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[PanzerCute]

Finally started the game yesterday, and managed to play around 4 hours and a half., which was enough to fall in love with the characters again, to be hooked on the plot, to become addicted to the characters evolution and laugh out loud numerous times.

Can't wait to continue tonight.

 

[TheStam]

I'm only 20h in but I feel like this is gonna be my game of the year. It's so funny and wholesome, not to mention batshit crazy. It's my happy place in the winter darkness.

 

[Orbital2060]

I have to clear Persona 5 before starting this, just about to hit 24/12 and then the extra season. Its weird having to juggle that, and LAD and Persona 3 at the same time. Together with the other great Japanese games this year, I think I have enough to last well into 2025.

 

[Chuck Berry]

Grabbing this for the weekend. Pretty pumped. Haven't played a Yakuza fully since 7 back in 2020 and devoured the fuck out of it.

There's a recap for the events prior as always right? Def going to need a refresher on what the hell is going on.

Zero is still my fav out of the entire franchise. Man Id love to see that get totally reworked with the Dragon Engine.

 

[PanzerCute]

Grabbing this for the weekend. Pretty pumped. Haven't played a Yakuza fully since 7 back in 2020 and devoured the fuck out of it.

There's a recap for the events prior as always right? Def going to need a refresher on what the hell is going on.

Zero is still my fav out of the entire franchise. Man Id love to see that get totally reworked with the Dragon Engine.

Zero is a game touched by grace, it blew me away when I played it, and I was already a fan of the series (started with 4). Everything the game tries, it succeeds with panache. Still my favorite episode to this day and one of the best games I have ever played.

 

[GymWolf]

Jesus i really need to finish gaiden and buy this one...

 

[GymWolf]

Grabbing this for the weekend. Pretty pumped. Haven't played a Yakuza fully since 7 back in 2020 and devoured the fuck out of it.

There's a recap for the events prior as always right? Def going to need a refresher on what the hell is going on.

Zero is still my fav out of the entire franchise. Man Id love to see that get totally reworked with the Dragon Engine.

Zero was my first yakuza game so it was pretty magical.

I'm still gonna say until i die that characters and plot in that fucking game are better than anything ND has ever written.

 

[Chuck Berry]

Zero was my first yakuza game so it was pretty magical.

I'm still gonna say until i die that characters and plot in that fucking game are better than anything ND has ever written.

It was my first official one too after dabbling in 3 and 4 but not understanding what the hell was happening. There's a reason why so many people point to Zero as their introduction and one of the best ever. There's some real magic to that game be it the characters, the music, the playable old school Sega games, everything.

And yeah I think the writing/localization is on a completely different level in all of the games Ive played. Ive never once been disappointed in it. I dont know if i would compare it to anything by ND. In fact, I really dont know what Id compare it to. It's really always been its own quality thing.

 

[PanzerCute]

Zero was my first yakuza game so it was pretty magical.

I'm still gonna say until i die that characters and plot in that fucking game are better than anything ND has ever written.

I would not say that ND are a reference in terms of characters and plot writing. Not hating here and I like ND games, but it's just that they write in that typical US blockbuster / mainstream style: it always feels a bit cliché or "déjà vu".

And yeah I think the writing/localization is on a completely different level in all of the games Ive played. Ive never once been disappointed in it. I dont know if i would compare it to anything by ND. In fact, I really dont know what Id compare it to. It's really always been its own quality thing.

Yeah, they are really unique in that regard and they have an insane talent to tackle some very tough topics without feeling condescending or shallow about it. They also care a lot about their characters who never feel like empty vessels designed to check some boxes or to move the plot: they are flawed human beings with a credible evolution and a lot of consistency (you can even predict how Kiryu is gonna react while playing a ridiculous minigame)

 

[Chuck Berry]

Yeah, they are really unique in that regard and they have an insane talent to tackle some very tough topics without feeling condescending or shallow about it.

Absolutely and that's one of the standout things about it for me. They're able to tackle various topics with humor, heart and charm and it just works.

 

[Mossybrew]

I was gonna wait on a sale, but I was feelin a bit down after work yesterday, a bit depleted, so I went ahead and grabbed it. Three hours later I went to bed in a much better mood.

