VideoGame A Series Made Out of Love, Dedication, Effort, Quirks, and Awesomeness
400 words are too little to describe how amazing these games are, but I’ll try.
The Yakuza games is a phenomenal series that span time and space, with each new entry feeling like another chapter in the life of out main protagonist Kazuma Kiryu, possibly one of the best protagonists in video game history ever, and why you may ask? Kazuma has a sense of honor, forgiveness, is a great dad, and has an unbeatable will like no other protag has ever had before, plus he ages as we do as this series continues, growing wiser with each instalment... also he’s really badass too!
But as the series goes on we get new playable characters, and they’re pretty great too, not only to play as, but also they’re well written characters. In fact so is everybody, pretty much everyone has some level of depth to them that feels very human, and the stories are certainly well written enough to showcase it’s characters as well as they can.
Gameplay is also a strong point for these games. It starts out simple and clunky in Yakuza 1, but with each new instalment in grows and grows like a powerful tree, building more on top of what was already established. And as I mentioned earlier, the series has new/multiple styles of fighting with each instalment since 4. The gameplay itself is akin to an RPG, with randomly generated fights happening every so often, but unlike most RP Gs, these games usually take place in at least 1 location known as Kamurocho, a busy night-life district in Tokyo filled with people, shops, and punks to beat down. Starting with 2, there has usually been more areas added to explore, with 2 adding a new city, 3 adding a small island, 4 adding layers to Kamurocho instead of multiple locals, and 5 having FIVE LOCATIONS IN TOTAL! There are also side activities in this game, mundane and weird, and you are likely to find one you’ll enjoy a lot more than the rest.
If you can, play these games in order, it’s almost a must since the series does age in real time, and you’ll feel like you really are part of the world’s history, as you grow with it, see the changes first hand, remember the locals, the characters, get into fights, and just have a great time.
Play these games now!! PLEASE!!
VideoGame A Comprehensive Guide For Newcomers.
Greetings! If you're reading this review, it means you're interested in starting the Yakuza series, congratulations!
Basically this guide will help you, by describing negative and positive aspects, quirks and insider lingo so you can mingle faster with fellow Yakuza fans!
First and foremost, the Yakuza series are brawler games with several side-minigames. The series is also known for having wild and wacky side-content, and stories that range from 'oh my god it's one of the best things I've seen' to 'oh my god, my brain, it hurts'.
I'm serious.
Which game should be your starter? Well, it depends solely if you're able to manage expectations. Are you the kind of person that doesn't mind starting with the best game of a series and dealing with a sudden drop in quality before a slow climb? Then play 0. Because, weirdly, the prequel is the best game of the entire franchise (in Kiryu's saga), in nearly every single sense. And this is the tip of the iceberg. If you prefer to build expectations slowly, start with Kiwami 1.
The Yakuza series focus mainly on dramatic crime stories that more often than not involve large conspiracies, and in its center, the figure of Kazuma Kiryu, the Dragon of Dojima. He is an yakuza who tries as best as he can to stay out of the game, but outside forces often bring him into the fray. He is an Implacable Man with strong sense of morals and varying loyalty to his friends and the Tojo Clan, the group he quit. And with a brawler gameplay focusing on fighting throngs of enemies using anything that he can get his hands on, such as weapons, guns, sofas, trashcans, and bicycles... so many bicycles... with a heat gauge being filled, used to deliver brutal attacks known as heat actions.
One of the strongest points in the series is how it evolves, and is constantly changing. Something didn't work in a game? They will change it in the sequel. Something worked? They will focus and experiment on it, without being attached. This isn't just gameplay-wise, the focus of the stories and how they are told will change, making every entry in the franchise unique in some sense.
The stories can be hard-hitting, for both japanese players and international alike, with themes about loyalty, greed, morals and so on, and the characters are quite fleshed out with individual personalities, desires and agendas (in the best games, that is), and the author isn't afraid of poking into hairy issues: You'll see themes rarely touched by japanese media, such as homelessness, immigration, how much the idol industry sucks, corporate greed and more.
The problem with the series stems from two main factors:
- Drama. - Kiryu praising.
How so? Well, whenever the focus of the story isn't the plot itself, but rather, the drama (or to show how awesome Kiryu is), things take a turn to the worse, with forced scenes where characters hold Idiot balls in order to get NP Cs killed in a dramatic way. The whole plot will be twisted in order to make Kiryu shine by beating armies single-handedly (even if it was unnecessary), or to make the characters suffer. The author has a strange vision of Kiryu, an ex-yakuza who deals with the worst society has to offer, trying to prevent him from killing no matter the cost, hoping to turn him into a shining example of virtue. Even if the cost is several other people's lives. Repeatedly.
And weirdly, in the gameplay, you kill a LOT of people with different cruel methods.
Which leads to the memes:
"Kiryu Never Killed Anyone" - The main character, Kiryu, kills many mooks in a brutal fashion and is responsible for the death of a villain after they have a brawl to the death. Even then, the narrative always assumes that Kiryu never killed anyone.
"Kiryu is a virgin." - One of the producers revealed that he believes Kiryu is actually a virgin, even if there are several subquests where the main character was seen leaving a motel with a woman.
"The Haruka Gauge" - Haruka is Kiryu's adopted daughter. Since the authors use her as a vessel for unhinged drama, the more she appears in a game, worse the story will be.
"Bakamitai" - One of the side-activities in the games is a Karaoke QTE, and in 5 this song was sung by the entire cast, also appearing in the games that followed.
Overall, this is a series which you can have a lot of fun with, if you don't take it overly seriously, nor raise your expectations a lot.