bit of Asian range, giving Korean and Chinese characters extra nuanced portrayals than in earlier Yakuza video games. In Like a Dragon, your enemies at present could possibly be your dearest allies tomorrow, and vice versa.

Internal rifts and philosophical variations will all the time destroy organizations from the within. When one group dedicates itself to good deeds to assist the much less lucky, others see it as an opportunity to prey on the helpless and seize energy. It’s an ever-evolving recreation of 4D chess you may see play out, and it instills an eagerness to see what occurs chapter after chapter. Another piece of the larger image is right-wing nationalism, portrayed by a bunch referred to as Bleach Japan. While Like a Dragon’s climactic political drama leans on the outlandish villainy of a power-hungry few, it takes narrative alternatives to precise clear opposition to anti-immigration, anti-sex work, and anti-poor politics in key story beats, and these themes additionally develop into a part of what drives Ichiban and firm.

I’ve made it fairly clear that I’m a sucker for Yakuza’s melodrama. However, I’m prepared to confess that Like a Dragon has one too many easy plot twists, which might come throughout as a approach to elongate the principle story. Perhaps it bites off greater than it could chew on the tail-end the place plot factors are launched as shortly as they’re resolved. They’re not unhealthy story beats per se, however they will really feel overbearing when there’s already sufficient engaging narrative established.

Regardless, Yakuza has constructed a repute on charming drama and robust characterizations, and it is these expectations that its video games will probably be judged by. With that standards in thoughts, Like a Dragon hardly misses.

Like A Dragon Quest

Ichiban’s eccentric character is a power of nature, and it is even what fuels the fight system. His creativeness runs wild, and in his thoughts, he sees himself and his pals because the heroes of the day, identical to in Dragon Quest (Ichiban’s phrases, not mine). Enemies remodel into possessed beings or extraordinarily foolish delinquents like aggressive cooks, unhinged nudists, or simply unhealthy dudes with glowing crimson eyes–some with punny names like “capitalist punisher” for evil salarymen or “hands catcher” for evil baseball gamers. And your individual celebration members remodel into their outfitted jobs with typically ridiculous costume modifications.

His reverence for Dragon Quest is charming, and exhibits that he actually is a child at coronary heart; it is a part of what fills him with the dedication to maintain combating, even in probably the most dire of conditions. Like a Dragon asks you to droop your disbelief extra so than earlier Yakuza video games to accommodate Ichiban’s child-like creativeness, and you recognize what? I’m right here for it.

Like a Dragon makes use of a fairly simple turn-based fight system with commonplace assaults, particular strikes (typically enhanced by easy QTE button prompts), and spells of various affinities and standing results. Managing your celebration’s varied capabilities and strategizing to dispatch enemies in good methods is on the core of the enjoyable. How you deal with your turns in relation to the enemies you face in any given battle presents a well-known however partaking puzzle-like problem of devising the very best plan of action. When you barrel down consecutive fights in dungeon-like situations, fight maintains a gentle, gratifying circulate, whereas the larger set-piece boss fights take a look at your command of the system. What was used really comes collectively remarkably effectively for Yakuza’s personal RPG debut.

Combat can also be a chance for the sport to crank up Yakuza’s custom of ridiculous over-the-top strikes, and it is a large purpose why fight is thrilling to have interaction with. The spirit of the sequence’ wild warmth actions comes via within the abilities you may study, like summoning aggressive followers by performing a musical act or leaping via the air to spit literal hearth upon your enemies. The intricacies of fight are pushed by the job system, which is basically a set of swappable character courses that play otherwise with their very own distinctive talents. And so long as you construct up a very good number of therapeutic, buffs, and robust assault sorts, you may be in good condition.

