#arakawa was just his boss... but if THAT was the case why not take him out when jo was first asked too..... | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

kinogane · 3 years

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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.

#yakuza #ryu ga gotoku #rgg #yakuza like a dragon #yakuza 7 #ylad #y7 #rgg7 #shin ryu ga gotoku

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greed-the-dorkalicious · 7 years

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FMA Extended Media Recommendations - Gold Tier (Second Place)

Continued from here!

The Abducted Alchemist (Novel)

This novel is a classic example of FMA’s fantastic combination of humor and seriousness. It all starts with an irritated Ed pranking Roy by pretending to be his son while Roy’s chatting up some women. Yep.

An odd series of terrorist attacks has been going on, with bombings targeting train tracks, family of military officers being targeted, and most strangely, no casualties. The public is growing increasingly hostile towards the military as they continue to fail to catch the culprits in this bizarre case. Fortunately, Roy gets a hilariously ironic lucky break when the terrorists, apparently having overheard Ed’s prank, mistake him for Roy’s actual son and kidnap him.

Upon hearing the news, Al and the soldiers at East City have a unanimous reaction of “Oh god, those poor terrorists. Maybe we should send flowers.” But there is still a mystery to be solved, and the story has a wonderful mixture of suspense, humor, and drama.

Fullmetal Alchemist Profiles (Book)

Known in Japan as “Perfect Guidebook 1″, this one one of few FMA guidebooks released in English. The reason it’s not red tier is because it’s a very old book from early on in the series, and doesn’t include characters like Ling, Olivier, or even Father. A lot of the information included is also fairly basic.

But nonetheless, it’s a great book with interesting insight into characters, fun trivia, quizzes, a look at Arakawa’s office and gossip from her assistants, bonus manga, development notes, and more. As old as it is, I actually refer to this book for trivia and fact checking all the time. It also includes an original bonus manga, the Blind Alchemist, which the OVA of the same name was based off. It’s a fantastic book that I would highly recommend to any FMA fan.

Fullmetal Alchemist and the Broken Angel (Game, Playstation 2)

Broken Angel is the first of the PS2 games, and thus not as... nice-looking as the second one, but the plot is a lot more FMA-like than Crimson Elixir. Like Crimson Elixir, the gameplay is very similar to Kingdom Hearts. I haven’t played this game in a long time and I have never fully understood the plot at all, so bear with me as I try to give a summary!

After a train crash, Ed and Al arrive in the town of New Hiessgart. Ed and Al meet a girl named Armony Eiselstein, whose father is an alchemist working on developing I Can’t Believe It’s Not the Philosopher’s Stone!™. Ed and Al hope to learn more about this item, known as the Philosopher’s Catalyst, while Armony wants them to teach her alchemy behind her father’s back. But strange things are afoot, with chimeras overrunning the town, and corrupt military groups going rogue. There may be more to the Eiselstein family than even Armony knows...

My favorite part of this entire game is the hilarious recurring boss, Genz Bresslau. Genz, the Armor-Piercing Alchemist, is a corrupt military officer with an automail arm of which he is very proud. After getting totally trashed by Ed, Genz makes it his goal to prove that his automail is better. Despite having little to no bearing on the actual plot, Genz repeatedly reappears for fights with more and more automail, defying all logic, though Ed keeps trying to explain that he really just does not care about this whole automail superiority complex or Genz at all.

Prince of the Dawn (Game, Wii, Japan only)

Really, the picture says it all. Prince of the Dawn and its sequel, Daughter of the Dusk, are very zany games. If you ever happen to come across something that looks like Brotherhood official art, but seems too ridiculous to be real, it’s probably from one of the Wii games. This game takes place some time in the middle of the manga’s plot, and unlike other games, it does include later characters such as Ling and Greed. It also gives more worldbuilding information, with the first real detailed mentions of Amestris’ southern neighbor, Aerugo.

