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[Shadowman16]

Hmm since the Jingweon is involved, hopefully

Spoiler

Kaoru

comes back or is mentioned even

Spoiler

a mention of Ryuji or maybe he's not really dead and has been hiding out all this time haha.

I don't think the Ryuuji thing is even that much of a stretch for the series. I mean, since

Spoiler

the bomb didn't go off he wasn't blown to pieces, he took a pretty bad beating, but so has Kiryu and he's seemingly still ok after all these years. I'd love to see him back

 

[Melhisedek]

I just tried playing original Yakuza and often find myself beaten.
Any tips on what skills to update and how to fight? Think I have 4 saved skills

 

[Shadowman16]

I just tried playing original Yakuza and often find myself beaten.
Any tips on what skills to update and how to fight? Think I have 4 saved skills

In the first game you start off with few moves, it sucks... Its been a while since I played the original PS2 version of Yakuza but I tend to level up my health a couple of times early on (which is obviously very handy for fights), and also level up the last/bottom option (I forget the name of the option) as I think that is the option that unlocks some extra moves, I think the game forces you to unlock the stomp heat move (press triangle when enemy is on the ground, and you have a full heat bar). This is a great heat move in the original game as its one of the few heat moves you get, so abuse it as much as possible.

Fairly early on you should head into a homeless shelter where you will meet a old kung fu master named "Komaki". He will teach you a few more advanced moves which are insanely useful, so I advise trying to learn all these as well as they will certainly help in your travels.

Lastly, the first Yakuza game has crappy lock on targeting - so sometimes you will find yourself punching thin air (one of the reasons I love the PS4 remake is that the combat is completely overhauled by comparison, so its far more playable these days). So for now I'd recommend:

Always have R1 held down which will lock onto the nearest enemy. Use the X button when locked on to sway/dodge enemy attacks. This is a fundamental move, so get very used to this!

Try and focus on one enemy at a time, and try and separate enemies enough that you are fighting one on one. Else you may have enemies attacking you from multiple sides and the odds are squarely stacked against you in such instances.

Use the environment to your advantage - there are loads of things that can be picked up and used as weapons. Big signs and bicycles are excellent for crowd control as you can hit several enemies at once with them and these attacks deal out decent damage.

Feel the Heat! That is, use your heat moves when you have them. Now I forget exactly what instances you can use heat moves in the first game as the heat system is fairly basic in Yakuza 1 - but I do know you get the stomp move (kicking the face of a downed enemy) as well as the wall slam (grabbing an enemy, and pressing triangle close to a wall) so use those moves for easy damage where ever you can.

Advanced technique - Now I could never get this to work great in the original Yakuza, as the timing is fairly strict, but for the rest of the series its the best move in my opinion. If you can get this down you'll be laughing: One of the last moves (if not the last) that Komaki teaches you will be the Tiger Drop - While locking on with the R1 button, press the triangle button just as an enemy attack is hitting you. This will cause you to unleash a brutal counter attack that deals insane damage. If you master this you can handle anything the game throws at you.

Oh, and L1 is the block button. Not all moves are blockable so you'll have to learn that one the hard way, but use it where possible if you can't avoid attacks. I prefer dodging myself as I'm not routed in one spot, but it certainly has its uses.

 

[Melhisedek]

Thanks a lot mate! I really appreciate it. Who would have thought that I have missed such a great game series. I already like it a lot, except for all the swear words all the time

 

[Shadowman16]

Thanks a lot mate! I really appreciate it. Who would have thought that I have missed such a great game series. I already like it a lot, except for all the swear words all the time

No prob The Yakuza series is my favourite "current" game series (since Mega Man is all but dead). The characters, story and gameplay are exactly what I wanted from a game and I never get bored of the series (I play two or three Yakuza games a year, this year I've already 100%ed the PS4 remake of Y1 and I'll have started Y6 by the end of the year. Debating whether I should start a replay of Y4 in September).

Don't worry about the swearing, they fix that for Yakuza 2. That's one of the problems with the dub, they went a tad overboard with all the swearing (otherwise I don't have the dub - bar a couple of wooden performances).

 

[bluethree]

I'm playing Yakuza 3 in Japanese now and I'm enjoying it a lot more than expected. (I didn't enjoy Yakuza 2 and have slept on the series for years because of it). I'll be honest though, I'm not big on the series reusing the same setting for every game...I'm thinking when I finish this I just want to jump straight into 5 because it has more variety in its setting. Will I miss anything if I skip 4? Will 5's story still be easy enough to understand?

