• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Yakuza 0 |OT| Yes, you can start with this one!

Can anyone give me their personal rankings of the Yakuza games? Just curious how 0 is staking up to the rest considering I've seen nothing but love for it.

I've played and completed them all and 0 for me is the best one so far.

I can't quite put my finger on why but I can definitely say I'm enjoying it more than the rest and I loved them so...

Apart from the zombie one. Didn't think much to that.
 

dallow_bg

nods at old men
I'm only in Chapter 2 messing around with substories when I started to get destroyed by random fights. I'm playing on Hard, but it was alright before.

Suddenly I get knocked down as soon as I stand up, and am using 2 or 3 health items per random fight just to survive.

I finally chased that down to some Charisma magazine I had equipped just before saving the night before. The description says it makes other people really want to take it away from you.

It's no joke.
 
Can anyone give me their personal rankings of the Yakuza games? Just curious how 0 is staking up to the rest considering I've seen nothing but love for it.

Having played Y0-Kiwami-1-2-3-4-5-6., the Japanese spin-offs and a fair chunk of the PSP games, I'd say 0 is my favorite of all. I think it has the most style, flair, character and the best humor the series has to offer. Being a prequel also helps it have the most cohesive plot that doesn't rely on the baggage bought about by the (often convoluted) story told in future games in the timeline.

I felt Yakuza 5 was the most dense in content by far, but it's story seemed to drag a little too long and tried to wrap up too many things at once, while very ambitiously trying to include new characters - which only raised more questions, leading to many plot holes and things that flat-out didn't make sense - resulting in a rather poorly told game. Still a wonderful, and often, touching experience though.

I could go on, but man - I just love this series as a whole. It's better than the sum of it's parts. They're all rather flawed in one way or the other, yet for some reason, when it comes to this series - I just don't care.

That said, I still believe Yakuza 0 to be the best in the series.
 

xviper

Member
i like the game

but there is too much dialogue, it's making me bored

i don't remember Yakuza 4 having this much dialogue
 

oneida

Cock Strain, Lifetime Warranty
i will never, ever understand why everybody hates 3 so much

had one of the best stories i ever played in a goddamn video game

I don't hate it, but I think it has serious problems

There are some really cool moments in the game, but the narrative is sidetracked way too easily. I got whiplash from the central narrative coming to a screeching halt before barreling off and then slamming on the brakes again.
 
3 is good too!

i will never, ever understand why everybody hates 3 so much

had one of the best stories i ever played in a goddamn video game

0, 1 and 2 have the BEST stories in all yakuza games. It's like they're another tier entirely compared to the PS3 games. Yakuza 2 in particular is just greatness all around (hence why damn near everyone rates it at the tippy top)

Even Yakuza 4, a game I thoroughly enjoyed, had the same problem of the plot just getting too weird as the story went on. Even Akiyama's godly chapter which had a noir feel to it wasn't enough to save the story.
 

Aki-at

Member
Can anyone give me their personal rankings of the Yakuza games? Just curious how 0 is staking up to the rest considering I've seen nothing but love for it.

5 > 2 > 3 > Ishin > 4 > Kenzan > 1

Dead Souls need not apply. 0 should be right at the top by the end possibly.

Still on Ch.4, 24 hours in........

Series newcomer here, over 60 hours on Chapter 10. Thought I'd have finished this ages ago but I've been having a blast. Probably hit 100 hours when I'm all said and done. Not bad for a game I thought I'd give a chance based on the fact that the future of the franchise could potentially hinge on the success of this title. Why didn't I jump in sooner?!

That's what I love to hear! Yeah it's always been a hidden gem and I've been trying to get a lot of people to jump in but with the resurgence in interest of Japanese games, Sony giving it a slot in their conferences and Sega finally connecting with the right type of influential reviewers it's made a perfect storm for the series. Hope you guys enjoy the forthcoming games :D

i will never, ever understand why everybody hates 3 so much

had one of the best stories i ever played in a goddamn video game

I feel that Yakuza 3's strong point in its story telling can also be a shortcoming. For me I loved it... it strikes a perfect balance between a retired gangster trying to move on with his life and help the kids but being dragged back by his former life. I think the early parts in particular help motivate me too, watching the
orphanage get destroyed and then Kiryu finding out was one of the most pumped up moments I've felt in the series.
 

