Hey YakuzaGAF. I've had Yakuza 4 for ages at this point, but I only finally got around to doing a proper Extra Hard run (as in, I started a new game on Extra Hard, as opposed to doing it on NG+). I'd have done it sooner, but my dumb PS3 kept breaking on me. All I've got left off is the last four Boss Fights, which I've been putting off until I fight Amon/finish all of the substories and I complete their movesets (as in, I do that IF7R thing as well). Warning: long post coming up!)
Some impressions of the game based on my original runthrough
-->While I haven't played on Easy or Normal (my very first playthrough was on Hard all the way
) I really love the battle system. It feels really satisfying and you can't just rush into fights with guns blazing or you'll just get blown up. The only problem I have is Heat moves being on the same button as the kick button (I'll get Heat moves when I'm trying to juggle enemies for extra damage or when I'm saving it up).
-->The story was pretty good. I don't really know how it stacks up to the rest of the series since it was my first Yakuza game ever (though I'd tried the Yakuza 3 demo before).
-->Tanimura was easily the most surprising character. I thought I'd hate him because of what I'd read on the Install screen but he ended up being my favourite character. It doesn't hurt that they had other nationalities in his part of the story (it's nice to see the Phillipines get acknowledged in a game) and I liked the change of pace with the police radio.
-->The substories are really great but the way some of them get activated got annoying especially with this being my second playthrough. I loved the minigames too (except for the Ping Pong, that was incredibly dumb).
-->The bossfights were pretty great, Tanimura vs. the SWAT team on Hard was easily the most fun to play (though I'm sure that my opinion of that fight is going to change when I get around to finishing it on Extra Hard lol). Poor Saejima though, he's got some of the most frustrating fights in the game.
Here a few more impressions, specifically from my Extra Hard playthrough.
--->Akiyama has to be the best character in the game by far, especially for Extra Hard. His moveset is just really good (that range, that speed, that damage, that comboability, also you can catapult tons of weapons at opponents because his whole moveset are kicks) and he's pretty simple to play as (unlike Saejima or Kiryu, you can just abuse heats recklessly). I breezed through his section with no problems at all.
--->Saejima is still really tough. Triple Charging Finish is totally vilified by Extra Hard, it would have been impossible to beat Kiryu and the prison level without it. Even with TCF, you still have to play really smart with him but he feels the most satisfying to win fights with because of that.
--->Tanimura is a lot worse than what I played of him on Hard. He's still got the parries but the increased attack rate of enemies + increased damage + low health and slow attack speed make him pretty terrible for Extra Hard. He's not too bad and he's still got the second best combo-ability but man, I did not breeze through his section like I did on Hard difficulty. My reliance on Parries and Grabs for most group fights make him way more of a one trick pony than Saejima.
--->Kiryu is good but man he takes a lot of mastering to play because since he doesn't have any one overly strong trait or move like the others. I definitely don't like that despite all of the cool heats, you'll learn that you can't just freely use them (because the Balance is too good of an advantage to pass up on). He also has way too many heats that it's too common for me to get the wrong one used. Still, that smoking heat is sweet.
Also I hated Saito the Prison Guard before (because you have to fight him with underlevelled Kiryu and Saejima) but Extra Hard really ramped up by hatred of the guy. lol. I'll probably post some more, proper impressions after I finally finish the game properly but yeah that's all I have about now.
How many missable sub-events that I can't complete after a certain point are there in this?
Not sure on a specific number but AFAIK it seems to only be Akiyama's substories that require Hana that have this. I seemed to be able to complete most other substories in each individual section.
