Yakuza / Like A Dragon Megathread

Thecageyone wrote: »

How do people rate YK 2? I have it on Game Pass but not really given it a chance yet, is it worth the bother?

I thought it was very good. Finished it last month. Uses the new engine too so looks a lot better than Kiwami and Zero.

skerry wrote: »

I thought it was very good. Finished it last month. Uses the new engine too so looks a lot better than Kiwami and Zero.

Cheers, I'll give it a go, I put off most other games while finishing the Witcher 3, onto the DLC on that now and taking a bit of a break so something different for a change will be nice

skerry wrote: »

Anyone on here pick up Like a Dragon Yet? I'm tempted myself, looks good

Maybe a bit of a sour taste left by the fact the xbox series x keeps having issues and losing progress, but from what I have been able to play so far I'm a little iffy on it.

I liked the idea of turn based battles, and some of the takes on JRPG tropes to fit into a modern world are hilarious, with random battles against such enemies as the drunken "Beerserkers" or the "Hungry Hungry Homeless", who have poisonous hobo breath. However, several hours in, and there's still not enough abilities for there to be any real strategy, and some of it feels very imprecise, like certain abilities have AOE but there's no way of telling how big the area is or who is within it when choosing, compounded by characters randomly moving around constantly so they may be in the zone when selecting an attack but move out of it as you trigger it.

Outside the combat system, there's lots of trademark Yakuza humour and craziness, and it's still very enjoyable, but I'm not yet warming to Ichiban as much as Kiryu, or Yokohama as much as Kamurocho. Still time for them to grow on me as I get further in though as it's still early days. It's by no means a poor game, just not quite at the standard of previous titles in the series as yet for me.

skerry wrote: »

Sound for the detailed reply. Are you generally a fan of turn based combat? Its the thought of how they implement what is typically done in a fantasy type setting into busting heads on the city streets is kind of whats appealing to me and from the what you've said it seems they've implemented that quite well.

Are the save issues your having with the game itself or a result of quick resume not doing what it should? Haven't tried that feature myself yet but I've heard it has a couple of kinks to be sorted.

Might pick up the game during the week. I'm playing a lot of shooter type stuff since I got new console which I normally don't play but enjoying them at the moment. Think some turn based madness might mix things up well

Yeah my issues are with quick resume. You could be in the middle of a typical Yakuza 15 minute long story dialog, have to pause and pop out for some reason, come back only to find quick resume has kicked you out and you have to redo a bunch of stuff you already did because you hadn't manually saved in a while.

Regarding the turn based strategy, I love turn based stuff so I was looking forward to this. I'm about 5 or 6 hours into the game, for a long time I only had one character, now I have 3, but they still only have a couple of abilities each, and they're pretty much all just physical attacks, with a choice of high MP / high power, or low MP / low power and that's about it. There are elements and status effects and stuff, I think I just need to get further into the game for that to all unfold.

The other issue I have is the AOE stuff. For example all of my characters have a variation of an attack where you pick one enemy, and it hits all enemies "near" them. But there is no definition of what counts as near (some attacks seem to have a wider radius than others, but I can't see this information surfaced anywhere) and there's no indication whatsoever as to who is in or out of that range. Even if you get a feel for each move's radius through trial and error, it's still a bit hit and miss because people walk around randomly during the fight and they might move out of range while the animation plays.

This is nitpicky though, I am still enjoying the game overall and as the move sets and character sets expand it might come into its own. And if you're just playing casually and don't care much for strategy, you can definitely just enjoy laughing at the imaginative enemies and moves that they've come up with. Summons are absolutely hilarious, I don't want to begin to describe how they work as it would be a spoiler.

quokula wrote: »

I have now played the mission with the minigame where you have to not fall asleep during a bad movie and I take back anything negative I said.

GOTY

Seen that in a review, Looks nuts Bought the game there so hopefully be downloaded for tonight

I'm on to Chapter 4 in Like a Dragon and I don't think I've laughed this much playing a game before. Its got all the JRPG elements but their all pulled off in the most over the top Yakuza way possible. Have 3 members in my party now and some extra moves unlocked so combat is getting a bit more diverse. Have 2 summons unlocked and their awesomely done.

Really liking Ichiban as the protagonist. Started it in Japanese with subs but after Chapter 2 I switched to English dub out of curiously and I've left it there since. Thought it would be weird but the voice acting is pretty well done for the most part and the actor for Ichiban suits him well. Great game so far. Slow to start and a lot of cutscenea but that's par for the course with Yakuza games in my experience

I've finished Yakuza Like a Dragon now.

Overall I'd say it's a great game, but not quite up there with some of the previous games. I enjoy turn based JRPGs so I'm totally on board with that shift, but the combat system just wasn't a great one for a JRPG. While the various jobs were very creative and amusing, nearly every character was better off staying in their default job and the system pretty much punished you for changing between them and experimenting as you carry so little from one job to the next, but your stats suffer so much by going back down to rank 1, and the XP curve is such that you never ever fully catch up on ranks you missed while experimenting with other jobs.

