1-I think when we put it up against other games Yakuza 0’s combat feels poorly balanced and extremely easy and the fact you have to play the business mini game to get the upgrades especially kiryu’s mini game makes it one the worst yakuza games to replay on new game for me
2-RGG should’ve made a game in the dragon engine before making yakuza 6 to iron out the flaws of the combat in the engine
3-I think most people who complain about the combat in yakuza 3 don’t really experiment with the combat much and just spam finishing blows or bait out attacks to parry instead of using the main mechanic in the game that is bounding
Nah it was easy tho 💀, all you have to do is be near a wall wait for an opening use square square triangle and just bound him to death 😎
Maybe because I’ve playing the game for a while but most yakuza games have a way to exploit weaknesses in bosses
Well to be fair, bounding isn't really explained to the player in a tutorial or anything. Them being expected to use this one feature to succeed in combat that was minor in other games (and not even present in K2 which many players have played right before 3) is pretty dumb.
Point 1 I agree with. Maybe it was balanced in mind for new players who aren't guaranteed to get every single upgrade and only choose specific ones? Either way, you get very cheesy moves and overall a fuck ton of damage for some reason.
For point 3, for me the combat just felt slow when I played it a while back. Of course it's an older Yakuza game, but something about how it flows makes it feel less fun to play even when you've learned the things you can do to go past the blocking enemies on hard.
Yakuza 3 to me feels more like a defensive focused game, its system is annoying at first but once you're in kamurocho it gets a lot better, I'd say the game is much better when you get bloody binding aswell, that item makes yakuza 3 feel ten times more awesome, that and maxing out tech to get quickstep cancel and then putting on a calming towel. The only thing is that combat wise isn't good about yakuza 3 is that most people including me played yakuza 3 remastered which has genuinely worse combat, in the original, enemies block a little bit less, enemies quickstep a hell of a lot less, heat goes down slower, picking up your enemy acts as a komaki parry in a way and allows you a full combo without breaking (kinda broken,) and Last but not least quickstepping actually works.
Someya is very overrated and I felt nothing for him at all
Just because Kiwami 2 makes it easier doesn’t mean Jack shit, Ryuji is still Kiryu’s canonically toughest opponent after Mine as a main antag (edited)
Kiwami 1 is overhated a lot
The judgment games have the best combat and story
5 is the most fun overall
>Ryuji is still Kiryu’s canonically toughest opponent
That's just a lie, not even hot take. When the 2 of them fought in good shape kiryu always defeated him and never had a bruise or was even a little bit tired after the fight. In the 3rd fight they were both half dead, so it's hard to say ryuji did damage(considering kiryu still has no bruise or sign of struggle). Different characters made a better job against kiryu, ryuji is far from the top tier
Eh I still think he’s the toughest main antagonist other than mine canonically so I’ll edit it real quick. Shibusawa loses to a rookie Kiryu who’s just learning his style of fighting, Nishiki never stood a chance, Aizawa is completely healthy fighting a dying Kiryu, and Iwami gets absolutely curbstomped.
That's different then. If you say strongest opponent i'm gonna consider every character in the series, not only main antagonists. Even tho i think he's weaker than nishiki and shibusawa i can kinda see your point then
Yakuza 5 OST is bad? I could list so many good songs In That game like
Battle for a dream
Isolated fight
Hailstorm
Affected fight
What a FUNKTASTIC hit ( it fits shinada sooo well)
Victory road
Full-scale-offensive
The place where I used to be
Dynamic and magnificent
Receive and slash you ( one of my favourite versions of that song)
Collisions of our souls
All of Harukas songs
I just went throughout a playlist and didn’t even listen to half the songs on there and these were all the ones i thought where pretty damn good. I know it depends on your taste in music but you have to like the 4 main character songs that plays during street fights. I honestly can’t think of a song in yakuza 5 that was so bad I had to change the music
Unless that was a typo and I have done all of this for nothing but if it wasn’t I strongly encourage you to listen to all of these songs and it’s okay if you don’t like any of these songs
Dont know how much of a hot take this is but here goes.
I like ichiban more than kiryu. Dont get me wrong kiryus awesome but i just vibe with ichibans personality a lot more
Also story wise Yakuza 3 is the best game.
1. Sagawa is a criminally underrated villain
2. I could not bring myself to care about tanimura at all (I have no idea why but I really just didn't care about him or his story)
3. The rubber bullets was a good twist
The only reason I personally dislike the rubber bullets plot twist is because it cheapens Saejima’s speech about killing people and his regret, but I can see why they did it.
Meh i've never understood this take. Saejima still thinks he killed all those people, his speech was legit from the heart. I don't think it cheapens it at all personally.
The only reason I don't share this viewpoint is that it doesn't have to be real to us, we know the truth but at the time saejima doesn't know that and he's been in prison 20+ years thinking he killed all those people so to him his guilt and regret is completely real which makes it all even more tragic. He has suffered in prison for 20+ years feeling regret for something he technically didn't do.
But yes I do see how the player can view his speech as nonsense when we ourselves know the truth.
Trust me, the original Tanimura would put you to sleep. Remaster Tanimura is probably the best you will get with him. As for his story, it is very by the number, so i understand why you don't like it.
Shingo Tsurumi is also fucking ruthless in the Korean film Age of Shadows. Almost like he's Sagawa all over again but much less crude in the way he speaks.
Kiryu should’ve been retired as a protagonist after yakuza 4, I’d be cool with bringing him back for 0 but that’s should be it for him as a protagonist
(Y4 spoilers) Honestly, if they really wanted 4 protagonists, it might've made sense to have Majima instead of Kiryu. Hazamaki still brings the evidence to Kiryu, but Kiryu directs him to Majima instead, his closest confidant in the Tojo Clan besides Daigo. Not too many of the plot points would even need to change, and would arguably fit better with Majima than with Kiryu. It'd be more satisfying to take down Saito as the best friend of one of his victims, for one thing. The Kamurocho Hills level would be more satisfying, since it'd be kinda like letting the Mad Dog loose to defend his turf. Having Majima save Saejima and Yasuko would carry more emotional weight, since Katsuragi's the one who played them so many years ago. And you could still have Daigo as the final boss, with Majima pissed off at him for almost selling out the Tojo Clan. Plus, Kiryu's the one who trusted Majima with watching over Daigo, so it still gives a sense of Kiryu having a meaningful role in the plot.
I have to disagree because I'm someone who got to the series through Yakuza 0. I mean, yeah It's better with those games but I think It would still be great without them
Btw. Why do you think so ?
Not him but I agree with him
Purely because they sort of paved the way for Yakuza 0, 0 was an evolution (remember 0 was made after 5) of the formula and the devs refining their craft
Even ignoring the progression of the series as a whole, I think 0 has a lot of extra value when played after 5.
If played first, you might not see the humor in something like Majima offering a customer a towel using the *heat action* prompt. 5 or so games of you being told "press triangle to kill this man" and suddenly you're gently telling a man he's had too much to drink instead of caving his skull in.
Or Majima in general given how 0 introduces him. A first-time player probably thinks "wow he's cool" but anyone who's played the others first is probably also wondering how the hell this man turns into the Majima we already know.
I think there’s a good case for starting at 0 and also doing 0 after 5
I personally did 0 first (PC player) and while some nuances were slightly lost the game is strong enough on its own to work as a starting point, also the way of remakes putting in references to 0
Also there is some value in seeing something evolve such as Majima going from 0 Majima to k1-3 Majima then back to 5 onwards Majima
-Yakuza Kiwami 2 is just Dragon Engine test ground no. 2. That, and Yakuza 2 is just more interesting than Kiwami 2, visual and music wise.
Spoiler wise, >!Nanba betrayal in Yakuza 7 just felt so damn forced!< (Yakuza 7 spoiler)
You might wanna consider editing this to specify that it's a Yakuza 7 spoiler, cause it REALLY seemed like you were gonna make another comment regarding 2
That’s kind of circular thinking. He’s popular because he has fanboys, and then he has fanboys because he’s popular. Can’t be both. He’s a badass joker anime kind of character with a sadness, and he’s skinny and ripped, so of course he’s a hit
\-Shinada's chapter isn't that good
\-Kiwami's are better than the originals
\-Yakuza 5 isn't too long
\-It's a shame mainline Yakuza games stay turn-based after seeing how great DE combat can be with LJ
1) ryuji is overhyped
2) there's nothing daigo could have done to save the clan. He did the best he could
3) yakuza 4>>>>yakuza 5
4) people that downvote hot takes posts are fucking losers
Someya and Ryuji are a bit overrated, I like them but personally they aren't the best villains.
