Humdinger
Gold Member
Just finished up Pirate Yakuza and thought I'd share my impressions. No spoilers.
Pros
+ Fun characters, especially Majima
+ Lighthearted, cheerful atmosphere; this is unlike most Yakuza games and a nice breather from the heavy melodrama and tension.
+ Combat is enjoyable. Both styles (Mad Dog and Sea Dog) are fun to use. Sea Dog includes a lot of new abilities.
+ The pirate theme is handled nicely; they often seem to be trying to evoke a childlike sense of wonder, and even if they don't always succeed, it at least makes you smile.
+ Ship combat is fun, easy, intuitive.
+ Good side content. Ymmv, but I thought all the minigames in this one were enjoyable and worth at least a few runs. Most of the side stories were pretty good, a couple of them were excellent, a few fell flat.
+ Apart from the main questline, there are two large secondary questlines, one involving pirate ships and the other love. The latter is one of the most unique things I've seen in a videogame in a long time and highly amusing.
+ Good music. I'm still humming the pirate theme. There is a musical section early in the game that I think you'll enjoy a lot.
+ Good performances all around. I listened in Japanese, of course - I couldn't imagine Majima otherwise.
+ Sharp dialog, well localized.
+ Plenty of content, especially for a LAD Gaiden spinoff. One of the reviews claimed this was a "15+ hour game." That's highly misleading. My game clock shows 52 hours. More than twice the 23 hours I spent on Man who Erased His Name, the other LAD spinoff.
+ New Game+ mode is available, which is a nice option for a game like this.
Neutral
The combat is much easier than in most Yakuza games. You won't find the brutally punishing boss fights here that you will in other Yakuza titles. I never found myself badly challenged, and I never died, never even came close to it. And I'm not "gud" by any means. I used only one or two toughness or heat potions throughout the entire game. I just ate the food I had bought, and I had a ton of that leftover at the end of the game. I did complete most of the side content before progressing the main story, so no doubt that caused me to over-level. I was nearly maxxed out by the time I was near the end. But the combat was easy from the start, whereas in other Yakuza games, I will sometimes struggle with early bosses.
I've heard other people say the same - this game's combat is much easier than standard Yakuza games. I think that is by design. RGG was going for a more lighthearted, casual, friendly vibe here. Making combat easier was part of that.
Whether that's a pro or a con will depend on what you're looking for. If you're looking for a fun, relaxing experience, you'll be okay with it. I was.
Cons
- There was too much filler content for my liking. For example - gathering ingredients, growing produce, cooking food, collecting photos, making "friends" by waving to people, briefcases every 20 feet... There was a little bit of the ADHD shiny object thing going on. Previous Yakuza games I've played have been less stuffed. Granted, all of this stuff is optional; you don't have to do it if you don't want to.
- Cooking doesn't really serve that much of a purpose. I cooked well over 100 meals, but I only ate maybe 6 of them through the whole game. I just didn't need them. Cooking is kind of a fun mini-game, but it also requires gathering ingredients, planting seeds, then harvesting them later, which is a lot of busywork. I wish I'd known in advance that I didn't need to do all that. Cooking is very much optional.
- Speaking of cooking, the story is a little half-baked. I won't go into details, because I want to avoid spoilers, but I'll just say it was a little too kid-centric for me. I suppose this was part of the casual, fun, friendly vibe they were going for, but it came off cornball at times.
I think of it as Yakuza's "feel good" game of the series. 8.5/10 for me.
Pros
+ Fun characters, especially Majima
+ Lighthearted, cheerful atmosphere; this is unlike most Yakuza games and a nice breather from the heavy melodrama and tension.
+ Combat is enjoyable. Both styles (Mad Dog and Sea Dog) are fun to use. Sea Dog includes a lot of new abilities.
+ The pirate theme is handled nicely; they often seem to be trying to evoke a childlike sense of wonder, and even if they don't always succeed, it at least makes you smile.
+ Ship combat is fun, easy, intuitive.
+ Good side content. Ymmv, but I thought all the minigames in this one were enjoyable and worth at least a few runs. Most of the side stories were pretty good, a couple of them were excellent, a few fell flat.
+ Apart from the main questline, there are two large secondary questlines, one involving pirate ships and the other love. The latter is one of the most unique things I've seen in a videogame in a long time and highly amusing.
+ Good music. I'm still humming the pirate theme. There is a musical section early in the game that I think you'll enjoy a lot.
+ Good performances all around. I listened in Japanese, of course - I couldn't imagine Majima otherwise.
+ Sharp dialog, well localized.
+ Plenty of content, especially for a LAD Gaiden spinoff. One of the reviews claimed this was a "15+ hour game." That's highly misleading. My game clock shows 52 hours. More than twice the 23 hours I spent on Man who Erased His Name, the other LAD spinoff.
+ New Game+ mode is available, which is a nice option for a game like this.
Neutral
The combat is much easier than in most Yakuza games. You won't find the brutally punishing boss fights here that you will in other Yakuza titles. I never found myself badly challenged, and I never died, never even came close to it. And I'm not "gud" by any means. I used only one or two toughness or heat potions throughout the entire game. I just ate the food I had bought, and I had a ton of that leftover at the end of the game. I did complete most of the side content before progressing the main story, so no doubt that caused me to over-level. I was nearly maxxed out by the time I was near the end. But the combat was easy from the start, whereas in other Yakuza games, I will sometimes struggle with early bosses.
I've heard other people say the same - this game's combat is much easier than standard Yakuza games. I think that is by design. RGG was going for a more lighthearted, casual, friendly vibe here. Making combat easier was part of that.
Whether that's a pro or a con will depend on what you're looking for. If you're looking for a fun, relaxing experience, you'll be okay with it. I was.
Cons
- There was too much filler content for my liking. For example - gathering ingredients, growing produce, cooking food, collecting photos, making "friends" by waving to people, briefcases every 20 feet... There was a little bit of the ADHD shiny object thing going on. Previous Yakuza games I've played have been less stuffed. Granted, all of this stuff is optional; you don't have to do it if you don't want to.
- Cooking doesn't really serve that much of a purpose. I cooked well over 100 meals, but I only ate maybe 6 of them through the whole game. I just didn't need them. Cooking is kind of a fun mini-game, but it also requires gathering ingredients, planting seeds, then harvesting them later, which is a lot of busywork. I wish I'd known in advance that I didn't need to do all that. Cooking is very much optional.
- Speaking of cooking, the story is a little half-baked. I won't go into details, because I want to avoid spoilers, but I'll just say it was a little too kid-centric for me. I suppose this was part of the casual, fun, friendly vibe they were going for, but it came off cornball at times.
I think of it as Yakuza's "feel good" game of the series. 8.5/10 for me.
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