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Yakuza Community Thread - FEEL THE HEAT!

Kimaka

Member
Finished 2. The side stories, cinematic scenes, and minigames were much better than 1. Not as good as 0, but it is a decade plus old game so it is hard to compete with a modern iteration of the Yakuza formula. Some thoughts I had about 2.

-Daigo sucks and is useless. Bless his heart he tries though.
-Best minigame was Kiryu as a host. I cannot wait for Kiwami 2 to see the champagne call in glorious PS4 graphics.
-Osaka Castle was fun. I knew about the tigers, but not the samurai, ninjas, and fucking spike traps. Oh, and a golden castle inside another castle. How did this dude implement all this!?
-The bad guys were boring to me. Kiryu's motivations weren't as personal as in 1 and 0 so I wasn't as invested in stopping them. The Jingweon mafia wanted revenge for shit Kiryu was barely involved in. Ryuji was Kiryu's rival because dragon tattoos and he wanted to be the best. I was so with Sayama when she was telling those two to stop because bomb. They could have both survive if they weren't so committed to punching each other to death. I also really was not aching for another boss fight since I ran out of health items lol.
-They blindsided me with Terada coming back from the dead and explaining his 26 year master plan. Laughed my ass off. That is tied for the funniest thing in the game along with Majima accidentally setting off a bomb.
-I loved how Takashima had no time to for a one on one fight like every other boss and just came in shooting everyone. He was too good for this world.
-It would have been ballsy as fuck if they ended it with Kiryu and Sayama holding each other while the timer counts down. Of course, I knew Kiryu wasn't going to die. There are more Yakuza games to get through.

On to Yakuza 3 now. Camera control is what I am looking forward to the most after 1 and 2.

Well written and developed ? Am I the only one who thought it was (small spoiler)
cliché and even stupidly sexist at one point when suddenly she couldn't save herself from some thugs without her mighty hero
?

Nah, didn't care for that. Also, didn't like how at the end she stupidly attacks Takashima so she could become a hostage and needed to be saved again. Sayama's character suffered after she and Kiryu started developing feeling for each other and she became 'love interest'.
 

Aki-at

Member
My guess is that they don't want to remind us Kazuma once had an actually well written and developed
romance with someone, because hostesses and stuff.
Same reason they got rid of her in the most anticlimactic way back in 3 :(

But yeah, I agree, I can't wait to see her again. She's one of my favorite characters in the series.

I mean I'd take this reasoning but he can still go out with hostesses in Yakuza 1 anyway... I'd get it they just wanted to make him a playboy but he wasn't even that.

This decision making will always baffle me and be one of my biggest gripe with the writing. Just
get her to write and email to him or something. Was it that hard to keep her around even in the background :(

•
Speaking of Kazuma and Yumi, HOLY SHIT Kiryu loses a lot in this game. He loses his mentor, his close friends, his role as a Yakuza, his best friend and the love of his life in this game. Kiryu's got it fucking rough in this game, man

I think that's all I've got for now, but if there's anything more I might add it later. All in all, I'll probably give Kiwami a 9/10. It was a great game, but 0 is a better product imo. I'm literally about to start Yakuza 3 now, so when I finish that I'll post my thoughts on it here as well. Thanks for reading!

Kazama's death scene even with the bad dub always made me cry, I expect it to hit me hard again this time round :(
 

Riposte

Member
I just heard that Majima will be playable in Kiwami 2 (or is it 2 Kiwami?). I'm clearly living under a rock, so could someone link me something to bring me up to speed?

Majima being playable is a pretty unexpected choice. He sort of has a backseat role in 2 IIRC, jumping in at unexpected parts, but I guess that just means you have more things to play with. There's at least one instance I can remember in that game where he goes through hell.
 

Tamanon

Banned
I just heard that Majima will be playable in Kiwami 2 (or is it 2 Kiwami?). I'm clearly living under a rock, so could someone link me something to bring me up to speed?

Majima being playable is a pretty unexpected choice. He sort of has a backseat role in 2 IIRC, jumping in at unexpected parts, but I guess that just means you have more things to play with. There's at least one instance I can remember in that game where he goes through hell.

Well....
It's an aditional sidestory, dealing with Makoto
 

Opa-Pa

Member
I just heard that Majima will be playable in Kiwami 2 (or is it 2 Kiwami?). I'm clearly living under a rock, so could someone link me something to bring me up to speed?