 

[GymWolf]

The OST in zero was also an absolute banger, so many songs and not one that wasn't great or perfectly fitting, you know they did one hell of a job with the music (and the minigame) when you low key mumble this shit while buying a bracelet to your hostess to get that bonus stat




Last time i saw this much consistency was in dk2 or SOTN or killer instinct.

 

[Chuck Berry]

The OST in zero was also an absolute banger, so many songs and not one that wasn't great or perfectly fitting, you know they did one hell of a job with the music (and the minigame) when you low key mumble this shit while buying a bracelet to your hostess to get that bonus stat




Last time i saw this much consistency was in dk2 or SOTN or killer instinct.

Ill raise you



Some of the coolest fight music. That little guitar ditty that comes in at 30 seconds. Perfection

 

[SCB3]

First 2 hours in and already laughing out loud at some of this, the highlight being Ichiban celebrating a date and the scenes after, I have to say he is quickly becoming my fav protagonist after Yagami

 

[Hrk69]

They really went all out with this one eh?

I thoroughly enjoyed the first 10 hours

 

[Aenima]

Why do they make us start Dondoko Island in the middle of the game? Now i cant stop playing this "second game". Im with more than 50h clocked and only 35% of the main story complete.

I despise Sega management for placing some gameplay elements locked behind extra paywalls, like the NG+ and some jobs (standard physical version i got actually came with a DLC code to get the extra jobs), but the base game is filled with so much quality content that is more than worth the day 1 purchase.

 

[Nankatsu]

My game is scheduled to be delivered on Friday. Took them long enough.

 

[TheDarkPhantom]

Unlocked the Sujimon mini-game last night, gotta catch 'em all! This alone should add about 10 hours to my overall playtime lol. Still, there isn't anything yet that I'd put on the level of the cabaret club in 0, that was god-tier, let's see what else the game throws at me.

As a long time fan of the series I'm surprised to find myself slowly coming around to preferring Ichiban as a protagonist. My boy Kaz is legendary character who will always have a special place in my heart but there is something about Ichi's unbridled optimism and hope against all odds that resonates with me. Plus he's hilarious as fuck

I tried the English VO for about 5 minutes and nope, we ain't on that. Japanese voice is the only way to play this series and I think there was a big, missed opportunity to play upon the language aspect more. Indeed, the game explicitly starts with this concept when Ichi arrives in Hawaii with him looking specifically for a cab driver that speaks Japanese complete with a card to determine their Japanese ability. We go from that to having a conversation with a white cop speaking in perfect Japanese (with no accent!) culminating in the cop telling his cronies *in English*: "let's teach these tourists a lesson". Well, OK lol

I appreciate the design challenges this may have presented but there are myriad ways around it. As one example we're always meeting inventors throughout the Yakuza series (in fact, we meet one in this game very early on!) who supply us with various gadgets etc. They could have had some wily Japanese inventor give Ichi some futuristic translation device so when he speaks in Japanese native English speakers hear English and vice versa, could have made for an amusing side story too!

Anyway, loving the game overall. Fantastic narrative as always, mini-games galore, plenty of laugh out loud moments I've come to expect, can't wait to get back to it

 

[PanzerCute]

Played 5+ more hours and as expected the game is really amazing. I really like the new characters and all the stupid new side activities, I already have a shit ton of things to do, the plot slowly starts to unravel and the new city is big and very exotic for a Yakuza game.

 

[Team Andromeda]

Loving the new Yakuza, the game is utterly amazing the combat is so good and builds on what the likes of GameArts did with Grandia 2/3. Love how it mixes in real-time and turn based and how you can also use objects close to the player
The story and cast are the real highlight of this game it's so nuts and the music is utterly incredible and the best from SEGA in decades and you can also play Model 3 Spikeout !!!



SEGA are on top form of late and the best since the old CSK deals.

 

[MonkeyClaw36]

I REALLY want to enjoy this, but I tried played Like a dragon, but man the dialogues are longer than the gameplay segments.
Lost Judgment was even worse.

Do I need to persevere or is it just not for me? It looks great and wacky, but I can't stand games which almost feel like a graphical novel....

 

[STARSBarry]

I'm running out of money because I keep switching jobs and having to craft decent weapons so i can go into the dungeon for resources to craft more weapons...