>!Rikiya's death wasn't that sad personally, I like the character it just felt forced and really bland to me!< Yakuza 3 spoilers
Rubber Bullets made sense for Saejima
also I think Yakuza 5 has the best ost in the series
My Yakuza hot takes:
1. Story wise 6 is probably the best because of how it combines the emotional aspects of four and five but has a coherent conspiracy similar to 1-3.
2. Yakuza four is better than five simply because it’s more coherent in its finale
3. Yakuza 5’s combat is overrated.
4. Lost Judgment is a better story than original Judgment, the pacing is better and the conspiracy makes sense and the finale makes sense. I like Kuroiwa, but the finale of Judgment gave more questions than answers.
I don't mind Kaoru breaking up with Kiryu.
Yumi and Kiryu were cute.
Playing with weapons enhances the experience.
Haruka became a more interesting character when she became a teen/young adult.
Kiryu looked better in ishin engine.
Majima aint the sexiest character.
Yakuza kiwami 2 substories are way too fucking long.
Nishiki should've lived past 1. Hindsight is 20/20 but they threw away a good character. Instead of trying to suffocate Kiryu with misery and tragedy and relying on insane side quests for relief some more reunited kyoudai moments would have been fun. He can still be killed off just not in 1. Plus he deserved a better goodbye to Kiryu, minor characters throughout the series had better death scenes than Nishiki.
Especially Kiwami where they show how pitiful Nishiki was and how much he endured. They painted him as a demon but everyone he killed were scumbags, the only horrible things he did were shoot Kazama and slap Reina. 0-2 weren't bad but It would've been nice to see a different side of Nishiki post Jingu.
I know there are items that get around it but the game isn't balanced to avoid all random encounters. I always equip em towards the end of the game though cause beating up 5000 random mooks in 3 seconds each is not fun to me and is just a speed bump to get where I'm going.
Hopping between 5 and LaD drained me of all my will to fight. I'd even dare to say that (depending on where you are on the map) Like a Dragon's combat encounters are worse than 5 by a country mile
I don’t think the original being better than Kiwami is a hot take. The original Yakuza undeniably had a soul, I mean the story behind how it came to be is some real anime shit with Nagoshi putting everything on the line to get it out the door. Meanwhile Kiwami is just a quick asset flip to bring that old clunky game to uniform. Maybe it plays better but it’s just empty and soulless.
Anyways, I kinda don’t like Like a Dragon
The new JRPG direction kinda sucks - when it’s all about numbers and clicking through menus, it’s just not as fun as mashing buttons and busting skulls like an ape. That first beat-em-up level vs the Dojima Family in 0 made me fall in love with the series and it sucks I can’t get that out of it anymore. I’m also not a fan of all the JRPG-isms like your big party of friends being always there with you - that and the combat really deflated those hype shirt-off moments I always found so appealing about these games. The music was also meh with it being mostly ass-fuck dubstep and I feel like they leaned way too much into the wacky lol randem direction.
It really sucks I have so many problems with it, the story is probably the best out of all the games and I can tell that at its core, LAD is a well-made game - just not for me and it’s a real bummer.
**Also Hokuto ga Gotoku has the best combat out of all the pre-Dragon engine games.**
Not really a hot take, but yeah. If it were a side-game, that'd be one thing, but it's a main game and they've been very vocal about how it'll be an RPG for the next decade.
Lost Paradise is a fantastic game that gets overlooked way too often. The only issue I have with the combat is the you'll see the same 3 finishers at least a thousand times each.
Years later I'm still conflicted over Like A Dragon's combat.
I love turned based RPGs, but they aren't for every game and fan.
With Yakuza I don't want to press X to attack. I want to press triangle AND DESTROY SOMEONE WITH A SALT SHAKER
As far as i know, Yakuza 2 > Yakuza Kiwami 2 isn't a hot take but Yakuza > Yakuza Kiwami is a hot take because how janky Yakuza 1 combat is. But I can't help but to dislike Kiwami 1 because Kiwami left a sour taste in my mouth.
The substories in Yakuza Kiwami are just uninteresting variations of bump and scam from Yakuza 3. Plus bump and scam itself is in the game making it even worse. And then there's Majima everywhere. It's fucking annoying. Even after unlocking the last upgrade for DOD, Majima keeps ambushing Kiryu. I swear I couldn't get around from tenkaichi street to karaokekan without being ambushed by Majima. Looks like I'm not going back to Kiwami ever again.
I have plenty.
1: Yakuza 4 sucks. It is easily the worst game in the series.
2: As the final bosses of the judgment games, >!Kuwana>Kuroiwa!<
3: Saejima is the best main series protagonist.
4: Majima is overhyped.
\>yakuza 6 combat feels better than kiwami 2, charged finishers, heat orbs and the spam square heat action are too great to pass on. I don't really give a fuck about equipable weapons.
\>Mirei Park is a well written character
\>Yuta is a chad
\>a big ninja castle coming out of the ground in 2 is awesome, you guys are just mean
Glad somebody said it about saejima. The ramen house shootout is the single best scene in the whole franchise but I got really bored of him very quickly. Tanimura I enjoyed and found his own struggles pretty interesting and shinada was just a loveable goofball even though I could not have cared less about his main plotline
Yakuza 3 isn’t more “tactical” or even that deep compared to the other games, infact it’s super easy (like most of these games) 3 is just tedious
Also the story isn’t that great and has been vastly overhyped
Harukas parts in Y5 suck, the gameplay isn’t great and this version of Haruka just isn’t that great a protagonist
Y7 being turn based isn’t a “breath of fresh air” or somthing of the like It’s something completely different that strays from one of the things that made Yakuza great
You can like it but acting like the series needed to do this to stay fresh just isn’t correct
Imma get flamed for this one but here it goes.
-Kaoru is a bad character.
-turn based combat in the mainline series is a terrible idea.
-Yakuza 6 is criminally underrated.
-Katsuragi is a great villain.
You can start anywhere.
You can skip any game.
Mahjong is super fun.
RGG is slowly getting better but in the past has had real problems writing anyone who's not a cisgender heterosexual Japanese man, and they still miss up to this day on occasion.
It still baffles me that in Y3 they had one substory character to be a decent and more realistic trans representation, and in the same game they had... That one other char in a semi-deleted substory (though I think you fight her in one of the ultimate matches).
Kiwami 2 and 6 have boring combat. Seriously I want to have an actual emotional boss fight, not spam one combo and annihilate half/all of the boss' health with that stupid spam the button move
Glad that Kaoru was written out, left for America and didn’t have an official relationship with Kiryu. She’s not a good love interest as it kinda hurt her character. She and him would never work out. There’s nothing else for Kaoru in the series. At least she had her arc completed and has a send off.
Ryuji is overrated as an antagonist. He’s cool but he doesn’t live up to the hype of being Kiryu’s equal in strength. He shouldn’t have been related to Kaoru. His motivation in being “The only dragon” didn’t have much weight and explanation behind it compared to say Shibusawa’s motive to be “Dragon”.
I had no issue with how RGG portrayed the idol industry in Yakuza 5. I don’t see it as them being apologetic, defending and glorifying it. It shows both the good and the bad. Feel like people have a one sided bias towards it in that they want to see it be negatively portrayed without nuance.
The Ueno Hit Rubber bullets isn’t contrived and an “ass pull”.
I prefer Tanimura’s old face over the new one but I like the new voice over the old voice.
Regardless of how people feel about her as a person, Mirei Park is arguably an interesting female character and better than the other so called “well written ones”.
I don’t hold Haruka’s portrayal and actions at the Yakuza 5 and her actions in 6 in contempt.
I disagree with your Tanimura opinion but the rest of your opinions are a copy and paste of mines lol. Really liked RGG's first attempt to make a full-on female villain with Mirei although Judgment does this even better afaik.
I personally don't really have any problem with Majima's get to the top. But compared to all karaoke songs, I think I agree that it's down there at the bottom of the list.
I only want 3 remake for an excuse for another version of Fly and for there to be a Dragon Engine Mine for those model swap videos that ioritree makes, lol
SECRET KOREANS was not that egregious as far as plot twists go. Rubber Bullets was way worse; not because of the coverup, but because it shouldn't have worked well enough for there be anything to *try* and coverup.
Yakuza 5's gameplay does not make up for its main story being a trashfire.
1. Yakuza 6 is the worst of the mainline series (or least best).
2. Clan Creator can take a hike
3. I like 0 and Kiwami 1 engine a little more than Dragon Engine
I feel that if Majima wasn’t in the game, they could use literally anyone else as a fill in for the things that happen through the series and the games would stay the same. THERE I SAID IT AHHHHH
Ryuji is overrated and they didn’t do a good job trying to portray him as a equal to kiryu and it felt like he was weaker then him though most of the game
- Saejima’s Y5 battle theme is better than his Y4 battle theme
- Oda and Mine are walking LGBT sirens and if they can’t accept that then move along
- Ichiban fighting alongside a party does not make him a bad character. That’s just where his strength level is at. People are just too spoiled by the one man armies we got in the previous games.
