Yakuza series

This sounds awesome and now I can't wait.

0 is kind of a letdown even though the story is great, while I loved Kiwami and found things got real silly in Kiwami 2.

I'm playing 3 as well and the fact that I have to deal with Hostess Bullshit again is a drag, I tend to resent it since it gets a bit samey. But I got to if I wanna face Jo Amon again.

Also lol at Sayama getting booted out just like that. At least her story was concluded and she got a goodbye scene. More than Tanimura ever got.

I unironically liked that the American version of 3 didn't have a hostess club, you just go to Smile Burger and the hostess is there and you can go on the dates without having to spend the time or money on the hostess club.

Yeah, the fact that the plots for 3, 4, and a lesser extent 5 kinda hinge on Daigo being a huge dumbass. Because of course he is. He was a little shit in 2 who just got control of the clan because of his family name. Why wouldn't he suck at it?

Edited by Larkmarn on Apr 30th 2020 at 9:43:19 AM

I wonder why that was removed. Were the hostess clubs in the original 1 and 2 not there too?

They were in 1 and 2 I think. The original 2 had a hostess club management sim that was changed in Kiwami to be a copypaste of the one in Zero.

At least 3's hostess meetups aren't voiced so I don't have to wait for voiced dialogue to finish. Bad enough in Zero and 1 but when Kiryu's responses were voiced in Kiwami 2 I started to see how much of a drag it was.

The removed a lot of content from 3 that they thought Westerners wouldn't "get." Including a handful of quests that they thought Westerners would just find too esoteric.

I know 1 didn't have a hostess club, but I don't know about 2, never played the original but I thought it just had a host club management bit. I've been under the impression that the whole hostess club minigame shebang was introduced in 3.

Oh god, yes. Honestly, I'd buy a mobile game app that was just 0's Hostess Club minigame.

Edited by Larkmarn on Apr 30th 2020 at 11:36:19 AM

The funny thing is that in 0 it’s more fun to run the club than to engage in virtual chatting.

@Larkmarn: the original 2 had a hostess club management thing. You not only kept your hostesses in top form but the general club itself to ensure that it was kept up and running. as Tehsnakerer put it tho, half the patrons can't stop banging on about the fucking carpet. Kiwami 2 just copypasted the cabaret Club Czar minigame from Zero kinda wholesale which was far less painful til you got to the hostess dialogue bit.

Yakuza 3 had the management version where you looked fo rone hostess to be your golden child steered Kiryu about the club to find out what patrons wanted then trained and dolled up your girl to those standards. Its fairly short if you know what you're doing and only care about substory completion/getting to Amon. 4 kinda did the same thing, just replace Kiryu with Akiyama. Although even the presence of that lovely, smooth Akiyama can't make hostess-ing less tedious.

So, I'm playing through Yakuza 5 and am at part 3 (the Haruka and Akiyama part), and I read several places online that it's fine if you pick up the locker keys you find as Haruka because when you get to switch between characters, the unused locker keys are shared and Akiyama can use them, so I just picked up whatever keys I found to have them for later. However, I've gotten past that, and later went to the lockers as Akiyama but could only use the few keys I had picked up as him? ...Worth noting that I've gotten past the point where I can actually switch characters, though (for whatever reason I didn't go there right away), is this option only available during the time you can freely swap? Or is there a part before Premium Adventure (like the finale) where I can use these keys as Akiyama again?

Here's my review of Yakuza 0: https://unitedfederationofcharles.blogspot.com/2020/04/yakuza-0-review.html

I am in Chapter 2 of Judgement and I have to say I'm enjoying it a great deal. The dialing back on sidequests and content for the main story works well for me and I'm enjoying that Yagami is more a Jackie Chan-style fighting than Kiryu. A Fragile Speedster so to speak. I'm not sure where he picked up the skill for it, though.

Edited by CharlesPhipps on May 1st 2020 at 3:07:35 AM

That'll be explained later on.

Going through Yakuza 3 and its pretty good. I definitely feel how old the fighting part of the gameplay is in this compared to Kiwami 2 or even 0 and Kiwami 1. Not to say its bad, just took a little adjusting.

