Week in Review - 5/1/2026

 

• Pokémon Blue (GameBoy)

I started a project that I wanted to do for a long time. This is Phase 1 of a Generational Nuzlocke or Genlocke where I try to go through as many games as possible in a Nuzlocke-style. Each subsequent game (or Generation) I will carry over surviving members of the team that made it into the Hall of Fame as a new generation. I also cannot use any previous evolution lines that have been used (gained experience) so if I lose a Pidgey in Pokémon Blue then I can never use a Pidgey-line ever again in the run. 

• Sand Land (PlayStation 5)

This game launched right around the death of legendary Akira Toriyama. I had thought to buy it and play through it as an homage to the great creator, but upon playing the demo of the game was sadly underwhelmed - I played a bit of Xenoverse and Kakarot instead. This game leaves PlayStation Plus on May 19, so I decided now or never on checking it out. The demo is not representative of the game, but the game is still fairly mediocre. I'm enjoying the characters and the story, but the gameplay is repetitive. 

• Vampire Crawlers (PC)

I took a pass on Vampire Survivor, but this game is right in my wheelhouse as a dungeon exploring deck-building adventure. I may have to rethink Vampire Survivor since this game is just so amazing. I have lost countless hours checking this game out this week. I don't know what to say about it except it feels like my new deckbuilding obsession akin to Balatro or Slay the Spire back in their day. 

• Yakuza 3 Remaster (PlayStation 4) 

It should not be a shock at this point that "Like a Dragon" is in my TOP 3 best franchises. Yakuza 3 has been sort of the odd man out in this journey because the remaster didn't really do enough to make the game as accessible as Kiwami versions of 1 & 2. However, be careful what you wish for. I'm playing Yakuza 3 alongside the newly released Kiwami 3 and I daresay I'm enjoying the remaster of the original a lot more than Kiwami 3. They changed too much. 

• Yakuza Kiwami 3 (PlayStation 5) 

That brings me to Yakuza Kiwami 3 which is a good game. It's fun. It's silly. It's got great combat, but they just changed too much of the story for reasons I cannot understand. They ditched hostesses; they took 100 substories down to 30 and most of them are new and add nothing of substance. The addition of the biker gang story is fine, but nothing to write home about. Turning the orphanage into its own side-content is a strange choice, because on the one hand it's a lot more in-depth managing the orphanage and hanging out with the kiddos, but removing it from the mandatory storyline means a lot of people might pass over getting to know these kids - which impacts how you feel about Kiryu and how you feel about the orphans in the future games. 

Overall, Kiwami 3 feels like an attempt to make Yakuza 3 more fun to a modern gamer, but totally disregards how it will translate into Yakuza 4-5-6-8 of Kiryu's journey going forward. The choices RGG made to keep, add, remove content is so strange to me. I think it's a good, fun game, but now it doesn't quite fit in with the subsequent games.