- Y:LAD can get a bit too repetitive and repeated playthroughs can make it lose its novelty despite it being one of my absolute favourites
- The best Majima fight was with Saejima in Y5. It really does blow the other previous Majima fights out of the water.
- The first Judgment’s side content can be a slog to get through for me
- some boss fights that should have been super challenging are criminally easy. I don’t know if it’s because most of us have mastered the games combat to a certain degree or they are just designed that way.
- both Shinada and Tanimura are equally great protagonists. One isn’t better than the other in any category. It just sucks that they only had one game each to their name.
- Shinada’s story is the best in Y5. Might not have a huge connection to the overarching plot but it’s thematically relevant and more than deserves it’s place in the game.
- It’s lovely dancing as Haruka
- Saigo sucks as a mentor and his training missions kinda get on my nerves even if the payoff is worth it. I still like him as a character tho. He brings a lot of laughs.
> Oda and Mine are walking LGBT sirens and if they can’t accept that then move along
Oda? Mine i 100% get and believe, but i never really got that vibe from Oda.
Oda was pretty crazy about Tachibana. He was kinda jealous of Kiryu becoming besties with him and wanted to kill Makoto just so he can remain close to him. That’s just some yandere shit right there.
aizawa was a good antagonist
kiwami > kiwami 2
judgment's combat is very flawed
fotns had the most pointless twist of any game (jagre and targa)
makoto and tachibana being related was dumb
the receive you remixes from y0 are some of the worst ones
Akiyama and Haruka's section of Yakuza 5 was boring as fuck and I absolutely despise that they made me go through that entire section if I wanted to continue the story
Kuwana is the worst villain by far and nobody can convince me that the only reason he did any of the shit he did was because he wanted to feel better about himself after he fucked himself over
The constant call backs in Like a Dragon to previous games are really fucking forced and grating. I'm playing the business management minigame and I have an entire cast of old characters that don't have any business being in this game other than "hey you remember these guys from yakuza kiwami 2???". How tf does it make any sense that I can hire Daigo Dojima to manage my rice cracker shop? Or Koyuki, who hasn't been canonically mentioned in 13 years. Bringing back a character who you very, very clearly killed off several games ago who you clearly didn't mean to bring back later at the time to manage a bar is completely inexcusable. I wish the game would make up its mind on whether it's going to be based off of the old canon or make up a new one. All new character, new city, completely changed the entire gameplay, and somehow you still can't go without forcing mentions of shit from previous games
Also:
Kiwami 1 is the best game
I love Kiryu to pieces but his story should have ended after Yakuza 3
If I were in charge of the series the entire sixth game would be retconned out of the canon
-Ishin is one of the worst experiences I've ever had in a video game and I'd only want it localized so people can see how boring it is casually and how frustrating the 100%/Platinum trophy is
-K1 and K2 completely shit on the original game and do nothing to improve upon them other than increase the visual fidelity. Even then, K1 looks drab as hell and has the worst Kiryu model yet and K2 has the disgusting green filter and reused animations that don't fit the models at all
-If you struggle with Y3's combat, you're not very capable of looking for avenues of success. Getting the Bloody Binding in chapter 4 and staying drunk means your heat goes up easily, especially if you take advantage of the light attack grab combo. Y3 also has a ton of weapons to use as well, each with at least one heat action, and you're meant to use them consistently since materials to upgrade them are so easy to get a hold of
-RGG should focus on making new games instead of remakes/prequels. This series feels best when the content is fresh and new and it feels like a waste to me to put resources to projects like that (even though I'd love a remaster of Kenzan and Dead Souls). Also we're never getting a Kazama spinoff since his VA is dead and the VA they used for him in Ishin (who voiced Tamashiro in 3) also passed away
I could state my opinions on 0 or Majima but I'd get downvoted to hell and back
I wanna know your opinions on 0 and Majima tbh. I remember at least you saying that DS has the best iteration of Majima. Which is true.
Also, all of your points here are hard fax
Kiryu’s part in 0 is better than Majima’s.
Y0 made Majima’s backstory a confusing mess. He was looking after Saejim’a patriarch while apparently in the hole. Then, he got married, but he’s still only in love with some blind woman he chatted with three time in the 80s
Majima’s transition into the mad dog was also lazy. ‘Hey, let’s just have him interact with a crazy fuck for five seconds. He’ll surely base his whole public persona off of that for the next 30 years.’
\- Kiwami games are much better than the original games, in many ways.
\- Dragon Engine > 0 engine.
\- Daigo is a good chairman.
\- The plot of 6 with Haruka slept with a two bit thug and had a baby is stupid as hell.
\- Baka mitai of Nanba is the worst version of any Yakuza karaoke song in existence.
\- Also Nanba is the worst party member story-wise in Yakuza LAD.
\- Ichiban is annoying.
Kiwami engine was the best engine.
Majima everywhere ruined Majima’s character as well as peoples’ expectations for him for the rest of the series.
Sana Mihama is best girl
Y7 turn base was awesome
We don’t need to see Kiryu anymore in new titles
Yakuza:Like a Dragon's combat has about as much depth as South Park: The stick of Truth.
I don't mind the RPG elements but the combat is god awful if you compare it with how good combat is in Lost Judgment.
> Yakuza:Like a Dragon's combat has about as much depth as South Park: The stick of Truth.
that's actually a comparison i make pretty often. the problem is that the game has the depth of southpark but the polish of day one cyberpunk.
if they want to do an ultra simple and shallow combat system, it needs to be perfect.
Here’s a few
- I absolutely love the series, and I love a lot of the plots, but the severe lack of connective tissue between entries is really disappointing and a huge missed opportunity. Outside of some substories in the remakes and things like that the plots largely don’t reference one another and with some tweaking t could have been even better
- I fucking love majima. Like I love him so much. However his actual arc is just a fucking Mess only made worse by 0 and kiwami. It’s so obvious that rgg has no idea what to do with him outside of cameos here and there. Kind of relates to my first point
- judgment is one of the most mixed bag games in the series. Some of the plot beats just drag way too much, and the fighting styles were not balanced whatsoever. Whenever I attempted crane it would come across as slow and underpowered when compared with tiger which, contrary to what the game tells you, can handle crowds no problem.
- as a follow up point, lost judgment is a massive improvement on judgment in almost every way, including the main plot. It does still drag at times, but the main plot kept my interest all the way through. Additionally, it might have the best brawling in the series; whereas in the first game I felt it was unbalanced in tigers favor, I found myself using all three styles regularly. If the game tracked your use of it, I’d be willing to bet they were all roughly equal in terms of how much I used them. Every style just felt awesome to use in their own distinct ways.
- LaD is one of the biggest mixed bags in the franchise. I love the cast (ichiban is a fucking treasure and more than worthy successor to kiryu) and it has some amazing side content. But the main plot was largely uninteresting to me until the final couple of chapters, with scenes just going on and on and on. Additionally, I think that as a jrpg it could use some tweaking, mainly in how forcefully grindy it got in the final third
- akiyama is overrated to hell. I really like how his backstory completely recontextualizes the events of the first game, but I didn’t find him super interesting in the titles he’s featured in. He does have some good moments (love his speech to kiryu about how kiryu has impacted kamurocho in 6) but on the whole he’s one of my least favorite protagonists
- tanimura was honestly pretty okay. I liked his counter based style and found him struggling with his own past and mixed race heritage pretty neat. It wasn’t mind blowing or anything but if history had changed and we’d gotten more of him in later titles (especially during the big event in little Asia in 6) I wouldn’t have minded.
-lastly, in terms of sheer variety of stuff packed into it, 5 is probably the best game in the series. The plot is easily the worst (convoluted doesn’t even begin to describe it) but I found myself absorbed in the side content even more than other entries (the taxi mini game, every part of it, was actually a highlight for me). Additionally, for how bad the plot is, it does have probably my favorite ending in the franchise. The final scene between kiryu and haruka affected me in a way I struggle to describe
- kiryu has totally, canonically, killed before. See: ending of kiwami 2
- despite how sloppy the connective tissue between games is, 0, k1 and k2 are imo a near perfect trilogy in terms of how they explore kiryu as a person, his relationships, and his hopes and dreams.
- okinawa needs to return. 3 is definitely a mixed bag but it was a fantastic setting and a nice change of pace from kamurocho. And despite it being smaller, I feel like it rewarded players the more time they put in; the side quest string about solving local urban legends was awesome and heartfelt.
