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Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio (Yakuza, Judgment, Binary Domain + more!) Discussion Thread
- Thread starter Abu Antar
- Start date
CaffeineConquistador
Learned
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- May 19, 2018
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- 415
I’m a little confused, 0 is a prequel and Kiwami is a remake of Yakuza? Is Kiwami 2 a remade Yakuza 2 as well?
Vaarna_Aarne
Notorious Internet Vandal
Yes. Chronological order of the stories goes Yakuza 0->Yakuza 1/Kiwami->Yakuza 2/Kiwami 2->Yakuza 3->etc.
Misco Jones
Savant
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- Oct 31, 2016
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- Apr 9, 2015
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Yeah. Sadly Kiwami 1 isn't that great. Feels like a budget DLC for 0 more than a proper game on its own, and they're tied to the original game's events since it's not supposed to retcon anything so the story suddenly gets a hell of a lot simpler.
They're not doing remakes for 3-5 since they were already on HD consoles and visually they look OK
So, despite pre-ordering Yakuza 0 last year, for no reason at all I dropped it after 10 hours. Since I bought Kiwami in Steam sale, I figured why not complete 0 first.
I'm still kicking myself for not finishing it sooner, because it is, undoubtedly, one of the best games I've ever played in my entire life.
This is an incredibly deceptive game. One half of it is underground criminal melodrama filled with death and conflicts, the other half is goofy scenarios that often slide in simple yet effective life lessons about insecurities, unethical activities or simply just the act of pleasing crowds. Among all those is a long lasting tale about hardship and facing every challenge to figure out who you truly is, as a person.
I utterly adore the writing in this game. All the dramas are earned, all characters serve a purpose. It's not about trying to make ends meet in a criminal world, it's about living a fulfilling life that your ideal self craves for. Kiryu and Majima are awesome people, they're righteous, they're strong, they're loyal, they're sympathetic, they share a particular caring attitude towards others that need them, yet they reflect two sides of the coin in this invisible prison that holds them inside. Kiryu might start from the bottom (after being framed), always on the run, yet he never breaks mentally, he always has his allies on his back because of his loyalty, and he used his earnest trait to make the right thing. Meanwhile, Majima started under the classy, baroque lights of a cabaret club, his suave and intimidating look gives off an impression that he's not a guy to mess with (and he is, for a good reason), but the reality is he's leased like a dog by the people who jail him inside Sotenbori. Despite that, he still prefers, again, the right thing over his own concernment.
These characters sound flawless on paper, but the story tackled this issue by throwing them in very, very unfortunate situations that brilliantly elevate the emotional impact. Kiryu was written to be a role model. Majima was written for the audience to relate to. They have plot armor? No worry, we as the audience now feel all the hardship that requires an immensively strong will to come through. Kiryu can bicycle 1000 dudes without dropping sweat, but that's far from the hardest challenge he has to face in the story.
Even outside of all those, I still find a lot of amusing design decisions inside this game. It's a story that put criminals at the centric place, yet unlike other open world games, you can't cause mayhem by yourself - the game brings mayhem to you so you have to face it passively.
Honestly there's so many things to love about this game that I just can't pick which one to highlight. Maybe it's the wildly engaging minigames? The impactful effects that give combat QTEs a carthatic taste that never wears off its novelty? The emotions behind those karaoke songs? Anyway, this is my reaction when my friend told me this is peak Yakuza and older games can no way fulfill my expectation after playing it.
But that doesn't mean I suddenly stop loving it. God damn it Majima why are you so likable
I'm still kicking myself for not finishing it sooner, because it is, undoubtedly, one of the best games I've ever played in my entire life.
This is an incredibly deceptive game. One half of it is underground criminal melodrama filled with death and conflicts, the other half is goofy scenarios that often slide in simple yet effective life lessons about insecurities, unethical activities or simply just the act of pleasing crowds. Among all those is a long lasting tale about hardship and facing every challenge to figure out who you truly is, as a person.
I utterly adore the writing in this game. All the dramas are earned, all characters serve a purpose. It's not about trying to make ends meet in a criminal world, it's about living a fulfilling life that your ideal self craves for. Kiryu and Majima are awesome people, they're righteous, they're strong, they're loyal, they're sympathetic, they share a particular caring attitude towards others that need them, yet they reflect two sides of the coin in this invisible prison that holds them inside. Kiryu might start from the bottom (after being framed), always on the run, yet he never breaks mentally, he always has his allies on his back because of his loyalty, and he used his earnest trait to make the right thing. Meanwhile, Majima started under the classy, baroque lights of a cabaret club, his suave and intimidating look gives off an impression that he's not a guy to mess with (and he is, for a good reason), but the reality is he's leased like a dog by the people who jail him inside Sotenbori. Despite that, he still prefers, again, the right thing over his own concernment.
These characters sound flawless on paper, but the story tackled this issue by throwing them in very, very unfortunate situations that brilliantly elevate the emotional impact. Kiryu was written to be a role model. Majima was written for the audience to relate to. They have plot armor? No worry, we as the audience now feel all the hardship that requires an immensively strong will to come through. Kiryu can bicycle 1000 dudes without dropping sweat, but that's far from the hardest challenge he has to face in the story.
