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Yakuza Series Starter Guide | Welcome to Kamurocho
- Thread starter IrishNinja
- Start date
Shadowman16
Member
I think its just down to how Kiwami did in Japan. Assuming it did ok, I think Kiwami 2 is the next Yakuza game to get released in Japan - going by recent interviews with Nagoshi it sounds like Yakuza 7 might be a little ways off yet (i.e. not next year) so chances are we get another off shoot or remake to keep fans satisfied in the short term.
Now assuming the team uses the 0/Kiwami engine then they can take the city assets from those games and you have the two major cities of Yakuza 2. Thanks to Ishin and Kiwami you have character models for pretty much all the major players in the story so they are part way there to remaking 2 already.
All pure conjecture on my part, but it seems like a perfectly logical move.
However I wonder if instead going forward they remake 2 using the Dragon Engine from Yakuza 6. That'd require far more work to remake the game, but damn would it look beautiful.
Son Of Sparda
Member
I actually agree with you on 3. I really liked
Mine
I'm gonna be honest and say that I didn't really like that aspect in Y4 and Y5. I feel like that was one of side effects of going for more than one protags. You still have rivalries but they don't get enough focus. At least not as much as the ones that you have in games with Kiryu as sole protag.
I'm hopeful that Y0 and then Y6 have changed that, but after watching many trailers about those games, I still can't put a face on the main bad, so we'll have to see how those will turn out.
Also, I didn't wanted to quote you twice so I'll say it here. That's an excellent point about having most the models and stuff ready for Kiwami 2, from Ishin and Y0. I can totally see them doing a Kiwami 2 using those assets.
Yeah, there is approximately 30min worth of new cutscenes in Yakuza Kiwami, fleshing out
Nishiki's
Maybe my view is a little tainted on Yakuza 1's rivalry. I haven't played that game in around 8 years, I think? So, yeah I can't remember much besides that hype fight and the footage that we've been seeing in Y0 and Kiwami trailers. Though, I think regardless of how Y1 handled
Nishiki's
Nishiki and their friendship
Thanks oneida that's a very generous offer. Irish actually said the same thing to me very recently, but unfortunately I live in middle-east and the customs here are quite strict
Thanks oneida that's a very generous offer. Irish actually said the same thing to me very recently, but unfortunately I live in middle-east and the customs here are quite strict
Even for just a disc in a sleeve?
Son Of Sparda
Member
Yeah. Even for a simple artbook or book. They are very very strict and just as much expensive.
I also think Kiwami 2 is next. Kiwami did pretty well all things considered. Its a remake of a game that had an HD remaster a few years prior, and it reused a lot of Yakuza 0's assets. I'd be fine if they did it on the same engine as Kiwami.
Son Of Sparda
Member
Kiwami confirmed to have a complete retranslation.
Shadowman16
Member
Yeah, my thoughts as well. Only thing I'm not sure on is the engine, seems like they are in a tough position in that regard - go with the old engine where they can crank out the game fairly easily (in theory) but at the same time that means they will be going backwards on all the progress they made in terms of graphics, physics and seamlessness of 6. Or go with the newer engine which would certainly take more time/money but would have the same benefits that 6 has.
Doesn't really matter which they pick, I'll buy it and love it either way!
Son Of Sparda
Member
We actually have to update the OP at some point since Y6 and YK are now confirmed for western release.
matrix-cat
Member
Great news! Kiwami will be a great way of attracting new people to the franchise, and I really think using that original translation in 2017 would turn people away instead.
God, I can't wait to play this game with Takaya Kuroda's voice coming out of Kiryu. That dude has the best voice on the planet.
Son Of Sparda
Member
I think that's a universal agreement between all Yakuza fans, hahahaha.
IrishNinja
Member
just saw that earlier - pretty crazy, now i'm really looking forward to it!
yeah, i've got the PS3 one myself!
we do indeed! the community thread should see updating as well
Maybe a graphical timeline of all the Yakuza releases would be a nice addition to the updated starter guide? It's getting quite confusing with all the spin-offs, prequels, hd collections that have no Western release and now the announced localization of Kiwami.
I can make a simple one in photoshop, or perhaps make two? A chronological timeline (starting with Kenzan/Ishin I guess and ending with Yakuza 6), and a release timeline (starting with Yakuza and ending with Yakuza 6). I'll make it clear which games have been released outside Japan or have announced localizations and which of them are spin-offs, to make it easy to understand.
I know that something like that would've really helped me out when I wanted to give the series a try and was lost on where to start.
Kinda busy this week but if people like the idea I can get started next week!
I can make a simple one in photoshop, or perhaps make two? A chronological timeline (starting with Kenzan/Ishin I guess and ending with Yakuza 6), and a release timeline (starting with Yakuza and ending with Yakuza 6). I'll make it clear which games have been released outside Japan or have announced localizations and which of them are spin-offs, to make it easy to understand.
