Like A Dragon: Talking about the Yakuza series

[Juno]

A few weeks ago the entire Yakuza series was on sale on PSN so I bought Yakuza 2-6 and plan to go through them all over the next couple months. I already played Kiwami 1 and Zero, and while Kiwami was good, I was especially into Zero- one of the best games of the previous decade. I just started playing 2 and will be discussing my thoughts here.

So anyway, here's the thread for anything Yakuza series-related.

 

[Rascally Badger]

I've done the same thing the same thing over the last year or so, and I've just started 5. Yakuza 5 is my favorite and hope its held up. Otherwise, it is Yakuza 0 and the new ones. As improved as Kiwami 1 is as a remake, it still feels kind of like a 15 year old game at times. Kiwami 2 and 6 use the new engine which is very smooth, but I thought the stories in both were a little bit of a let down. Honestly, though, there is not a bad game in the series. (I haven't played any spin-offs)

 

[Bongo]

I am excited to make Yakuza 7, or Like A Dragon: Yakuza my first ever game in this series when it comes out in (apparently) November.

 

[Alex]

I will unabashedly recommend 0 as a starting point for the series, but 7/Like a Dragon looks like it's an entirely fresh start so that's probably fine. I have 0-6 on PSN now, it's just a matter of time of letting the games breathe between playthroughs.

 

[TheSL]

Zero is my favorite in the series (Judgement probably after that, though its a spin-off), but if you intend to play these in numbered order Yakuza 1 ends up feeling very samey after it because of all the call backs.

 

[Cyrael]

I got 0 based on a recommendation from a friend, and immediately bought Kiwami 1 and 2, as well as Judgement and just blew right through them all loving every minute. Personal ranking of 0 > Judgement > Kiwami 2 > Kiwami 1.

I then picked up the PS4 remaster set and stalled out really early in Yakuza 3. I keep meaning to go back to it but haven't really felt the itch.

 

[Rascally Badger]

Yakuza 3 has one of my favorite stories in the series, but it is kind of hard to go back to because you are definitely going back. Even with the gloss of the remaster, it feels somewhat awkward and stilted to play compared 0, let alone Kiwami 2. That is probably doubly true if you had recently played through the never games. Yakuza 4 feels better, and Yakuza 5 is basically the same as Yakuza 0.

 

[YangusKhan]

How long are these games to play through? I know they're open-world, so hearing people talk about playing through 6 of them back to back seems kind of... idk wouldn't you get sick of that kind of game?

 

[TheSL]

Its like watching a TV series. In general the main story is like 30-35 hours (less in some cases) but if you're a completionist you could spend 100 hours doing the side stuff.

 

[Cyrael]

How long are these games to play through?

Depends on how much you like slot car racing.

 

[WisteriaHysteria]

How long are these games to play through? I know they're open-world, so hearing people talk about playing through 6 of them back to back seems kind of... idk wouldn't you get sick of that kind of game?

Honestly, they're as long as you want them to be. If you power through the story missions with a laser focus, you could probably finish them pretty quick, like an Uncharted game or something. But there's just so much stuff to explore and collect. If you do a deep dive or have completionist urges, it can be exponentially longer.

And yeah, I did get kinda sick of them, sadly. It's just, a lot. And I get open world paralysis from them pretty easily. They're still fun, and I like them a lot in theory, but in practice I kinda just can't. I wish there was an Assassin's Creed tour-mode where you could just run around Kabukicho and elsewhere without having to fight and just hangout and see the sights. Because at this point that's kinda all I want out of these games. It also doesn't help my enthusiasm that I generally don't like the stories in these games. I never could forgive the very first game for fridging the primary love interest like that.

The new one though, I'm looking forward to that for the first time in the franchise. I've wanted an urban rpg for forever, and this looks so very choice.

 

[Rascally Badger]

See, the stories are generally what I love about them. The first has the best overall conceit, taken straight from the classic yakuza film "Battles Without Honor or Humanity," where the main character goes to prison for some time and gets out to find that things have gone to seed during his incarceration. Yakuza adds some things to that conceit, but the big part of it is there. I would also argue about whether killing off Yumi is actually a fridging, since the general idea there is that the killing happens solely to motivate the protagonist. Her death serves the greater point of the story of the first game, that the criminal world of the Yakuza poisons and kills all who touch it.

The sequels' stories all work to varying degrees. Yakuza 2 feels a little like they didn't know what direction to go, which is why you get stuff like a love interest for Kiryu, who ducks out of the series in the opening minutes of Yakuza 3 and is never heard from again. Yakuza 3 remains one of my favorites, as a lot of the side stuff involves Kiryu doing stuff for the kids in his orphanage and slowly getting embroiled in local Yakuza matters. The whole series is all a lot of macho crime man posturing, but it works because of Kiryu, who is this lone figure in the middle who actually lives by those ideas of honor and integrity. His version of macho is also surprisingly not toxic. (Generally, its a weird and long series and I am sure there are bad examples.) They are pulp stories, but they are largely good and fun pulp.

 

[Adrenaline]

I've had 6 sitting on my shelf for a couple years. I'll definitely play it before I pack up the PS4 but it kind of seems like a good stopping point in the series to me, with 7 having a new protagonist and totally different combat system.

 

[conchobhar]

It's an old article, now, but Yakuza 3 reviewed by Yakuza is still essential reading for those who haven't seen it before.