 

[hiphoptherobot]

I'm playing Yakuza 3 in Japanese now and I'm enjoying it a lot more than expected. (I didn't enjoy Yakuza 2 and have slept on the series for years because of it). I'll be honest though, I'm not big on the series reusing the same setting for every game...I'm thinking when I finish this I just want to jump straight into 5 because it has more variety in its setting. Will I miss anything if I skip 4? Will 5's story still be easy enough to understand?

You will miss quite a bit. Also, 4 is amazing, definitely worth a play through.

 

[IrishNinja]

okay gents, looking to tie up chapter 3 soon - i even got through that horrible comedy duo minigame (ugh, took like half an hour by itself), just wanna make sure i'm not missing anything?

Spoiler

we just did round 2 of princess show, akiyama fucked up some dudes to get info on the forger, both he & haruka have like 13 of 15 substories down & nothing left on the board (i did all the stuff for her agency too), i'm assuming the last ones will show up before the final round...is there anything else to watch for? im told i have to be careful before closing out this section.

*edit just got the mail from amiami that my Kiryu figure's delayed till december! balls.

 

[Shadowman16]

okay gents, looking to tie up chapter 3 soon - i even got through that horrible comedy duo minigame (ugh, took like half an hour by itself), just wanna make sure i'm not missing anything?

Spoiler

we just did round 2 of princess show, akiyama fucked up some dudes to get info on the forger, both he & haruka have like 13 of 15 substories down & nothing left on the board (i did all the stuff for her agency too), i'm assuming the last ones will show up before the final round...is there anything else to watch for? im told i have to be careful before closing out this section.

*edit just got the mail from amiami that my Kiryu figure's delayed till december! balls.

At least one of Haruka's side stories won't unlock until the final chapter when you get control of her, so just keep an eye out for that I think you should be good to carry on. Oh, and make sure you don't mess up the final round of Princess League else you can't complete the Karaoke singing game.

 

[cj_iwakura]

At least one of Haruka's side stories won't unlock until the final chapter when you get control of her, so just keep an eye out for that I think you should be good to carry on. Oh, and make sure you don't mess up the final round of Princess League else you can't complete the Karaoke singing game.

I still had one sidequest missing for Haruka, no idea how, unless it was Tatsuya's insane OCD cooking school.

 

[IrishNinja]

wait, are Tatsuya's cooking recommendations a quest? thought that was always just for stats

like aikyama's dumb trainer missions

 

[cj_iwakura]

wait, are Tatsuya's cooking recommendations a quest? thought that was always just for stats

like aikyama's dumb trainer missions

Sadly I think it matters for a side quest later.

BUT there is a trick to it: the restaurant that matters will have the character say 'Hmm, maybe I can go here for that nutcase's restaurant...'

Sadly, if you've been there before starting the quest, it doesn't count.

 

[IrishNinja]

yeah, gonna just look that shit up

like i did with that duo comedy shit - swear to god i tweeted at sega to never localize one of those minigames again

 

[cj_iwakura]

yeah, gonna just look that shit up

like i did with that duo comedy shit - swear to god i tweeted at sega to never localize one of those minigames again

I had fun writing down solutions to it, the jokes are pretty funny too.

 

[Sgblues]

So has anyone seen the Ryu Ga Gotoku 6, water floating simulation from CCDEC( Computer Entertainment Developers Conference) 2016?

I couldn't record it from the nico stream properly but here's a youtube link of it

Here

I think its really good what they have been pulling off with this new engine they have, and I'd like to see what new things they would introduce in RGG6 and any other games using this engine.

 

[Shadowman16]

So has anyone seen the Ryu Ga Gotoku 6, water floating simulation from CCDEC( Computer Entertainment Developers Conference) 2016?

I couldn't record it from the nico stream properly but here's a youtube link of it

Here

I think its really good what they have been pulling off with this new engine they have, and I'd like to see what new things they would introduce in RGG6 and any other games using this engine.

Lol at the end of the vid where he throws the guy into the water. Guess that's not reserved just for a environmental heat move any more!
Also, guess that confirms that you can grab weapons scattered about the environment. That aspect was missing in the tech demo and I was slightly concerned it would be absent since they were building a new engine. I'm really looking forward to seeing the game re-revealed at TGS with a new gameplay trailer, I want to see just how far the game has come since January.

