Recent reviews by FreudLee

If you are wondering if it works on the steam deck, no issues so far. Have yet to try to add mods but reccommended if you wonder if it works.
Aside from that, fun JRPG.

Several months in and this is the summary:
- The online issues have (somewhat) been fixed by introducing a timer to kick users timing out
- You will however encounter a lot of people crashing into one another, often unintentionally and sometimes on purpose. Gotta tough that one out to some degree, the netcode could be better
- The single player and two player campaigns are okay
- The story mode sucks.

Get it discounted and check a video to see if you prefer this or 2020 (which has more models and options but is "looser" when it comes to cutting corners/punishments during race simulations)

Great entry point to the Yakuza franchise.
If you ever wondered what the fuss is about, this is basically JAPAN SIMULATOR: THE GAME but set in the 80s.

On the one hand you have a serious story drama that is reasonably gripping and engaging.
On the other, the side stories you encounter are hilarious and range from helping a guy who's been mugged a limited run videogame (and when you reach the thief you find out he had been mugged himself and on and on it goes) to helping a production studio where the producer has not showed up by standing in for the role (despite knowing nothing about video production).

The are two complete major side game mechanics (being a business tychoon acquiring businesses and being the head of a hostess club) and a ton of minigames you can lose hours to.

Decided to give this a shot during a free weekend.
Very disappointed by both the story and the gameplay mechanics:
- The game has been optimized for controller play at the expense of mouse + keyboard to the point it's unwiedly to play without a controller.
- The story is highly linear and the morality system has become non-existant. Instead you can only make mildly snarky remarks against "the good guys" which goes against the idea of previous and similar games about morality being grey in a post-apocaliptic world
- The game is still buggy almost a year after release and there is not GotY bundle to acquire it with the DLC instead having to buy a season pass separately to get the full experience.

Sure, you can mod all of this to improve it but why bother? You can get much better done mods for Fallout 3 and New Vegas or play Skyrim if what you want pretty graphics with a story that is at least serviceable.

At barely 3-4 hours played I had enough. I wanted to give the game a fair chance despite negative reviews but it is clear that the critique voiced against the game is well earned.
Don't get it unless it's at a very low bargain price and even then make sure to research if the mods have been able to fix the mess that is the game's menus for mouse and keyboard.

If you haven't played any souls games before, this is probably the "easiest" of the bunch. With that said, you're still in for a challenge.

If you played Dark Souls on the PC, here are the key disfference:
Looks better than the original Dark Souls for the PC and has a better framerate (which makes it easier on the eye to play).

The game is easier than Dark Souls aswell, as stated above, though you can increase the difficulty if you feel that you need a better challenge. Also, people can invade you while being a ghoul compared to Dark Souls-

With that said, my early impressions are that the design is a bit all over the place compared to a more consistent design in Dark Souls when it comes to locations and character/monster design.
That doesn't make it a bad game, most of the key aspects are still solid which is a testament to the legwork done in the previous game(s) but it's a shame that they didn't give it a bit more polish.

I left a review near launch in 2013 you can read below. Some points still apply.

As for the current state of the game, it's a bit more complicated.
The community generally agrees you need at least three DLCs (Art of War, Common Sense and Rights Of Man) for it to work with the current mechanics.
Paradox normally releases a bundle which includes them but a lot of the features that they include feel like they should have been part of the core game to some degree, mainly options regarding diplomacy with allies (transferring occupied regions during war or developing your regions with your "mana points" for example).

Finally, the tutorial is basically non-existant to this day. It's recommended to check video tutorials on youtube and play one of the major recommended nations before trying more challenging ones.

If you can get it at a discount, you have a game you can sink hours into and really enjoy but keep that in mind before diving in, hence why I keep the recommendation but over-all it's a much more reserved recommendation than back in 2013, especially given how there are a lot of DLCs that are overpriced for what they bring to the table.


Review in 2013:
If you have played Crusader Kings 2, you'll be right at home here (and heck you can import your CK2 endgame). If you like Strategy Games in general (Civilization V for example), this might be fun for you to play as a different take on the genre, though be aware this has a steeper curve.

And for those who have played EU III but not CK2, a fair warning: the game mechanics have changed quite radically and you will have to rethink a lot of your old strategies (which is not bad but may crush your motivation in the first games).

Moé shopkeepers doing moé capitalist speculation things

Update 2024: Works like a charm on the steam deck even if it says unsupported.
Only issues found:
- You need to launch the configuration tool first time and manually assign the gamepad buttons.
- Music sometimes glitches out of existance and reappears later

Neither issues break the gameplay itself so if anything it should be marked as playable (played the main campaign and a bit of new game plus, not survival/endless but that should be enough to change the rating)