Yakuza series

[Timothy]

I would put that last sentence behind a spoiler tag.

Spoiler alert

It's better to be surprised by the mood yourself imo.

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[Thursday]

I went 0, Kiwami, 6, Kiwami 2. Haven't played any more but obviously I missed a huge chunk of story between Kiwami and 6. Didn't really bother me though and I

Spoiler alert

shed a tear - of joy? of sadness? I'm not telling ;-) -

[close]

at the end of 6.

Yeah in some ways I don't think the order you play them matters that much, as it'll catch you up on the most important events. There's just other characters you'll appreciate more if you watch them as the series progresses.

The first one I ever played was 3, many years ago when it was a fairly new game. And that probably is the worst place to start because you don't have any context for what's happening and stopped playing not long into it. Basically Just don't start with anything from 2-6.

[Consignia]

Yeah in some ways I don't think the order you play them matters that much, as it'll catch you up on the most important events. There's just other characters you'll appreciate more if you watch them as the series progresses.

Yep, I agree. The only reason I'm perhaps unfairly[nb]like I say, not played it but seen previews of it[/nb] putting Kiwami 2 after 0, is it's got a big pay off for Majima's story. Otherwise I think the games are fairly discreet.

Just ordered 7, as it's dropped in price like no ones business. Would prefer digital, but it's so much cheaper.

[Mister Six]

Kiwami 1 has a big substory that's a sequel to the pocket circuit story in 0. There might be a couple of other little things I'm forgetting.

I'm doing that now but it genuinely didn't occur to me that the flashback images of the kids were shots from Yakuza 0, rather than details added in Kiwami for flavour.

[Timothy]

Yep, I agree. The only reason I'm perhaps unfairly[nb]like I say, not played it but seen previews of it[/nb] putting Kiwami 2 after 0, is it's got a big pay off for Majima's story. Otherwise I think the games are fairly discreet.

Just ordered 7, as it's dropped in price like no ones business. Would prefer digital, but it's so much cheaper.

I bought 7 last month but promised myself I would wait for the free PS5 version. Quite difficult because the game seems great.

[bgmnts]

Okay the combat in Kiwami is utter dogshit, is this indicative  of the whole series? If so I'll just remove it all now.

[Mister Six]

Stick with it, it'll click, especially as you get more abilities. Use Rush to build up heat and learn to dodge attacks, use Brawler and Beast to spend heat on heavy attacks (and use Beast to effectively use improvised melee weapons like bikes and signs).

[bgmnts]

Yeah I get all that I'm just struggling with the monumental hit points on even mini bosses, their attacks tracking, breaking through your attacks, not being able to cancel out of a combo and getting stunlocked all the time.

It's still more fun than most games though so all good.

[Mister Six]

Some of the fight upgrades allow you to counter and break stunlocks, especially for Brawler stance.

Early on - especially at the funeral boss - use Rush to zip around the back of people and twat them in the head, then break off before they fight back.

If it's a boss and they start doing that recharge thing - and you have your heat gauge filled (ie. You have coloured fire coming off you), switch to the same colour as the boss and use hard attack (triangle on PS4) to execute a special move that will fuck their health way down. If your heat gauge isn't filled, just bash them about until it's built up.

[Mister Six]

Funeral boss is a cunt, BTW - he takes almost zero damage from the front, even if you're shooting him with the daft fish cannon you get from the DLC included in the PS4 version. Rushing him from behind is the only tactic that worked for me.

(They're all rushed from behind by the time etc.)

[kngen]

Well, I just played Yakuza 0 for a couple of hours, and then realised when I quit that it doesn't autosave. Fuck. I really liked it though, but I'm going to have to leave it a couple of days so that I don't hate it just because i have to do all that stuff again.

[Consignia]

I'm just starting out 7 at the moment. I'm finding the JRPG style not fully jiving with me yet, which is a little odd since I like Yakuza and JRPGs.

But otherwise I'm really enjoying. Kasuga endeared himself to me surprisingly quickly, a goofy weirdo of a yakuza and nice contrast to Kiryu's stern attitude. The rag tag bunch of side kicks are a great addition almost all as goofy as Kasuga so far. The side stories are all top draw Yakuza side stories, I don't think I've laughed at a video in quite some time. I felt I've barely even started and I've already notched 8 hours of gameplay, which seemed to have flown by. Mostly down to me concertedly spending more time on side stories rather than rushing the plot, so I don't end up under levelled.