Majima being playable is a pretty unexpected choice. He sort of has a backseat role in 2 IIRC, jumping in at unexpected parts, but I guess that just means you have more things to play with. There's at least one instance I can remember in that game where he goes through hell.

Yeah he'll have a playable story in the remake, which will apparently expand on his story from 0. Here's the subtitled trailer https://youtu.be/Q-69GWips7Q

I mean I'd take this reasoning but he can still go out with hostesses in Yakuza 1 anyway... I'd get it they just wanted to make him a playboy but he wasn't even that.

This decision making will always baffle me and be one of my biggest gripe with the writing. Just
get her to write and email to him or something. Was it that hard to keep her around even in the background :(

I always saw it as that
while he and Yumi both liked each other, they never got to be a couple, while with Kaoru it was pretty obvious that what was next was them dating, in which case him being a playboy would have looked bad, but nope. What bothered me the most is that they were dead set in kicking her out of the series, made evident by her character page in Y3 updating through the game saying she started going out with some "hot american officer".
 

Gacha-pin

Member
I just heard that Majima will be playable in Kiwami 2 (or is it 2 Kiwami?). I'm clearly living under a rock, so could someone link me something to bring me up to speed?

Majima being playable is a pretty unexpected choice. He sort of has a backseat role in 2 IIRC, jumping in at unexpected parts, but I guess that just means you have more things to play with. There's at least one instance I can remember in that game where he goes through hell.

Yeah he will be playable. What we know so far is it is the story why he quit Tojo clan and started up his construction company. Kinda stupid.
 

Kimaka

Member
I've heard that most people don't like the beginning of Yakuza 3 because it is slow, but I am way into ex-Yakuza dad simulator.
 

Opa-Pa

Member
Jeeesus Christ Yakuza 6 looks and feels goddamn amazing. I shouldn't have downloaded this demo oh nooooo

Is the japanese demo available outside of japanese Kiwami now? I'd like to try it.

I've heard that most people don't like the beginning of Yakuza 3 because it is slow, but I am way into ex-Yakuza dad simulator.

The thing with Y3's beginning is that if you find it slow/annoying, it's because you either skipped 2 or are a heartless monster, so either wau it's on you. I loved that section and I was kinda sad it was relatively short compared to the rest of the game.
 

IrishNinja

Member
i got JP demo from the PSN store a while back, so yeah it's been out! warning though, you're basically grabbing the whole damn game at like 30 something gigs just for the small section you're allotted
 

Jimrpg

Member
Jeeesus Christ Yakuza 6 looks and feels goddamn amazing. I shouldn't have downloaded this demo oh nooooo

This is why, when people look at the game on the surface, it may seem like just Kamurocho and Kiryu yet again, but every game comes with lots of improvements. It's actually a very real problem that the game has marketing itself.
 

Opa-Pa

Member
i got JP demo from the PSN store a while back, so yeah it's been out! warning though, you're basically grabbing the whole damn game at like 30 something gigs just for the small section you're allotted

Aah, I had no idea, nice! That's pretty big lol, but I can make some space if it's Yakuza. Will wait till I'm done with Kiwami though.

Is Kiwami fully voiced or is it like 0 with non-voiced side stuff?

I'd say it has even less lines than 0. Y6 is the first and only (so far) fully voiced game in the series.
 
So rather than dropping eighty bucks to get Yakuza 0 and Kiwami in one swoop during the launch hype cycle, decided to finally play Yakuza 5 since it's the only one of the western releases I don't have a firm understanding of... just that Kiryu was a taxi driver and Saejima fights a bear.

So I finished Part 1 yesterday and I just started the prison sequence in two, but seeing some of the conversations gaffers had recently makes Saejima's section out to be a slog. How much of a timesink am I looking at if I don't find this part great?
 

Jimrpg

Member
So rather than dropping eighty bucks to get Yakuza 0 and Kiwami in one swoop during the launch hype cycle, decided to finally play Yakuza 5 since it's the only one of the western releases I don't have a firm understanding of... just that Kiryu was a taxi driver and Saejima fights a bear.

So I finished Part 1 yesterday and I just started the prison sequence in two, but seeing some of the conversations gaffers had recently makes Saejima's section out to be a slog. How much of a timesink am I looking at if I don't find this part great?

The story is about 40-50 hours long. I'd say the Saejima part takes about 8-10 hours, if you just do the story alone.
 

