Support NeoGAF

[PlayofSparta]

I played Gaiden, LAD and LAD: IW. Despite hating the combat (less so in Gaiden), the point here is my perception that the main series should have ended long ago. Spoilers for 0-6:

Spoiler

In Yakuza 1, a criminal goes through hell to change his life with an adopted daughter and cut ties with the Japanese mafia.

In Yakuza 2, Kiryu kinda of goes back to this mafia temporarily but the tone always remains like in crime books (apart from the side-quests).

In Yakuza 3, Kiryu leaves the Japanese mafia for good and decides to take care of several children, like in the orphanage where he grew up. The story is very good, as is the transition to the PS3 graphics.

In Yakuza 4, three new characters are introduced, where the story focuses a little more on Majima, who now has a more serious tone. The mental growth that Kiryu's character has had so far is evident, despite him appearing little.

In Yakuza 5, the game is crazy, meaningless in many things and situations, but the finale is one of the best, if not the best, in the franchise. The same for the soundtrack.

In Yakuza 0, the franchise was revitalized for the West, which was really cool, and the game's origin story is one of the best, if not the best.

Yakuza 6... well. This was supposed to be the end of the games. And it really closes with a flourish. What's the point of making more games, with completely atypical combat, a crude protagonist (even though it's Nishiki's voice), if it was supposed to be over?

 

[Sanepar]

I love the new combat. I love it became a rpg and i love the old games and I hope we have 20 more yakuza games.

 

[Thief1987]

I agree with your perception. The new games are some unfun and sad circus.

 

[finalflame]

Man, I just could NOT get into Yakuza 0. Is there a better place to start that the series? I do want to play it but dunno, something just wasn't clicking for me.

 

[Nankatsu]

I miss the old Yakuza, specially because Judgment also went absent in the process.

We are left with Ichiban, which is an amazing protagonist, and had a kick ass story in LAD 1.

LAD 2 was pretty meh in comparison. A pretty meh story and villain. And that is obvious because they had to bring Kiryu back.

And despite the amazing goofy side content the series is known for, I play Yakuza for the main narrative.

TLDR: Nagoshi left, the series kind of lost his soul.

 

[poodaddy]

Man, I just could NOT get into Yakuza 0. Is there a better place to start that the series? I do want to play it but dunno, something just wasn't clicking for me.

It's the best in the whole series. Not everything can be enjoyed universally, and I think Yakuza might just, unfortunately, not be for you.

 

[El Muerto]

Yep, i agree too. Loved 0-6 and replayed the series 3 times. Like a Dragon was pretty great for what it was, didnt mind the turn based combat since we have Judgment which is also phenomenal. But could not get into Gaiden, the whole spy agent schtick is just really lame along with using the dumb gadgets. I want to jump into Infinite Wealth but it looks like a completely different game than previous entries in terms of tone. Also I really like the dub for LAD, and with Sega using a damn youtuber for the voice of Kiryu instead of Darryl Kurylo i have zero interest in playing IW now. There is a mod where someone used an AI to replace Yong Yea's voice with Kurylo's so may check it out later. Yakuza 0-6 will forever hold a place in my heart. These new ones wont. And dont even get me started on the Pirate Majima game....

 

[poodaddy]

I miss the old Yakuza, specially because Judgment also went absent in the process.

We are left with Ichiban, which is an amazing protagonist, and had a kick ass story in LAD 1.

LAD 2 was pretty meh in comparison. A pretty meh story and villain. And that is obvious because they had to bring Kiryu back.

And despite the amazing goofy side content the series is known for, I play Yakuza for the main narrative.

TLDR: Nagoshi left, the series kind of lost his soul.

Why the hell did you spoiler Kiryu when he's literally in the trailer, on the cover, on the store page, and in pretty much every shred of promotional art for the game? Lol

 

[blackjon24]

i am a casual yakuza fan. I played and beat 0, Kiwami, kiwami 2 and like a dragon. I played gaiden for a few hours. Next on my list is playing 3-6 but probably won't get to them for a few years.

Do you guys not get burned out by how often these games release? Maybe it is because I am still playing catch up but I really don't see a need for this series to release almost yearly, I haven't played nearly as many as some of you guys and I feel burned out by the series a bit

 

[FingerBang]

Hard disagree OP. First of all, 3 was by far the worst for me, but 5 and 6 were the signs the series needed a shake of sort. I'm happy they went with the LAD series, being wacky and with a much less serious tone. For everything else, you have the Judgment games, which are both great.

Man, I just could NOT get into Yakuza 0. Is there a better place to start that the series? I do want to play it but dunno, something just wasn't clicking for me.

