I'm happy to have gotten this game localized, but I can't help but imagine what it would've been like to get a full Kiwami remake of it rather than just a graphical upgrade on top of clunky older systems
Something I'd really love is one of those YouTube essays all the kids love, explaining some of the real-life historical context (and, more importantly, the cultural perception in Japan of said historical context) for all the real people.
Real-life historical figures impersonating other real-life historical figures feels like it simply has to have a whole slew of cultural baggage that I have precisely zero ability to navigate. Is the implication that when a beloved historical figure did some shady shit, that was just a reviled historical figure pretending to be the good guy? Is that... Cool with folks in Japan?
I cannot stress enough my ignorance on this, but (not really spoilers, I don't think, I'm talking about story mechanics and not details, but hey, why not exercise caution)
but it feels almost like an American story about how Ben Franklin was great all the time, and all those times he was fuckin' around in the Hellfire Club it was actually Benedict Arnold pretending to be Ben Franklin. Where it's not, like, a malicious change necessarily, but it is kinda weird, and would make me at least curious (if not slightly concerned) about what, if any, underlying motives were at play.
I imagine it also swings wildly depending on who you consider the shady guy and who the good guy, a question of Japanese history I'm also not qualified to wade into
I imagine it also swings wildly depending on who you consider the shady guy and who the good guy, a question of Japanese history I'm also not qualified to wade into
Very much that, too, yeah
Like if I had to write a book report about the game there would be a heading that said "The Politics of Like a Dragon: Ishin," and all that would be in it would be a [This space intentionally left blank] disclaimer
It also feels like they really want to lean into the idea of like, how important is a name, how much are the yous in different places and contexts the same person, what do you give up by taking on a new persona, but that bit is either kinda not really crystallized or it's buried within the historical context too much to be pried out and like, Yakuza 0 kiiiiiinda did the identity thing more crisply on that front.
I got Like a Dragon a few weeks back to finally try a Yakuza game. This was while I was finally playing RDR2 on the PC after abandoning it on the PS4. I'm a good 30-40 hours into RDR2 right? Happy that I'm finally giving this excellent game the attention it deserves. I got the HDR going...graphics are just stunning. It's funny, there's lots to do, etc.
Absolutely fucking derailed. I can't even explain it. RDR2 is so good. Not that Like a Dragon isn't, but man. I'm like 90 hours into LAD and that is a LOT for me in a few weeks (thank you, Steam Deck)
So here's my question. When I'm done, which ONE Yakuza game do I go back and play? I'm really not concerned about being thrown into the middle of a story I don't completely understand, and not a chance in hell I will make it through two of the old games..let alone three or all of them. Should I just wait?
well I would've said LAD but if you're already 90 hours in then I guess Yakuza 0
Y0 is likely the correct answer, but I'd also maybe toss 5 or Judgment in as dark horse options. There's a ton of variety in 5 (including a character that has rhythm-game dance battles instead of standard combat), it's probably my vote for best gameplay in the series.
Judgment has a really great story, if that's a bigger draw.
But 0 is great, this isn't a "no but" it's a "yes and"
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cj iwakuraThe Rhythm RegentBears The Name FreedomRegistered Userregular
Absolutely 0. Failing that, 4, because 3/4ths of the game revolve around brand new characters, and it's mostly the stuff in their stories that affects the fourth. (And it has exhaustive recaps to fill you in on everything from the earlier games.)
5 doesn't give a damn about recaps, and tosses you neck deep into the swamp.
Thanks for the advice! I like that I have a dark horse option in 5 where I'll be thrown into the deep end. (although I'll probably follow the majority here and go with 0)
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DemonStaceyTTODewback's DaughterIn love with the TaySwayRegistered Userregular
Chapter 5 of Ishin now. Still holding up! Still putting it above every other sub only game. Progression has not dropped off yet and now that I fully understand blacksmith hammers I actually quite like the equipment system even if a bit simple.
But it’s really nice just to have a set of equipment that just gets stronger with you along the journey instead of just constantly getting new things and tossing old things.
