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

[Silentstorm]

0 lays the ground for future games but it was also kinda made for fans too, it's just one can play it in any order...unless you go for the Kiwami games, the remakes absolutely assume you played 0 or are improved by having played 0.

The remasters for 3-5 are the best way to play the games, if anything, they seem to have added content that was missing from the original western releases, and they play just fine, 6 seems to play the same as Kiwami 2.

Haven't played Judgment but i assume it's based on 6 as well, 7 is a fresh start in a way, old characters appear, but they are shown in such a casual way they would come across as just part of the setting to make it seem larger or that will probably be explored later on, but every playable character and every enemy is mostly new.

I swear, looking at the scenes where previous characters appear, i find it great that they don't reference past events or play their biggest hits in a way, they won't mention their best moments or popular lines, nope, they just appear to talk and maybe fight in a way that feels fine, which is how you should do a soft reboot while still giving something to old fans.

 

[Darth Slaughter]

Ok let me join in with the saga, i want to play on pc.

So... yakuza 1 and 2 are play only, BUT they made remakes called kiwami 1 and 2, released around yakuza 6 and 0 in 2016-17, are those actual "new" games or some upscale?

0 and Kiwami 1 are made in a new engine, a step ahead of the previous 3, 4 and 5. 0 and kiwami 1 are almost the same game visually. Same maps, same assets, same effects and same combat (main characters have 4 different fighting styles), which are the most well developed for the whole series. Kiwami 1, being a full remake, but very faithful to PS2, is shorter. Yakuza 0 is a much longer game, because of having 2 protagonists.

Yakuza kiwami 2 I'll mention further down.

3-4-5 are 2010 oldass play3 games, got a pc remaster, how good of are those remasters?

They're the oldest of the bunch, excluding the original PS2. I'm still on the middle of Yakuza kiwami 2, but I today I played a little bit of 3 and combat animations are less fluid. I've seen one video of an youtuber saying yakuza 3 is eligible for a remake because combat is basic compared to new entries (after all they're an evolution of PS2 era games), but from what I played it is just fine. I guess 4 and 5 adds variety with the many playable characters other than kiryu, but they all have one fighting style.

Yakuza 0, a prequel from 2015.
Yakuza 6 and 7 are the most recent ones with kiwami.

Kiwami 2, 6 and 7 are newer games, all running in the dragon engine, the most up to date tech for yakuza. It adds more phisics but combat in kiryu games are more fluid than ever. 7 is a fresh start and combat is turn based. Kiwami 2 is newer than 6, also.

So... everything working well on pc? Do i start with zero > remakes > 3-4-5 remasters > 6-7? Or zero is supposed to be played in the middle for some reason?

Yes, but with some small caveats:

- all of them are best played with a gamepad, especially for minigames. But totally possible with Kb+m;
- They all have some censored music in intros, and low resolution font, also there's mod sthat restores and fixes these;
- Y0 and kiwami 1: There's a depth of field effect that is annoying, you can use a mod to fix it;
- Y6 and Kiwami 2 are very heavy with max settings. Antialiasing is annoying since it's SMAA or FXAA and I get FPS drops with maximum SMAA(x2), on an RTX 3070. Y7, on the very same engine, runs fine and has TAA;
- kiwami 2 has some frame issues in minigames, but there's a fix mod.

All of these mods can be found in Pcgamingwiki pages for each game. The good thing is that all of these are only annoyances and the games are very good PC ports overall.

About the order, start with 0, and play in chronological order. Kiwami 1 and kiwami 2 were released after 0, and had their plot adapted to some of 0 events (dialogue lines, substories). It doesn't spoil anything starting from 0. The gameplay differences are something very easy to get used 2. After all, you're just playing a different game. A PS3 game already have the "modern gameplay" present in the series.

The thing with yakuza games is that there's a lot of side content, and a lot of tasks, but you are free to progress through the main story if it's your preference.

I'm a completionist, and I'm now in kiwami 2. But I still have some minigames to finish in 0, and most of side content of kiwami 1. If you're going for 100%, get ready for grinding. Specially 0.