I love the game, I'm trying to get everyone's jobs to 30 as that's when you unlock the 2nd essence. A little sad that some of my fav's are missing from the first game, but they have equivalents mostly. I do notice while there is a large amounts of jobs with fire or water skills, there seems to be a lack of shock, so I'm largely reliant on shock weapons to get that weakness.

 

[PanzerCute]

I REALLY want to enjoy this, but I tried played Like a dragon, but man the dialogues are longer than the gameplay segments.
Lost Judgment was even worse.

Do I need to persevere or is it just not for me? It looks great and wacky, but I can't stand games which almost feel like a graphical novel....

The beginning of these games is always full of cinematics but it gets better after a few hours. Peak Yakuza is spending dozens of hours on side activities, arcade games and sub stories at your own pace, all while progressing in the campaign, so keep playing and you will reach that point soon enough.

 

[MonkeyClaw36]

I'm running out of money because I keep switching jobs and having to craft decent weapons so i can go into the dungeon for resources to craft more weapons...

I love the game, I'm trying to get everyone's jobs to 30 as that's when you unlock the 2nd essence. A little sad that some of my fav's are missing from the first game, but they have equivalents mostly. I do notice while there is a large amounts of jobs with fire or water skills, there seems to be a lack of shock, so I'm largely reliant on shock weapons to get that weakness.

Wrong thread?

 

[Alexios]

Wrong thread?

Lol. Yakuza is Dragon Quest now did you miss the last main game

 

[Hrk69]

Pretty random but I just love the sound footsteps make in these games lol

 

[MonkeyClaw36]

Lol. Yakuza is Dragon Quest now did you miss the last main game

Fuck! It was me who was in the wrong thread!!!!!! FML......
Note to self: Don't multitab Gaf Monkey......

 

[STARSBarry]

Wrong thread?

Fuck! It was me who was in the wrong thread!!!!!! FML......
Note to self: Don't multitab Gaf Monkey.....

Thank christ I was super confused, kept scrolling to the title and then my post, then back up to the thread title...

out of interest, what thread did you think this was?

 

[MonkeyClaw36]

Thank christ I was super confused, kept scrolling to the title and then my post, then back up to the thread title...

out of interest, what thread did you think this was?

I'm so sorry but this made me laugh

Prince of Persia. Was reading it on another tab and saw weapons etc and I was " Is this dude on crack!?"
But it was me. Mea culpa bro.

 

[Chuck Berry]

I was farting around Zero and Kiwami 2 last night just to kinda get reacquainted with the universe and all. Also re read the plot for Like A Dragon and a ton came flooding back.

Are you guys all playing this in the Jap dub? Learning that YONG YEA voices Kiryu completely shattered any chance of me ever checking out the English acting. Since when does this zero personality get to voice one of the coolest protagonists of all time?

Please tell me Takaya Kuroda is still there for the REAL voice.

 

[Go_Ly_Dow]

Any quick levelling tips? Just passed chapter 3.

 

[Croga]

The Sujimon battling stuff is some of my favourite side content they've done, it's just full of laughs.

Are you guys all playing this in the Jap dub? Learning that YONG YEA voices Kiryu completely shattered any chance of me ever checking out the English acting. Since when does this zero personality get to voice one of the coolest protagonists of all time?

Please tell me Takaya Kuroda is still there for the REAL voice.

I love the English dub of the main cast, but Yong Yea made me switch back to Japanese. Yes he's that bad, as expected.

I'd kill for a mod or an option to just replace his voice and leave only Kiryu in Japanese.

Just pretend Kiryu couldn't be arsed learning English or some shit lol. Everyone else I've met so far in the game was great in English dub, except for him.

Kuroda is till the voice for Japanese version too yep.

 

[Nankatsu]

Damn, the game got a perfect score on Famitsu.

Famitsu Review Scores: Issue 1835

This week’s Famitsu review scores are in.

www.gematsu.com

 

[xrnzaaas]

Any quick levelling tips? Just passed chapter 3.

It's difficult to recommend anything so early in the game. A little bit later you should be able to do dungeons and take out minibosses for bigger XP boosts.

As long as you don't avoid random battles you should be fine with the recommended party level for bigger story sequences (the game will warn you about them).