And yeah, that water looks nice (as does the rest of the game so far!). Now look back at the water in Yakuza 5 and compare it just for laughs. One looks like an oil slick and the other looks far more natural.

 

[lucebuce12]

After what feels like a year, I've finally managed to get my hands on a copy of Yakuza 3. A friend of mine let me borrow his copies of Yakuza 1 and 2 which I emulated and played on the PC and I got both y4 and y5 through ps+.

It was so tempting to just skip 3 and go straight to 4 but I'm glad I held off. This is gonna be awesome!

 

[Shadowman16]

After what feels like a year, I've finally managed to get my hands on a copy of Yakuza 3. A friend of mine let me borrow his copies of Yakuza 1 and 2 which I emulated and played on the PC and I got both y4 and y5 through ps+.

It was so tempting to just skip 3 and go straight to 4 but I'm glad I held off. This is gonna be awesome!

You made the right choice I think While some of the later games make decent jump in points its always best to start from the beginning if you can - you get to experience the series from the beginning and get acquainted with many of the recurring characters who develop as the series go on.

I'm quite looking forward to revisiting Yakuza 4 myself. Its been quite a while since I completed the game that replay is in order. I'm hoping I can clear the game on EX Hard and mop up the rest of the trophies I'm short while I'm at it for the plat all ready for Yakuza 6 in December.
Somewhere down the line (probably next year now) I want to replay Kenzan! as well so that I finally fight Amon, its the only game in the series where I've never fought him.

 

[Sgblues]

Ryu Ga Gotoku fan has the extended video:

Here


Which shows clouds moving in the sky at night and during the day representing the passing of time, glass and liquid physics for drinking and bits of the heat effects when Kiryu triggers his heat mode.


I've always had the idea of the Yakuza series to have real time day and night cycles in which the behavior of npcs changes based on what time it is.

Examples:

Early morning: Npcs going to work, kids going to school, sanitation workers picking up trash, restaurants start making their breakfast/day menus and night shift workers going home.

Day: Stores more populated as npcs are shopping and going to restaurants for lunch, in which it seems a npc's taste can change, like some days there would be more people in smile burger and the next day more people at Kanrai, also restaurants could have random specials which you can read about in magazines in the gourmet guide.

Evening: Npcs come back from work and school and are hanging out in places like Theater Square and going to Sega arcades or going to bowling, speaking of Theater Square, I would make the movie theater an actual place you can go into and watch previews of upcoming Sega games or even past trailers of the RGG series or even to reminisce and watch cutscenes, restaurants start their night menus and kids can play in the parks.

Night: Night workers come out as Kamurocho starts lighting up, kids have gone home and the ones still around are the delinquents that includes gyaru and gang types, the night shift takes over and npcs are frequenting bars or drinking in the parks, usually more Yakuza and thugs are patrolling the streets looking for fights, during the course of the day trash has built up and you have more homeless foraging through it, hostesses can be seen out on dates and you see more couples in the hotel district.

Late night: Drunks staggering home, stronger specialized enemies at night and generally less people around expect those looking for fights or to hurt/kill people.

Add in dynamic weather that changes and not scripted unless for the main missions or substories plus npc clothes can change so besides umbrellas they could also wear raincoats or even winter or summer clothes and that could be pretty good but that would have to be some engine to do so.

 

[cj_iwakura]

Looks pretty intense. I kind of hope it's not just him.

 

[Shadowman16]

Ryu Ga Gotoku fan has the extended video:

Here


Which shows clouds moving in the sky at night and during the day representing the passing of time, glass and liquid physics for drinking and bits of the heat effects when Kiryu triggers his heat mode.


I've always had the idea of the Yakuza series to have real time day and night cycles in which the behavior of npcs changes based on what time it is.

Examples:

Early morning: Npcs going to work, kids going to school, sanitation workers picking up trash, restaurants start making their breakfast/day menus and night shift workers going home.

Day: Stores more populated as npcs are shopping and going to restaurants for lunch, in which it seems a npc's taste can change, like some days there would be more people in smile burger and the next day more people at Kanrai, also restaurants could have random specials which you can read about in magazines in the gourmet guide.

Evening: Npcs come back from work and school and are hanging out in places like Theater Square and going to Sega arcades or going to bowling, speaking of Theater Square, I would make the movie theater an actual place you can go into and watch previews of upcoming Sega games or even past trailers of the RGG series or even to reminisce and watch cutscenes, restaurants start their night menus and kids can play in the parks.