As a matter of curiosity, I tried Yakuza 1 for PS2, and it's kind of dated with it's fixed camera angles. The remakes are incredibly beatiful.

I played a little bit of all of them to compare the different versions of Kamurocho, and man, It's one of the most vivid gameworlds. In any version.

 

[TheImplodingVoice]

Ok let me join in with the saga, i want to play on pc.

So... yakuza 1 and 2 are play only, BUT they made remakes called kiwami 1 and 2, released around yakuza 6 and 0 in 2016-17, are those actual "new" games or some upscale?

0 and Kiwami 1 are made in a new engine, a step ahead of the previous 3, 4 and 5. 0 and kiwami 1 are almost the same game visually. Same maps, same assets, same effects and same combat (main characters have 4 different fighting styles), which are the most well developed for the whole series. Kiwami 1, being a full remake, but very faithful to PS2, is shorter. Yakuza 0 is a much longer game, because of having 2 protagonists.

Yakuza kiwami 2 I'll mention further down.

3-4-5 are 2010 oldass play3 games, got a pc remaster, how good of are those remasters?

They're the oldest of the bunch, excluding the original PS2. I'm still on the middle of Yakuza kiwami 2, but I today I played a little bit of 3 and combat animations are less fluid. I've seen one video of an youtuber saying yakuza 3 is eligible for a remake because combat is basic compared to new entries (after all they're an evolution of PS2 era games), but from what I played it is just fine. I guess 4 and 5 adds variety with the many playable characters other than kiryu, but they all have one fighting style.

Yakuza 0, a prequel from 2015.
Yakuza 6 and 7 are the most recent ones with kiwami.

Kiwami 2, 6 and 7 are newer games, all running in the dragon engine, the most up to date tech for yakuza. It adds more phisics but combat in kiryu games are more fluid than ever. 7 is a fresh start and combat is turn based. Kiwami 2 is newer than 6, also.

So... everything working well on pc? Do i start with zero > remakes > 3-4-5 remasters > 6-7? Or zero is supposed to be played in the middle for some reason?

Yes, but with some small caveats:

- all of them are best played with a gamepad, especially for minigames. But totally possible with Kb+m;
- They all have some censored music in intros, and low resolution font, also there's mod sthat restores and fixes these;
- Y0 and kiwami 1: There's a depth of field effect that is annoying, you can use a mod to fix it;
- Y6 and Kiwami 2 are very heavy with max settings. Antialiasing is annoying since it's SMAA or FXAA and I get FPS drops with maximum SMAA(x2), on an RTX 3070. Y7, on the very same engine, runs fine and has TAA;
- kiwami 2 has some frame issues in minigames, but there's a fix mod.

All of these mods can be found in Pcgamingwiki pages for each game. The good thing is that all of these are only annoyances and the games are very good PC ports overall.

About the order, start with 0, and play in chronological order. Kiwami 1 and kiwami 2 were released after 0, and had their plot adapted to some of 0 events (dialogue lines, substories). It doesn't spoil anything starting from 0. The gameplay differences are something very easy to get used 2. After all, you're just playing a different game. A PS3 game already have the "modern gameplay" present in the series.

The thing with yakuza games is that there's a lot of side content, and a lot of tasks, but you are free to progress through the main story if it's your preference.

I'm a completionist, and I'm now in kiwami 2. But I still have some minigames to finish in 0, and most of side content of kiwami 1. If you're going for 100%, get ready for grinding. Specially 0.

As a matter of curiosity, I tried Yakuza 1 for PS2, and it's kind of dated with it's fixed camera angles. The remakes are incredibly beatiful.

I played a little bit of all of them to compare the different versions of Kamurocho, and man, It's one of the most vivid gameworlds. In any version.

Yakuza 5 is the first game to use a new engine. It's the same engine used in 0, Kiwami 1. And clearly you did not play Yakuza 5. Because it's far from an old ass PS3 game. It's just as modern as 0 and Kiwami 1.

