Current Events > Why the FUCK haven't you played a Yakuza game yet?

(+) Yeah! (+)

It's 2022 and you haven't touched one of these? They're always a good time and super goofy. I'm playing Judgment right now. Fucking pick it up or Yakuza Like A Dragon. The time is NOW

I played Y:LAD up until the point where you have to go the part-time agency thing. Should get back into it to be tbh w/u

I've almost completed the main series and am trying to decide if I want to replay LaD or move on to Judgement

I'm trying to beat Pitfall!

I liked the first two, when I played them on the PS2.

besides that, I haven't been a fan of any of the others I played through: Y3-Y5, Y0, & Y: LaD.

I've played and beaten every mainline Yakuza game (excluding ps2 originals).

DipDipDiver posted...

I've almost completed the main series and am trying to decide if I want to replay LaD or move on to Judgement

Definitely move on to Judgment. Both games are fantastic and Yagami is a great character.

[LFAQs-redacted-quote]

That's part of their charm

Tbh it just seems like too late to get into them and to enjoy them properly Id probably have to play one with dates graphics.

Once you play your 3rd Yakuza game you realize its the same game. You buy ALL of them for like $30 and never play them again.

I don't play games that mainly feature male characters

I'm on 0 right now. I ended up playing it last even though everyone says to play it first, but honestly I think I'm enjoying it more this way

MarthGoomba posted...

I don't play games that mainly feature male characters

90% of games

[LFAQs-redacted-quote]

To be fair though. The main story is, for the most part, very serious. It's the side quests that are super wacky.

Lairen posted...

Once you play your 3rd Yakuza game you realize its the same game. You buy ALL of them for like $30 and never play them again.

I've spent the last 8 months or so playing them all back to back and I could not disagree more

Nothing about them looked interesting to me.

DipDipDiver posted...

I've spent the last 8 months or so playing them all back to back and I could not disagree more

You can disagree all day.

I mean damn even the city is like almost the same from last game.....

Honestly IMO, they are not really goofy. There are sub stories with humor but the main story is always pretty deadly serious. When I think of goofy I think more of those Saints Row games or something.

although I havent played LAD- that one looks like it might be a bit sillier in tone

I have beaten 0 - 6, at the end of Fist of the North Star, halfway through Judgment, and 50 hours into Y7.

I...I have a problem.

SecondBreakfast posted...

Tbh it just seems like too late to get into them and to enjoy them properly Id probably have to play one with dates graphics.

Not at all, the remake of K1 uses the same engine Y3 - 5 + Y0 uses and looks great. Really good, actually. All of them do. K2 uses the newer Dragon Engine which is SUPER good. All of them, 0 - 6, look and run and play wonderfully on the PS4 so this shouldn't stop you at all. Check out 0, it is super cheap these days and is filled with content and will determine if you like the series or not.

Lairen posted...

You can disagree all day.

I mean damn even the city is like almost the same from last game.....

The city is a huge part of the Yakuza story, but there are numerous other cities in the games throughout. Like, Y5 has 5 cities in it. Y0 has 2, 2 has 2, 3 has 2, 5 has 5, 6 has 2. Only 1 and 4 have the sole city, and it DOES change across each game. Be it Little Asia showing up, Kamurocho Hills being worked on or completed, the underground sewer system, the rooftops.

So yeah, I've played all of them and I also cannot disagree more. The city is a huge part of the series and it shows and evolves as the games go on.

I have a sealed LAD, Origins and 6 digitally. Those are the ones i just havnt gotten around to ever.....

Then theres the FotNS Yakuza game and the Judgement games which are even more yakuza games.....

Lairen posted...

You can disagree all day.

I mean damn even the city is like almost the same from last game.....

There are two recurring cities that actually do change both in subtle and not-so-subtle ways across the series, but gameplay-wise they are a lot different from one another. In fact 1, 2, and 3 do not even have similar combat mechanics, and then 4 comes along and has you playing as multiple characters

I played 0 last year. I keep meaning to play Kiwami soon

Im not a blinded fan as you are.