Night: Night workers come out as Kamurocho starts lighting up, kids have gone home and the ones still around are the delinquents that includes gyaru and gang types, the night shift takes over and npcs are frequenting bars or drinking in the parks, usually more Yakuza and thugs are patrolling the streets looking for fights, during the course of the day trash has built up and you have more homeless foraging through it, hostesses can be seen out on dates and you see more couples in the hotel district.

Late night: Drunks staggering home, stronger specialized enemies at night and generally less people around expect those looking for fights or to hurt/kill people.

Add in dynamic weather that changes and not scripted unless for the main missions or substories plus npc clothes can change so besides umbrellas they could also wear raincoats or even winter or summer clothes and that could be pretty good but that would have to be some engine to do so.

I'd be down for something just like that. It'd basically be the evolution of what Shenmue 1 managed (which is one of the reasons I loved it so much). Having that extra detail in Yakuza would be awesome.

 

[IrishNinja]

day 4 of chapter 4! Shinada - WHAT A TWEEST

for real, digging this character more than i thought i would, i need to go back & find segata's critique of 5 cause it's just been great so far

 

[Shadowman16]

day 4 of chapter 4! Shinada - WHAT A TWEEST

for real, digging this character more than i thought i would, i need to go back & find segata's critique of 5 cause it's just been great so far

I've played through the game twice and that twist still confuses the hell out of me!

Yakuzafan has a great translation of the latest RGG6 info, this time focusing on the combat:
http://yakuzafan.com/post/149755179728/welcome-back-to-famitsu-wednesday-this-week-we

It sounds really cool - the diversity in animation and attacks etc. based on distance, heat mode lets you pick up larger items that couldn't be picked up previously (so like the heavy/Seijima fighting styles?), enemies run away in mid battle again (like in Yakuza 5 I assume?), fights can take place on roofs, and you can transition from roof to ground floor on the fly, mid battle (that should hopefully lead to some epic battles). All the heat moves have apparently been redone due to the changes of the combat/inclusion of heat mode.

I still choose to be cautiously optimistic at this point. As I liked the RGG6 demo, but I'm still not sold on the combat based on what I played (though that demo was basically a tech demo).

 

[KanameYuuki]

Just defeated the Amon Clan on Yakuza 5, I'm surprised how easy all of them were except for Jo Amon compared to Yakuza 4 but well can't really say how hard was him on Yakuza 4 since I was super cheap using the War God Talisman and repeatedly using double dodge into roll then heat action, I'm currently at 78.XX% after more than 90 hours, can't believe how much content this game has, one of the few instances I just want to complete it all ready while being annoyed and having fun.

57 tickets used and no small motor yet : | I hate that material.

 

[Shadowman16]

Out of the two times I fought the Amon clan in 5, my only issues with the fights were with Shinada's and Kiryu's matchups. Shinada's felt really one sided against him, since Shinada always felt fairly weak to me (even if you levelled him up). The warning/no entry sign posts though was the real saviour in that fight - dealing insane damage against Amon. Made the fight far more bearable (ditto with the Komaki fight with Shinada).
Kiryu's was just hard because of the moves Amon gets late in the fight. Thankfully you can just Tiger Drop counter Amon in his Red Heat state and deal damage to him (and build up heat for yourself, else that fight would have taken much longer for me.


And yeah, trying to get all the modding items you need sucks. Some are just insanely hard/rare to acquire and it feels like you spend half the game trying to get them.

 

[bluethree]

Wow the recreation of Fukuoka in Yakuza 5 is spot on. It's so cool being able to play a game set in my favorite city in Japan. Wonder how good the other locations are.

 

[cj_iwakura]

I've played through the game twice and that twist still confuses the hell out of me!

Yakuzafan has a great translation of the latest RGG6 info, this time focusing on the combat:
http://yakuzafan.com/post/149755179728/welcome-back-to-famitsu-wednesday-this-week-we

It sounds really cool - the diversity in animation and attacks etc. based on distance, heat mode lets you pick up larger items that couldn't be picked up previously (so like the heavy/Seijima fighting styles?), enemies run away in mid battle again (like in Yakuza 5 I assume?), fights can take place on roofs, and you can transition from roof to ground floor on the fly, mid battle (that should hopefully lead to some epic battles). All the heat moves have apparently been redone due to the changes of the combat/inclusion of heat mode.