Rymuth

Member
Dead Souls is worth it for having so many awesome moments

- Daigo dressing like a girl

- Majima going full ham on the zombieapocalypse

- Kiryu shouting "kore de THE ENDO da!" at the last boss

And of course, hearing Ryuji singing Pure Love in Kamurocho. Seriously, out of every character, HIS cover of the song is the best one, hands down.
 

Big_Al

Unconfirmed Member
Can anyone give me their personal rankings of the Yakuza games? Just curious how 0 is staking up to the rest considering I've seen nothing but love for it.

For me it's:

2>0>3>1>5>4>Dead Souls

Despite the rankings I love them all a lot (even Dead Souls which I enjoyed greatly despite the quirky controls) but so far my favourite run of Yakuza is basically from 0 to 3. I'm looking forward to playing Kiwami now as they've done a great job fleshing out the characters going into 1 so 1 might move up the ranks. I'm a huge Kazuma fanboy though and tbh I prefer playing mostly as him. Not that the other characters are bad, not in the slightest and they do mix things up greatly, but I just love the big stoic, straight faced bastard. He reminds me in a way of the Leslie Nielson characters from Airplane/The Naked Gun. All this craziness happening around him and he plays it mostly straight, with hilarious bits of humour. :p
 
i will never, ever understand why everybody hates 3 so much

had one of the best stories i ever played in a goddamn video game

I haven't played 4 and 5, but 3 definitely comes after 1, 2, and 0 for me

And I think 3 is amazing. For that to be the weakest game is really saying how good Yakuza is

My rankings of the games I've played is:

1, 0, 2, 3
 
I can't say what my rankings would be, but as far as the main series is concerned, I'd quite confidently place Yakuza 6 at the bottom of the list, unfortunately.
 

Fjordson

Member
Holy shit. The ending of the first big section where you play as Majima....wow. Story-wise pretty intense.

Also, I just took Mr. Shakedown for 900 million lol. I'm up to 1.9 billion on Majima.
 
5 > 2 > 3 > Ishin > 4 > Kenzan > 1

Dead Souls need not apply. 0 should be right at the top by the end possibly.





That's what I love to hear! Yeah it's always been a hidden gem and I've been trying to get a lot of people to jump in but with the resurgence in interest of Japanese games, Sony giving it a slot in their conferences and Sega finally connecting with the right type of influential reviewers it's made a perfect storm for the series. Hope you guys enjoy the forthcoming games :D



I feel that Yakuza 3's strong point in its story telling can also be a shortcoming. For me I loved it... it strikes a perfect balance between a retired gangster trying to move on with his life and help the kids but being dragged back by his former life. I think the early parts in particular help motivate me too, watching the
orphanage get destroyed and then Kiryu finding out was one of the most pumped up moments I've felt in the series.

dead souls was a change of pace. i honestly liked it once i got used to manipulating the camera effectively.
 

Suzuki Yu

Member
i will never, ever understand why everybody hates 3 so much

had one of the best stories i ever played in a goddamn video game
actually i will never understand why Y2 is considered the best with so many people! it's my least favorite! story is great sure like every entry except 5. but it doesn't evolve enough in term of gameplay compared to the rest of the games. also the music is really the worst in the series even the spin-off had better music! it's a great game overall but definitely my least favorite.
 
Dead Souls was ok. There were a few great moments in it, controls and frame rate could do with tidying up (I'm not against a remaster) as long as they do it as a bonus pack in for another game.
I'd probably still rank Kenzan as my favourite release in the series (or darn near the top). Combat + story just felt better compared to Ishin. I never did fight Amon in Kenzan though, so I've got the perfect excuse to replay it...
As for the other games, I love every game in the series. Can't really fairly rank them, they all have their good and bad points. Its just nice to have a series like Yakuza where I love every entry in the series (I can't even say that about the Megaman series since X7 and BN4 exist...)
 

Menitta

Member
I think one minor change that makes a huge difference in 0 is the addition of music in substories. Like it's trivial but it adds a light hearted feeling to it.
 
yeah, I don't think any of the Yakuza games are bad. Even the "worse" one just means that someone didn't like it as much as the others. They are all still completely playable.
 

Aki-at

Member
dead souls was a change of pace. i honestly liked it once i got used to manipulating the camera effectively.

