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Giant Bomb #13 | good and faithful friends ahead

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T

tchocky

Member
Glitchesarecool said:
Because it's in another language and he can't handle that?
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Yakuza 3 Review

Outside of the repetitive fights, gameplay is mostly confined to walking around and talking to people in an effort to advance the story. When Yakuza 3 comes down to these open-world elements, it’s trounced by a title as old as Grand Theft Auto III. Downtown Ryukyu may be heavily populated, but the lack of any real interaction makes it feel like a ghost town. Numerous activities are available, from surprisingly complete recreations of golf, pool, and darts to afterthoughts like the dreadful karaoke minigame. Some of these serve as decent distractions when you want to take a break from the main quest, but the scant XP and cash bonuses you receive from them won’t do anything to make the core gameplay more tolerable.
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S

stump sock

Member
Yakuza games have never been particularly good brawlers and the world isn't particularly interactive (or rather, the number of interactions available to you while exploring is low) so if what you're looking for is a sandbox to play in, they don't offer much for you.

there's a reason the sales are so low in the west. if you're not buying into the games for exactly what they're made to be, they won't be interesting to you. and a large part of what you're buying into is a giant bag of j-drama tropes that just isn't appealing to a lot of western audiences.

Dan wants the Cliff's Notes version of the game that just railroads you through the main story, but most of the diehard fans in japan and elsewhere are more interested in "living the life." it's not for him, and that's fine.
 
J

Jimmyfenix

Member
srjgbsaukqrl5pbtszmc.gif


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26175745837619.gif
 
S

stump sock

Member
Jimmyfenix said:
yakuza 0 tho
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you're preaching to the choir but I'll also say that that one is more filled with the stuff Dan dislikes than almost all of the games that came before it. Frankly I could do without him bitching about having to do 15 hours of real estate management and 10 hours of nightclub management

TheMrPliskin said:
God, Yakuza 4's story was so stupid.
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I'd also argue that if you're playing these games for just the mainline story then you're probably also doing it wrong. 4 had some of the best substories and side characters in the entire series. Akiyama's story arc in that game is a personal highlight of the entire 500+ hours I've spent with the series.
 
M

Myggen

Member
I can totally see the appeal of the Yakuza series, but I just disliked actually playing Yakuza 3. I remember giving up on the game after about 10 hours or so, the story and the wackiness wasn't enough.
 
S

stump sock

Member
Myggen said:
I can totally see the appeal of the Yakuza series, but I just disliked actually playing Yakuza 3. I remember giving up on the game after about 10 hours or so, the story and the wackiness wasn't enough.
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3's pacing sucks. the story really comes together into something special but not until you've gone through at least 30 hours of game first. it's such a slow burn that it almost turned ME off and it's maybe my favorite series of all time.

it's also got some of the worst upgrade progression in the series so the combat kind of sucks for way longer than it should.

e: I see what they were going for with the story because the whole point was about dragging Kiryu kicking and screaming back into The Life, and they earn it in a way most game stories never do. what would typically be explained away as "I'm retired." "BOOM, now you're not" takes many hours of increasing pressure and hardships before the tension finally breaks. returning to Kamurocho is big, and they sold the hell out of it.

the issue is that that kind of narrative ambition is frequently at odds with the fact that you're playing a video game. living the "good life" on a beach doesn't make for compelling game mechanics usually, and the thing your character is resisting is exactly the thing that the player needs.

holistically it's a great game but the process of going through it is less than ideal.
 
L

LiK

Member
the biggest mistake is to compare the Yakuza games to open world games like GTA. they are JRPGs. the first two especially are like that. from 3 and onwards, they made it feel like an open world game with the full 3D world but everything is still essentially a JRPG in its gameplay and brawler combat. and I personally find the world to be pretty immersive mainly because of the art direction and ambient noises/music in the world. I found myself exploring the world even if there wasn't a lot of interaction. I just liked the atmosphere a lot. I love the series to death and i'm so glad we get 5 soon.

the Yakuza stories are a slow burn and the stories are more like J-dramas combined with Crime Thriller elements to me. I find them refreshing because the stories take their time which is why I like them so much.
 
A

Antiwhippy

the holder of the trombone
The only good j-dramas are nodame cantabile and GTO.

Even then the stories have been told much better in other mediums.
 
S

stump sock

Member
Antiwhippy said:
The only good j-dramas are nodame cantabile and GTO.

Even then the stories have been told much better in other mediums.
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reeeeallly depends on what you mean by "good." because if you're looking for good production values and acting you're not even on the same planet as the tree you should be barking up.

if you want some good dumb fun there's plenty out there.
 
J

jgminto

Member
LiK said:
the biggest mistake is to compare the Yakuza games to open world games like GTA. they are JRPGs. the first two especially are like that. from 3 and onwards, they made it feel like an open world game with the full 3D world but everything is still essentially a JRPG in its gameplay and brawler combat. and I personally find the world to be pretty immersive mainly because of the art direction and ambient noises/music in the world. I found myself exploring the world even if there wasn't a lot of interaction. I just liked the atmosphere a lot. I love the series to death and i'm so glad we get 5 soon.

the Yakuza stories are a slow burn and the stories are more like J-dramas combined with Crime Thriller elements to me. I find them refreshing because the stories take their time which is why I like them so much.
Click to expand...

I was surprised by how heavy the JRPG elements were when I started it today. It basically has Chrono Trigger/Persona 4 visible map enemies that trigger a loading screen into an instanced battle.
 
A

Antiwhippy

the holder of the trombone
stump sock said:
reeeeallly depends on what you mean by "good." because if you're looking for good production values and acting you're not even on the same planet as the tree you should be barking up.

if you want some good dumb fun there's plenty out there.
Click to expand...

I mean I already have a lot of sources for dumb fun honestly.
 
L

LiK

Member
jgminto said:
I was surprised by how heavy the JRPG elements were when I started it today. It basically has Chrono Trigger/Persona 4 visible map enemies that trigger a loading screen into an instanced battle.
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yea, even when Y1 was released it was compared to GTA just because the premise was about triads in a modern world and not about what the game actually is. I didn't know this either until I played it myself.

Also, much thanks to Garnett for talking about Y1 back in the day on 1Up. That's when I first learned of it.
 
F

Fantastapotamus

Wrong about commas, wrong about everything
Glitchesarecool said:
if a human peed in a water container the size of an olympic swimming pool would you drink that water

Edit: GODDAMNIT THREE
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Eh, whatever. If I can swim in public pools without feeling gross, I can drink that shit too.

DID YOU KNOW (well known fact incoming) that the smell we associate with swimming pools is not chlorine but chlorine reacting with urine? Now you know. As you probably did before.
 
S

soundscream

Member
Ahhhhhhh!

They really need a driving games editor. Alex, Jeff, and Drew all play driving games but they are all terrible. Seeing Drew on UPF a few weeks ago shift like he was churning butter hurt my soul.
 
S

shadyspace

Banned
Patrick is the first person I've seen not like The Old Blood. Even says it has an "unforgiving" stealth section which is weird because if that jabroni Dan Ryckert has no issues with a gameplay section I can't imagine it would give anyone else any issues (besides maybe Brad).
 
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