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Yakuza Series Starter Guide | Welcome to Kamurocho

Danny Dudekisser

I paid good money for this Dynex!
5 is still better than 3 IMO.

I strongly disagree with anyone who puts either above Yakuza 1 though. That game holds up much better than people act, and even with the wacky English dub I enjoyed it more than 3 or 5.

And this is why Yakuza Kiwami is gonna shit all over most of the series, I suspect. Yakuza 1 had a lot of good things going for it, and shoring up some of the lesser aspects of it will prolly make it one of the best.
 

SolVanderlyn

Thanos acquires the fully powered Infinity Gauntlet in The Avengers: Infinity War, but loses when all the superheroes team up together to stop him.
I liked Kiryu and Shinada's chapters a lot. Saejima's only got good almost right before it ended.
Here's the town, either do all the sidequests now or finish the chapter

I feel like the story was kind of nonsensical and didn't carry nearly the amount of impact 4's did. Unraveling the past of Mirei Park and Shinada was the best part about the game's narrative. I don't know a damn thing about baseball and it was still by far my favorite segment of the game (his town looked the nicest, too).

I still like 5 a lot though.
 

oneida

Cock Strain, Lifetime Warranty
I am gonna play 0.

But why wait with 5? burnout?
5 feels like a chore at times. with a better game around the corner, probably best to put 5 on the back burner for the time being. play it in anticipation of 6!
 

Rckstar

Member
5 feels like a chore at times. with a better game around the corner, probably best to put 5 on the back burner for the time being. play it in anticipation of 6!

I'll do that, thanks!

Up next: lords of shadow and binary domain.
 
worst shit about 5 is how many fucking menus you need to go through to get through an otherwise mundane task (very egregious when hunting)

series really needed some basic qol enhancements which i've heard zero has
 
worst shit about 5 is how many fucking menus you need to go through to get through an otherwise mundane task (very egregious when hunting)

series really needed some basic qol enhancements which i've heard zero has

0 and to a greater extent 6 fixes that, less menus and load screens and gets to the action far quicker.
Why did you have to remind me about the damn setting/collecting traps in the hunting though (in 5)? I love that mode so much but hated that procedure you had to go through to do that simple task.

I still think Seijima's chapter should have got rid of the dream sequence, essentially doing all the jail stuff in part 1, then the town in part 2, then spend the last two in the city rather than giving you next to no time in the city. Then again, the dream sequence did eventually serve a purpose when
you have side missions that focus around your inmate friends, those stories were excellent and the back story helped give them importance
.

6 seems pretty great pacing wise at the moment. 4 chapters are almost down and they really throw the boss fights at you, story progressing nicely as well. There seems to be less side stuff though, which is a bit of a pity since there isn't much to do yet in Hiroshima (bar the story).
 

SolVanderlyn

Thanos acquires the fully powered Infinity Gauntlet in The Avengers: Infinity War, but loses when all the superheroes team up together to stop him.
Another thing about 4 I liked better than 5...

saejimay4.jpg
>>>>
saejimay5.jpg
 

ar4757

Member
I liked his haircut. If he didn't get it cut people would probably have been double angry because prison + hair!
 
Bald Seijima was the best change from 4>5 in my opinion. Its just a better look for him, even in Ishin he just looks that much better with a skin head. Can't put my finger on why I hated his hair in 4, but I certainly don't want to see him growing it again anytime soon.
 
And this is why Yakuza Kiwami is gonna shit all over most of the series, I suspect. Yakuza 1 had a lot of good things going for it, and shoring up some of the lesser aspects of it will prolly make it one of the best.

while the story remains one of the best. kiwami feels pretty low budget/phoned in especially coming off of zero. shoehorned the zero battle system without much thought. the majima anywhere system doesn't add much either.
 

oneida

Cock Strain, Lifetime Warranty
im gonna replay 4 after 0 i think. then kiwami->2 and that'll probably carry me to 2018
 
I'm still playing the games from this series, couple of years on from when I picked up Yakuza 1 for the first time on PS2. The franchise has lost a bit of steam over the years imo. The latter enteries have been very up and down for me.

My play list in order of favourite to least favourite:
2 -> 3 -> Ishin -> 1 / Kiwami -> 0 -> 4 -> 5 -
> Dead Souls

I'm still playing 6, but currently for me, it's fitting in either before or after 0 in the above list. I still didn't properly play Kenzan. :(
 

atlusprime

Atlus PR
Yakuza 5 was great despite the length I thought. It did admittedly drag at times. Having Shinada was a nice gameplay switch as I like baseball and his moveset had some funny moves. Also this:

CW3NlthUEAAxi47.jpg

I remember when we streamed Y5, Sam told me that section is actually right by Crypton's (old?) offices.

Crypton being the maker of Hatsune Miku ;)
 

SephLuis

Member
I remember when we streamed Y5, Sam told me that section is actually right by Crypton's (old?) offices.

Crypton being the maker of Hatsune Miku ;)

The impressive is that the cities in Y5 are very, very close to the real ones.

I managed to go to Sapporo during a winter festival and they had tons of those statues. I don't remember if they had Hatsune in that year. I remember seeing Mario and Darth Vader.
 
Finally decided to pre-order Y0 digitally so yay on that!

But I noticed something while browsing store on PS4. Yakuza 0 is not in the pre-order section of the store! Even game like ME:A or Persona 5 which are supposed to come out much later are there but no Yakuza 0. I had to search manually for the game to be able to pre-order it.

