Yakuza

I'm liking this a lot more than I thought I would from the demo.

I've heard this complaint before, and while I haven't had too much trouble with this, there is a solution fairly early in the game. Aside from remembering to hold down R1 while fighting and using the shift technique to quickly escape when you find yourself in this situation, there are two reverse attack moves you can learn that pretty much make this a non issue. At the start of Chapter 4 you can go to the alleyway southwest of Theater Square to find Coin Locker Key No. 50. Unlock this locker to get a book on Roundhouse kick techniques. Once your Tech stat reaches 4 you will automatically learn this if you have the book. There is also a Reverse Strike punch to learn from Sensei Komaki in Purgatory, but you have to have Tech built up to 6 for him to teach it to you.
The only "random" encounters in all of chapter 5 for me were the ones on the way to meet Majima, again scripted so they don't really count, none in chapter six so far. Again, too many random encounters is the game telling you to earn more EXP.
All the swearing is an attempt to approximate in English the way Yakuza actually talk. It sort of works but I could see it all coming off much better in Japanese with subtitles. I read that they wanted to include the Japanese language track but there wasn't enough room on the disc.

Okami is great but if I didn't have it I wouldn't trade this for it. The story alone makes it a keeper, for me.

Should read: hold down R1 while fighting to shift and using the dodge technique while shifting to quickly escape

did anyone play yakuza 2 through? seen it mentioned a few times on ILg I think

Sitting on my to-be-played shelf :(

some solid praise from good writer types. been meaning to pick up a copy, but that would necessitate buying a new PS2 memory card.

Yakuza 2 was probably my favorite game of last year. the story is stunningly non-retarded (I never played the first one so I had no idea what to expect), the action is frantic and awesome, and then there's this:

this game is great (regretting putting it on easy tho cos it's a pinch too easy); as james says the story is surprisingly nonretardo, the presentation (gfx+music) is great and the combat is rly satisfying

my only complaints are petty: no 480p even tho the box says so, the camera is a bit iffy, eh

we're never going to see yakuza 3, kenzan or yakuza 4 in the west are we?

fuck yeah!!!!
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=18013966&postcount=424

if this actually goes down I am bullish as hell on the chances of it selling well enough to justify the other games being brought over since (1) there's an actual groundswell of support behind the release and (2) people still haven't figured out how to pirate PS3 games yet. (assuming we're talking about a disc release and not on PSN like foax had been a-sayin').

It's not going to win any awards - unless there's a category for "best golf game unexpectedly inserted into a violent RPG" included in end of the year round-ups - but it's slick stuff, and in the quirky wholeheartedness with which SEGA's underworld adventure throws itself into capturing the feel of Tiger Woods, you can see why people often refer to this series as the spiritual successor to Shenmue.
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/yakuza-3-european-hands-on

only one flaw w/that argument YAKUZA rocks SHENMUE sux

anyone who doesn't buy this game should be reincarnated as Amy Winehouse's taint

i say no, no, no to that

i heard eliza dushku is in this, true?

http://www.blogcdn.com/www.joystiq.com/media/2010/02/shenmue-ryo-hazuki-forklift-figure.jpg

lol

poor old sega ;_;

true, but they put out at least 3 classics in the last 3 years (Yakuza 2, Valkyria Chronicles, Bayonetta)

do you have a take on this whole saga jc?

(I assume you've been following the saga of the removed hostess sections in the NA release of Y3; general internet bitching and whining as per)

it sucks that they're removing content, but I never got as much into the hostess stuff as other Yakuzatards so I'm not slitting my wrists over it or anything. as long as I can still win a fight with a tiger by sticking a cigarette in its eye, I'll be good.

new trailer up on PSN for yakuza 4 apparently; features a chainsaw

btw Sega has said that if Y3 sells well enough they'll consider bringing over Yakuza Kenzan (the one set in like 1885), so everyone buy like eight copies

omg cig flick
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sl11P__gN1Q

oh fuck yeah

want to play this so bad ;_; are there any ps2 emulators?

yeah, but you need a super beefy machine to get playable frame rates

btw Sega has said that if Y3 sells well enough they'll consider bringing over Yakuza Kenzan (the one set in like 1885), so everyone buy like eight copies

I hope "well enough" is like 10,000 copies, because that's the game I really want to play (and Yakuza 3 is sure not to sell much, come on, not at sixty dollars, not with this packed AAA March). Also based on missing tropies from the western release of Yakuza 3, it seems a lot more than just the hostess club stuff has been cut, but also the japanese games like mahjong and shogi (and more). Kind of a bummer in 2010...

Also based on missing tropies from the western release of Yakuza 3, it seems a lot more than just the hostess club stuff has been cut, but also the japanese games like mahjong and shogi (and more). Kind of a bummer in 2010...

okay, THAT is a bummer; the insanely-fleshed-out minigames added a lot of flavor to Y2 even if I never actually beat any of them. I still remember flipping through like 10+ pages of tiny-ass text explaining how to play mahjongg; it was more imposing than most of the fights.

still preordering it since beating people's asses in Y2 is impossibly fun, though.

while I don't agree w/sega's decision I can understand their rationale and I don't think this is the wrong-headed idiocy that the internet wd have you believe

tht being said the hostess club content is interwoven throughout the game, losing that loses you a significant proportion of the non-combat experience. how many small events that enriched yakuza have now been lost because the hostess club backbone has been removed?

the qn is how many side missions dependent on the hostess club content have we lost? it has a domino effect.

if yakuza was just a fighting game I wouldn't be interested.

hopefully they leave it on the disc and then patch a translation in later.

it totally affects different threads throughout the game tho so presumably they'll have to remove those and insert other scenes; don't see tht happening myself jc

http://kotaku.com/5478862/sega-you-are-once-again-making-a-giant-mistake

I agree with his point but as with most Ashcraft articles, the only thing I end up taking away from it is that Brian Ashcraft should be dropped from a great height

it seems mr. ashcraft has missed the subtext of sega's 'you wouldn't get it, sugar' explanation: pretty sure they just couldn't afford to translate all the game (and have said as much in a subsequent statement iirc) - they had to cut something and decided this was the most non-essential portion of the game

The couldn't afford it explanation reeks of bullshit - honestly, how could it cost more to translate a few hundred lines (or whatever) of text compared to paying a programmer to take out those sections of code and reprogram the game to work w/o those sections?

that makes sense, I guess, iunno, sick of reading about this and discussing it by now tbf ;_;

can't stop reading the GAF thread on this, against my better judgement. must. stop.

2 lazy to google relevance but translation is iirc really expensive whereas deleting shit not so much. i mean idk anything abt how/what/how much has been cut but i can see that being both a) cheaper and b) quicker

i dont think is like snes ear nintendo i just think its sega rushing/doing the trans on the cheap *shrug* in the would i rather wait for the ~right~ version of the game vs getting the game at all/soon im usually predisposed to go with the latter

I agree with his point but as with most Ashcraft articles, the only thing I end up taking away from it is that Brian Ashcraft should be dropped from a great height

he is like the worst writer ever. i know i've mentioned it before, but also 85% of his articles for kotaku are creepy thnigs about japanese soft-porn actresses, he reminds me of that shiroi basket shoes guy with the creepy flickr page.

Finally started Yakuza 2 last night (and played for a little over an hour - is it always that long between save points? I think in the first one you could save at phone booths?) I know they did it to save money, but the decision to stick with the Japanese language track was the best thing to happen with this game - it really adds to the atmosphere. I was also surprised to actually be into the story (so far)... that just happens so rarely with games it's sort of shocking. On the negative side, the way the camera works in these games still kind of annoys me, especially in those awkward moments when you take a few steps and it has to load a new angle or whatever. And I still feel like the brawling in 3d is just a little more clunky then it should be - game would benefit from a Demon's Souls style lock-on maybe. Anyhow, definitely looking forward to playing some more over the weekend.

yeah, the story is surprisingly engaging and well written

that whole game is just such a treat. definitely going to place in my top 3 when we get around to the PS2 poll.

Here's a new, long trailer for Yakuza 4 (out in March in Japan, I think?), mostly focusing on the side games you can play in the game...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNd9HlQ_OwY

In Yakuza 2, I dig how there are so many different shops and places you can go in and do all kinds of crazy stuff, even though a lot of that stuff isn't very compelling, like all the different restaurants with 20-30 item menus or the super basic UFO catcher games in the arcade. It's just cool it's there, it's some of what was missing from GTA IV. I did get to a mahjong parlor, but got too intimidated looking through the massive instructions to even try to play the game (though I'd like to learn some day). Definitely not bothered if it got cut from 3 for the English re-release. Played a little blackjack though in the weird bummy hangout place, which was fun. Gotta figure out how to get back there. Still can't quite get used to the layout of the areas and navigating around is annoying (especially compared to recent GTA games, which are obviously much bigger). Also don't like the quick time events - they come up so fast they always catch me by surprise and I almost always fail. I've gotten used to the brawling though.

