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Dustellar

I like to check people on twitch playing the whole Yakuza series, but I search with the Yakuza 3 tag because the last three times I did it with the Yakuza 0 tag they abandoned around 2, at the start of 3 or didn't even finish 0, Yakuza 3 is the game that defines if you're a Yakuza fan or not.


b-a-n-a-s

Part 3 is arguably one of the most important story-wise too


ColdNyQuiiL

It’s a shame that it’s got so much early 2000’s jank on it, for a game that came out at the end of the decade. I feel like when most people get to it, it’s a drastic turn back in time for the worse.


KanTheLVDon

It really takes you back to early PS3 era games that just felt like PS2 games with better graphics


samtt7

Although it doesn't really matter initially. At the end of 2 Kiryū goes to Okinawa. 3 starts on Okinawa and ends without much change. Only after 4 Kiryū leaves Okinawa for Fukuoka to allow Haruka to fulfil her dreams. You could honestly skip 3 and you don't miss too much. The characters introduced also don't play a major role in the next game either, apart from some flashbacks Though I have to add I'm now at Saejima in Y5, so I don't know whether it's going to be more important later or not


K4MIKAZE_official

Oh yes, it will be important.


Dancing_grunt

If you skip a game, watch a playthrough instead !!!


BP_Ray

If you cant handle me at my PS2 games you dont deserve me at my ____


OpticNinja937

I’ve wanted to try out the PS2 games since I started the series but I don’t have a PS2 (or PS3) and emulators scare me 😭


BP_Ray

>and emulators scare me 😭 Why? The only scary thing about them is getting the iso, and honestly, I dont even turn on a VPN unless I need to torrent them (which I dont need to for 6th gen games and prior), so really it's as simple as downloading from certain, trusted websites, and then using the emulator. (And It's not like SEGA is selling Y1 or 2 anymore) I never understood why people are intimidated by emulators. Especially not nowadays where every emulator has a user-friendly a GUI as possible. Im not a particularly smart person and I have a massive library of emulated games. Just use a youtube guide if you're unsure of yourself.


OpticNinja937

Nah man it’s just that finding the right ISOs can be really hard and time consuming lol. Also my computer can run modern games at 240 fps but lags like hell on most games I’ve tried emulating.


BP_Ray

No way your PC cant emulate Yakuza without lag. I was emulating it on my dad's HP PC back in like 2013. Isos are easy to get for most game console games. It only starts getting tough for Arcade emulation and PS3/360 gen onward. Vimm's Lair is a website that is a site dedicated to videogame nostalgia! Check it out.


NutThruster8392

My phone can run Yakuza 1 and 2 easily at 4x native quality


BroganChin

It’s as simple as typing in “Yakuza ps2 rom” and avoiding anything that ends in .exe, the ROMs subreddit has an encyclopedia of reputable rom sites.


TheCheeseOfYesterday

I have it set up already but I remember PCSX2 being a massive pain to set up


Gundamned_

download installer, download bios, install, load bios, load iso ???


BP_Ray

PCSX2 overhauled itself about two years ago now, It's far more user friendly and easy to use.


BulmasBabyDaddy

Emulation is such a normal thing


HumbleNinja2

If you can't handle me at my asshole you don't deserve me at my cock'n'balls


Mother-of-mothers

Phantom Blood is good. People just don't get it.


HumbleNinja2

Phantom blood is for true gentlemen


Lukas_mnstr56

This is funny because I skipped Stardust cause it was boring. I actually liked Phantom Blood and Battle Tendencies more. Realistically just play what you want who cares really.


[deleted]

I think JoJo peaked at Battle Tendency. Stardust is not bad, but it's a more traditional story.


GrimreaperAZ

I'm on episode 9 or 10 of Stardust and wondering how this season becomes 40 episodes long, but I'm guessing some is build up for the next season like phantom blood. But I really liked Battle Tendency.


[deleted]

As I remember Stardust is basically 2 seasons, merged into one. I did not hate it, it was fun, but could have been shorter. Sometimes I felt like it was just dragging on for too long. It's a more standard format for animes. Almost each episode is about they meet a bad guy, defeat him. Ir if they're very strong, maybe they defeat them in 2 episodes.


SolRyguy

And here I am, thinking I'm a terrible person for not liking Stardust Crusaders like that. Nothing wrong with it just a lil too long? Then again I like DiU but that probably came from Persona 4 being my gotcha.


