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Yakuza Zero: The Promised Land |Import OT| - Party like its 1988!

takoyaki

Member
Off topic but what's the best place to get Ishin now that the translation guide is completely done? Physical copy from somewhere or off psn using a JP account system?

Thanks!

Was surprised to see the downloadable version is still full price (over 8000 Yen). You can get the game for half that price if you buy it used on ebay or new for around $60 on ebay/playasia/etc.


I got a ps4 today! What's the general consensus so far about zero vs ishin? I'll get them both eventually, just looking for one to start with.

Personally, I prefer the spin-off Yakuza games, so my pick would be Ishin. If you’re a history buff/like samurai movies or if you haven’t played the older Yakuza games yet, go with Ishin. If you prefer the modern(ish) setting and want to continue the story of Kiryu / Majima, then play Zero first.

There’s no wrong choice ;)
 
Off topic but what's the best place to get Ishin now that the translation guide is completely done? Physical copy from somewhere or off psn using a JP account system?

Thanks!

I got a copy off of a third party seller on Amazon (US) for like $40 a few months ago. brand new. YMMV

e: looks like they're going for about $55 on there now for new copies fulfilled by amazon (so Prime applies if you have it)
 

luka

Loves Robotech S1
Personally, I prefer the spin-off Yakuza games, so my pick would be Ishin. If you’re a history buff/like samurai movies or if you haven’t played the older Yakuza games yet, go with Ishin. If you prefer the modern(ish) setting and want to continue the story of Kiryu / Majima, then play Zero first.

There’s no wrong choice ;)

Well, my favorite game in the series is kenzan! so I was definitely leaning towards ishin. :)

I was just curious is zero had any major additions or improvements that would tip the scales a little. Demo is taking it's sweet time downloading so I probably won't get to try it tonight.
 

takoyaki

Member
Well, my favorite game in the series is kenzan! so I was definitely leaning towards ishin. :)

I was just curious is zero had any major additions or improvements that would tip the scales a little. Demo is taking it's sweet time downloading so I probably won't get to try it tonight.

Kenzan and Ishin are my favorites. I really like the idea of taking "digital actors" from the main franchise and having them play (somewhat) historical figures that fit their personalities. Ishin tells a great story and it's not like the other Yakuza games where the stories sometimes bleed into each other. The swordfighting works really well with the Yakuza battle system, a refined version of Kenzan's system. Farming, cooking and the battle dungeon will keep you hooked for days (the vita companion app is great for those) and the game feels extremely polished at 1080p/60fps.

Having said all that, Zero has same funky sidemissions...
 
Zero actually has basically the same mechanics as Ishin, down to fighting styles you can change on the fly. I dunno, you could go with either first.

as much as I liked Ishin, I personally prefer the mainline series
 
Aw yes. It has arrived (took a week to get here from Japan.) I'm so close to the final chapter in Ishin, but I might pop this in tonight for a cheeky wee play.

CAYbiDqW8AAUByz.jpg
 

Gacha-pin

Member
Some minor stuff I noticed in chapter 3, in the slugger style training with フェイフウ.

In fifth training, フェイフウ uses a katana (japanese sword). He says his form is odd (for katana battle) but you don't have to bother with it. And after the training, Majima says Yep, your form is strange. フェイフウ doesn't say more about it but his form is the same as 天然理心流 that Majima uses as Okita Souji in Ishin. After the training, Majima use 天然理心流 when he brings a katana. Kinda cool.
 
I dunno about the rest of you guys but I don't like how they shifted focus off of kazuma kiryu after yakuza 3.

We all love kiryu but give the man a rest and let him retire. He came back more time than a comic book vilain from death. And the series introduced several well worthy characters to shift the focus from him.
 
You guys are killing me. Were can I import to Europe safely ?

I found a PS4 copy on eBay, second hand for £38. Been using the KHH Subs guide and am really enjoying it. Next to Yakuza 2, it's my second favourite one so far (and I've also played through 1, 3, 4 and about 3 hours of Dead Souls.) I understand very little spoken Japanese and next to no written, and even then I'm loving it. Well worth importing, if you don't mind reading along with the KHH Subs guide.

Zero is going to have to really impress me to beat Ishin. I'll reserve full judgement until an English guide does come out, but I'm going to take a dip early and see what it's like. :)
 

takoyaki

Member
I understand very little spoken Japanese and next to no written, and even then I'm loving it. Well worth importing, if you don't mind reading along with the KHH Subs guide.