Even outside of all those, I still find a lot of amusing design decisions inside this game. It's a story that put criminals at the centric place, yet unlike other open world games, you can't cause mayhem by yourself - the game brings mayhem to you so you have to face it passively.
Honestly there's so many things to love about this game that I just can't pick which one to highlight. Maybe it's the wildly engaging minigames? The impactful effects that give combat QTEs a carthatic taste that never wears off its novelty? The emotions behind those karaoke songs? Anyway, this is my reaction when my friend told me this is peak Yakuza and older games can no way fulfill my expectation after playing it.
But that doesn't mean I suddenly stop loving it. God damn it Majima why are you so likable
Last edited:
Jack Of Owls
Arcane
Been playing a few hours of Y0 since yesterday. Almost gave up because I'm just not use to loooong cut scenes with mucho dialogue to this degree, even in games for weeaboos. So I quit with the intention of not playing it again. Then I went back and it's slowly starting to grow on me. Only in the first chapter and trying to explore the town for sidequest content, which I haven't found yet. Can't enter the arcades or bowling alleys yet but I'm assuming this is something that needs to be unlocked somehow? I really kind of dread those interminable cut scenes but at least I can take breaks from them and do other things in the game for awhile. It actually seems to have some depth to it or a least there's lots of things to do, some of them hit or miss.
Vaarna_Aarne
Notorious Internet Vandal
Personally I'm not sure if you can just take one person's view on what's Peak Yakuza, since there's a lot of contention for that. A lot of people also see the Fist of the North Star game as Peak Yakuza, personally for me I think it's Yakuza 6 because of its story and themes particular to it.
- Joined
- Mar 16, 2011
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- 7,566
Deflowerer
Arcane
- Joined
- May 22, 2013
- Messages
- 2,078
I'd say overall Yakuza 0 is probably the most polished and well-rounded entry in the series with a tight plot to boot. I'd personally agree that 6 is very good as well, although the combat takes a hit in variety due to new engine.
In any case, even if one considers Yakuza 0 the peak of the franchise, it wouldn't diminish the enjoyment from any of the other entries, because the fundamental soul of the series has remained the same since the beginning.
Ivan
Arcane
So what do yall think will be ported first: Yakuza 3 or Judgment?
Vaarna_Aarne
Notorious Internet Vandal
Unless they announce the Western release of the PS4 remasters in the near future, Judgment most likely.
CaffeineConquistador
Learned
- Joined
- May 19, 2018
- Messages
- 415
Kinda of blown away by it, to be honest. I haven’t played 1-2 since the PS2 days and skipped the PS3/4 eras. Stumbled upon it by accident here and have had a blast so far. Never thought it could look so great.
yakuza is a serious crime drama
Jack Of Owls
Arcane
Just a quick observation about the technical performance of Yakuza 0 on my rig and a tip for those with issues on the PC version. I have an Intel Core i5 4690K/Nvidia GTX1070-based system with 16GB RAM and it was running poorly (major microstutter in cut scenes and all through the game) on my system at Ultra settings on 1920x1080.
I was spinning in circles trying to find a solution when I saw someone on Steam with similar a problem say they just changed their Windows power scheme to "High Performance" instead of "Balanced" and the problem completely went away. I tried it and it worked! I now run Yakuza 0 through a batch file that automatically launches Y0 with High Performance (which basically forces your cpu to run at full power utilization and turbo) then when I exit the game automatically switches back to Balanced power scheme. I now get smooth framerates with no annoying microstutter.
I was spinning in circles trying to find a solution when I saw someone on Steam with similar a problem say they just changed their Windows power scheme to "High Performance" instead of "Balanced" and the problem completely went away. I tried it and it worked! I now run Yakuza 0 through a batch file that automatically launches Y0 with High Performance (which basically forces your cpu to run at full power utilization and turbo) then when I exit the game automatically switches back to Balanced power scheme. I now get smooth framerates with no annoying microstutter.
Jack Of Owls
Arcane
I heard Yakuza 3 was the worst in the series outside of Yakuza 1 on the PS2 with US localization (dubbed). Is this true?
flyingjohn
Arcane
- Joined
- May 14, 2012
- Messages
- 3,199
You can also just use bes to limit cpu usage to max 98 percent,solved all my micro stutter problems.
- Joined
- Mar 22, 2015
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- 1,879
Literally every time you install Windows you have to turn the screen off the default power settings which is put it in sleep mode after 10 minutes because
Jack Of Owls
Arcane
What's bes? I'm always looking for an easier solution than to have to create bat files for every game that has this issue.
flyingjohn
Arcane
- Joined
- May 14, 2012
- Messages
- 3,199
Bes is a application designed to limit cpu usage.
http://mion.faireal.net/BES/
You start yakuza,alt tab and select the process and limit to 2 percent.
That way the audio back end(which causes stuttering because it takes a 100 percent of the cpu usage) performance hit gets mitigated.
Of course for some reason it doesn't work for some people.But i haven't found any solution for yakuza that truly works for all people(including changing the power settings).
I also found that this works for some unity games and micro stuttering.
But if you found a solution and a simple batch file is already automation enough i would recommend you stick to it unless the micro stutters start appearing.
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