Yakuza series

The Saejima hunting mini-game is very tedious otherwise I liked Yakuza 5 a lot.

I feel this serie is often more about the writting/themes/narration and gameplay ideas than the actual execution of those ideas. The taxi mini game is a good example of a great idea, putting unexpected depth and complexity (you need to arrive on time, drive properly, avoid accidents AND be a good conversationalist all at the same time) as a way to show being a taxi driver is more than meet the eye, but the implementation is a bit dubious with car handling being meh, collisions being strangely detected and random pedestrians being 10 times more dangerous than the scripted jaywalkers. The same can be said with the hunting. It conveys pretty well (especially in such a small map) the idea of hostile elements and dangerous wilderness, but it's all a bit repetitive, not very challenging and not very tightly implemented (the way stuff randomly spawns, the way you get stuck in alarm mode because a squirel saw you, etc).

I really love the baseball mini game (even if it becomes trivial super fast), because of the contrast between 5 min of narrative build up for one second of gameplay. It's pretty cool that it also mirrors the main plot, as a very short event, a single swing of the bat, is the focus of that whole story arch. There is also something that works extremely well in the idol mini game, the contrast between rehearsals / low stake events and then the main event. When you reach the main event you probably have gone through the routine several times and you mastered it, but the build up to the actual performance (there is like 2 minutes between the moment you chose 'let's go' and the first input you have to do for the performance) really gives the feeling of something you put in motion and can no longer stop and you feel something akin to stage fright and almost fumble things you aced 15 min earlier in a practice session.

Yakuza 6 is the newest one. 0 was the one before it, but it is a prequel to the entire series. The Kiwami ones are remakes of the first two (PS2) games.

Szlia said:

80ish hours in Yakuza 5 and I am finally seeing the end of it!

Click to expand...

110ish hours in Yakuza 5 and I have not finished it yet... I think I suffer from moving goal post syndrome. "Let's just do all the side quests and sub stories" turned into "Let's do that and also get everyone to level 25 and get all the abilities and why not get some of the top weapons and train the weapon guy to use them and it's a bit dumb to miss some of these locker keys and what about that Victory Road thing..."

I guess I'll call for help if I catch myself trying to learn the rules of baccarat or shogi, or if I try to woo bar hostesses...

RobXIII this game in unhealthy for completionists, especially dumb completionists like me, because I spent a lot of time on grindy, not interesting stuff (leveling up, getting all soul points, getting all revelations, getting to N°1 in the coliseum with Saejima, getting max skill with all weapons with Mr Baseball, ultimate battles, etc), instead of skipping these and go for all the stuff that triggers narrative elements like wooing the hostesses. These damn bastards also managed to put some post game stuff that is not completion or trophy related but has narrative elements: spending time in town with Haruka... There is something pretty cruel to have a game that took me 130ish hours to reach 60ish % completion and know I can reach 100% and still have stuff to do.... and that's the US version that does not have the arcade quiz game!

Fun fact: Yakuza 6 is on my shelf...

Yakuza 0 now launched on steam. Bought it there too, quit playing the PS version when I heard there was a PC version coming. Works perfectly for me, but lots of people are having issues opening it. Black screen then crashes.

So I finished the post game stuff with Kiryu walking around town with Haruka who wants to eat all types of food and makes a number of mini games related challenges and one of the things you get from it is that Haruka gets to predict rolls in chou-han.... So I am like, whatever, let's play the 4 or 5 mini games I have yet to play and finnish with chou-han... motherfucking chou-han. This is the most rudimentary of all dice games, but it is also one that is very very often shown in classic movies involving yakuza (I mean there are dozens of such scenes in the Zatoichi serie alone). Just like in american casino/gangster movies, the house does not like it a lot when a player wins too much. So suddenly, instead of doing a lazy implementation of the game, the team behind the Yakuza game decided to go all in. SPOILERS AHEAD: as you win at chou-han, the dealer talks you into betting on increasingly foolish things and then even defies you one on one... the first time the one and one happened, I won the first duel, doubled my winnings and went on to potentially double it again, and that triggered a quick time event, with a wide shot of the gambling hall showing a guy in the foreground nodding to the dealer and then a cut to the dealer doing her usual throw of the dice in the cup, but this time with a button prompt that I missed! If you have seen these gambling scenes in these dozens and dozens of Yakuza movies (or similar scenes in american westerns or gangster movies), you know exactly what was supposed to happen: Kiryu would confront the dealer, grab her arm and make a third die fall from her hand or something similar... but I missed the button prompt! So I let you guess how many more hours of chou-han I played yesterday to get another shot at this to no avail.... The worst thing is that this stuff is not online, I even could not find a mention of it doing some google-fu... but apparently you can play in a way that makes the dealer have a crush on you and ask you out, which triggers a non listed sub-story where you try to help her cheat at roulette...

This game man.... a bottomless well.

Running amazing so far on PC. Not sure if I'll stick with kb+m or switch to controller but I'm going to give kb+m a bit longer.

The only problem I've had with the Yakuza series is the game typically keeps the same fundamentals of combat, story, and mini-games so it can be draining if you play multiple games too closely together. Even then, usually there is enough flavor added with each game that its enjoyable.

Denamian said:

The game even tells you that real yakuza use a gamepad. You're a real yakuza aren't you?

Only got to mess around with 0 on PC for about 15 minutes, but it runs well for me on an 8700K, 16GB RAM, and 970 GTX.

Click to expand...

Haha yeah I already switched. Melee combat just feels awkward with a mouse. Played a couple hours, no problems here with everything maxed.

I talked to some girl about getting into this franchise once, since she was a fan, and even with her telling me the order to start, etc.... I'm still confused as fuck.

It both seems like something I'd enjoy and yet also not enjoy all at once. Not that I'd even know where to start with it anyway.