Main Menu

Tip jar

If you like CaB and wish to support it, you can use PayPal or KoFi. Thank you, and I hope you continue to enjoy the site - Neil.

Buy Me a Coffee at ko-fi.com

Support CaB

Recent

Welcome to Cook'd and Bomb'd. Please login or sign up.

March 28, 2024, 07:27:29 PM

Login with username, password and session length

Another Yakuza thread

Started by Jerzy Bondov, March 27, 2019, 10:10:55 AM

Previous topic - Next topic

Jerzy Bondov

Starting a new thread as suggested. Here's the last one with Bhazor's very good opening post:
https://www.cookdandbombd.co.uk/forums/index.php/topic,68376.0.html

What's Yakuza? It's an overwrought crime drama/beat-em-up/comedy/minigame collection. Like a sort of exciting version of Shenmue.

I'm on Yakuza Kiwami 2 now and very much looking forward to spin-off Judgement which is out at the end of June, once they've finished replacing the actor who got busted for too much cocaine. It looks pretty much like Yakuza but with some 'detective' elements. Ono Michio-Kun has been glimpsed in one of the trailers. Fantastic news.

I'm enjoying the changes they've made to the combat in Kiwami 2. Feels a bit more fluid than 6. I'm still not sure about the leveling system. If it's anything like 6, once you get near the end it becomes a huge grind to max everything out. Maybe they've tweaked it. I don't mind a bit of a grind (I finished Majima Everywhere) but it got silly in 6. It's not like you need any of it really but still. Going indoors without loading screens is still a huge boon.

The main reason I started this thread is to complain about the fucking guys you always meet in story missions who stand on the spot in corridors holding a chair and clobber you. They aren't a real threat, because they don't move, but they slow you down so much and aren't fun to fight. I don't think they were in 6. Should have been taken out for the Kiwami remake.

brat-sampson

Eh, my least fav. thing in a Yakuza game is being practically stunlocked by two dudes with guns doing pretty healthy damage to boot and not letting you get a kick in edgewise.

Jerzy Bondov

That doesn't happen to me because I'm really good at the game.

Consignia

Looking forward to that detective spin off, if it's allowed to be released again after that drugged up actor.

Thursday

They're going to be recasting it and then it'll get released I heard, although I don't have a link.

Jerzy Bondov

Yeah, still on track for 25th June apparently. For Judgement they've done a really cool thing and not only done an English dub but a separate translation for subs with the JP audio. I think I'll go with the subs, it won't feel right to hear English in Kamurocho

Jerzy Bondov

Date is way better looking than usual in Kiwami 2. Quite fancy him tbh

Spiteface

Didn't want to start a new thread, thinking we can still use this for future Yakuza & related talk.

Finished Judgment the other night.

I have to bring this up, but final sections of Ryu ga Gotoku studios' games go on a bit long. The final stretch of Judgment and the last battle with "The Mole" (Won't spoil who it is, don't know who here has done it) needed a break to at least save once. Right before you face The Mole would have been ideal.

There's parts that still feel like a Yakuza game, but I can't help feel it was still a little lacking coming off 6/Kiwami 2. Planning to buy/download 3 soonish and 4/5 once they become "unlocked"

That said, before I do, I found some old PS2 games on the weekend. Among them were the original Yakuza and Yakuza 2. I know the Kiwami ones are meant to be better, but I actually want to play through those before I hit 3. Gonna seek out another PS2 for that, mine was a tad buggered. Don't know if the memory cards are OK, been stuck in the old one for years...

Thursday

I'm  near the end of Judgment myself, liked it a lot, thought it freshned things up... although at the same time, the tailing missions were interminable... should have gone further with some of its detective RPG mechanics. Should probably have a story that didn't so heavily involve Yakuza clans if they wanted to get away from the Yakuza games more.

Consignia

Have you seen the latest one that's coming soon? It's got turn based combat in it!


Spiteface

That's gonna take some getting used to.

With regards to Judgment and it's (lack of) connection to the main Yakuza series, I only noticed  small handful of minor things

1) That Shangri-La building (the soapland from the first game), is still there falling to bits. You'd think more than a decade later they'd knock the whole thing down.

2) The owner of Earth Angel is the same.

3) There's an Ono Michio side mission in Judgment where the mascot has been brought to Kamurocho, presumably to drum up tourism as the local mascot of the town. The guy brings up that the person now in the suit isn't like "Him" - referring to Kiryu.

HOWEVER, this bugs me:

In Judgment we have a Tojo subsidiary family in conflict with yakuza from Osaka... yet the Kyorei don't seem to have anything to do with the Omi Alliance. Apparently as of Yakuza 7, the Omi have actually taken over Kamurocho. Suppose I'll have to wait next year to see what actually happened to the Tojo clan.

Bought a pre-owned PS2 today and am revisiting the very first non-Kiwami Yakuza with its english Dub and all. Mark Hamill is pretty much doing his Joker voice for Majima.

Timothy

Just started Judgment. Played two hours. Great start.

One question though. Are the traditional sub stories in this game or are all sidestories in the friendship system?