You dudes are really whetting my appetite for this game! Well, the first one.

didn't realise resonance of fate was sega too; life in the ol' dog yet

Hello, how can I help you sir?
I need to hire some hard ass motherfuckers, some guy called Kazuma has really pissed me off!
I think we can accomodate you sir.
Are their asses hard?
The hardest sir...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGkQTUQq3vQ

"...i just can't believe this is happening.... this is disgusting. I don't even think they're looking at the comments I'm posting! Fans are exploding! To me it's a kick in the balls!"

kohta-cue

i have hard time believing that vid is real & true in its emotions

james can you post a pic of the plaque you made

j/k what's that kid's deal anyway?

sooooooo....

yup, how is it?

http://blog.hardcoregaming101.net/2010/02/yakuza-3-ruined-by-segas-stupidity.html

what a disaster for ps3

great but starts A LOT slower than Yakuza 2

missed opportunity not letting u play yakuza 2 as one of the mini-games

The most fun I've had doing chores for children ever.

yakuza 3 is massive, despite the cuts

this game is great but it doesn't half start v.slowly

and yeah I'd like to bonk a lady but I can hardly complain about cuts with only 2% complete after 5 hours played ^^;

Surprising news!

http://blogs.sega.com/europe/2010/06/08/iamkazuma/#more-2366

Huh! I guess 3 did all right over here.

good news

bring on the kenzan

We’d also like to confirm what we feel is important news for our fans: the Hostess Clubs will be returning in Yakuza 4!

http://blog.us.playstation.com/2010/06/11/yakuza-4-coming-exclusively-to-ps3-in-spring-2011/

I take full credit for this btw

but where's my parade

thanks cobo, appreciate it

http://www.boingboing.net/2010/08/10/yakuza-3-review.html

Of the three reviewers, only Kuroishi manages to play it all the way to the end. Two of the three are missing their pinkies — in the old days, when a yakuza or his subordinates screwed up, they chopped off pinkies as an act of atonement — and this seems to affect their gameplay.

Ironically, the sections that Shirokawa seemed to enjoy the most were cut out of the US version: mahjong, the sexual massage parlor, and the hostess clubs. After I explain to him what Sega cut from the US version, he said: アメリカ版を買った奴がかわいそうだ。セガＵＳＡが最低だね.(Translation: I feel sorry for the people who bought the American version. SEGA USA sucks.)

so the next Yakuza game is apparently going to be Yakuza + Left 4 Dead + Dead Rising and I want it

hahaha so desperate!

http://img.game.co.uk/images/content/SpecialEditions/Yakuza4.jpg

I never pre-order games at full price but I feel like I should make an exception for this. Played Yakuza 3 for hours, and still nowhere near doing all of it.

I broke down and got a British buddy to preorder one & mail it to me; for some reason GAME was being an ass and wouldn't let me place a preorder. all worth it for STEELBOOK~ though.

^^^ this just showed up! if anyone else in this stupid country gave a fuck about this magnificent series I would be a bragging-ass jamescobo right about now

Oh yeah? if this series is so good then why doesn't anyone I know lend me a PS3 so I can play this game ;_;

if it makes you happy james you can mad brag to me b/c I am jealous of your Yakuza 4 haves. I will acquire it soon. What extra content is in the "Kuro" edition?

the same DLC available on the NA release. I'm not going to lie, I got it pretty much just for the steelbook because that thing looks fucking BOSS. price ended up being around $60 w/ shipping (i.e. approximately what I would have paid for the non-steelbook NA version) so I just said fuck it.

speaking of steelbooks I really wish I could find a copy of the Vanquish steelbook SE but I only ever see Xbox copies turn up on ebay

started a new game of Yakuza 3 over the weekend and completely lost it at the guy who picks a fight with you over his cat; "GET AWAY FROM MY PUSSY-WUSSY" is almost certainly the greatest line in a video game since "I peacocked your mom"

HD

having never really played any of these (a few mins, maybe, of whichever one was released for free on ps plus for ps3 a few months ago... 0 maybe?) but i just picked up Kiwami because the remake of the 1st game seems like as good a place as any to start. excited to report back with my joy as it unfolds.

Do that

last night i got my first chance to play this game for more than a few mins at a time and boy is it fun and full of memorable stuff. the point where i was like "ok i'm gonna like this" is when i got my heat meter up (which allows kinda finishing moves), grabbed a bicycle, and smashed it over a guy's head, causing me to cackle uncontrollably. the finishers are fucking hilarious. i stuck an orange in a guy's mouth and stepped on his head. i spent like 10 seconds pouring a full kettle of hot water on a dude. and that's before the weird non-combat shit, like meeting a 40-year old circuit racing fan and agreeing to help ihm find a protege or something. this is fucking delightful

It’s such a great series. Currently playing 6 and finally know how to play mahjong Japanese style, so completely obsessed with that. I don’t know what I’ll do when Kiwami 2 comes out in August - finally play Dead Souls? Nah. People are always like “play Sleeping Dogs” but there’s not really that much in common afaict - Yakuza series is all about the fun and/or weird.

There are some amazing heat moves - personally a fan of the pliers and the portable heater. 5 has the best bike heat move ever.

or the fact that there's inexplicably like 30 real liquors in this game you can drink and the bartender talks about how they all taste. kiryu had a laphroaig 10 year yesterday and he told me about its signature smoky taste

xp sleeping dogs is very good but not at all the same imo. doesn't have that weird undercurrent of "is this kusoge?" - it is very much trying to be john woo presents grand theft auto, and succeeds to a limited extent. much more driving as i remember for example. it has its own charm but it's a different kind of charm.

I’m sure I drink more whiskey than I used to because of those delicious descriptions! The games are so full of product placement, including some real shops and restaurants, but it adds to the feeling of authenticity which I suppose is an odd thing to value in a series where you can fight bears and pirate ghosts. There are also guest actors, although none are amazing as Beat Takeshi (in 6).

The minigames are incredible and varied - it’s so easy to just ignore the main story til you feel like returning to it and just spend ages doing karaoke/koi koi/running your cabaret club.

i'm excited to dig into that stuff! also in yakuza 6 there's a bunch of new japan wrestlers so i'm very excited to play *checks notes* the five OTHER games i need to before i get to that one

Yeah there’s a lot of good stuff in there for fans - needless to say, you can fight them all (as well as recruiting them for your own gang)

i'm excited to dig into that stuff! also in yakuza 6 there's a bunch of new japan wrestlers so i'm very excited to play *checks notes* the five OTHER games i need to before i get to that one

― challops trap house (Will M.)

I good and bad news for you, Will:

Good: kiwami is regarded as one of the weakest entry in the series, understandable as it's only a slgightly improved remake of 1, so you're probably in for a treat

Bad: these are loooong games and fatigue might set in rather easily if you try to marathon, I suggest going straight for 6 or whichever you prefer otherwise you might not see the end of it this decade

I'm now partway through 5, at one time one of the playable characters escapes from prison and watches a "have you seen this man?" newscast in a giant screen in the city he's hiding: "Better lay low", he says; 15 minutes later he's fist-fighting a bear in a shopping mall as part of a sidequest.

oh knowing me i won't get to 6 by 2020 but i'm ok with that!

omg this game has bear fighting i cant wait

I started 0 last night and got to the first karaoke part and decided to hang it up for the night. I was hoping that it would have auto-saved, but nope. Oh well, two fights and one rhythm game isn't too much to re-do, thankfully the cutscenes are skippable -- they ARE well-written, though!

I lost a bunch of progress in 0 because opening the item box before I saved crashed the game. Save often

Kiwami adds auto-save and lets you save from the pause menu but is seemingly a much more annoying game in most other ways

I miss non-insane Majima

kiwami 2 adds a "majima mode" where you get a couple of ohurs playing through a mini-story with him, and while he's "crazy" he's like... less... silly. and it ties a nice bow on stuff from a previous game. majima is great

extremely looking forward to Judgment, their new not-quite-yakuza game

finished 0 last night (my wife & my son stayed up with me until 3am doing so, good parenting no?). I think it's the first time I'm gonna do a new game+? or at least the other post-game mode. I barely cracked either of the businesses, and also barely developed the combat trees, and I want to. also I want to spend more time with Majima, maybe we will get married.

yeah i couldn't really get into the management minigames, i was more about the batting cage and bowling

Judgment english release on June 25!

