Yakuza Games Catch All

Finished Like a Dragon.. this is my first Yakuza game, and while its been on my wishlist forever, the fact that it was included in Playstation plus/minus/whatever was what finally got me to get it. I'll admit, this is generally not the type of game I enjoy, but I played it the whole way through. A non-fantasy/sci-fi RPG that doesn't take itself seriously may be the very small sweet spot I have for this genre.

I've been told that other Yakuza games are more beat-em-up than RPG, which is actually much more my style.. so I guess my question is.. what should I try next?

Yakuza 0.

Yakuza Zero was designed from the ground up as an introductory prequel to Yakuza [1 / Kiwami], created sometime around Yakuza 4 or 5 I think? Zero is immensely fun and a fantastic experience.

Thanks, starting that now.

The only hesitancy I'd give in recommending 0 as an entry point, is that it's mostly a Majima story, whereas the next 6 games are Kiryu stories. If you grow attached to Majima as a main character, too bad, he's a side character from 1 onwards.

Well I must not be very far in because I haven't met Majima yet

I think it fairly evenly split the story between Kiryu and Majima.

beanman101283 wrote:

I think it fairly evenly split the story between Kiryu and Majima.

Yes, but Majima is the more interesting character.

Still playing through Yakuza 0. Lost about 3 hours of gameplay because of no-autosave... but I convinced myself to play those hours again and have moved on.

I hate to admit that I find the hostess bar mini game mildly entertaining, though I seem to be missing something as my first Club Challenge ended in disaster. Is there some direct defense against the attack Hiro performs or do I just need to make more money faster?

Also, the dancing game is the Dark Souls of rhythm games... holy crap I have no clue how to get the timing right.

I lost about 2 hours of progress in Yakuza 0 my first time because of the no-autosave thing. Seems to be a painful ritual everyone has to go through. Skipping cutscenes got me back where I was in a lot less time, though.

For the cabaret club, I'd partner with the local businesses in each area and level up the hostesses to beat the club challenges. I'd also spam level 1 fever time whenever possible. Waiting for level 2 or 3 didn't really seem worth it. Other things you could do is recruit more hostesses or doing makeovers so they are more tailored to each club challenge but I don't think I did that too much.

I completed the cabaret side quest in 0 and am making my way through the one in Kiwami 2 (close to beating the Executive league) so I'm well acquainted with it at this point.

I like Judgement despite having so many issues. Tailing people is boring and I spent hours tracking down codes making money for drone parts and spending xp on racing skills in the mistaken belief that this would allow me to complete the grand prix.

So I finshed Like a Dragon yesterday, and it was an amazing experience. That said, I might not play another one, at least not any time soon. This was my first JRPG, and I was NOT mentally prepared for the particular type of grind found in these games. Eventually it began to feel like work, and I just wanted to finish it. That's not a knock on the game, but on me, as I just might not be suited to this type of game.

Glad I played it though. It's a tremendous achievement in gameplay and storytelling. It's just maybe a bit too much for me.

For what it's worth, Like a Dragon is the only JRPG-like game in the Yakuza series. All of the other ones are more brawler/beat-em-ups. If you have access to Yakuza Zero, I highly recommend giving it a shot.

merphle wrote:

For what it's worth, Like a Dragon is the only JRPG-like game in the Yakuza series. All of the other ones are more brawler/beat-em-ups. If you have access to Yakuza Zero, I highly recommend giving it a shot.

I do have all of them now, and I plan to try Zero after a break.

I'm at a complete loss with Judgement. I can't complete my final friend mission until I unlock another case to tell him about but I can't unlock any more cases because I need one more friendship complete to raise the city level high enough.

strangederby wrote:

I'm at a complete loss with Judgement. I can't complete my final friend mission until I unlock another case to tell him about but I can't unlock any more cases because I need one more friendship complete to raise the city level high enough.

If I remember right, it might be story locked. Last one I found was in the stairwell of your office and led up to the roof.

Finished Like A Dragon, and that may be my new favorite in the series. The true final millennium tower was a Female Doggo, though.