I know that something like that would've really helped me out when I wanted to give the series a try and was lost on where to start.
Kinda busy this week but if people like the idea I can get started next week!
kenzan/ishin wouldn't be on said timeline since they're spin off titles. a chronological timeline would run 0 - 6 and a release timeline would run 1 - 5, 0, 6. every game except for kenzan/ishin and the PSP game came/is coming west.
mejin
Member
Thank you, Sega, Atlus and Sony.
bishopcruz
Member
Well, the previous starter guide thread had a lot of that handled. It lists all the games and release dates.
Son Of Sparda
Member
Yeah. Tell me if you needed help with anything, man
That's actually a very good idea kubus. Though, just like oneida said, the chronological one shouldn't include Ishin, Kenzan and Dead Souls (I'm not sure about PSP games).
But nonetheless it's a very cool idea. So I for one would love to see what you can come up with.
Peroroncino
Member
Completely forgot about #buildingthelist initiative, just tweeted for Yakuza Ishin [slim chance] and for Yakuza 2 as a PS2 Classic.
Good point, I was too focused on the fact that Kenzan and Ishin take place in the past to realize they aren't part of the canon timeline
.This actually helped me a lot back when I wanted to give the series a try and didn't know where to start! But it takes up a lot of space in this layout which could make the current OP a bit messy if we were to copy-paste it. What I want to try is to take all that information and condense it into something that people will understand at just one glance.
Thanks, and yeah I'll keep the non-canon spin-offs out of the chronological timeline. Which makes me wonder if I should actually bother to make two timelines... Don't want to over-complicate things if I don't have to.
Though I guess a release timeline would be useful if someone wants to know what the entire franchise has to offer (+ easy overview of which games were localized and which ones weren't), while the chronological timeline is useful for those who simply want to know which games they need to get the complete story, even though the timeline is pretty straight forward since it's just 0 - 6. The only confusing part about it is Kiwami: many people don't know that it's the remake of 1.
Forgive my rambling, I guess I'll make some drafts first to see how they both look, and I'll post them here to get more input
Son Of Sparda
Member
I guess you can do a chronological one and then mention each title's release date as well. Or vice versa, do a release timeline based one which includes a line saying that the number in each title is representative of the chronological timeline of the series (starting from Y0 all the way till Y6).Thanks, and yeah I'll keep the non-canon spin-offs out of the chronological timeline. Which makes me wonder if I should actually bother to make two timelines... Don't want to over-complicate things if I don't have to.
Though I guess a release timeline would be useful if someone wants to know what the entire franchise has to offer (+ easy overview of which games were localized and which ones weren't), while the chronological timeline is useful for those who simply want to know which games they need to get the complete story, even though the timeline is pretty straight forward since it's just 0 - 6. The only confusing part about it is Kiwami: many people don't know that it's the remake of 1.
Forgive my rambling, I guess I'll make some drafts first to see how they both look, and I'll post them here to get more input
At any rate, can't wait to see what you come up with
Chronological table of RGG in Japanese Wikipedia
It's not straight forward from 0 to 6. Some events happened before 0. e.g. Saejima's story in Y4 connects to the beginning of Majima's part in 0.
It's not straight forward from 0 to 6. Some events happened before 0. e.g. Saejima's story in Y4 connects to the beginning of Majima's part in 0.
lucebuce12
Member
Yup, they're all self contained stories so I don't see why you cant.
And as a lot of people have put it, Shenmue is an adventure game with a brawling element in it.
Yakuza is a brawler with adventure elements in it.
hoogafanter
Banned
Are there any shenmue easter eggs in yakuza series?
Son Of Sparda
Member
That's true but I'm not sure how you can reflect on that without making it seem much more complicated than it actually is. If I'm not mistaken Y0 does reference that event to some degree and let the players know why Majima is in the situation that you see him in Y0 ("he disobeyed a direct order", "broke the rule of Yakuza", etc).
True and there's some stuff in Y2 that precede everything. But in general the games' play out in chronological order.
Shadowman16
Member
Actually yes, two I've seen so far (very tiny spoilers):
Yakuza 4:
There is a Kiryu side mission where you meet some old gangsters from Yakuza 1 who have gotten out of the Yakuza business and gotten into the porn business - the title of the porn movie is:
"Gals gone wild in Yokosuka"
Starring:
"Ryoko Hazuki - Age 18 - Sagittarius"
"Gals gone wild in Yokosuka"
Starring:
"Ryoko Hazuki - Age 18 - Sagittarius"
Yakuza 0/Kiwami
One of the buildings around Kamuracho that you sadly can't enter is a video game arcade called "Game You Arcade" which is a nod to the name of the arcade in the original Shenmue
And there is a great little nod from Jet Set Radio in the original Yakuza game. You need to get toilet paper for a guy, after you get him enough he reveals himself as Goji Rokakku (as in the evil boss from the JSR series).
