Yakuza (Series)

Gentlegamer

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I always wanted to try Yakuza and bought the PS2 reprints a while back, but never got around to playing them. Would I be good to play the originals or should I go for the remastered versions?
 

JoeAwesome

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I always wanted to try Yakuza and bought the PS2 reprints a while back, but never got around to playing them. Would I be good to play the originals or should I go for the remastered versions?

Depends. The remasters put back some of the content cut from the original US releases, but if you need to play them now, the originals should be fine. If you want to start with the Yakuza series, it probably doesn't get better than 0, imo.
 

roker

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Depends. The remasters put back some of the content cut from the original US releases, but if you need to play them now, the originals should be fine. If you want to start with the Yakuza series, it probably doesn't get better than 0, imo.

0 is the only one I've played and I can't get over how good it was. I also can't bring myself to play another Yakuza game because it's too much of a commitment.

Solid 9 out of 10
 

ggallegos1

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Pre-ordered just to have 3,4, and 5 in one place and save shelf space. The extra content is fantastic, but there's already so much in each game that it may get lost in the shuffle.
 

jro

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If you buy the digital version of the collection, you get the games one at a time, starting with 3 out now. It's not up to Zero or 6's graphical standard, but it is a solid upgrade over the PS3 original.

Also, to me for whatever reason, 3's story feels the most like a proper Johnny To gangster epic.
 
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Gentlegamer

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So Yakuza 5 was previously a PSN download title only, and the remastered collection is the only physical version, right?

If so, I guess I should go for the remastered collection and then get Kiwami 1 and 2 and play the whole thing on PS4.
 

Yoshi

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I'm a bit torn on the fundamental change in the gameplay. I guess I'll decide in 2021ish when they port it to PC.
 

saner

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Yakuza 5 is the ultimate Yakuza game to date (PS4 remaster coming February 2020! PS3 version is up on PSN!)
has Haruka playable (best character and most ground breaking innovative battle system ever)!

plus with its unlockable premium adventure mode, theres so much possibilities for the 5 playable protagonists!

spoilers
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TjYbBFX8ySs


is there any other Yakuza game with 5 playable protagonists that includes playable female protagonist as well?

that should be the standard moving forward. Yakuza does have great potential! its crazy it has yet to have a character cheat code like GTA3/VC, that would enable all people in the game to be playable! would really up the replay value instead of depending on PC mods (which console cant get unless they are official in the game).
 

Craig

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Yakuza 5 is the ultimate Yakuza game to date (PS4 remaster coming February 2020! PS3 version is up on PSN!)
has Haruka playable (best character and most ground breaking innovative battle system ever)!

plus with its unlockable premium adventure mode, theres so much possibilities for the 5 playable protagonists!

spoilers
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TjYbBFX8ySs


is there any other Yakuza game with 5 playable protagonists that includes playable female protagonist as well?

that should be the standard moving forward. Yakuza does have great potential! its crazy it has yet to have a character cheat code like GTA3/VC, that would enable all people in the game to be playable! would really up the replay value instead of depending on PC mods (which console cant get unless they are official in the game).

Eat shit you fucking nerd. I'm not sure what is more cringey... that awful part of the game or you.
 

jro

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Necro-ish bump. For whatever reason, I finally decided to finish up my playthrough of Kiwami, which is awesome, and then Kiwami 2, which is actually awesome-er, and then I started into the Remastered stuff.

Which is awful. In addition to having none of the quality of life improvements from the Kiwami titles, the pacing in 3 is still reminiscent of playing a paint-drying sim, 4 has a completely inane story, disjointed chapters, bad characters, and shallow gameplay complimented by dumb side gameplay elements, and 5, well, no comment because I can't bother after just utterly hating 3 and 4.

The only good part of 4 was when I named the homeless guy's cats The Weeknd and Ed Sheeran.

