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

[Azalin]

Released

It'a 20% off on Fanatical and I had a 5% coupon too so I D1Ped it,now my Kiryu collection is finally complete

 

[StaticSpine]

Should I play other Yakuza games before playing 7 / Like a Dragon? I tried Yakuza 0, but the button mashing combat really threw me off. I can force myself if it's really worth it though.

Nope. I didn't (and I won't exactly because of the button-mashing combat).

 

[Abu Antar]

Should I play other Yakuza games before playing 7 / Like a Dragon? I tried Yakuza 0, but the button mashing combat really threw me off. I can force myself if it's really worth it though.

You don't have to, but I love the series, and I'm not the biggest button mashing fan.

 

[Misco Jones]

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

An appropriate screenshot for reacting to words "increase the chances of localizations for Yakuza Kenzan & Ishin," even if I'd imagine Nagoshi's appraisal that Kenzan is where they'd need a full Kiwami treatment again is correct.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

An appropriate screenshot for reacting to words "increase the chances of localizations for Yakuza Kenzan & Ishin," even if I'd imagine Nagoshi's appraisal that Kenzan is where they'd need a full Kiwami treatment again is correct.

Yeah but having a samurai gamu in the Dragon Engine.

 

[StaticSpine]

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Wait, Kazzy?

 

[Terra]

They really need to sort out hiding/deactivating pedestrians + traffic during side stories in future Dragon Engine iterations. I'm playing through Kiwami 2 and peds being in side story cutscenes obstructing/walking/goofing around into the main actors in a scene is just rife across the game. Ended up with 2 cars in a side story cutscene once. It really drags down the presentation of the game, shouldn't be hard to do a quick exclusion zone at the start of these events and despawn/hide non critical actors in the scene, but I've run into it so many times I had to have a moan. Looks goofy as shit when contrasted against the super serious actual cutscenes used in the main story.

 

[StaticSpine]

They really need to sort out hiding/deactivating pedestrians + traffic during side stories in future Dragon Engine iterations. I'm playing through Kiwami 2 and peds being in side story cutscenes obstructing/walking/goofing around into the main actors in a scene is just rife across the game. Ended up with 2 cars in a side story cutscene once. It really drags down the presentation of the game, shouldn't be hard to do a quick exclusion zone at the start of these events and despawn/hide non critical actors in the scene, but I've run into it so many times I had to have a moan. Looks goofy as shit when contrasted against the super serious actual cutscenes used in the main story.

Not a thing in Like a Dragon.

 

[Silentstorm]

Should I play other Yakuza games before playing 7 / Like a Dragon? I tried Yakuza 0, but the button mashing combat really threw me off. I can force myself if it's really worth it though.

Look, i played 0, Kiwami 1, 2, 3 and i started 4 but left it unfinished for now because of burnout and i can assure you that at most some past characters just appear but they get introductions anyways or just come across as big characters that if this was the first game of a series you would just assume they are meant to be mysterious and explored in further games or just there to make the setting look bigger.

They made a great job of this being a soft reboot in many ways, and even when past characters appear, the focus is still on the new cast because...well, it's their story now...even if apparently the next game won't feature Ichiban at all and come back to the button mashing combat.

I don't think it's necessarily people complaining as 7 is quite popular, but then again, a lot of people were hoping this was an one time experiment or that the party system is done with and we come back to one character only which seems weird because i actually enjoy having various characters fight, i mean, what other JRPG has you playing as chinese kung fu master mob boss partnering with ex-nurse hobo, an ex-cop and a clerk for a multi billion yen business?

 

[Silentstorm]

They really need to sort out hiding/deactivating pedestrians + traffic during side stories in future Dragon Engine iterations. I'm playing through Kiwami 2 and peds being in side story cutscenes obstructing/walking/goofing around into the main actors in a scene is just rife across the game. Ended up with 2 cars in a side story cutscene once. It really drags down the presentation of the game, shouldn't be hard to do a quick exclusion zone at the start of these events and despawn/hide non critical actors in the scene, but I've run into it so many times I had to have a moan. Looks goofy as shit when contrasted against the super serious actual cutscenes used in the main story.