Edit : Grokalibre You rated my post "fake news". Prove me wrong.

 

[Darth Slaughter]

Yakuza 5 is the first game to use a new engine. It's the same engine used in 0 and Kiwami 1

I didn't test 5 too much to see the evolution, but would even guess 3 to kiwami 1 are all the same engine that got improved each of its iterations.

 

[TheImplodingVoice]

Yakuza 5 is the first game to use a new engine. It's the same engine used in 0 and Kiwami 1

I didn't test 5 too much to see the evolution, but would even guess 3 to kiwami 1 are all the same engine that got improved each of its iterations.

Yet your post is such a long one that one would think you've personally worked on all Yakuza games.

 

[Darth Slaughter]

Yakuza 5 is the first game to use a new engine. It's the same engine used in 0 and Kiwami 1

I didn't test 5 too much to see the evolution, but would even guess 3 to kiwami 1 are all the same engine that got improved each of its iterations.

Yet your post is such a long one that one would think you've personally worked on all Yakuza games.

doing 100% in all off them could qualify as such.

 

[TheImplodingVoice]

Yakuza 5 is the first game to use a new engine. It's the same engine used in 0 and Kiwami 1

I didn't test 5 too much to see the evolution, but would even guess 3 to kiwami 1 are all the same engine that got improved each of its iterations.

Yet your post is such a long one that one would think you've personally worked on all Yakuza games.

doing 100% in all off them could qualify as such.

I'm playing through all of them again. While I didn't bother with 100% in 0 and Kiwami 1. I did 100% Kiwami 2, 3, 4 and busy with 5 now(60FPS is a huge step up over the 30fps on PS3) and after that I'll 100% 6. So that makes me part of the development team as well? Right?

 

[Fishy]

Personally, engine-wise, it's only 3 that felt clearly behind. It's the only one where the graphics felt older and the movement weirdly clunky. And even there, I got over it fast, it's mostly a first 15-20 minutes impression.

7 is obviously the top dog tech-wise. I mean... Ichiban can even step over low obstacles!

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

Haven't played Judgment but i assume it's based on 6 as well

Judgment is excellent, and yes it's a Dragon Engine game. It also has a stance system to mix things up for Yagami's moveset.

 

[TheImplodingVoice]

Haven't played Judgment but i assume it's based on 6 as well

Judgment is excellent, and yes it's a Dragon Engine game. It also has a stance system to mix things up for Yagami's moveset.

Fist of The North Star is also fantastic.

 

[Deadass]

judgment on steam when

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Haven't played Judgment but i assume it's based on 6 as well

Judgment is excellent, and yes it's a Dragon Engine game. It also has a stance system to mix things up for Yagami's moveset.

Fist of The North Star is also fantastic.

 

[TheImplodingVoice]

Haven't played Judgment but i assume it's based on 6 as well

Judgment is excellent, and yes it's a Dragon Engine game. It also has a stance system to mix things up for Yagami's moveset.

Fist of The North Star is also fantastic.

Strange that Fist Of The North Star is still on PS4 only. It's a great game. And it also looks and runs great on PS4 Pro.Probably the same on standard PS4. But it's a great game. A bit and by a bit I mean...very fucking grindy to platinum. But it really is a great game. Wonder if we'll ever get a port of Yakuza : Dead Souls and English releases of Kenzan and Ishin. Dead Souls is far from the other Yakuza games in quality. But I still had a lot of fun with it. And by far the easiest to 100%. Story is even more bat shit crazy

 

[Silentstorm]

Sadly, all my life i have been a PC gamer, it was only last Christmas that my parents when thinking of a gift for me, said "Hey, he likes games, let's suprise him with a Xbox Series X" because it was brand new so...i couldn't exactly play 6 until now, Judgment only comes out in April to Xbox at least and Fist Of The North Star is still PS4 only.