I still choose to be cautiously optimistic at this point. As I liked the RGG6 demo, but I'm still not sold on the combat based on what I played (though that demo was basically a tech demo).

Gematsu posted about it, too:

http://gematsu.com/2016/09/yakuza-6-details-evolved-battle-system

New thread worthy? Hasn't been a Y6 thread in a while...

 

[Shadowman16]

Gematsu posted about it, too:

http://gematsu.com/2016/09/yakuza-6-details-evolved-battle-system

New thread worthy? Hasn't been a Y6 thread in a while...

I want to say there was a Yakuza 6 thread last week with these details in it, at least I swear I remember posting about it in another thread but my memory might be playing tricks on me!

 

[KuwabaraTheMan]

I want to say there was a Yakuza 6 thread last week with these details in it, at least I swear I remember posting about it in another thread but my memory might be playing tricks on me!

Yeah, there was a thread on it just the other day.

 

[_Ryo_]

FINNALLY getting back to playing Yakuza 1 on my ps2. I really enjoy it but not being able to control the camera is the WORST. A lot of the mechanics seem backwards compared to Shenmue as well. And the battle load times are awful, and grahics aren't as consistently as good. Both games dont really dont have a lot in common with each other so I dont understand why people keep sayimg they're similar to one another.

I know it looka like I'm being negative but again, I'm really enjoying it.

 

[Sgblues]

Yeah there has been some "news" on RGG6 but most of the time its not really topic making stuff so or even super important and if it is it would get posted in the community thread, that Gematsu article does has some thread relevance and that last thread about RGG6 was the stuff about CCDEC I posted already.

FINNALLY getting back to playing Yakuza 1 on my ps2. I really enjoy it but not being able to control the camera is the WORST. A lot of the mechanics seem backwards compared to Shenmue as well. And the battle load times are awful, and grahics aren't as consistently as good. Both games dont really dont have a lot in common with each other so I dont understand why people keep sayimg they're similar to one another.

I know it looka like I'm being negative but again, I'm really enjoying it.

Nope it doesn't sound like you are being negative, there are a lot of rough points in the earlier games but nothing detrimental as to avoid them completely or to stop playing at a certain point.

 

[Mazre]

Working my way through chapter 4 of Yakuza 5.

To hell with Akiyama, Takasugi for best loan shark.

 

[IrishNinja]

Working my way through chapter 4 of Yakuza 5.

To hell with Akiyama, Takasugi for best loan shark.

i'm at the same part! and yeah, Takasugi really grew on me in Shinata's chapter, wanna see more of that guy.

 

[IrishNinja]

happy (US) birthday, Yakuza!!

 

[Shadowman16]

Where does the time go... I still remember grabbing the original Yakuza at launch and playing the heck out of it. Then staring at the screenshots of Yakuza 2 wondering if we'd ever get that. Then staring at the photos of Yakuza 3 and wonder if we'd ever get that translated either. It was at this point where I just imported that and Kenzan! since the PS3 was region free and I've never looked back since. I'm pretty impressed that the series has been so consistent for me - 10 years worth of games and the only one I'd contend is a bad game is Of the End/Dead Souls due to its janky camera and controls - but even that has a certain charm to it (guess it helps that Ryuuji and Majima is playable, and personal favourite of mine Hayashi is a recurring baddie).

And yeah, I support all the Takasugi love. He really grows as a character as Shinada's part goes on and ended up being my favourite character of that chapter.

 

[IrishNinja]

yeah, i was hyped for Yakuza when it was being previewed - i was in an aggressive training program when it dropped & missed out on a lotta games for a while there, and with the marketing looking more like a GTA/etc type experience, i kinda fell off the hypetrain. didn't help that many (on here & other places) were selling it as something akin to a better shenmue than shenmue (ugh).

my current roommate went in on it back then, but was really thrown off because (also likely due to the marketing, i'm guessing) he expected a serious yakuza crime drama...which is no doubt part of the series, but even 1 throws you into the deep end with its zaniness/soap opera melodrama at a few points. 2 showed up so late i barely knew it existed for a while.

it was honestly the hype & controversy for 3 that got my attention, and i was bummed because i'd not had a chance to check it out...i'd track down copies of both years later, but it was when 4 was coming out a while back that kmart out here had a deal where if you bought it day 1, you got part 3 for free! i hopped all over that & burned right through the series, loving nearly every minute of it.

there's still lots of people i run into on the sega/etc forums who are salty about 5 not getting a physical release, but i'm just so very happy the series is now alive & well out here, nevermind the excellent KHH fansubs allowing me to play Kenzan! (and soon enough, Ishin too).

my grrl has a preorder in on 0 for january, i'm hyped for TGS & more info on 6 (though i'm still trying to avoid spoilers!) & holding out hope both that and maybe Kiwami find there way here at some point. this is hands-down my favorite currently running series.

