RGG Studio (Yakuza, Judgment, Binary Domain, Project Century ) Discussion Thread

[MpuMngwana]

Well, finished. The ending was really damn good, overall it is one of the best Yakuza games on PC alongside 0.

The combat takes a bit too long to get involved, as the first 2/3 of the games are a cakewalk, and the jump in difficulty is really sudden. I found most fights to be lacking compared to the brawler games, lacking the spectacle and the sheer brutality of beating up thugs with bicycles while not providing much of anything in return. The late game boss battles, however, are probably my favorites in the franchise (even having a particularly cheap move the second-to-last boss can use). I dislike the fact that Kasuga getting knocked out means game over - in fact, removing that mechanic would make the cheap move mentioned before more bearable, and the whole fight even better.

Spoiler

One thing I really like, which is rare in jRPGs, is how the few of the last bosses' power relative to each other makes sense in-story - being the final boss doesn't suddenly make the governor of Tokio into an ultimate badass. His power is still purely political, and when it comes to fisticuffs he can't hold a candle to a former heavyweight boxer and the Dragon of Dojima.

The game designers clearly had a field day with the job system, and the game derives a lot of humor turning chefs, hostesses, fortunetellers and homeless men into RPG classes with RPG abilities. It is not the mechanically deepest system in the world, but the variety of possible options and the absurdity of it all do make it quite fun to tinker with it.

My biggest concern was the new protagonist, considering whose shoes he had to fill, but thankfully Kasuga turned out to be a super likeable chap. The rest of the party is also mostly great (though I wasn't too fond of Eri and the Korean guy), and there are some standouts among the supporting cast, most notably Arakawa and Nick Ogata. Plot-wise, it's still a mix of mostly melodramatic crime drama in the main plot, and absurd comedy with often feel-good heartwarming moments in the side content; this mix works as well as ever. The average substory quality is quite high, the persimon tree one being my personal favorite. The one complaint I have with those is that they don't seem to take other party members into account. Thus, we'll often see Kasuga valiantly step in to protect an innocent from some aggressor, only for the actual fight to comically turn into a completely one-sided 4 vs 1 beatdown. As for minigames, there's a lot of them, and I haven't bothered with some of them at all, but there's bound to be something for everyone to waste time on.

Overall, a real solid entry in the franchise, which continues to be probably the most wholesome game series around. Given some of the late-game plot developments, I wonder where they will take it next, but hopefully they will polish the systems for the next installment as they show a lot of promise but still have a lot of room for improvement. Probably my personal GOTY and a hard recommend to anyone who isn't completely turned off by the word 'jRPG'.

 

[Fishy]

Finished here too, neat ending. Kasuga is entertaining from the start and only gets better. Roll on Y8 with an updated Ijincho map.

I haven't jumped yet into post-game, ng+, or spent much time in dungeons, so I guess this is where it possibly gets better, but while combat was serviceable most game, from chapter 12 onwards, it was all out of whack. Mobs are useless and just a waste of time, and bosses are stupid sponges with (for some of them) a couple of one-shot skills. All it means is tedious combat lasting too many turns spamming the same 2/3 skills doing enough damage (with Orbital Laser the MVP) and casting heals or consuming recovery items to spam some more. That chapter 12 fight was probably the most interesting one due to the dynamic of it, and the fact that as of then, I hadn't yet adapted to boss fights. The others were just watching HP bars, really. It definitely didn't feel as epic as the brawler+quicktime boss fights from previous entries.

Story-wise, this is typical Yakuza. Love the over-the-top melodramatic main story, and the wacky side stories (kudos to whoever came up with the kimchi of life and the sujimaru one...). I just wish the authors didn't feel the need to kill so many characters that could be interesting side actors in a story down the line. But ah, it's not like I wasn't expecting it.

Ultimately, it's a fantastic game. Now that the story's done, I can go back to playing mahjong and finish Dragon Kart.

 

[Nortar]

Kiryu could sleep with hookers in 3, iirc. Considering how many reviews complain about "representation of women" I can see why the sexual content has diminished in later Yakuza games.

Actually Ichiban has it way better (or worse, haha) than Kiryu ever had:

Spoiler

 

[Caim]

What's with the chick in the gray blazer? She's got a hammer and... dunno, nails and something else. Is she gonna crucify the dude or something?

 

[Nortar]

What's with the chick in the gray blazer? She's got a hammer and... dunno, nails and something else. Is she gonna crucify the dude or something?

She holds a hammer, nails and a voodoo doll.
They nailed Ichi nailing them all, and hell hath no fury...

 

[680x0]

Just finished at 105 hours, minimal grinding and no post-game stuff.


Maybe I will spend my retirement playing darts with my waifu Eri-chan~

 

[Shackleton]

Also just finished, at 94 hours. Did do quite a bit grinding to get my guys up to 77-78 and a few different jobs ranked up. Ending was as bonkers as the rest, but by god it did drag on a bit. Unskippable ending credits should be a crime, especially when there's loads of cut-scenes afterwards.

Brilliant game though, best RPG of the year for me. Now for the post-game until CP2077 comes out next week.