I actually kinda love the orphanage bits as well. Its absolutely sweet seeing Kiryu be this big warm gruff dad to all those kids, speaking as gently as he can without being cloying or weak.

I need to get to Y3 sometime. Kiryu Dad Simulator sounds amazing.

The remastered collection is on sale right now. £40 over in the UK, cheaper for the individual games if that's your bag.

Yeah I have them, just haven't gotten around to them yet.

I washed out of playing Y0 again since I got tired of the minigames, while I played Kiwami 2 on Easy and the combat was a major downgrade compared to Y0 and K1, so the only game I really truly love of the series as of this moment is Kiwami 1.

So I'm hoping going back to the PS 3 games will inspire some love for the series in me.

Edited by RodimusMinor on May 1st 2020 at 6:34:42 AM

You can pretty much buy all the games up to 6 now.

0 gets tiring if you go for all the substories since it involves the hostess management guff. On the other hand I sure loved me some Real Estate Royale. and some substories involve playing Outrun and Space Harrier and I love those.

Kiwami 2's playstyle almost felt like a downgrade from 0 and Kiwami 1 since no extra fighting styles but I loved it once I got used to it. I'm gonna miss it up til I get Yakuza 6 and go back to the Dragon Engine.

3-5 are available as a collection, so all 6 games and Judgment are now available for PS 4.

I already got 3, 4 and 5, yeah. I still need to pick up 6 and Judgement but I could probably start Judgement at any time since its not constrained to the Kiryu saga unlike 6 But 6 is cheaper right now.

I can't date Saori in Judgement.

0/10

:D

It's weird how they give you dating options as well as a canon love interest here.

Also I've been playing through the 3-5 remasters lately, finished 3 and 4 and currently playing through 5! Thoughts and stuff:

3: oh hey it's my first ever Yakuza game! But now... remastered! Been years since I played the original PS3 release and somehow it makes a bit more sense to play it now that I've played 1 and 2 (the Kiwami versions?) Though I don't remember the enemies, down to regular mooks, blocking THAT much? Overall, the fight gameplay took a while to go back to and get used to. Also, chase battles are a pain, at least until you get training... which isn't available until after the final story-based chase for some reason? Feels like very trial-and-error where you can barely make a few mistakes (especially on Hard?) Otherwise, though, it's fun playing this again after some years, now with the stuff that was cut from the original localization! The plot has its weird parts but still entertaining

4: Playing as 4 different characters whose stories connect somehow is an interesting twist! Overall, really liked this one! Also, can happily report chase battles are much less of a pain here! ...that goes for regular battles too!

5: Another multiple-character game! This one feels like most of the parts have less connection but I'm guessing it will all be connected in the end... and I'm already suspecting some things from the last chapter... Overall, also good! (Also, rhythm-based gameplay is usually a plus for me)

Edited by Zanreo on May 2nd 2020 at 1:31:27 PM

Also, if anyone's interested, mooth British youtube voice Tehsnakerer has begun doing the Yakuza games starting from the original PS 2 version of 1. He'll be doing Kiwami 1 and 2 and zero as well when he gets to them. He just got done on four and while the review's in segments detailing each main hero, he also did one big omnibus edition that's three and a half hours long.

Also, he actually was willing to argue with TV Tropes on how the "rubber bullets" twist of 4 wasn't an Ass Pull, but had some decent foreshadowing and best showed how Sugiuchi and Katsuragi weren't as Xanatos Batman Yagami as they thought they were. (Remember, Munakata wasn't just going "lol rubber bullets sure is convenient", he picked apart in detail how flawed their whole thing was. Honestly the only reason he didn't have their guts for garters is that he saw use in them.)

I'm now into Chapter 5 of Judgement and I kind of feel a bit...disappointed.

We're now in the GITS:SAC area of the plot where it's all revealed to be a big corporate conspiracy. I know that's a thing in Yakuza but I'm pretty sure we're going to find Yagami wasn't defending a guilty man. I feel like that actually takes away from his poignancy as a character because it works better for me that, yes, he screwed up and read his client wrong.

Maybe they were going for similar to how Saejima "killed" 18 men and its actually one big poorly thought out plot by the conspirators who only thought short term and now its all going to pot? Just guessing.