L'Uomo Lupo Contro La Camorra

L'Uomo Lupo Contro La Camorra is an action game for the PS5, PS6, Nintendo Switch, Xbox Series X and the Finnish-exclusive PS4 clone Dianyouxi. It's inspired by NieR and Killer7 and the open-world structure of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, is explicitly a combination of various genres, and sets the action in Napoli, Italy.
In Japan, this game is titles Takeshi- The Hero With Three Forms (3つの変身を持つヒーロー、タケシ), as Camorra is obscure in Japan.
It's about Italian vigilante Takeshi Shinonome turning into a wolf or a specter and going on a killing spree against the Neapolitan mafia Camorra.
== Plot ==
Napoli, October 5th, year 2007. It's been two weeks since former Carabinieri officer Naoto Shinonome departed from Naples, and he hasn't come home yet, when the news confirm he was lost at sea near Posillipo beach. 
His younger brother Takeshi, a paraplegic 27-year-old NEET with a passion for black metal and gory and violent manga, anime and video games, doesn't take it well. Two years before, his motorcycle got rigged by mafiosi and exploded, causing him the severe trauma that made him decide to drop out from college, and it was also made to look like an accident when it wasn't. Naoto was the only one that had still cared for Takeshi. 
Suddenly someone rings at the doorbell. They mention "Naoto's last gift". Takeshi opens, and someone delivers him a box with a password lock and the label "Ultimo Dono di Naoto" (Naoto's Last Gift).
He reminisces all the things Naoto told him before departing. A "last gift" for Takeshi that would be sent to his home in case he dies, a tool that would be instrumental in avenging his death, in a special box with "Cuore" as password to open. According to Naoto, the object is cursed, but it's the only way to eradicate the Camorra, and if the Camorra gets their hand on it, not only Napoli but also the entire world could be in danger. 
Takeshi opens the box and finds a black crystal. As he touches it, it forcibly grafts into his arm and black tendrils start enveloping his body as he suffers massive pain. His skin becomes pale white, almost ice blue, his hair become platinum blonde and longer and his eyes become blood red. 
A mysterious white crow has appeared before him, telling him to wake up. It introduces itself as Beleth and tells Takeshi that he has bonded with him, making him a Darkling. As Takeshi has a lot of darkness in his soul, Beleth decides him instead of consuming him which is what she would have done to anyone who didn't have enough darkness to control him. Beleth explains Takeshi that he can shift between three forms: human, wolf and spectral. 
Takeshi quickly decides to use it as a way to avenge Naoto and sets off, starting his investigation on the Camorra. 
Boss Saburo Miyazaki lives in a villa in Capri, and you can go there from the start if you want (but only after completing the questline of the Secret of the Darkling Heart), but the assault is really complex and it's not advisable to do so (you get the Total Chaos Ending by doing so). It's instead advisable to complete four villain arcs 
You can receive missions from various NPCs which allow you to find more and more about the Camorra and weaken its influence on the city. Endings depend on how many bosses you fought. 
== Villain arcs ==
Important quest chains involve investigating on various people associated with Saburo Miyazaki and eliminating them to destroy Miyazaki's control over that sector of shady business. Villain arcs can be done in any order you want. After exposing each villain, you can choose to conduct your assault with the help of the NOCS or the Diavoli Urlanti gang (the assault changes depending on which faction you choose: with the NOCS you play more investigation, while with Diavoli Urlanti you play more violent attacks), so the faction receives affinity points. The more you help NOCS, the more the mafia suspects NOCS is not corrupt and defunds it, making the Diavoli Urlanti more and more free to expand their turf and affiliated with the mafia. The more you help Diavoli Urlanti, the more you are a murderer and this means NOCS prefers to go after you rather than after the mafia (after all, murdering a Camorrista is still considered murder in Italy). If you have more points for a faction than for another, you can play a scenario where you fully eradicate the other faction (after which, you can enter a lesbian romance with the leaders Shinzo or Romualdo if you want). 
* Drug Dealing (Ringleader: Vittoria Esposito): This arc starts when Takeshi finds out about a dead idol singer, Akihiko Ruggieri. Then, after finding out Akihiko had performed in a disco called La Fortezza Rossa the night before dying. Entering La Fortezza Rossa, Takeshi finds out a drug called Cosmos is being sold there (a hallucinogenic drug which had killed many people in London before), and questions the pusher, a boy named Gilberto Russo who is from a well-off family and a student in the prestigious high school Liceo Scientifico G.R. Curbastro, and steals his phone in spectral form. An unidentified number had told Gilberto to sell Cosmos, as Gilberto was faring badly at school and risked being expelled (his father Giovanni Russo did not know he fared badly due to Vittoria giving him good grades). As more deaths are going on due to Cosmos, Takeshi tracks down other pushers that all are students in Curbastro high school, selling the drug so that they won't be expelled and their bad grades and private life leaked to their parents and online: the school principal Vittoria Esposito is in fact a Camorrista who receives shipments of Cosmos directly from Camorristi in the UK and hides drugs in a secret room in the school. After finding out the drug in Curbastro High School, you chase Vittoria at the port of Napoli, where she's waiting for a shipment of Cosmos. The drug-carrying ship is arc's dungeon. 
* People Smuggling and Prostitution (Ringleader: Fabrizio Murru) 
* Killing Spree (Ringleader: Aya Tsonga): A bunch of murders is going on around the city of Napoli. All of them are people connected to Naoto Shinonome's former coworkers. 