Like a Dragon is not with out its faults, nonetheless. It’s fairly obvious in the previous couple of chapters that the sport started to depend on lengthy drawn-out fights. I nonetheless needed to keep sharp and maximize harm with every flip or use heals and buffs at opportune occasions to remain alive, however a few of these moments boiled all the way down to a warfare of attrition. Although I really like that Like a Dragon could be actually difficult, somewhat grinding is required to even survive towards some bosses. Thankfully, there is a late-game fight area aspect exercise that gives a ton of EXP and helpful gadgets, however the necessity of it breaks a number of the momentum as you heard in direction of the conclusion. (And beware that there’s a level within the story the place you are required to have a number of cash, and if you have not invested time to earn cash, effectively you higher get on it.)

There’s More To Life Than Fisticuffs

It’s not all drama, combating, and foolish superpowers, although. While the situation of Kamurocho has develop into a type of character itself, the a lot bigger Ijincho (a mashup of the actual Yokohama) does provide its personal distinct vibe. Compared to Kamurocho, it seems like taking a deep breath of recent air if you stroll via the open areas of Hamakita Park, purchasing retailers on Isezaki Road, and the streets of Chinatown. Even the alleyways and homeless camps of the lower-class areas breathe life into Ijincho in equal measure. The metropolis is bustling with issues to do exterior of the principle story, as is Yakuza custom.

My private favourite of karaoke is again. The rhythm minigame presents one other avenue for the characters to precise themselves in an particularly charming style. Nanba brings again the traditional “Baka Mitai,” and Adachi belts out his personal efficiency of “Machine Gun Kiss.” Saeko’s friendship anthem “Spring Breeze” warms my coronary heart as she performs the piano whereas the remainder of the gang enthusiastically cheers her on. And Ichiban’s personal music, “The Future I Dreamed Of,” showcases his personal inspirations as he displays on his upbringing. When a number of different characters be part of the celebration, the karaoke playlist grows. Having it again at Survive Bar, the place everybody meets up and drinks collectively, actually creates a homelike ambiance for Like a Dragon.

One of the very vital money-making minigames is Ichiban Confections, the enterprise administration simulator. You assist a household enterprise develop from promoting sweets at a hole-in-the-wall store to turning into C-suite executives with a number of ventures featured in commercials. It’s goofy as hell however fairly concerned, as you must handle staff, assign jobs, and make funding selections. You additionally must play a separate and hilarious minigame the place you frantically argue with shareholders to earn their assist. There’s additionally Dragon Kart, which is a whole kart-racing minigame with its personal ridiculous aspect story and tournament-style challenges. The final one I’ll point out is the quiz minigame, which exists beneath the guise of an grownup college the place Ichiban learns about historical past and tradition (and even has its personal Sega-themed quizzes), serving to him enhance social stats. These actions are vigorous and rewarding in their very own small methods, whether or not it is cash, perks, gear, or genuinely humorous aspect tales that construct up the wild lifetime of Kasuga Ichiban.

Even after spending 40 hours with Yakuza: Like a Dragon to finish its principal story and expertise an honest chunk of optionally available content material, there’s nonetheless extra to see and do with substories and conclusions to optionally available quests.

The Future Is Bright For Yakuza

As the sport executes on a melodramatic, multi-faceted conclusion typical of a Yakuza recreation, you are inspired to mirror on the hardships and tragedies Ichiban needed to endure. It’s uncommon, nonetheless, to additionally see the protagonist of a Yakuza recreation additionally do the identical. You can see the journey, the struggles, the challenges, the expansion, and the friendships worn plainly on his face. Yakuza has a penchant for exaggeration, this recreation actually goes for it, and it really works. Ichiban is an expressive character, typically to the purpose of parody, however it’s endearing and infrequently inspiring. Ichiban is an idealist and a bit naive, however he is additionally what his pals have made him via their very own personalities and their sense of justice: a hero.

At so many moments, I stood up screaming at my TV in absolute pleasure (and shed a number of tears right here and there), seeing how Ichiban develops, and the way Like a Dragon ties again into the broader Yakuza lore for long-time followers. Ichiban stands tall among the many legends that the Yakuza video games have created, and Like a Dragon is not shy about drawing from that effectively once more. Maybe it is a bit on the nostril, however for me, I can not assist however really feel a reinvigorated ardour for the franchise.