[Thursday]

What'll happen is you won't be too under levelled anywhere until you suddenly get to a bit late game where you're massively massively under levelled. (But getting up to level won't be anywhere near as bad as you first think if you know what to do)

[Mister Six]

Really going to miss Kazuya. The contrast between his stern appearance and demeanour and all the cute/daft shit he gets up to in the side missions, like playing race cars with kids or being a bit embarrassed when asking about pornography, cracks me up every time.

Anyone have any tips for beating Charon, the Coliseum cunt with the big horns? His attacks are stupidly overpowered. Best I've found is to use Rush to chip away at him and dodge his chains, but sooner or later his attacks connect and I'm fucked.

[Mister Six]

Completed Kiwami and am absolutely sold on this series now. Already picked up 0 and will be keeping my eyes peeled for sales on Kiwami 2 and the remastered collection.

Fondest/maddest moment: doing the hostess mission with the cute lesbian who can't get her love life together. It was such a sweet story, this uber-serious gangland bloke trying to cheer up a sad girl - and at the end when she decides to just say screw it and sleep with Kiryu (and most games would have given you an achievement for shagging her or something) he turns her down, gently (but sternly) tells her to pull her shit together and encourages her to keep looking for the girl of her dreams.

But then...

Spoiler alert

she leans on his chest and psychically transmits FMV of a real-life lady rolling around on a bed and looking awkwardly at the camera. What the fuck? I mean, I know it's a Japanese game and this is "fanservice" but it really confounded me. Completely mad. I assume it was bolted onto the end of the hostess storyline late in the day, because it really doesn't make any sense.

[close]

The actual main storyline was a bit naff by the end - way too many moments where some new, imposing figure you've never seen before is revealed to be pulling the strings of the last imposing figure you'd never seen before, while the Nishiki rivalry that was the emotional hook at the start kind of got forgotten about by the end. Also,

Spoiler alert

all the goodies surviving that explosion was bullshit

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.

But really, I'm splitting hairs - the game as a whole was absolutely tons of fun pretty much all the way through (I even figured out how to beat Charon in the Coliseum), and I'm looking forward to getting through the rest of the series, starting with 0, though I'll give it a bit of a break for now.

For those who are playing Like A Dragon: the US trailer makes it look absolutely mental. How much of that is supposed to be diegetic? Like, by this point in the Yakuza series are there psychic prawns and cats that turn into dragons? Or is it supposed to be in our hero's overactive imagination, or what?

[Consignia]

For those who are playing Like A Dragon: the US trailer makes it look absolutely mental. How much of that is supposed to be diegetic? Like, by this point in the Yakuza series are there psychic prawns and cats that turn into dragons? Or is it supposed to be in our hero's overactive imagination, or what?

It's a bit weird to say the least. A lot of it is in Kasuga's head, as he's a massive Dragon Quest fan and sees the world as a JRPG. But, there's quite a bit of it which is really just unexplainable. The JRPG summons are literally Kasuga calling on his phone to request help him, and that includes the prawn who he befriends in a side story. Some of them are kind of regular people, like a Korean actor down on his luck but there are some mad ones. And some people you can recruit for your congolomorate businsess, so you can end up with a chicken managing the biggest host club in Yokohama, and there's no suggestion it's not actually happening.

The main story is quite po-faced in parts like it's predecessor, but generally, it's a bit of more of a comedy than previous ones. Mostly down to the main team being a complete ragtag bunch of misfits. As I said earlier, Kasuga is a great lead and perhaps better than you'd expect given he had big boots to fill.

[Mister Six]

Hmm, not sure how I feel about that. On the one hand the disparity between the serious stuff and the mad stuff seems a bit stark in Kiwami, on the other hand sentient prawn and chickens seem like they might be going too far. I've seen it suggested that they've split the Yakuza series down the middle, with Judgement taking the serious stuff and 7/Like a Dragon taking the wacky. Oh well, we'll see! I won't be playing it for at least a year, probably more, anyway!

[Timothy]

There are rumors that Like A Dragon will be in PS Plus next month. The day of the PS5 release is the day new PS Plus games arrive.

Tomorrow we know if these rumors are true or not.

[Consignia]

What'll happen is you won't be too under levelled anywhere until you suddenly get to a bit late game where you're massively massively under levelled. (But getting up to level won't be anywhere near as bad as you first think if you know what to do)

Fuck me, I think I've just hit that wall.

