What are you currently playing?

[mue 26]

Been playing a bit of Yakuza 4 (courtesy of SC, just give me a shout when you want it back) under the pretense that it's good for my Japanese skills. I'm only on chapter 4 or something. Yakuza games have always been a little bit sleezy, but this one is really sleezy. At first I liked the concept of this new character, a loan shark with a heart of gold and all that. But I don't think he really fits the heart of gold description anymore after witnessing him make a potentially vulnerable woman in debt work as a hostess in his club for him in order to get her loan. Quite frankly he's an arsehole. I also have laugh at all the ridiculous paper thin moral and life lessons the side stories dish out. So far they seem to be repeatedly sermonizing to me that if I want to be successful I just need to get serious about my business and work hard, and if I want to get a girl I just need to buy expensive clothes and master the art of insincere chit chat. Has Yakuza always been this stupid and sleezed out? Still it is pretty funny and charming in guilty pleasure kind of way.

[Crimson Ryan]

Has Yakuza always been this stupid and sleezed out? Still it is pretty funny and charming in guilty pleasure kind of way.

Yep.

Surely working in a bar for a few nights is a small price to pay for a no-interest loan of one hundred million yen..

[OL]

If you understand anything about Japanese culture, then I don't see what's so sleezy. Hostess bars are legitimate businesses. It doesn't imply prostitution or anything of that nature. Being a hostess is just another job over there. It's one of those things where you need to let go of western pretenses and closed-mindedness to understand it. Sure, it can be sleezy under the wrong management, but that's the same with just about anything.

And like Crimson said, a few nights as a hostess is nothing for that much money. If anything, Akiyama is generous as hell. And if you keep playing, you'll see he doesn't do any if this for the money anyway.

[south carmain]

You're all forgetting that Yakuza literally takes place in a red light district and is focused around organised crime, I think sleaziness is to be expected. I would even say that it's been toned down quite a lot considering it's themes.

[mue 26]

Something can be a legitimate business and still be sleezy. From wiki:

In addition to their on-site duties, hostesses are generally obliged to engage in paid dates dōhan (同伴?) with patrons outside of the bar and regular working hours. This system generates repeat patronage of a particular bar by developing attachments between particular customers and hostesses. Sometimes sex occurs on these paid dates. Hostesses may be deducted pay for not having enough dōhan dates.

Pretty sleazy.

And yeah it might be a small price to pay for an interest free loan, but it just goes against the guy's whole loan shark with a good heart thing. Why does she need to pass this test? I dunno maybe it will explain his reasoning later so I'll reserve complete judgment, but it was like "I make my clients pass tests, such as work for a week in a old persons home.." (aww that's nice) "clean up the street.." (so upstanding and righteous) "and sometimes ask women to work for a week in an adult venue in the red light district" (err hold the phone...)

@SC
I agree, but it's just the weird and jarring way the game plays up the sleeze, like it's not actually sleezy at all or something. It glazes all the sleeze with it's weird plasticy sheen. I'm not entirely complaining though, I know that's kinda always been part of the series' unique charm, and the game is pretty entertaining for all of it's uber macho quirkyness. It's just that Yakuza 3's opening chapters really emotionally engaged me in a way few games actually do, while this game has done nothing at all in that department so far. Still enjoying it though.

[south carmain]

That's true. The game never felt or looked really that sleazy despite it's adult and criminal themes. I don't know if it's because the developers are out of touch or wherever it was done on purpose.

[OL]

Something can be a legitimate business and still be sleezy. From wiki:

In addition to their on-site duties, hostesses are generally obliged to engage in paid dates dōhan (同伴?) with patrons outside of the bar and regular working hours. This system generates repeat patronage of a particular bar by developing attachments between particular customers and hostesses. Sometimes sex occurs on these paid dates. Hostesses may be deducted pay for not having enough dōhan dates.

Pretty sleazy.

Sure, as I said, "it can be sleazy under the wrong management, but that's the same with just about anything."
If your interpretation of hostess bars being sleazy stems from the idea of paid dates, then answer this: does Akiyama really strike you as the type who's going to force this girl to go on dates and fuck her clients during her brief stint at his hostess bar?
Obviously not. Actually, it's made clear that he's taken with the girl when he first meets her.