 

[Fishy]

Ending was as bonkers as the rest, but by god it did drag on a bit. Unskippable ending credits should be a crime, especially when there's loads of cut-scenes afterwards.

Very typical of the series alright, and on that note, I absolutely despise the lack of save opportunity. It bit me in the arse in, errr, I think it was Yakuza 0, with a game crash sometime during the post-endgame cutscenes, and I had to redo the entire 2-characters fucking gauntlet all over just because the game can't be bothered to give me a save point before going of with 30 minutes of cutscenes. And of course I *had* to redo it because I want to know how it all ends. Let's say I was fervently hoping Y7 wouldn't crash, because I didn't fancy having to redo the fucking tower slog.

 

[d1r]

Finished it today too with 83 hours in, and was kinda surprised how emotional the ending actually was. Great stuff. Gameplay-wise, it felt like I was still underleveled with 65, since the

Spoiler

Tendo

fight took ages. I didn't really invest too much into the Workshop and rolled with the weapons I found in the battle arena (which are worth 1.000.000 Yen each). Also, is it me or are the Freelancer and Hero jobs pretty bad when you compare them to the rest of the cast? Hero job was like a jack of all trades with moderate damage output and really meh support, and Freelancer felt more like an evasion tank than an actual damage dealer. Guess I will be investing more time in team combinations in the next playthrough (something like Ichiban as Fortune Teller, Eri and Sae as Matriarchs, and a Foreman for the dungeons). Question is, New Game Plus or Premium Adventure? Does New Game Plus even unlock more stuff, or is it just clearing dungeons in Premium Adventure now?

 

[Fishy]

Finished it today too with 83 hours in, and was kinda surprised how emotional the ending actually was. Great stuff. Gameplay-wise, it felt like I was still underleveled with 65, since the

Spoiler

Tendo

fight took ages. I didn't really invest too much into the Workshop and rolled with the weapons I found in the battle arena (which are worth 1.000.000 Yen each). Also, is it me or are the Freelancer and Hero jobs pretty bad when you compare them to the rest of the cast? Hero job was like a jack of all trades with moderate damage output and really meh support, and Freelancer felt more like an evasion tank than an actual damage dealer. Guess I will be investing more time in team combinations in the next playthrough (something like Ichiban as Fortune Teller, Eri and Sae as Matriarchs, and a Foreman for the dungeons). Question is, New Game Plus or Premium Adventure? Does New Game Plus even unlock more stuff, or is it just clearing dungeons in Premium Adventure now?

Hero comes with the errr, Peerless Resolve (iirc) skill that prevents one-shots on Kasuga. Since Kasuga being one-shot is your single point of failure, this is literally the best defensive skill in game. After that, dunno, I likes Kasuga's kit with the Giga Swing to clear mooks, decent single-target skills, and the hero's bat doing lightning damage to which many things are weak. The rez skills are gimmicks as they have a chance to fail and consumables are a foolproof option. That said, offensively, there's nothing that comes close to the orbital laser, and I think you get that from the corporation minigame? So depending on whether Peerless Resolve is a character skill or not, the job shouldn't matter too much.

 

[680x0]

Sounds like I was a similar level to everyone else but I ground up a lot more cash (management mode) and put it into weapons upgrades. I think I was only ever KO'd a couple of times. I never seriously used any buffs or healing spells, just occasional debuffs on bosses and big bentos if I started to get low.

Final Team:
Ichiban/hero (orbital laser and peppershaker)
Eri/matriarch (max class single and multi attacks)
Gray Boy/never changed classes (rapid shot for hobo metal slimes and bosses, divine shot for groups)
Nanba/Homeless + fortuneteller (max magic stats and attacks)

 

[d1r]

Sounds like I was a similar level to everyone else but I ground up a lot more cash (management mode) and put it into weapons upgrades. I think I was only ever KO'd a couple of times. I never seriously used any buffs or healing spells, just occasional debuffs on bosses and big bentos if I started to get low.

Final Team:
Ichiban/hero (orbital laser and peppershaker)
Eri/matriarch (max class single and multi attacks)
Gray Boy/never changed classes (rapid shot for hobo metal slimes and bosses, divine shot for groups)
Nanba/Homeless + fortuneteller (max magic stats and attacks)

Gray boy class is absolutely legit. Was my biggest damage dealer with the Head Trauma / Cheap Shot attacks, and that Rapid Shot is a god send against those Vagabonds indeed.

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

Finished it, and it was a great ride. I'd rate it in shared second/fourth spot for the series (since the first is also shared between 6 and 0) with Judgment in terms of story.

I did some grinding at the Battle Arena, and had a level 65 on average on the party (jobs around 30, and most characters had most universal job skills unlocked; VERY IMPORTANT Peppermill Smash since that's an absurdly useful attack).

Final Team for Tendo:
Ichiban with Hero
Adachi with Detective
Nanba with Homeless
Saeko with Idol

It took a while to cake Tendo in blackpepper, but it worked out. For some reason I never got hit with the instant death effect, I guess parrying the attack might influence the %?

The Final Team for Grinding was a bit different:

Ichiban with Hero
Han with Host (seriously, Han's base job has amazing stats, but his Essence of Trick Shots is not good for group deletion)
Adachi with Detective/Nanba with Homeless (Essence of Hell's Wheel and Essence of Pyro Prison are good follow-ups to the one two hit that Han and...)
Zhao with Gangster (seriously, Essence of Ladder Acrobatics is crazy good, usually it was a wipe in Battle Arena the moment Zhao got his turn, and with Han and either Rose Splendor or Champagne Wave it was the case whenever pirate captains or such weren't involved).

 

[Reinhardt]

I was still underleveled with 65

yes

 

[ERYFKRAD]

All of you finishing the game and not even bothering to let the rest of us know how the karaoke is.

 

[680x0]

Karaoke is comfier and less frantic than I remember previous games... The real question is, how is shogi?

 

[Reinhardt]

All of you finishing the game and not even bothering to let the rest of us know how the karaoke is.

still can't sing even if my life depends on it...

 

[ERYFKRAD]

All of you finishing the game and not even bothering to let the rest of us know how the karaoke is.

still can't sing even if my life depends on it...

I thought that was about you bro wtf.

 

[Caim]

Karaoke is comfier and less frantic than I remember previous games... The real question is, how is shogi?

This. No purchase if the shogi is bad.

 

[680x0]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YyTruRHZsFQ

This song played internally when Nanba went missing.

 

[Fishy]

All of you finishing the game and not even bothering to let the rest of us know how the karaoke is.

Karaoke was a letdown as far as I'm concerned. No real catchy song or bonkers music video. Plus the "Karaoke DLC" only brings previous karaoke songs as CDs, so you can play the music in the pub, nothing else.

This is a very far cry from Kiryu's Judgement or Majima's 24h Cinderella, and possibly the only minigame in a state of decline.

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

I'd say Hell Stew is deffo up there in the series' karaoke. And Machine Gun Kiss is back too.

Though you obviously should absolutely not do karaoke with the English voiceover. The voice actors do give it their best, but they're just way out of their league, very notable with Adachi and Zhao. Considering David Hayter is Kashiwagi, I believe there was a missed opportunity to see how Snake goes against Snake in Machine Gun Kiss (since turns out Akio Otsuka has a great singing voice).

 

[Fishy]

Though you obviously should absolutely not do karaoke with the English voiceover.

It's at times like this I wish this forum had a Captain Obvious emote.

 

[Thac0]

Karaoke is comfier and less frantic than I remember previous games... The real question is, how is shogi?

Mediocre to bad UI wise. There is two options, timer on/off and takebacks allowed.
If you allow takebacks they employ a strange system where you have three normal takebacks and one super takeback where you can undo multiple turns. It gives you less Shogi points to use takebacks, but I immediatly turned them off. I never tried timers on.

There is a good number of Shogi puzzles, which give a lot of Shogi points and are excellent for learning the ruleset. The introduce stuff like dropping for checkmate. I went from not knowing anything about Shogi to being able to beat the AI fairly easily, although I am pretty strong at chess.

There is also an option to play with a handicap for extra Shogi points. Follows normal Shogi Handicap rules as far as I know.

Main gameplay mode gives you a lot of AIs to play against, for every Kyu there is two. You have 6 enemies at the start, Kyu 7-10. You unlock more by beating a Kyu 7 opponent you unlock Kyu 6.

The Shogi points can be exchanged for good shit, stat boosters and rare crafting mats and the like.

Visually and sound wise it is rather nice, and you get little letters next to the Kanji indicating what is which for people who can't speak Japanese. Like a Gold general has a small g in the corner, a Lance a small l.

But the UI is atrocious. When your opponent concedes the game just stops and you go to the score screen, no way to further look at the board. Same thing for checkmates. Also the biggest gripe is that when your opponent concedes you get a defeat screen. Idk if this is some moon logic or just a bug, but at first I thought I was losing the game from some obscure rules I didn't know. But no, your opponent conceding properly gives you your points, but it looks as if he won. Weird shit.

Idk if it was worse than this before, since this is my first Yakuza game, as I bought it to honor an action series transitioning to the superior turn based system. It's pretty good overall, but the Shogi minigame is badly executed. I played much more Koi-Koi, which is executed quite well and gives you a very strong bowling ball for the seer class.

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

It's the exact same Shogi in Judgment (this is a pretty good example of the various ways in which RGG Studio successfully manages to reuse assets in order to stay within their budgets while packing so much into their games; if you've played enough of these games you can probably recite when a given animation that's getting reused was first made, and peg which new animations will be added to RGG Studio's stock animations), down to the puzzles, and I think its the same in Yakuza 5 (I only tried Shogi in Judgment and Yakuza 5 besides 7) sans puzzles which IIRC weren't there in it.

EDIT: Koi-Koi is another one of the minigames that they have that sees very little changes to it, and is one of the ones that they can always include at a low cost. I also play it a lot more than the other traditional Japanese games shown in Yakuza, and with Like A Dragon the logic in the cards finally clicked enough that I don't need the Hand Guide option besides as a stupidity alarm.