Spoiler alert

Majima + Taiga fight?

[close]

I know the grind spot you're talking about, and I got level 50 with relative ease. But I've just been decimaited in that battle twice.

[Thursday]

Yep

[Timothy]

Have been waiting until the PS5 free upgrade and finally started the game yesterday.

This is so good. The new protagonist is great, the story is fun and I love the turn based battle system.

Might become my favorite Yakuza game of all time.

[Consignia]

I'm in the last chapter now; and apart from that enforced grinding section in the mid to late game, I'd tend to agree. I've never put such a effort into completing every side story.

Yokohama is a great location, absolutely massive but still lots of things so it doesn't feel like tons of pointless streets. I've never liked the place too much IRL, but I get nostalgic pings, especially when you go by the bay area.

[Consignia]

Think I'm done with Yakuza 7 now. Finished the story, did nearly every substory apart from the final go-kart one. The controls are just a little too crap to really both with the harder trophies. But it's really the most complete I've ever done a Yakuza game, really got my money's worth I reckon.

I did think it was great, even if I don't think the battle system was ever fully realised. There's almost no need to actually change jobs. And the "dungeons" are a bit too dull really engage with. Yokohama is a great city, probably one of the best they've realised in the series. I also think the main four party members as charming as anything. Later ones not so much, but it's still a great direction for the series. Don't know how they'll follow it up storywise, but then again, every single Yakuza game feels "final".

[MoreauVasz]

I am so conflicted over this series...

On the one hand, I love the various mini games and the short-story like missions you stumble into when running around the city but I really struggle with the bombast of the main story lines. I know they're grounded in a specific genre and that genre has a stylised vision of the psychodynamics of honour, status, loyalty, and violent homoeroticism but every time they start going on about how honour demands they do something silly I want them to sack off this gangster shit and settle down into running a cabaret or become an estate agent.

[Mister Six]

Only played Kiwami, but I just treated the main story as something I had to do to unlock more sidequests. All the new characters that kept popping up, or revelations that some bloke I'd never seen before (or only seen in these cutscenes), had been conspiring with someone else I'd never seen before (or only seen etc) to do something obscure relating to some shit that happened 20 years ago just left me cold. Still sat through 'em, though, because I'm an idiot.

[MoreauVasz]

Yeah... I don't get the impression that the franchise is hugely careful with timelines, facts, or characterisation so I'm not sure those conspiracies and character beats ever carry more weight than DUNH DUNH DUNNNNNH! I mostly skip through the cut scenes, means I tumble from one huge fistfight to another without ever understanding who I am beating up or why but that's just real life innit?

[Mister Six]

Yakuzas 0, Kiwami 1 and Kiwami 2 all discounted on PlayStation store right now. Just bought Kiwami 2, although I've not got around to 0 yet.

[letsgobrian]

Finished off Judgement, the detective game that uses the Dragon Engine and is also set in Kamurocho. Enjoyed it a lot, similar to Yakuza 6, it feels like a refinement of ideas from Yakuza 3.

While it takes place in the same world as Yakuza, there isn't much crossover in terms of characters. I think I counted one recurring character from the series

Spoiler alert

the second Mr Try And Hit Me

[close]

. So you can hop into this easier from Kiwami 2 than you could from Kiwami to Yakuza 6.

[peanutbutter]

Playing 0, it feels extremely like a PS2 game in a lot of ways. Can't imagine I'm gonna play very far in but I'm enjoying it for now, 2 chapters is enough to justify the 3 pound or whatever I paid tbh. Is there a particular point it's worth sticking with to where it'll become a lot more engrossing?

Finding the cut scenes pretty confusing. It seems to do a lot of transitions between fully pre-rendered ones and then ones that aren't but still have full dialogue you can't skip and then others that are closer to the normal game experience...

[brat-sampson]

The Serious Business cutscenes are a lot to take in at first, what with all the gangs and subdivisions of gangs and heirarchical nonsense, but this will even itself out fairly swiftly (for what is a 30-odd hour game). Definitely stick with until the world opens up some, you can see some of the lunatic side of the franchise in the Side Stories, and then you get greeted to the actual best character in the game when Majima turns up. If you stil ldon't like it after all that, then yeah, maybe not for you, but it's not one you can easily judge after the first couple of hours really.