Yakuza 0

Zero-Cool

Apparently gonna get info on a new Yakuza in 2 months

http://www.siliconera.com/2017/06/27/yakuza-series-director-says-wait-two-months-something-new-yakuza-game/

Kiwami 1 in August, 6 next year and now either 7 or maybe Kiwami 2?? Just take it all Sega.

heebusjeebus

Where is the cheapest place to get this?
Playing Horizon at the moment and I'm not enjoying it. Need something different.

SeantheMan

heebusjeebus wrote: »

Where is the cheapest place to get this?
Playing Horizon at the moment and I'm not enjoying it. Need something different.

Not sure, but....I can tell you this. .....it is worth FULL PRICE without a shadow of a doubt.
My favourite game this year by a stretch. I also couldn't get into Horizon. I'll try it again soon though


But...if you're in Dublin

Doctor Nick wrote: »

For anyone interested this is €35 in Gamestop. After picking up a copy in Henry Street.

Doctor Nick

Lads what's the story with this game? It's on approx 40 minutes and so far gameplay has been about 4-5 minutes tops and rest is cut scenes and some weird dialogue. Does it continue like this throughout?

Zero-Cool

Doctor Nick wrote: »

Lads what's the story with this game? It's on approx 40 minutes and so far gameplay has been about 4-5 minutes tops and rest is cut scenes and some weird dialogue. Does it continue like this throughout?

The cutscenes are a bit long in the first few chapters but it's worth to invest yourself and get through it. Once the gameplay opens up, you'll be playing a lot more than watching.

SeantheMan

Doctor Nick wrote: »

Lads what's the story with this game? It's on approx 40 minutes and so far gameplay has been about 4-5 minutes tops and rest is cut scenes and some weird dialogue. Does it continue like this throughout?

Trying to set the tone and story.
You have to realise that there were 5 games or so before this, and this is the prequel.....so it's not just introducing a new character and away you go.

I guess for fan service these characters are much loved, so they have to do their story justice...and as it's a prequel they have to craft a decent story and plot so as to how the characters became the characters people knew.

But at the same time using it as an entry point for us newbies to the series.

As before, there'll be a lot less cutscenes later, you'll have so many side activities.
In saying that, I never got bored with any of the cutscenes as I was completely engrossed in the story and liked all the characters.
(Compared to say ...Metal Gear 2 or 4 where it was just all pretentious sh1t half the time)

Doctor Nick

Really started enjoying this earlier. I'm playing on hard and had been finding it very easy. Didn't die once until I had to fight Kuze or whatever his name is. But the big fight just before and this has made up for the (IMO) very slow start. Hope it continues like this.

Some of the dialogue is very funny, I'm undecided if it's intentional or not.

SeantheMan

Doctor Nick wrote: »

Really started enjoying this earlier. I'm playing on hard and had been finding it very easy. Didn't die once until I had to fight Kuze or whatever his name is. But the big fight just before and this has made up for the (IMO) very slow start. Hope it continues like this.

Some of the dialogue is very funny, I'm undecided if it's intentional or not.

Did you meet your mate in the bar yet ?

Mr.Shakedown will give you a hard time...trust me :P

The thing I found to this game though is....just have your WHOLE inventory basically stocked with Stamina Royales, there is no reason to have anything else in there at all. Just that 1 item, all the time, every slot.

Doctor Nick

SeantheMan wrote: »

Did you meet your mate in the bar yet ?

Mr.Shakedown will give you a hard time...trust me :P

The thing I found to this game though is....just have your WHOLE inventory basically stocked with Stamina Royales, there is no reason to have anything else in there at all. Just that 1 item, all the time, every slot.

Where you do karaoke? I met me mate and was heading to a bar. On the way had to "sober up trendy youth and middle aged old man" first. Had to laugh at that. I was Crap at the karaoke tho. Got a tone deaf rating or something.

SeantheMan

Doctor Nick wrote: »

Where you do karaoke? I met me mate and was heading to a bar. On the way had to "sober up trendy youth and middle aged old man" first. Had to laugh at that. I was Crap at the karaoke tho. Got a tone deaf rating or something.

Yeah, the Karaoke.

I absolutely love how halfway through it turns into an actual kind of music video !
Try some other songs...the videos are great
One of the 'dance' songs is extremely catchy too !

Keep us posted on your adventures and discoveries !

More people need to play this game

nix

I'm highly intrigued, does this game go on forever?

I'm still trying to muster up the effort to finish Persona 5, i donated over 90 hours to that so far and im half way through the Casino. Goes on forever, feeling a bit too long (i never thought id say that about a game) ha

Cina

nix wrote: »

I'm highly intrigued, does this game go on forever?

I'm still trying to muster up the effort to finish Persona 5, i donated over 90 hours to that so far and im half way through the Casino. Goes on forever, feeling a bit too long (i never thought id say that about a game) ha

You can probably do it in 25 hours if you stick to the main missions, and about 50-55 if you do most the side missions, the real estate, and the cabaret (which is what I did).