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cj iwakuraThe Rhythm RegentBears The Name FreedomRegistered Userregular
I think I'm in the final chapter of Ishin, or final but one, and the plot has become nearly impenetrable to me now
That's how I felt while playing 2.
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DemonStaceyTTODewback's DaughterIn love with the TaySwayRegistered Userregular
Alright into chapter 7 and definitely not running into the issues with the skill point system. I already have the sword tree filled out except my final book skill, which I have the book for just need to unlock. And even have 2 extra sword orbs waiting to go.
And this is while taking detours to get both heat upgrades in wild dancer, first heat upgrade and dodge upgrade in brawler, first heat upgrade and some extra levels in gun.
Planning to get both gun and brawler to the second heat upgrades as well.
I do wish the seals weren’t so weirdly rare. It seems completely out of tune with a system that expects you to throw multiple seals at equipment and lose some along the way. Those two ideas just seem to clash.
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cj iwakuraThe Rhythm RegentBears The Name FreedomRegistered Userregular
I'm really glad Ishin has some teeth, the Shinsengumi tryout was actually challenging.
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DemonStaceyTTODewback's DaughterIn love with the TaySwayRegistered Userregular
How to you pay the farm debt?
I keep expecting the game to tell me but I’m in chapter 8 and still have no idea how. Is it actually further than this?
I keep expecting the game to tell me but I’m in chapter 8 and still have no idea how. Is it actually further than this?
How much money have you actually made by fulfilling orders? I think you have to make the first 20 ryo from farm orders and then you will get a letter telling you the first payment is due. After that it seemed to trigger the other payments once I had 20 ryo from any source
I keep expecting the game to tell me but I’m in chapter 8 and still have no idea how. Is it actually further than this?
How much money have you actually made by fulfilling orders? I think you have to make the first 20 ryo from farm orders and then you will get a letter telling you the first payment is due. After that it seemed to trigger the other payments once I had 20 ryo from any source
I assume I have made more than that by now. I’ve had the farm fully maxed out for a few chapters. Hmm.
I keep expecting the game to tell me but I’m in chapter 8 and still have no idea how. Is it actually further than this?
How much money have you actually made by fulfilling orders? I think you have to make the first 20 ryo from farm orders and then you will get a letter telling you the first payment is due. After that it seemed to trigger the other payments once I had 20 ryo from any source
I assume I have made more than that by now. I’ve had the farm fully maxed out for a few chapters. Hmm.
How much have you sold through orders though? That’s what it is based off of. Not the farm level, but amount of money made through orders. It took a lot more than I thought to get the first 20. I’ve currently got two payments out of the way and I’m just starting the 6th chapter.
I keep expecting the game to tell me but I’m in chapter 8 and still have no idea how. Is it actually further than this?
How much money have you actually made by fulfilling orders? I think you have to make the first 20 ryo from farm orders and then you will get a letter telling you the first payment is due. After that it seemed to trigger the other payments once I had 20 ryo from any source
I assume I have made more than that by now. I’ve had the farm fully maxed out for a few chapters. Hmm.
How much have you sold through orders though? That’s what it is based off of. Not the farm level, but amount of money made through orders. It took a lot more than I thought to get the first 20. I’ve currently got two payments out of the way and I’m just starting the 6th chapter.
Hmmm I think i actually may be bugged. That’s unfortunate. But I’m on the last tier of the trade diligence records (industry leader). So even if everything I sold was at the lowest value of 2500 I am well past 20ryo. And considering I’m selling ginseng at over a ryo and most others at 4000 to 8000… uh oh.
Hell Haruka is like 25% of one bond level away from being maxed out to almost entirely from selling.
I did get a scene at some point where a letter showed up and my guy was all “I’ll put this away for now” and then nothing else happened. I checked everything inside and just figured it would come back up later.
So unless I’m missing something inside(I hope so) I am bugged. Hope nothing too cool/interesting is gonna be missed.