Have you heard of Dynasty Warriors? Well theres a truck ton of them and theyre all the same fucking game and i love and have played almost all of them. And theyre making more and i will buy and play them. They will be the same shit over again too.

Lairen posted...

Im not a blinded fan as you are.

Have you heard of Dynasty Warriors? Well theres a truck ton of them and theyre all the same fucking game and i love and have played almost all of them. And theyre making more and i will buy and play them. They will be the same shit over again too.

I have heard of Dynasty Warriors and I don't know what that has to do with Yakuza. The Yakuza games are far more different from one another than you seem willing to acknowledge

i dunno i tried playing yazuka 0? it seemed like a basic beat em up and i was like wtf its 2021 why would i play this so i dropped it.

DipDipDiver posted...

I have heard of Dynasty Warriors and I don't know what that has to do with Yakuza. The Yakuza games are far more different from one another than you seem willing to acknowledge

I was using it as an example to show that youre blinded to not see these games as insanely similar to each other.

I knew you wouldnt understand but someone else might.

Heres a random persons opinion i picked because theyre agreeing to my point:

I just played these 4 Yakuza games in the span of the last year and a half, and I feel like I'm replaying the exact same game each time with just slight differences. It got to the point where I'd rather just watch all the cutscenes on youtube and experience Yakuza as a movie then a game. Hell you can watch the cutscenes of every game and feel like you got the same experience.

I'm not blinded just because you disagree with me. I'm just a guy who has played through all these games recently enough to be able to see that each title is distinctly different from the last one.

I played 0 and loved it. Like top 50 game easily. But I played Kiwami immediately after and fell off about halfway through.

DipDipDiver posted...

I'm not blinded just because you disagree with me. I'm just a guy who has played through all these games recently enough to be able to see that each title is distinctly different from the last one.

Heres CyricZ (A nobody that doesnt know anything about Yakuza) responding:

You're not completely off-base. The gameplay does tend to all run together between games, especially if you play multiple ones in a short amount of time.

I started 0 last month and I've only played a little bit so far, but what I've played already I'm enjoying.

The last thing that happened to me was getting my ass beat by this comically muscular dude who literally serves as the game's way of reminding you to save and not walk around with tons of cash on you because this dude will mug you and he knocks money out of you with every hit he lands lol

Well I'm glad you found people who agree with you, but it doesn't really change my experience with the games. I would say that 4 and 5 are similar, 2 and 6 are similar, 0 and 1 are similar, but each of those pairs of games are drastically different from the other pairs. Obviously the world and structure of the games have things in common. They wouldn't be sequels if they didn't. The way the games play, most notably the combat, is very very different.

Lairen posted...

Heres CyricZ (A nobody that doesnt know anything about Yakuza) responding:

You're not completely off-base. The gameplay does tend to all run together between games, especially if you play multiple ones in a short amount of time.

You certainly have takes in this topic yep.

I would also like to note that Cyric saying they tend to run together is not the same as what you said, which was

Lairen posted...

Once you play your 3rd Yakuza game you realize its the same game. You buy ALL of them for like $30 and never play them again.

DipDipDiver posted...

I would also like to note that Cyric saying they tend to run together is not the same as what you said, which was

Yep. If someone thinks Yakuza 1 plays exactly the same as Yakuza 5, they are fucking delusional. Each of the 5(!) characters has their own combat style in each of the 5(!) cities, as well as each having a MAJOR side story with a whole unique gameplay style. Taxi driving / racing, hunting, snowball fights, an ENTIRE Idol story, baseball training thing that I skipped cause I hate the batting cages. The only time I actually got burnt out, cause I played through all of these in a relatively quick manner, was in the middle of Y5 and that was because it was just far too big. Far, far too big.

Getting back to a smaller story in 6 with the two cities and smaller scale story was a very welcome reprieve, and I blitzed through that with a renewed sense of desire to play the series. Now I'm 25 hours into Judgment and loving the hell out of it (which also does FEEL like a Yakuza game, but has enough unique elements and fun diversions to keep it its own thing).

