Yakuza series

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Re: Yakuza series

Postby OL » Fri May 04, 2018 1:04 pm

AnimeGamer183 wrote: Yeah I am terrified to play Y5 now... THANKS OL :lol:

Could I realistically just skip to 6? My damn 40 gig PS3 fat has prevented me from playing Y5 since it came out, and with the way OL has described certain parts of the years, I havent had the motivation to even try to rectify the situation.


Just to be clear, Y5 is still a good game, it's just a weird sidestep from the actual yakuza focus of the rest of the series, and it lacks much in the way of polish. Playing as cab driver Kazuma is interesting and fun in it's own right, as is hunting in the mountains as escaped prisoner Saejima. I'm playing Shinada (the ex-baseball pro) right now, and his scenario is great so far, and definitely goes to show you can still do these games well and far away from Kazuma and the rest of the usual cast. Since 6 is supposed to be Kazuma's final starring role, I honestly wouldn't even mind the series going forward with a "regular guy" character like this, despite the fact that he has (so far) little to nothing to do with organized crime; he's just fun and entertaining, and I'm sure you, specifically, would get a kick out of his "adult" antics. This is the first time I actually want to mess around with hostess clubs, because it makes total sense for the character I'm playing as.
It's just the Haruka parts that I hate. And Akiyama is stuck alongside her, so his stuff isn't great either.
Still a recommended game though, if you like the series at all.
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Re: Yakuza series

Postby AnimeGamer183 » Fri May 04, 2018 1:36 pm

I am hoping Y5 comes to PS4, I think it clearly needs a proper release in the west since we almost lost the series entirely with that entry and its the only one that never got a physical copy, which screwed over some of early adopters of the PS3 like myself that have 20 and 40 gig consoles. As good as Sega has done with the series as of late, the fact they almost abandoned it is a gaping hole in the series history in the west, a proper re-release of Y5 or on PS4 would fix that. But I cant expect Y5 anytime soon even if they were considering that, so its not looking good, it may even be so long they would have to do it on PS5 sssooooo, yeah, I am more or less stuck on playing it anyway I suppose.
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Re: Yakuza series

Postby OL » Sun May 06, 2018 11:15 am

Never much cared for the batting cages in other Yakuza games, but it's pretty great in Y5 when playing as Shinada, with its hit positioning, the use of all four face buttons, the fact that your skills level up, etc. So much better than the simplistic "hit circle at the right moment" batting from other games.
Never thought it would happen, but I'm actually enjoying videogame baseball.
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Re: Yakuza series

Postby Haruto » Sun May 06, 2018 11:47 am

The only thing I was a little upset by in Y6 is they removed bowling. Replaced it with a Gym.
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Re: Yakuza series

Postby Crimson Ryan » Sun May 06, 2018 12:26 pm

OL wrote: Never much cared for the batting cages in other Yakuza games, but it's pretty great in Y5 when playing as Shinada, with its hit positioning, the use of all four face buttons, the fact that your skills level up, etc. So much better than the simplistic "hit circle at the right moment" batting from other games.
Never thought it would happen, but I'm actually enjoying videogame baseball.

I really enjoyed the baseball management mini game in Yakuza 6.
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Re: Yakuza series

Postby dietsoap » Sun May 06, 2018 7:18 pm

Alright guys, I just got to the end of Yakuza 0 where everything's going to hell on/near the boat and I'm getting my ass turned inside-out at the very beginning. There's like three guys with guns in a big mob of Yakuza, and one more guy that's throwing fucking grenades. How do I beat on anyone without getting shot/blown up?
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Re: Yakuza series

Postby OL » Mon May 07, 2018 12:29 am

I guess a lot of it depends on how prepared you are (I had a lot of health drinks and a gun or two in reserve on me at all times), but mostly I'd just say to switch to Rush style and do your best to dodge while keeping them knocked to the ground.
Might be annoying to keep switching styles, but maybe if you stay in Rush for movement, then switch to Beast style to grab someone and throw them (I'm pretty sure any shots taken during the animation won't knock you down, right?), switch back to Rush to move to the next, Beast mode throw, and so on.
I didn't have much of a problem with it because I was pretty much maxed out and armed to the teeth, so I don't remember exactly what I did (went by quick), but maybe that strategy will work.
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Re: Yakuza series

Postby Your Boy Leroy » Mon May 07, 2018 2:14 pm

I just beat Yakuza 6 over the weekend, and I really enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would.

I guess a lot of this has to do with the Dragon Engine. The game is absolutely gorgeous and new animations and physics really sell it. I'll admit, I barely touched the Japanese version when I got it last year, mostly due to the combat. But really, once you upgrade it enough, it might be my favorite combat system of the whole series, not to mention in video games in general. Yeah, it may lack the variety presented in Yakuza 0 and Kiwami (0 being my previous favorite combat system), but it just felt so satisfying, and it looks terrific in motion. Maybe that's what the developers were leaning toward when making their tweaks to the fighting; they wanted something a bit more cinematic, something that didn't just rely on one-button heat actions that turn into mini-cutscenes.

