Board 8 > Yakuza 5 beated! and just started 6. *Spoilers

(+) Yeah! (+)

Wow what a finale that was. Ending was bad in the worst cliff-hanger bad kinda way but I played Y6 right after so I'm ok with it. I still have mini-games and some other side stuff that I need to clean up but I'll get back to it after Yakuza 6. I'll then play 0 again and come back to 3 (ugh), 4, 5 for 100% completion (or as close as I can possibly get). Then I guess hopefully Like a Dragon will have released on the PS5 so I can finish off the series with the proper respect that it deserves if not I will just settle on my PS4 version.

Anyway. 5 is definitely my 2nd favorite game in the series. If not for its at times atrocious pacing and the almost unnecessary 5th character (could have used this time to flesh out Kiryu and Saejima's plot instead or maybe have Goro be one of the playable characters, which feels like such a missed opportunity in hindsight) , this could have reached 0's heights if not outright surpassed it. I would say Y5 is one of those games which prove to be such a memorable experience but with it's fair share of flaws and unnecessary fat dragging it down.

Series ranking so far
0 > 5 > Kiwami 2 > Kiwami 1 > 4 > 3

It is baffling how when I first played Yakuza on the PS2 years and years ago I was laughing at how bad the game was. What with it's horrible dub and the wannabe Japanese GTA aesthetics. I shunned the series entirely and never gave it a chance despite even owning the rare original PS2 copy of Yakuza 2.

Years and years later I gave the series a shot for the first time when I heard a lot of positive buzz about Yakuza 0. Needless to say my outlook on the series changed completely after playing Yakuza 0 and I was willing to give the entire series a shot. 2020 was also the perfect time for me with a lot of free time in my hands and the entire series being easily accessible on the PS4. Lo behold it has been one of the highlights of my gaming life in 2020.

It is ironic how being a huge fan of Shenmue was what led me to playing Yakuza in the first place but then I wrote off the series completely as something that is not for me. But then if you ask me now? Yakuza has far surpassed Shenmue in ways I would have deemed incomprehensible back then. Oh how the student has become the master. Infact the student would beat the everlasting daylights out of the master now.

I'm still quite early in Y6 but it feels like Nagumo is the second coming of Rikiya and I'm getting huge Y3 vibes from the game. I hope the aniki jinx doesn't happen here.

Top three for me is 0 > Judgment > 5

I'm on the last chapter of Like a Dragon right now though and depending on how it sticks the landing storywise it could end up bumping 5 down.

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Kazuchika Okada baby. Motivated to do the side quests now.

Also why does the combat feel sloppy coming from Y5. I remember enjoying this style of combat in Kiwami 2 but so far this isn't clicking with me.

Kiwami 2 is enormously refined compared to Yakuza 6. It does feel much better once you get some upgrades but it starts extremely clunky and still has some jank even once you're fully loaded. The way combos bounce off of enemy blocks is easily the biggest offender, but it's overall just much less polished than its successor. Can't really blame them too much, since this was their first crack at this engine!

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Well. Outright fighting with combos are atrocious so far (reminds me of the blockfest that Y3 was) but heat actions are so broken which trivializes everything.

Good you are here to confirm Kiwami 2's combat is more polished because I thought it was the same but I remember liking the combat in that game. It has been a while since Kiwami 2 so I thought maybe I was looking at it with rose tinted glasses.