I guess a lot of it is the $ and time commitment to bring the series into current standards, but it's genuinely strange to me how one series can have such really, really excellent heights, and a bunch of them (0, Kiwami, Kiwami 2, 6, Like a Dragon), and also just bad games on the opposite side (3, 4, and I also really don't like the Judgment series, it de-emphasizes what the Yakuza games did well in favor of bad Phoenix Wright).

Going forward, apparently RGG has split into two core dev teams that will work on both Like a Dragon and Judgment sequels. LaD is honestly one of my favorite JRPGs in quite a while, so that's awesome, but doubling down on Judgment, yeesh, no, not on board.
 

Burning Fight!!

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bwahaha seeing 0 new friends react to the older titles is always funny
 

ggallegos1

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We finished Kiwami a while back and it was fantastic, but i also heard how 3-5 don't amount to as much. Are they even worth playing through to get to 6?
 

Dr Shroom

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3 is some tough shit to get into right after Kiwami 2, it feels very awkward and janky compared to that. 5 isn't that bad though.
 

herb

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Necro-ish bump. For whatever reason, I finally decided to finish up my playthrough of Kiwami, which is awesome, and then Kiwami 2, which is actually awesome-er, and then I started into the Remastered stuff.

Which is awful. In addition to having none of the quality of life improvements from the Kiwami titles, the pacing in 3 is still reminiscent of playing a paint-drying sim, 4 has a completely inane story, disjointed chapters, bad characters, and shallow gameplay complimented by dumb side gameplay elements, and 5, well, no comment because I can't bother after just utterly hating 3 and 4.

The only good part of 4 was when I named the homeless guy's cats The Weeknd and Ed Sheeran.

I guess a lot of it is the $ and time commitment to bring the series into current standards, but it's genuinely strange to me how one series can have such really, really excellent heights, and a bunch of them (0, Kiwami, Kiwami 2, 6, Like a Dragon), and also just bad games on the opposite side (3, 4, and I also really don't like the Judgment series, it de-emphasizes what the Yakuza games did well in favor of bad Phoenix Wright).

Going forward, apparently RGG has split into two core dev teams that will work on both Like a Dragon and Judgment sequels. LaD is honestly one of my favorite JRPGs in quite a while, so that's awesome, but doubling down on Judgment, yeesh, no, not on board.
Terrible take. Also 5 is the best in the series imo
 

Heinz

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I finished 3 and went straight into the start of 4 but that was at least a year ago now. I don't know if I care to keep going at this point, I started using a walkthrough in Kiwami 2 and 3 just to escape the bullshit.
 

jro

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Infinite Wealth due out in about 6 weeks, demo after finishing The Man Who Erased His Name was pretty solid other than -

YongYea is terrible as Kiryu. Granted, no sane person plays this series in a language other than Japanese w/subtitles, but my god. Out of curiosity, I set the demo to English and regretted it within about 5 minutes.

I really enjoyed the first turn-based (the titles are too f'ed up now to refer to them properly), had plenty of fun playing MWEHN, sure this will be fun, but man, casting YY, yeesh. He's actively bad.
 

Dr Shroom

made it in japan
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Infinite Wealth due out in about 6 weeks, demo after finishing The Man Who Erased His Name was pretty solid other than -

YongYea is terrible as Kiryu. Granted, no sane person plays this series in a language other than Japanese w/subtitles, but my god. Out of curiosity, I set the demo to English and regretted it within about 5 minutes.

I really enjoyed the first turn-based (the titles are too f'ed up now to refer to them properly), had plenty of fun playing MWEHN, sure this will be fun, but man, casting YY, yeesh. He's actively bad.
the bitching about it and he mass blocking people on twitter was hilarious though
claims he "earned" the role and didn't just get it because he's a semi-famous youtuber (and asian).

for real though: no sane person should play this in english.
 
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Burning Fight!!

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LOL goobtuber voice actors. It’s like the localization team knows 99.9% of people will play it in Japanese anyway
 
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