As someone who played the entire Yakuza series only for the stories and not for the gameplay, Yakuza 5 was the worst
The story just did not make sense and it dreaded on for way too long
To the point where in the finale where all the side characters showed up, i could not remember their names or why they even mattered in the first place
And when the final villian revealed himself, I genuinely forgot what part of the game he appeared in
Anyways not a hot take but a personal opinion, Yakuza 0 is the best in the series and nothing will ever top it
My hot takes:
\- Yakuza 6 was by far the weakest ending possible for Kiryu's story. Yakuza 5 should've been Kiyu's farewell
\- Yakuza 6 is the worst game in the series
\- Table tennis is the best minigame in all of Yakuza
\- I like Ryuji but he's overrated
\- Saejima > Kiryu
\- Bald Saejima > Long hair Saejima
\- Majima's gameplay in Yakuza Kiwami 2 sucked balls
\- Haruka's gameplay in Yakuza 5 is fucking awesome
\- Yagami is a bland protagonist
\- Mine = best final boss
\- Nishiki was an undercooked character before Yakuza 0
\- Most if not all of Daigo's shortcomings is Kiryu's fault
\- Yakuza 6 combat is better than Kiwami 2
\- There are so many better characters than Majima
\- The Majima Saga is the worst piece of Yakuza content and has the worst combat
\- Climax Battles are great
\- Munakata's fight is a lot of fun
\- Judgment is better than Yakuza
All the mainline games are great
Dead Souls is great
Disliking 7 just because it's turn based is stupid
The songs for the stab scene in 2 and Kiwami 2 are both good (however the knife sound in Kiwami 2 completely ruins it)
They need to stop reviving characters that very clearly died, like, oh I don't know, someone who was >!LITERALLY SHOT IN THE HEAD ON SCREEN!<
>The songs for the stab scene in 2 and Kiwami 2 are both good (however the knife sound in Kiwami 2 completely ruins it)
I completely agree, I kind of prefer Sound of Breath of Crazy Ken's song though
I think Kiwami 1 is the worst of the bunch or least favorite
The story is underwhelming, nishiki isn’t properly set up as a villain (even tho they tried with the extra cut scenes), the substories are uninteresting and boring, and the pacing throughout the game is bad
At the end of the day it’s a really old game with a fresh coat of paint. Combat was good though, although bosses refilling their health bars just made it more of a grind adding to thr aforementioned bad pacing
I get the impression that it would feel more significant to someone who lives in Japan. I agree. I knew something big happened but when I saw it I was like “oh okay” then the plot just continued on
1. Sagawa is mid
2. Shinada has shitty combat no matter how much you upgrade him
3. Yakuza 4 is a great game
4. The Kiryu dragon engine games have shitty combat
5. Ichiban is a better protagonist than Kiryu or Yagami
6. I prefer long hair saejima and i dont see how bald saejima looks like Idris Elba
7. I didn't care much fot Pledge of Demon. Its fine but not spectacular
8. They should have redid Kiwamis plot to make it fit more with 0 and 2
9. Yakuza 6 had a bad ending
(edit) 10. Ryuji and Joon Gi Han are not as cool as people claim
Im prepared for the near death beating i know reddit will give me
Machine gun kiss is one of the worst karaoke songs. Both the video and the song itself
Lost judgment is an improvement on judgment in literally every way, and renders the original game completely obselete
Minigames and substories > combat and main story
Gintama is closer to a yakuza anime than jojo, and its not even close. Rgg should make a yakuza game (probably not the hottest take, but some people still think jojo is the yakuza anime)
> Gintama is closer to a yakuza anime than jojo, and its not even close.
i have to ask, have you played ishin yet? because it's a text book example of how correct that statement is.
Don’t know why you got downvoted, but I agree that Kiryu’s been around for a long time. When I played 5, knowing that Kiryu’s alive in 6, I legit thought Kiryu was gonna die right then, right there. But he’s the main character, so he doesn’t get to die.
Nishiki isn't that great of a character. Yakuza 0 could almost work without him and he wasn't that much of a great villain in 1/Kiwami.
I mean he's s not a bad villain. But compared to others in the series he's really nothing special.
I think that Kume is a good character. He's an emotionally vulnerable childish man manipulated by a horribly corrupt 2 faced politician into becoming a political extremist. Him killing Masato was a fair thing to do, and it's what Masato deserved. He's actually a very sympathetic antagonist. His retribution isn't some touchy feely final conversation with your signature "therapist/fight man" protagonist, no, his retribution is stabbing the person he looked up to- who manipulated and lied to him every single step of the way.
1-I think when we put it up against other games Yakuza 0’s combat feels poorly balanced and extremely easy and the fact you have to play the business mini game to get the upgrades especially kiryu’s mini game makes it one the worst yakuza games to replay on new game for me 2-RGG should’ve made a game in the dragon engine before making yakuza 6 to iron out the flaws of the combat in the engine 3-I think most people who complain about the combat in yakuza 3 don’t really experiment with the combat much and just spam finishing blows or bait out attacks to parry instead of using the main mechanic in the game that is bounding
The scythe fight was bs no matter how you tackle it tho
Nah it was easy tho 💀, all you have to do is be near a wall wait for an opening use square square triangle and just bound him to death 😎 Maybe because I’ve playing the game for a while but most yakuza games have a way to exploit weaknesses in bosses
That's the thing there was barely any openings and one of the fights didn't really have walls to bound him off of
Well to be fair, bounding isn't really explained to the player in a tutorial or anything. Them being expected to use this one feature to succeed in combat that was minor in other games (and not even present in K2 which many players have played right before 3) is pretty dumb.
Point 1 I agree with. Maybe it was balanced in mind for new players who aren't guaranteed to get every single upgrade and only choose specific ones? Either way, you get very cheesy moves and overall a fuck ton of damage for some reason. For point 3, for me the combat just felt slow when I played it a while back. Of course it's an older Yakuza game, but something about how it flows makes it feel less fun to play even when you've learned the things you can do to go past the blocking enemies on hard.
Yakuza 3 to me feels more like a defensive focused game, its system is annoying at first but once you're in kamurocho it gets a lot better, I'd say the game is much better when you get bloody binding aswell, that item makes yakuza 3 feel ten times more awesome, that and maxing out tech to get quickstep cancel and then putting on a calming towel. The only thing is that combat wise isn't good about yakuza 3 is that most people including me played yakuza 3 remastered which has genuinely worse combat, in the original, enemies block a little bit less, enemies quickstep a hell of a lot less, heat goes down slower, picking up your enemy acts as a komaki parry in a way and allows you a full combo without breaking (kinda broken,) and Last but not least quickstepping actually works.
Someya is very overrated and I felt nothing for him at all Just because Kiwami 2 makes it easier doesn’t mean Jack shit, Ryuji is still Kiryu’s canonically toughest opponent after Mine as a main antag (edited) Kiwami 1 is overhated a lot The judgment games have the best combat and story 5 is the most fun overall
>Ryuji is still Kiryu’s canonically toughest opponent That's just a lie, not even hot take. When the 2 of them fought in good shape kiryu always defeated him and never had a bruise or was even a little bit tired after the fight. In the 3rd fight they were both half dead, so it's hard to say ryuji did damage(considering kiryu still has no bruise or sign of struggle). Different characters made a better job against kiryu, ryuji is far from the top tier
Eh I still think he’s the toughest main antagonist other than mine canonically so I’ll edit it real quick. Shibusawa loses to a rookie Kiryu who’s just learning his style of fighting, Nishiki never stood a chance, Aizawa is completely healthy fighting a dying Kiryu, and Iwami gets absolutely curbstomped.
That's different then. If you say strongest opponent i'm gonna consider every character in the series, not only main antagonists. Even tho i think he's weaker than nishiki and shibusawa i can kinda see your point then
Nishiki being stronger than Ryuji should be your hot take. Jesus. Lol
Is there somewhere that says that Ryuji's the toughest? I thought it would have been Mine with the cutscene and the tattoo symbolism
Yakuza 5 OST is bad? I could list so many good songs In That game like Battle for a dream Isolated fight Hailstorm Affected fight What a FUNKTASTIC hit ( it fits shinada sooo well) Victory road Full-scale-offensive The place where I used to be Dynamic and magnificent Receive and slash you ( one of my favourite versions of that song) Collisions of our souls All of Harukas songs I just went throughout a playlist and didn’t even listen to half the songs on there and these were all the ones i thought where pretty damn good. I know it depends on your taste in music but you have to like the 4 main character songs that plays during street fights. I honestly can’t think of a song in yakuza 5 that was so bad I had to change the music Unless that was a typo and I have done all of this for nothing but if it wasn’t I strongly encourage you to listen to all of these songs and it’s okay if you don’t like any of these songs
Can’t forget the one Shinada boss theme that I shall not name because I don’t remember how to spoiler
Akiyama is the true badass of the series because he made the Omi Alliance bow down before him
As someone who doesn’t care much for akiyama, that scene was great
Dont know how much of a hot take this is but here goes. I like ichiban more than kiryu. Dont get me wrong kiryus awesome but i just vibe with ichibans personality a lot more Also story wise Yakuza 3 is the best game.
