Yakuza series

I rewatched a pretty good video that helped contextualize that scene in 0 where Nishiki and Kiryu are out in the woods and it hit me that Kiryu wasn't necessarily being overly stoic or unemotional, he was just being the rock Nishiki needed at the time, and that that probably wasn't the 1st time he'd had to. Getting all emotional when his best friend had a gun to his head would of been a good way to get shot, too.

So I definitely don't think he's boring, any more. A little vanilla, maybe, but Kiryu's a pretty interesting character when he's got the right people to play off of him.

So, has Kiryu sill not taken a person's life?

Kiryu is a good boy.

I mean, it kinda depends...

I'd say that certainly wouldn't count. Kiryu didn't kill the guy. His buddy did. Kiryu didn't even push the guy into the path of the bullets or move him into the way; Kiryu only moved himself behind the guy.

Guy died because his friend aimed at him and thought he'd catch Kiryu in the process.

Edited by Larkmarn on Oct 22nd 2018 at 2:34:21 PM

He also totally killed people when he was in a car chase and was shooting them. Half of those cars exploded.

Edited by LordVatek on Oct 22nd 2018 at 2:39:49 PM

I mean, if you take gameplay into account, he's a mass murderer because 9/10 Heat actions are more than likely fatal. So when this comes up, generally we're discussing cut scenes.

I really do wish they didn't have that damn car chase. That managed to be too over the top for a Yakuza game, which is... impressive. I mean, I suppose the issue isn't that it was over the top, but that it was over-the-top in a different way.

Plus it just wasn't fun.

Which one?

If you mean the Kiwami one (was it in the original Y1 too?) then AGREE

I struggled so much with that part even after lowering difficulty and it just went on for too long for what it is which was part of what made it that hard. Just... not a good Unexpected Gameplay Change

Doesn't help that it's right after a boss fight with no save point inbetween - sure, if you're not playing on Legend you can just restart from the car chase part but still

Y0 car chase was ok (mainly because it was shorter and easier) but the Kiwami one... nope

Edited by Zanreo on Oct 23rd 2018 at 10:06:06 AM

Tanimura's getting a face lift and new voice in the 4th remaster due to his original voice actor's controversy.

We might actually see him again in the future now.

Edited by Hashil on Oct 23rd 2018 at 10:31:19 AM

The Kiwami 2 fight on the flatbeds was amazingly over the top. The 0 and Kiwami ones...my kingdom for a light gun.

So, been trying out FOTNS: Lost Paradise lately (I suppose this would still be where to post about it) and some thoughts so far:

• Clearly based on Yakuza gameplay while still being its own thing. While I admittedly am more interested in Yakuza's universe and world, this one isn't too bad either, and while beating up enemies with random objects found on the street is gone, Kenshiro's over-the-top attacks almost make up for it
• Extra content and minigames unlock slower - while in Yakuza you have access to most of the minigames from the start or shortly after, here you won't start unlocking them until several chapters into the game. The first substories are available in chapter 4, and the arcade doesn't unlock until chapter 6 (or earlier?) (out of 11). While some of the late unlocks admittedly make sense storywise, it might seem strange to someone already used to how it works in Yakuza.
• Speaking of minigames... Bartender Ken is alright but basically just doing the same controller shaking/buttonmashing over and over. Manager Ken is more or less the hostess club game from Yakuza 0 and Kiwami 2 but with some new features (actually only played the first required mission so far - will get back to it later) And the Ken's Clinic rhythm game is really fun x3 I've seen a lot of comparision to Yakuza's karaoke, but know what it reminds me of, just notechart/UI-wise? Project Diva, just replace the "notes floating in" animation with the circle closing in on the note.

(Sidenote: ^{long collectible/completion-related warning} if you're like me and care anything about trophies/collectibles in general, do yourself a favor and stay away from the strength upgrades until you get all the death cries, or at least make sure to get the cries for each area RIGHT AWAY (actually, getting them done early is a good idea either way) - there's a very good chance you'll quickly get too strong for the "common thug" enemies and kill them before you can even finish the longer combos (technically, you CAN still use the combo by just punching the air/another enemy before landing the final hits on them, but this just makes it harder and more annoying than it needs to be) Not helping here is that you first learn how to make Death Cries appear at the start of Chapter 5 - and by this time you'll likely be so strong you'll soon start killing the Common Thugs in the first areas too quickly (especially if you, like me, got the strength upgrades - wish I had read the note about this before getting one of them pretty early in-game)

(also, question: how do you actually turn death cries into weapons, is there a certain way to do this? Aside from "HIDEBU", they all just turn into Seven Star gauge refills, but I've heard all this stuff about beating up enemies with "SHITBALLS" and so on and I feel like there's something obvious I'm missing)

Edited by Zanreo on Nov 12th 2018 at 3:16:37 PM

Reminder that if you have a PS 4 and somehow don't have Kiwami, it's free on PS Plus for November.

Picked this back up for a bit. You can learn a technique called Channeling Charged Attack that lets you hit channeling points without doing any damage first, so you can farm death cries or level up specific moves even if you're too strong to combo into them.

Huh, I couldn't actually find that in my techniques (and I suspect it's not the last technique you learn from Toki), at least when looking for that name, but maybe it's called something else.

Anyway, here are some new Heat Actions (or I guess they're called Ex Actions?) from Project Judge, including "just fucking get a guy kidnapped by the yakuza"

After the game unlocks Perfect Channeling, it's a tree of four skills branching off from that in the Technique tree you unlock with star orbs.

Looks like Project Judge will also be getting an English dub.

It'll be dual audio, naturally, and will be called "Judgement".

Edited by Hashil on Dec 8th 2018 at 12:46:28 PM

That's interesting. I think this is the first main Yakuza game with English voice acting since the first game, right?

Judgement needs to come back as a Karaoke song as a nod to the dub name.

This is technically still a spin off, so I guess the most accurate way to say that would be "this is the first game set in Kamurocho with English voice acting since the original."

But yeah, you could almost argue Fist of the North Star was due to that franchise wanting an English dub in and of itself, but I think Sega's finally confident enough in the series's western success to try dubbing it properly in general.

Edited by Hashil on Dec 8th 2018 at 1:09:12 PM

Dubbing seems fairly solid and includes some well-known names although they're thankfully sticking to voice-acting veterans as opposed to the stunt All-Star Cast of the first game. I'm surprised they're bothering as most people interested in the Yakuza franchise are not the kind who have problems with subtitles or the extremely Japanocentric setting.

I imagine they want to expand to an audience that isn't just western otaku. A dub has the potential to endear it to a whole lot more people.

You can buy these DLC orbs that take what looks to be a good game to the next level.

I've been playing through Kiwami 2. I just finished Ryuji Goda's first scene and honestly I can't stop thinking about the pants-stealing thing from 0. The disparity is hilarious.

Edited by LordVatek on Jan 7th 2019 at 7:50:04 AM

Sorry for the double post but I finished Kiwami 2. That was much better than the first game and, aside from a few kinks that came from being based on a PS 2 game, was almost as good as 0. Ryuji was easily the best villain (the set-up and atmosphere to that final fight was amazing) and I appreciated Majima's story wrapping up his loose ends from 0. Also I'm glad that Kaoru was finally a major female character who fought (though her dropping in one punch and needing to be rescued by Kiryu on at least two different occasions was lame).

That said, the "Surprise! I was behind everything the whole time!" thing happening twice in a row was dumb.

Edited by LordVatek on Jan 13th 2019 at 10:41:53 AM