Cant wait for the 3, 4 and 5 collection in February. Then my collection is complete.

Thursday

Yeah there's side cases in this, sometimes doing friendship events will start them off, some you get from the noticeboard in your office/ the law firm or bar tender, and some are just dotted around.

Timothy

Awesome!!!!

How long did it take you all to finish the game?

Thursday

My end time was on 45 hours, but that may have been to do with me leaving the game paused for long stretches.

Timothy

Good!

Just in chapter two. Having a good time but man those follow and dont get spotted missions are annoying and dull.

Thursday

Yeah, sadly there's a lot of them. Really drag the game down.

Ferris

Posting to remind myself to actually play Yakuza 0 properly, because I didn't stick with it because I'm awful.

Waking Life

I enjoyed getting into Yakuza 0 (I sunk a lot of hours and haven't finished), but these games are dauntingly massive. Completing 0 through to 6 would be such a fairly significant life investment. Given the 'final' three will be re-release shortly, are people here doing that?

Timothy

Yes.

Multiple times probably.

I love this series.

Thursday

I'd made the decision to play 3, 4 and 5 before these remasters were announced. It might be worth going back to since 3 was missing some content originally and they seem to have improved the localisations in the remasters.

Spiteface

Quote from: Waking Life on September 16, 2019, 07:30:05 AM
I enjoyed getting into Yakuza 0 (I sunk a lot of hours and haven't finished), but these games are dauntingly massive. Completing 0 through to 6 would be such a fairly significant life investment. Given the 'final' three will be re-release shortly, are people here doing that?

Partly why I wanted to get another PS2 upon finding my copies of 1 and 2. Played both Kiwamis a bunch of times, not played the originals since they came out, never even finished 2 back then, and not having a PS3 meant I missed out on 3, 4 and 5.

I've committed to this, but I don't recommend it if you're new to them. The isometric-y views in 1 are fucking weird. Stick with the Kiwamis, unless you want to check out 1's english dub.

Zetetic

Quote from: FerriswheelBueller on September 16, 2019, 03:12:49 AM
Posting to remind myself to actually play Yakuza 0 properly, because I didn't stick with it because I'm awful.
I feel like I've done enough of 0 to get the idea.

Ferris

Quote from: Zetetic on September 19, 2019, 08:11:36 PM
I feel like I've done enough of 0 to get the idea.

Well I gave it 45 minutes or so, and it was fun, but I haven't given it a decent run.

Like a bag of chips - "mmm, chips, but is this actually shit? Or is it good, or what?"

Bazooka

Quote from: Zetetic on September 19, 2019, 08:11:36 PM
I feel like I've done enough of 0 to get the idea.

I got very deep into it, but the combat repetition burnt me out eventually, despite playing mainly Jrpgs. One day I'll do it.

Waking Life

For me, it was just the time investment with balancing it against regular adult life (to be young again and play FFVII for six hours straight) and the deluge of non-gaming media competing for attention. Doing a 'normal' completion of one of these games is a long term commitment, but to do all seven feels like giving Sega a couple of years of life (albeit, I'm sure it can be rewarding). And yeah, as someone mentioned above, a lot of that time is spent pummelling goons for pocket money.

I suppose I struggle with it being a bit of a completist, so I perhaps should just steer clear. What are the best yakuza films?

Bazooka

Anything by Takeshi Kitano. (Sonantine ideally).

Osmium

Quote from: Waking Life on September 20, 2019, 07:17:57 AMWhat are the best yakuza films?

Kinji Fukasaku's "Battles Without Honor & Humanity" series and most of his other 70s films. I'd say Fukasaku along with the already mentioned Kitano, plus a dash of Takashi Miike, are among the biggest influences on the games.

The Roofdog

After properly getting into Yakuza 0 including mastering all the mini-games, real estate & cabaret club shit which I never normally do, I downloaded Kiwami and it's... the same game. The map is almost identical, the fight styles are identical, it's like I just wiped my save and went back to the beginning of 0. Not sure I can be arsed with this to be honest. If I skip ahead a few games will I get something that actually feels like a sequel rather than DLC for the game I just exhausted?

Spiteface

Quote from: The Roofdog on June 11, 2020, 05:42:05 PM
After properly getting into Yakuza 0 including mastering all the mini-games, real estate & cabaret club shit which I never normally do, I downloaded Kiwami and it's... the same game. The map is almost identical, the fight styles are identical, it's like I just wiped my save and went back to the beginning of 0. Not sure I can be arsed with this to be honest. If I skip ahead a few games will I get something that actually feels like a sequel rather than DLC for the game I just exhausted?

Sega's managed to milk that Kamurocho map for almost 15 years. I admire that, it's one of the best maps in gaming.

If you want different towns to wander through, the remasters of 3, 4 and 5 might be your best bet.

Yakuza 6, not only has a location other than Kamurocho, but it's also on a different engine, as is Kiwami 2.

Kiwami 2 also has some references to 0 peppered through it, being set in Kamurocho and Sotenbori like 0 was, and having some extra content to play through as Majima.