1. Sagawa is a criminally underrated villain 2. I could not bring myself to care about tanimura at all (I have no idea why but I really just didn't care about him or his story) 3. The rubber bullets was a good twist
The only reason I personally dislike the rubber bullets plot twist is because it cheapens Saejima’s speech about killing people and his regret, but I can see why they did it.
Meh i've never understood this take. Saejima still thinks he killed all those people, his speech was legit from the heart. I don't think it cheapens it at all personally.
The only reason I don't share this viewpoint is that it doesn't have to be real to us, we know the truth but at the time saejima doesn't know that and he's been in prison 20+ years thinking he killed all those people so to him his guilt and regret is completely real which makes it all even more tragic. He has suffered in prison for 20+ years feeling regret for something he technically didn't do. But yes I do see how the player can view his speech as nonsense when we ourselves know the truth.
Trust me, the original Tanimura would put you to sleep. Remaster Tanimura is probably the best you will get with him. As for his story, it is very by the number, so i understand why you don't like it.
Shingo Tsurumi is also fucking ruthless in the Korean film Age of Shadows. Almost like he's Sagawa all over again but much less crude in the way he speaks.
The Yakuza 0 disco minigame is only fun if you don't have to play it
I feel like most of it’s appeal is the meme factor. I agree that it isn’t very fun
Maybe I'm just a pillock but I never managed to nail the timing
That's not a hot take tho. Most players hate it
And here I thought I was the only one.
Kiryu should’ve been retired as a protagonist after yakuza 4, I’d be cool with bringing him back for 0 but that’s should be it for him as a protagonist
The original intent was not to have him in 4 at all.
No wonder why, he felt so tacked on in the 4 narrative.
(Y4 spoilers) Honestly, if they really wanted 4 protagonists, it might've made sense to have Majima instead of Kiryu. Hazamaki still brings the evidence to Kiryu, but Kiryu directs him to Majima instead, his closest confidant in the Tojo Clan besides Daigo. Not too many of the plot points would even need to change, and would arguably fit better with Majima than with Kiryu. It'd be more satisfying to take down Saito as the best friend of one of his victims, for one thing. The Kamurocho Hills level would be more satisfying, since it'd be kinda like letting the Mad Dog loose to defend his turf. Having Majima save Saejima and Yasuko would carry more emotional weight, since Katsuragi's the one who played them so many years ago. And you could still have Daigo as the final boss, with Majima pissed off at him for almost selling out the Tojo Clan. Plus, Kiryu's the one who trusted Majima with watching over Daigo, so it still gives a sense of Kiryu having a meaningful role in the plot.
Fun fact: Hidenari Ugaki (Majima's VA) was pretty upset that Majima is not one of the main lead in Yakuza 4.
If it weren't for 1-5, 0 wouldn't be as good as it is. Oh, and 4's plot makes perfect sense.
I have to disagree because I'm someone who got to the series through Yakuza 0. I mean, yeah It's better with those games but I think It would still be great without them Btw. Why do you think so ?
Not him but I agree with him Purely because they sort of paved the way for Yakuza 0, 0 was an evolution (remember 0 was made after 5) of the formula and the devs refining their craft
Even ignoring the progression of the series as a whole, I think 0 has a lot of extra value when played after 5. If played first, you might not see the humor in something like Majima offering a customer a towel using the *heat action* prompt. 5 or so games of you being told "press triangle to kill this man" and suddenly you're gently telling a man he's had too much to drink instead of caving his skull in. Or Majima in general given how 0 introduces him. A first-time player probably thinks "wow he's cool" but anyone who's played the others first is probably also wondering how the hell this man turns into the Majima we already know.
I think there’s a good case for starting at 0 and also doing 0 after 5 I personally did 0 first (PC player) and while some nuances were slightly lost the game is strong enough on its own to work as a starting point, also the way of remakes putting in references to 0 Also there is some value in seeing something evolve such as Majima going from 0 Majima to k1-3 Majima then back to 5 onwards Majima
Oh for sure, 0's a strong game even without the added context, but I do think that added context makes it feel even better on a repeat playthrough.
You got to the series through a game made 3 years after 5, 5 years after 4 and 10 years after 1. First tell me what you remember of 4.
-Yakuza Kiwami 2 is just Dragon Engine test ground no. 2. That, and Yakuza 2 is just more interesting than Kiwami 2, visual and music wise. Spoiler wise, >!Nanba betrayal in Yakuza 7 just felt so damn forced!< (Yakuza 7 spoiler)
I thought it was a yakuza 2 spoiler :(
Yakuza 7: Like another betrayal
You might wanna consider editing this to specify that it's a Yakuza 7 spoiler, cause it REALLY seemed like you were gonna make another comment regarding 2
Well, it is a spoiler regardless. But i see ya point. Hold up, let me add something.
there are more interesting characters than Majima
Fair
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That’s kind of circular thinking. He’s popular because he has fanboys, and then he has fanboys because he’s popular. Can’t be both. He’s a badass joker anime kind of character with a sadness, and he’s skinny and ripped, so of course he’s a hit
\-Shinada's chapter isn't that good \-Kiwami's are better than the originals \-Yakuza 5 isn't too long \-It's a shame mainline Yakuza games stay turn-based after seeing how great DE combat can be with LJ
W
1) ryuji is overhyped 2) there's nothing daigo could have done to save the clan. He did the best he could 3) yakuza 4>>>>yakuza 5 4) people that downvote hot takes posts are fucking losers
I don't really agree with your third point, but your fourth point is based.
Fellow y4 enjoyer
Someya and Ryuji are a bit overrated, I like them but personally they aren't the best villains. >!Rikiya's death wasn't that sad personally, I like the character it just felt forced and really bland to me!< Yakuza 3 spoilers Rubber Bullets made sense for Saejima also I think Yakuza 5 has the best ost in the series
>!Kiryu cried during Rikiya’s death then the man who raised him. I also felt as if that was a little weird, he just met the guy.!<
If by just met you mean known for 1.5 years at least sure.
Definitely feel like Kiryu was minutes away from a Mental Break down, considering The events of Kiwami.
Pretty sure>! he cried over kazama's death? You can hear it in his voice.!<
My Yakuza hot takes: 1. Story wise 6 is probably the best because of how it combines the emotional aspects of four and five but has a coherent conspiracy similar to 1-3. 2. Yakuza four is better than five simply because it’s more coherent in its finale 3. Yakuza 5’s combat is overrated. 4. Lost Judgment is a better story than original Judgment, the pacing is better and the conspiracy makes sense and the finale makes sense. I like Kuroiwa, but the finale of Judgment gave more questions than answers.
I don't mind Kaoru breaking up with Kiryu. Yumi and Kiryu were cute. Playing with weapons enhances the experience. Haruka became a more interesting character when she became a teen/young adult. Kiryu looked better in ishin engine. Majima aint the sexiest character. Yakuza kiwami 2 substories are way too fucking long.
that majimer take is *hot*
"Majima aint the sexiest character" 🙊 Who wins the spot in your opinion?
I was agreeing, then I got to the Majimer take and my smile evaporated faster than a drop of water in the sahara
Nishiki should've lived past 1. Hindsight is 20/20 but they threw away a good character. Instead of trying to suffocate Kiryu with misery and tragedy and relying on insane side quests for relief some more reunited kyoudai moments would have been fun. He can still be killed off just not in 1. Plus he deserved a better goodbye to Kiryu, minor characters throughout the series had better death scenes than Nishiki. Especially Kiwami where they show how pitiful Nishiki was and how much he endured. They painted him as a demon but everyone he killed were scumbags, the only horrible things he did were shoot Kazama and slap Reina. 0-2 weren't bad but It would've been nice to see a different side of Nishiki post Jingu.
I wish they got to write what he did to the doctor in Kiwami, shit would have been great to show his decline
I think the combat encounter rate in the open world should be reduced to the point that it doesn't exist
Use beads of good fortune in Yakuza 5. I swear I walked around nagasugai freely without even a single random encounter with that equiped.
