I Know What I'm Playing Next.

First: three posts in one day? Yes. My original plan had been to post on the other blog, but work was such an evil, baying, scrote-biting leech I knew I wouldn't have the wherewithal to write anything that required critical faculties. For better or for worse, this is the blog I go to when I just want to write.

Second: I know why there was an underlying thread of anxiety in my previous thread about the length Dragon Quest VIII: I know what game I wanna play next.

I've had the opposite problem over the last several games, with DQ8 coming more or less out of the blue to save me as I looked to the end of Bully with something like panic. Like any good junkie, I fear having a string of the good shit run out, not just because it means I have to go through withdrawal pains but, worse, it means that maybe it's time I seriously think about kicking.

Last week, when Robson returned my copy of Marvel: Ultimate Alliance saying he just wasn't digging it, he mentioned that he threw on Yakuza after taking M:UA out of the playstation and immediately felt better. That and a comment I came across on the message boards while reading critical reception to DQ8 twanged a off-key, but heartfelt, note of desire.

The quote was this:

Yakuza / Ryu ga Gotoku - Play casino games, try to get the attention of women in hostess bars, go to the batting cages, or the special Sega store, play UFO catcher games, collect all manner of trinkets including stuff like men's cologne to help with the ladies, fight with everything from microphones to sofas to fire extinguishers, each having their own special attacks, help out homeless guys, find keys to coin lockers, shop at convenience stores and restaurants, get involved in any number of dynamic optional stories, etc.. It's like River City Ransom and Final Fight got married and decided to become a full-blooded action RPG with stats, money, dungeons and a battle system.

And it's worth pointing out--to my avaricious heart if no one else--that this review is clearly that of someone who played the original Japanese version. The U.S. release got much more mixed reviews (although looking around again on that message board, it seems a lot of regulars liked the U.S. version just fine).

It's an RPG that's also a fighting game, that's also a modern day Japanese gangster story! I don't know what flipped the little switch in my brain (actually, that's a lie, I do know: before DQ8, the RPG comparison had absolutely no positive heft for me at all) but now it's looking like it may, very soon, be my New Best Friend.