Dead Souls is fun if you're a fan of the series otherwise I'd just recommend people Binary Domain instead. Kind of like how I like the Godzilla game on the PS4 but that's only because I'm a fan of the series :p

All the games I'd still recommend in the series so that's saying something!
 

Cloukyo

Banned
I'm kinda upset that everyone is saying 0 is the best game in the series :( I'm really loving 0 but now I'm worried that playing 4 and 5 will feel like a big step back, and not be worth playing.

Which is a shame because I really want more Yakuza!
 
I think one minor change that makes a huge difference in 0 is the addition of music in substories. Like it's trivial but it adds a light hearted feeling to it.

Side story presentation started to receive a subtle boost in Ishin (in my opinion) and continued with 0, Kiwami and 6 - having little jingles when you begin the side stories, plus the way the side stories end with a nice fade to black/panning shot to the sky was a nice way of ending each story.
And for 6, having each side story fully voiced gave it a greater impact emotionally as well in some cases. Now if only they could have the character models act more animated in side stories it'd be perfect!
 

Big_Al

Unconfirmed Member
I'm kinda upset that everyone is saying 0 is the best game in the series :( I'm really loving 0 but now I'm worried that playing 4 and 5 will feel like a big step back, and not be worth playing.

Which is a shame because I really want more Yakuza!

They are absolutely worth playing. Don't worry about that. You might miss the missing styles but the characters, story, substories, general madness are all great as per usual with Yakuza games :)
 

Aki-at

Member
I'm kinda upset that everyone is saying 0 is the best game in the series :( I'm really loving 0 but now I'm worried that playing 4 and 5 will feel like a big step back, and not be worth playing.

Which is a shame because I really want more Yakuza!

They're still good games, whilst Yakuza 0 is the most refined the others are just as fine!
 

Mupod

Member
My list:

Y2 = Y0 < Y4 = Kiwami < Y5 < Y1(Original) < Y3

Put Ishin along with Y2 and Y0, Kenzan with Y4 and Dead Souls between Y5 and the original Y1 and you got everything I played so far.



FEVER TIME!

so Y0 is the worst or are your greater than symbols backwards?
 

Alastor3

Member
Having played Y0-Kiwami-1-2-3-4-5-6., the Japanese spin-offs and a fair chunk of the PSP games, I'd say 0 is my favorite of all. I think it has the most style, flair, character and the best humor the series has to offer. Being a prequel also helps it have the most cohesive plot that doesn't rely on the baggage bought about by the (often convoluted) story told in future games in the timeline.

I felt Yakuza 5 was the most dense in content by far, but it's story seemed to drag a little too long and tried to wrap up too many things at once, while very ambitiously trying to include new characters - which only raised more questions, leading to many plot holes and things that flat-out didn't make sense - resulting in a rather poorly told game. Still a wonderful, and often, touching experience though.

I could go on, but man - I just love this series as a whole. It's better than the sum of it's parts. They're all rather flawed in one way or the other, yet for some reason, when it comes to this series - I just don't care.

That said, I still believe Yakuza 0 to be the best in the series.

and how is yakuza 6 story?
 
Each game in the series has something special to them that even if individual games are better, they're worth playing.

Yakuza 3 will always remain super special in my heart even if I would rank it lower than other Yakuzas because the Okinawa + orphanage theme is just, just... heart-warming.
 
Each game in the series has something special to them that even if individual games are better, they're worth playing.

Yakuza 3 will always remain super special in my heart even if I would rank it lower than other Yakuzas because the Okinawa + orphanage theme is just, just... heart-warming.

Yakuza 3 had the best final boss fight among the 3 PS3 only Yakuzas.
Mine
was such a boss.

And that music..... and those QTEs.....
 
So, I guess no one knew the answer to my question then...

Anyway, I see that we are doing the ranking thing again. I've only played the game up until the chapter 7 for now but my ranking is:

Y0 > Ishin = Kenzan = Y4 > Y1 > Y3 > Y5 > Dead Souls
 
A question about Chapter 7.

Right now the time of day in the game is like afternoon. I've just unlocked the cabaret club management and want to finish that before completely devoting my time to story, but I wanna do those stuff in night time since it'll be more appropriate. Now the question is, if I do a main story event to advance the time, will I still get to do the management stuff right after it, or will it lock me on doing important story stuff for a while? I want to avoid the latter.