IrishNinja

Member
so glad people are checking for y3 these days, wish it was on PSN - still remember kmart giving me a free copy with my purchase of 4, haha

This is why, when people look at the game on the surface, it may seem like just Kamurocho and Kiryu yet again, but every game comes with lots of improvements. It's actually a very real problem that the game has marketing itself.

this, so hard - my mind is not ready for fights carrying over into shops & working vending machines in 6
 

Jimrpg

Member
so glad people are checking for y3 these days, wish it was on PSN - still remember kmart giving me a free copy with my purchase of 4, haha

this, so hard - my mind is not ready for fights carrying over into shops & working vending machines in 6

Was that in Australia? I vaguely recall something like that happening.

Man - fighting inside buildings and crushing people over shelves of food is what I've been waiting to do since the series started. I remember Dead Rising doing something similar on the 360 and that came out 10 years ago. Y6 looks fantastic to me.
 
Is it just me or is the combat in Kiwami atrocious? First Yakuza game I've played and the fighting aspect is painfully boring. Maybe it'll get better as I learn skills again.
 

Jimrpg

Member
Play-Asia has suggested a ship date of Dec 7th 2017 for Kiwami 2.

Standard Edition

http://www.play-asia.com/ryu-ga-gotoku-kiwami-2/13/70bg81

The limited edition

http://www.play-asia.com/ryu-ga-gotoku-kiwami-2-limited-edition/13/70bg85

contains Kiwami 3CD set (Soundtrack?)
Special Namecard Set
Special DLC

Is it just me or is the combat in Kiwami atrocious? First Yakuza game I've played and the fighting aspect is painfully boring. Maybe it'll get better as I learn skills again.

It's meant to be like Streets of Rage?

Also its not like you're swinging a weapon like in Dark Souls or Dynasty Warriors even where your attack range is pretty wide. Fighting with fists means you have to carefully choose who you want to attack. The hand to hand combat is pretty responsive and you can cancel out of things pretty quick. If you combo for too long (like press the square button 5-6 times), enemies will break your combo. Also try to vary and try to find new heat moves which can be context and location sensitive and this will give you more variety.
 
Is it just me or is the combat in Kiwami atrocious? First Yakuza game I've played and the fighting aspect is painfully boring. Maybe it'll get better as I learn skills again.

Care to tell which close combat systems you enjoy?

Don't tell it's any of the Simon Says of Arkham yore.

Personally Yakuza as good as it gets for close combat besides God Hand. And yeah, the beginning moveset generally is a bit more limited. It gets a lot more fun when you get better dodges, better HEAT moves and parries.
 

Soar

Member
Just picked up my copy of Kiwami, this is probably the best looking steelbook I have. Love the dragon and koi motive. Can't wait to get started!
 
Care to tell which close combat systems you enjoy?

Don't tell it's any of the Simon Says of Arkham yore.

Personally Yakuza as good as it gets for close combat besides God Hand. And yeah, the beginning moveset generally is a bit more limited. It gets a lot more fun when you get better dodges, better HEAT moves and parries.

The RPS Arkham combat is excellent and I don't think there's anything wrong with me liking that nor does it invalidate my opinion. Bayonetta, DMC, Asura's Wrath, God of War, etc I also enjoy.

I really dislike not being able to lock on to specific enemies which makes fighting groups a chore. There's not enough variety in the moveset, you're basically getting two punch buttons, a grab, and a throw unless I'm missing something. Heat finisher isn't explained very well I basically just spam triangle whenever I'm glowing and Kiryu will sometimes do a flashy move. Enemies have way too much health which makes fighting waves or even just groups of street thugs a complete chore. Inventory menu management also leaves something to be desired (Ex. Hot Keys for item consumption).

Like I said this is my first Yakuza so maybe combat improves as you get more skills or the later games fix the issues I have. I probably would have immediately returned this to GameStop if the story weren't so compelling.
 
R1 locks onto a specific enemy (closest enemy). It should be explained in the tutorial. Just get into the habit of holding down R1 all the time in combat, when holding down R1 you can hit "X" to dodge.

Heat moves - you can look up a list in the menu but basically if you can pick up a weapon then it almost certainly has a heat move, and you can grab enemies and pull off a variety of heat moves - grab an enemy and drag them close to a wall - you can do a heat move there (and grab the enemy from behind to pull off a different heat move). Railings - can pull off a heat move when you grab an enemy and are standing near railings. Large bodies of water - grab the enemy etc.