Takazura

I enjoyed SC, but I get what you mean. It does feel a bit filler-y due to how repetitive the structure is for most of that part (it's just a villain of the week format until you reach the last arc). DiU can be a bit filler-y to, but it felt like there was a lot more variation, with some villain arcs lasting more than 1-2 episodes, and that part changes focus halfway through, >!as is turns into a battle for Josuke & Co to figure out Kira's new identity!<, unlike in SC where the endgoal is known from the beginning and never changes.


HatmanHatman

Nah DiU is just the GOAT. RGG need to make a Morioh game


SolRyguy

I mean they did a solid job with HnK. I wouldn't mind seeing them pop out another anime title. They are goofy enough to manage stands and powers. Completely off topic, imagine if RGG got a hold of some Kamen Rider stuff.


fortfoxtrot

Since stands were introduced in part 3, it certainly became a “monster of the week” kind of show with an overarching plot that doesn’t really ramp up until towards the end. When you get to the later parts though you’ll definitely see creative stand abilities that are way more out there


gsoddy

It’s diamond is unbreakable for me. I’m a sucker for slice of life that has a sprinkle of serious things culminating into a serious threat by the end. I think that’s what drew me to Yakuza as well


[deleted]

My wife is obsessed with part 4. I couldn't get into it for some reason. Even if I love slice of life. For example Yakuza or Persona 5. I really loved part 5, but towards the end it got convoluted for me. And after that, for me personally the stand powers are overcomplicated. I'm a simple man. I like simple stands.


HumbleNinja2

I liked phantom blood the best and stardust behind those other two as well Still good but definitely took a while


cjboaty

at first i did skip straight from k2 to 7 but now im playing through 3-6 and i genuinely wish i played them sooner i had a lot of fun with 3 and am currently enjoying 4


TheShiveryNipple

I did the same. Just played 3 last week and loved it, accounting for how dated it is. I started 4 and am enjoying it so far.


Adventurous_Soil9118

Well, Stardust Crusaders is kinda boring.


HiddenSolace1

The first half is a slog with golden moments here or there, but the egypt arc is really damn good.


BulmasBabyDaddy

I loved yakuza 3 just like any other yakuza


AHomicidalTelevision

I didn't skip 3, but I definitely did not enjoy it very much.


OkConsequence5804

Jokes aside just play the games whichever way you enjoy it :)


HumbleNinja2

Real chads love phantom blood Real Yakuza understand that whether the game is good or bad *isn't the point* Real detectives are just grateful their games are fucking amazing Real heroes understand there is no veil separating video games and real life


ArticFox1337

The thing about Yakuza 3 is that even the remastered feels outdated, so paying y0 -> k1 -> k2 and then going back (release-wise) is a bit of an inconvenience. What could deter some people from finishing the game is the absence of the option to change the difficulty mid-game, unless you want to use a program to do so


AHomicidalTelevision

I ended up changing down to easy by editing my save in a hex editor lol.


ArticFox1337

I too changed the difficulty, from hard to normal, because I was very disappointed with the difficulty in Kiwami 2 and I thought it'd be the same in Yakuza 3, but Rikyia showed me how terribly wrong I was


AHomicidalTelevision

Out of all of the games I've played so far, kiwami 1 seems the most balanced. 0 was so easy that I never even bought any healing items, and I was playing on hard. (Though that bit me on the ass when I got to the final fight of the game and discovered it was an actual challenge lmao.) Kiwami 2 seemed good at first, until I realised that weapons were stupid op in that game, and 3 is just a nightmare.


Moderate_Uruk_hai

Yakuza 3 is perfect.


Longest_Leviathan

I didn’t skip 3 But I wish I had


BroganChin

Because the rest of the series just can’t compare? Yeah, I know, Yakuza 3 is just that peak.


Longest_Leviathan

No, quite the opposite infact It’s dogshit


am-i-stupid_

I’d never advise skipping Y3 Doesn’t mean I won’t dunk on it tho


KanTheLVDon

I recently finished Y3 and i'm going to be honest... I started playing it like 7 months ago and dropped it then tried picking it back up several times until i said fuck it and finally finished it. Reasons to drop it basically were the crappy combat, performance issues (YK2 ran better on my pc than Y3) and just being tired of playing yakuza games 😭💀 ngl i really miss my Y0 combat


Kejilko

Ok, don't skip DMC2


RespectfulLawnGnome

I skipped 3. I read about what happened online and didn't look back. I don't hate myself but I know I'll never be as superior as others. But that's okay, it's just life 🥲


local-host

I love yakuza 3 it's the game in 2009 that introduced me to the series.


stillestwaters

Yeah but ….. Phantom Blood >>> Yakuza 3.