 

[Shadowman16]

I remember first seeing Yakuza on Shenmue Dojo. I was sold the second I saw the screenshots - Japan city setting, Sega, fighting. It wasn't Shenmue but it was the "closest" thing to it at the time (and yeah, they aren't really all that similar, but I was sad over the lack of Shenmue III so I took what I could get!).

I do remember getting really invested in Yakuza's story as well. I loved the dynamic between Kiryu and Haruka, and the awesome supporting cast. The cast is one thing that makes the series so good (in my opinion) - few ongoing series have a cast that is this likeable (which is a weird thing to say about a series revolving around crime and Yakuza!)
Plus the series has done a pretty good job of progressing most of the characters story arcs, and with 6 it looks like they are going to close the book on a couple (or at least enter a new chapter).

I've seen the "no physical, no buy" sentiment on a couple of other forums as well about 5. I understand the whole want for physical releases (I love to collect, and obviously its better to have a physical version in case the digital version ever gets delisted/servers turned off etc.) but I enjoy playing the games far more, so a choice between actually playing the game or not, its a very easy choice for me!
At least 0 is getting a physical release, and is in my opinion one of the best in the series so at least people have no excuse to not buy that game!

In the long run I'd love to see PS4 ports of the entire series, so they are all on 1 platform and all run/look better than their PS3 counterparts. The thought of getting them all at 60FPS would be amazing, the silky smooth combat in Ishin, 0 and Kiwami is a real game changer.

And yes, the support from places like KHH Subs is great, I used his guide for Ishin and enjoyed the heck out of it. Its not the same as playing the game with a proper English translation, but since that game will never get a proper English release its again far more preferrable to not playing it at all!
Also Gamefaqs user ThePatrick rocks, doing excellent translation guides for Yakuza 1-4 and Kenzan! I used his Kenzan! guide to play the game through and loved it, it still pretty much remains the best game in the franchise for me, I really need to replay it sometime...

And with the TGS fast approaching (is it really next week?) we'll get even more of an insight into 6, so I already know what I'll be watching on a loop next week!

 

[KanameYuuki]

I've never had a problem with Shinada's dmg output but omg he is horrible at the coliseum. Barely any dmg from his grabs and worse his only viable combo is square, Triangle, circle that most of the time doesn't even land.

 

[_Ryo_]

sorta a weird question but why are the karaoke text highlight and the vocals so out of sync in these games. It kind of gives me a headache.

 

[Sgblues]

I've never had a problem with Shinada's dmg output but omg he is horrible at the coliseum. Barely any dmg from his grabs and worse his only viable combo is square, Triangle, circle that most of the time doesn't even land.

Yeah Shinada has it rough in the arena and some other fights like the

Spoiler

limit break and against Sango Amon

but opponents in the arena are generally a lot tougher and more troublesome.

sorta a weird question but why are the karaoke text highlight and the vocals so out of sync in these games. It kind of gives me a headache.

Yeah I have noticed that but for me its something I'm use to and its never really given me a headache or anything.

 

[KanameYuuki]

That out of sync is also quite bad on Haruka's princess league event which is a shame since I love loneliness loop.

 

[bluethree]

They're very different games, but as much as I love Shenmue, and as much as I'm RTTP on Yakuza (didn't like 2 and skipped the series for years), I'd have to say I like the Yakuza formula more overall. I do wish there were some things that were done differently (bigger areas, less reusing kamurocho, etc), but I think the focus on pure gameplay over minute details works better, even though I technically have more affection for Shenmue.

 

[Shadowman16]

Regarding Shinada arena battles - make sure you level him up enough to access the health restore move (L3+R3 when you have heat, and when your health is flashing). It won't help regarding the low damage he deals, but it makes those later fights that much more bearable. And I really wish you didn't have to grind the arena so damn much in 5, its easily the most annoying thing about 100%ing it, as it got really boring after a while (having to do it 4 times, and having to grind enough points to unlock all the arena battle types).