[Thief]

Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga 1

It was only $12 new so I decided to go ahead and buy it now. I'm about 3 hours into the game and I'm really enjoying it. I'm also enjoying the press turn system so it really makes me wonder what I didn't like about it in Shin Megami Tensei IV.

Anyway, the way you manage skills is way less annoying in this version. I love how I can choose to go down whichever skill tree I want, and that changing skills is as easy as going into a sub-menu and equipping them (no more passing down skills via demon fusion -- which wasn't ideal to me). Also, I love having static party members -- using and losing demons just felt so hollow and alone to me... although I do miss the negotiation process; talking to demons was a lot of fun.

One thing I find a little annoying is the occasional ambush from random battles, since it starts you out in non-demon form. I just decide to waste a whole round and transform everyone back into their demon form, because the human form is so incredibly weak. I noticed you can do combos in human form, and it may be beneficial somehow, but I'm not quite sure yet. I'll have to play around with it a little.

However, I think the thing I like absolutely the best about this game, over Shin Megami Tensei IV, is its presentation. I just love the style and art direction of this game. Also, the voice actors are pretty decent and the story is intriguing so far (although not much has happened quite yet). And... don't even get me started on the music. God damn is this probably the best game soundtrack I've heard in years. I love it.

Long story short, really enjoying the game even though I'm not very far at all. Thank you to Henry and OL for the suggestion. So much for my Resident Evil-athon.

[OL]

^^Just so you know, the human form is useful in a few situations in which the demons you're fighting are weak to gunfire.
But yeah, glad to hear you're liking it so much. I'm insane with nostalgia over the game; love practically everything about it. Weirdly, I still haven't beaten DDS2 though. Finished the first game twice, but only gone through half of the second. Gotta get around to it one of these days.

Anyway, I just started in on Armored Core V for the second time. I was actually hoping to finally play through Verdict Day, but when I tried it out a ways back it struck me that -- much like other entries such as Another Age or Last Raven -- they likely intended for people to import their save data from ACV, so you could start out with some better equipment; the difficulty seemed a little high on the first mission of Verdict Day, so bringing over my old creations from ACV would really help.
Problem is, even though I'd already beaten ACV before (every story and order mission finished; I poured a lot of time into that), my old save file was on my old fat PS3, which died a while back. So if I hope to get anywhere in Verdict Day, I now need to head through ACV again.
Not that much of a bummer though, because ACV is great. Might invest in the heavy weapons pack on PSN or something, just to help it along. I've already beaten the game, so I won't feel bad about "cheating" or anything.

[Chaos]

Playing re4 on professional mode for the first time ever. I played the hell out of it on GameCube when it came out but never did pro mode for some reason. Got the handcannon and everything back then but no pro mode. Makes sense.

It really not too bad so far.

[Thief]

Well, I'm continuing my playthrough of Digital Devil Saga 1, and I'm about 10 hours in. I'm really enjoying it but the game is also beginning to feel like a slog at times. I think this has to do with the extremely high encounter rate.

I'm currently in a dungeon called Coordinate 136, and there are a ton of paintings -- most of which are fake and only one of which is real. I have to find the real one, which normally wouldn't be so annoying but everytime I encounter a fake one the game drops me down to the dungeon below and I have to run back... and get into an encounter every three steps. It just was so slow. I finally finished this phase of the dungeon, and then had to do some mirror puzzle (which was thankfully really simple and didn't punish me like before)... soon afterwords though I ended up in another puzzle room -- with rollercoasters and junk, and I just needed to take a break.

I really like this game, and I've already purchased the second title (only $10 -- soooo cheap) and I'm determined to make it through these games. I really like the world/story, and the combat is pretty fun, I just wish they would have dialed back on the encounter rate a bit. Anyway, still enjoying it, and look forward to playing again when I'm a little less pissed off

[south carmain]

Final fantasy ecks/crossu HD. Looks absolutely beautiful in HD.

[*Kenshin Himura*]

Shadow of the Colossus on PS3 and Grandia for the Sega Saturn.

[south carmain]

Assassins creed: Brotherhood. This game has so much side stuff to do that I keep on getting distracted for ages and completely forget where I'm at in the story.

[Chaos]

Beat re4 on pro for the first time ever. Then immediately went through pro again with the laser in like 4 hours. Damn that weapons fun