Yakuza series

I thought Yakuza 2's story was kind of dopey personally. Better than 1 which didn't know what the fuck it wanted to say or do, but not by a whole lot.

Daigo in particular and how he was handled really rubbed me the wrong way. He gets to be head of the Tojo Clan despite being an impulsive, immature, unfit leader; Ryuji makes him look like a punk at every single turn and invalidates him as a character that much harder so that he can be Kiryu's rival; and Yayoi Dojima disappears from the series after this game despite being the most competent form of leadership the Tojo Clan ever has.

True, I kept expecting Daigo to undergo some character development at some point but that never happened.

I didn't know that Yayoi was dropped from the series after this but that's dumb and that's on top of already knowing that Kaoru vanishes after the beginning of 3 as well. It's like Haruka is the only female character allowed to recur in a major role in more than one game and from what I've read, that doesn't get better later on.

Edited by LordVatek on Jan 13th 2019 at 11:08:15 AM

... hrmmm... Major spoilers below. Going to look into that.

• Yakuza 1: Major girl dies.
• Yakuza 2: Bus and Chuck Cunningham Syndrome, as you mentioned.
• Yakuza 3: I... don't think there are any major female characters in this one?
• Yakuza 4: Hana becomes The Ghost which is weird since Akiyama only gets more prominent in 5, main girl dies, and yeah.
• Yakuza 5: I don't think there are major female players other than idols and randos from Shimura's plot, who obviously don't return for 6.
• Yakuza 0: A couple cameos in Kiwami 2 for the most prominent girls, though the sheer timeskip of actually putting one back into 6 would be hard to justify.

Regarding Daigo, it sort of makes sense that he's just a punk. Even though in later games he walks the walk and talks the talk, there's a reason Kazuma needs to keep coming back to bail out the Tojo Clan. The plots of 3, 4, and 5 all directly stem from "Daigo did something stupid and/or needs saving." Even though he looks all suave and badass, he... really does fail at leadership. Which makes a weird kind of sense.

Edited by Larkmarn on Jan 15th 2019 at 10:19:07 AM

"Bubble" (Ryu ga Gotoku 0 opening theme) live:

One of the actors in Judgement, Pierre Taki, has been arrested for drug use and all shipments and digital sales of the game have been halted.

I know of at least 2 different entertainers in Japan who's careers were destroyed by their being caught using coke.

I think that's far too harsh as is, but shutting down the game entirely because of a single a actor's poor decision making? That's absurd.

Edited by Hashil on Mar 12th 2019 at 10:58:05 AM

Japan’s serious about drugs, nuff said.

People are worried about Pierre Taki's role in Judgment. I'd say the elephants in the room are actually Kingdom Hearts 3 and Frozen 2 (he plays Olaf). It'll be interesting to see how Disney Japan responds to this.

Edited by BZL8 on Mar 12th 2019 at 12:11:17 PM

I feel like it would be easier to just redub Olaf than it would be in this case where Taki's likeness is used for the character himself.

Edited by LordVatek on Mar 12th 2019 at 1:15:25 PM

Judgment is low hanging fruit relatively. Kingdom Hearts is massive and far too profitable and Taki's role in it too minor for them to target it.

This whole situation presents interesting questions. Will Sega not release the game again until the developers replace Taki's likeness? Will the English localization and release be delayed as well?

the Ryu Ga Gotoku English Twitter hasn't deleted anything yet, but also hasn't had a post in 5 days, so it's hard to say.

The wild part is that Taki was portraying a Yakuza boss accused of murder. He's absolutely not a positive character at all, and these games are allegedly aimed at adults, so who the heck are they protecting.

I saw a tweet from Gematsu that says the status of the western release is being discussed, but no word yet.

Ideally, you'd release the game in the west as is when it's supposed to. Maybe strip out the Japanese Dub, and then release a patch later to add it in once they edit over the actor's performance.

I don’t like cocaine but this feels excessive. He was using them personally its not like he was selling them to kids or sexually assaulting anyone.

As mentioned by Jim Sterling, it's a big thing in Japan. Where cocaine is a big no-no. Sega's done the same thing for Yakuza 4, patching a character to no longer resemble the actor after he forced to retire due to cocaine use allegations.

Edited by Ghilz on Mar 13th 2019 at 11:36:40 AM

I believe that the selling of illegal drugs especially to children should be illegal but drug use shouldn’t be except in certain instances like when someone is driving

Japan flips over stuff like this. People getting caught with weed is practically a national scandal.

Again. It's a cultural thing. Your personal belief don't really affect that.

A man caught with child pornography gets to go back to writing and drawing manga.

Another man snorts cocaine and a product he acted for that has long since released gets all forms of distribution halted.

Japan's priorities are strange.

Edited by Hashil on Mar 13th 2019 at 1:27:49 PM

Judgment will still be released on planned June 25th date

After not having a lot of fun with sekiro I went back to finally play yakuza 6 despite having it for months and not touching it since the demo.

My god.

This game is incredible. I played like 10 hours straight yesterday. It's got the right mix of heartwarming, funny, badass, and just plain bizarre.

The live chat thing seemed a bit too weird for me though. I still haven't tried it proper but it's a bit embarrassing to play around people haha. Though looking at vids of it it's really funny. The "nice guy" in the chat...my god. this game is genius.

Also the baby minigame was driving me CRAZY until I understood that he motions for what action to take.

But man it's so much fun. Though am I crazy or does Fantasy Zone run slower in this game?

I wasn't expecting a baseball manager minigame either. Like I had no idea the game was THIS good.

Edited by Vertigo_High on Mar 29th 2019 at 12:21:53 PM

Hey, I just finished Yakuza Kiwami and am new to the series. I only recently got my first playstation and this is said to be one of the best written series out there. I'm debating getting 0 or 2 next, depending on whether I want a prequel or a sequel.

I really think the story for the first one was one of the best in gaming, even if the ending was a bit anime.

0 is the best game in the series so far, but coming from Kiwami you'll feel like it's a bit of a downgrade in terms of gameplay.

The storytelling is markedly better, at least.

It drops off hard from Kiwami 2 on in terms of story telling, unfortunately.

Definitely get 0 next.