096
REVIEW
INFO FORMATPUB SQUARE ENIX PS4 ETA OUT NOW DEV SQUARE ENIXKINGDOM HEARTS III
- RE:MIND
Underwhelming in key(blade) areas
F
or the most part in this extended
DLC, you replay Kingdom Hearts III’s
endgame. In battles you now have the
option of playing as Sora or one of the other
Keyblade wielders, each of them with new
specials and linked attacks. While battles
stay the same, it’s exciting to finally take
control of old favourites such as Roxas and,
at long last, even Kairi.^1 Some cutscenes
have been extended, while others stay
identical to the main game. You also get a
chance to explore an enhanced version of
Scala Ad Caelum, home to the Guardians of
old, but the slightly longer visit amounts to
another empty, linear level.
The best part of Re:Mind is the large
group battle between the Guardians and the
Heartless, complete with fresh character
interactions and mighty finishers.
If you’re looking for a challenge you may
find it in the Limitcut episode, the second
part of the DLC. This is basically a boss rush
arena, where you battle The Thirteen again,
but at a much higher difficulty. Only then
does the Secret Episode unlock. This takes
place after the events of the game and hints
at what awaits Sora in the next instalment.
New content is thus pretty sparse,^2 and the
noteworthy addition to the story requires
the dedication of grinding long enough in the
main game to make it through the boss rush
stage in one piece, by which point you will
have fought the same battles three times.
It’s taking the Mickey somewhat.
Re:Mind could have been an additional
world, or a new chapter to
shorten the wait until the next
game. Instead it’s more of the
same, often literally so. A missed
opportunity. Malindy HetfeldFOOTNOTES 1 Finally we can experience the game as our favourite
support characters. 2 There is also Data Greeting mode,
essentially a photo mode in which you can arrange characters.INFO FORMATPUB SEGA PS4 DEVETA RYU GA GOTOKU STUDIOOUT NOWTHE YAKUZA
REMASTERED
COLLECTION
Touching up the back tattooT
he Yakuza series is undoubtedly unique,
offering emotional crime stories that
frequently go off the rails. Playing this
collection you’ll both shed tears for dead
friends and watch a masked panty thief
swing from rooftops.
It rounds out bad-boy-with-a-heart-of-
gold Kazuma Kiryu’s epic saga on PS4,
finishing off the set with remastered
versions of Yakuza 3, 4, and 5. While not full
remakes like the Kiwami games before them,
plenty has still been done to raise these up
the PS4 crime family’s ranks. Extra features
have been added, cut content’s been
restored,^1 and they’ve been re-translated.
The remastering of the ahead-of-their-time
facial motion capture is still startling in places.
For the most part you’re stomping around
town as usual, getting involved in crunchy
brawls where you deliver over-the-top
justice by smashing bikes over antagonists’
heads, doing flip kicks, or jamming daggers
into people’s stomachs (and somehow never
killing them – all part of the deliberately
overexaggerated charm). The action
gets varied in the fourth and fifth entries
as sections of the game have different
protagonists with unique, though similar,
fighting styles.^2
At times the games’ age is apparent – in
some repetitive and annoying boss fights, or
the way special moves shift you annoyingly
away from where you initiated them in
order for them to animate properly. Even so,
they’re still immensely playable.
Yakuza is one of the few
series that elicits genuine belly
laughs while telling a gripping
story. Oscar Taylor-KentFOOTNOTES 1 There have also been some minor revisions and
removals of content where the dev felt the jokes had aged less
well. 2 And all have their own, often hilarious, side-missions too.INFO FORMATPUB RAW FURY PS4 ETA DEVOUT NOW KRILLBITE STUDIOMOSAIC
We art sure this really worksC
hances are that ‘soul-crushing
existence simulator’ wouldn’t be
particularly high on your list of dream
games. Yet here we are. As an anonymous
work drone, your days start when you drag
yourself out of bed and switch off your alarm,
then brush your teeth – with optional tie and
hair tidying before setting off to work.^1
There’s more to Mosaic than that,
naturally. These elements are intentionally
drab and slow-paced, as part of the game’s
drive to act as commentary on 21st-century
life. At its most subtle, there are flashes
of brilliance. If you try to turn to face a
neighbour in the lift, they’ll turn away from
you; and by giving your character a mobile
phone, there is – as in real life – always the
temptation to fiddle with an app instead
of doing something more important, or to
instantly check your messages as soon as
you get a notification.
Sadly, design subtlety is drowned out by
the script, which prefers to hammer its
Ideas And Themes directly into your face.
Mosaic isn’t subtle. It has a message and
wants you to pile your plate at its all-you-
can-eat buffet of meaningfulness.
It’s not long before colour, sound, and
surrealism are used to contrast with the
mire of the daily grind; but they’re not
implemented well enough. Mosaic as a whole
fails to escape the sense of monotony and
obligation that it seeks to critique, to the
point where the satirical app BlipBlop is
more fun than anything else in the game.^2 On
top of that, it doesn’t actually have anything
new or particularly meaningful
to say. It’s occasionally clever,
and has great art design, but
isn’t nearly as smart as it
thinks it is. Luke KempFOOTNOTES 1 To David Cage, this kind of thing is immersive; to
Krillbite, it’s intentionally uninteresting. 2 This is no exaggeration,
despite the fact that BlipBlop only asks you to press q.