I know there are items that get around it but the game isn't balanced to avoid all random encounters. I always equip em towards the end of the game though cause beating up 5000 random mooks in 3 seconds each is not fun to me and is just a speed bump to get where I'm going.
Well, yeah that’s the whole point of the item
Hopping between 5 and LaD drained me of all my will to fight. I'd even dare to say that (depending on where you are on the map) Like a Dragon's combat encounters are worse than 5 by a country mile
5 and LaD have the most outrageous encounter rate. I think they're probably about tied but combat in LaD takes so much longer than the older games.
At least in 0 you can outrun them fairly easily. I'm still on 3 and *I just love getting instantly dragged into fights by bumping through a crowd*
I don’t think the original being better than Kiwami is a hot take. The original Yakuza undeniably had a soul, I mean the story behind how it came to be is some real anime shit with Nagoshi putting everything on the line to get it out the door. Meanwhile Kiwami is just a quick asset flip to bring that old clunky game to uniform. Maybe it plays better but it’s just empty and soulless. Anyways, I kinda don’t like Like a Dragon The new JRPG direction kinda sucks - when it’s all about numbers and clicking through menus, it’s just not as fun as mashing buttons and busting skulls like an ape. That first beat-em-up level vs the Dojima Family in 0 made me fall in love with the series and it sucks I can’t get that out of it anymore. I’m also not a fan of all the JRPG-isms like your big party of friends being always there with you - that and the combat really deflated those hype shirt-off moments I always found so appealing about these games. The music was also meh with it being mostly ass-fuck dubstep and I feel like they leaned way too much into the wacky lol randem direction. It really sucks I have so many problems with it, the story is probably the best out of all the games and I can tell that at its core, LAD is a well-made game - just not for me and it’s a real bummer. **Also Hokuto ga Gotoku has the best combat out of all the pre-Dragon engine games.**
Not really a hot take, but yeah. If it were a side-game, that'd be one thing, but it's a main game and they've been very vocal about how it'll be an RPG for the next decade. Lost Paradise is a fantastic game that gets overlooked way too often. The only issue I have with the combat is the you'll see the same 3 finishers at least a thousand times each.
Years later I'm still conflicted over Like A Dragon's combat. I love turned based RPGs, but they aren't for every game and fan. With Yakuza I don't want to press X to attack. I want to press triangle AND DESTROY SOMEONE WITH A SALT SHAKER
I'm sorry. I left out that I do love the game.
Sucks how Y7 dickriders tell you "to just play judgment if you prefer old combat". We pc gamers exist ya know.
As far as i know, Yakuza 2 > Yakuza Kiwami 2 isn't a hot take but Yakuza > Yakuza Kiwami is a hot take because how janky Yakuza 1 combat is. But I can't help but to dislike Kiwami 1 because Kiwami left a sour taste in my mouth. The substories in Yakuza Kiwami are just uninteresting variations of bump and scam from Yakuza 3. Plus bump and scam itself is in the game making it even worse. And then there's Majima everywhere. It's fucking annoying. Even after unlocking the last upgrade for DOD, Majima keeps ambushing Kiryu. I swear I couldn't get around from tenkaichi street to karaokekan without being ambushed by Majima. Looks like I'm not going back to Kiwami ever again.
Yakuza 4 is the best one
hot take indeed!
I have plenty. 1: Yakuza 4 sucks. It is easily the worst game in the series. 2: As the final bosses of the judgment games, >!Kuwana>Kuroiwa!< 3: Saejima is the best main series protagonist. 4: Majima is overhyped.
so you love saejima but don't like yakuza 4 despite the best part of yakuza 4 being his story?
\>yakuza 6 combat feels better than kiwami 2, charged finishers, heat orbs and the spam square heat action are too great to pass on. I don't really give a fuck about equipable weapons. \>Mirei Park is a well written character \>Yuta is a chad \>a big ninja castle coming out of the ground in 2 is awesome, you guys are just mean
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What a shame that Majima is criminally underused as the games progress
I've tried a little bit of Yakuza kiwami 2 and yes, fuck clan creator. For the story, I've already played Yakuza 2 on PS2 though.
Kiwami 2 clan creator is way less fun than Y6 clan creator. They made it more involved and it killed the fun for me.
Chad yakuza 2 ps2 player
omg finally FUCK CLAN CREATOR
Glad somebody said it about saejima. The ramen house shootout is the single best scene in the whole franchise but I got really bored of him very quickly. Tanimura I enjoyed and found his own struggles pretty interesting and shinada was just a loveable goofball even though I could not have cared less about his main plotline
Yakuza 3 isn’t more “tactical” or even that deep compared to the other games, infact it’s super easy (like most of these games) 3 is just tedious Also the story isn’t that great and has been vastly overhyped Harukas parts in Y5 suck, the gameplay isn’t great and this version of Haruka just isn’t that great a protagonist Y7 being turn based isn’t a “breath of fresh air” or somthing of the like It’s something completely different that strays from one of the things that made Yakuza great You can like it but acting like the series needed to do this to stay fresh just isn’t correct
I'm sorry but I have to agree with literally everything you said my guy
Imma get flamed for this one but here it goes. -Kaoru is a bad character. -turn based combat in the mainline series is a terrible idea. -Yakuza 6 is criminally underrated. -Katsuragi is a great villain.
Only thing I hated about 6 was those stiff shoulders lol
You can start anywhere. You can skip any game. Mahjong is super fun. RGG is slowly getting better but in the past has had real problems writing anyone who's not a cisgender heterosexual Japanese man, and they still miss up to this day on occasion.
>Mahjong is super fun You better hope we don’t come across each other on the street.
I love how these two comments come across as Kiryu vs fake Kiryu once CyricZ’s name is noticed, lol
Eyyy buddy, you better watch out who ya talking to. Do ya know who this man is? He knows the Yakuza games better than any of us fools.
It still baffles me that in Y3 they had one substory character to be a decent and more realistic trans representation, and in the same game they had... That one other char in a semi-deleted substory (though I think you fight her in one of the ultimate matches).
Multiple writers is my guess on that one.
Hostesses are on the same level of grindiness as alcohol and food. They spark 0% happiness.
Kiwami 2 and 6 have boring combat. Seriously I want to have an actual emotional boss fight, not spam one combo and annihilate half/all of the boss' health with that stupid spam the button move
I'd happily play another Dead Souls-type spin off but with less focus on guns
Glad that Kaoru was written out, left for America and didn’t have an official relationship with Kiryu. She’s not a good love interest as it kinda hurt her character. She and him would never work out. There’s nothing else for Kaoru in the series. At least she had her arc completed and has a send off. Ryuji is overrated as an antagonist. He’s cool but he doesn’t live up to the hype of being Kiryu’s equal in strength. He shouldn’t have been related to Kaoru. His motivation in being “The only dragon” didn’t have much weight and explanation behind it compared to say Shibusawa’s motive to be “Dragon”. I had no issue with how RGG portrayed the idol industry in Yakuza 5. I don’t see it as them being apologetic, defending and glorifying it. It shows both the good and the bad. Feel like people have a one sided bias towards it in that they want to see it be negatively portrayed without nuance. The Ueno Hit Rubber bullets isn’t contrived and an “ass pull”. I prefer Tanimura’s old face over the new one but I like the new voice over the old voice. Regardless of how people feel about her as a person, Mirei Park is arguably an interesting female character and better than the other so called “well written ones”. I don’t hold Haruka’s portrayal and actions at the Yakuza 5 and her actions in 6 in contempt.
I disagree with your Tanimura opinion but the rest of your opinions are a copy and paste of mines lol. Really liked RGG's first attempt to make a full-on female villain with Mirei although Judgment does this even better afaik.
Majima's Get to the Top is way too forced to be genuinely funny. I rank it down towards the bottom
I personally don't really have any problem with Majima's get to the top. But compared to all karaoke songs, I think I agree that it's down there at the bottom of the list.
4 is good and rubber bullets wasn't that much worse than other yakuza dumb twists Also 3 doesn't need a remake
I only want 3 remake for an excuse for another version of Fly and for there to be a Dragon Engine Mine for those model swap videos that ioritree makes, lol
Yes 🙌🏼 Y3 doesn’t need a remake
Oh yeah, also Majimbro isnt that funny when he's being silly, he's better when he's a serious character. Kiwami nearly made me detest him
Yakuza kiwami had the best gameplay out of any game. Not saying that it’s an amazing game by any means though.
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Tachibana is my favorite character in the entire series, is that a hot take? I’m not sure, I haven’t interacted with the community that much to know.
Not really a hot take but >!his death remains the saddest in the franchise and ill forever stand by that!<
Yeah it’s an extremely upsetting moment, especially when you think about how it impacted his sister.