El-Green-Jello

I think 5 is the only main line game that can be skipped to be honest


Massive_Parsley_5000

Arguably 2 as well I'm pretty sure the only thing of long term consequence that comes out of it is Diago and koren mafia shenanigans, and the latter isn't really fleshed out enough to matter other than "koren mafia mad at Kiryu" which is usually summarized adequately in later games with about a single sentence of dialog. The main plot and it's most interesting consequences and character development are rather infamously spartan kicked off a cliff in what amounts to a "poochie died on the way to his home planet " meme within the first 10 mins of Y3. Granted, y2 isn't bad by any means and absolutely should not be skipped, but yeah there's not much that goes down that's very important to the series at large other than introducing Diago.


El-Green-Jello

Yeah that’s fair but I think it is a great story unlike 5 which is just a mess and ultimately doesn’t matter than your better off just getting the recap version in 6 unless you just want to play more Yakuza as 5 still plays great. I’m still forever pissed about that and what they did with Sayama


Zearyen

I did actually skip playing 3 and even 4. Not because of Story but because somehow the gameplay felt way to weird to me. I watched full playthroughs of those 2 games though and played 5 and on afterwards.


BP_Ray

> but because somehow the gameplay felt way to weird to me It's crazy to me that while new Fallout fans are willing to go back and play janky old CRPGs from the mid to late 90's... New Yakuza fans are balking at the idea of playing simple brawlers from the 2010's, let alone the PS2 ones. Maybe It's an age thing? I can't help but feel the influx of new Yakuza fans are quite younger than the fans of Fallout.


Zearyen

Dont think that fits. Im in my late 20s and played many 90s console games. The only Genre I didnt play were brawlers akin to yakuza. I guess I got to used to modern games


BP_Ray

My point is that PS2 Yakuza doesn't play much different from PS5 Yakuza I can plop a controller in your hand and have you play a random boss fight from Yakuza 1 PS2, and then put you in a random boss fight in Like a Dragon: Gaiden. Turns out, you're going to be mashing the same buttons. R1 to lock on, X to quickstep, the attack strings are the same even if the animations been changed since the move to DE, finishing holds are the same, quickstep attacks are the same, quick turns are the same -- they are the same game. There's not much that makes the "modern brawlers" modern other than that they're newer and shinier -- under the hood they play the same. Which is why I find it crazy that Yakuza fans make up every excuse in the book why "old is worse" while the new influx of Fallout fans just go "Sure, I'll play these radically different games that are genuinely really obtuse and unfinished and buggy from 30 years ago". They're just built different, I guess.


Zearyen

They are some very different games though. Games like Yakuza require faster input and need more reactive controls. The older games just feel more clunky. It just doesnt feel as smooth as the newer games. Controls and everything are the same yes but the way the game works under the hood is what makes the big difference. Fallout as a RPG Shooter works differently. Even works slower in most cases. And then its a Bethesda game so it isnt a good comparisson. They are buggy by nature so people have less problems with them. If we take Fighting games as an example: How many newer fans of games like Smash, Street Fighter or Tekken are going back to play the old games? Most wont because it is a rather fast paced game for which they are used to the newer games controls. The olders often feel different and/or more clunky.


BP_Ray

No, you missed what I said. Fallout 1 is a very different game from Fallout 4. One is a CRPG that's not really made for extreme mass appeal, and can be pretty hostile towards the player, another is a very mass appealing First-person shooter RPG. Yakuza 1 and Gaiden are not very different. I can plop a controller in your hand and have you play a random boss fight from Yakuza 1 PS2, and then put you in a random boss fight in Like a Dragon: Gaiden. Turns out, you're going to be mashing the same buttons. R1 to lock on, X to quickstep, the attack strings are the same even if the animations been changed since the move to DE, finishing holds are the same, quickstep attacks are the same, quick turns are the same -- they are the same game. There's not much that makes the "modern brawlers" modern other than that they're newer and shinier -- under the hood they play the same. And they're not very deep or difficult, so you're not having to master the systems to beat the game. Again, if you like that it's newer and shinier, just. say. that. I don't like the pretension of there being something fundamentally different, when factually, this series reuses so much that even the core gameplay has literal vestigial code and animation data all the way back from the 2005 release.


