History YMMV / Yakuza1

* TookTheBadFilmSeriously: Or in this case, "Took the Bad ''Dub'' Seriously". Creator/MichaelRosenbaum's performance as Nishiki is often regarded as the one consistently decent performance throughout the entire dub (not counting Creator/MarkHamill's [[HamAndCheese gloriously hammy]] run as Majima), particularly his delivery during the scene where [[https://youtu.be/HmSZ24GqTxM Nishiki executes two henchmen for killing Mizuki.]]

** The boss fight against Futoshi Shimano in Chapter 3 is often cited as one of the most annoying in the game. Not only does he have a mountain of health, but he is also immune to flinching most of the time, meaning that even if you're beating on him, but he can also still hit you back in the middle of your combo. The Kiwami Attack mechanic only worsens his high HP. At times, he will start to regenerate health, and the only way to interrupt this is by using the Essence of Extreme Rush Heat Action... which has to be unlocked in the skill tree beforehand. [[GuideDangIt If you didn't know this in advance]], prepare to waste up to half an hour slowly chipping away at his health (you can bet that most players immediately rush to unlock all of the Kiwami moves as soon as possible after the fight). Once you've memorized his patterns and when he's safe to attack, he's not too difficult, but Shimano is still a boring and annoying enemy to take down.

** The things Majima is saying in every single encouter are ''so'' filled with innuendo it's ''absurd''. For starters he promises Kiryu he'll "be on his ass 24/7", asking Kiryu to "heat him up because he's cold", sincerely telling him he won't tell other people he's into gay porn (yes, that's a real encounter, and Kiryu insists it's a martial arts flic), or "getting a side-order of Kiryu-chan" or calling the traffic cone fight "totally consensual"... god, every other sentence he says can be read as flirting! And the ''sheer thrill'' in his voice when he says Kiryu's name.

** The Weapon Master GP in the Coliseum. You're limited to using weapons that do laughably low damage (significantly less than you'd deal bare-handed) and lock you out of nearly all of your special moves. You can't even get the Komaki style bonus to katana attacks with the wooden katana because you're also locked out from switching to the Dragon style. This makes the huge healthbars you're dealing with an incredible slog to grind through.

* EvilIsSexy: Nishiki was already handsome and attractive in ''0'', but his slicked-back hair and sleek white suit in ''Kiwami'' certainly add to his attractiveness despite him being [[AxCrazy much less stable than he appears]].

*** The big sticking point is the lack of a 'soft targeting' system; you are either locked-on to a specific enemy, or you are performing attacks based on Kiryu's current position without regard to the precise positions of nearby enemies. This makes crowd-control and trying to switch between targets very difficult, and can easily lead to a lot of missed attacks. When players complain that the combat of the original ''Yakuza'' feels clunky in comparison to later entries, this quirk is likely what they are subconsciously or not referring to.
*** The positioning criteria for environment-based HEAT actions can be very clunky and precise; trying to slam enemies against walls can feel random as to whether any specific part of the wall will work or not.
*** For follow-up attacks after perfoming HEAT actions, for whatever reason the game will cancel the QTE if you perform ''any'' input while the preceding cutscene is playing. Many players don't even realise the first game had follow-up attacks just because it is easy to never get a prompt for one.

*** For follow-up attacks after perfoming HEAT actions, for whatever reason the game will cancel the QTE if you perform ''any'' input while the cutscene is playing. Many players don't even realise the first game had follow-up attacks just because it is so easy to miss them due to an arbitrary restriction.

*** The big sticking point is the lack of a 'soft targeting' system; you are either locked-on to a specific enemy, or you are performing attacks based on Kiryu's current position without regard to the precise positions of nearby enemies. This makes crowd-control and trying to switch between targets very difficult, and can easily lead to a lot of missed attacks. When players complain that the combat of the original ''Yakuza'' feels clunky in comparison to later entries, this quirk is likely what they are knowingly or not referring to.

** Combat was very clunky and specifically targeting a particular enemy was quite tedious. It got an overhaul in the [[NoExportForYou Japan-only]] [[CompilationRerelease HD re-release]] using the second game's mechanics.

!! YMMV: [[YMMV/LikeADragon All Games]] | ''Yakuza'' | ''YMMV/Yakuza2'' | ''YMMV/RyuGaGotokuKenzan'' | ''YMMV/Yakuza3'' | ''YMMV/Yakuza4'' | ''YMMV/YakuzaDeadSouls'' | ''YMMV/Yakuza5'' | ''YMMV/LikeADragonIshin'' | ''YMMV/Yakuza0'' | ''YMMV/Yakuza6'' | ''YMMV/YakuzaLikeADragon'' | ''YMMV/{{Judgment}}'' | ''YMMV/LostJudgment''

* GoodBadBugs: The PC version of the game sometimes glitches during bowling so that it is impossible to apply spin to the balls. Where this comes in beneficial is when playing against an AI opponent, as those often make generous use of spin and the glitch applies to them as well.

* OneSceneWonder: Punk-Ass Abe, the random street dweller who fights you on your way to Stardust near the start of the game, gets a disproportionate amount of love from fans in spite of his minuscule role and easy difficulty. Even ''Yakuza Restored'', a popular fan-made patch that undoes many of the English dub's inventions, keeps Punk-Ass Abe intact.

