Free Play Days: Try These Xbox Games For Free (September 16-19)

I may have to take a crack at Judgment. I recently finished Death's Door so my game time opened up.

I was hoping Judgment will be added to Game Pass. Can't complete the game over the weekend.

Hmmm can I no life Judgment in three days, or should I go with the meagerly reviewed Aragami 2 🤔

I don't think I'll get a chance to try it, but that's exciting. A adore the whole yakuza series, so I've been curious about Judgement but worried it's darker/gritter than I'd like.

It's a shame though that this is probably the last in this series. What an unceremonious end to a series just as it gets going.

@SplooshDmg I haven't even gotten that far in LaD, but the Real Estate Royale in 0 is my current addiction. I'm OCD. I need 100% control of all districts. It's silly, it's so much like building buying all the shops in AC2: Brotherhood, but darnit, I need to control all the districts! Plus you forever more get stupid money when you're done.

Clearing my name and not getting murdered by two clans, 5 tycoons, and arrested can wait. I have real estate to micromanage first.

@SplooshDmg I have such a spotty and incomplete history with all the games as well. I'm trying to go back through it from the start. Even the 1080p remastered ones. It's rough though. I own them all on PS, but wanted to rebuy it all on XB. I SWORE I bought more of them than it's showing me I own....I thought 6 was all I had left to buy, but the remastered collection also shows up as not owned. (The MS store is such a mess, though. When they rejigger collections and things I end up seeing entries of games as "not owned" even though I own another set of them. To be fair, PSN and XB store are both a mess when it comes to that. The industry with all its bundles and rereleases is not friendly for digital stores.

I'm pretty sure I've bought the MCC at least twice because I bought it and thought I owned it, but then the store said I didn't own it, but it's because the listing for it was now a new listing of a slightly differntly bundled/described version that I didn't "own". Ugh.

So I'm not sure if I'll do Yakuza Remastered Collection and 6 on PS, Game Pass, or buy it on Xbox (20% GP discount, though...) After 0 and the kiwamis' remastered will be hard to get into, but I'm not going to skip out on finishing those. Plus the 2 Judgements, maybe.

Sounds like Ichiban Holidings is more or less the same thing as Real Estate Royale in 0....which isn't a bad thing at all. Except in 0 you don't hire employees, they come to you after you do their side quests. Sounds like they just expanded the same system...which is good because it was already addictive! I haven't gotten lost in a game of "collect all the things" like this since maybe AC2 Brotherhood. It just massages the OCD...

0 also has a weapons trader/crafting system where you send people out on missions to acquire materials. Haven't engaged with that much yet, that's on Majima's parts. And I haven't got back to him because I'm still playing real Estate Royale.

Fair warning. To complete Real Estate Royale, and buy all the buildings you need to do certain quests in certain stores. One involves being pretty decent at OutRun. And no, that's not joke....

@SplooshDmg Yeah, I want to try it. I have PS Now and almost gave it a try on Now, until I remembered Now's controller support on PC is an absolute clusterck and I refuse to use a wired DS4, and I refuse to remap my Elite into a total neutral button configuration just to make it work with rewasd, so I keep not touching Now. I have a BT X1 controller mapped, but I never have it on me. Given the entire Yakuza series is on GP, and Judgement is on Now, It's a sure bet Judgement makes it to GP. Probably after it expires on Now, in a month or two.

@SplooshDmg IDK, I thought Sonic Forces cost at least as much as FIFA to make......

I agree, though, that "AA+, sub-AAA" is really what "AAA" used to be before it became "VFX Spectacular show trying to be movies" garbage. Sega and Bamco tend to be the best two. Square runs hot and cold. They're both the best of some things and the worst of western excess in others. When they get it right, they really do get it right. It's just that they get it SO wrong, SO often, on SO many of their biggest titles it's easy to miss the really good ones.

But yeah, I still hate that "cinematography" is even a word used in games. A bunch of Hollywood vfx types got into the games industry and just decided to create animated films with interactive elements. And the critics review games based on the framing of cutscenes rather than game content. It's infuriating. Sega still gets it right. Who knew, like 25+ years after I got my Genesis, Sega would be the best games company around, even over Nintendo.

I loved Valkyria 1, but that difficulty spike was no joke and killed a lot of fun. I couldn't quite get into VC2 for some reason. It improved a lot but I may have just been burning out on SRPGs. I'm too slow at them. I strategize like a Chess grand master too long and finishing a simple early level takes like 1-2 hours

@SplooshDmg DQ 11 is spectacular as were the spinoffs, yeah. FFXV, once they actually released the complete game, actually was good. It's like 13. I hated both at launch, and then when I went back to it years later with a new perspective I felt like "I get it now and this is actually really unique!" I still have to finish that, actually. But I could never really stand it, finally decided to just do it, and I started getting really attached to it. The DLC and the ending parts and all suck badly, but the world and game loop really grew on me. It's weird. But yeah, other than that, they do so much that's horribly wrong. And when they do do it right, like FFXV, they make it impossible to like at launch with convoluted release messes. If XV released as the royal edition is now, I think it would have been a lot more well liked. Also if the DLCs were actually integrated into the campaign rather than looking up online guides to find out when to play each DLC so that the story makes sense. Not a bad game, but released HORRIBLY. And Sega doing more traditional JPRGs than Square is just sad. Mostly, they just try too hard to be a Western publisher. And the bad thing is they succeed at it.

Automata is really Platinum and Taro, so Square's just a publisher and nothing more. They gave us Balan though....that has to count for something, right?

Yeah, I was loving VC1 and then Selvaria steps in and it went off the rails. After restarting levels so many times, I was just so done with it. 2 was so weird. I never tried 3. 2 was just....I know it was PSP and there were certain conventions on PSP...but....I was hyped for it and it really underdelivered. I got 4 and still haven't played past the demo, lol! I'm not in the mood for it, and 3 Houses burned me out on SRPGs for a looong time I think...

Weren't they doing something mobile with Shining Force? I think they farmed it out to some Korean mobile company though, so it's barely a licensed game.

@SplooshDmg I still haven't finished DQ11. I got up to the frozen kingdom and headed into the dungeon for it, but I just kind of stopped there. I know I'm nearing the latter part of the game and I just don't want it to end. Kate had an article on NL about that, about not finishing games because you don't want it to be over. As long as I never finish it, it's not over yet! I did the same with Vesperia. I'll finish 11 eventually though, I want to see the rest of it.

XV, I really don't hate. I did for so long. I thought I always would. But I really do kind of like it. It's just unique, which is something that doesn't happen in gaming anymore. The road trip, the wildlife hunting loop, the whole game is just kinda chill in a good way. I hate myself for liking it...but.... it's memorable. The story is trash though. You play it for the vibe, not the story (or really the gameplay.) It's one of those journey games. Hitting enemies or learning story isn't really good. But just visiting the places and interacting with the world is kind of comforting. And Prompto singing the chocobo theme will never ever leave my head.

LOL, I played 3H for weeks and weeks and never even got to the time jump I'm REALLY slow at SRPGs! I finished Fates. Wish i could get that time back.

I'm like 95% sure there was a report on a Shining Force mobile game from a Korean company reported on NL some time back.

@SplooshDmg yeah doesn't seem to be worth it unless I don't sleep. Guess I'll wait for gamepass. Also don't feel sad about the ladder, you're gonna have to do it multiple times again at the end (for the money) if you want some achievements/romances etc.