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Yakuza Community Thread - FEEL THE HEAT!

LAM09

Member
there's really no reason to watch the recap of 2. it's a completely isolated story. all the recap does is spoil it...

I know. I just wanted to see how the story begun (watched 1&2), as I knew the chances of me every playing them were slim.
 
Just finished my playthrough of Yakuza 4 and I really enjoyed it. I know some folks aren't too crazy about the multiple characters but I liked them all, especially Tanimura, who I thought I wouldn't stand at all. Game gave me a real fast and furious vibe when
all the characters come together for the final showdown
. Being new to the series, I really like the continuity, plot elements from the PS2 games factor here and that's really cool. Even if they make it up as they go along, it feels natural, the game being grounded in realism (sorta) helps with that. You don't see that in a lot of series these days.
 
multiple protags is handled very well in Y4. pacing was much better than Y5 imo!

Personally I thought they handled
Kiryu's involvement
in 4 A LOT better than what happened in 5,
I think these days he should be loosely connected only to be brought back when seriously needed.

Also, Incase anyone is interested, SEGA put up the livestream with Nagoshi and Kojima on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PsYzW8W5Kaw&feature=youtu.be
 

Coda

Member
Picked up Yakuza Kiwami mainly just for the Yakuza 6 demo it comes with. That demo looks too fun for words.
 

Kazzy

Member
Personally I thought they handled
Kiryu's involvement
in 4 A LOT better than what happened in 5,
I think these days he should be loosely connected only to be brought back when seriously needed.

Also, Incase anyone is interested, SEGA put up the livestream with Nagoshi and Kojima on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PsYzW8W5Kaw&feature=youtu.be

Also, canon-wise, he's seriously too powerful. He definitely should be used more sparingly, and his impact would be the greater for it.

I get Kenshin vibes from him recently, and I'd like it if he were used like Hiko there (a reluctant fighter, but easily beats anyone when he has to). Which he kind of was on the path towards, but he still does anything at the drop of a hat, so it undercuts everything slightly.
Also, I just want the guy to be happy. He's had a hard life, and they can only cock-block him for so long.
 

Ludens

Banned
So, I started 5 (on Normal) and dunno why but dudes are beating me. And I'm talking about the very first dudes you met in the hostess club. I was pretty good in Yakuza 1-4, did Sega increase the challenge with 5?
Also I read there are rewards in 5 if you have saves from the other games, I still have those saves on Plus, can I get those rewards if I download them now, after I started the game?
 
So, I started 5 (on Normal) and dunno why but dudes are beating me. And I'm talking about the very first dudes you met in the hostess club. I was pretty good in Yakuza 1-4, did Sega increase the challenge with 5?
Also I read there are rewards in 5 if you have saves from the other games, I still have those saves on Plus, can I get those rewards if I download them now, after I started the game?

That fight with the two dudes in the hostess club is literally the hardest fight in the entire game.

Aside from that fight, I had virtually no challenge whatsoever playing on Hard, aside from a single fight during the last set of chapters.
 

Ludens

Banned
That fight with the two dudes in the hostess club is literally the hardest fight in the entire game.

Aside from that fight, I had virtually no challenge whatsoever playing on Hard, aside from a single fight during the last set of chapters.
Are you kidding me? Lol. They didn't beat me, but I was really near to a Retry.
 
5 is harder than 4 for sure (but 4 was annoyingly easy, so that's not really saying much). 5 gets easier the more you level up, only bits I really had difficulty with (on hard mode) were a couple of Amon battles and a couple of arena fights with Akiyama and Shinada,
 

Ludens

Banned
Yeah, I'm not having problems, it was only that particular fight.
Anyway the beginning of the game is kinda boring, how long does it take to pick up?
Yakuza 3 had the same problem, but I think the pacing here is even worse for now.
 
I thought 5 picked up faster than 3 personally. There are some really awesome big battles in chapter 3 and 4 (of Kiryu's story), while 3 took a couple of extra chapters before things really ramped up for me. However I guess 5 has the added problem that the game "resets" every few chapters pace wise as they introduce a new character to play as - Seijima gets a lot of hate due to his glacial pacing in parts, his chapter is very back loaded in terms of content (though I love the end of chapter 2 personally).

0 gets the multi character pacing perfect - switching between both characters every few chapters meaning the pace just keeps improving. I really hope that if 6 tackles more than 1 character again then they use 0 as the template.
 