Son Of Sparda
Member
Never played Shenmue but curious to know what this means. Can anyone explain it to me? Thanks
lucebuce12
Member
Never played Shenmue but curious to know what this means. Can anyone explain it to me? Thanks
The name of
the protagonist in Shenmue is Ryo Hazuki and he is also a Sagittarius and is 18. Yokosuka is Ryo's hometown.
Not really a spoiler but still.
Son Of Sparda
Member
Oh, that's cool. Thanks for explanation lucebuce.
And btw, congrats on new avatar. It's beautiful
lucebuce12
Member
Thanks. I'm just loving it lol.Oh, that's cool. Thanks for explanation lucebuce.
And btw, congrats on new avatar. It's beautiful
Vic_Viper
Member
Cant believe were actually getting Kiwami in the West! Ill finally get a chance to go back and play the first game, and on PS4. Now SEGA please do this for Yakuza 2!
Really hope the sales do well enough for them to continue releasing these great games in the West.
Any Ideas for what comes after Yakuza 6? Since it feels like an ending of Kazuma's story in a way, I hope they are able to continue the series with a new main protagonist. This would be a great opportunity for the devs to work on updating/rebuilding their engine so they can build bigger cities and add new elements. Would really like to see a better open world in the next game.
Really hope the sales do well enough for them to continue releasing these great games in the West.
Any Ideas for what comes after Yakuza 6? Since it feels like an ending of Kazuma's story in a way, I hope they are able to continue the series with a new main protagonist. This would be a great opportunity for the devs to work on updating/rebuilding their engine so they can build bigger cities and add new elements. Would really like to see a better open world in the next game.
lucebuce12
Member
I personally hope that we get
Akiyama
And it helps that he's one of the best characters in the series.
Son Of Sparda
Member
Yep, just like lucebuce said
Akiyama
Shadowman16
Member
Can't see Kamuracho going anywhere for the next numerical Yakuza release - they've really upgraded Kamuracho for 6, and since its such a central "character" of the series I just can't see them getting rid of it any time soon. It would be nice to get a brand new city though that is the same size as Kamuracho - all the other cities included in the game (bar Hiroshima which I can't comment on yet) are much smaller and more sparse in terms of activities and locations compared to Kamuracho which they've really build up throughout the years. So it'd be nice to continue with the two city format but really flesh out a second city to the point where we have two big cities with tons to see and do (as opposed to Yakuza 5 which had a bunch of smaller cities, which I still did enjoy an awful lot).
What I want to know for 6 is if you can finally explore Kamuracho Hills - its been teased since Yakuza 2's plot and construction was finished in Yakuza 5 so there's no reason why you shouldn't be able to explore it now.
No idea where they go next with the series though, if 6 really does finish Kiryu's story then I can either see them going with a brand new character to build up a brand new saga, or perhaps pick up on a plot hint in Yakuza 5:
Akiyama seems to be a rising star - he makes mention of building his "legend" at the end of the game and I get the feeling that maybe the dev team are trying to position him as the new progagonist of the series. Either way, I'd really like to see a more focused Akiyama plot for a future game, he's one of my favourite characters both in fighting style and personality.
As for rebuilding the engine - they just did that for 6, its much updated from all the previous games in terms of graphics, physics and of course no load times. So no doubt things will continue to be refined as they work on future games in the series.
Peroroncino
Member
I hope they stick with
as new main prot and really flesh him out, while I love Yakuza 4 and 5, I prefer 1 character per game, 5 got a little crazy plot wise near the end with all those twists, 4 handled multiple characters better but it was still far fetched a bit. And if they really want to make multiple protagonists, then at least stop at 2,
would be fine too.
Akiyama
Akiyama and Saejima/Goro
Shadowman16
Member
Two is the sweet spot for me. 0 showed that a decent story could be done with multiple protagonists and it felt much more coherent and well paced compared to the way 5 especially handled things. So hopefully they'll follow that template in future rather than 4 or 5 characters.
Son Of Sparda
Member
While I obviously haven't played Zero yet, I still have to agree with you guys. Having 2 protags is definitely preferable to the 4-5 ones that we had in Y4 and Y5. Y5 in particular felt really chaotic messy at times in its plot.
Son Of Sparda
Member
Yeah, hopefully by that time Kiwami 2 has been announced.
non of the old characters should be in the next main game, non of it's worlds and non of it's Stories.
we need a fresh project by all means! fresh cast. fresh world. fresh story. and this time they better conceptualize the whole story from the very beginning. they should know when to start and when to finish, if they really want to create an amazing & convincing story.
Has there been any concrete info about it coming sooner rather than later?
Kiwami? summer 2017.