Yakuza Series Thread

[Hertzian56]

I was recently doing a bit of replay of the yakuza games and thought a thread might be good. I've played 0-6 and a bit of LAD 7. My favs are in this order: 0,2,4,1,5,6,3,7. 1 and 2 have the kiwami name in them. 0 is a must play, the most epic story with amazing bosses and characters, great 80s neon japan kamurocho art style, Kiryu's origin story as far as a yakuza, the mysterious winding story, it's fantastic. The main vital story is the first 3 games- 0,1,2. Where Kiryu is in process of becoming a legend despite not really being formally a part of a yakuza family. With 3 it shifts to a tropical island and has a slower story with an orphanage and such which is a shift from the epic yakuza crime dramas of kamurocho etc so it's not the most well liked one. Also RGG did very little to remaster it so it looks by far the worst of the pc remasters-remakes. It does have a typical yakuza story though just later on.

With 4 we got fantastic new main characters to play, like Saijima and Akiyama. So there's a lot there and of the multiple playable characters games it's the best one. 5 is similar but it gets a little too lost and confusing with 5 characters to play and their stories. Both 2 and 6 were remade with a new graphics engine so look the best but take a lot more resources then you'd think, but they also have the most QOL improvement. 6 was supposed to be Kiryu's swan song but since then we've seen kiryu in almost every game related to the yakuza series which is not really to my taste. 6 also doesn't have the best story either, it's corny and over the top even for yakuza series.

7 was ichiban the new main protag but also featured turn based combat which I loathe. So I only played it a bit, might try it again now that there's a mod that switches back to the classic combat style. They wanted a more party type game there but to me it just adds too much to the fighting other than fighting, turn based is more of a deliberate strategy for a tactical experience which doesn't work too well imo. It's too much time involved for all the street fights you can't avoid in this series and thus is a huge time sink for just picking up loot. It's a strategy to add playtime artificially imo.

 

[Hertzian56]

I also don't like Ichiban much. He's too much of a clown type character for my taste. The brilliance of the comedic parts of the earlier games was the stern serious Kiryu contrasted with the hilarious side missions and encounters he got into. With Ichiban it's like everyone's a clown here, it just doesn't hit much for me and the cast is also kind of corny. Like homeless and others.

With the main Kiryu games we got Majima the flawed warrior, Saijima the stern raging tiger with a dark back story and Akiyama the former homeless who got his seed money from the explosion of a tower and the money rained down from it he picked up. Akiyama is a lawyer I think in the game. We got Kiryus brother or best friend can't remember his name who climbs the ranks while Kiryu is in jail and is hostile towards Kiryu when he gets out due to his shame of kiryu paying the debt he should have. We also had Daigo the heir to the main yakuza clan kiryu was associated with, can't remember the name its been so long. And others too I forgot. But they weren't just homeless and failures who have some comeback story, other than akiyama is the closest to that.

 

[Hertzian56]

There's much less of a crime drama bushido warrior feel to ichiban and a lot of the stories in 7 that I played. Idk.

So yeah I fired up Kiwami 2 after about 3 years and it worked fine, looks great and got into one of the obitarian hilarious old lady side stories. I think I'm going to fire up 0 next. I still have all of them installed other than 3 and the saves are still on here so it's a dive right in thing for the moment. Might restart one of them eventually. But great series recommended.

The latest release was Infinite Wealth or Y8 with both Ichiban and Kiryu as main protags. I don't have it and likely won't get it either. I think 7-8 yakuza games are enough and I've got those all installed and ready to replay. RGG also did a scummy thing with DLC abuse including NG+ for a fee, pretty bad studio nowadays.

I also have Judgment, which is a spinoff of the yakuza series, very similar you just play a different protag who is a PI former lawyer and it's more of a detective story that deals with yakuza, not an insider but outsider. I wasn't too into it frankly over a few hours and haven't been back but I might in future.

 

[Hertzian56]

So yeah I booted up 0 again and it's the most atmospheric due to the 80s japan boom times but still has the seediness that gave it an edge and charm of a kind, like the grungy 70s new york and similar. Before the megacorps came in and disneyfied so many places. Kamurocho has the neon and the dof and blur gives it such a nice feel as well as majimas in Sotenbori very atmospheric. I was right before the final mission so I could freely switch between Majima and Kiryu. The story of 0 is amazing, the most tight and interesting of the series and Kiryu is just starting his climb to legend.

I also booted up 1 and 2. 2 is the most sleek and good looking to be expected even at my settings. The puddles and reflections are amazing and details in some fabrics and such. 2 takes a lot of hp though but not like anything a modern mid to lower range gaming gpu couldn't do. Fantastic story w Goda in this game.

1 is the smallest by file size only 15gb because I think it's only in Kamurocho, still looks great but it's on the older engine so not as great looking. This game has the Beads of Good Hope which totally turn off the obnoxious random fights walking around which are abused by RGG imo, you can't just wander around looking for collectibles or normal little side misions without getting into fights on every street. They need to be reduced by 2/3 on the street and relegated to a ring somewhere. As far as I know there is no other game in 0-6 that has this option at all, what a shame. You can't just walk around sotenbori in 2 or 0 and enjoy the lights and ambiance and gigs, you are always having to fight people and it ruins the mood. I may look for a mod that disables this.