 

[Alexios]

Love this game and it's a 10/10 but it could use a polish pass or two. Objects in the way kicked as your characters go to attack seem to never actually hit enemies any more (they do occasionally or in some areas but before I finished this one "dungeon" I was at and it happened they never did in the open world so I thought it's an issue in the whole game, but it's not after all). The DOF effect seems to have a weird wavy pattern distortion that looks off. In some parts things like the thugs on a buddy you can rescue respawn way too easily/fast. Only some boat models bob with the waves and the rest are 100% static in some dock (or everywhere?). Some types of shadows especially fade in way too closely in lod at max settings. Minor things like that all over the place basically but I hope they fix it all cos the game deserves it. There's also bad grammar/syntax/spelling in subtitles.

 

[Nankatsu]

Ichiban is such a character. 30 mins in and I'm already rolling with his reactions at survive bar.

Such a wonderful protagonist .

 

[Luipadre]

Ok bought the game and played for 2 hours. Ichiban is awesome and i already laughed out loud a bunch of times. This will be great lol. Also some cutscenes looks so damn good on OLED, HDR in this game is on another level just like in gaiden

 

[PanzerCute]

17 hours in. It's 2am, I am gonna feel like shit at work tomorrow but I am way too addicted.

I now have access to the Island minigame and I can already see myself invest 20+ hours on it. Same with this stupidly fun Sujimon side activity and I already look forward to deep dive in the first dungeon I unlocked.

Oh and I can also change my jobs.

Really, there is nothing like these games in the market: top tier content at every corner.

 

[NeoLed]

Not feeling this Dondoko island as right now. Maybe because I'm bad at decorating. Will just 1 star it and continue the story, and return later days

 

[TwiztidElf]

At this point I feel like Ichiban Kasuga is one of my favorite fictional characters of all time.

 

[TheDarkPhantom]

Pro-tip: sing Honolulu Nights at karaoke with "passionate back up", thank me later lol. Game is so good, hopefully I can play it thoroughly and to completion before FFVII Rebirth hits, busy with Tekken 8 too, 2024 off to a roaring start.

 

[Alexios]

Is Chitose's random wandering VA just her going all " Ichibaaaaaahhhhn" or is it some other Japanese word?

 

[Aenima]

Not feeling this Dondoko island as right now. Maybe because I'm bad at decorating. Will just 1 star it and continue the story, and return later days

Since i entered Dondoko Island i was not able to leave it unfinished. Already have it at 5 stars with the main stats at S rank. Once you unlock the Dondoko farm inside the island you can leave your Suijomon there gaining exp. And so far seems to be the best place in the game to get money from. Have been just playing that side game for the last 2 days. Today im finally going back to follow the main story.

 

[TheDarkPhantom]

(DELETED)

 

[TheDarkPhantom]

The Yakuza series in a single image:

Man I love this game

 

[xrnzaaas]

Not feeling this Dondoko island as right now. Maybe because I'm bad at decorating. Will just 1 star it and continue the story, and return later days

I also suck at decorating and all that creative stuff. Just started putting objects randomly and only remembering that a store or a vending machine must be next to the path if you want the guests to interact with it.

 

[Isa]

Since i entered Dondoko Island i was not able to leave it unfinished. Already have it at 5 stars with the main stats at S rank. Once you unlock the Dondoko farm inside the island you can leave your Suijomon there gaining exp. And so far seems to be the best place in the game to get money from. Have been just playing that side game for the last 2 days. Today im finally going back to follow the main story.

That's good to know, I've been waiting to find a good spot to get some cash rolling in, its been tough but I'm still really early on.

 

[Nankatsu]

I'm a bit confused about something quite early in the game.

Spoiler

Wasnt the first guy that appears on Hello Work called Sasaki? The one that after a while awaits for you and tries to bribe Ichiban and you end up fighting him?

He completely dissapears after that and the following ex-yakuza that appears at Hello Work is someone else also called Sasaki but looks very different.

Why did they called Sasaki to two characters in a row?

 

[Alexios]

The first guy is Sakasi.

 

[Nankatsu]

The first guy is Sakasi.

Man the freaking music app, what a banger thing. Koi no Disco Queen while exploring the city.

Damn cool.