On the upside I have learned once you limit break the next levels seem to actually get treated like early levels again because they fly by. Swordsmen is already in the mid 30s and it’s awesome. Definitely my favorite progression system out of any of these games. Proper RPG vibes and it keeps feeling good as the game goes on.
Wait you got a letter? It's just in your menu, under "letters." Read it and he'll tell you to bring the money to the shrine in Fushimi
Omg I hope this is it. I went to key items and didn’t see anything. Is there really an entire menu section for letters? What other letters even go there?!? Hahaha.
Yeah, you actually need to read the letter for it to take affect, so to speak. I think I’ve seen one other type of letter other than the obvious side quest, but the bills for the house definitely go there. I always just automatically checked it like I did the texts in the modern games.
I finished this a few days ago. My thoughts aren't super organized but here they are
bit of a mess this one, innit? Purely mechanically I think there's a lot to fix. There aren't a lot of real substories; most of them serve only to begin a really grindy friendship with that person, and most of those don't have much of a payoff. I largely quit doing those past a certain point because I didn't really care. Y0 refines the friendships a bit but they never become a good way to spend your time.
The crafting fucking sucks, man. I hated engaging with it. I made a couple of swords but mostly just stuck with the stuff the plot gives you after some bosses. I don't think I ever found anything that served me better than not-Majima's sword. Crafting ammo? Also bad, even when the alternative is just to run my ass out to the slums and buy flame ammo from the only guy who sells it.
The leveling slowed down dramatically at a certain point, and I suppose that could be fixed by running the battle dungeons, but good lord those were not interesting or fun to me. Also, brawler is a laughably bad style, which I wish I'd known before I sunk any points into it that I could've used elsewhere.
I was sorta looking forward to the farming segment but it's fairly tedious and those menus never got particularly intuitive to navigate.
This plot is pretty hard to follow even by the standards of these games. The late-game face turn by the oppressive military police was pretty weird. The true ultimate villain is, I think, never seen or even MENTIONED before he turns up after the final boss fight, and is defeated in a cutscene? I don't feel qualified to comment on how this game intersects with history, but just from a writing standpoint I think the way those villains are handled is pretty bad.
So, all in all this is probably on the low end for me, which as others have stated is still pretty okay when you're talking about this series. I would recommend waiting for a sale for anyone who hasn't picked it up yet
DemonStaceyTTODewback's DaughterIn love with the TaySwayRegistered Userregular
Wrapped up Ishin!
First funny note during an end of game fight
When you fight the westerners some clearly just copy pasted the names from the top of an alphabetical names list hahahah
I definitely saw a few more cracks in the later sections with sub quests falling off and the seals being so… weird. Legit didn’t even get enough to fill all my slots.
Overall I put it ahead of all the other PS3 games and earlier. But behind the games after and the Judgment games.
The progression(not seals) was still better than most. I actually find it very interesting how different of an experience I had there than some of you. The stuff people were saying just never happened in my game. I limit broke sword master like halfway through the game. Got it to the end of the second go round. Got the heat upgrades from the other trees so they weren’t ignored either (56 total orbs spent on them) and then still at the end of the game had points that I didn’t really have any good use for anymore.
And that’s all while spending less time than most other games in the series. Lower 50 hours with 90% side quest completion and final big baddie from the side dungeons beaten on hard.
So yea best of its gen, right around middle of the pack overall imo!
I'd wager I and others were not putting as much time into the dungeon as you were
Yea there’s definitely a lot of XP there. That said I limit broke before doing much in there. It was somewhere around the start of the first area or so. I got a lot of levels there afterwards. But I just did each one once to get to final boss.
*Finally* finished LAD. So now I've moved on to Yakuza 0. A few hours into that, and I'm thinking, "Man...I just do NOT like the 80's, even in Tokyo." I can get over it, but considering Ishin, or maybe returning to RDR2, which LAD stole me from. Although if there's one thing I learned from LAD, it's that I'm definitely not even through the intro. Of course, then there's that RDR2 is a bit much for the Steam Deck, so maybe that's what Yakuza 0 is for. Turns out I burned myself out on Metroidvanias about 6 months into my Deck ownership.