I can’t say much about the plot, because I never made it very far in the game. I know Prince Claudio Rico of Aerugo has come to Amestris to negotiate and hopefully end the ongoing border war, and a festival is held to celebrate. But it seems the homunculi are trying to frame Roy for an assassination attempt on the prince... I think? I’m really not sure. Rather than being a fighting game like most FMA games, it’s mostly a point-and-click game, with multiple choice dialogue options to try to solve a mystery. There’s also a lot of minigames that make use of the Wii’s motion controls.

Because the game is based around discussion and mystery-solving, unfortunately it’s really not for anyone who isn’t fluent in Japanese. I’ve tried to play it several times, but my Japanese isn’t good enough to really understand what’s going on, and it took me forever to figure out this one mandatory Biggoron’s Sword-esque trading sequence because I couldn’t understand what my orders were. But if you do speak Japanese, it’s a fun and ridiculous game, and great for people who might not be into fighting games.

The Tale of Teacher (OVA)

We’ve all heard about the legendary incident in which Izumi Curtis stole rations from the Briggs mountain guard for a month, but have you ever wondered why she did that? This short OVA tells the story of 18-year-old Izumi’s quest for an alchemy teacher, her harsh initiation test, and how a dead bear helped her find true love. If you thought Ed and Al’s month on Yock Island was brutal, Izumi’s apprenticeship story will make you go “Woah, she really coddled those kids.”

#FMA #FMA light novels #FMA video games #FMA OVAs

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todayisafridaynight · 11 months

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INCREDIBLY FUNNY that I refused to settle for just saying "bread" but yes it was those! So in that sense, the lavish bread physics are integral to conveying how important the little things were in getting him through prison. Still, for the sake of the drip…...... perhaps sacrifices are needed...

But yeah, I'm thrilled you noticed those things about the evolution of Jo's design, too! It's super interesting to think about in terms of storytelling, I don't think you're inarticulate in saying that at all. Speaking of, I also just look up "holder" to find prev asks at this point lol

Jo and Ichi's dynamic is also a major topic of interest for me (as we've seen). I think a lot of what's going on with them is definitely some variation of "old habits die hard." That's natural when you form that kind of uneasy coexistence. But like you mentioned, it's also telling that Jo picked up the nickname in the first place, because I went back through the entire script, and it really is the case that only Arakawa, Masato, Jo, and the people who raised Ichi call him that. It's reserved for his family.

I think this line about Aoki (that I completely forgot about before looking at the script again lol) may also shed some light: "A long time ago, I knew him as the young master. He knew me as Ichi." Because they all do that, don't they? Ichi still says Captain, Boss, and Young Master, Jo still says Boss, Ichi, and Young Master, Aoki still says Dad and Ichi.

Even though on paper these relationships should've dissolved with Ichi being expelled, Masato becoming Aoki, and Jo taking over as second patriarch, to one another, they're all still who they used to be. And as an aspect of how they communicate, the "learned language" that forms in families, it stands out when they're all on the same page with the terms they choose to use.

This line from Ichi also stood out to me: "But my aniki taught me different. He said whoever makes the first move is the victor. The guy with steel balls wins." Like, that's clearly Jo, right? For one thing, the "flavor" of aniki is different from Captain, of course--one is directly an appointed post, and one is more open to interpretation--but it also clearly shows that Jo's imparted his "philosophy" to Ichi in some ways.

I think, to a degree, it's one of those holdovers from RGGO that wasn't fully implemented. Because they're more or less the same in RGGO in this regard, but RGGJo does outright say it makes him weirdly happy that Ichi still calls him Captain, so that's a clearer indicator and makes the idea feel more "complete."

With what I said before about their "learned language," too, the Arakawa Family has this way of saying goodbye that's specific to them, and I really miss it in Y7. It is referenced briefly, but it's not a "thing" like it was in RGGO. It's kinda like how The Gang in It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia greet each other with "Hey-ohhh!" LMAO idk but. I Enjoy. But that's also why it stood out to me that LaD8Jo greets Ichi the same way as Y7Jo and RGGJo.

