Yakuza

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)