That's how I played through Kenzan way back when and it was a great experience. Didn't understand one word of Japanese, but reading the translation after watching the cutscene worked just fine. The only time a guide is really necessary is when the quest marker is not displayed on the minimap because you have to do some investigating.

The guides have gotten so much better and now there are smartphones/tablets to comfortably read them on while playing. Importing really is the way to go with the franchise, especially with niche games like Kenzan/Ishin that probably will never leave Japan.

edit: I know it sounds like "homework", but reading a bit about Ryouma, the Shinsengumi or the Bakumatsu Period/Meiji Restauration will help you get so much more out of the story. It takes like 15 minutes and you'll understand a lot more about what's going on in Ishin (just know that the game uses history as a framework but most of it is fiction):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sakamoto_Ryōma
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shinsengumi
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chōshū_Domain
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satsuma_Domain

Ok, that's enough advertising for Ishin for one day; But the game is really worth it :)
 

Parakeetman

No one wants a throne you've been sitting on!
Takoyaki you have just sold me on importing Ishin. Such a shame that Sega doesn't give the games international releases.

Sales trend of the series is your answer why they dont release it.

If you want to blame someone blame the so called fellow "gamers" who never picked up the games in the series.
 

takoyaki

Member
Sales trend of the series is your answer why they dont release it.

If you want to blame someone blame the so called fellow "gamers" who never picked up the games in the series.

It's a real shame but you're right. Sega should port the HD remasters of 1&2 to PC and see what happens. If they were able to do a great Valkyria Chronicles port with just 4 people, then this would be worth trying. The series could have a second lease on life with Steam Sales and word of mouth. They just screwed up big time marketing Yakuza 1 as "GTA Japan". Think of all the funny Youtube clips and streams of the sidemissions, the game could have so much free marketing.

Takoyaki you have just sold me on importing Ishin. Such a shame that Sega doesn't give the games international releases.

Glad to hear that. One down, 7 billion more to go ;)
 
except that there aren't english subs for the HD collection are there? even if they pasted the ones from the original versions that would still kind of be a lot of work, I'd think

but yes

they should
 

takoyaki

Member
^ I think you're right, but they did it once for PS2. One PewdiePie video of Kiryu punching that tiger or something could be worth hiring two more people working on putting the subtitles back in. I just feel like the fighting system alone would hook so many people if they just knew the game existed and had a cheap way to get it on a modern system.
 
I found a PS4 copy on eBay, second hand for £38. Been using the KHH Subs guide and am really enjoying it. Next to Yakuza 2, it's my second favourite one so far (and I've also played through 1, 3, 4 and about 3 hours of Dead Souls.) I understand very little spoken Japanese and next to no written, and even then I'm loving it. Well worth importing, if you don't mind reading along with the KHH Subs guide.

Zero is going to have to really impress me to beat Ishin. I'll reserve full judgement until an English guide does come out, but I'm going to take a dip early and see what it's like. :)

I should do Ishin first but it's 60 euros on play asia. Welp...
 
For what it's worth, Kenzan was also my favorite of the series but I really struggled to get into Ishin. Everything about it (characters, story, world) felt really flat and lifeless in comparison to Kenzan.

I may jump back in and try to finish it one day during a RGG drought, but it just didn't click for me for some reason.

Edit:
And to bump it back to the topic at hand, though I'm still early in RGG0, I am absolutely loving it. After 5, I was really worried about where the series would go. The prequel seemed to be just the right card to play at just the right time.
 

Varion

Member
Goddamn why is Queen of the Passion so much harder than the other disco tracks to do on hard. Got Disco Queen and Friday Night down pretty well so thought I'd try that one next and can't even get more than one star.

Probably going to finish this up tomorrow though, I've done basically all the subevents that I can do at this point (I was going to try and do them all but the phone club minigame is just awful), finished the property management and cabaret club stuff and am on Chapter 10 of the main story, so it's just going to be all story to the end now. All in all it's been a fantastic game though, so much fun stuff to lose yourself in when you're not advancing the story, and the story itself has been great too.
 

Parakeetman

No one wants a throne you've been sitting on!
Goddamn why is Queen of the Passion so much harder than the other disco tracks to do on hard. Got Disco Queen and Friday Night down pretty well so thought I'd try that one next and can't even get more than one star.

Probably going to finish this up tomorrow though, I've done basically all the subevents that I can do at this point (I was going to try and do them all but the phone club minigame is just awful), finished the property management and cabaret club stuff and am on Chapter 10 of the main story, so it's just going to be all story to the end now. All in all it's been a fantastic game though, so much fun stuff to lose yourself in when you're not advancing the story, and the story itself has been great too.