ALSO that is so sick the author of Soliloquy saw your art…… incredible……….. + as an aside since I was reminded, it's very true that sometimes people seem to "fill in the blanks" with tropes, and my favorite is honestly when it's both funny and offensive. There was this whole "phase" (and to everyone's credit it was short-lived) of playing Mine up like this Huge Misogynist because he's not attracted to women, and it's WILD to recognize that he's gay but still pull up homophobic tropes for funsies.

Like I was mad at the time mostly on account of the mischaracterization (because come on, even if you've only seen Y3, he is still uncharacteristically soft with Katase… not that he wasn't INSANE for The Slap, but it also wasn't at all rooted in the same things as say, Nishiki slapping Reina might've been.) But it was funny. Perhaps not in the way it was intended to be, but it was funny. And, you know, that's why I'm happy to stay in my own little corner as well.

You coulda just said bread it's ok 😭 I WAS right though it WAS a carb......

On the subject of language though, it's def something I picked up on (if my last ask wasn't any indication lmao)! It's a real neat detail and something I think helps push that 'family' theme Y7 has going on (or at the very least demonstrates how despite the times changing, they still have those bonds with each other whether they acknowledge it or not), it definitely being a case of picking up a habit/term from family.

About tropes in fan works though, I can't act like I'm guiltless of it LMAO so I don't have too strong of a leg to stand on when it comes to criticizing it (and I can't lie, sometimes I do find playing into the trope funny if it's at least based on something from the text and it's just exaggerated For The Bit yeah). However I do think the strangest thing was linking misogyny and Mine (I made a post rambling about it but deleted it like. .3 seconds later) because nothing he does in either Y3 nor RGGO is explicitly misogynistic? In the slightest? And as we talked about before he's considerably pretty respectful towards women? Again, he surely did slap a little girl, but it wasn't because she was a girl you know (still cringe to do but if we're gonna talk about it let's do it right please and thank you). As you say though, pushing that trope onto Mine just feels like perpetuating the harmful stereotype that gay men hate women, and in cases like that then I can't really take the piss out of it without having a weird taste in my mouth.

#long post #snap cahts #on the note about language though..... you just reminded me that i wanted to make fun of jo for his particular usage of 'balls' ☠️☠️#like first time i was like fine. yk it's a common saying but then second time i was just Alright I Got It Champ Balls Are Crazy #and if jo really WAS the one to say that to ichi then like.. my guy.. three times is no longer a coincidence.. whole lotta talk bout balls.#in all seriousness though that much repetition from jo really does help confirm that the quote ichi says /is/ from him #and helps validate that bond they had. because sure jo's an asshole but it's clear ichi still took his words to heart #in that respect. i like that jo has a favorite term- its pretty human i guess you can say #cause yk we all have certain phrases or words we like to particularly use so its sweet to see that. in the funniest way possible but still #SORRY im five i still laugh at dick jokes anyways #NO NOT TO GET CONTROVERSIAL BUT ABOUT NISHIKI SLAPPING REINA i see so few people talk about it #and if they do they try to make reina seem like the villain and that nishiki was faultless for hitting her... like what...#i mean reina wasn't being nice in that scene but she was also upset about losing people she loved too..#like yeah nishiki hitting reina is diff from mine hitting haruka- both dick actions but def diff #hitting a kid after you talk bout bulldozing their home and then they Rightfully hit you for it yk. cringe. get it together she's 13 ☠️#threw hands with a 13 y/o moment... actual mustache-twirling-evil shit LMAO #with nishiki it's like. my man that's your friend... you guys are going through shit together why are you getting mad at her..#we get it youre insecure but dont take that out on your friend bro she's distraught too #im gona ruffle SOMEONS feathers with them tags i just know it.... oh well #point is. dont hit kids dont hit your friends and dont hit women. unless it's consensual then by all means go WWE on each other

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