Ryu ga gotoku 7: Hikari to yami no yukue

It's been a while since I played a turn-based JRPG. I like the more action-oriented direction the likes of Final Fantasy has been taking, but I find the frenetic pace overwhelming when so much is going on on-screen. Hence my delight with this gem.

It seems like it shouldn't work; gritty crime-based plot centering around corruption, murder, false imprisonment, and betrayal, interspersed with Japanese RPG weirdness in the combat and mini-games. The games leans in hard to both aesthetics, and though it sounds like it shouldn't work, this blood-and-bubblegum approach gels magnificently. Case in point: encountering crime boss who wants me dead, and attacking him with a rain of lobsters.

Yokohama, the setting for the story, is so vibrantly alive. The people, and the environment feel so alive, from the pristine and cluttered shelves in a well-lit pharmacy, to the debris scattered in the dim sewers and back alleys. Passers-by cower and run when the fighting starts, and traffic flows organically as you traverse the streets. It's a delight just going from A to B.

There is so much to do beside following the main story. Again, it could have felt like a rag-bag of mini-games, but instead they seemed more like entertaining palette-cleaners. I sang karaoke, played UFO catcher in the arcades (along with other vintage SEGA games like Virtua Fighter), hit the golf courses and batting cages, casinos and shogi parlors, and rode mini-carts. I even ran a local business, attend stockholder meetings, and attended the local college. Nothing essential to the plot, but it did unlock goodies which would help in combat.

I have only a few minor quibbles. One of the story beats is contrived to Shakespearean levels, which elicited a "Oh come on, what are the odds" reaction. And the game never really explained what all the status ailments actually meant, so I had to look them up online, which is a major oversight considering how important they can be during longer battles.

So in summary: engaging characters, compelling story, great sound and graphics, immersive setting, and game play which is simple joyful fun.