Very cool to hear. I really need to get back into the game, but have a ton of work related stuff need to deal with. So have not been able to commit time to gaming outside of digimon which doesnt really require my attention past doing the "pokemon shuffle".

This is the type of game for me that I need to play in large chunks of time. D:

Am real curious to see where the team takes the series from here.
 
I'm only in chapter 2, cleaning up substories and collecting cards.

Why does the phone dating stuff suck? there's a lot of substories attached to it, so hopefully it's not that bad.
 

Parakeetman

No one wants a throne you've been sitting on!
I'm only in chapter 2, cleaning up substories and collecting cards.

Why does the phone dating stuff suck? there's a lot of substories attached to it, so hopefully it's not that bad.

Its to simulate how stupid and pointless it was in real life too of course. :D Its hilarious I remember when there used to be テレクラ all over Japan.
 

Varion

Member
I'm only in chapter 2, cleaning up substories and collecting cards.

Why does the phone dating stuff suck? there's a lot of substories attached to it, so hopefully it's not that bad.
It has to be experienced to be believed really, but basically most of it involves spinning the stick round to 'charge' shots and firing them at the right one of a bunch of boxes to decide what Kiryuu's going to say to the girl on the other end of the phone. Doesn't sound so bad, but:
- It's all timed, obviously.
- The answer you need to fire at usually ends up being the smallest one right at the back, constantly disappearing behind the gigantic wrong answers which lower the girl's interest in you if you accidentally hit them. After a while the right answer's box changes colour, but if you're relying on that all the time then you're just going to run out of time.
- They're all in katakana, making them pretty hard to read, especially as the boxes constantly end up flipped so you're trying to read them backwards.
- When you've done a girl's subevent, they'll keep calling in anyway. A lot. And while you can narrow down to a degree what girl you're talking to during the call, it's just to one of two or three really based on the swimsuit colour in the fantasy you get. So to add to the fact it's not hugely fun to begin with, you're going to keep getting girls you've already got over and over after a while instead of the few that you actually want. And there's a lot of subevents that involve it.

On the plus side there's a fairly limited number of questions to answer so if you do it enough then it gets a bit easier (although you can still end up getting panicked and choosing ヤラシソウ instead of ヤサシソウ or whatever) but at the end of the day it's just frustrating and not at all fun.
 
Finished the game.
It took me about 50 hours and still have plenty of side quests that need to be completed.
That post-credit scene was awesome o_O
 

Sgblues

Member
Yeah I finally got my copy yesterday, on chapter 2 at the moment and I stopped because I was watching Final Round day 1 stream haha.


Come next week gonna be slugging through it and there's Bloodborne also, so gonna be busy.
 

cj_iwakura

Member
It's a real shame but you're right. Sega should port the HD remasters of 1&2 to PC and see what happens. If they were able to do a great Valkyria Chronicles port with just 4 people, then this would be worth trying. The series could have a second lease on life with Steam Sales and word of mouth. They just screwed up big time marketing Yakuza 1 as "GTA Japan". Think of all the funny Youtube clips and streams of the sidemissions, the game could have so much free marketing.

I want to think Sony has some exclusivity clause, but then again, there's the Wii U version...
 

cripterion

Member
It has to be experienced to be believed really, but basically most of it involves spinning the stick round to 'charge' shots and firing them at the right one of a bunch of boxes to decide what Kiryuu's going to say to the girl on the other end of the phone. Doesn't sound so bad, but:
- It's all timed, obviously.
- The answer you need to fire at usually ends up being the smallest one right at the back, constantly disappearing behind the gigantic wrong answers which lower the girl's interest in you if you accidentally hit them. After a while the right answer's box changes colour, but if you're relying on that all the time then you're just going to run out of time.
- They're all in katakana, making them pretty hard to read, especially as the boxes constantly end up flipped so you're trying to read them backwards.
- When you've done a girl's subevent, they'll keep calling in anyway. A lot. And while you can narrow down to a degree what girl you're talking to during the call, it's just to one of two or three really based on the swimsuit colour in the fantasy you get. So to add to the fact it's not hugely fun to begin with, you're going to keep getting girls you've already got over and over after a while instead of the few that you actually want. And there's a lot of subevents that involve it.

