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Yakuza – the most underrated franchise in the west

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  • August 14, 2020 at 8:21 am #183671
    Route_69

       

      > The most fleshed-out characters and engaging storytelling;

      > More minigames than any other game and every minigame is high quality and full of nostalgia;

      > Takes place in fictional Roppongi (Tokyo) for the most part, but also fictional Osaka and fictional Hiroshima. I’ve been to all those places in real life and it’s very true to life. Feels like you’re there;

      > Absolutely no canon inconsistencies across 7 titles despite not being released in chronological order which is unheard of;

      > Over the top combat with hundreds of unlockable moves and combos;

      > High replay value (at least for me – I’ve played each title at least twice from beginning to end including all side missions and that’s like 100+ hours of gameplay per playthrough)…

       

      I can’t even decide which title I liked the most since I like them all so damn much. I would say in my top 5 are: 0, 5, 3, Kiwami 2 and 6. Can’t wait for Like a Dragon (7). Honorable mention to Judgement (I have the J version called Judge Eyes that I bought on Japanese release before they censored the guy who was caught doing cocaine).

      Any other fans of this franchise? If you don’t like it then why not?

      August 14, 2020 at 2:50 pm #183713
      Anonymous

        Yeah I love this series now, but back then in PS2 era I didn’t, mainly because I just couldn’t get into the english dub, yeah yeah Mark Hamill woopdidudidu, meant nothing to me as I live in germany and back then only knew the german dub of Star Wars. So afterwards I pretty much ignored the series, and the censorship of 3 and 4 didn’t help to make me interested either. Only with 0 and seeing that they finally put an effort into doing the game justice in the localization I decided to give it another try, and I absolutely loved 0. (yes I think you can start with 0, while it is a prequel and does has references to the other games, once you play those you will have a sorta reverse effect on that and think “oh yeah I remember that from 0”)

        So I got and played Kiwami 1 as well when it was released of course, but then I was in a dilemma, Yakuza 6 would be released before Kiwami 2 but I wanted to play through all games in order before 6 was released as I bought 4&5 (also Dead Souls) in a PSN sale digitally and borrowed my bother’s copy of 3, but what about 2? Well I got the PS2 version of 2 and played through that, as janky as it was with me coming from a PS4 remake of the 1st game to it, (when it released I still played Kiwami 2) and continued with 3-5, and beat 5 only shortly after my copy of 6 arrived so I continued with that right after.

        Afterwards I imported Kenzan (PS3), Ishin (PS4) and the 2 Kurohyou spin offs on PSP, I played through Kenzan and Ishin with help of a fan translation project but i havn’t played the PSP games yet.

        I also loved Judgment and Fist of the North Star: Lost Paradise (as FotNS is my favorite anime of all time).

        Since I am abandoning Sony due to their censorship of japanese games I’m very happy Yakuza 7 (Idc that they omitted the number in the west, I will always call it Yakuza 7) will be released on the PC simultanioulsy.

        August 15, 2020 at 9:21 am #183820
        Route_69

          Yeah Sony Interactive Entertainment Europe and US are just as bad as anything else we in the west have to deal with these days, but I’m lucky enough to speak (and read and write) Japanese so I can enjoy all the games in their original form – I just buy the physical copies from Japan and have them shipped to me.

          BTW I played Kiwami 2 and then 0 in that order, and then I went back to Kiwami 2 when I realized that I hadn’t completed the side-missions with Majima and that turned out to be the perfect experience for me because the end of the Majima side-missions brings the most wonderful conclusion to the 0 story that I never though I’d see, and this was on the same day that I finished the 0 story. I was basically mindblown and I came very close to crying. So much effort is put into making each character multi-layered and no matter how ridiculous things might get at times it’s still believable and immersive. Where TLOU2 feels like a bad movie that’s very different from the prequel, these games are like a very good and consistent movie and pretty much every choice made by characters makes perfect sense.

          I feel that if these games had a driving mechanic they would be better than GTA in every way, but Japan doesn’t want you harming innocent bystanders which is understandable.

          August 15, 2020 at 1:32 pm #183860
          Anonymous

            There is some driving in some games, but it’s not great, lol.

            August 15, 2020 at 1:48 pm #183866
            Route_69

              I mean it’s a mini game and not a free-roam type thing. They could have developed it into something awesome though.

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