Ludens

Banned
I thought 5 picked up faster than 3 personally. There are some really awesome big battles in chapter 3 and 4 (of Kiryu's story), while 3 took a couple of extra chapters before things really ramped up for me. However I guess 5 has the added problem that the game "resets" every few chapters pace wise as they introduce a new character to play as - Seijima gets a lot of hate due to his glacial pacing in parts, his chapter is very back loaded in terms of content (though I love the end of chapter 2 personally).

0 gets the multi character pacing perfect - switching between both characters every few chapters meaning the pace just keeps improving. I really hope that if 6 tackles more than 1 character again then they use 0 as the template.

I just completed chapter 1 of the game.
Man, it was from MGS4 I didn't watch the screen so much time without doing nothing. I mean, I know Yakuza games are story-focused, but Sega should really consider a "do you want to save your progress?" option to appear frequently and not in the end of a chapter only, because I watched a 40 minutes cutscene or something like that, I needed to quit the game and I couldn't.
 
I just completed chapter 1 of the game.
Man, it was from MGS4 I didn't watch the screen so much time without doing nothing. I mean, I know Yakuza games are story-focused, but Sega should really consider a "do you want to save your progress?" option to appear frequently and not in the end of a chapter only, because I watched a 40 minutes cutscene or something like that, I needed to quit the game and I couldn't.

There really should be a few more save points in the longer bits of the series. Yakuza 0 has a really bad point in the finale where it has you do a couple of long levels, several boss fights, and several long cut scenes all without a point where you can save the game (at least, I don't ever remember getting the opportunity to save my game anywhere in that chapter). I'm dreading doing that chapter on the hardest difficulty for that reason (I think Legendary kicks you back to your last save if its anything like EX hard?)
 

Ludens

Banned
Man, the Saejima's section is TERRIBLE.
First, why is this kinda a "remake" of what we saw in Yakuza 4? Prison again, why?
After this, the game forces you in a dream-like section including an hostess club and karaoke, all of this, of course, without the possibility to save in the middle.
 

oneida

Cock Strain, Lifetime Warranty
Man, the Saejima's section is TERRIBLE.
First, why is this kinda a "remake" of what we saw in Yakuza 4? Prison again, why?
After this, the game forces you in a dream-like section including an hostess club and karaoke, all of this, of course, without the possibility to save in the middle.
pacing is a huge problem with Y5
 

Ludens

Banned
Saejima's chapter was simply terrible. The "usefull" section is like the last 10 minutes of the chapter, in which some events are uncleared, the rest of the chapter is a filler:

-dream-like sequences
-pointless investigation in the prison with the way-too-clear guilty
-nice arcade section with the snow-bike, sadly the deep of field here was HORRIBLE and I ended up against so many trees. I didn't die because you have plenty of health, but I found this part very bad because of deep of field and pop-up.
-another pointless part in which you are a hunter and need to provide food in order to heal Baba. I skipped the bear part when I had the chance.
-when you are finally into the city, there's the usual "find this homeless guy" with a vague hint of where he is. When you find it, you need to asnwer a quiz (how can I find the answer? Google? Lol, dunno) and you are finally into the casino.
-Beat some dudes, go to sleep, beat other dudes and the chapter is over.

I loved Yakuza games, but I don't know, so far Yakuza 5 was very boring to play, except a couple of fights I really liked. Even during dialogues, what I absolutely hate is the fact in japanase titles often the character you are talking with will simply repeat the phrase you already told: "You need to visit the Stardust.", reply is "The Stardust?".

It's not a single time, all dialogues are like this. And when I usually can pass over it if the plot is on point, in Yakuza 5 I cannot notice this.
 

cj_iwakura

Member
They need to stop with the Saejima=Prison BS, but it's too late, I suppose. At least he got some freedom near the end of his arc.

I really enjoy Chapter 4 so far. CHICKEN RACING
 

Ludens

Banned
So, what's the consensus about Yakuza 5?
Because really, I'm forcing myself to finish it, and this as someone who really liked all entries so far.
The Haruka bit was simply awful: I liked the fact there's a rhythm game involved, and there are no random encounters with thugs when you wander in the streets, but again you play like two songs, and that's it. The plot is awful, I really disliked the manager lady character since
she aborted in order to follow her dream to become an idol
, and generally she treats very bad all surrounding characters, from the dance teacher to the secretary. Also, again, the game forces you to do pointless stuff like shopping, hand-shaking sessions, a visit to the arcade...I mean, I usually do only the main plot in Yakuza games (and in all free roaming titles), and still enjoyed all of them. Here so far the game seems just like a giant filler, with ten minutes of cutscenes to go on with the story in the end of the chapter.
 

IrishNinja

Member
looks like my Kiryu figure was delayed, but here's to next month!