M: Kiryu is the way yakuza used to be. We kept the streets clean. People liked us. We didn't bother ordinary citizens. We respected our bosses. Now, guys like that only exist in video games.
S: I don't know any ex-yakuza running orphanages.
K: There was one a few years ago. A good guy.
M: You sure it wasn't just a tax shelter?
K: Sure it was a tax shelter but he ran it like a legitimate thing. You know.

 

[Alex]

How long are these games to play through? I know they're open-world, so hearing people talk about playing through 6 of them back to back seems kind of... idk wouldn't you get sick of that kind of game?

I definitely have to let these games breathe. I let a year or so pass between playing 0 and Kiwami.

You can spend as much time as you want maxing out your ranks in various mini games, but I think the side stores are some of the best parts of at least 0.

 

[Sprite]

Guys I don't mean to be hyperbolic but this looks like the most wonderful video game in the entire world

 

[Rascally Badger]

That doesn't sound hyperbolic at all.

Preordered.

 

[keurig]

Trailer looks fantastic, I'm glad they're going all out with the DQ style class system. I haven't been following the Japanese release so this was a nice surprise. Definitely picking it up day one, but I've been with the series for so long that it'd be impossible to stop me from doing so.

It's an old article, now, but Yakuza 3 reviewed by Yakuza is still essential reading for those who haven't seen it before.

Haven't read this article in a long time but it's one hell of an interesting read.

 

[Juno]

I'd read that article before but it's been a long time, so thanks for posting it again.

Also, that trailer looks great, and I look forward to it coming out.

 

[YangusKhan]

Yakuza 7 is probably gonna be my first foray into the series as well. That trailer is maximum goofy and really makes me think they took the Goof-off and Superstar classes from DQ and just went all the way with it.

 

[Juno]

Seems like they figure that with Kiryu no longer the protagonist, it's an opportunity for a tonal shift. Especially since they say they want to go with a different personality this time- whereas Kiryu is typically calm and reserved, Kasuga is supposed to be more outspoken and emotive.

 

[conchobhar]

Count me as another planning to jump in with Like a Dragon. I've been interested in the series for a good long while, but the size of it, and the commitment that entails, gave me cold feet; a soft reboot is a perfect opportunity. But what really sells me is that it's an RPG, and how it depicts RPG concepts through the lens of a the present day— I saw a video where the "ice attack" is done by… dumping a bucket of ice on a person. I am 100% on board for something that walks the line between mundanity and absurdity like that.

 

[LBD_Nytetrayn]

Project X Zone 2 piqued my interest, and the timing of that led perfectly into the release of Yakuza 0. I got that and immediately fell in love. (I really wish I'd been able to get the Day One edition; all I have is a digital version. That's one I'd like to make sure I have and can keep forcall time. Ditto PXZ2, come to think of it...)

The downside is, with everything else I've had to do and play, they've been releasing them faster than I can play them. I have everything released from 0 on (including Judgment and Fist of the North Star), but have barely played the majority of it, and not due to lack of interest.

Oh, and I got Yakuza: Dead Souls on PS3 to play around Halloween season.

I just kind of wish these had all been released on Xbox One at the same time. Well, looks like they may be remedying that now.

That leaves me in a small bind: Do I get 7 for PS4, where almost every other RGG game I own is? (And Sony'd better not screw me over on this where PS5's backwards compatibility is concerned.)

Or, since it's a fresh start, do I go ahead and go Xbox with it? 7 seems more strongly tied to Xbox than PlayStation now, so I may just go that route.

 

[WisteriaHysteria]

Seems like they figure that with Kiryu no longer the protagonist, it's an opportunity for a tonal shift.

I dunno, doesn't seem like that much of a tonal shift to me? Yakuza games have always been bizarre and yakety saxy:

...and it feels like they've leaned into that more and more as the games have gone along. It might not show itself as much during the main story sequences, but definitely during side quests and all the minigames. That trailer leans into it really hard from the beginning in a way I don't like, but if you look at JP trailers of the games, they all start out with a pretty serious tone for the MC and the plot, and then much more slowly begin to spin some of the absurdity in by the end. It just seems like the natural progression to me as the games have slowly flanderized themselves.

 

[Rascally Badger]

The sidestories have always been pretty wacky. The series has always balanced very serious crime melodrama main stories and silly weirdos with non-existent problems for Kiryu to solve. The change here seems to be that the protagonist is not going to be some flavor of deadpan in reaction to the weirdness. Kiryu, and in 4 & 5 Saejima, were big on non-reactions. Akiyama went along with the stuff with more of a knowing wink. It will be a change if there is no straight man to react to the weirdness, but since this appears to be an rpg with a full-on party, I assume at least one member of that party will fill that role.

 

[fanboymaster]

Ichiban is built to contrast Kiryu (the literal inversion of their suit colors is hilarious to me) in most ways so he's supposed to be fun where Kiryu would be serious. That'll probably be the biggest tonal shift.

 

[jovewolf]

Ichiban's tattoo is also literally a fusion of Kiryu's and Nishkiyama's, which is also appropriate - he seems to have both Kiryu's sense of duty and Nishkiyama's flashiness.
His suit can also be considered a fusion of Kiryu and Nishki's Yakuza 0 suits as well, which is when both of those traits in those two were at their height.

 

[fanboymaster]

He also has Nishiki's voice actor in the Japanese language track.

 

[Issun]

What would be the best game to start with in this series?

 

[Kishi]

I've started playing them in release order, with the exception of replacing the first two with their remakes. I can confirm Kiwami (the first remake) is a great place to start.