Plus each style have their own heat moves. Too many to list, so I'd recommend referring to the in game moves list to see what you have unlocked and what you can do.

As for moves in general. You need to unlock them. All three styles have a wide variety of counters, combo's, throws, new heat moves etc. It expands greatly the more you play. The moves you have at the start of the game are woefully basic compared to what you can do at the end of the game (this goes for the entire series).
 
Is there some sort of indicator showing you are locked on? I've been using R1 since the tutorial but it doesn't work for me. Not sure what I'm doing wrong.

Thanks for the other tips
 
Is there some sort of indicator showing you are locked on? I've been using R1 since the tutorial but it doesn't work for me. Not sure what I'm doing wrong.

Thanks for the other tips

It should be pretty noticeable IIRC since you face towards the enemy and all moves will go in the target's direction. Sure you are holding that button down?
 
While holding down R1 you're pretty much locked onto the closest enemy to you and you stay locked on until you let go. The only real indication is that your character puts his fists up, your movement just becomes focused around your target rather than "go wherever you move the stick".
 
It should be pretty noticeable IIRC since you face towards the enemy and all moves will go in the target's direction. Sure you are holding that button down?
That's not entirely true when you are facing multiple enemies, or a single fast one. R1 lets you keep your fighting stance and keep your attacks somewhat focused on the enemy, but as a lock-on it's pretty mediocre compared to other games that have a dedicated lock-on button.
 

Jimrpg

Member
The RPS Arkham combat is excellent and I don't think there's anything wrong with me liking that nor does it invalidate my opinion. Bayonetta, DMC, Asura's Wrath, God of War, etc I also enjoy.

I really dislike not being able to lock on to specific enemies which makes fighting groups a chore. There's not enough variety in the moveset, you're basically getting two punch buttons, a grab, and a throw unless I'm missing something. Heat finisher isn't explained very well I basically just spam triangle whenever I'm glowing and Kiryu will sometimes do a flashy move. Enemies have way too much health which makes fighting waves or even just groups of street thugs a complete chore. Inventory menu management also leaves something to be desired (Ex. Hot Keys for item consumption).

Like I said this is my first Yakuza so maybe combat improves as you get more skills or the later games fix the issues I have. I probably would have immediately returned this to GameStop if the story weren't so compelling.

All of those games you've mentioned (besides Arkham) are not hand to hand combat. In Bayo and DMC you get guns and don't have to aim. In God of War you swing axes on chains and have a large radius of attack. In Yakuza you have to be precise about where you're hitting, most of the time you can just use R1 to get by and face up your enemy that way. Heat finishers aren't really about spamming them, you can try and find different locations to trigger different types of finishers, while the effect is the same, the animations are great (and brutal), just have fun with the game rather than pulling off the same heat move every time. Or perhaps the game is not hard enough for you? Try hard mode.

I guess they left out inventory management because they ran out of buttons, a heal button would probably be useful and help the combat flow better.
 
That's not entirely true when you are facing multiple enemies, or a single fast one. R1 lets you keep your fighting stance and keep your attacks somewhat focused on the enemy, but as a lock-on it's pretty mediocre compared to other games that have a dedicated lock-on button.

Well, why would you want a true lock-on anyway? Now it works well against bosses and in battles with many others, why would you want to be locked in too tightly?
 
Well, why would you want a true lock-on anyway? Now it works well against bosses and in battles with many others, why would you want to be locked in too tightly?
Because when I lock-on to something, I wanna be actually locked on to it. DMC, Bayo, LoS, Souls... they all let you completely lock on to the enemy and that makes the one on one fights much better.

The current lock-on in Yakuza games is very very dated and needs to change.
 

Aki-at

Member
I always saw it as that
while he and Yumi both liked each other, they never got to be a couple, while with Kaoru it was pretty obvious that what was next was them dating, in which case him being a playboy would have looked bad, but nope. What bothered me the most is that they were dead set in kicking her out of the series, made evident by her character page in Y3 updating through the game saying she started going out with some "hot american officer".

Wait what, this is the first time I'm reading this. This is seems like some cheap way of making the player base hate her character. I guess it's been over a year since they stopped contacting each other but this feels way too forced and artificial. Not even like Kiryu got another chance at settling down either.
 

