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

[quixotic]

Just started Like a Dragon. Almost had a heart attack when I heard that English dub!!!

All dubfags must hang

 

[quixotic]

But in all seriousness, I haven’t even got to 7 yet and I’ve already heard secondhand how fucking awful the dub is.
Dubbed Yakuza is like eating your cereal with water instead of milk.

 

[Deuce Traveler]

Merry Christmas, everyone!

So I beat Yakuza 0 yesterday with a little more than 20% completion. It's my first Yakuza game and I was expecting something like an RPG / beat-em-up hybrid. What I got instead was a visual novel. II would spend 1 or 2 minutes of beating thugs on the street followed by 15 minute cut scenes. I wasn't overly impressed with this one, though it was better than average. Mostly because I felt the Kiryu missions and conversations to be a drag. I much preferred playing as Majima, as his background story was more compelling. Kiryu is surrounded by people who care about him and try to convince him to get out of the lifestyle, but dumbass keeps sticking around for nebulous reasons even when given a way out. Majima is trapped from day one, surrounded by assholes, and has no real way out, yet continues to soldier on despite moments that break him. He also has an awesome break dance fight style and my favored baseball bat style. And his main side quest is a sim brothel/waifu cabaret/hostess management sim. Fuck man... why does anyone ever want to play Kiryu?

The whole reason I decided to play Yakuza 0 is because I purchased Yakuza: Like a Dragon as a Christmas present to myself and I thought it would help me with the series background. I've only played a couple of hours of it, but so far I'm enjoying Like a Dragon a lot more than Yakuza 0. Ichiban is a lot more interesting than Kiryu and maybe on par with Majima. I appreciated the blatant homage to Dragon's Quest and the mimicking of its JRPG style. Missions feel like dungeon crawling and it's neat to see fantasy RPG combat adopted to modern urban Japan. While Yakuza 0 felt like a slog at times, I had a hard time putting the controller down in Like a Dragon. I'm in Chapter 3 right now and have already met two NPCs that can join my party. I'm looking forward to playing some more, especially when the city opens up for me.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

why does anyone ever want to play Kiryu?

Because a real man ought to be a little stupid.

 

[Rean]

Friends, here are my initial early alcohol-fueled thoughts on Like a Dragon (after switching to original Japanese voices, of course)!

Hopefully the new combat system grows on me. It seems... odd thus far.

I don't like reboots in general, so this was a tough sell in the first place for me. I don't particularly like Ichi yet, but that means nothing at this point since I also had an intense dislike for Kiryu until Y3 as well. They do share similarities in how naive they are, but Kiryu always had that stiff upper lip that gave him a certain mystique. I ended up really invested in Kiryu's story by Y4 and was really hoping he wouldn't have to go away or that we could at least portray a character who's had at least some development before.

Kamurocho looks the same as Y2Kiwami/Y6, so fairly nice. That's fine, although I've expressed before how due to this new engine the visuals lose a lot of the organic feel the previous ones had.

 

[Nirvash]

I MUST FIND ALL THE CATS



But after the duck christmas yakuza 0 streams.

 

[GhostCow]

Subaru is a good girl

 

[ERYFKRAD]

And done with 6.
Kiryu you baka ass baka.

 

[Nirvash]

Subaru is a good girl

She will always love nishiki the most



Main reason Kiwami is the worst yakuza game is for not giving magikarp more story.

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

The child care dude wasn't exactly a reassuring sign either.

That's basically the key thing to understand: Orphans (whether actually orphaned or just abandoned by their parents) are treated AWFULLY in Japan. Kiryu had it better than most IRL orphans do in Japan because of Kazama's involvement with Sunflower, and that's a reason why he cares so much about Morning Glory and being a father to nine children and a grandfather in 6. He himself says it, he'd never let Haruto fall into the uncaring hands of the same system and society that failed him in the first place.

 

[Deflowerer]

Friends, here are my initial early alcohol-fueled thoughts on Like a Dragon (after switching to original Japanese voices, of course)!

Hopefully the new combat system grows on me. It seems... odd thus far.

I don't like reboots in general, so this was a tough sell in the first place for me. I don't particularly like Ichi yet, but that means nothing at this point since I also had an intense dislike for Kiryu until Y3 as well. They do share similarities in how naive they are, but Kiryu always had that stiff upper lip that gave him a certain mystique. I ended up really invested in Kiryu's story by Y4 and was really hoping he wouldn't have to go away or that we could at least portray a character who's had at least some development before.