I want to get into the management minigames. I haven't been bowling yet! I only went to the batting cages a couple of times, it was fun but I forgot to go back. I did do a lot of claw games though

The property empire stuff is quite compulsive, and completing the early stages of it is a prerequisite for getting the Very Special Manager from the bowling alley. You also get to do some job interviews

I like the calm satisfaction with which Kiryu says "rank up"

The hostess management stuff felt kind of enh yeah no

You may already know but "premium adventure" using the save file from the end of the game is what lets you do side quests at your leisure with your existing skills, ability to change clothes/location and the story marked as done

I just went back to my pre-last mission save, made loads of property empire progress and overwrote the premium adventure save on that file, which meant I had to then do the grueling final mission again to re-get premium adventure

ha we are loving the training sessions with Yuki in the club. haven't gotten other hostesses yet, so really there's a lot of game left.

Yes, maybe I should just do a premium adventure reload for now. might still do a ng+ later.

the good thing about the hostess game is that when you play it, you get money

the bad thing about the real estate game is that no matter how much money you make, you pour it all back into the game for a loooong time (until you're really conquering the shit out of it, then it pays dividends)

rly makes u think

This sounds like a game I need to get. Is it Yakuza 0 that you guys are taking about?

yes it's Yakuza 0 & it is dope

I am going to need to make a lot of dough to unlock all the fighting abilities so I'm gonna have to make it in the businesses. or maybe in mr moneybags' betting arena, if that's actually a thing?

I lost track of time last night, the main story is pretty grim but the side quests are admirably goofy. Mechanically fun to play too, so who needs GYA?

I assume you all are playing on ps4? I see there’s a pc version

I'm on PS4 (and GYA should be GTA).

i played it on pc and the port is fine if you have a gamepad. no difference other than some basic graphics options

I played on PC. Don't think there's too much difference other than image quality/unlocked framerate. Should be easy enough to get cheap on either

The main story's relative grittiness and the goofball absurdity of the side quests seems like an essential part of the appeal of this series

it often feels like the main stories frequently pull back from depicting really grisly happenings though; lots of spuriously survived gunshot wounds and the protagonists suspiciously avoiding ever doing that much bad stuff to innocents despite being yakuza

Female characters conveniently losing their agency as a result of a litany of traumatic things being done to them does seem to be a bit of a crutch tho

xp

Lol this is the fourth time I’m trying to reply to this thread but I keep getting a POST error so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I’m really excited for Judgement cos I played the whole Yakuza series in two years and miss them! I hope it has all my favourite time wasters like mahjong.

Everyone I know who plays this series is female and yeah, the way they portray a lot of female characters isn’t great. Writers are aware there’s a decent sized female fan base and they said in a recent interview that this had made them reconsider some of the substories in the older games that are getting remade soon, so.

xp this is not untrue however the series does kill off/fuck up quite a few characters over the years.

Having been to Kabukicho, it’s amazing how like it Kamurocho is.

Although having said that re female characters, I definitely loved how the hostesses were written in 0 and Majima’s protective feelings towards them (!) And I loved the hostesses in Kiwami 2 and 6 as well, they are definitely a lot better written.

the series is effectively a jrpg in terms of structure and writing hence some of the above e.g. not depicting grisly happenings. the final act of 0 especially throws off all pretense and is basically just a bunch of anime showdowns

Yeah but when you’re Majima fighting to that song though...nice. The hilariously mid noughties stuff they left in Kiwami 2 is great though.

the other comedic juxtaposition i love besides main story vs side quests is how the games make a big deal about kiryu never having killed anyone and yet practically every one of the heat attack animations looks fatal

The guys he shoots in the car on the way back? Totally fine! Same ridiculous conceit as this basically: http://awkwardzombie.com/index.php?page=0&comic=030716

everyone otm on female representation though I was impressed with the agency Makoto had as a disabled character

from what I've heard yakuza team is pretty receptive to feedback from sega USA about representation, unlike e.g. atlus, so that's why the recent games are trending a bit more positive with that. i think they removed some transphobic side quests from the yakuza 3 remaster too

I picked 0 up again after getting back from Dotonbori and was all excited that they even had the little green mascot guy on the neon billboard by the bridge etc

I 100% love all of the scenery-chewing Yakuza movie guys portraying the big players in the Tojo clan in 0, just unkind, granite-faced men snarling kore wa nan desu ka at ~upstarts in impossibly gruff, spiteful voices, fantastic stuff

Is the fashion in 0 anachronistic? The only things that read '80s for me are the cars.

idk if the fashion is anachronistic as much as it is fantastical, like based on the movies of the time (or later movies that depict the time). there's definitely plenty of pictures of e.g. takeshi kitano wearing stuff similar to kiryu or nishiki from his stuff, lots of super loud shirts with big collars and suits in many different colours.

it's only one example and not a good one but look at these dudes in this movie poster (ignore the two in the foreground)

the movie btw is 'The Monster Bus' starring Riki Takeuchi (Amano from Y0) as "likeable but obnoxious punk bus driver who comes to the aid of a beautiful woman in possession of stolen diamonds." Never seen it or even heard of it until today (was looking up the actors who played the three main bad old men) but I guess now I gotta find it.

Batting cage was hard! You're supposed to line the reticle up with the ball to get a good hit?

I like the dancing even though I am bad at rhythm games. Rhe fact that once you pay the cover charge, you can try as many times as you want -- I think that's why I like it, it's a great bang for your yen.

The Punch out artist one I had to play like 4 times just to pass the first level, because I suck and am twitchy.

Batting in 0 is relatively straightforward - you have to watch Kiryu as he’s moving around, the moment he goes still is the time to hit the ball. Try it.

Man I was so close to beating Mr. Shakedown yesterday, but as I have no chill, I tightened up when I saw that I had him down to an inch of his life bar (and I forgot to imbibe some Staminan).

perhaps it is you that has become mr shakedown

Irl lol

https://blog.us.playstation.com/2019/03/07/judgment-launches-june-25-how-the-yakuza-spinoff-reinvents-localization/

man i always go with english dubs if they exist, as a rule, but might have to make an exception for this

Just got introduced to Mishima, he's one smooth operator.

This is a good game. Like, sometimes I feel like I ought to play another game as a palate cleanser or change of pace, but then I do a side quest where I keep chasing video game thieves, or thinking about writing postcards, or some other blessedly silly thing and the next thing I know I should've been asleep an hour ago.

PS I just unlocked businesses, am I about to be sucked into a vortex??

PPS I like when Majima (not Mishima) does his obsequious civilian voice.

Yes, businesses take ages, I spent at least a couple of weeks on cabaret club czar. Tbf though real estate is where you’ll make all the money! This is the only game where it’s piss easy to make money so enjoy it while it lasts.

PPPS I am sad that I could not go by I Heart Nishiki.

ME TOO

Haha, truly no decision is too small to be exempt from the JRPG "actually no, you were only allowed to choose this one option" convention

uh oh
https://gematsu.com/2019/03/sega-halts-judgement-shipments-and-digital-sales-in-japan-following-actor-pierre-takis-arrest

[camera rapidly zooms in on Kiryu's surprised eyes]

would suck ass if this just gets cancelled after getting an official release date but seems like it's up in the air now

Who would have thought that managing a cabaret club would be so complicated?

I get a kick out of how for hostesses, their HP stands for hospitality points.

Fatality due to lack of hospitality ?

I’ve officially caught cabaret fever.

Is it worth trying to level Akemi? Her health (sorry, hospitality) is low she’s hard to use steadily. I have a couple golds and a deep enough silver bench and some of the bronze hostesses can basically cover for her.

I maxed them all out! The worst one to max is Chizu fwiw because she isn’t strong in anything.

What good hostesses do you have and what club are you challenging?

I only just figured out how to play (my first attempts I was literally assigning hostesses at random), so I haven’t even challenged Club Mars yet. So aside from Yuki, my highest ranked hostesses are Seiko and Dolly (whom I unlocked recently so she’s only level 2 and so far still very squishy).

I looked up the Etsuko sub stories so I’ll be recruiting her next.

Etsuko, Erranda and Miss Isobe are the most valuable substory recruits, Miss Isobe is the hardest but will make money hand over fist when you’re dealing with clients who like to party. Etsuko might have been one of my top three earners.

Have you customised Yuki to max out her stats yet?

It’s best to rotate the cast if you’re grinding before you’re ready to challenge a club ime. The skills are more important than looks in keeping clients happy.

Have you customised Yuki to max out her stats yet?

I've upped her stats so that she's double circle in Beauty and Cute and a single circle in Funny. Having browsed a few times through accessories, it's not obvious to me how to raise her Funny yet.

Oh and I forgot to mention I already have Erranda! She's definitely a solid earner so far.