I'm at the point
that you are waiting to hear back from Lee and have decided to go back to Grand cabaret for now.
You can access the Cabaret right up until you choose to start the final mission for Chapter 8.

Where do I go to initiate the substory I need for Kiryu's encounter finder?
Unlock the Real Estate business and take over the
Electronics King
 

hampig

Member
Each game in the series has something special to them that even if individual games are better, they're worth playing.

Yakuza 3 will always remain super special in my heart even if I would rank it lower than other Yakuzas because the Okinawa + orphanage theme is just, just... heart-warming.

I started 3 not too long ago, but I felt a little confused, even after watching the story for 1, and watching the recap for 1 and 3. Will that sort of solve itself after a while?
 
and how is yakuza 6 story?

Without spoiling it, I liked it for the most part, it has the weirdest twist in the series history and I'm still not sure if I liked the ending or not. Great new support characters, especially the Hiroshima Yakuza.
Definitely feel like its going to be a real marmite game story wise for fans.
 

SephLuis

Member
so Y0 is the worst or are your greater than symbols backwards?

Backwards, fixed in the post. Thanks for the warning.

I'm kinda upset that everyone is saying 0 is the best game in the series :( I'm really loving 0 but now I'm worried that playing 4 and 5 will feel like a big step back, and not be worth playing.

Which is a shame because I really want more Yakuza!

All Yakuza games are great. Even the weakest one can be considered, at least, a good game.

Each Yakuza has something special that others in the same series doesn't. For example, Yakuza 0 setting in the 80s, Yakuza 5 with the another stories, and much more.

However, each title has it's own weak points. Yakuza 4 introduced the multiple protagonists system which is great to make the battles more interesting, however, the pacing for the story suffered a lot at times. Those issues are like small cracks in what still is an amazing game.

In this case, Yakuza 0 is more focused than previous titles so it doesn't have those weak points. The whole package is a coherent whole. The only complaint I could make is that using cash is grindy towards the last ability tier and nothing else.

Going back to other Yakuza games, I think you will still like it, but you might be bothered by the lack of QoL things that were introduced into Y0.
 
Dead Souls was ok. There were a few great moments in it, controls and frame rate could do with tidying up (I'm not against a remaster) as long as they do it as a bonus pack in for another game.
I'd probably still rank Kenzan as my favourite release in the series (or darn near the top). Combat + story just felt better compared to Ishin. I never did fight Amon in Kenzan though, so I've got the perfect excuse to replay it...
As for the other games, I love every game in the series. Can't really fairly rank them, they all have their good and bad points. Its just nice to have a series like Yakuza where I love every entry in the series (I can't even say that about the Megaman series since X7 and BN4 exist...)

yes! so strange that it's one of the games i had to use a walkthrough with that remains my all-time favorite. excellent story/combat, & some very memorable sidequests. love the other games, including dead souls, but kenzan!'s on a whole other level! :) ...

tumblr_m50nsgOKhL1rsl35ao1_1280.png
 
I'm sure this has been asked before but I couldn't find anything.

In the management sections, what do the icons mean?

X triangle circle.

X = bad, triangle = medium, circle = good?
 
Dead Souls is fun if you're a fan of the series otherwise I'd just recommend people Binary Domain instead. Kind of like how I like the Godzilla game on the PS4 but that's only because I'm a fan of the series :p

All the games I'd still recommend in the series so that's saying something!

i heard alot about Binary Domain i haven't checked it out yet but probably will after i'm done with 0. i think fatigue was setting in from Yakuza 3, 4 at the time so it was fresh to have something lighter while advancing the story. loved the ending
comedy

i didn't know they have a Godzilla game on the ps4!
 
I'm sure this has been asked before but I couldn't find anything.

In the management sections, what do the icons mean?

X triangle circle.

X = bad, triangle = medium, circle = good?

Yup, you are correct.

And double circle = VERY good.

The same principle will also apply to Majima's management.
 

Egg0

Banned
Finally getting to this after finishing RE7. So I've been walking around town and this weird screen effect would happen sometimes with a low gong sound? I think?

Does that signify something?
 

oneida

Cock Strain, Lifetime Warranty
Finally getting to this after finishing RE7. So I've been walking around town and this weird screen effect would happen sometimes with a low gong sound? I think?

Does that signify something?

your objective has appeared on your radar.
 
Top Bottom