Gaming "That's rad!": The Yakuza Series

Okay so I played it a bit and I like it so far. Even though I have only played maybe an hour or two. But I completely forgot that technically the millennium didn’t start until 2001. Anyway I say this cause I thought the game was taking place in 1999 until I saw the 2001 glasses.

 

Fett-chan! Majima-san has a welcome party for you.

Good luck surviving it.

 

Wait, you’re not starting with Yakuza 0?

 

True, Zero is the best start point.

 

Yea but I don’t want to pay money. Lol.

I’ll see how much it costs on PSS

 

Pretty certain they recently added Yakuza to PS+ Extra, but not sure which ones.

Yakuza is a series where playing them in order seriously pays off.

 

Yeah, I’m not sure what tier of PS+ you have (or how any of that works, really), but Yakuza 0 is on there.

If you don’t have the necessary tier or whatever, it’s currently on sale for a whopping five bucks on the PlayStation store until September 1st. Hard to find better bang for your buck than that.

 

Well, after finishing the Lost Judgment DLC, I guess I’m fully caught up on the series? Minus the side games that never made it to the West, naturally. I compiled some stats (according to the Xbox) since I started Yakuza 0 on January 18, 2021, exactly nineteen months ago:

Total time played: 345 hours, 51 minutes.
Longest game: Yakuza: Like a Dragon (79:12)
Shortest game: Yakuza 3 (14:20)

This doesn’t count the 30-40ish hours I originally spent on Yakuza 0 on the PlayStation 4 back in 2019 when I made this post on the first page of this thread:

So if you include that, I’d be pushing 400 hours. Which, for me and my attention span, is just absolutely unheard of, and really speaks to my love for this franchise and the impact it’s had on me.

 

Time to play Lost Paradise with the Kiryu skin.

 

I suppose the one solace of having been in on this franchise really early is that it’s impossible to stare the hours of my life in the face like that. “Yeah let me just go borrow my old college roommate’s PS3 to clock my Yakuza 3 hours,” said no one ever.

Also I suspect my time across most entries would mostly reflect how much I played mahjong. That’s not actually a bit, folks.

 

Sickos_yes_haha_yes.jpg

 

Get ready for a Yakuza 8 reveal.

 

LIKE A DRAGON: ISHIN!

A full remake of Ishin.

That is all.

 

The untold riches of this age of western RGG fandom may actually drive me to tears of joy.

 

**** yeah.



I don’t know if I’m physically prepared for Ryuji and Akiyama in the same game.

But…



Is this like a “Which of these doesn’t belong?” exercise? Mine has absolutely zero business standing amongst those beautiful men. You can recast those roles all you want, I will never forgive that face for bulldozing Morning Glory.

 

I don’t know anything about the plot of Ishin but the roles were so radically different from what we’re used to in Kenzan that you shouldn’t assume much even though they use the same “cast.” Gorohachi was like the anti-Majima, it was baffling.

 

Cautiously optimistic about the prospect of seeing Saejima exclaim “RYOMA-CHAN!” with charming insanity.

 

Grab the tissues, @Ramza

Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name



New game coming in 2023 centered on Kazuma Kiryu that connects Yakuza 6 to…

Yakuza 8



Kiryu’s default Job is Idol, apparently.

What a time to be alive.

Edit: And a new Ishin trailer.



Holy **** they brought back Awano and Kuze, somebody pinch me.

 

Holy ****! The hits keep on coming!

 

God is real and Kiryu beat the snot out of him to get us more games.

 

I am so happy

 

But real talk how do I clear my life schedule so I can only play Yakuza/Like a Dragon games now?

 

I discovered a pretty simple formula to play through the entire series, which I will describe below:

1. Play a Yakuza game
2. Play something else to prevent burnout
3. Realize you could be having more fun playing Yakuza instead
4. Play the next Yakuza

 

The thickened plot thickens further still!



I mean, yes, in retrospect the amount of time it actually takes to build a combat engine from the ground up makes this seem a bit obvious, but dodgy translators take **** and run with it, so it’s not like it was being reported as a joke in the English speaking media. This gets doubly weird for me because I was way out front defending the decision when no one thought it was an AFD joke in the first place! Where’s my celebratory victory lap interviews? I mean, sure, I don’t actually do anything of note, or work in games at all, but it’s the principle of the thing.