I lent my game to my brother so I can’t check what my Yuki looked like but glasses/jewellery/watches will do it.

Mars is done! I ended up with over 4000 fans when I challenged them and doubled up on their profits.

I got Yuki up to 3 double circles without too much trouble.

I tried to get Isobe but I'm miserable at the dance mini game. I have a lot of difficulty finding the rhythm, and the right timing seems pretty elusive, but I've mainly been trying on easy so it's possible that the long breaks between inputs is throwing me off. Any other ideas?

It’s really how much you want to complete all the substories - you have to get really good st dancing for that. It’s more important first to not miss any combos rather than working on the steps - once you have the combos down for a song on a particular difficulty then work in the steps for even higher scores. Oh, whack L1 as soon as you’re prompted to - if you can pull off the dance fever it’s worth as much as 2400 points per song (800x3).

Also, I think I've found all the street hostesses, and Isobe and Unknown are the only sub stories I have left. Everyone else is a CP hostess; are they worth buying (vs the other stuff I can get at the shrine)?

With songs on easy though if you think the inputs are the problem you should try building in steps, cos you’ll need them to beat Miss Isobe.

New Yakuza game starring Ichiban Kasuga announced for PS4 https://t.co/r4dhU9Ejka pic.twitter.com/0y4wlSSw4F

— Gematsu (@gematsucom) March 20, 2019

not even taking a break after finishing the kiryu games huh

has there been any info on 3/4/5 ports coming to the west?

it's happening but no timeframe yet iirc

Something I've taken to doing but which makes me feel bad is knocking pedestrians down and running over dogs.

In 3, you get a trophy for knocking down 100 people. It’s really hard though.

at once or running tally?

The latter (though I’ve never done it)

"My girlfriend knocked over 100 people!"
"At the same time?"

I really dislike Ai's "EH HEH-HEH" laugh, maybe that's her revenge for me turning her into a Goth princess.

fufufu

I have gotten better at the Miss Isobe substory and can get 6000+ points consistently now, but is that enough to beat her?

Not unless you get lucky. You’re better off doing the song on hard mode as she’s far more likely to fuck up on that level. I beat her on 8200 or thereabouts but I came within like 2 points of beating her on a few occasions and it was enraging.

Sorry, forgot to mention that I'm trying on hard already! I haven't been able to swing a perfectly clean run through Koi No Disco Queen yet, so I guess that's an obvious area for potential improvement.

Are you getting three bonuses per run?

Just two, I think, but sometimes I sit on the fever if I'm close to the chorus.

This is maybe where you’re going wrong - use fever as soon as you get it, otherwise you’re wasting time you could be accruing another chance at it.

OK, I'll give that a shot!

Using that strategy I was able to break 7K points, but the one time she scored less than that, I biffed horribly and ended under 6000.

Aside from pure stubbornness, I'm not even sure why I'm still trying to beat her since I've already beaten Club Moon.

Practice at disco? One of the hardest bosses but the self satisfaction you get there is immense.

Done! My second attempt yesterday she made a load of mistakes while I had reasonably clean run. 7000 to 6000.

Woo! Well done.

EVERYBODY SAY ROUUUUUGE OF LOOOOOOOOOVVVVVVVEEEEE

Kiwami 2 is on sale for PS4.

Mild spoiler for 0:

I got to the part where Oda speaks Chinese and my god it's awful. The devs at least sprung for an actual native Chinese speaker for one of the other other characters, thankfully.

haha! i wondered about that. also, something i noticed in 6 (didn't notice in 0)... if a character speaks two languages, i am pretty sure they use two voice actors, one for each language?! and there was one character, i forget which one, where his japanese voice and his other-language voice aren't even CLOSE! (not mentioning the language in case it's a spoiler, idk)

xp omg seriously? Makes me wonder if they dubbed him better in the Chinese version.

Ok I searched for one of the “other” language speakers but can’t find it on YouTube (is it the guy who’s been uhhhh recast?) but I did find that Oda clip and I’m dying, i don’t know any Chinese but what the fuck was this & why did I not notice it
https://youtu.be/dhPR_K4uCBw

Did Sega dub Zero into other languages??

later in the game there's another chinese character that in the jp/us/eu versions is played by a (presumably) japanese va and whose 3d model is (presumably) made up for the game but in the chinese version is played by and modelled after an actual chinese actor and... well, you'll see

The version of 0 released in China had one big change which I won’t mention as it’s spoilery(?)

lol xp ty

What's a good way to kill time in between Real Estate pickups? I tried doing the phone club but got discouraged with my first repeat date. (I'm supposed to differentiate the voices of all the actresses???)

pocket circuit?

+1 pocket circuit, also mahjong (❤️) and disco (❤️❤️). And outrun!

Re: telephone club - http://www.khhsubs.com/rggzero/chatline.html

lol I loathe the Sega arcade games, when I had to beat the Electronics King's high score I was perfectly content to lose and give him back that 10%.

Pocket Circuit is pretty much just getting better components for your car and not so much a game of skill (aside from knowing when to use a turbo)?

Disco might work! I still have a bunch of songs that I still need to 3*.

Pocket circuit will get you a ton of CP though & it’s fairly repetitive yeah but it’s the kind of thing you can chip away at. You’ll also get the pocket circuit building as one of yours once you befriend pocket circuit fighter.

...is yakuza 6 generally similar to the other yakuza games?

Yes, though there are some mini games that aren’t in the others and ofc the setting. Why?

yakuza is the first game in the newest engine and in some ways combat is significantly toned down compared to something like 0 or 5

kiwami 2 which came out later also uses 6's engine but has caught up a fair bit

NUGGET!

I LOVE YOU.

So I'm in the middle of the Media King real estate stuff and something I'm still not quite clear on yet is which advisor (I have them all unlocked) to use for a specific property. For example, if I'm trying to level up a restaurant, should I use Miracle (5*, O proficiency) or Mama-san (3*, OO proficiency, and a fraction of MJ's price)?

Mama san. Double circle = the best rating & star is just a multiplier? Think MJ is the best for levelling entertainment venues.

These people seem to say to always use Miracle: https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/816306-yakuza-0/75652469

I'm not yet at the point where I can throw ¥50m at every property I want to upgrade, so seeing the bar move up by only 1/10th keeps leaving me with buyer's remorse.

Meanwhile, in the rough-and-tumble world of the high-level, high-stakes pocket circuit: I love the animation when Kiryu loses! His disappointment and sadness is so heartfelt!

yakuza 7 is a JRPG

https://gematsu.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Yakuza-7_2019_08-29-19_010.jpg

badass

fuck yes i love jrpgs in nontraditional settings

Nah, not into it tbh, I’m not mad about street fights as they are but they are something you just get over as fast as possible if you’re not in the mood; this looks like it takes much longer.

Side note: judgement is AMAZING

Yakuza 7 Demo enemy//

And the award for best random encounter enemy goes to WHATEVER THE HECK THIS IS.
I couldn't even attack him because i was on the floor laughing. pic.twitter.com/wMg5c0AXzR

— Tony "Kiryu in yakuza 7" Perez (@VenomDeathNinja) November 13, 2019

Despite what I said above, I’ll probably end up buying this

This is how I dressed up Mana:

#PS4share pic.twitter.com/AfgK2hIPU4

— Leee (@plechazunga) December 28, 2019

Lol, nice. Ioved the little caption they gave dressup in Kiwami 2 (“you know you love it”).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i7ABgVXnrbs

Yakuza 0 on sale for $10 on PSN store right now. I picked it up.

So far I beat up a bunch of idiots, played in the batting cages, won a cute creature that apparently is a reanimated corpse from a crane game, got handed a pocket pack of tissues, and now I have to investigate the shady real estate company that’s buying up a bunch of neighborhood businesses

enjoy the yakuza experience at its finest

actually they improved the batting cage game in recent ones but other than that 0 has the best slate of side activities

Jesus Christ @ Judgement, fucking gang leaders want to fight me like every five minutes, can't get anything done like this. And if I ignore them I get the passive agressive text messages.

Just ignore them, nothing bad will happen

Furious I don’t get to keep the TV producer outfit.

You can get that in premium adventure mode (it’s free dlc!)

Speaking of free dlc, make sure you’re seeing the clown for all the free packs

Just met the clown.

The remake collection is out and I’m only replaying 3 and my God, the fishing is still fucking hard!

Ok, this may be just me last night but I totally fell asleep starting Yakuza 0 and an hour in. SLOW. SLOOOOOW.

definitely slow. It's kind of a game for hanging out in, more than like plowing through, it seems like.

Go to a Karaoke bar! Play Mahjong!

I am trying to get past a lot of this dialogue to get more into the story but now we can't find the game we saved last night. OMG I was so bad at karaoke.