For RGG Studio’s first crack at an RPG, it is a rattling fantastic outcome. It delivers what I really like most about Yakuza and introduces new concepts that largely repay. Ichiban is not doing it alone, both. He has pals and mentors, ones who’ve helped him struggle and overcome private tragedies. It was an absolute thrill to look at him develop, and that is what’s most vital for a recreation so targeted on its characters. Yakuza: Like a Dragon is a passing of the torch, and a incredible entry in a beloved franchise that proves that it is in good arms with Kasuga Ichiban.

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[pauldeckerus]

Early Photos vs. Now: Seeing Progress as a Photographer

Whelp! The Internet reminded me a few days back that I’ve officially been shooting photography for over 10 years now. I’ll be honest, I thought my progress would have been further. I assume the end of my life will be something like what I am currently experiencing, which is “Wow, that went fast.” It seems I’m just barely starting to grasp the wise words of my elders when they told me “Time goes quicker than you think.”

Recent artwork from my 2018 RGG EDU tutorial. Both tutorials I’ve released with them are some of my favorite accomplishments.

In the spirit of anniversaries, let’s see just how f**king horrifying Year 1 and 2 really were… *Takes a deep breath* To the archives!

What’s this ‘flower’ setting on my point and shoot?? Oh s**t! You can take pictures of things close up! Woo!”*misses putting subject in focus

“Yes yes, let’s do a fake blood-filled cup and some s**tty pearls cause Anne Rice got me hooked on f**ken vampires in the 90’s!” Shot again with a point and shoot, with some lamps for lighting and some brutal Photoshop work to make up for the lack of lighting knowledge. Also had clearly not heard the term “Color Temperature” yet.

“Flash can be turned on manually on my Nikon Coolpix, and if I put it in front with the sun behind, it does THIS?? Well this is my new favourite thing ever!” Then I remembered that mosquitoes suck and promptly scampered into the studio for mostly ever more.

Photographed in my fridge, cause I learned that big soft light is sexy, and lamps just weren’t doing the trick.

Blown highlights and crushed shadows and no concept of color harmony?? You mean sky glitter and trendy as f**k presets…

When I first picked up a camera it was mostly to be creative in a way that didn’t involve modeling, and it was faster than drawing. I photographed macro, still life, bikes, and over the course of a year, a number of friends and slave labored my sister a bunch. The first few years were the most exciting cause the gains were exponential, obvious, and relatively easy to attain.

Admittedly, Year 1 was probably my most fun year in photography. Not that the subsequent haven’t delivered amazing memories and new friends, but I was in it purely for the fun and had no expectations from anyone but me. I didn’t have goals, a client wish list, no questions of what gear would make my work better, or any desire beyond the next batch of point-and-shoot pixels that would get my dopamine levels hopping off the charts.

Early years are dedicated to trying a lot of things, as many different facets as possible. I don’t think anyone should be really trying to “figure out their style” because if we do enough work and spend the hours just being immersed in it, style will inevitably start to form. Sometimes it looks like what’s already being made, and sometimes it turns into a creature that nobody has ever seen before. Regardless of what it is, you have to have your ass in the seat as often as you can or want, to find that voice.

10 years in, it feels like the gains I make now are at the sacrifice of dragging myself over broken glass while an elephant steps on my back. I’m not here because I retained that energy of “This is the best thing evaaarrrr!” from the early days, but because discipline and stubbornness have forced me to continue. When I’m bashing at the walls of my inability to complete a concept that’s been in my mind for 5 years, and I’m still probably another 2-3 years away from being competent enough to finalize the piece, I know I’m in it for the long game.

Time has taught me the harder things feel in the moment, the more frustrated and pressurized my brain feels over the work, I’m probably just getting closer to my next sliver of a creative breakthrough. I’ll trade one elephant for another bigger, slightly heavier elephant. While they trade places though, in those brief moments I’ll find I can breathe again.

A recent challenge to create an image using only one area of the color wheel. Many thanks to Linda Friesen for channelling her inner Moon Goddess.