*Finally* finished LAD. So now I've moved on to Yakuza 0. A few hours into that, and I'm thinking, "Man...I just do NOT like the 80's, even in Tokyo." I can get over it, but considering Ishin, or maybe returning to RDR2, which LAD stole me from. Although if there's one thing I learned from LAD, it's that I'm definitely not even through the intro. Of course, then there's that RDR2 is a bit much for the Steam Deck, so maybe that's what Yakuza 0 is for. Turns out I burned myself out on Metroidvanias about 6 months into my Deck ownership.
Okay, that post inspired me to play a bit more, and I finally got to end of Ch1. That fight was a *joy*...and took me four tries. I hate being old and basically bad at videogames now. I ended up using brawler to beat him? I just...couldn't quite figure out Rush with him.
To be fair rush is probably my least favorite style in the game. Sure you're fast, but not being able to use environmental items/grab people and limited heat moves feel real bad.
Between the two styles brawler feels a lot better to me.
were my favorite and most used styles for Kiryu in 0. Majima’s styles were much more fun and brutal however. I think once you reach the point where you play as him, if you haven’t already, you’ll find the combat a lot more engaging. Kiryu feels very vanilla by comparison, but his story beats are what kept me playing his side. Especially his whacked out side missions.
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It's better than Dead Souls!
It's just that everything else feels like a step down from what I expect out of the series.
Which is kinda funny seeing as the last Yakuza game I played, Lost Judgment, was the exact opposite.
Real-life historical figures impersonating other real-life historical figures feels like it simply has to have a whole slew of cultural baggage that I have precisely zero ability to navigate. Is the implication that when a beloved historical figure did some shady shit, that was just a reviled historical figure pretending to be the good guy? Is that... Cool with folks in Japan?
I cannot stress enough my ignorance on this, but (not really spoilers, I don't think, I'm talking about story mechanics and not details, but hey, why not exercise caution)
Very much that, too, yeah
Like if I had to write a book report about the game there would be a heading that said "The Politics of Like a Dragon: Ishin," and all that would be in it would be a [This space intentionally left blank] disclaimer
Absolutely fucking derailed. I can't even explain it. RDR2 is so good. Not that Like a Dragon isn't, but man. I'm like 90 hours into LAD and that is a LOT for me in a few weeks (thank you, Steam Deck)
So here's my question. When I'm done, which ONE Yakuza game do I go back and play? I'm really not concerned about being thrown into the middle of a story I don't completely understand, and not a chance in hell I will make it through two of the old games..let alone three or all of them. Should I just wait?
Y0 is likely the correct answer, but I'd also maybe toss 5 or Judgment in as dark horse options. There's a ton of variety in 5 (including a character that has rhythm-game dance battles instead of standard combat), it's probably my vote for best gameplay in the series.
Judgment has a really great story, if that's a bigger draw.
But 0 is great, this isn't a "no but" it's a "yes and"
5 doesn't give a damn about recaps, and tosses you neck deep into the swamp.
Good dub too.
At least it's better than Dead Souls
But it’s really nice just to have a set of equipment that just gets stronger with you along the journey instead of just constantly getting new things and tossing old things.
That's how I felt while playing 2.
And this is while taking detours to get both heat upgrades in wild dancer, first heat upgrade and dodge upgrade in brawler, first heat upgrade and some extra levels in gun.
Planning to get both gun and brawler to the second heat upgrades as well.
I do wish the seals weren’t so weirdly rare. It seems completely out of tune with a system that expects you to throw multiple seals at equipment and lose some along the way. Those two ideas just seem to clash.
I keep expecting the game to tell me but I’m in chapter 8 and still have no idea how. Is it actually further than this?
How much money have you actually made by fulfilling orders? I think you have to make the first 20 ryo from farm orders and then you will get a letter telling you the first payment is due. After that it seemed to trigger the other payments once I had 20 ryo from any source
I assume I have made more than that by now. I’ve had the farm fully maxed out for a few chapters. Hmm.