There's also the way characters randomly walk around in battle, which makes the battles look good and not look like a static JRPG fight, but it turns most AOE abilities into a completely random crapshoot. Add to that the unnecessary QTEs accompanying nearly every ability, the block timing, and the rush to try and hit people who are knocked down for bonus damage before they stand back up, and it makes for a weird uncomfortable merge of realtime elements into a turn based system that doesn't quite gel.

The worst thing about it though was the final third of the game where some enemies become massive damage sponges. You're never under threat or having to think tactically, but it can just take forever to whittle down some healthbars. There are some bosses that are really bad for this, but even some random encounter enemies have this problem which can get annoying when just trying to run across town to your next objective. My final playtime was probably several hours longer than it needed to be because of this.

With all that said, the new combat system did give them the opportunity to have some really creative and hilarious enemy types and special moves, applying RPG tropes to a modern setting brilliantly. I loved some of the creative moves like hobos with poison breath, chefs who can burn you with cooking equipment, or rappers who can stun you by throwing down controversial lyrics. I also love the little touches like the way your team members stay in character and start shouting how pissed off they are at an enemy when they've been infected with the rage status effect for example.

The combat system also allowed the story to be enriched by virtue of having a party rather than one character. I enjoyed the story, it was everything you'd expect from a Yakuza game and while Kasuga took a little time to grow on me he turned out to be a great main character, and a lot more nuanced than Kiryu was. The supporting cast was also excellent, and I thought it was extremely well voiced in English having been unsure about whether to go for that or subtitles at the beginning.

And then there's the sidequests, which are as good as any Yakuza game. The business management is really compelling, and the cinema minigame is just hilarious. I thought the kart racing suffered a little from poor handling, but it was still a fun ride. Then there were so many fun sidequests and things to do on top of that to make for a game that's just so densely packed with fun things to do.

It will be interesting to see where they go next. I think they can definitely iterate and improve on the new combat style to get it to a good place, but I would still like to see a traditional Yakuza again in future too though, just so I can get some good classic fun hitting people over the head with bicycles.

Remastered Collection (3,4 & 5) coming to Game Pass on the 28th of January.

Gyan84 wrote: »

Only thing I really didn't like was this version of the hostess club mini game. I liked it in the others but here it was just a menu selection followed by walking a lap around the club and repeat.

Probably one of the reasons it was removed from the original western release on PS3.

quokula wrote: »

So since first discovering the series with Yakuza 6 a few years ago, I’ve played 0, Kiwami, Kiwami 2, 6, 7 and Judgment and thoroughly enjoyed them all.

With it being a while now since finishing 7 before Christmas I thought I’d head back to Kamurocho and fired up Yakuza 3 remastered. But.. Those animations. Those graphics. That UI. Old fashioned UX things like looking for save points.

I’m not sure I can go back to PS3 era gaming. I’ve only played an hour or so but really not feeling it. Does it get better? Did anyone else have this initial reaction and get over it? Is it worth persevering?

I finished it recently and enjoyed it although it is very outdated compared to the newer ones.

If you're interested in the story and the change of setting to Okinawa/the orphanage I'd stick with it but if it's just gameplay you want I'd skip it.

I usually play one Yakuza game a year, and seeing 6 is on Game Pass I will play that.

Zero-Cool wrote: »

Ooohh business management mini game, my favourite part of the Yakuza games. Does it compare to any of the earlier ones like cabaret, clan creator?

Edit: Looks like they have Cabaret, business management and tons more. Damn ye, I was happily ignoring this and I want it now!

Its kind of like a mix of the cabaret and the property one, has elements of both. Its well done though. I'm about 30 hours in to the game, picked it up again now after a bit of a break and really enjoying it again. I tend to not pay huge attention to side quests in games but love picking them up in this, and most Yakuza games in fairness.

The summons are nuts also, always make me laugh

skerry wrote: »

I always enjoyed the humour in Yakuza games but Like a Dragon takes it to the next level. There's a certain satisfaction in taking out your mobile phone mid battle and summoning a giant man baby to pummel your enemies

I like how they retranslated the misc. command to etc. when it was pointed out to them on twitter that the command list would then spell out Sega.

Zero-Cool wrote: »

I couldn't get into this. Never warmed to the main character and rage quit after failing a boring tail mission too many times. Seriously, tail missions are never fun and should always be replaced by a cutscene.

https://twitter.com/PlayStationEU/status/1384902275597053955?s=19

I enjoyed it but the number of repetitive trailing missions was insane. There's a long trailing mission towards the very end that nearly made me drop it.

Always thought it was a bit weird that they decided to give Yakuza completely new JRPG combat but give their new IP the old Yakuza combat.

Also finished Yakuza 4 recently. Enjoyed the gameplay but the story was dreadful. So many double crosses they became meaningless and

In the first few hours of 6 and I'm mad that "Legend" mode isn't available from the start. Game's easy even on "hard". DMC has this same problem (although even worse). Just throw me into the hardest mode I ain't playing this twice. :mad: