Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio (Yakuza, Judgment, Binary Domain + more!) Discussion Thread

[Grampy_Bone]

Like a dragon Gaiden is supposed to explain kiryus story after Yakuza 6, not needed for Ichibans storyline.

 

[Grunker]

Cool bros, tyvm.

 

[Humanity has risen!]

Finished it.

Very light spoilers ahead

Spoiler

The game splits fairly early on with Ichiban's party in Honolulu, and Kiryu's party in Osaka/Tokyo. You have to fight off final bosses in both. So I don't think it's a spoiler to talk about it.

Ichiban's final route is easy, except the second to last boss which is kind of a pain and has some frustrating mechanics involved. Last boss is very easy. Spamming the ability Ichiban gains through the island resort minigame and constantly refilling his MPs was usually the best strategy.

Kiryu's final route is much more of a pain, but still doable. The final boss hits very hard and aggressively, so be prepared and make sure you are fully supplied with every HP/MP boosting items you can get your hands on.


Ichiban's final gesture of help to another Yakuza in one of the final cutscenes really moved me a lot. You simply cannot help but to love Ichiban. He's truly a human labrador.

Overall for me a very good, solid game, with lots of elaborate twists and turns. As far as the story, I guess the first one examined Ichiban's story a little more personally, and I actually think I preferred it, but I'm satisfied with this too and the plot is overall more consistent.

Some of my complaints is that the difficulty could have been higher, and I don't like that they spread out weapons for each class in shops all around Honolulu. Even the most powerful weapons are there from the get go, albeit costing a fortune, but this means you have to constantly try to remember which store sells which weapons, and run all around the map constantly. What a terrible decision that creates nothing but busy work and aggravation.

Overall it's more of the same, and that's a good thing.

Seriously, in this game, there is more creativity and charm than in every single other game released in the last few years combined. They've even re-created an entire pokemon game within the game itself, complete with its own competitions and quests! That's amazing!

Conclusion: get over Sega's greedy BS and buy it. It's still fully worth it. You're getting hundreds of hours of excellent content in return.

 

[Abu Antar]

That's too spoilery, my dude.

 

[Humanity has risen!]

That's too spoilery, my dude.

I didn't mean to, I tried to keep it as generic as possible, but if you say so I will put part of it in spoiler tags.

 

[Cologno]

I'm confused. Just noticed Yakuza: Like A Dragon exists and it looks like my jam. Is Infinite Wealth a sequal or..?

I started the series with Like a Dragon, then doing Infinite Wealth. No issues with "getting" the story save some of the lore and references are for people who did the entire series up until that point. Really a point to the developer that when a what was a titular character from the previous six games pops up it still fits and maybe makes sense.

I imagine you could even start with Gaiden and be okay. Seems like a soft reboot for the previous arc's MC.

Sorry, blah blah blah. TL;DR Infinite Wealth is sequel to LaD, I'm not a story guy, just like stuff to make sense, and didn't have any problems jumping in with LaD then proceeding to Infinite Wealth.

 

[mushroomrain]

Some of my complaints is that the difficulty could have been higher, and I don't like that they spread out weapons for each class in shops all around Honolulu. Even the most powerful weapons are there from the get go, albeit costing a fortune, but this means you have to constantly try to remember which store sells which weapons, and run all around the map constantly.

You don't really need to run around, because you can open a map, hover the cursor over the store icon and press square/x on the controller, to see what it sells. Then you just teleport to the nearest taxi stand.

 

[Grunker]

Fuck it, being the completionist that I am, I’m starting with Yakuza 0. Should I play through just the main series or should I take a detour for some of the spin-offs?

 

[Modron]

You could also do 1-6 then 0 as it's a more later addition and one of the best ones. By spinoffs I am assuming you're talking about Ishin and the Judgment series but the psp ones are 99.99% translated (just missing the hostess dialogs) as an fyi.

 

[Elttharion]

Fuck it, being the completionist that I am, I’m starting with Yakuza 0. Should I play through just the main series or should I take a detour for some of the spin-offs?

Play all of them. Judgement and Lost Judgement are very good games. Cant talk for Ishin as I havent played it yet.

 

[Grampy_Bone]

Should I play through just the main series or should I take a detour for some of the spin-offs?

I'd play Kiwami 1 and 2 over the PS2 originals.

 

[Grunker]

Should I play through just the main series or should I take a detour for some of the spin-offs?

I'd play Kiwami 1 and 2 over the PS2 originals.

That’s the plan

 

[Abu Antar]

I vastly prefer the originals, because their vibe is ruined in the Kiwamis, but they are good for newcomers, I guess.

 

[Caim]

Fuck it, being the completionist that I am, I’m starting with Yakuza 0. Should I play through just the main series or should I take a detour for some of the spin-offs?

0 is a good place to start, but you might want to start with 1 if you're the kind of person who absolutely wants to play the games in the order of release so you can see how the series changed and grew. Also keep in mind that the bundle of games 3-5 on Steam are HD remakes rather than full on remakes like Kiwami 1 and 2, so if you complete 0 to 2 and then go to 3 there's a bit of a step down.

Judgment and Lost Judgment are solid but can be enjoyed later down the line. Ishin is quite the different take and a good chunk of the fun is you going "hey it's that guy from that game in this role", so you should play that one down the line as well.

 

[Grunker]

Fuck it, being the completionist that I am, I’m starting with Yakuza 0. Should I play through just the main series or should I take a detour for some of the spin-offs?

0 is a good place to start, but you might want to start with 1 if you're the kind of person who absolutely wants to play the games in the order of release so you can see how the series changed and grew. Also keep in mind that the bundle of games 3-5 on Steam are HD remakes rather than full on remakes like Kiwami 1 and 2, so if you complete 0 to 2 and then go to 3 there's a bit of a step down.

Judgment and Lost Judgment are solid but can be enjoyed later down the line. Ishin is quite the different take and a good chunk of the fun is you going "hey it's that guy from that game in this role", so you should play that one down the line as well.

Oh, I thought 3-5 was full remakes as well, good to know. I've been playing 0 most of the day so that's what I'm starting with.

 

[Abu Antar]

0 is a prologue with young Kiryu. Kiwami 1-2 are remakes. 3-5 are older fashioned PS3 ports basically (the oldest games after the original 1-2), 6 is the the last numbered game with Kiryu as the main. 7-8 has Ichiban as the main, and his games are turn-based. Gaiden is action like 0-6, and features Kiryu as the main character. It ties into the events of 8.

Judgment are in the same universe, and uses action combat. There's a new main characters for those two.

Ishin! is the series moving to the Bakumatsu era of Japan. Main characters of the series act as historical figures. This is also action based. You'll be using more weapons in this one.

Dead Souls is a side game, that you can skip (imo). There is also another older time game, named Kenzan! but there is no translation. There are two PSP games that features another character. They have fan translations, but they are not essential to play.

 

[Modron]

There is also another older time game, named Kenzan! but there is no translation.

I still believe (in the ongoing translation) but it will be years (decades?) away for sure.

 

[Abu Antar]

I admire your optimism, I have none for Kenzan!

There is still a guide to follow if you don't mind reading while playing the Japanese version.

 

[Grampy_Bone]

The wierd thing about Y0 though is that it was actually meant for existing fans, it plays on your existing expectations with the characters. Still, should be interesting to see the thoughts of a first time player.

 

[Reinhardt]

i miss times when yakuza was a niche...

 

[ERYFKRAD]

i miss times when yakuza was a niche...

Still is. I mean I don't think people are encouraged to join them just because they're in video games.

 

[Tyrr]

Everything popular goes to shit.

 

[cruel]

Infinite Wealth has sold 1M copies in one week. We better prepare for NG+ and Hard Mode being sold as DLCs as the new normal - it looks like it didn't hurt the game sales one bit.

Sent from my KB2005 using Tapatalk

 

[Grunker]

The wierd thing about Y0 though is that it was actually meant for existing fans, it plays on your existing expectations with the characters. Still, should be interesting to see the thoughts of a first time player.

I shall be back with a report

So far, I find it hilarious that the writing and atmosphere in this goofy-ass Hard Boiled meets anime clown show is more skillful than 99% of the RPGs I've played. It feels like it was written by an actual writer, which is a novel concept for a video game. Which in turn means it's gotta be an excellent translation? Sidequests feel hit or miss though, I've begund text skipping on some of them.

I can also see why starting with 0 isn't optimal now, but the story works well anyway so far.

 

[Caim]

The wierd thing about Y0 though is that it was actually meant for existing fans, it plays on your existing expectations with the characters. Still, should be interesting to see the thoughts of a first time player.

I shall be back with a report

So far, I find it hilarious that the writing and atmosphere in this goofy-ass Hard Boiled meets anime clown show is more skillful than 99% of the RPGs I've played. It feels like it was written by an actual writer, which is a novel concept for a video game. Which in turn means it's gotta be an excellent translation? Sidequests feel hit or miss though, I've begund text skipping on some of them.

I can also see why starting with 0 isn't optimal now, but the story works well anyway so far.

That's the best part about Yakuza. It's a hard boiled crime drama that in between the tales of loyalty, brotherhood, betrayal and grit it turns into an interactive shitpost.

It's like a Scorsese movie co-written by 4chan.