I finished the story so unless it only opens in free roam...

And Yakuza 0 done. Great to see the contrast in Gameplay between that and Like A Dragon for a Yakuza newb like me. I didn't spend nearly as much time on minigames in 0 as I did in Dragon, other than just making as much money as I could in the Real Estate game. While I unlocked a few of the "outer skill ring" moves, I don't think I actually invested the money to acquire those skills.

Also, I'm pretty bad retaining story and characters in my head (thus my general ambivalence to big story RPGs), so while I knew Kiryu and Majima were major characters, I kept trying to remember where/if they were in Like A Dragon. I know they weren't featured prominently in Dragon, so I had to go look up in a wiki where I saw them. I remembered Goro... still can't remember where I may have seen Kiryu.

Not sure I'm going to go back to any other Yakuza game right now, but i'm certainly looking forward to the new ones, particularly Isshin.

Yakuza Kiwami 2 is done. Yakuza 0 is still my favorite so far but I had a really good time with Kiwami 2. I especially liked how the Majima saga and the cabaret side questline had pay offs for things that happened in 0. Also, I love how anime this series gets sometimes with things like

Spoiler:

a golden castle coming out of Osaka castle and then having to fight through hordes of samurai/ninjas with tiger bosses at the end.

The tower defense minigame wasn't worth finishing though even after begrudgingly paying for the clan creator DLC that was on sale. I found it really tedious and a huge chore.

I will probably start 3 at the beginning of next year but I get the sense that it's not people's favorite entry in the series..

3 is what I started with after watching a Let’s Play of the first two PS2 games. I liked it a lot but this was when 5 was the newest game so not sure how it will hold up with newer/remade games to compare it to.

Still plugging my way through the series. 3 was pretty jank, but I liked the Okinawa setting and Dad!Kiryu. 4 started off really good but got let down by the second half. I liked Akiyama and Saejima despite my problems with their characters. Tanimura, I didn't like at all, which was horrible since he fights the final boss and was so underleveled. Honestly suprised I managed to beat it.

About a dozen hours into 5 and enjoying that, too. I got trapped in a taxi/racing mission hole and lost a few hours to it. Only wish there were more taxi quests that involved driving rather than just picking dialogue options.

Plenty of time to catch up before Gaiden and 8 come out, right?

Anyone else picking up Like a Dragon Gaiden? As an old school James Bond fan, the secret agent angle has helped pull me in. The reviews have been pretty good and the promise of a shorter game is promising. I've played 3 or 4 of these game and haven't finished a one. It is also available on Game Pass.

I’m a big fan of the series but have gotten behind on the entries as they’ve been released and localized more frequently. So I probably won’t get to this installment for a bit but am looking forward to it.

Technically spoilers though I imagine it makes no sense without having played.

Over the course of the past couple years I've played through 1, 0, 2, and 3. Fully in love with the series even though I've still never really gelled with the combat (but literally everything else is just utterly phenomenal). Just this week after taking a break post-3, I finally started up Yakuza 4 and am really looking forward to the deep dive that it sounds like 4 and 5 comprise with a ballooning protagonist roster.

I'll probably pick up Gaiden to support RGG, but obviously won't be diving into it until after I've played through 6.

Yeah, I liked the expanded cast of 4 and 5 but also was ready for the focus to shift back to Kiryu with 6. I’m glad they kept changing things up.

Aristophan wrote:

Anyone else picking up Like a Dragon Gaiden? As an old school James Bond fan, the secret agent angle has helped pull me in. The reviews have been pretty good and the promise of a shorter game is promising. I've played 3 or 4 of these game and haven't finished a one. It is also available on Game Pass.

I did, and I completed it over the weekend. It's...fine, but inessential, for most of its runtime. And then the end had me crying like a little baby, but it won't hit you the same if you haven't played most of the games beforehand, and it kind makes everything feeling so frivolous and non-essential an asset for its emotional gut punch. (It's also absolutely wedded to Yakuza 7.)

Cool, but no thanks.