** The inability to move items between your inventory and storage without visiting an Item Box. This inventory management system is let down by three major flaws: Your inventory in this game is tiny (a maximum of nine items and three weapons at any time), is taken up by both combat and non-combat items (if you want to equip items that will help you out with minigames or side-missions, that almost certainly means sacrificing a chunk of your healing items), and Item Boxes are extremely rare (within Kamurocho, you're effectively forced to run all the way to Stardust every time you want to swap something out). It would ultimately take until ''VideoGame/Yakuza3'' for this to be fully fixed, with a more permissive inventory size and Item Boxes now being a function of the plentiful Save Points.

** The inability to move items between your inventory and storage without visiting an Item Box. Maybe not a bad idea in theory, but it's let down by three major flaws: Your inventory in this game is tiny (a maximum of nine items and three weapons at any time), is taken up by both combat and non-combat items (if you want to equip items that will help you out with minigames or side-quests, that means less things you can use in fights), and Item Boxes are extremely rare (within Kamurocho, you're effectively forced to run all the way to Stardust every time you want to swap something out). It would ultimately take until ''VideoGame/Yakuza3'' for this to be fully fixed, with a more permissive inventory size and Item Boxes now being a function of the plentiful Save Points.

The inability to move items between your inventory and storage without visiting an Item Box. Maybe not a bad idea in theory, but it's let down by three major flaws: Your inventory in this game is tiny (a maximum of nine items and three weapons at any time), is taken up by both combat and non-combat items (if you want to equip items that will help you out with minigames or side-quests, that means less things you can use in fights), and Item Boxes are extremely rare (within Kamurocho, you're effectively forced to run all the way to Stardust every time you want to swap something out). It would ultimately take until ''VideoGame/Yakuza3'' for this to be fully fixed, with a more permissive inventory size and Item Boxes now being a function of the plentiful Save Points.

* ScrappyMechanic: The inability to move items between your inventory and storage without visiting an Item Box. Maybe not a bad idea in theory, but it's let down by three major flaws: Your inventory in this game is tiny (a maximum of nine items and three weapons at any time), is taken up by both combat and non-combat items (if you want to equip items that will help you out with minigames or side-quests, that means less things you can use in fights), and Item Boxes are extremely rare (within Kamurocho, you're effectively forced to run all the way to Stardust every time you want to swap something out). It would ultimately take until ''VideoGame/Yakuza3'' for this to be fully fixed, with a more permissive inventory size and Item Boxes now being a function of the plentiful Save Points.

* CryForTheDevil: Nishiki had become a cutthroat Yakuza who was willing to have his own adopted father murdered, as well as being responsible for the deaths of [[spoiler:Reina and Shinji.]] But Kiwami expands on his story through flashbacks of his life while Kiryu was in prison. He constantly gets berated by his superiors for a position he clearly was ill-prepared for, mocked by his own men who treat him like dirt, and all of them comment how he would never live up to Kiryu's legacy. To make matters worse, his sister needed expensive surgery to survive and to get the money Nishiki had to grovel in front of his own {{Jerkass}} men. Then tragic circumstances caused his sister to die regardless because [[spoiler:the doctor was lying to him the whole time and bailed on him once he got the money he wanted,]] meaning that all his efforts, from swallowing his pride to enduring being chewed out by his superiors were AllForNothing. From that point on, it's clear that the Nishiki that we had known in ''0'' was dead.

*** Heat Actions do less damage the more times they are used, which generally isn't a problem against normal enemies, but often makes boss fights a slog to get through due to their high amounts of health. The Essence of Kiwami Heat Actions are also not exempt from this mechanic, which means that the boss will likely have healed enough to make the Essence of Kiwami Heat Action's effect negligible.

** Bosses and strong enemies now will rapidly regenerate health during certain points in their fights, and it can only be countered by the Essence of Kiwami Heat Action, which must be unlocked for each individual style. Some bosses tend to go into this state right after a Heat action is used against them, and they can recover a lot of health before you can regain enough Heat again to put a stop to it, provided they aren't a FlunkyBoss. If you change styles when this happens, their rising health bar won't slow down.

** "Majima Everywhere" can also be this. Even if you equip any accessories which reduce encounters (Silent Shoes, Head Honcho Scarf, and Beads of Good Fortune) the "Majima Everywhere" system still triggered regardless, which becomes especially tedious and time-wasting when speedrunning the game on EX-HARD (LEGEND on the localized version) as well as exploring for getting 100% completion for Premium Adventure mode, even if you've gotten SSS Rank for "Majima Everywhere" [[spoiler:and defeated him at the batting cages]]. On the bright side, at least Majima is a [[MetalSlime fantastic source of experience points]] on a first run, which makes him especially helpful for unlocking essential abilities like increased damage and health.

** For special encounters, these can be divided between Majima attempting to goad Kiryu into fighting him and Majima challenging Kiryu to different activities that don’t even end in a fight. For the former, one notable encounter occurs at Smile Burger after Kiryu orders something, with Majima appearing behind asking if he wants a side of Majima with that and continues his EroticEating dialogue wanting an order of Kiryu…to fight.