Yakuza doesn't autosave, you have to manually do it (at a telephone booth) (remember those?).

yeah we found it. Thank G. We have had guests for a week (that just left) so am now cramming in a bunch of playing.

I appreciate the sideburns in this game.

Playing the hd remakes for PS4 rn. 3 was a total treat with all the added back content, but the mahjong was harder than in all the other games! Now on 4 and taking my time with mini games and completion til I get bored. Definitely a good self-isolation investment.

The soundtracks are apparently all on Spotify? Idk if this is true of them all cos I’m too excited that Reign! is on there!

https://open.spotify.com/track/5pVXt1JRoB6QVitDGmsn3l?si=BEVt71T1TJuPfFoIKd1sxg

Honestly incredible when they introduce this in-game.

Also the karaoke songs lolllll including classic Venus ripoff Queen of Passion

https://open.spotify.com/track/6IG120oWSCkGH6UVStALwR?si=qeujj7-sSUaahuHihqRSFg

and my personal favourite, Koi no Disco Queen:

https://open.spotify.com/track/3talAeqbqkl8sOSc6hT3TI?si=k123w-tCTsG2TIi-RiAv9A

right. do I start with zero or kiwami or one of the others?

Zero is chronologically the first one!

0 is both the best game and the best entry point

i love hanging out in the world of yakuza 0 but i wish the combat didn't feel so unsatisfying

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K90yf6y4bDE

bought yakuza 0 lads

about to peacock some moms

Delighted for you, tell us how you find it

I watched the entirety of Yakuza 0 being streamed in Giant Bomb videos recently. Less time consuming than replaying the whole damn thing and it's so story heavy that it works out pretty well. Fucking love this series so much.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dNmM9pivqQ0

anyone fucking with the new jrpg one?

it looks good, i'll get to it eventually. i'm like a year and a half behind on new jrpgs

xp I’m playing this! I’ve never played an RPG of any stripe before so, you know, interesting. Ichiban is a great character, I love him. The beginning is very cutscene heavy but I’m just starting to unlock stuff now. It’s hard to earn money at the start, so it helps if you can win at mahjong. A thing I am not sure is widespread in other games series is how sympathetic the series generally is towards homeless people - in this, you’re taken in by a homeless man, who is a member of your party and who you can bond with and level up, and you help protect sex workers from Japanese ultra conservatives!. It’s a very interesting story. Yokohama is great too, it’s by far the biggest city you have to play in in any of the series and it’s gorgeously done.

Played Judgment last month and it's good, but the main character is just obnoxiously smart and good at everything; into Y7 now and it's so nice to just slip into the shoes of an absolute dumbass

The game's apparent attempts to grapple with some of the series' more problematic recurring themes are definitely interesting. Had a bit of a grim lol at Nanba's righteous monologue about the no-win situation the homeless are in being followed up by him joining your party and disabling enemies with noxious homeless guy burps

Had some mid jaw-agape moments involving ad*lt b*bies and some enemies dancing around wearing full bin bags

Oh this series loves the adult baby takeovers, they were in 2/Kiwami 2 as well

But i don’t know that the series was ever dodgy wrt depiction of homeless people? It definitely depicts homelessness as prevalent and an incredibly difficult grinding existence, and homeless characters are depicted largely sympathetically

Had a bit of a grim lol at Nanba's righteous monologue about the no-win situation the homeless are in being followed up by him joining your party and disabling enemies with noxious homeless guy burps

Kiwami 2 is on Humble Choice this month so I'll pencil in another adult baby takeover for 2021

Nice, I really liked K2, it’s up there with 0 for me

Is it worth slogging through K1? I got about ten hours in last year but the age of the underlying game really shows with that one

i dont think its that long, you were probably halfway or more unless you were plinking around on side content a lot

Yeah Kiwami isn’t long, K2 is on the new engine as well and looks and plays a lot better

i just want the karaoke to open up, i found a place in yokohama i'm fairly sure it's that but it's shut down atm

I just found the Mario Kart style minigame!

Haha, it’s INCREDIBLE. Hurtling around the streets at high speed with rocket launchers? Yes.

Yagami-san! A bunch of those Keihin gang guys just showed up and started wailing on people outta nowhere! You gotta do something!

Spoilers for late game Like A Dragon

After the above post, I didn’t play the game again until two weeks ago. That was me, not the game; I had a lot of irl stuff going on at the time and I needed all my time to be depressed. Then after Christmas I picked up Hades and fell in love with it. I’m not quite done with that either but I intended to come back to Like A Dragon and I love it.

My God. What is this game?

So I’ve never played a JRPG before and this was a lot to come to terms with learning curve wise but once I got used to it, I was sold. Because of this, the dynamic is different and fascinatingly so; the fight scenes are never alone, you are always helped by your party (apart from a couple of times where numbers are limited for plot reasons), and when you defeat enemies you all celebrate. It’s weirdly wholesome and cheerful compared to Kiryu just, like, glaring at them or spitting out an insult.

The party is now seven strong and I laughed when I went to do karaoke and had to pay in for seven people. (Even though Joon-gi doesn’t have a song, oh WHATEVER). I love when the party is walking around the streets and conversations start when they see an interesting building or sign or something, and the dinner table talk is really nice too, you can feel the love for the seven characters and it’s great.

The plot itself is predictably dramatic but even for a Yakuza game, this Went Places. I wish I knew literally anything about Japanese politics so I could work out if they are commenting on real people, but that aside it feels very much like the culmination of a lot of themes the series has been building up to. Especially 6.

Ichiban, oh God. I love that guy so much. His scene at the park with Arakawa hurt me cos I knew what was coming next. I can’t believe I had no interest in this character when they initially announced him - he’s warm, energetic, caring and all that, very different from Kiryu in his way but also... not.

I hit my first with this series when Majima and Saejima appeared and I had to fight them - SEVEN FUCKING TIMES it took with a load of grinding in between to beat them. Their fight theme is incredible though.

And oh, I was so happy to see Kiryu.

More thoughts when I have more time, but ultimately an incredible game that I can’t recommend strongly enough.

bookmarked once i work the courage back up to dive into this bananas game

Yeah, I ended up going through that entire fighting building in Sottenbori to level up because I kept getting my ass handed to me by Majima. One trick I picked up online that ended up helping a lot was to get the dude poisoned early on. The huge fight afterwards when they announce the disbandment of the Omni alliance was a bit of a letdown after that - kinda prefer the Kingdom Hearts 2 approach where the enemies may be super weak but you do get that rush of defeating like twenty of them.

Totally agreed on Ichiban, he is such a sweetheart. Yakuza games were alway going to be good for lockdown because of the illusion of getting to walk along the streets of Japan, here you get the extra bonus of hanging out with all your buddies as well.

I've long thought that some intrepid youtuber should do a series on Yakuza analysed through the lens of Japanese politics, there's so much political intrigue in there. You could have chapters on real life attitudes towards organized crime, the real estate bubble of the 80's, tensions with the US, etc.

I have often toyed with taking a picture of Joon-gi and Zhao and captioning it "immigrants - we get the job done", a meme for literally no one.

Neither of them are immigrants iirc, they are second or third gen. I love how huge Yokohama is and it takes so much time to wander around, love doing it for the reasons you said and also you can pick up tons of material pretty easily. I’m grinding up for the last fight now but I’m also trying to finish off minigames and substories etc.

CAN WE JUST

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/5c/ed/21/5ced21f8281c913e14c252ba53f84c09.png

Look at this adorable idiot throwing out a bin of crusty tissues
https://64.media.tumblr.com/3397ea570ca7d6fcd10ea5b073d2c963/d5edf8473845e989-ab/s500x750/49201b448e9708d6879443ee68944b192678de0d.gifv

Yeah, they are second gen, but (again a video series on this would be useful) I think the game views them as very much Korean and Chinese because Japan doesn't view immigration in the same melting pot manner that the West (fools itself it supposedly) does. The visibility of immigrant communities in these games is something I'd love to understand better, there's also the Masayoshi Tanimura storyline in 4.

Yeah true, and ofc Y0 and the second game dip into this as well. I’m sure that they’ve used the character being secretly Chinese/Korean plot a few times as well. I found it really interesting how they will talk about food and the Chinese/Korean way of doing things, it’s very different from what has gone before.

This is the best summon btw
https://media2.giphy.com/media/5YugAJvmcaNvIauK0I/giphy-downsized-large.gif

is it just me or does Zhao periodically go "eye of the tiger!" during battles?

I haven’t noticed this, but Nanba says something that sounds like “Tom Turkey!”