Kaldrenthebold posted...

Yeah 5 is the only one that really tested my patience. It spent an entire chapter in prison, with like 3 fights the whole time, spent the next entire chapter hunting in the woods, and then spent the entire chapter after that doing dance battles

But no this guy thinks it's the same game as Yakuza 1, or Yakuza 3, or Yakuza 6

DipDipDiver posted...

I would also like to note that Cyric saying they tend to run together is not the same as what you said, which was

He responded to what that guy said so. You have to read what i post to make coherent rebuttals....

Kaldrenthebold posted...

Yep. If someone thinks Yakuza 1 plays exactly the same as Yakuza 5, they are fucking delusional. Each of the 5(!) characters has their own combat style in each of the 5(!) cities, as well as each having a MAJOR side story with a whole unique gameplay style. Taxi driving / racing, hunting, snowball fights, an ENTIRE Idol story, baseball training thing that I skipped cause I hate the batting cages. The only time I actually got burnt out, cause I played through all of these in a relatively quick manner, was in the middle of Y5 and that was because it was just far too big. Far, far too big.

Getting back to a smaller story in 6 with the two cities and smaller scale story was a very welcome reprieve, and I blitzed through that with a renewed sense of desire to play the series. Now I'm 25 hours into Judgment and loving the hell out of it (which also does FEEL like a Yakuza game, but has enough unique elements and fun diversions to keep it its own thing).

Lol good point. It takes 4 games to see change in gameplay.

Lairen posted...

Lol good point. It takes 4 games to see change in gameplay.

Wrong again. Kiwami 1 and Kiwami 2 are worlds apart, and then 3 is completely different from 2.

In fact I don't even think you need to have played those games to see how wrong you are about this tbh

I'm about 20 hours into Judgment right now, but I kinda stopped. Haven't picked it back up in like 4 months.

SecondBreakfast posted...

Tbh it just seems like too late to get into them and to enjoy them properly Id probably have to play one with dates graphics.

Yakuza 0, K1, and K2 all came out within the past 7 years. 3-5 are ps3 remasters, so they do look a little older but not bad. Really, just 3 looks older. And 6 and 7 are also recent.

The series is on my backlog. My brother is playing Yakuza 0 and I'm loving the way it looks. Reminds me of Sleeping Dogs somewhat, which I loved.

DipDipDiver posted...

Wrong again. Kiwami 1 and Kiwami 2 are worlds apart, and then 3 is completely different from 2.

In fact I don't even think you need to have played those games to see how wrong you are about this tbh

Theyre just different! Really different!

Damn. Good point.

Stay salty bro

DipDipDiver posted...

Stay salty bro

Lol. Trying to come up with differences is hard. Im asking too much.

i played 0-2 and 7. I still need to play 3-6. But I get so burnt out on one that I need to take a break afterwards >_<

Jokes on you. I've played and beaten 10.

If I want to play a bunch of minigames I'll play wario ware. If I want to play an action game, I'll play a Platinum Games title. If I want to play a narrative-driven 3rd person game, I'll pick something up from Naughty Dog. The Yakuza series just falls between the cracks for me in terms of actual purpose. It's not good enough at any one thing but gets by on being just okay in a lot of things, which is exactly what some people want in a game and I'm happy for those people, but it's just not for me.

Lairen posted...

Lol. Trying to come up with differences is hard. Im asking too much.

Cool story bro
I'm kinda done caring, you can be wrong if you want to

s0nicfan posted...

If I want to play a bunch of minigames I'll play wario ware. If I want to play an action game, I'll play a Platinum Games title. If I want to play a narrative-driven 3rd person game, I'll pick something up from Naughty Dog. The Yakuza series just falls between the cracks for me in terms of actual purpose. It's not good enough at any one thing but gets by on being just okay in a lot of things, which is exactly what some people want in a game and I'm happy for those people, but it's just not for me.

I can see that. Honestly they all have things about them that keep the individual titles from being great games, but the series as a whole is greater than the sum of its parts IMO