I never thought Astro Bot would dethrone Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth as my GOTY, but then I found out it has the JRPG's legendary main protagonist turned cute
Cute Kiryu for life

Astro Bot's stellar reviews have me counting down the minutes to 5:00pm tonight, when I can log off here and go give it a try. I know it's good; so good that many pš„eople are comparing it to theį©į©į©į©į©į©ā¤ā¤ā¤ā¤į©ā¤ā¤ā¤ā¤į©ā¤ā¤ā¤ā¤į©š±į©į©į© best Super Mario Bros. games and positioning it as an early GOTY frontrunner. And even though I loved Astro's Playroom, it was hard to imaš§gine the sequel dethroning the likes of Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth and Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth... until I learned Kazuma fą¶£reakin' Kiryu is in it.
Yes, Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth also has Kiryu in it, but he's the same ol' Kiryu we've known and revered for years and years. This is cute Kiryu, with an oversized head and a li'l Astro Bot mask on. And instead of fighting back when you punch him, as we've been trained to believe he would do for almost two decades, he just produšøces a bunch of familiar items from the Yakuza series like traffic cones, stop signs, and dart boards. Chš eck it out:
Behold, the Drš¦©šagon of Dojima in Astro Bot pic.twitter.com/96AwwRAhaG
Joking aside, cute Kiryu won't be enough for Astro Bot to become my GOTY. I remain skeptical that the overall experience will be as memorable as the latest Like a Dragon and Final Fantasy games - even though 澳擲幸čæ5å¼å„å·ē åå²ę„询:it is ą½§getting better reviews than both - but he certainly makes me more open to the idea. I'm also highly encouraged by the Astro Bot dirš”ector saying "12 to 15 hours of condešØnsed fun" are better than 40 hours playing a game with parts "you feel like skipping," simply because I don't have time for anotheꦿr 100 hour JRPG.
Astro has more than 150 cameos from various franchises, mostly Sony-owned, but obviously with certain exceptioź¦ns like Yakuza, whšich was still largely PlayStation-exclusive for its first 15 years or so.
Our 澳擲幸čæ5å¼å„å·ē åå²ę„询:Astro Bot review called the game "a near-perfect platformer".
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After earning an Engš¦lish degree from ASU, I worked as a corporate copy editor while freelancing for places like SFX Magazine, Screen Rant, Game Revolution, and MMORPG on the side. I got my big break here in 2019 with a freelance news gig, and I was hired on as GamesRadar's west coast Staff Writāer in 2021. That means I'm responsible for managing the site's western regional executive branch, AKA my home office, and writing about whatever horror game I'm too afraid to finish.