Oh I finished this btw! Fair warning if you share a console with someone else, as I do, because the end cutscenes are over an hour long and largely unskippable. This isn’t a problem in any sense except in terms of me having said “I’m just about finished, come down and you can have the ps4.” But yeah, they really went hard in that last bit, phew.

Grinding for trophies now, am not nearly levelled up enough to try True Ultimate Millennium Tower or whatever it is.

https://www.polygon.com/22424987/yakuza-rpg-turn-based-sequels-judgment-action

Not sure about this, the turn based combat was a fun novelty and made sense because of Ichiban's Dragon Quest obsession but I miss the crazy moves of previous entries.

Here's hoping this Judgement doesn't interrupt the action every 5 minutes for you to either run around defeating random gangster bosses or be reprimanded for being a coward.

ichiban is continuing as the main character, no? so it makes sense to keep that for his games

i never finished judgment but was enjoying it other than the frequent stealth/tailing segments

I loved Judgement and I am so happy to hear there’s a sequel!

I got the platinum trophy on Like A Dragon today, have no problem with the mainline series continuing in that direction.

Yeah Judgment was a good time, apart from the aforementioned Keihin mobster nuisance events. Fantastic levels of "smiling judge nods and says 'I'm going to allow this'" wackiness in the courtroom scenes

This new one apparently has large parts set in a high school, so my prediction is that Yagami-san goes undercover...as the coolest schoolboy ever

My post up there really belongs in the first response hall of shame. Wish I could delete that

Ok, so this year:

Like a Dragon: Ishin

This is a remade version of the same game that was released Japan-only in 2014

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ixRs8MX4aQ

Like a Dragon: Gaiden - The Man Who Erased His Name
(Terrible title)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m8gvTDCJb0E

A new game with Kiryu, not with turn based combat.

And next year is the sequel to Like A Dragon (8?) with dual protagonists Kiryu and Kasuga.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJhqN7R_oAg

Yeah Judgment was a good time, apart from the aforementioned Keihin mobster nuisance events. Fantastic levels of "smiling judge nods and says 'I'm going to allow this'" wackiness in the courtroom scenes

This new one apparently has large parts set in a high school, so my prediction is that Yagami-san goes undercover...as the coolest schoolboy ever

yakuza games are a good time

love the turn-based combat on Like a Dragon but i'm looking forward to (eventually) getting round to Ishin and Gaiden too

bonus stage
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/08/world/asia/japan-yakuza.html

there's an episode of furuhata ninzaburo where a yakuza baseball team is a plot point

Infinite Wealth trailer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Q1HRYrO1Gw

God I love this goofy series, real silent film comedy energy to this cutscene.

Worried that I'll miss the walking around Japanese streets aspect but I guess I've never been to Hawaii so...

Ahhh I loved Okinawa in Y3 and I love new locations!

ohmygod i love the RPG mechanic i want it now

I've never played any of these games, and think I only have one of them (Yakuza 0?), but despite reading reviews and watching reviews and watching clips and reading descriptions, I still have no clue what any of these many, many games actually are or are about. Like, are they fighting games? Turn-based? Exploration? RPG? Is this DLC? Stand-alone game? Is it one series or two different series? More? Just the same series with a different name? Are they serialized? Are they supposed to be serious? Comedy? Just campy? All of the above, it seems. It's wild.

Yakuza in general are basically action adventure RPGs; you fight a lot of guys and there's a big epic main story, but really so much of the charm is in the sidequests and minigames. A big part of the appeal is just simulating walking around the streets of sundry Japanese cities, as said before.

This is the second in the Like A Dragon sub-franchise, which uses turn based combat as opposed to the main series which does not. It's somewhat confusing but by the standards of JRPGs it's hardly the worst offender.

The main stories are hyper complex, hyper dramatic in the tradition of yakuza cinema, but a lot of the substories are explicitly comedic.

xp please don’t start playing this series

Why not? Or are you just getting personal (for some reason)?

Well, I'd certainly say it's not a decision to be taken lightly. Once you're in, you have to live by the code, no matter what the cost. Karamucho can chew you up and spit you out, I've seen it happen a million times. Also it feels really bad when you fail at karaoke.

Every day I wake up and think "maybe I'll reinstall Yakuza 0 and actually finish it" and maybe today is the day I'll actually do it.

You should definitely do this

Yakuza 0 is the best one

"Like a Dragon" actually is the main series now rather than a spinoff, the name change was just to bring it more in line with what it's always been called in Japan

At least, that's their story right now. Maybe the "Kiryu is James Bond" spinoff will become the undisputed main event of the series

Haha, well I guess it's mostly semantics, but I think since they're games with a different protagonist and combat system than the original series entries and the former protagonist and mechanics are still featured in upcoming games I think referring to them as a spin-off is the less confusing explanation for a newbie no matter what Ryu Ga Gotoku says.

There is a new Kiryu game coming out soon right?!

So the original “Yakuza” in English, Like A Dragon in Japan is the Kiryu series. Like A Dragon in English (no idea what it’s called in Japanese, might just have a subtitle) with Ichiban and the rpg mechanics. The Judgement series is the same type of gameplay as the Kiryu series, all of these are set in the same universe.

ETA: November! And going back to Osaka!

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Like_a_Dragon_Gaiden

0 was my first and I’ll always love it the most for the following reasons:

- the dual protagonists
- the absolute thrill of ripping through a building beating up a load of guys while the soundtrack blasts this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-WKq57ibDXc
- the disco minigame which frankly I am amazing at
- cabaret club!!!
- just being like, ok I know you’re in grave danger or whatever but it’s time for me to hang out in a bar playing drunk darts and then go play Outrun at the arcade for two hours
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yhe7rcDUTeI
- the tonal shifts from grave to brutal to ludicrous and none of it feels wrong, it just is
- https://pbs.twimg.com/media/ErRoPAmW4AEO2Qw?format=jpg&name=small

Otm

There has never been better song to crack skulls to than Reign

Also the cast of mocapped Yakuza movie guys who play the various grizzled bosses are fantastic

Tired: off-grid secret agent Kiryu
Wired: calm ponytail Majima

xp that sewer brawl is one of my favourite fights in the whole series

KkyuzEHHHHHHHH

Don’t forget the king
https://thumbs.gfycat.com/AnnualCaringBat-size_restricted.gif

Loves a round of golf

Need to dive back into 4. What a great series

The only ones I haven't played are the first two (plus Kiwami) and 5.

Of the ones I've played they're all my favourite except the dumb zombie shooter one.

I actually really like Dead Souls for the sheer chaos but fuck me those mechanics are near unplayable.

And this too ofc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mDUNsKo_gvg

The end of the baseball regular season has left me with more time, so time to start doing things like gaming again. To this end: Ishin.

My better half: why are you selling all your cooking?
Me: I need to pay off debt
My better half: debt?
Me: see this kid? Her parents died and left her with a ton of debt so I am repaying it on her behalf so she doesn’t get sold into child sex slavery
Mbh: 🙃

But! Fun game. Am very happy you can play koi-koi but either I’m getting old and bad at it (no) or the computer you play against is more ruthless that before. Damn. Still great at mahjong though.

Storyline? Uh…yeah.

Solid fun time game experience, biggest issue is that I don’t really like the brawler fighting style so much.

I got a bug so the child slavers didn't ask me to pay anything until long after I beat the main game and had tons of money to burn.

Nice! I have 80% of the debt paid off even though I cannot work out the exact timing to stop over seasoning my dishes.

Oh also, the fishing grind sucks. The fishing mechanic itself is fine, but fuck me, I don’t want to be out on the shoreline trying to catch multiple porcupine fish.

Am I right in understanding there may be a cabaret mechanic at play here?

How do you mean? That the fishing works with a cabaret mechanic, or that there's a cabaret in the game?

i only realised or remembered last night that the next Like a Dragon is gonna be centred in Hawaii and that makes me disappointed

xp the latter, sorry, I realised that was a messy post as soon as I made it

Yeah, walking around Hawaii is less enticing than walking around Japan for sure.

gyac, there's a karaoke place and a couple of gambling spots, also a dancing place but I wouldn't call it a cabaret...I think that's it.

