Unbelievable stuff really. Probably the messiest and biggest a game can be while still being a 5.0. There was so much stuff in this I just chose not to do and yet the stuff I did want to/have to do was fulfilling enough. I just felt how great it was going to be by the time the opening credits ended. So much joy with Ichiban and so much sadness and regret with Kiryu, pingponging between them is crazy and feeling their strength and determination manifest differently is just the wonderful character stuff I come to expect from rgg. The final shot of the final cutscene was absolute nasty work though and shocked me straight out of my gourd

Good clean fun… doing the pre-final boss fight with 3jima was such a sweet touch. Also THAT cutscene….. try not to sob or you die I died

wow. what a wonderful journey literally so much to say… it was so correct of rgg to phase out kiryu’s character, because while we do all love him, it was exactly time for a new kind of protagonist — someone surprising and expressive! ichiban has this wonderful mix of lightheartedness with fire and jadedness that is such a difference from kiryu and yet such a good match for the series. plus the babiest beautifulest huge brown eyes I’ve ever seen. the story itself took me on a ride, for a while I was like wtf are they trying to stress the importance of blood ties right after doing y6 all about chosen family and broken parent-child relationships? and then I was like is this about destiny (see previous)? I think I landed it being on about the randomness of life and learning to live with what you have which I guess fits the whole ‘bleach japan’ story too - you can’t change things wholesale to fit an unrealistic ideal… idk

I LOVED THIS A LOT….. loved the hirosei kids. Kiryu being pushed to a breaking point by seeing the cycle of families dissolving over and over again was actually affecting rather than the same old “people are always dying because of me” crap. I miss Majima so bad

i was loving this one until shinada's part which felt completely boneheaded and out of place to me