Kamurocho looks the same as Y2Kiwami/Y6, so fairly nice. That's fine, although I've expressed before how due to this new engine the visuals lose a lot of the organic feel the previous ones had.

You'll love Ichiban by the end of it.

 

[Ivan]

the quality of Yakuza sidequests never cease to surprise me

also, not sure what tirggers it, but I saw this once thus far in my playthrough:

 

[Ivan]

Wow, so I just wrapped up Y6. Glad to have a leaner experience after the full blown buffet that was Y5. Janky combat animations aside, I loved the presentation. Loved the more personal story and focus on Kiryu, which made this feel like the sequel I was quenching after 3. Onomichi is a quaint little area that becomes quickly familiar.

As always, one of my favorite elements from the Yakuza games are the soundtracks. Some choice cuts:

 

[ERYFKRAD]

the quality of Yakuza sidequests never cease to surprise me

also, not sure what tirggers it, but I saw this once thus far in my playthrough:

Heat action near women

 

[Nirvash]

Why no one told me about the baseball manager? I was missing it.

spear fishing is so so

 

[Nirvash]

WHERE IS SHINADA, meh

Lol, just jump from the roof you hopeless chinaclown.

And let me guess, the secret gonna be some absolute bullshit.

 

[Rean]

Friends, here are my initial early alcohol-fueled thoughts on Like a Dragon (after switching to original Japanese voices, of course)!

Hopefully the new combat system grows on me. It seems... odd thus far.

I don't like reboots in general, so this was a tough sell in the first place for me. I don't particularly like Ichi yet, but that means nothing at this point since I also had an intense dislike for Kiryu until Y3 as well. They do share similarities in how naive they are, but Kiryu always had that stiff upper lip that gave him a certain mystique. I ended up really invested in Kiryu's story by Y4 and was really hoping he wouldn't have to go away or that we could at least portray a character who's had at least some development before.

Kamurocho looks the same as Y2Kiwami/Y6, so fairly nice. That's fine, although I've expressed before how due to this new engine the visuals lose a lot of the organic feel the previous ones had.

You'll love Ichiban by the end of it.

Probably, yeah!

 

[Nirvash]

Man, the bar friends thing was so wholesome, way way better than the cabaret whores thing.

So... the "secret" was sure dumb but i guess everything still make sense, i'm impressed.

 

[Rean]

Well into the meat of things now in Like a Dragon, I have indeed come to like Ichiban a lot, as well as the other three companions. They have some really cool interactions and interactivity with the plot, which was a thing missing in previous Yakuza games.
The sidequests are really fun as well, they have that over the top factor that's reminiscent of Y0.

The combat is one thing I'm still not a big fan of...

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Holy shit Ijincho is huge though.

 

[Rean]

Holy shit Ijincho is huge though.

Yeah, it's Kamurocho-sized, maybe bigger!
Despite never engaging in any crafting ever, I also like all the materials and collectibles that are around.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

maybe bigger

I'm leaning towards this to be honest.

 

[Rean]

Game crashed after the Geomijul chapter, making me redo the whole thing. Over an hour wasted. Saving during dungeon/story sequences is not a thing, and as for after, I thought it saved when you enter buildings, but apparently it fucking didn't. Why the fuck is this game so crashy? I remember running Y5 for 3 days straight and never having it crash once.
Last beer goes to waste.
Sigh.

 

[Nirvash]

Game crashed after the Geomijul chapter, making me redo the whole thing. Over an hour wasted. Saving during dungeon/story sequences is not a thing, and as for after, I thought it saved when you enter buildings, but apparently it fucking didn't. Why the fuck is this game so crashy? I remember running Y5 for 3 days straight and never having it crash once.
Last beer goes to waste.
Sigh.

I must say, the yakuza pc ports have been almost 100% stable for me, i'm legit impressed.

I had 2 crash on yakuza 0 due to a inventory bug, the others had sometimes some error when closing, but i NEVER had a gameplay crash in what... 250h?

 

[cruel]

I reached chapter 14 in Like a Dragon. The whole plot twist they served in chapter 13 was one big WTF. I understand they tried to do something unexpected, but come on, talk about probability and being realistic.

I like the game overall and will definitely finish it, but some of the plot developments are, let's say, not convincing. Also, while I like the combat, it could really use some more variety / flavor. Whatever you experience (combat wise) in the first few chapters doesn't really evolve much throughout the game.

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