1 and 2 for me will always be the pinnacle of the series. I played all the other titles, and although I liked more or less all of them, the story got crazier and crazier and the tone a bit less serious.

But the gameplay is more or less the same (I did not play the Kiwami remakes). I'm not sure you'd like them if you didn't like zero. (Which I think is great, but inferior to the first two)

If you like RPG, Like a Dragon is absolutely worth it.

 

[Geometric-Crusher]

Like a Dragon is the goose that lays the golden eggs but the series will actually face decline, yakuza zero was the best selling and other games sold close. I think Sega should start a new phase of the franchise, something new, next gen before the decline arrives. In any case, this is Sega's problem and it's not my responsibility. I don't particularly like this franchise.

 

[Chukhopops]

I think they really need to finish the Kiryu story and I don’t understand why they didn’t do it at the end of Infinite Wealth when they spent half of the game giving him such a beautiful send-off. Missed opportunity.

IMO the series’ lowest point was 4-5 when they were really starting to run out of ideas to keep reviving the old clans. Moving to more modern storylines really revived it.

 

[Aion002]

For me Yakuza ended on 4 and the last Yakuza game that I bought and finished was Dead Souls. I tried 0, 6 and Like a Dragon on gamepass, but I didn't enjoy them much, I really cared about the story and characters up to 4... But enough is enough I guess.

However, I am quite interested on the new one, it seems fun gameplay wise. I hope it ends up being released on gamepass or ps plus.

 

[Punished Miku]

It's just way too many games for me to ever play it seriously or even consider getting them at full price. $15 max, like Ubisoft games. Just not enough time to play the 7 entries I do own, let alone buy more of them. Would be fantastic if Sega did something different. To this day my favorite "Yakuza" game is the Fist of the Northstar game. At least that was something different.

 

[Hrk69]

Ah, the classic

i am a casual yakuza fan. I played and beat 0, Kiwami 2 and like a dragon. I played gaiden for a few hours. Next on my list is playing 3-6 but probably won't get to them for a few years.

Do you guys not get burned out by how often these games release? Maybe it is because I am still playing catch up but I really don't see a need for this series to release almost yearly, I haven't played nearly as many as some of you guys and I feel burned out by the series a bit

Imagine having all these awesome games and say "I really don't see a need for this series to release almost yearly".

Then don't play them. Nobody is forcing you

 

[Chuck Berry]

To this day my favorite "Yakuza" game is the Fist of the Northstar game. At least that was something different.

Hell yeah completely forgot this existed! What an awesome fucking game that was!

 

[ns6]

If you generally like the games, I think it's one of if not the best current series in gaming. The combination of volume and quality of the releases is unmatched by any other publisher. Will happily take a steady stream of 7.5-8.5 games from RGG

 

[nnytk]

I've only finished LAD and I loved it, but damn do Yakuza games SUCK at pacing. I dropped all their other titles I tried. I even dropped LAD:IW and I really laughed my ass off with that Sujimon stuff. But after 20+ hrs I got burnt out by the slow as fuck pacing/story stuff.

I'd love it if the studio did more weird projects, smaller scope games and collaboration projects like the Fist of the North Star game.

Some of the Yakuza minigames could be their own expansive spin-off. Imagine a 20hr game focusing on dating? Racing? Business management? Gang recruitment and fighting? Sujimon?

 

[DeVeAn]

I remember blogging too in 2006.

 

[deriks]

Yakuza 0 is the best. That's for sure

...maybe too easy, but holy shit is so smooth

 

[acidagfc]

Gaiden was a perfect send off to Kiryu in my opinion. It was not really necessary, but it wrapped up his story nicely.
Plus the quad shirt pull scene was fucking amazing.

Then having everything retold once again in IW was a bit tiring.

I certainly think they must let Kiryu go. Ichiban can not grow into as great of a character if there is always Kiryu, who is better at everything. Let the old man rest already.

 

[TintoConCasera]

I liked 0 a lot but I think 5 was more memorable for me.

In any case I think I agree with the OP, IW is the only one I dropped, it was boring and poorly paced.

 

[kunonabi]

I lost interest when they started censoring stuff and removing content in the remasters. Still haven't played Y3 since all the English releases are gutted and haven't played the non-Kiryu ones either. I like the Judgment games but I don't love them. The second game in particular had a terrible ending that soured me on the whole thing. Thank God the Kaito files actually nailed its ending.

 

[RavageX]

Ah, the classic

Imagine having all these awesome games and say "I really don't see a need for this series to release almost yearly".

Then don't play them. Nobody is forcing you

I love (most of) the games, but I don't want to see them run the series into the ground.