On the plus side there's a fairly limited number of questions to answer so if you do it enough then it gets a bit easier (although you can still end up getting panicked and choosing ヤラシソウ instead of ヤサシソウ or whatever) but at the end of the day it's just frustrating and not at all fun.

To be honest, it reminded of the gameplay from Danganronpa which I found to be awful. I messed it up the first time when I was forced to play the game due to the property management stuff, but after it got better.

I still haven't played any gambling games and I hate the baseball stuff so I don't know if I'll go for all the mini games. I also suck at Outrun, never getting past the 2nd level.

I think I'm at Chapter 6 now, I just wish they'll let me unlock the higher level skills, got so much money on both characters for kicking katsuage kun's ass.
 
I've either gotten better at the baseball stuff or it's way easier in this one. It might actually just be because it's at 60fps. a lot of the minigames in general seem tighter in this one.
 

Parakeetman

No one wants a throne you've been sitting on!
I've either gotten better at the baseball stuff or it's way easier in this one. It might actually just be because it's at 60fps. a lot of the minigames in general seem tighter in this one.

Im sure they improved it since that shit drove EVERYONE insane...
 

takoyaki

Member
Finished the game.
It took me about 50 hours and still have plenty of side quests that need to be completed.
That post-credit scene was awesome o_O

Awesome, do you remember the number of chapters. I'd really like to finish the story as well, but always get way to distracted with all the sidemissions and minigames.
 

Shin-Ra

Junior Member
Action mini games like the batting cage were already 60fps on PS3, the low resolution and looser DS3 sticks with bigger deadzone didn't help though.
 

Varion

Member
Yesssssssssssssss, had another go and managed to make it through the phone stuff. Going for all substories after all.

To be honest, it reminded of the gameplay from Danganronpa which I found to be awful. I messed it up the first time when I was forced to play the game due to the property management stuff, but after it got better.
I sucked miserably at it when you were forced to do it there (I sucked at basically everything other than the karaoke to be honest), but going for the long course and having all the answers and swimsuit colours in front of you makes it a lot more bearable. Still not fun, but bearable.
 
You lucky Japanese speaking bastards... I have a question guys, I love Yakuza series and Yakuza 5 localization will be the only reason I will keep my PS3 after getting a PS4. I really would love to get into it fresh but I am too curious as well. Is there any website where I can read about the story (detailed) of Yakuza 5 and and Zero?
PS: fuck you Sega.
 
am I understanding this correctly that equipping the security wallet (etc) reduces the amount of money you lose when getting beat up by the giant dudes? do they do anything else?
 
HOLY SHIT those AV actress voice-over. I almost want to tear my ears out. really shouldnt let them do complete sentences.\

am I understanding this correctly that equipping the security wallet (etc) reduces the amount of money you lose when getting beat up by the giant dudes? do they do anything else?

they have some defense stats i think.
 

MYeager

Member
You lucky Japanese speaking bastards... I have a question guys, I love Yakuza series and Yakuza 5 localization will be the only reason I will keep my PS3 after getting a PS4. I really would love to get into it fresh but I am too curious as well. Is there any website where I can read about the story (detailed) of Yakuza 5 and and Zero?
PS: fuck you Sega.

For 5? Kind of. Broken Controller has one here: http://www.brokencontroller.net/rgg-5/ryu-ga-gotoku-5-recap/ that's detailed but the last part isn't finished.

Yimbocarimbo's guide certainly helped me play through the import of the game but the Finale portions are far less detailed than the descriptions of the opening chapters, but it only really translates the non-interactive cutscenes. http://homepage.ntlworld.com/yimbocarimbo/RGG/Games/RGG5/Walkthrough/index.htm

KHHSubs took his videos/descriptions down when news of it being localized was announced.
 

Varion

Member
So, finished this last night. Still need to finish the final two subquests that only unlock when you're in the final chapter because by that time it was about 4am this morning and I wanted to go all the way (after blasting through Ch10 to the end in one session).

It was so good. Of the ones I've played (1, 2, 3, 0) it was my favourite of all of them. The main story was great (especially in the second half when things started to really heat up), the substories were hilarious, the property management/cabaret stuff was super addictive and tied into the substories really well, switching up styles added a lot more variety to combat, the music was up to the usual high standard (with a few tracks in particular really standing out), and I just loved how everything tied in to 1 and how it let you see more of old favourites in completely different circumstances.

So yeah, Sega need to localise the remasters and then this already.

Awesome, do you remember the number of chapters. I'd really like to finish the story as well, but always get way to distracted with all the sidemissions and minigames.
17
 
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