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[BennyBlanco]

I’m nearly done with Infinite Wealth and it is fantastic just like Yakuza 7 was. Never once playing this game was I bothered that the chunk of the game that was in Japan reused the map. Never bothered me that it reused the character models. I can already tell you that it won’t bother me playing Pirate Yakuza reusing the Hawaii map. I never felt like I didn’t get my money’s worth because of the recycling of assets. The graphics in these game are not cutting edge, but they’re not ugly games either. And look at the sheer productivity of the studio. They have released 11 games since 2020!

- Yakuza 7
- Judgement Remastered
- VF5 Ultimate Showdown
- Lost Judgement
- Monkey Ball Banana Mania
- Like a Dragon Ishin
- Like a Dragon Gaiden
- VF5 REVO
- Pirate Yakuza
- Infinite Wealth
- Super Monkey Ball Banana Rumble

Crazy output across multiple genres and IPs. None of it feels cheap or phoned in either. Yes, they’re not fully voice acted. They cut corners here and there. But going from Yakuza 7 to Infinite Wealth you can see the smart little changes they made to QOL features and the combat system.

Then on the other hand you have Rockstar and CDPR. CDPR makes this crazy detailed and beautiful map for Cyberpunk. Spend all this time and all those resources optimizing the game for multiple platforms. Put out 1 $30 expansion, and that’s it. Back to the drawing board, scrap the entire engine, see you in a decade.

Rockstar makes this beautiful and insanely detailed map for RDR2. No DLC. Shit online mode. Back to the drawing board, see you in a decade.

Imagine a world where CDPR and Rockstar build off their existing maps and assets like RGG and drop a game every year. Even if you let a smaller team do these games while a larger team works on the next big game. They don’t have to be on the scale of RDR2 and CP2077. Just new characters and stories in these existing worlds. Seems crazy to me to scrap all that work and move on to the next game that will take a decade. Anyway thanks for attending my TED talk. RGG rules and may be this gen’s MVP when the dust settles.

 

[_Idea_of_Evil_]

Never once playing this game was I bothered that the chunk of the game that was in Japan reused the map.

I especially felt this playing Judgement. So refreshing to experience the Kamurocho setting but with a very different tone than what is "normal" for the Yakuza games.

I haven't played Infinite Wealth yet, looking forward to it.

 

[HRK69]

The industry loves to copy (for better or worse), so who knows what will happen? But I completely agree with OP.

RGG games are absolutely amazing. I don’t mind that they mostly take place in and around the same locations. In fact, that’s part of their charm imo. And they always find a way to put a fresh spin on it, keeping things interesting

 

[N0S]

Tell that to Nintendo

 

[Schmendrick]

I'm already burned out on Yakuza after playing only 2 games in the last 5 years because of the heavy reuse.
Story DLCs, yes, full blown xyz hours long games set in mostly reused environments, please no.

 

[YCoCg]

Counter point, look at how fucking furious people here got when they discovered God of War Ragnarok reuses the boat animations for Kratos.