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

The difficulty spike I hear a lot about regarding Yakuza 7 makes me nervous about that game. Late game difficulty spikes kill JRPGs for me.

 

The one I'm dealing with is more manageable than it first appears. Especially if you put the new party member on the back burner.

I, of course, didn't want to do that!

In a lot of ways, if you treat Yakuza 7 as a Dragon Quest game you'll be fine. So, save often. Don't trust the autosave. Always aim to have level parity, or better, superiority. Be attentive to the map, being over a region line can make a big difference and border regions are hazardous, as some enemies cross over.

Short of a very high risk, high speed run, with perfect Perfect Guarding, which doesn't always have the effect or benefit you expect, I don't see any way to complete this game in the 35-40 hours reviews claim. I'm two thirds done and on 59 hours!

 

The first Dragon Quest I played was XI, and let’s just say the final act of that game ensured that it’d be my last.

 

So far, nothing's come along to match Act 3 of DQXI aka "hey, you know those debuff spells? You better use them".

 

Ah yes, the first boss fight of an SMT game experience.

 

Yakuza: Like A Dragon - Chapter 12

And the game gets seriously insane.

Heavy Story spoilers:

Spoiler

Holy hell, the number of characters that turn up here from earlier games is nuts. Majima. Saejima. Daigo. Kiryu! Watasi too. You get the full story of what Arakawa's been up to, then it ends on another, out-of-the-blue cliffhanger. So very Yakuza.

Gameplay number spoilers:

Spoiler

The game does some low, low moves here. Sure, it gives you access to the Sotenbori Battle Arena, hints you ought to use it but, in no way from this alone, could I intuit what it was actually hinting at. I instead used the Internet and knew there was a pair of Lv 50 bosses on the cards, got the gang powered up to Lv 60 by doing the arena, in order to get 20m yen to upgrade the workshop to its max level. But the actual level? It throws you Lv 30-35 enemies at you to start with, weaves in a bull**** stealth game, then whacks the enemies up to Lv48-49, then does the two Lv 50 bosses! There's no way to really prepare for that with purely in-game info. And even with a 10-level advantage, it was still a difficult fight.

Story is as good as ever, combat remains good, but it could be better. Now on Chapter 13.

 

Did not expect to be moved to tears by Yakuza 3, but here we are!

Spoiler

The Izumi scene at the orphanage, when Kiryu and Haruka comfort her at the beach, and they return to the dining table and none of the kids have eaten yet.

I’ve seen people say Yakuza 3 is skippable. These people are lunatics.

 

Indeed they are! There's some stuff in 3 that plays out far better when you've played the preceding trio too.

 

Wait, do people really argue there's a skippable mainline entry? Gio Corsi didn't die for this, goddammit!

Disclaimer: Gio Corsi is actually fine.

 

Weird, after the new PS5 update, my PS5 has decided to class Yakuza 6 and Yakuza Kiwami 2 as being unable to be played on it!

All the others? Are just fine.

 

Have reached the endgame of Yakuza 7: Like A Dragon

Plot spoilers:

Spoiler

Damn, that fight with Kiryu was quite the duel. As was the second time around with Ishioda, who wasn't quite as irritating due to the party being better. Even so, both fights required careful attention despite my having a high level party due to spending too much time on weapons development. Back in Kamurcho, another series regular turns up, which works well.

Chapter 14, even more so than its preceding chapter, really makes the case for playing the earlier games, along with opening scenes of the finale.

Gameplay:

At this point, the name of the game is taking advantage of enemy weaknesses, once you find an enemy registers as so to a certain attack - you switch to that as far as possible. You can win without doing this but it'll take longer.

 

Maaaaan...

(Spoilers for 0 through 3)

Spoiler

Kuze and Awano were great. Their over the top 80s scumbaggery was so entertaining that I hated to see them go.

Nishikiyama, you just felt bad for the guy. Constantly underestimated and looked down on, always living in Kiryu’s shadow, he was a tragic villain who was able to find a little redemption in the end.

Ryuji was just a great character. Compelling, dynamic, and a physical force to be reckoned with for Kiryu. And the end he met, and the scenario he met it in, was heartbreaking.

Mine? Mine can go **** himself.

 

Mine’s great in an awful kind of way where I really wanted to beat the ever loving **** out of him.

And then I did!

 

See what I mean? 3 works so much better after playing 0-2.

Spoiler

The one that stood out for me in 3? Kashiwagi's end.

 

Finished it last night.

Although the overall story did feel pretty inconsequential, it has some great character moments, and Haruka really shines throughout as she comes into her own. Majima’s underutilized, sadly. And I really wanted Andre Richardson to survive and be the big bad in Yakuza 4, because boy was he something special.

Probably my least favorite of the series so far, in both gameplay and story, but still a worthwhile entry.

0 > K2 > K1 > 3

 

Worth remembering that Y3 is now the closest you get to what the series started as.

The next one is quite different.

 

Judgment is getting a sequel!!!

 

Yep, Lost Judgment coming September 24th.

I’m never gonna get caught up on this franchise, am I?

Edit: Sounds like Judgment will be Ryu ga Gotoku’s new action series, while Yakuza will continue on as a turn-based RPG. Source

 

I just looked it up, PS5 Judgment is going for £28.85 at Base - I'm now tempted to bag it in a few weeks.

Nope.

Great to hear. Y7's battle system is good, but it can be better and it now will have the opportunity to be.

 

So, watching SWAT, they go to Tokyo, as they're going round the streets playing tourist I start thinking: Yakuza really nailed this.

 

What makes Yakuza 5 so much longer than the other games in the series (pre-7)? Did a quick skim at howlongtobeat and was surprised at the average hour count on that one.

 

Five playable characters. They got a little drunk with power by that point.

 

Also each character has their own minigame quest that you can get very into if you want.

Five cities to run around in etc.

 

About ten years ago, I played Yakuza 4. That was the only Yakuza entry I had played until this morning when I started up Yakuza 0. What a fantastic game. The cutscenes and acting are excellent and the action is fast-paced. I’ll try to play my way through the series, but it’s going to take some time.

 

Go sequential - Zero, K1, K2, 3, 4, 5, 6 - it pays off.