Id rather not see this every year, and instead have a well detailed game with a quality story every couple of years or so. Too much of a mostly good thing can be bad.

 

[Hrk69]

I love (most of) the games, but I don't want to see them run the series into the ground.

Id rather not see this every year, and instead have a well detailed game with a quality story every couple of years or so. Too much of a mostly good thing can be bad.

Fair enough. Makes sense actually!

 

[Nankatsu]

Why the hell did you spoiler Kiryu when he's literally in the trailer, on the cover, on the store page, and in pretty much every shred of promotional art for the game? Lol

It's unlikely, specially considering how long the series has been around, but there might be someone who plays the games without looking at a bunch of promotional materials.

As a matter of fact, I do think that spoils how impactful Y6 ending is.

Sorry if I don't assume that everyone has already played the whole series, lol.

 

[mayham2199]

I was late to the series but caught up last year. Except for IW and The man with no name. I wasn't sure if I could stay onboard with series after 6 but I realized after that, that I can. I thought the two judgement games were great. I thought LAD was great. I just think the games are so different from anything else out there that I don't want them to go away. They make great palate cleansers after a long game for me. So many times when I have no idea what to play and don't really feel like playing anything I just start one of them and slowly make my way through it until it fully sucks me in.

 

[Project EVE]

That's what the Judgement games are for. If you want a totally new story.

Like a Dragon series and Kiryu will never end, and that's a good thing.

 

[FF:Enhanced_Reality]

Honestly, I was one of the first people to buy and love the Yakuza games that I know, period. I had it on PS2, both the first and second titles. Then PS3, I got every single one and if it wasn't for a good push from Sony, a lot more wouldn't have come over. The Wii-U port horrendously failed and probably lost a good few quid.

I was out with 7. I really liked Judgement/Lost Judgement but 7 just looked awful. I'm not into where they're going and what they're doing, so I've lost all interest now. I bought the PS5 version of Yakuza: Isshin but I'm generally done with this franchise. It's run its course. Like Tekken and so many other long running franchises, they'd just killed themselves for me.

 

[Fbh]

I still greatly enjoy the series.
I think 7 (Like a Dragon) mixed things up enough for it to feel fresh again. I know some people don't like the turn based combat or think the tone has gotten too silly, but personally I don't mind the franchise going in this different direction as I think the old style was really growing stale. For example I wasn't that much into Judgement either because despite the great story everything else about it felt too samey.

My only disappointment is that they didn't have the balls to let Kiryu really go away. They made this big deal about six being "the final entry in his story" and how 7 would be a new beginning and yet here we are with the 2 latest games being a Kiryu spinoff and a new main entry with Kiryu as a co-protagonist. I never expected him to truly go away but I thought we'd at least go several games without him and then he'd get a surprise return in like Yakuza 10 or something.

I'm playing IW right now and honestly this entire middle section where Kiryu goes back to Japan and you spend a bunch of time reminiscing about the older games has been a slog and feels out of place IMO.

 

[YCoCg]

It's clear that the series should've split into three ways, the Ichiban games with RPG style and them being more silly in tone due to Ichiban being generally more goofy, a serious set of games which the side games were supposed to be but what the hell happened with that as each game seems to have some "wacky" gimmick instead (Agent Kiryu and now Pirate Majima) and then the Judgment series with its mix of old style fighting and detective stuff but what's happening there due to the actors stuff surrounding it?

Personally I'd love to see a series of games taking place over the 70s and early 80s in the same vein of Yakuza 0 since the big time gap allowed them to really revamp the style of some cities in a completely different vibe due to the era and allowed the story to be a bit more gritty whilst keeping the silly tone for side stuff.

 

[blackjon24]

Ah, the classic

Imagine having all these awesome games and say "I really don't see a need for this series to release almost yearly".

Then don't play them. Nobody is forcing you

Weird comment since that's exactly what I said I am doing now. I like these games but just not as much as the rest of the fanbase who need an entry every year

 

[Nankatsu]

Weird comment since that's exactly what I said I am doing now. I like these games but just not as much as the rest of the fanbase who need an entry every year

You're not wrong. The series doesnt need a yearly output. That's actually damaging the series if you ask me. You can clearly see it by the narratives they've been putting out.

The latest game announced is just...so out of place.

Plus yearly output by not touching Judgment? Yeah, I don't like it.

 

[Labadal]

To me there are two story arches. Kiryu's arch that, imo ends in Yakuza 6. Then we have ichiban, whose story begins with Like A Dragon. (The Man Who Erased His Name was a Gaiden game, and a cash grab, and I still liked it a lot).