Regarding Yakuza 6's playspot news - can't believe they are giving us Virtua Fighter 5 FS! That's a pretty huge inclusion, as much as I liked VF2 in 5, I always preferred VF 4 and 5. I do wonder how the other playspots have been enhanced though, I expect those will be detailed this week/next week.

 

[Sgblues]

happy (US) birthday, Yakuza!!

Ok FINALLY being able to sit down properly to talk about this, was gonna go all in but will stop at Y1 and Y2.


Alright so I remembered when the commercial for Yakuza 1 was being shown on tv and I didn't think much of it at the time since they were advertising it as a "GTA Clone" but I did do a double take when I heard Mark Hamil's voice in it as I'm a fan of his, both as Luke Skywalker and the voice of the Joker. It wouldn't be until like two months later I was in Gamestop browsing the shelves and my eyes spotted the Sega logo and I was like "Oh right! This game! I wonder if its good?" so I decided to pick it up and while the voice acting was...not that great aside from Majima's, I stuck with it spending time just running around getting into fights so I could smash people with bicycles and after doing research found out that Toshihiro Nagoshi worked on it, I was excited since I knew him from Daytona USA, Spikeout and Super Monkey ball. As the days went on I spent more time in the game doing substories and getting really invested in what was happening even browsing Gamefaqs and IGN at the time and its on IGN I saw someone had posted a video link to 龍が如く 〜序章〜 Or Like a Dragon: Prologue and I watched it even though it wasn't subbed because of the action since I was also a fan of Beat Takeshi movies, which is ironic given he's in RGG6.

Here's youtube links to subbed versions of the videos:
Like a Dragon: Prologue part1
Like a Dragon: Prologue part2
Like a Dragon: Prologue part3
Like a Dragon: Prologue part4

I had been reading up on RGG2 on Gamefaqs and was eagerly awaiting when it was gonna be localized and then the day came and I remember the commercial on tv with the main track "As a man, as a brother" playing and I was like "Oooooooooooooooh!!!" and was hyped beyond hell and went to Gamestop the next day to place my preorder and spent so much time rewatching videos with the battle tracks "Push me underwater" and "Outlaw's Lullaby" being burned into my head and I played that game so much taking in everything and liking Ryuji Goda and all the other new and returning characters and its Y2 that really cemented the series for me.

 

[Sgblues]

So from the Hong Kong Sony presentation we see that Yakuza Zero and 6 are gonna PS4PRO support.

I was hoping Ishin and Kiwami would as well.

 

[Shadowman16]

So from the Hong Kong Sony presentation we see that Yakuza Zero and 6 are gonna PS4PRO support.

I was hoping Ishin and Kiwami would as well.

I'm just glad to see 6 included. That at very least leads me to hope that we'll get a solid 1080p resolution (for those of us without a 4K TV!) alongside a solid frame rate (I'd love 60FPS, but I have a sinking feeling it'll only be a rock solid 30FPS, which at least is still better than the demo).

 

[Shadowman16]

Not sure if this exact information has been posted yet, but some translated details and screenshots regarding the newly confirmed playspots in Yakuza 6:
http://yakuzafan.com/post/150083762523/hot-off-the-famitsu-presses-heres-an-even-deeper

A few have been changed quite a bit, Mahjong sounds like its not changed at all! Gutted to hear cricket is back for Darts (I hate that mode). Virtua Fighter gets a 2 player mode (no mention if its online or not though).

So I'm guessing this isn't it in terms of playspots, I'd expect the casino games etc. to return along with Shogi and the crane game at the very least.

 

[Gacha-pin]

Not sure if this exact information has been posted yet, but some translated details and screenshots regarding the newly confirmed playspots in Yakuza 6:
http://yakuzafan.com/post/150083762523/hot-off-the-famitsu-presses-heres-an-even-deeper

A few have been changed quite a bit, Mahjong sounds like its not changed at all! Gutted to hear cricket is back for Darts (I hate that mode). Virtua Fighter gets a 2 player mode (no mention if its online or not though).

So I'm guessing this isn't it in terms of playspots, I'd expect the casino games etc. to return along with Shogi and the crane game at the very least.

Those are on the official site. Kiryu is really creepy in the live chat.

 

[deadfolk]

I've completely lost track. Which games currently unreleased in the west have been confirm for localisation?

 

[cj_iwakura]

I've completely lost track. Which games currently unreleased in the west have been confirm for localisation?

Just 0.