Not a thing in Like a Dragon.

Instead you can get run over by cars who deal 100 damage every time, drivers see Ichiban running in the street but some never slow down or stop anyways, you can also fight on the road and make some enemies get run over, but cars will also usually stop, at the very start, this can one shot every mook, by the end...these guys can get run over various times and fight just fine.

There is even an achievement for making sure a foe is run over.

 

[Silentstorm]

Welp, got to the Tendo fight, i haven't read any spoilers or anything for the fight, when he goes purple aura though, freaking use abilities that revive you after you die, Tendo oneshotted Ichiban then and there, Nanba isn't kidding around when he tells you to be careful.

 

[Silentstorm]

Beat the story, great game, just plain liking all the characters you are supposed to like and hating the ones you don't, they did a particularly good job with Kume, as in, please tell me that the next game with Ichiban gives you a scene where you punch his face a ton, and then a bit more.

Screw Kume is what i am getting at.

 

[1451]

I hated Nanba and wanted to kill him but this is a jrpg. And since I could not kill him I used him in the party.

 

[Silentstorm]

Well, you get to fight him at one point, and it's before he gets his Essence moves so he's quite easy to beat, i didn't mind Nanba but i guess i appreciate a fire spewing hobo you can dress up as Goro Majima.

Honestly is one biggest flaw is:

Spoiler

Not being a great nurse, he got inspired but eventually resented being a nurse and treating people, and his bond friendship moments goes from cute and funny like drinking expensive whisky to just not caring he ruined his career for a lying woman, in a way too casual fashion.

He may have betrayed the team too but at least he had a decent reason and from his point of view, he was helping destroy a big criminal organization, i would say Ichiban never gave up on him...but Ichiban's level of loyalty is insane, you can betray and try to kill him several times and he will still be your friend, so that doesn't really count.

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

Spoiler

That's because it doesn't matter whether or not Mizue lied. It matters that when Nanba took the fall he did it because he believed he was doing the right thing, and it matters to him that he's got a friend like Ichiban who wants to give him a storybook closure to the whole thing. This is similar to why Saejima does not think it matters that he didn't really kill 18 people that fateful day, because that's what he believed then and lived with ever since.

One of the core elements of Yakuza as a series is effectively total in commitment to idealistic morality, and the belief that people can be better. There's exactly two moments in the series where Kiryu is ready to kill someone for what they've done, and only one of those is because the villain is such a despicable lowly worm that Kiryu is ready to cross that line Nishiki convinced him not to cross in 0.

 

[Fishy]

In 5 now, in Saejima's chapters.

Kiryu's chapters were great. Loved the totally unexpected driving, and cleared up all missions/races, pimping the taxi in the process, that was great. Pity the taxi missions aren't replayable like the races (maybe they are from the main game menu?). The low-key new life of Kiryu also felt more entertaining to me than the Okinawa chapters in 3. And well, then the story picks up and that part's finale was hilariously over the top.

Saejima's early section was... unexpected... Thought the prison "plot" was better treated than in 4, but execution is still meh. It gets old quick to run the yard to chat up all NPCs, and those imaginary sequences were like, wtf?! Although I presume I'll visit the place for real later, so I guess it's the game's way of giving you some context/landmarks early on. Poor Saejima... He just wanted to do his time.

Oh, and so far, this kind of brings up one of my pet peeves:

Spoiler

is Daigo a complete failure or what? I mean, I played 7, so I know how it ends, but so far he's been a complete clusterfuck at the heart of every game's crisis. Hope he actually shows up in a better light later in this game, because I kinda liked the young Daigo in K2.

 

[Deflowerer]

Oh, and so far, this kind of brings up one of my pet peeves:

Spoiler

is Daigo a complete failure or what? I mean, I played 7, so I know how it ends, but so far he's been a complete clusterfuck at the heart of every game's crisis. Hope he actually shows up in a better light later in this game, because I kinda liked the young Daigo in K2.

