Yeah I did finish that, btw I really enjoy glasses Kiryu being hilariously reminiscent of glasses Kiryu in 0https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F-O_Ofna8AA92Ei?format=jpg&name=900x900He still comes out with the same dumb shit he always does but he’s got glasseshttps://pbs.twimg.com/media/FyIOQ1PWAAAgCk_?format=jpg&name=large
― mojo dojo casas house (gyac), Monday, 13 November 2023 11:17 (ten months ago) link
wow I couldn't imagine doing that, Yakuza is so much about getting lost in the world and just hanging outxpost― Daniel_Rf, Monday, 13 November 2023 20:38 (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink
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!
― H.P, Monday, 13 November 2023 12:07 (ten months ago) link
New Kiryu game feels so...empty, so far.
― Daniel_Rf, Thursday, 28 December 2023 22:24 (eight months ago) link
How far in are you?
― mojo dojo casas house (gyac), Thursday, 28 December 2023 22:27 (eight months ago) link
Very early days, I'm at the homeless camp.
― Daniel_Rf, Thursday, 28 December 2023 22:33 (eight months ago) link
It’s a little bit light feeling comparatively. But I’m not finished yet.
― mojo dojo casas house (gyac), Thursday, 28 December 2023 22:35 (eight months ago) link
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.
― Daniel_Rf, Thursday, 7 March 2024 17:15 (six months ago) link
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!
― gundam wig (diamonddave85), Thursday, 7 March 2024 18:23 (six months ago) link
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??
― Daniel_Rf, Tuesday, 25 June 2024 17:14 (three months ago) link
supercut of Kiryu soulfully saying the names of different characters after they've dropped some bombshell
― Daniel_Rf, Tuesday, 20 August 2024 13:33 (one month ago) link
Intercut with him growling the villainses names into the night sky when they've just done something villainous
― the news is terrible, i'm in the clear (Noodle Vague), Tuesday, 20 August 2024 14:19 (one month ago) link
All leading into a heartfelt karaoke performance
― H.P, Wednesday, 21 August 2024 00:09 (one month ago) link
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...? 🤔
― hiroyoshi tins in (Sgt. Biscuits), Wednesday, 21 August 2024 16:02 (one month ago) link
Haha yes.
― Daniel_Rf, Wednesday, 21 August 2024 16:38 (one month ago) link
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.
― Daniel_Rf, Wednesday, 11 September 2024 10:35 (two weeks ago) link
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.
― Romy Gonzalez’s utility infusion (gyac), Wednesday, 11 September 2024 10:54 (two weeks ago) link
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.
― Romy Gonzalez’s utility infusion (gyac), Wednesday, 11 September 2024 10:58 (two weeks ago) link
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).
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.
― Daniel_Rf, Wednesday, 11 September 2024 11:13 (two weeks ago) link
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.
― Romy Gonzalez’s utility infusion (gyac), Wednesday, 11 September 2024 11:19 (two weeks ago) link
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
― Daniel_Rf, Friday, 20 September 2024 13:53 (one week ago) link
Every time I think “this sounds dumb” as a spin off game it’s gold soMAJIMA PIRATE GAME
― gyac, Friday, 20 September 2024 14:15 (one week ago) link