Yakuza series

[AnimeGamer183]

Some extended videos. Impressive.

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[Crimson Ryan]

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[OL]

Y'know, I thought the game looked fine and all before; more of the same, but with practically no loading screens between exteriors and interiors. It's nice and all.
But for some reason the things that got me most excited were seeing Kazuma throw a guy into the ocean at the docks (as a regular move during gameplay for once, not a Heat cutscene), and then seeing him throw a guy over some railing, then jump over the railing down to fight the guy below. Just tiny little clips of gameplay in those trailers, but they indicate a serious overhaul in interactivity/freedom during fights. I can take or leave all the other "improvements," but that stuff halfway gave me flashbacks to Dead to Rights: Retribution.
So fuck yeah.

Also the inclusion of a fully-rounded baseball game is pretty sweet.

[Monkei]

Didn't watch much of that trailer, seemed to give away too much for my taste.. but I like how Haruka apparently won't be able to dance this time.

[Crimson Ryan]

Yakuza 0 “The Business” Edition Revealed, New Story Details

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[OL]

That is the weirdest fucking bonus item I think I've ever seen for a US release.

Didn't watch much of that trailer, seemed to give away too much for my taste.. but I like how Haruka apparently won't be able to dance this time.

Yeah, thank god for that. Still haven't finished Y5 because that shit put me off so bad. Still need time to get that taste out of my mouth. It's quite an achievement to make me, of all people, feel halfway disgusted with a usually fantastic series like Yakuza, but holy hell did they ever pull it off. They actually made me dislike Haruka, a character that previously I'd always thought pretty highly of. We'll see if Y6 can redeem her, but fudging heck, it'll be quite a stunt to manage.

[Let's Get Sweaty]

The music sections weren't that bad. I've never played a rhythm action game in my life and I can't really say I struggled. Just remember to choose the easy version of any performance where it gives you the option.

[OL]

The problem wasn't the difficulty. That stuff was easy. And I don't so much mind rhythm games if I'm in the right mood.
The problem is the content itself. Haruka pursuing a child-laboring career in Jpop, one of the most disgustingly shallow and cringy music scenes in the entire world second only to Kpop. Her manager explaining to her that it's her job to be loved by as many people as possible, like it's some kind of upstanding and noble pursuit (fucking gag me), even though that's just about the least noble goal anyone could ever aim for in life. Kazuma going along with all this, even going so far as to cut all ties with her and take up a new identity, supposedly because this has been Haruka's lifelong dream (even though she's never made any mention of it in past games). Haruka debasing herself in these nasty pedo-baiting outfits on national television. And top it all off with shit-tons of horrible, tooth-destroyingly sugary Jpop tunes and some truly terrible dance moves.
It's all just... really bad. And embarrassing as hell. Some of the side-activities were, at the very least, kind of amusing and funny. But the real meat of her entire story is just a very, very ugly stain on an otherwise excellent series.
We go into these games primarily for Japanese beat-em-up action, and instead they gave us something about as far removed from that as possible for an entire chapter. I tried to enjoy myself with that stuff, and was probably in denial about how bad it was for some of the time that I was actually playing it, but eventually it caught up with me. It's all bad enough that I easily count Y5 as the worst in the series, even counting Dead Souls. It might be different if you could just skip it all, but no, you're forced to sit through this shit for several hours.

Might boot the game back up sometime soon. I stopped at a point where I could probably just ignore the Haruka stuff and focus on Akiyama, even though that pains the semi-completionist in me. I am, at the very least, interested to see if any of the characters' stories actually tie together in a meaningful way (it all feels completely random and slapdash as it is). And I do still really want to try out the baseball player guy (the character I was initially most interested in playing as, and they had to fit him in after Haruka, the jerks). Maybe once I'm done with the game I'm currently playing.

[Let's Get Sweaty]

I'll just count myself lucky then that it didn't bother me half as much as all that. If anything, I was more disturbed by the animal hunting in the previous chapter, though once I got over the initial revulsion I became surprisingly addicted to it.

[AnimeGamer183]

Strange Pre-Order bonus. Not sure its enough to even get me to pre-order and im usually all over the extra pre-order/Collectors goodies. I have no idea when I will actually buy Yakuza 0 just yet, I usually wait a good while between playing these (years) and I just finished Yakuza 4 earlier this year. I really enjoy this series the most when i can come back to it after some time and get the Yakuza Nostalgia feels going again. Who knows though? I may change my mind and decide I need to play asap.

[Yama]

Yakuza 0 “The Business” Edition Revealed, New Story Details

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I actually dig this, LoL. It's unique at least.

[Crimson Ryan]

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The introduction to Majima in Yakuza Zero. Not quite the man we've come to expect..

[Hyo Razuki]

This was nothing short of epic! What a suave and well-mannered gentleman Majima used to be!

[IrishNinja]

yeah, those free pre-order bonuses are great, as was Haruka's jpop stuff. love this series.

[Crimson Ryan]

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