They need to stop with the Saejima=Prison BS, but it's too late, I suppose. At least he got some freedom near the end of his arc.

I really enjoy Chapter 4 so far. CHICKEN RACING

yeah, i put it down around there...hoping he's more a free man next go around
 
They need to stop with the Saejima=Prison BS, but it's too late, I suppose. At least he got some freedom near the end of his arc.

I really enjoy Chapter 4 so far. CHICKEN RACING

Chicken racing was a really good little side mission in 5. I spent hours in both the Japanese version and the English version getting the best chicken possible. It was incredibly addictive. I was kind of gutted that chicken racing in Ishin was reduced to just betting on chickens rather than raising one of your own. I didn't play that mini game anywhere near as much as 5's...
 

Ludens

Banned
Well, the second half of chapter 3 was so much better. No fillers, no pointless dialogues, it's the section of the game I liked more.
 

cj_iwakura

Member
So, what's the consensus about Yakuza 5?
Because really, I'm forcing myself to finish it, and this as someone who really liked all entries so far.
The Haruka bit was simply awful: I liked the fact there's a rhythm game involved, and there are no random encounters with thugs when you wander in the streets, but again you play like two songs, and that's it. The plot is awful, I really disliked the manager lady character since
she aborted in order to follow her dream to become an idol
, and generally she treats very bad all surrounding characters, from the dance teacher to the secretary. Also, again, the game forces you to do pointless stuff like shopping, hand-shaking sessions, a visit to the arcade...I mean, I usually do only the main plot in Yakuza games (and in all free roaming titles), and still enjoyed all of them. Here so far the game seems just like a giant filler, with ten minutes of cutscenes to go on with the story in the end of the chapter.

The plot twists near the end of Haruka/Akiyama REALLY speed things up. I literally went "WTF?!".

And as said, the next character is great.
 

Kazzy

Member
Saejima's boring chapter can also be blamed on the inclusion of Baba, who comes across as a glorified insert character. Who's this new guy?! Oh, he's suddenly intrinsic to the central plot?! Sure...

They place so much importance on him, and his character development is boring and he doesn't really belong. I rolled my eyes so hard when he showed up again during the finale.

I couldn't believe it when he was vying for top spot in those character rankings, come on Japan!
 

Ludens

Banned
Saejima's boring chapter can also be blamed on the inclusion of Baba, who comes across as a glorified insert character. Who's this new guy?! Oh, he's suddenly intrinsic to the central plot?! Sure...

They place so much importance on him, and his character development is boring and he doesn't really belong. I rolled my eyes so hard when he showed up again during the finale.

I couldn't believe it when he was vying for top spot in those character rankings, come on Japan!

Eh, I totally agree with you. It feels like with Yakuza 5 Sega run out of ideas. I would like them exploring other ways, even a "more violent" aspect of Yakuza, since in all titles the one they paint is the "old", glorified Yakuza in which there are principles, honor etc, with even "negative" characters being noble in some ways.
I mean, I want a much grim and dirty version of the Yakuza, it could be interesting, expecially after five chapters. The plot in 5 is totally uninteresting for now, I'm liking a lot the Akiyama's bit, but again because I really like the character too and the way his bit is managed is not heavy, no pointless stuff, just essential things and it's ok.

The game is very very slow, and as I wrote dialogues in which characters repeat themself the last line of dialogues are awful. Now I need to start chapter 4, I hope the new character will bring some fresh air in the game.
 
If you look at Yakuza 5 from a character arc perspective, I think you start to see a little more about where it's coming from. One of the overarching themes of Y5 is "age." All the playable characters (save Haruka) deal with "aging out" of the yakuza in their own way, and the conversation early in chapter 2 between Majima and Saejima over the tripe really frames the conversation that the whole game is trying to have with you.

What does a yakuza do if he doesn't die young? What does a yakuza do if he can't find a way to live a normal life? Run off into a life of seclusion? Atone for the past in prison? Go to war to relive the glory days? The way Chapter 5 answers this question is different for all of the protagonists and the antagonists too, and I thought it was well worth seeing it through, personally.
 
At chapter 4 in yakuza 4, feeling like I'm gonna be switching character soon. Now from the prospective of someone who started the series 2 months ago I have very good news. Yakuza might be the master of preventing me from getting burned out.

1) The original game is a little rough but it was still fun. The dub was stupid, the combat was just fun in a mid tier kind of way. But the story and the characters got me invested enough to stick with it. I kept fighting the controls by the end but it didn't matter, I enjoyed my time with it.