I was fine without a Playstation anyways, but i sure hope Fist Of The North Star:Lost Paradise gets to PC or Xbox in the future, it probably helps that i have actually read the manga and saw a bit of the anime, from what i understand, it's the standard "You fight till Raoh and then ignore Falco, Kaioh and the other lame villains, and let's not even mention the sequel mini series and it's characters" adaptation which makes sense because there was a big decline after Raoh is beaten.

And, to be fair, Asura Island would be awful for a Yakuza style game and same goes for any big place that Kenshiro goes to after Raoh, they all tend to be isolated places ruled by martial artists and even the ones with most wealth don't really seem to do anything entertaining, like, doubtful they would even let arcade games in at any point in history...that and the one game we see anyone play in Asura Island is chess, not Shogi, to a point where martial artists there even created special techniques that resolve around putting Ki into chess pieces and throwing them or catching thrown chess pieces...and Yakuza has always been about Shogi.

 

[TheImplodingVoice]

Sadly, all my life i have been a PC gamer, it was only last Christmas that my parents when thinking of a gift for me, said "Hey, he likes games, let's suprise him with a Xbox Series X" because it was brand new so...i couldn't exactly play 6 until now, Judgment only comes out in April to Xbox at least and Fist Of The North Star is still PS4 only.

I was fine without a Playstation anyways, but i sure hope Fist Of The North Star:Lost Paradise gets to PC or Xbox in the future, it probably helps that i have actually read the manga and saw a bit of the anime, from what i understand, it's the standard "You fight till Raoh and then ignore Falco, Kaioh and the other lame villains, and let's not even mention the sequel mini series and it's characters" adaptation which makes sense because there was a big decline after Raoh is beaten.

And, to be fair, Asura Island would be awful for a Yakuza style game and same goes for any big place that Kenshiro goes to after Raoh, they all tend to be isolated places ruled by martial artists and even the ones with most wealth don't really seem to do anything entertaining, like, doubtful they would even let arcade games in at any point in history...that and the one game we see anyone play in Asura Island is chess, not Shogi, to a point where martial artists there even created special techniques that resolve around putting Ki into chess pieces and throwing them or catching thrown chess pieces...and Yakuza has always been about Shogi.

The game isn't even canon you fucktard. Characters that are dead in anime / manga show up in this. The story is even different. Now shut the fuck up before I shove a shogi piece down your throat and a mahjong tile up your ass. Riichi motherfucker

 

[Fishy]

Finished 5 Remastered. And, well, wow. Just wow.

That was a hell of a ride. I loved 4 and 5 feels like 4 on steroids. More characters, more stories, more locations... It's absolutely fantastic. The main story ending doesn't have the kind of epic finale you get in 0/1/2, but it makes up for it with having 5 personal endings. Also, another game free of comic relief Majima.



** Shit ton of spoilers probably below so stop reading if you don't wan't to ruin it for yourself. **



Kiryu's ordinary life segment was great, and the driving games as unexpected as welcome. Stuff like the noodle cooking minigame was a fun novelty too. Saejima's prison segment was a bit of a slow bore and with those godawful acid trips. Thankfully it isn't that long and the escape bit was better than the corridors and sniper of 4. Then I actually enjoyed the hunting interlude. Didn't do all the side hunting quests, but did a good few and made a point to take down the big bear before leaving. Made an absolute fortune out of it too, but it's not like Saejima is a big spender anyhow. His combat style with the never-flinch-in-heat-mode is just too good to bother with much more. Then Haruka came in and it was a bit of a shock... That was a fun diversion though, I just rolled with it, just regretting I couldn't bitch slap the T-set brats every now and then. Akiyama was hilarious and just more of the chill lazy big hearted bastard from 4, which, somehow, is a fighting god. Go figure. Best training master by far, too, the commando guy is hilarious. And well, it was neat to be in Sotenbori.