Those Moments Are What I Live For

I write this all to serve as a reminder, to those in their first year, or to the grizzled veterans staring down a resume longer than a CVS receipt. Where we started and where we are now is worth celebrating. Most of us weren’t born with a natural “talent” — in fact, many would argue that is a myth. We are simply a result of repetition and practice.

I think a lot of people get intimidated in their early years that their work will never look as good as they want it to. I can’t speak for anyone else, but I can definitely say that 10 years in, I’m still another 10 years away from doing the kind of work I want to make. I hope it never changes.

My inbox is filled with emails asking the same question written hundreds of different ways, but the theme can be boiled down to “How do I get awesome at this??”

Answer? I could write an essay but here are some easy points:

Just keep at it. Put your ass into frequent, habitual practice.

Most who are any good, sit upon a throne of really, really terrible work, and years of it. Every time you complete a work of art that you think is pretty f**king awful, congratulate yourself. It’s one more foundation stone into your cathedral of mastery.

Do not look for shortcuts. You’re only stealing from your future-self.

There is no “one path to success”. There are thousands of ways, and what works for one may not work for another.

Know thyself. Inspiration is great, but nothing beats digging into the nuts and bolts of your honest creative self.

Self portrait, trying to grind down on better color theory. I probably need to watch Kate Woodman’s RGG tutorial…

Maybe you are the creator who does a little bit of everything from now until forever. Maybe you’re the type who started one style and never ever changes. There is no right or wrong answer. Far as I know, they don’t hand out medals in the afterlife… yet.

“They” say if you love what you do, you’ll never work a day in your life. I’ve met some of those humans, and they’re most often either f**king unicorns, or completely disillusioned. Love what you do, or don’t, regardless your ass is probably gunna work pretty damn hard.

I fall in and out of love with my chosen career and lifestyle on a weekly basis. I equate my career to being in a long-term, committed relationship. Some days we wake up and look at each other in bed and wonder why the other is still there. Others we are reminded what got us there in the first place. Regardless of my feelings, I think they’re mostly irrelevant.

Accurate depiction of real life misery. Brought on by walking barefoot into a glacier fed, cold ass lake, or occasionally just trying to will myself into turning on my computer… Side note – Check out those “I clearly only ever wear boots” pasty ankles!

10 years in, I feel like I’m just cracking the surface of “me” and what that means to be a creator. Seated upon a mountain of embarrassing pixels and memories, I’m staring at the bottom of an even larger heap that I will create over the next decade. My well-made list of goals and plans will probably get muddled and misplaced by the chaotic influence that is life, but another 10 years will pass regardless.

I just hope that my small, infinitesimal contribution of creativity will maybe start to balance out the number of straws I’ve used.

Commissioned work for guitar queen Nita Strauss.

Inspiration time! I managed to convince some mind-bogglingly awesome artists from a variety of genres to also dig into their archives, and bravely share some of their own humble beginnings. This was a very cathartic experience for me. It was so just absolutely f**king perfect seeing where they all started to their current favorite work. Remember, we all start somewhere, and with a few years of dedication, we never know where we will wind up.

Dave Brosha

2003. “Pure garbage. Both emotionally and metaphysically.”

2018. “The only thing between where you are and where you want to be is the passion to learn and putting the time in. Some of my earliest images are laughably make-your-eyes-bleed bad – but I never beat myself up for them. They are what they are…and that’s to say, they’re part of the process of learning and growth.”

Visit his website here.

Curtis Jones

2012. “Cape Spear, Newfoundland. Completely disregarding geography, composition, and proper use of a tripod, I felt this was a pretty solid shot of my friends under the northern lights. To be honest, I’m not 100% certain a tripod was even involved but I was out there making an effort and that’s what sticks with me. Turns out the most easterly point in Canada isn’t a hotspot for aurora activity.”

2018. “Khongoryn Els, Mongolia. Now, with a few more miles racked up, an appreciation for location scouting and a better grasp on my gear, putting in the effort still counts but the returns have become more consistent – less random and more intentional.”

Visit his website here.