They could make the next Like A Dragon game at the bottom of the ocean and I'd still play it to see my main man Ichiba Kasuga again. Hawaii section of Persona 5 was alright, could be great. I'm sure there'll be multiple trips back to Kamurocho/Isezaki Ijincho throughout

Oh I’ve done the dancing place it’s total shit :(

NV, did you like Y3? If it’s anything like the Okinawa vibe I’ll be very happy indeed. I can already tell you that their Kabukichō is ridiculously accurate.

i haven't played Y3 yet tbh

i'm sure everything will be groovy because it's Yakuza so of course it will but i assume like most fans of the franchise i'm in it for the cartoon satirical takes on Japan, not the boring old USA

Hawaii has a large nikkei population, no? It makes a lot of sense as a location.

the Hawaii bit in Persona 5 is just a long cut scene where not much happens tbf

Oh btw the fishing mechanics in Y3 are truly cursed, I was wrestling a tuna out of the deep sea for like five straight minutes at one point and that was after I got good at it.

i get why Hawaii makes sense and i'm sure it'll get an excellent Like a Dragon spin put on it, i'm just less excited for wandering around there because i'm a sad weeb

ooh, as if by magic

Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth / PlayStation 5 / Sega / 2024 pic.twitter.com/8yqF3bUhYE

— Cool Box Art (@CoolBoxArt) October 4, 2023

They’ll probably do at least one Japanese city tbf and you’ll be able to travel there instantly just like you can from Okinawa to Tokyo in 3. I’ve really enjoyed each new locale introduced tbh, they do a great job of making them feel distinct and memorable.

oh and my boy Joel was telling me last night the antagonist in Infinite Wealth is some kind of vtuber so let the lols begin

yeah they've said there will be some Japanese locations too

I looked up infinite wealth on Wikipedia and I’m not sure about those plot points mentioned lads
https://i.postimg.cc/tThnrwBP/IMG-6958.jpg

i'm gonna have to play Like a Dragon again before this drops in a futile effort to remember all the plots twists i'll inevitably keep forgetting

- chocolate business
- the power of friendship
- coin locker baby
- sticky tissue disposal
- failed punch perm

They were missing the classic Yakuza trope “secretly Chinese” but more then made up for it with HE COULD WALK ALL ALONG

they nearly went with "secretly Korean" tho iirc

also in every Yakuza ever: "the bad and hated Omi Alliance"

Yeah Secretly Korean is up there but I think Secretly Chinese has more lineage. Did you ever watch classic C4 series Utopia? If so the reveal that Anya isn’t Russian in the last episode of s1 made me SHRIEK irl. I’m such a sucker for these sloppy plot points.

i haven't seen it but i read the spoiler anyway :D

- ambiguously gay
- unambiguously gay, actually played entirely seriously (this applies to antagonists in at least two games)
- does Kiryu know how to use his dick? He seems very naive
- cut to shot outside love hotel yes

xp it’s pure magic, she’s this minor helpless Russian woman in the other episodes and then in e6 she drops the accent in a key scene and is actually a posh English woman - history’s true villains as we know - and there’s absolutely no hint of it beforehand and it’s incredible

tbh i'm still not certain what Kiryu gets up to in those love hotels

pulls out his hanafuda deck

gotta think that's the most likely option

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=50NuiQGcrZc

^^love that.

Yakuza 4 atm, akiyama-san is my main man. Feels even cheesier than normal but I’m all about it. Majima up to some dirty. Not a whiff of the dragon of Dojima yet but we all know he’s on his way. Millions falling from the millennium towers. One of the worst hostess mini games of the series. All in all, I love every part of it.

Bout to find out what this Saejima guy is all about.

Damn saejima really up to no good either. What an intro

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=50NuiQGcrZc

I kind of want this to become a neverending youtube meme a la steamed hams

LMAO love it

I’m playing the new Kiryu game. Yakuza 6 spoilers: Even though Kiryu faked his own death at the end of Y6 people everywhere you go immediately recognise him, which isn’t surprising since he looks exactly the same bar a pair of glasses. Good that the Clark Kent trope doesn’t apply in Japan?
Very good so far, call backs to a lot of plot points from other series and games, koi-koi remains a great time drain when you’re too numb to do anything else.

ah shit it's out? i'm deep in baldur's gate.

Gamepass too. Trying to speed through 4-6 rn to get to it while it's hot

it's on my wishlist but given current circs i'm more likely to end up playing Infinite Wealth before i get round to this one

wow I couldn't imagine doing that, Yakuza is so much about getting lost in the world and just hanging out

xpost

ah shit it's out? i'm deep in baldur's gate.

i will never stop trying to hit on cabaret hostesses

there was some dodgy live action footage in Inshin as well

I haven’t actually finished that cos I went from Ishin to Mario Wonder, I’m terrible for that kind of shit, but I will do so

Oh god yeah there's the Mario too. Too many games!

Yeah I did finish that, btw I really enjoy glasses Kiryu being hilariously reminiscent of glasses Kiryu in 0

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F-O_Ofna8AA92Ei?format=jpg&name=900x900

He still comes out with the same dumb shit he always does but he’s got glasses

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FyIOQ1PWAAAgCk_?format=jpg&name=large

wow I couldn't imagine doing that, Yakuza is so much about getting lost in the world and just hanging out

xpost

― Daniel_Rf, Monday, 13 November 2023 20:38 (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

I've kind of accepted I'm playing these games "wrong" but I'm okay with it. Yakuza to me is pure pulp and screaming KIRYU-SAN at your screen whenever Kiryu does literally anything. I'm in it for the vibes, but I'm just not a minigame guy.

This is also turning into somewhat of a Nov/Dec tradition to plow through a couple while listening to end of year music lists. did 0 and kiwami 1 chrissy 2021, kiwami 2 and 3 2022, so gotta keep the pattern going!

New Kiryu game feels so...empty, so far.

How far in are you?

Very early days, I'm at the homeless camp.

It’s a little bit light feeling comparatively. But I’m not finished yet.

For all its wackiness, the two most hilarious things in Infinite Wealth for me are:

Kasuga sing shouting the instrumental melody line to Chi-chan's city pop song on karaoke

and

The little shot of Kasuga sitting down when you play mahjong with your crew, holding on the hopeful, oblivious grin of a guy who is def about to get completely fleeced.

i know it's reused from the previous game, but i love the animation that plays when kasuga fails a vocational school exam. such a likeable character, ichiban #1!

I'm playing them all in chronological order, to fill in the gaps in my knowledge and to refresh myself on who the fuck everyone is.

One thing about Kiwami 2 is Majima is basically being a gentrifier? Taking a park that belonged to the homeless and building some expensive apartments in there. Where did the homeless people go??

supercut of Kiryu soulfully saying the names of different characters after they've dropped some bombshell

Intercut with him growling the villainses names into the night sky when they've just done something villainous

All leading into a heartfelt karaoke performance

There is also this kind of thing where some important-to-the-plot location/ mysterious property developer etc is described to Kiryu for the first time and he very thoughtfully repeats it back so the player doesn't miss it

...Tachibana...Real Estate...? 🤔

Haha yes.

Having (re)played through the main series (currently at Like A Dragon), one thing I find very interesting is how consistently it is about mob justice, moral crusades, social media call outs without ever falling into anti-cancel culture screeds or reactionary beliefs - the victims of this stuff in Yakuza are sex workers or ex-criminals trying to make a honest living. I'm sure the cultural difference from the West plays a part but it's not like Japan hasn't had its metoo moments. Anyway kinda cool, there are occasional leftist attempts to point out that say ppl trying to ban drag queen storytime is cancel culture but usually in a "by your logic" way, this series just shows reactionaries using these tools and doesn't get into both sides-ism. I was really worried when I heard about the premise of Infinite Wealth and it turned out to be along these lines too.

I’d need to sit down and think about it across the games but the games have been progressive in their views in some ways and in others…not. But I do recall that they did talk about retooling some of the earlier games stuff re trans women and sex workers. I think the overall vibe of the series is that it’s the shadow world & iirc the yakuza in Japan have long been disproportionally comprised of people from various minority groups in the country. Not sure how true this is but it makes a lot of sense with how so many characters in the series are from minority backgrounds:

According to a 2006 speech by Mitsuhiro Suganuma, a former officer of the Public Security Intelligence Agency, around 60 percent of yakuza members come from burakumin, the descendants of a feudal outcast class and approximately 30 percent of them are Japanese-born Koreans, and only 10 percent are from non-burakumin Japanese and Chinese ethnic groups.

Similarly I really didn’t like that plot in the Kiwami remake where one of the girls you date is a lesbian and she wants to sleep with Kiryu to see if she likes men. To me I was like, ugh, are they really doing the “Just needs to meet the right man!” thing, but actually it was far more nuanced than that; they do sleep together but she was like, that was nice but I still like girls lol. It’s portrayed as her experimenting with a person she likes rather than falling into that trope, and it was a lot better for it.

Most of the police you meet are corrupt and the ones you meet who aren’t are openly marginalised by their colleagues; the government is on the take and doesn’t care about the concerns of ordinary people; the super rich will hurt anyone who gets in their way. In that world, how are you going to complain about or even care about Mama in the okama bar? We are all in the gutter together, the series seems to say. Oh, and if you own any land in Japan that might be valuable in any way you’re probably in danger lol.