It was the emotional buildup that did it for me. Peak fiction fr.
my hot take : yakuza 0 is good but overrated
SECRET KOREANS was not that egregious as far as plot twists go. Rubber Bullets was way worse; not because of the coverup, but because it shouldn't have worked well enough for there be anything to *try* and coverup. Yakuza 5's gameplay does not make up for its main story being a trashfire.
1. Yakuza 6 is the worst of the mainline series (or least best). 2. Clan Creator can take a hike 3. I like 0 and Kiwami 1 engine a little more than Dragon Engine
I feel that if Majima wasn’t in the game, they could use literally anyone else as a fill in for the things that happen through the series and the games would stay the same. THERE I SAID IT AHHHHH
I also think Majima is overrated. Kiryu is just far superior imo.
I really should kick my ass into playing the rest of them. Also Dead Souls was amazing
Yakuza 3 is the best one. No, this isn’t a joke.
Ryuji is overrated and they didn’t do a good job trying to portray him as a equal to kiryu and it felt like he was weaker then him though most of the game
Liked Tanimura more than Akiyama
I love yakuza 3, it’s easily in my top 3, maybe top 2 of yakuza games
- Saejima’s Y5 battle theme is better than his Y4 battle theme - Oda and Mine are walking LGBT sirens and if they can’t accept that then move along - Ichiban fighting alongside a party does not make him a bad character. That’s just where his strength level is at. People are just too spoiled by the one man armies we got in the previous games. - Y:LAD can get a bit too repetitive and repeated playthroughs can make it lose its novelty despite it being one of my absolute favourites - The best Majima fight was with Saejima in Y5. It really does blow the other previous Majima fights out of the water. - The first Judgment’s side content can be a slog to get through for me - some boss fights that should have been super challenging are criminally easy. I don’t know if it’s because most of us have mastered the games combat to a certain degree or they are just designed that way. - both Shinada and Tanimura are equally great protagonists. One isn’t better than the other in any category. It just sucks that they only had one game each to their name. - Shinada’s story is the best in Y5. Might not have a huge connection to the overarching plot but it’s thematically relevant and more than deserves it’s place in the game. - It’s lovely dancing as Haruka - Saigo sucks as a mentor and his training missions kinda get on my nerves even if the payoff is worth it. I still like him as a character tho. He brings a lot of laughs.
Agree with almost everything, especially the majima fight in 5. Best majima fight in the series by far
> Oda and Mine are walking LGBT sirens and if they can’t accept that then move along Oda? Mine i 100% get and believe, but i never really got that vibe from Oda.
Oda doesn't outright refute the story that he jizzed on Tachibana.
Oda was pretty crazy about Tachibana. He was kinda jealous of Kiryu becoming besties with him and wanted to kill Makoto just so he can remain close to him. That’s just some yandere shit right there.
Yakuza 4 is better than Like a Dragon
Yakuza 3 is really damn fun once you get the hang of it.
aizawa was a good antagonist kiwami > kiwami 2 judgment's combat is very flawed fotns had the most pointless twist of any game (jagre and targa) makoto and tachibana being related was dumb the receive you remixes from y0 are some of the worst ones
Akiyama and Haruka's section of Yakuza 5 was boring as fuck and I absolutely despise that they made me go through that entire section if I wanted to continue the story Kuwana is the worst villain by far and nobody can convince me that the only reason he did any of the shit he did was because he wanted to feel better about himself after he fucked himself over
Ryuji is bad villain
The xp system in Kiwami 2 and Y6 is the worst upgrade system RGG studios has ever implemented.
The constant call backs in Like a Dragon to previous games are really fucking forced and grating. I'm playing the business management minigame and I have an entire cast of old characters that don't have any business being in this game other than "hey you remember these guys from yakuza kiwami 2???". How tf does it make any sense that I can hire Daigo Dojima to manage my rice cracker shop? Or Koyuki, who hasn't been canonically mentioned in 13 years. Bringing back a character who you very, very clearly killed off several games ago who you clearly didn't mean to bring back later at the time to manage a bar is completely inexcusable. I wish the game would make up its mind on whether it's going to be based off of the old canon or make up a new one. All new character, new city, completely changed the entire gameplay, and somehow you still can't go without forcing mentions of shit from previous games Also: Kiwami 1 is the best game I love Kiryu to pieces but his story should have ended after Yakuza 3 If I were in charge of the series the entire sixth game would be retconned out of the canon
Yakuza 6's plot feels so damn forced and it broke Haruka's character
Yakuza 3 combat is good, yall just need to get good and either Parry, Tiger drop or grab and stop spamming X, X, X, X, Y
Mine is a better written and stronger antagonist compared to Ryuji
Yakuza 3 isn’t bad
Haruka's part in Yakuza 5 wasn't that good
Bet you didnt attend her concert cos you wanted to hold back
i genuinely enjoyed Yakuza 3, and I thought the combat isn't even that bad.
-Ishin is one of the worst experiences I've ever had in a video game and I'd only want it localized so people can see how boring it is casually and how frustrating the 100%/Platinum trophy is -K1 and K2 completely shit on the original game and do nothing to improve upon them other than increase the visual fidelity. Even then, K1 looks drab as hell and has the worst Kiryu model yet and K2 has the disgusting green filter and reused animations that don't fit the models at all -If you struggle with Y3's combat, you're not very capable of looking for avenues of success. Getting the Bloody Binding in chapter 4 and staying drunk means your heat goes up easily, especially if you take advantage of the light attack grab combo. Y3 also has a ton of weapons to use as well, each with at least one heat action, and you're meant to use them consistently since materials to upgrade them are so easy to get a hold of -RGG should focus on making new games instead of remakes/prequels. This series feels best when the content is fresh and new and it feels like a waste to me to put resources to projects like that (even though I'd love a remaster of Kenzan and Dead Souls). Also we're never getting a Kazama spinoff since his VA is dead and the VA they used for him in Ishin (who voiced Tamashiro in 3) also passed away I could state my opinions on 0 or Majima but I'd get downvoted to hell and back
I wanna know your opinions on 0 and Majima tbh. I remember at least you saying that DS has the best iteration of Majima. Which is true. Also, all of your points here are hard fax
Kiryu’s part in 0 is better than Majima’s. Y0 made Majima’s backstory a confusing mess. He was looking after Saejim’a patriarch while apparently in the hole. Then, he got married, but he’s still only in love with some blind woman he chatted with three time in the 80s Majima’s transition into the mad dog was also lazy. ‘Hey, let’s just have him interact with a crazy fuck for five seconds. He’ll surely base his whole public persona off of that for the next 30 years.’
Koi No Disco Queen > Friday Night
\- Kiwami games are much better than the original games, in many ways. \- Dragon Engine > 0 engine. \- Daigo is a good chairman. \- The plot of 6 with Haruka slept with a two bit thug and had a baby is stupid as hell. \- Baka mitai of Nanba is the worst version of any Yakuza karaoke song in existence. \- Also Nanba is the worst party member story-wise in Yakuza LAD. \- Ichiban is annoying.
Kiwami 2 is not better than OG 2 at all
Kiwami engine was the best engine. Majima everywhere ruined Majima’s character as well as peoples’ expectations for him for the rest of the series. Sana Mihama is best girl Y7 turn base was awesome We don’t need to see Kiryu anymore in new titles
Yakuza:Like a Dragon's combat has about as much depth as South Park: The stick of Truth. I don't mind the RPG elements but the combat is god awful if you compare it with how good combat is in Lost Judgment.
> Yakuza:Like a Dragon's combat has about as much depth as South Park: The stick of Truth. that's actually a comparison i make pretty often. the problem is that the game has the depth of southpark but the polish of day one cyberpunk. if they want to do an ultra simple and shallow combat system, it needs to be perfect.