* Weapon Manufacturing (Ringleader: Nicodemo Kobayashi): This arc is about taking down Arsenale Kobayashi, a weapon factory owned by camorrista Nicodemo Kobayashi. In order to expose Kobayashi, Takeshi has to first find out about his plan to sell internationally-prohibited cluster bombs on the black market (wanting to sell them to an anti-Assad faction in Syria) and stop the shipment. Unlike most other arcs, you know from the start Kobayashi is guilty and you can assassinate him right away if you want, but it's very complex as Arsenale Kobayashi is heavily guarded and you need to expose Kobayashi nonlethally first so that the NOCS or the Diavoli Urlanti helps you storm the factory. Arsenale Kobayashi is this arc's dungeon.
* Secret of the Darkling Heart
*
== Romance Options ==
Other important sidequests, other than villain arcs, are romance options, which could involve both men and women. Faction leaders are both lesbian romance options, while heterosexual romances aren't tied to factions. They are:
* Griselda Tomita
* Francesca Lostumbo
*
* Lisa "Lisetta" Sottocolle: A college graduate, always looking for a job. She's actually a former idol whose career was ruined when it became known she had a boyfriend named Akira Verdi (in Italy, idols are forbidden from dating) who has committed suicide three years ago. Takeshi can romance her if he follows her questline and solves the case of why anyone would have exploited "contractual purity" and solve the case of Akira's suicide. 
* Shinzo d'Ambrosio: A former collaborator of Naoto Shinonome, who now works in the Carabinieri's special operation department NOCS. He's meant to arrest Takeshi due to his violent vigilante status, but works for him instead (preferring to be his ally than to serve the mafia), Takeshi can often count on Shinzo's support for instance in storming operations, and can have a lesbian romance with him through a sidequest you get after exposing 3 or more the ringleaders with Shinzo's help and gaining Shinzo's full trust (in this sidequest, you hand the Diavoli Urlanti to the NOCS).
* Romualdo Nori: The other lesbian romance option. Romualdo appears to be a normal shopkeeper by day, but actually is the leader of street gang Diavoli Urlanti, another faction whose assistance you can request, who compete with the NOCS and the camorra for the city's control. You enter his romance sidequest if you beat 3 or more of the villain arcs with his gang as your ally, in this mission you drive away the NOCS from the city.
== Gameplay ==
The gameplay involves Takeshi, who is a Darkling switching between human (with prosthetic legs), wolf and spectral forms. Changing a form basically changes the game's genre: as a human, you have to rely on stealth and firearms; as a wolf, the game is a stylish hack n'slash a la Devil May Cry; as a specter, it's focused on nuking enemies from cover and draining them. 
As a human, Takeshi has to move stealthily and assassinate his targets without being noticed, as he's got really low defenses (being almost OHKOd by any gunshot), plus he cannot perform stunts or jump high, and he's vulnerable to fall damage. Human Takeshi relies on assassination and can use various kind of guns, bombs and other stuff and pick up ammo from dead enemies, making him ideal for sniping from a distance. He can also talk to other humans and question them. Using a human form is recommendable only when sniping enemies. It heals by performing assassinations.
Wolf form is the most physically skilled, with powerful physical attacks that can be strung into combos, ability to jump high, dash, dodge roll and do parkour, and huge defenses. The Wolf playstyle is based on Devil May Cry. It heals by performing finishers, though it heals much less than assassinations or draining. 
Specter form is immune to fists and bullets (though weak to non-physical damage such as explosives, fire, electricity or other Darklings' attacks), though it's frail, and intense light (such as sunlight) instantly cancels this forms. Its main attack is draining enemies to heal its health. It can use various spells that are really powerful, such as bullets of darkness, dark bombs, dark seeking missiles, a dark vortex, dark blades, and many others, though all those spells cost a percentage of Takeshi's health.
The city is an open world, with Camorristi all over. As police officers are corrupt, being spotted by them has them chase you GTA-style (though they cannot spot you as a specter). You can start your investigation from wherever you want, do various missions for NPCs, or even go fight the final boss as soon as you start the game (not advisable to do so). 
You can download video files scattered throughout the city that tell you about Naoto's past as a Carabiniere. 
== Trivia ==
* Naoto Shinonome's name is a reference to Naoto Shirogane, a Persona character. 
* The name Takeshi was explicitly chosen because it's rare in Italy and because there's no saint Takeshi.
* Napoli is portrayed as an "Italasian" city, with stuff accurate to the real Napoli crossed with weird Japanese-esque architecture, and a lot of people having Japanese names. In Napoli are host clubs, onsen, terekura, ryokan hotels, houses with futon, and zones such as a buraku village, people wear kimonos and yukatas, bow to each other, call each other by last name and do dogeza poses (rare in Italy), and white day is a thing, plus the game's music sounds Japanese. A lot of African and Chinese immigrants are part of the Camorra (reflecting how lots of Koreans are in the Yakuza).
* The gameplay was structured over the "Physical-Mystical-Technological" trope: human form is technological, as Takeshi uses prosthetic legs and relies on firearms, wolf form is physical as it beats up enemies and attacks them, specter form is mystical as it uses powerful magic.
*Takeshi appears in Adrian - the Cyberpunk Curse , having traveled to Japan to look for something apparently different from the Yakuza. In Japan, he's known as "al-Iblisi de Nablus" (Japanese for "demon of Napoli"). Because Takeshi is a Darkling, he looks identical to how he looks in this game despite Adrian being set in 2087.
*In Napoli you can find stands which sell Cuoppo, a bag of various fried fish. It's stated in the game to be Finnish in origin, coming from Kuopio and named after the city, and having recently become more popular than sushi among youths (though Takeshi hates fried fish so you can't buy Cuoppo except for quests). But in real life, Cuoppo exists and is actually Italian. 
Category:Action Games
Category:Hack and Slash Games
Category:Stealth Games
Category:Open World Games
Category:Protest Games Against Mafia
Category:PlayStation 4 Games
Category:PlayStation 5 Games
Category:Nintendo Switch Games
Category:Xbox Series X Games