2) This fixed all of my problems with the original game, if you were to ask me at the time what I thought, I would have said this was the perfect sequel. Combat was fixed, and because it was fixed I was allowed to really enjoy the mechanics. I felt like I was playing yakuza for the first time just because at the base level I could just get into the moment. Writing was fantastic, in fact some of my favorite ps2 cutscenes I've seen other then metal gear.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vudwbwxEA3w this scene is what took the series from a like to a favorite

3) So by now I should be burned out, but the engine changed on me and it made a world of difference. The combat felt better then ever, the world was now exploitable without a fixed camera which was HUGE. I felt like I was taking the sites for the first time, and 3 was also the first in the series I decided to complete all the side stories. The writing was a bit weaker, but it was still quite strong in terms of ideas.

4) So by now I should be burned out right, see here's the thing. Now with the multiple characters I have new combat styles to mess with. Having new main characters keeps things fresh. I'm loving 4 so far, I'm shocked I'm not burned out yet.
 

Ludens

Banned
Man, that baseball player plot-line was very boring too and, imho, totally unnecessary.
I'm really sad because I was waiting to play this but, so far, I'm just disappointed. It all feels like a "remake" of other games, the only thing missing at the moment is the coliseum fight.
 

Ludens

Banned
So, I finally beat the game. My opinion is, this is the worse chapter of the franchise.
It's totally useless, it recycles not even assets (a thing other Yakuza did too, but no problem), but even situation from other games:

-the ending
is the same one of Yakuza 3 or 4, can't remember...with Kazuma dying and Haruka with him, but we know he will eventually heal himself.
-Saejima and the prison stuff. I mean, the game also tells you
Baba and Saejima will return in prison, so if in Yakuza 6 there will be Saejima again, I'm pretty sure he will get another prison chunk.
-Haruka idol's dream: first this goes against what was told in Yakuza 2, since there was a moment in the story in which a man would make Haruka an idol, but she refused. Than in Yakuza 5 her dream is to become an idol. Her storyline is simply terrible and totally uninteresting for me, the only things I liked were rhythm games because they were something "new", but again the game forces you to repeat the same song twice, and there are only two songs basically.
-the baseball player bit is boring and totally useless, it goes on too long.
-horrible pacing. As I wrote, I only played the plot (like I did in ANY Yakuza game, from 1 up to Dead Souls, I only did the story mode without doing sides), but there are way too often 40 minutes cutscenes. You do a 5 minutes fight>40 minutes cutscene>roam around until the next destination>10 minutes cutscene>fight>40 minutes cutscene. Man, there are even cutscene-only segment, like Chapter 4 part 4. Awful, really, considering I wasn't interested in the story at all this time.
-Unskippable credits. So, you can skip every cutscene in the game, but credits are unskippable, and you need to see them all in order to do a clear save.
-only a few save-points. I know, you can save in hideouts and by using the phone booth, but in some parts, like chapter 5, you can't do that because you have no control over what happens, there are no roaming sections, only fights. And they all follow the scheme I listed above.

People say Dead Souls is the worse chapter of the franchise, but I had ton of fun with it: it was dumb, non-sense, something new and fresh, even if zombies are everywhere those days. Yakuza 5 feels like a more of the same without new ideas behing it.

I really hope Yakuza 0 and 6 will turn better than this.
 

Jimrpg

Member
Saejima's chapter was simply terrible. The "usefull" section is like the last 10 minutes of the chapter, in which some events are uncleared, the rest of the chapter is a filler:

-dream-like sequences
-pointless investigation in the prison with the way-too-clear guilty
-nice arcade section with the snow-bike, sadly the deep of field here was HORRIBLE and I ended up against so many trees. I didn't die because you have plenty of health, but I found this part very bad because of deep of field and pop-up.
-another pointless part in which you are a hunter and need to provide food in order to heal Baba. I skipped the bear part when I had the chance.
-when you are finally into the city, there's the usual "find this homeless guy" with a vague hint of where he is. When you find it, you need to asnwer a quiz (how can I find the answer? Google? Lol, dunno) and you are finally into the casino.
-Beat some dudes, go to sleep, beat other dudes and the chapter is over.

I loved Yakuza games, but I don't know, so far Yakuza 5 was very boring to play, except a couple of fights I really liked. Even during dialogues, what I absolutely hate is the fact in japanase titles often the character you are talking with will simply repeat the phrase you already told: "You need to visit the Stardust.", reply is "The Stardust?".

It's not a single time, all dialogues are like this. And when I usually can pass over it if the plot is on point, in Yakuza 5 I cannot notice this.