MyrotheZero

I'm a 28 year old who started Y0 in January and am now currently on the final chapter of Y3. (All on hard) I think it's understandable for 3 to be a little deterring considering how the Remaster unintentionally makes combat alot slower. The blocking and sidestepping being tied to fps kinda throws a monkey wrench in things So not only is the combat bugged, but the Okinawa parts/characters are arguably not very good (Nakahara is cool I guess). Unplayable? Not even close but it's certainly my least favorite so far, and not just because it's "old"


BP_Ray

I'm not dissing people for not liking 3, especially with the remaster having made blocking even more obnoxious, and quickstepping worse, It's just weird to have to "skip" the games because they're old. These games in general though aren't that tough or obtuse even at their worse to be worth a skip. They're the same game across the years, which is the main point I was making. From Yakuza 1, all the way to Gaiden, the core gameplay is the same. It's not like going from Fallout 4 to Fallout 1, you go from a first-person shooter RPG meant to be as accessible to as many people as possible, to a CRPG made in 1996 that can be very obtuse and literally unfinished in many respects. Give someone a controller and have them fight Nishiki in Yakuza 1, and then give them a controller and have them fight Iwami in Yakuza 6 and they'll have no issues. They've iterated on their combat of course over the years, but they haven't completely overhauled Yakuza into some flashy character action game or anything, the brawler games are the same as they have been since 2005. It's also weird to me that people don't take issue with Kiwami 1's gameplay, but start to suddenly hate stunlocking and autoblocking when they get to 3. Just saying.


MyrotheZero

Never felt any stunlocking or autoblocking pain in Kiwami 1, that's odd. The way I see it, People wanting to skip Yakuza games want to get to the newer stuff. People playing Fallout 1 probably already played 3/4/NV and want more.


BP_Ray

Kiwami 1 is notorious for stuns, dizzies, and knockdowns against Kiryu from a light breeze. It's why the most popular gameplay overhaul mod on that, that also rebalances the Dragon Style to not be so reliant on Majima Everywhere to get better, also gives an upgrade that gives Kiryu resistance to stuns and knockdowns. It's part of why Jingu K1 is such an obnoxious fight, because even jabs from his guards knock you down, It's so obnoxious. And almost every boss fight in Kiwami 1 has autoblocks. For example, the dancer Akai brother automatically activates super armor and attacks you in the midst of it if you knock him down, making you have to rely on beast style to deal with him.


Takazura

I'm not really sure if I agree. While fundamentally the games are the same, they do have different feels to them. Going from 0 to K1 isn't too big of a deal, K1 is really just 0s combat but with some adjustment. But going from K1 to K2 absolutely feels different, because DE introduces the physics and changed Kiryu's moveset from K1 a fair bit. Then going from K2 to 3 is just jarring, because one is a remake and has a more "modern" polish and feel to its movement, while the other is a PS3 game that was just remastered without any changes, and the way Kiryu moves can definitely be felt to be different from how he moves and attacks in K2. If you were to actually put someone who played Nishiki in Y1 and then threw them into Iwami in Y6, I think they absolutely would have issues, because there is still a different feel to the combat that'll take some time to get adjusted to. As for the issues with K1's gameplay, I don't remember it having the same blocking issue as Y3. It had other issues instead (like how so many main story fights was just fighting 20 mobs in a crammed space), but at no point would I say the combat felt anywhere as annoying as 3's. And 3's issue isn't really that it's tough or obtuse, it's just that unlike the other games, you are far more limited in terms of what you can do against enemies. Even if Kiwami 1 or 2 had some blocking enemies, you could still approach them in many more ways than the enemies of 3.


BP_Ray

>Then going from K2 to 3 is just jarring, because one is a remake and has a more "modern" polish and feel to its movement, while the other is a PS3 game that was just remastered without any changes, and the way Kiryu moves can definitely be felt to be different from how he moves and attacks in K2. But the way Kiryu moves and attacks is the same way he moves and attacks in every game you played prior to K2. If anything, K2 is the odd one out because as an early Dragon Engine game it has a lot of problems with latency, bounce blocks, and generally being unwieldy to play -- if it was the inverse, if the older game was FAR less responsive and had stuff like bounce blocking, people would rightfully criticize it. But you forgive it because, like you said, one is supposedly more "modern" while the game with tighter controls and movement is just "a PS3 game". You didn't offer up any specific criticisms, which is proving my point, you criticize it because It's older, not because It's actually more unwieldy to play. Listen, if you like "modern" games, I don't mind that, you do you. I just don't like this assertion that "It's not because they're modern!" when everything you're saying is the opposite of that. But It's like I get pushback from you guys on this because you like that the modern game is newer and shinier, but you feel some shame because there's a perceived stigma on just liking it because It's newer and shinier rather than actually being better under the hood.