Recap / Kurohyou 1 Mini-Review

(K2 Part 1) My entire playthrough/series is the review but I wanted to mention a few things about the first game and the series during this video. FIRST, and most importantly, the gameplay: it never gets old. The gameplay reminds me of the Def Jam series except WAY better, every battle is enjoyable and entertaining, and there is enough there to keep even the most nerdy martial artist (like me) satisfied with the system also being simple enough for players that just want to scrap. I see gameplay as the most important aspect of a game because it's a fucking game and it's supposed to be fun. #1 rule. SECONDLY, the story is pretty damn good. The main story although a little slow is a complete story, characters advance in their arcs and lives, people are took out, and people prosper. I'm a sucker for a coming of age story for reasons I don't even fully understand so this is right up my alley here. I'm also a sucker for a who-done-it and this game is both of those things. The Japanese as a people and culture have a real tough time wrapping their heads around the idea of a main character because their communities are more important than they are in that culture. So for them to put together such an amazing main character as Mr. DJ Announcer-san is just wonderful (ha). Joking aside, Tatsuya treats people the way they treat him. If you come at him stupid, he will kick the shit out of them, and if you are respectful towards him, most of the time he will at least make an attempt to get along. Except for the Chinese restaurant at the beginning of the story, every situation that becomes a physical encounter is in 2A self-defense. The painstaking detail for the games' developers to make things happen in this specific way is incredible. You can go back and watch every single encounter that turns physical in the game, every street brawl, every underground match, every boss fight (again except for the Chinese restaurant) and each encounter is Tatsuya defending himself against a violent threat. Great attention to detail there. NEXT, is the art direction discussion. I don't necessarily care how photorealistic a game's graphics are as long as there is a strong style. Kurohyou 1 and 2 are on the PSP handheld console which is roughly the computing power of a Playstation2. What the developers have done with the quality of the visuals with that limited of hardware is nothing short of a miracle. I am using an emulator to boost the resolution 4x, but even then, I should not be more drawn to the comic book art, cool color schemes, and fluid movement even at high-speed than to more modern games with photorealistic graphics. Style is more important because graphics get old and styles are forever, I'm convinced. LASTLY, audio design. The music is fucking fantastic and I could listen to nearly every song on here all day long and not get tired of them. The sounds of the city are great, the insults and shit that is talked during the game are a part of the Japanese language that you rarely, if ever, hear outside of Japan because that impolite language is looked so far down upon. People like Tatusya and Tenma and most of the characters here are already assholes, so they don't care about people looking down on them because they do that already, so people like Tatsuya and Saki and Kuki are just gonna say what they think. The thump of strikes and throwing techniques are audible and impactful in-game. All these aspects together make an amazing ramen broth , if you will, of awesomeness which is the game. The gameplay never gets old, the story is incredible, the graphical style is evergreen, the soundtrack is top 5 if not top 3 in all of gaming, and the cohesion of these elements makes a hydrogen bomb of awesome art with a purpose, and a well-earned place among the greatest games of history. At least for my tastes.