 

[Silentstorm]

I will be fair to Daigo, he got the role of chairman thrusted upon him at a terrible time, just recently the Tojo Clan had lost a lot of competent and strong people, some families like the Nishikiyama Clan weren't exactly that willing to obey and there were a ton of traitors with long plans just wanting to screw him, and let's not even mention the Jingweon Mafia, dude got in when one Chairman died recently, another was only Chairman for like 15 minutes and the last incompetent one seemingly died.

The Tojo clan was a mess and all the problems were already there not to mention the other factions and villains that require full game plots appearing every now and then, and, again, Daigo was just chilling out in bars and clubs, he wasn't even part of the Tojo Clan anymore as far as he was concerned until Kiryu punched him into accepting the job, all things considered, Kiryu gave him a dumpster fire and left.

It would be something else if the Tojo Clan still had a ton of great and loyal people, but the events of Yakuza 1 and the Nishikiyama family among others like the Jingweon made sure that Daigo got offered crap...which Kiryu even states to Daigo that the Tojo Clan isn't worth anything anymore in Kiwami 2, he just hopes that Daigo will be able to turn things around, and this was before the Tojo traitors did anything.

Let's be fair, they still lasted more than 10 years with Daigo in charge, at a time where more rival factions appeared and the government was going after the yakuza more and more...though he had the crutch of Kiryu, Majima and Saejima on his side.

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

Kiryu even admits as much in Yakuza 6 (and 4!) that he really just dumped the neverending Tojo trainwreck in Daigo's lap and didn't really do anything to help before everything goes tits up again. And out of his top men Saejima's always in prison because of his mancode, so overall he's got only Majima in terms of capable Tojo officers.

Also worth noting that since Yakuza 1 the Tojo have been constantly out of money due to what happened in that game. So adding on top of the overall shitshow Nishiki's hijinks left in their wake that Tojo's got enemies that had patiently waited for decades (and Wesker) Daigo had a real shit job unloaded on him.

Spoiler

Daigo does get played like a chump by Katsuragi in 4 tho.

 

[Silentstorm]

7 does show that things went really badly for the Tojo Clan...but it also shows that Daigo is competent and had plans that actually worked, it just takes quite a while for that to be shown in the game.

The one that really screwed things for everyone was either Nishiki, Jingu or both in Yakuza 1, they both kickstarted the events that led to a massive loss of manpower and money that made their enemies get hopeful and led to resentment and hope for some traitorous members of the Tojo Clan to destroy it or get ahead.

I guess there is an implication that things would have been fine if Kiryu had chosen to be the chairman but i kinda doubt it, at least some of the same problems would have happened anyways.

 

[Nirvash]

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?
3-4-5 are 2010 oldass play3 games, got a pc remaster, how good of are those remasters?
Yakuza 0, a prequel from 2015.
Yakuza 6 and 7 are the most recent ones with kiwami.

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?

Sengoku yakuza and kenshiro yakuza lack a pc release?

 

[Azalin]

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?

They are complete remakes using modern engines,Kiwami 1 uses the same engine as 0 I believe while 2 uses the newer Dragon engine that they also used in 6 and I think is the one used in 7 too

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?

I played them as the came out on PC 0,1,2 haven't played the rest although I have bought them,didn't have any problem with 0, since it's a prequel you technically can play it any time you want although you should play the extra Majima mini campaign in Kiwami 2 after 0 since it's a direct sequel to 0' s Majima camaign

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

Yea you should start at 0. Or you can start at 7, since it's a pretty fresh start. 0 improves 1 quite a bit, since you see a lot of additional groundwork on some characters for 1, especially for Nishiki and Kiryu's friendship. Several substory characters from 0 also show up in the Kiwami remakes.

And in case of the remakes, Kiwami is just better than Yakuza 1 all around, including some crucial additions to the story. There's more contention about Yakuza 2 vs Kiwami 2, but IMO Kiwami 2 is the better experience (this depends heavily on how much you like Dragon Engine combat, which I personally love).

EDIT: And the samurai spin-offs lack any release outside of Japan, and Hokuto Ga Gotoku for a while threatened to not get a Western release but so far it's Playstation only.