How much have you sold through orders though? That’s what it is based off of. Not the farm level, but amount of money made through orders. It took a lot more than I thought to get the first 20. I’ve currently got two payments out of the way and I’m just starting the 6th chapter.
Hmmm I think i actually may be bugged. That’s unfortunate. But I’m on the last tier of the trade diligence records (industry leader). So even if everything I sold was at the lowest value of 2500 I am well past 20ryo. And considering I’m selling ginseng at over a ryo and most others at 4000 to 8000… uh oh.
Hell Haruka is like 25% of one bond level away from being maxed out to almost entirely from selling.
I did get a scene at some point where a letter showed up and my guy was all “I’ll put this away for now” and then nothing else happened. I checked everything inside and just figured it would come back up later.
So unless I’m missing something inside(I hope so) I am bugged. Hope nothing too cool/interesting is gonna be missed.
On the upside I have learned once you limit break the next levels seem to actually get treated like early levels again because they fly by. Swordsmen is already in the mid 30s and it’s awesome. Definitely my favorite progression system out of any of these games. Proper RPG vibes and it keeps feeling good as the game goes on.
Omg I hope this is it. I went to key items and didn’t see anything. Is there really an entire menu section for letters? What other letters even go there?!? Hahaha.
The crafting fucking sucks, man. I hated engaging with it. I made a couple of swords but mostly just stuck with the stuff the plot gives you after some bosses. I don't think I ever found anything that served me better than not-Majima's sword. Crafting ammo? Also bad, even when the alternative is just to run my ass out to the slums and buy flame ammo from the only guy who sells it.
The leveling slowed down dramatically at a certain point, and I suppose that could be fixed by running the battle dungeons, but good lord those were not interesting or fun to me. Also, brawler is a laughably bad style, which I wish I'd known before I sunk any points into it that I could've used elsewhere.
I was sorta looking forward to the farming segment but it's fairly tedious and those menus never got particularly intuitive to navigate.
This plot is pretty hard to follow even by the standards of these games. The late-game face turn by the oppressive military police was pretty weird. The true ultimate villain is, I think, never seen or even MENTIONED before he turns up after the final boss fight, and is defeated in a cutscene? I don't feel qualified to comment on how this game intersects with history, but just from a writing standpoint I think the way those villains are handled is pretty bad.
So, all in all this is probably on the low end for me, which as others have stated is still pretty okay when you're talking about this series. I would recommend waiting for a sale for anyone who hasn't picked it up yet
First funny note during an end of game fight
I definitely saw a few more cracks in the later sections with sub quests falling off and the seals being so… weird. Legit didn’t even get enough to fill all my slots.
Overall I put it ahead of all the other PS3 games and earlier. But behind the games after and the Judgment games.
The progression(not seals) was still better than most. I actually find it very interesting how different of an experience I had there than some of you. The stuff people were saying just never happened in my game. I limit broke sword master like halfway through the game. Got it to the end of the second go round. Got the heat upgrades from the other trees so they weren’t ignored either (56 total orbs spent on them) and then still at the end of the game had points that I didn’t really have any good use for anymore.
And that’s all while spending less time than most other games in the series. Lower 50 hours with 90% side quest completion and final big baddie from the side dungeons beaten on hard.
So yea best of its gen, right around middle of the pack overall imo!
Yea there’s definitely a lot of XP there. That said I limit broke before doing much in there. It was somewhere around the start of the first area or so. I got a lot of levels there afterwards. But I just did each one once to get to final boss.
Yea I didn’t realize how bad the gun was against armor until I was goofing around in there with it for fun.
And it becomes a peashooter.
Okay, that post inspired me to play a bit more, and I finally got to end of Ch1. That fight was a *joy*...and took me four tries. I hate being old and basically bad at videogames now. I ended up using brawler to beat him? I just...couldn't quite figure out Rush with him.
Between the two styles brawler feels a lot better to me.