Opa-Pa

Member
Wait what, this is the first time I'm reading this. This is seems like some cheap way of making the player base hate her character. I guess it's been over a year since they stopped contacting each other but this feels way too forced and artificial. Not even like Kiryu got another chance at settling down either.

Yup, it's pretty bad, but most people miss it too. The only reason I saw it in game is that after finishing 2, I got curious about
Kaoru since I had never seen screens of her from any other game, and she was obviously VERY important, so I saw people on gamefaqs mentioning that detail from 3, and when I finally got to play it myself I checked her profile after every complete chapter to see if it updated, and yeah, it's legit.
 
Downloaded the Y6 demo. Obviously I won't spoil anything, but it was pretty incredible, getting to see the city again in this new engine, walking into stores, up on rooftops in first person etc.

Although, the fps was really noticeable, definitely under 30 a lot. Does anyone know if the PS4Pro helps keep a stable 30fps?
 
Although, the fps was really noticeable, definitely under 30 a lot. Does anyone know if the PS4Pro helps keep a stable 30fps?
PS4Pro is a locked 1080p/30 with no screen tearing.

Base PS4 is 900p/30 with dips with occasional screan tearing. Didn't really bother me when I played the demo but not everyone will be as easy going on that matter.
 
PS4Pro is a locked 1080p/30 with no screen tearing.

Base PS4 is 900p/30 with dips with occasional screan tearing. Didn't really bother me when I played the demo but not everyone will be as easy going on that matter.

I mean, I'm usually not that picky about fps. But I guess I've just been spoiled by the recent PS4 60fps Yakuza titles. Plus I'd kind of like to have the definitive Yakuza 6 experience.

My ps4 has also been acting up lately, so maybe it's time to replace it. Would he nice to replay The Last Guardian in solid fps as well.
 
Nagoshi DA GAWD did another of those weird ass streams where it's all anime and skits and Antipornos.

I don't understand a word though from a certain point, the background is replaced with the entrance to Shinjuku/Tenkaichi Street. Maybe something was said or discussed or maybe it's all just a recap? Can someone who speaks Japanese please translate: https://youtu.be/B4YZyHW5Pp4?t=1h10m20s
 
Yeah he'll have a playable story in the remake, which will apparently expand on his story from 0. Here's the subtitled trailer https://youtu.be/Q-69GWips7Q



I always saw it as that
while he and Yumi both liked each other, they never got to be a couple, while with Kaoru it was pretty obvious that what was next was them dating, in which case him being a playboy would have looked bad, but nope. What bothered me the most is that they were dead set in kicking her out of the series, made evident by her character page in Y3 updating through the game saying she started going out with some "hot american officer".

Before Kiwami I always saw it as
he and Yumi were dating. Period. They act like they were dating. People around them act like they were dating. Everything points to the fact that they were dating. He gave her a ring for Christ's sake. Then again this series gets flat out dumb when it comes to giving Kiryu a love interest.
after Kiwami
they added in some BS where they were still sorting out their feelings or some shit. I hated the ring quest with a passion.

The worst is in Yakuza 5
when he is literally living with Mayumi, she's CLEARLY acting like a girlfriend. And the game is like nope, they aren't dating,
even though every implication and bit of body language says that they are. But we can't have Kiryu have a real interest in an adult relationship, it's telephone clubs, hostesses,
and occasionally getting raped by a cartoonish trans person.
 
I mean, I'm usually not that picky about fps. But I guess I've just been spoiled by the recent PS4 60fps Yakuza titles. Plus I'd kind of like to have the definitive Yakuza 6 experience.

My ps4 has also been acting up lately, so maybe it's time to replace it. Would he nice to replay The Last Guardian in solid fps as well.

Its worth splashing out for. Having a solid version of 6 made a world of difference for me, and I can vouch that TLG runs wonderfully on the Pro as well :)
 
Its worth splashing out for. Having a solid version of 6 made a world of difference for me, and I can vouch that TLG runs wonderfully on the Pro as well :)

Thanks pal.

And yea, TLG was my GOTY last year, but it was one of the rare games where the FPS was a really noticeable cloud over the experience.
 
I guess this is a random thought but am I the only one that's really annoyed that Yakuza 3-5 and Dead Souls aren't on PlayStation Now? I don't even really care about PlayStation Now as it's kind of a mediocre service but I would totally use it to play those games. Hopefully by the time Kiwami 2 is out and I'm done with it there will be some solution for playing those games on PS4.
 
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