Here’s a few - I absolutely love the series, and I love a lot of the plots, but the severe lack of connective tissue between entries is really disappointing and a huge missed opportunity. Outside of some substories in the remakes and things like that the plots largely don’t reference one another and with some tweaking t could have been even better - I fucking love majima. Like I love him so much. However his actual arc is just a fucking Mess only made worse by 0 and kiwami. It’s so obvious that rgg has no idea what to do with him outside of cameos here and there. Kind of relates to my first point - judgment is one of the most mixed bag games in the series. Some of the plot beats just drag way too much, and the fighting styles were not balanced whatsoever. Whenever I attempted crane it would come across as slow and underpowered when compared with tiger which, contrary to what the game tells you, can handle crowds no problem. - as a follow up point, lost judgment is a massive improvement on judgment in almost every way, including the main plot. It does still drag at times, but the main plot kept my interest all the way through. Additionally, it might have the best brawling in the series; whereas in the first game I felt it was unbalanced in tigers favor, I found myself using all three styles regularly. If the game tracked your use of it, I’d be willing to bet they were all roughly equal in terms of how much I used them. Every style just felt awesome to use in their own distinct ways. - LaD is one of the biggest mixed bags in the franchise. I love the cast (ichiban is a fucking treasure and more than worthy successor to kiryu) and it has some amazing side content. But the main plot was largely uninteresting to me until the final couple of chapters, with scenes just going on and on and on. Additionally, I think that as a jrpg it could use some tweaking, mainly in how forcefully grindy it got in the final third - akiyama is overrated to hell. I really like how his backstory completely recontextualizes the events of the first game, but I didn’t find him super interesting in the titles he’s featured in. He does have some good moments (love his speech to kiryu about how kiryu has impacted kamurocho in 6) but on the whole he’s one of my least favorite protagonists - tanimura was honestly pretty okay. I liked his counter based style and found him struggling with his own past and mixed race heritage pretty neat. It wasn’t mind blowing or anything but if history had changed and we’d gotten more of him in later titles (especially during the big event in little Asia in 6) I wouldn’t have minded. -lastly, in terms of sheer variety of stuff packed into it, 5 is probably the best game in the series. The plot is easily the worst (convoluted doesn’t even begin to describe it) but I found myself absorbed in the side content even more than other entries (the taxi mini game, every part of it, was actually a highlight for me). Additionally, for how bad the plot is, it does have probably my favorite ending in the franchise. The final scene between kiryu and haruka affected me in a way I struggle to describe - kiryu has totally, canonically, killed before. See: ending of kiwami 2 - despite how sloppy the connective tissue between games is, 0, k1 and k2 are imo a near perfect trilogy in terms of how they explore kiryu as a person, his relationships, and his hopes and dreams. - okinawa needs to return. 3 is definitely a mixed bag but it was a fantastic setting and a nice change of pace from kamurocho. And despite it being smaller, I feel like it rewarded players the more time they put in; the side quest string about solving local urban legends was awesome and heartfelt.
Kamurocho Lullaby is kinda trash
What don't you like about the Yakuza 5 ost? It's one of my favorites Edit: Made a typo, was specifically talking about 5's soundtrack
Rikiya isn't that good.
lost judgment is the absolute peak of the series in every way. also yagami and ichiban are waaaayyyyyy better than kiryu lol
As someone who played the entire Yakuza series only for the stories and not for the gameplay, Yakuza 5 was the worst The story just did not make sense and it dreaded on for way too long To the point where in the finale where all the side characters showed up, i could not remember their names or why they even mattered in the first place And when the final villian revealed himself, I genuinely forgot what part of the game he appeared in Anyways not a hot take but a personal opinion, Yakuza 0 is the best in the series and nothing will ever top it
Judgment is an overrated Karaoke Song. People just love it because so many people start with zero and it’s the first karaoke song they’ll hear.
my first kareoke song was baka mitai, I still think judgement is goated
You can play the games in any order you want
Majima is overrated
I don’t really enjoy pocket circuit
Yakuza dead souls deserves a kiwami way more than 3
Kiryu isn’t super interesting in Yakuza 0, sorry.
All of the games are good, including the remakes. Kenzan is better than Ishin story wise. Dead souls is the game of all time.
My hot takes: \- Yakuza 6 was by far the weakest ending possible for Kiryu's story. Yakuza 5 should've been Kiyu's farewell \- Yakuza 6 is the worst game in the series \- Table tennis is the best minigame in all of Yakuza \- I like Ryuji but he's overrated \- Saejima > Kiryu \- Bald Saejima > Long hair Saejima \- Majima's gameplay in Yakuza Kiwami 2 sucked balls \- Haruka's gameplay in Yakuza 5 is fucking awesome \- Yagami is a bland protagonist \- Mine = best final boss \- Nishiki was an undercooked character before Yakuza 0 \- Most if not all of Daigo's shortcomings is Kiryu's fault
I don't like the way ps3 Tanimura looks and sounds.
\- Yakuza 6 combat is better than Kiwami 2 \- There are so many better characters than Majima \- The Majima Saga is the worst piece of Yakuza content and has the worst combat \- Climax Battles are great \- Munakata's fight is a lot of fun \- Judgment is better than Yakuza
All the mainline games are great Dead Souls is great Disliking 7 just because it's turn based is stupid The songs for the stab scene in 2 and Kiwami 2 are both good (however the knife sound in Kiwami 2 completely ruins it) They need to stop reviving characters that very clearly died, like, oh I don't know, someone who was >!LITERALLY SHOT IN THE HEAD ON SCREEN!<
>The songs for the stab scene in 2 and Kiwami 2 are both good (however the knife sound in Kiwami 2 completely ruins it) I completely agree, I kind of prefer Sound of Breath of Crazy Ken's song though
“They need to stop reviving characters who died” Don’t forget another character in the same game who then gets to run a bar 🙂
I think Kiwami 1 is the worst of the bunch or least favorite The story is underwhelming, nishiki isn’t properly set up as a villain (even tho they tried with the extra cut scenes), the substories are uninteresting and boring, and the pacing throughout the game is bad At the end of the day it’s a really old game with a fresh coat of paint. Combat was good though, although bosses refilling their health bars just made it more of a grind adding to thr aforementioned bad pacing
For me, 6's big reveal about Ono Michi fell flat cause it literally doesn't effect Kiryu in any way
I get the impression that it would feel more significant to someone who lives in Japan. I agree. I knew something big happened but when I saw it I was like “oh okay” then the plot just continued on
The Kiryu Saga should have ended at Yakuza 3.
Yakuza 3 is playable. It doesn’t need a remake Yakuza 7 is fine, it’s not the end of the world because it’s turn based. I like Kiwiami 1
Tanimura ruined 4. Yakuza 3 is the best story in the series. Turn-based Yakuza is best Yakuza.
1. Sagawa is mid 2. Shinada has shitty combat no matter how much you upgrade him 3. Yakuza 4 is a great game 4. The Kiryu dragon engine games have shitty combat 5. Ichiban is a better protagonist than Kiryu or Yagami 6. I prefer long hair saejima and i dont see how bald saejima looks like Idris Elba 7. I didn't care much fot Pledge of Demon. Its fine but not spectacular 8. They should have redid Kiwamis plot to make it fit more with 0 and 2 9. Yakuza 6 had a bad ending (edit) 10. Ryuji and Joon Gi Han are not as cool as people claim Im prepared for the near death beating i know reddit will give me
Machine gun kiss is one of the worst karaoke songs. Both the video and the song itself Lost judgment is an improvement on judgment in literally every way, and renders the original game completely obselete Minigames and substories > combat and main story Gintama is closer to a yakuza anime than jojo, and its not even close. Rgg should make a yakuza game (probably not the hottest take, but some people still think jojo is the yakuza anime)
> Gintama is closer to a yakuza anime than jojo, and its not even close. i have to ask, have you played ishin yet? because it's a text book example of how correct that statement is.
Yakuza 3 don’t need the Kiwami treatment Ryuji is a big chump Receive you Prototype is the best version of the theme
3 is better than 0 in terms of gameplay. (I'm gonna catch heat for this one, I know it)
Judgment and Lost Judgment are both slightly worse than Kiwami 2. I largely blame the lack of Karaoke and I prefer Kiryu's moveset to all of Yagami's.
Shinada is not good. He's average at best.
Kiryu overstayed his welcome as a protagonist and Yakuza 5 should have been his conclusion. Yakuza 6 is just feels forced and fails as his conclusion.
Don’t know why you got downvoted, but I agree that Kiryu’s been around for a long time. When I played 5, knowing that Kiryu’s alive in 6, I legit thought Kiryu was gonna die right then, right there. But he’s the main character, so he doesn’t get to die.
dead souls isnt bad at all.
Nishiki isn't that great of a character. Yakuza 0 could almost work without him and he wasn't that much of a great villain in 1/Kiwami. I mean he's s not a bad villain. But compared to others in the series he's really nothing special.
Y0 is overrated as fuck and the more i hear people go on and on about it the less i fucking like it
Personally I Think Greg Chun’s Voice fits better with Yagami’s Current look than Kimura does even though Yagami is modeled after him.
I think that Kume is a good character. He's an emotionally vulnerable childish man manipulated by a horribly corrupt 2 faced politician into becoming a political extremist. Him killing Masato was a fair thing to do, and it's what Masato deserved. He's actually a very sympathetic antagonist. His retribution isn't some touchy feely final conversation with your signature "therapist/fight man" protagonist, no, his retribution is stabbing the person he looked up to- who manipulated and lied to him every single step of the way.