Felix Inden

2008. “I was really stoked about this one. Enough to save it as my first .psd (of course after reducing to 72 DPI)”

2018. “I was incredibly lucky that I got this shot… it was not thought or anything. I just saw it coming, fired away and luckily had the right settings from shooting out of the heli before of this moment. Don´t plan to much. embrace spontaneity. be there and be ready.”

Visit his website here.

Michael Shainblum

2007.

2018.

Visit his website here.

Tim Kemple

2004. “From my first commercial shoot. It was on Mt Washington for Eastern Mountain Sports and we had this awesome but wacky creative director that wanted a shot of the less glamorous moments that happen when you are out hiking. Shot on slide film. Provia 400F pushed a stop.”

2015. “Two climbers on Mt Huntington in Alaska. Shot with Phase One medium format from a helicopter.”

Visit his website here.

Elizabeth Gadd

2008. “10 years ago I discovered my passion for taking moody self portraits (because sitting on the ground and staring into space with a blurry focus seemed cool). Can’t believe how proud I was of this one once.”

2018. “10 years later, still taking moody self portraits. Hoping the practice has paid off!”

Visit her website here.

Bella Kotak

2008. “This was when I first discovered Photoshop! It took me a few more years to figure the program. At that time it wasn’t really about improving my “photography” but more about how I could improve on what I wanted to express. It just so happened that the camera felt like most natural medium to do that through.”

2018, The Kiss. “It’s amazing what time, practice, and knowledge can do. When it comes to creating pictures I’ve never focused on what I can’t do but rather, what I can do. The goal is, and has always been, to shoot often, keep learning, constantly experimenting, never hold back, and always try to level up.”

Visit her website here.

Kate Woodman

2014. This image represents my first real foray into using Photoshop in a creative/artistic way vs. a more conventional dodge-and-burn-cleanup kind of way. The image was accidental–one of my strobes didn’t fire, and I was left with something I wasn’t anticipating but though could lead to something interesting. It was the first time I really embraced a mistake as a learning opportunity–and I’ve made many more and learned so much from them, from both a technical but also a conceptual perspective.”

2018. “I feel like I’m finally getting to the stage where my photography not only reflects my aesthetic preferences but also my conceptual interests. This is a more recent image which I think is pretty successful in portraying a narrative that is both visually and viscerally impactful. There’s definitely something going on but it leaves room for interpretation–that ambiguity is something I’ve always liked in others’ art and strive for in my own.”

Visit her website here.

Richard Terborg

2009. ” I like the snow, and I like photography. So I figured it would be funny to combine the two in a “creatively next level” way, by wearing my normal “day” clothes instead of winter clothing. Because I didn’t want my garden in the background this frame was the only one that worked.”

2018. “I’ve been on a Wes Anderson exploration/funk/inspired by/phase/binge??? So I asked my friend to bring anything yellow he has and a puffy hat. It was around 35 degrees celcius outside and he had to put on the only yellow woolly shirt he had and a warm cap. Love places with a lot of color and lines because of ‘Wes’ and this place just clicked perfectly.”

Visit his website here.

Julia Kuzmenko

2007. “I honestly had no clue what I was doing. I know now, that the best thing to learn something in a specific photography genre is to break apart and analyze every aspect of the images of a handful of successful artists whose work resonates with me the most. The cropping, the colors, the makeup, hair and facial expressions.. everything that we photographers have control of at the time of the capture.”

2018. “Shoot, shoot, shoot more! Practice like a maniac, so you are at the right skill level when the opportunity comes along.”

Visit her website here.

Tina Eisen

2009. “February. I had one light and a friend called Hannah. We knew nothing. Even less than Jon Snow. Not even the cat bowl was safe.”

2018. “September. I know a couple more things now! I still experiment to this day and wake up happy every morning that I took this step 10 years ago!”

Visit her website here.

Pratik Naik

2008. “I wanted to be a fashion photographer with my wonderful wide angle kit lens and sweet angles. I thought the more angles the better and so we angled all day.”