The character performances were excellent across the board. I was really looking forward to Beat Takeshi's role in this, and I was surprised that his character was almost like opposite of what he's known for in his own yakuza films. It seemed to kind of reflect his TV personality a bit more, where he's usually goofing off. He really was my favorite character in this, and I found myself pushing forward in the game just to see a bit more of him. The rest of the characters were great too. The small-time yakuza group in Hiroshima and Kiryu's relationships with them reminded me of a similar group in Okinawa from Yakuza 3.

What disappointed me the most was the story. I won't go into spoilers here, but man, I thought it fell apart towards later chapters where a "secret" was introduced, only to be revealed as the typical Yakuza series bullshit. The final boss battle was set-up well, but the boss himself really wasn't. It was almost ridiculous. The ending also felt like a cop out.

All in all though, fantastic game. Not necessarily a fitting end for Kiryu, but the journey there was really fun.

*Forgot to mention that playing through this has made me THIS MORE EXCITED for Yakuza Kiwami 2.
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Re: Yakuza series

Postby Benwah » Mon May 07, 2018 10:40 pm

I'm looking for a bit of advice please.

So I picked up Yakuza 6 on day of release, but I'm not sure if I should start playing it or not. I have played Yakuza 0 and Kiwami recently, and a lot of Yakuza 3 a good few years ago. I still have Yakuza 3, 4, and 5 on PS3.

Now I know that Kiwami 2 is coming out on August 28th over here and I was wondering whether I should wait for that and then play the rest of the games in order, or I should just go ahead and get stuck into Yakuza 6?
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Re: Yakuza series

Postby Your Boy Leroy » Tue May 08, 2018 9:41 am

Story-wise, you could jump right into Yakuza 6 since there are videos on the main menu that provide summaries for everything that's happened so far (except for Yakuza 0, I think).

As for gameplay though, it may be best to start in order. Or at least, play the older games first (3, 4, and 5 on PS3). I know for myself, after playing Yakuza 0 and loving the shit out of it, it was REALLY hard for me to go back to Yakuza 5 (which I never beat). Especially considering that Yakuza 6 and Kiwami 2 both use a brand new game engine.
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Re: Yakuza series

Postby Crimson Ryan » Tue May 08, 2018 2:44 pm

Benwah wrote: I'm looking for a bit of advice please.

So I picked up Yakuza 6 on day of release, but I'm not sure if I should start playing it or not. I have played Yakuza 0 and Kiwami recently, and a lot of Yakuza 3 a good few years ago. I still have Yakuza 3, 4, and 5 on PS3.

Now I know that Kiwami 2 is coming out on August 28th over here and I was wondering whether I should wait for that and then play the rest of the games in order, or I should just go ahead and get stuck into Yakuza 6?

Jump in to 6! There's not a lot of mainstay characters that make a huge chunk in the story to put you off. It's pretty much a whole new cast of characters.

Also, Sega made the Yakuza experience site with comics of main story points for newcomers to the series to catch up on: http://yakuza.sega.com/experience/comic
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Re: Yakuza series

Postby Your Boy Leroy » Tue May 08, 2018 3:42 pm

Anyone here ever see that Yakuza movie that Takashi Miike directed like, 10 years ago? It's got its positive points (Goro Kishitani as Majima), but otherwise disappointing. Especially from a director like Miike.
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Re: Yakuza series

Postby Haruto » Tue May 08, 2018 3:54 pm

Your Boy Leroy wrote: Anyone here ever see that Yakuza movie that Takashi Miike directed like, 10 years ago? It's got its positive points (Goro Kishitani as Majima), but otherwise disappointing. Especially from a director like Miike.

It felt like a bad fan film. Did we really need the Bonnie & Clyde characters?
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Re: Yakuza series

Postby OL » Tue May 08, 2018 4:10 pm

Your Boy Leroy wrote:Anyone here ever see that Yakuza movie that Takashi Miike directed like, 10 years ago? It's got its positive points (Goro Kishitani as Majima), but otherwise disappointing. Especially from a director like Miike.


Yeah, saw that a ways back. Like you said, best thing about it is probably the guy playing Majima; perfectly cast, and the look is spot-on (and looks surprisingly natural in live-action, which is kind of a rare thing with videogame design work).
But then I seem to remember a big chunk of it dealing with some random hostage situation or something? And Kazuma's story being pretty half-baked in general. Whole thing takes place over one night, and tries to address the 10 billion yen, and Haruka, and Nishiki, and it's... really just kind of a mess.
You might say it's disappointing "especially from a director like Miike," but honestly his real specialty is quick commercial trash like this, so it probably shouldn't be a surprise. He has the occasional work that gets critical acclaim here and there, but the guy has made at least 100 movies in his career and I'd say about 80% of it is all low-budget, quickly-tossed-together junk, generally with some of the least-focused plots you'll ever see. He's not really the deliberate, methodical type of director; he's more the "throw everything at the wall and see what sticks, then move to the next wall" type.
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Re: Yakuza series

Postby south carmain » Tue May 08, 2018 9:52 pm

I remember enjoying that movie, and to be fair it's pretty difficult to translate a 20+ hour story in to 2 hours. That being said it's probably been a decade since I last saw it so it's probably not as good as I remember.

So apparently up until Yakuza 6 they were using the PS2 engine to make the games. No wonder they felt so restricted despite last gen's capabilities.
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