OTM.

Certainly don't want to paint Yakuza as blanket progressive, it's just if you had subplots about social media hate campaigns in a piece of Western media the target would inevitably be someone accused of sexual offenses or being racist and the series never ever resorts to that (nb there may be some substories I haven't explored).

Similarly I really didn’t like that plot in the Kiwami remake where one of the girls you date is a lesbian and she wants to sleep with Kiryu to see if she likes men. To me I was like, ugh, are they really doing the “Just needs to meet the right man!” thing, but actually it was far more nuanced than that; they do sleep together but she was like, that was nice but I still like girls lol. It’s portrayed as her experimenting with a person she likes rather than falling into that trope, and it was a lot better for it.

lol that subplot was so strange - iirc Kiryu's final lecture to the girl was that she was too hung up on ideas of gender, too obsessed with women conforming to her ideas of what is female, and so she kinda went "ok you're right let's have sex since I'm trying not to care about gender so much". Which, go off pansexual king, but until Kiryu starts frequenting host clubs as a client that's all big talk and no action imo.

You can’t tell me Kiryu and Nishiki never slept together at least once and that’s as far as I’m going with that. I did like that the plot of Mine being in love with Daigo is not remotely played for laughs or gay panic though.

Majima pirate game

https://www.ign.com/articles/majima-focused-like-a-dragon-pirate-yakuza-in-hawaii-announced-at-rgg-summit-as-next-yakuza-game

MAJIMA PIRATE GAME

Every time I think “this sounds dumb” as a spin off game it’s gold so


MAJIMA PIRATE GAME

(Re)playing all the entries in such quick succession really drives home that Kiryu's biggest flaw is his inability to accept help, there's so many moments where he tricks an ally so that he can go fight the Big Bad alone. Meanwhile Kasuga has absolute and total trust in his allies and derives his strength from believing in the power of friendship. It's kind of a beautiful evolution for the franchise.

it's great stuff lads

What one are you playing now? I started playing the Man Who erased his name again recently because I want to play the newest one and it’s legit. I’m so fucking rusty on karaoke though.

The new one! It's out!!

!!!

Wait is this the Majima one? I need to know that there’s somehow a cabaret minigame

Majima Pirate Game

I need a setting that gives you the Japanese voice track but keeps Samoa Joe's English va

Majima Pirate Game

I love how right in the first scene Goro goes "the language barrier was hell to get through...but I'll spare you all that" and it's never mentioned again, everyone in Hawaii and surrounding islands speaks fluent Japanese, just go with it

Also loled at the speech about how piracy used to be about honour and "keeping land and sea safe", these newcomers are only interested in lucre and power, they do not understand the code of the yakuz...sorry, of the PIRATE, this is all about PIRATES.

Important question: does Goro acquire a parrot?

so far no, but we do have an adorable tiger cub

no cabaret game yet either, but I have spent a lot of time at the pirate batting cages

the actual ship stuff is tons of fun too

Just met New York finance kingpin SPADE TUCKER, Japanese game designer names for Americans will never not rule.

Weirdest live action footage in a yakuza game yet

Oh God this reminds me of the live cabaret girls in Gaiden…wasn’t a fan

It is somehow both less horny and more off putting than those, and Lord knows they were plenty off putting.

The very last cutscene, after the credits...it gives you some info that puts the whole zany adventure of the rest of the game in a totally different light, and damn it really got me.

If it isn't a weird blend of wackiness, funniness and unexpected emotional resonance it wouldn't be a Yakuza game tbf

Yes, it's just very stark this time. Most of the emotional beats in the game otherwise rang a bit hollow for me, it's got that family friendly blockbuster energy (including Disney style musical number) and I was up for that but it meant most of the emotional stuff was very flat. That last cutscene just kills it tho.

I'm so far behind with these games

same i've still only played 0 and judgment, i'd like to do the full run at some point. there are simply too many good videogames these days

I’m finally playing Infinite Wealth! I can’t get over the size of the Honolulu area, perhaps the biggest one we’ve had in a game? Honestly I don’t want to do anything I just want to eat shaved ice and ride the trolley talking to Kiryu

It's so huge. I decided to limit myself a little the first go round because I was just getting overwhelmed, did the pokemon game and the animal crossing game more on my second playthrough.

The WHATS

I HAVEN’T EVEN FOUND WHERE YOU PLAY MAHJONG YET IN HAWAII

I was reading back some of this thread’s old posts and laughing, so I made a very subjective bingo card for this series.

https://i.imgur.com/dm2FlIK.jpeg

It’s probably most applicable to the Kiryu games but all three series have some of these points.

Some notes

Sexually innocent middle aged protagonist - doesn’t mean they’re a virgin, it means they sometimes have zero clue they’re being hit on despite spending 99% of their time in the red light district

Kanrai - I just like it ok? And it’s in all the Kamurochos

“I want a beef bowl” - placeholder for any restaurant where you order something and I’m like, that looks or sounds fucking delicious, I wish I had it rn

I am also deep into it right now!

And I'm horribly addicted to the Dondoko Island game, I may need an intervention

Been thinking about polling the karaoke songs for the last week

Honolulu mahjong was a pig to find and frustrated me until I finally found it

Saeko's "Spring Breeze" is best song btw

Do you MIND

I love that they give you Koi No Disco Queen to play everywhere

How do I get the radio show on the playlist, it’s the first side quest and I don’t have it

It's in Yokohama, near the homeless base, you rescue a reporter.

The radio show however is in Japanese with no subs so :/

I meant on the playlist app but I found it by scrolling down :) I did walk around the beach for a bit listening to local radio which was great.

I cleared the Barracudas (fighting on a catwalk was incredible btw) and that was maybe the longest boss slog since Majima or Kiryu at the end of 0 maybe? It just kept going and going.

I still haven’t found mahjong. However I have been playing Sujimon a bit.

I need to find a place that sells pineapples…like actually.

I can't stress enough how much "Spring Breeze" loops round in my brain every day

I am the Sujimon Master btw

Easy money: playing my party at mahjong

Pineapples don’t grow on trees!

Classic Yakuza trope that always messes with my anxiety:

Main Storyline - "We need to go rescue somebody, there's no time to waste"
Me - spends a week playing Mahjong and collecting coconuts

Oh I'm too much of a roleplayer for that. If the characters tell me shit is super urgent I just go and do it.

Oh I'm too much of a roleplayer for that. If the characters tell me shit is super urgent I just go and do it.

I try to do the same, but I'm also constantly making the NPC leading me somewhere wait as I lag behind to check for items/loot on our path.

But then you miss half the best stuff! Shit is almost always "urgent"

You're right tho, it's the role-player in me that struggles with it

A mate was watching me play Yakuza 4 (I think it was) and I got a phone call so I ran out of the indoor parking lot onto the street, for reception. "Wow does the game actually factor that in?" he asked. "I don't...think so...?" was my reply, I had just done this instinctively. He couldn't stop laughing.

I also gave up on Judgement the first time because I was getting text messages to save ppl from hooligans ALL THE TIME and had no time left for anything else. "Just ignore the messages", ppl said, but when I started doing that I would then get angry "wtf where were you??" messages too. It's hard to be a hero.

I must admit in Infinite Wealth I'm still compelled to rescue people getting hassled by gangs even when the XP and money returns are negligible

I do this every time!

The best mechanic this game introduced was “smack down” for weak enemies…I’ll take the $17.38 for a second “battle” and go buy some more iced coffee

I am too dedicated to the grind to use the smackdown

https://i.imgur.com/cctY1Nz.jpeg

the other karaoke banger that won't leave my head is "Hands"

Actually there is a an awful lot to be said for "If I Could Love the One I Love" but the game does its best to ruin it by putting a stupid talkover from Ichi or Kiryu on there

God I'm working while half 6 tonight just want to go home and spend the weekend hanging with the gang

Hanging out with “The bartender” at Survive 🥺🥺🥺🥺

Memory walks 🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺

Taichi cameo 🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺

Feel like this one is going to hurt

Amon’s theme is still a banger

I should do a subcategory of series tropes for the Ichiban games alone so I can include this series version of Secretly Chinese: Secretly Doesn’t Need That Wheelchair

Yeah, it's the most emotional I've ever gotten over a game and makes previous entries like 6 more poignant in retrospective.

You just don't get many upsetting medical diagnoses in Super Mario, for instance.

Also the incredibly sinister vlogger account that can’t be stopped, loved that

Also I always play with Japanese audio so I never realised there were so many famous voices for the game. Daniel Dae Kim as Ebina? Danny Trejo as Mendoza? David Hayter as …the bartender from Survive?!

i almost feel like they're going over the top with the emo storylines but then i remember this is what i signed up for