2018. “I realized what was actually kept me inspired was the complete opposite. It was energy, mood, and emotion. Through my attempt at fashion photography, I carved the path to what I really loved shooting.”

Visit his website here.

Benjamin Von Wong

2007. “Well, I found a second set of mirrors… on another escalator haha. Theres a nice big flash hiding my head but I thought it’d make a cool effect on the metal parts.”

2018. “Ironically, I believed myself to be a better photographer then, than I do now, even though my skill level is objectively higher. I wonder how I’ll feel about myself and my work in another 10 years!”

Visit his website here.

Ashley Joncas

2010. “I was always a disgruntled little $hit even when I started teaching myself photography. I was obsessed with antique portraiture but also obsessed with HotTopic…so the dynamic duo combined with me barely knowing how to turn on a camera ended up in a branch explosion from my friends head surrounded by fake smoke. Thankfully 8 years has made a big difference…and I’ve gone from doing a horrible job to actual horror photography.”

2018. “The work I do now is directly indicative of how my creative mind works and what it responds to. For a while I thought being a good photographer meant doing pretty images with flower crowns and safe color palettes, but I realized my voice was in the strange and irregular chasms of our reality. So, my favorite image from this year is a shot of someone sitting in a basement with a bloody eye and shackles.”

Visit her website here.

The Art of Mezame

2013. “I thought using a single LED light and a Samsung Galaxy S3 was good enough for toy photography. I remember the motivation for using the LED light was just so I could see something in the dark. I don’t remember editing the image though haha!”

2018. “I am now actively shooting portraits in studios and using more than just LED lights. Instead of lighting things up just so I can see something in the dark, I use lighting and lightshapers to craft images that tell stories. Only time will tell what else I could discover in my journey as a photographer. Still learning, never stopping.”

Visit his website here.

Joel Robison

2009. “Back in the early days I was still a bit nervous to really get outside and shoot, I was largely taking self-portraits inside my apartment and really only had one bare wall to play with. I was doing a 365 project and ideas were getting thin so I decided to do a week of making props out of cardboard…I whipped up a cardboard gun, money bag and mustache and spent a good solid 5 minutes shooting this image which I then ran through Picnic AND Photoshop to get the desired “vintage” effect.” We all started somewhere and I can’t believe I thought it all looked good!”

Visit his website here.

Webb Bland

2005. “Distortion? Check. Vignetting like I stacked too many polarizers? Check. A pass of every free plugin I could find? Check and mate, photographers! *Retouchers. Whatever.”

2019. “High noon in an airplane graveyard, spacing each car between stark wing shadows. The only thing missing is the abysmal HDR and VIGNETTING OH GOD HOW DID I FORGET THE VIGNETTING??! Shot for Audi.”

Visit his website here.

Alex Ruiz

1993. “Crappy figure drawing: This gem was from my submission portfolio to Cal Arts. Needless to say, I didn’t get in. In retrospect this was valuable lesson for me: get damn good at figure drawing or else I wasn’t going anywhere!”

2018. “Kat Livingston as Elven Queen. There’s something about creating portraits that I’ve always been drawn to more and more over the years. There’s a deep intimacy to it, having a character stare deeply back at you, and sometimes through you. This one is based off New York model, Kat Livingston. Giving her an ethereal, elven quality seemed fitting for her.”

Visit his website here.

John Gallagher

2013. “My Little Pony – A cautionary tale. I’m fond of migrating beloved and nostalgic animated content to ‘real world’ to test my own ability to stay true to the characters while transforming them for fun. This is a gorgeous cringe worthy example of what not to do. Cue sharp inhale.“

2018. “So Deadpool… This won 2nd place in the DeviantArt fan art poster contest with Fox. DA picked five fan-favorite artists to compete for prize money and a trip to New York to the premiere. There was a long list of no-fly zones for content and just a couple days to do it so we all hit the ground running. I thought it came together pretty well and dovetailed nicely with the slo-mo mayhem of the DP cineverse. It’s a natural fit for my brand of hyperkinetics.”

Visit his website here.