I love the Yakuza series. In fact its probably the series I've played the most number of titles and I'm somewhat up to date on.

That said, I stopped playing Y5 cause the Saejima section was so bad, miles and leagues worse than anything else in the series. Saejima section in Y4 was great. This was a huge miscalculation of epic proportions. The prison section was a waste of time, the snow village didn't really go anywhere. The dream sequences graphically looked bad and aged poorly.

I haven't played it since it came out, but I'll probably get back into it tonight, just to get over the hump, I know I'm pretty close to finishing the chapter.

Does the next chapter get any better, cause if it doesn't improve, i'm just going to go back to Y4.

Also just to be clear, I loved Kaz's section in Y5.
 

Ludens

Banned
I love the Yakuza series. In fact its probably the series I've played the most number of titles and I'm somewhat up to date on.

That said, I stopped playing Y5 cause the Saejima section was so bad, miles and leagues worse than anything else in the series. Saejima section in Y4 was great. This was a huge miscalculation of epic proportions. The prison section was a waste of time, the snow village didn't really go anywhere. The dream sequences graphically looked bad and aged poorly.

I haven't played it since it came out, but I'll probably get back into it tonight, just to get over the hump, I know I'm pretty close to finishing the chapter.

Does the next chapter get any better, cause if it doesn't improve, i'm just going to go back to Y4.

Also just to be clear, I loved Kaz's section in Y5.

The next chapter is
Haruka's part, there are two halves, Haruka only, that is boring, and Haruka+Akiyama, which is the only section I really liked in the game, excluding some fights in and there.
 

Tizoc

Member
We should get pewdiepie to play the yakuza games
If he can play bayo 2 and interest people i. It surely the same can be done with yakuza
Roght?
Right?
 

Sgblues

Member
Ok KHHSUBS has started uploading his Ryu ga Gotoku Ishin - Walkthrough with English translation, which is very good for people who played it and wanted to know about the story and those who were interested in playing but were daunted by it being in Japanese.

Chapter 1 (1/4) Here
 

ubiblu

Member
Ok KHHSUBS has started uploading his Ryu ga Gotoku Ishin - Walkthrough with English translation, which is very good for people who played it and wanted to know about the story and those who were interested in playing but were daunted by it being in Japanese.

Chapter 1 (1/4) Here

Dont forget Salty Yen's video series also. I've played along to his for Zero/Kiwami/Ishin. While his translating isn't definitive, it means you never have to take your eyes off the screen.
 
Dont forget Salty Yen's video series also. I've played along to his for Zero/Kiwami/Ishin. While his translating isn't definitive, it means you never have to take your eyes off the screen.

Yeah, both are great sources. KHHSubs stuff is more in depth but Salty Yen puts his vids out pretty much as soon as the game is released - so he's a great source for me to watch as I do my first playthrough. Its great that the series in general have people like them translating the games - means I actually get to play the Japanese versions - not having to wait years for the games to be released (and that's if they are ever actually released!).

Anyway, I'm really hyped for this Yakuza event this Saturday, we should finally get some new info on 6, hopefully a vid will be released showing off the new build of the game (or at least a new cutscene to give us a better idea of what the story is).
 
Hi guys, kind of new on this thread. I just bought the Asian version of Kiwami since it was cheaper, but of course it only has Chinese menus/subs... which is an issue. Unless there's an option I'm missing to switch to Japanese, that is.

Does anyone know of a decent guide for things like Substories and such? It would definitely help me.
 

Sgblues

Member
For me the best guides when I needed help and the games are new are:

Dswiipspwikips3.jp which goes into depth about everything not only the Ryu Ga Gotoku series but other games as well and even posts youtube videos plus also has info put up very quickly.

The Kiwami guide is Here

Another guide is Spwiki.net/ who, also covers other games as well.

Here is the Kiwami section

And lastly there is Kouryakutsushin.com which can be slow to update when new games come out but is also reliable.

Kiwami guide here
 
so a new image of the upcoming Majima figure, now with paint job:
aESm42O.jpg

I'll be picking him and Kiryu up.
 
Majima is looking awesome. Any word on the accessories he's getting? I assume he'll at least get his dagger and bat weapons, an alternate "grinning" head and such. I like the look of him more than the Kiryu figure that's for sure.


So Yakuza 6 - Should we hear some new stuff about the game on Tuesday? I believe that's when the special Sega event is being held that will show off the game more (to the press) and announce the release date for the game. I kind of hope it'll get a "Neo" upgrade so that the frame rate and resolution gets a slight bump (1080/60 would be amazing).
 
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