Shinada, finally, was my biggest surprise. A new protagonist felt like a step backwards with all the required setup, and the baseball drama premise had me facepalming straight away. Plus his combat style is dogshit. Turns out, Shinada actually grew on me a lot. He's desperately normal, his stories are funny, you struggle for cash early on, his baseball minigame entertaining while it lasts, and his shit combat style means I went out of my way to craft/use weapons which I otherwise barely touch in these games. And he's just a nice guy who got shit luck. He reminded me a lot of 7's Ichiban in that regard. Oh, and his loan shark was great too. I almost regret that Shinada is a one-off, but ah, he deserves to go back to his normal life and I hope he eventually settles down with Milky-chan. Seriously, look at this guy, you have a heart of stone if you don't just want him to get a break:

Spoiler

The finale back in Kamurocho was almost perfect fight-wise, apart from Kiryu's final showdown. That one really dragged on boringly with the bad guy's 70423 life bars. In the end, fuck the fair fight he wanted, my Kiryu took out his lightsaber to accelerate things. Oh, and Majima felt weak, but that's only because Saejima is an absolutely overtuned monster, so fair enough. Gotta love Akiyama's ending too, with clans/families bowing down to him, and when asked how it feels by Watase, he just goes "I've had better days" with his smug smile. I mean, just fucking look at the smug bastard:

Spoiler

What a handsome fucker. He deserves his own series.



And, well, I guess that about covers it. I absolutely adored 4, but it didn't remain at the top of my list for long. There are plenty of things done better in other games (the whole engine and main story of 7, the big budget finale of K1/K2, the main Majima story of 0), but as a complete package, 5 is probably peak Yakuza for me. Choke-full of content, variety of settings and characters, minigames galore...

Small break to play other stuff now, and then it'll be time for 6.

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

Also about Shinada's loanshark, he has the face and voice performance of Sho Aikawa, a Takashi Miike (and Kiyoshi Kurosawa) regular. In case of yakuza stuff, notable as the lead in Dead Or Alive (the Miike film series).

 

[Matador]

Forget about pc ports. There was a time when these titles didn't even get translated.

I will never forget buying Yakuza 5 for 40-50 eur for PS3 to vote with my wallet.

How impressed I was with the strong characters like Kyriu and Saejima, and how I enjoyed beating thugs and all the silliness and susprises Y5 brought to me.

 

[Silentstorm]

If i recall, Yakuza 5 was the first game that sold decently outside of Japan, as Sega was pratically read to give up, Yakuza 0 sold even more and pratically cemented Yakuza as being a franchise worth translating.

Sure, we missed the samurai spin-offs, and that high school one where it's revealed that delinquent gangs prank the new members by telling them to go fight Kiryu, and they accept because they think it's just beating an ordinary old man while the seniors laugh, explaining why at least deliquents tend to attack Kiryu so much...the leaders are dicks.

 

[Silentstorm]

I think they said they are pondering on remaking/remastering the samurai games at least, if that happens, maybe we can finally get them to be translated, also wouldn't mind if Sega ported the Fist Of The North Star game to PC/Xbox too, come on, the days when Yakuza was Sony exclusive are over now...i think Yakuza 7 was released on Xbox before it came to Playstation.

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

Kenzan has been mentioned to be in the Kiwami remake category because according to Nagoshi they feel it's a bit too rough due to being their first PS3 title and basically just practice with their new engine and for Yakuza 3, while Ishin would just get translated because it was made between Yakuza 5 and 0 (and came out on PS4).

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Kenzan has been mentioned to be in the Kiwami remake category because according to Nagoshi they feel it's a bit too rough due to being their first PS3 title and basically just practice with their new engine and for Yakuza 3, while Ishin would just get translated because it was made between Yakuza 5 and 0 (and came out on PS4).

I thought they said the kiwami concept applied to both. But this is jake too.

 

[Alphons]

http://ryu-ga-gotoku.com/20210507/enuk/

Countdown to "Judgement Day" on 07.05.2021.

Judgement 2 or PC release?

 

[Jenkem]

prob Judge Eyes 2, they've already said the PC release of the first one is Stadia exclusive.

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

I'm p sure that's for the PS5 remaster of Judgment.