The best way to see our progress is to occasionally take an honest look back at our past. What kind of people we were, what we valued, and how we expressed it. While it sometimes feels weird or awkward to look back at our less than experienced selves, they are the treasures that helped us become who we are, and what we do now shapes our futures.

It’s also so easy to get caught up in comparing ourselves to others, the mysteries behind the scenes that helped evolve the final product they now share to the world.

This list is only a snapshot in each person’s life, a single Polaroid in an entire journal to be perceived as warnings or inspiration. Inevitably there will be someone commenting about “I like x image more!” or “I wish I was as good as their befores”. If those are your thoughts, I applaud your skill in missing the point.

Remember, we are only in ultimate competition with our younger and future selves. Our journeys are our own, appreciate the past and embrace the next 10 years.

About the author: Canadian born and raised, Renee Robyn is a former model turned photographer who has developed an ethereal style, combining fact and fiction. The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author. Merging together expertly shot photographs with hours of meticulous retouching in Photoshop, Robyn’s images are easily recognizable and distinctly her own. She travels full time, shooting for clients and teaching workshops around the world. You can find more of her work on her website, Facebook, and Twitter. This article was also published here.

from Photography News https://petapixel.com/2018/09/13/early-photos-vs-now-seeing-progress-as-a-photographer/

[kenzan-brainrot-mp4]

You’ve talked about the post credits scene a bit, but what are your thoughts on the elixir being called “The Heart of the Dragon?”

Ohhhhh ive seen people talking about this quite a bit lately, especially on other platforms it's so aughhhh

I will say first of all that that was so crazy of them. I'm gonna be completely honest, initially during the whole elixir-hunt ordeal I didn't even consider that it could be connected to Kiryu at all, so when they just casually dropped the fact that it was called The Heart of the Dragon it was like getting slapped in the face (/pos). It makes you immediately think of Kiryu, to make Sure that you get the full impact of the big reveal at the end of the game, which. OUCH. Well played RGG you really got me there (Yeah I know most people seeing this will probably be like "no shit lmao subtle foreshadowing" but I personally am still reeling over it okay so)

Also I think it's a little crazy how Majima doesn't fully regain his memories until after fighting the giant squid again (which is basically right before they discover the treasure). Of course who knows when he finally regained the memory of his purpose for going to Hawaii, but to have him finally remember everything, only to learn almost immediately after that they probably weren't going to find the Heart of the Dragon, the dream that he, too, has been chasing after from the very start like everyone else... damn.

(Throwing in these screenshots. For no particular reason of course. (Nobody knows!! Nobody fucking knows that he was looking for The Heart of the Dragon for his own personal reasons too (even if he wasn't aware of it at the start of the game)!!!!! Grah!!!!!!!))

And Then of course the big part that people have been pointing out: just the fucking name itself. That, because of the elixir's name, Majima has essentially been chasing after/pursuing "The Heart of the Dragon" this whole time WHICH. IM GONNA BE REAL I FEEL LIKE A FOOL FOR NOT THINKING ABOUT. LIKE, FUCK. I don't even have anything to add to that honestly that just speaks volumes on its own. rgg really just went "yeah, Majima's dream was to find the Dragon's Heart. Yeah, he was chasing after the Dragon's Heart this whole time." Like Okay. Okay,

Also, as far as I can tell/find, the part about it being essentially called "dragon's spittle [fragrance]" in Chinese is true (please correct me if I'm wrong with that), but to have it be named specifically the "Heart of the Dragon" (both in eng and jp) by the treasure hunters in-game was a choice made by rgg Themselves. Which could mean Nothing, of course. But. You Know

Also the fact that Majima ultimately failed in obtaining the Heart of the Dragon.... And by the end of the game has to come to terms with the reality that it was likely never gonna be obtainable in the first place.... something something double meanings Again

holds head in hands

God. Calling the thing that Majima has been chasing after literally The Heart of the Dragon, having the final chapter of the game be called fucking White Whale (<- this detail in particular in the context of Majima and Kiryu makes me So Sick), absolutely insane of you rgg thank you for this </3 Keep up the good work