I think that's bad and can affect the sales. John if you are reading this, is there anything you can do to fix that? Like contacting Sony or something? Yakuza 0 deserve some spotlight.
 
Just wanted to say that Yakuza 0 has now been added to the pre-orders section of PS Store. (both web store and the one on PS4) It's not in the spotlight sections (which it definitely should be) but it's still good to know that they've added the game among pre-orders.

While that's good news on NA front, the EU store still doesn't have the game! I don't know if Atlus can do anything or is that completely on Deep Silver, but something needs to be done in that front. The game comes out in 3 weeks, they need to add it in there so people can get the pre-orders in.
 

Coda

Member
Finished and Platinumed Yakuza 6 the other day. It was overall a great game with some cool surprises, such as
fighting a tortured wrestling like man underground in a Resident Evil like level.
 
downloading the Yakuza 6 demo from japanese store.

It'll probably ruin me for yakuza 0 since this is so much more expanded when it comes to the battle system and areas you can go into.

In yakuza 5, you could go to many areas like osaka and nagoya.. is this still a thing in 6?
 
downloading the Yakuza 6 demo from japanese store.

It'll probably ruin me for yakuza 0 since this is so much more expanded when it comes to the battle system and areas you can go into.

In yakuza 5, you could go to many areas like osaka and nagoya.. is this still a thing in 6?

0 and 6 have fairly different battle systems - in many ways 0 has a few things going over 6 since you get 4 stances, and a greater variety of moves. 6 feels damn nice though once you level a few moves up and unlock a few more heat moves. I'm probably going to end up preferring 0's combat in the end though, just because I loved how different each fighting style felt.

As for areas - 6 gets Kamuracho (which is greatly expanded in almost all areas, but cuts out a couple of areas for whatever reason) and Hiroshima to explore. No other areas.

So I think I'm ready to try this series with 0. Is 6 on its way here too? Or is that not a for sure thing?

6 (and the remake of 1) were both confirmed to be getting English releases back in December.
 
so, the yakuza 6 demo, almost everything is locked minigame wise and i can't even finish the story in the demo cos its locked? im confused..
the demo gave me as much as i had at 12gb at 32gb. not sure what all the extra data was for?
 

SephLuis

Member
so, the yakuza 6 demo, almost everything is locked minigame wise and i can't even finish the story in the demo cos its locked? im confused..
the demo gave me as much as i had at 12gb at 32gb. not sure what all the extra data was for?

It downloads the entire game as far as I know. You just need to pay to continue.

The demo aspect of it is very slim. I seen all cutscenes from the beginning of the game and fought two times before deleting.

I really want to buy it, but the current price is prohibitive for me. A friend is going to Japan soon and I hope she can find a cheap copy.
 

Ultimadrago

Member
I am looking forward to trying Kiw-something once it is released stateside. Gifs and images have made me passively interested in the series for a while now!
 
It downloads the entire game as far as I know. You just need to pay to continue.

The demo aspect of it is very slim. I seen all cutscenes from the beginning of the game and fought two times before deleting.

I really want to buy it, but the current price is prohibitive for me. A friend is going to Japan soon and I hope she can find a cheap copy.

ohhhh..no wonder it was so big.
luckily there was no heavy yakuza-style talk so i could understand, but yakuza games are usually full of that so its too hard for me. :( so i will be waiting for 2018.. (ugh) for this.

at least we have 0 and kiwami coming.

yakuza games seem to hold value in japan because they are popular :( hope your friend can get it cheap-ish.
 
I am looking forward to trying Kiw-something once it is released stateside. Gifs and images have made me passively interested in the series for a while now!
Why not start with Zero if you are interested in the series? It takes place before every other title and it's probably meatier than Kiwami.
 

IrishNinja

Member
weekly reminder since preorder season is upon us that yes, Yakuza 0 is literally the perfect jumping-on point, and the OT for said title will basically exist to tell you as much
 

Peroroncino

Member
Lately across some topics there's been a barrage of "is this a good time to jump into the series?" questions... so I guess the OT needs to say loud and clear something along the lines of:

Yakuza 0 |OT| Perfect starting point for newcomers!

So people actually click on it before they get discouraged thinking they need to play 1-5 and won't even bother cheking it out. I'd gladly take even 1 more copy sold over a funny OT name. :p
 

ubiblu

Member
I'm getting a warm, fuzzy feeling just thinking about how my journey through the entire Yakuza series, after failing to get into it on several occasions over the years, finally took flight with Yakuza Zero. It's such a great game, and I can't wait for new players to inevitably fall in love with the series.
 
Lately across some topics there's been a barrage of "is this a good time to jump into the series?" questions... so I guess the OT needs to say loud and clear something along the lines of:

Yakuza 0 |OT| Perfect starting point for newcomers!

So people actually click on it before they get discouraged thinking they need to play 1-5 and won't even bother cheking it out. I'd gladly take even 1 more copy sold over a funny OT name. :p

Irish is doing the OT and the chosen subtitle in the community thread is pretty close to that.

Yakuza 0 |OT| Yes, you can start with this one
 

Razlo

Member
Lately across some topics there's been a barrage of "is this a good time to jump into the series?" questions... so I guess the OT needs to say loud and clear something along the lines of:

Yakuza 0 |OT| Perfect starting point for newcomers!

So people actually click on it before they get discouraged thinking they need to play 1-5 and won't even bother cheking it out. I'd gladly take even 1 more copy sold over a funny OT name. :p

Agree, that's the main thing people need to know. We need more people to bask in the greatness of Yakuza!
 
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