龍が如く・Yakuza thread

[girigiriHERO]

Anyone else a fan of these games? While I never bothered with the first two, I did start at 3, then progressed to 4, Of the End/Dead Souls, 5 (JP) and I'm in the middle of replaying 5 (EN) which is good because I don't remember much of the story. RGG 4 was probably the one I was the most obsessed with as I achieved 98.2% completion rate in-game and spent 98 hours doing so. I typically don't play any games for that long. I will be buying a PS4 eventually when I have the money for RGG Zero.

 

[Ansible]

It's a series that has always intrigued me. Finally bought one last month during a playstation store sale, Yakuza 5. Haven't played it yet and not sure if I should play any of the previous ones first before diving into this one. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

[girigiriHERO]

It's a series that has always intrigued me. Finally bought one last month during a playstation store sale, Yakuza 5. Haven't played it yet and not sure if I should play any of the previous ones first before diving into this one. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

well if you can find 3 it definitely helps. Being the first in the series for me, it had a summary of 1 and 2 that you could watch from the main menu to get you up to par. 4 is immensely enjoyable, 3 isn't. I'd recommend playing 4 because it has returning playable characters like Akiyama Shun, who first appeared in 4 and you'll know his back story then. You could simply pick up 5, play it and still enjoy it as a game, but you'll be lost on a lot of the stuff they are talking about. While 3 isn't necessary, it's not that good overall as a game either. I initially bought 4 and played it a bit, stopped and bought 3, not necessarily because I was lost, but I enjoyed it a lot so I figured "I should pick up the earlier games" and realized, wow 3 isn't as good.

Of the End/Dead Souls has NOTHING to do with the canon and all the characters have VERY clunky controls (although you get used to it fast). I still enjoyed it because it's a zombie spin-off and you slowly see the city getting worse and worse with more places blocked off, get hostess' to help you amongst other partners, and traverse through the sewers to get to other areas due to barricades. TONS of enemies to kill if that's your type of thing too.

These games are overly violent, which usually isn't my thing, but it's so over the top (slamming a guys face into the pavement and scrapping it back and forth) and not visual in terms of the gore, I let it pass because some of the things they do are laughable.

On a side note, I've been to Tokyo multiple times and due to the game I know my way around the area in the game. I can find the Club SEGA and Don Quihote etc. just because they are in the game (actual stores) and the streets match up exactly. It's surreal to play the game and then visit the place the game is based off.

 

[Ansible]

Hm, so they put a lot of deep detail into the games' locations rather than fill-in-blank-make-it-up-as-you-go or "it's based off 'x' but not exactly" approach.

3, 4, 5 are in the digital store since they were released on PS3, and this easy for me to purchased. 1 & 2, at least in NA, are still disc-based PS2 releases that are rather pricey to buy used. Pretty bored of zombies and zombie shooters so Dead Souls arouses no interest for me.

What did you not like about 3?

 

[girigiriHERO]

Hm, so they put a lot of deep detail into the games' locations rather than fill-in-blank-make-it-up-as-you-go or "it's based off 'x' but not exactly" approach.

3, 4, 5 are in the digital store since they were released on PS3, and this easy for me to purchased. 1 & 2, at least in NA, are still disc-based PS2 releases that are rather pricey to buy used. Pretty bored of zombies and zombie shooters so Dead Souls arouses no interest for me.

What did you not like about 3?

The pacing of 3 was just a lot slower and the entire game is through the eyes of Kiryu Kazuma (the main character) where as 4 you play as Akiyama, Saejima, Kiryu, and Tanimura, so it changes up the gameplay a bit. 5 follows the same formula with Kiryu, Saejima, Haruka (Kiryu's "daughter"), Akiyama, and Shinada. So in comparison 3 just feels bland, but heck, if it's cheap it'll be nice to have just to get up to date with the story due to the recaps of 1 and 2 (or you might be able to find that online as well. 3 was also butchered in North America, taking out large sub stories to under take. One of the fun distractions amongst many is you can go to Hostess Clubs (kabakura) and talk to the girls, build a kind of relationship and take them out and do things like karaoke, eating, bowling, etc. Since SEGA felt that North Americans wouldn't understand this concept, they took it out entirely even though it wasn't a part of the main game, which is ridiculous. SEGA realized the error of their ways and 4 is a far more accurate representation of the Japanese version.

For the realism, it's done exceptionally well. They have deals with Don Quihote, Matsuya, Karaoke Kan, and many other REAL stores you can enter in the store, albeit you can't explore the entire store. It also sells real products due to liscencing with Suntory (they sell drinks, alcohol, and much more). The best thing about 5 is that you can go in to Club SEGA and actually play the FULL VERSION of Virtua Fighter 2, and a demo version of Taiko no Tatsujin. If that's not points for realism I don't know what is.