SeantheMan

No, the game doesn't go on forever at all....and it's not too repetitive, my only gripe would be the annoying street fights..but they introduce a mechanic to get rid of those later on.

Zero-Cool

Took me 44 hours but did a ton of side quests and business jobs, also a lot of just wandering around.

Yeah, you learn a technique to avoid fights when you want and you can also find an item to reduce the fights. You can also get an item to increase the fights and a sneaky item actually increases the difficulty level so careful about the items you equip.

Doctor Nick

SeantheMan wrote: »

No, the game doesn't go on forever at all....and it's not too repetitive, my only gripe would be the annoying street fights..but they introduce a mechanic to get rid of those later on.

Agree with the street fights, they're starting to piss me off a lot. Every 2/3 mins they seem to be happening. How long before you get the yoke to avoid them? Just on chapter 2 here.

SeantheMan

Doctor Nick wrote: »

Agree with the street fights, they're starting to piss me off a lot. Every 2/3 mins they seem to be happening. How long before you get the yoke to avoid them? Just on chapter 2 here.

You can run away and they'll stop chasing. I think you have to meet Mr.Moneybags or whatever his weird name is first. Can't remember how far in it is.

Zero-Cool

Yakuza 0 is on sale on psn atm for 26 euro!

heebusjeebus

Played till the first boss last night. Couldn't beat his second phase so said I'd give it another rattle today.
Tried to continue with my game just now only to realize there is no autosave and I need to start from scratch.
Enjoyed it but I need to get better at the combat.

Zero-Cool

heebusjeebus wrote: »

Played till the first boss last night. Couldn't beat his second phase so said I'd give it another rattle today.
Tried to continue with my game just now only to realize there is no autosave and I need to start from scratch.
Enjoyed it but I need to get better at the combat.

Kuze is a tough SOB, that was the toughest fight for me up until the end boss. Go into your upgrades and spend some cash on health upgrades (that covers all fight styles). Use Rush style to quickly evade attacks and counter him. Will take a while but that's how I eventually beat him.

Yupp, save save save

CrazyFish

Got it on the sale. Loving it. Something a bit different so I am enjoying the change of pace. Story ain't bad and fighting is quite fun.

SeantheMan

26 euro on PSN store atm ...everyone should get this !!

rafi bomb

Its very repetitive isn't it?

The length of the cuts scenes too :eek:

SeantheMan

Zero-Cool

Didn't find it repetitive at all. That's the main reason I don't finish a lot of new games and Yakuza definitely didn't have that issue for me.

Zero-Cool

Yakuza Kiwami (Yakuza 1 remake) is on the psn store for preorder now at 35 quid. Might get the physical copy as it's supposed to be a nice steelbook edition. Will see how much the physical is first though closer to end of august release date.

johnny_ultimate

I haven't played 0 yet, but the problem I've found with Yakuza games (which I generally like) is not necessarily repetition, but pacing. The cutscenes are often farcically long, and the plot ludicrously complicated, to the point when there's no flow to it at all. Add that to the core gameplay loop where just farting around is the main appeal - meaning there's long stretches without any forward momentum at all - and you're left with an experience that can IMO feel loose and unfocused in both a good and bad way.

Zero-Cool

Now I did hit a slump around chapter 7 but it was because I was arsing around with mini games and side quests. I decided to plow on with the story and it hooked me til the end. The voice actors were absolutely brilliant. In not sure if the game has a dubbing option but if it does, I'd hope people don't use it. I got more invested in this than most films, even the way they'd shout his name KIRYUUUUUUUUUU was epic.

Has anyone played Yakuza 1? I hear it's not as good as Zero but will still be getting it day one. Series has it's hooks in me now.

Zero-Cool

Zero-Cool wrote: »

Yakuza Kiwami (Yakuza 1 remake) is on the psn store for preorder now at 35 quid. Might get the physical copy as it's supposed to be a nice steelbook edition. Will see how much the physical is first though closer to end of august release date.

To the best of my knowledge the steelbook has a rrp of 30 euro

SeantheMan

johnny_ultimate wrote: »

I haven't played 0 yet, but the problem I've found with Yakuza games (which I generally like) is not necessarily repetition, but pacing. The cutscenes are often farcically long, and the plot ludicrously complicated, to the point when there's no flow to it at all. .

Yakuza 0 was my first game, maybe they've tightened the screws and have better pacing now...I can't compare.

I can only go from experience in that Yakuza 0's story wasn't complicated at all.
It was basically an origins story for both characters. At most there are about 7 or 8 co-stars who are essential to the plot....so you never lose track or what's going on....and the actual plot device and motive makes sense.

Personally I can't remember any cutscene being too long, as I enjoyed them and they were always acted out very well.

The one little niggle I had with regards to the story though was

Majima's relationship with his boss......why was he so loyal ALL the time.....I was waiting on the payoff to kill that f*cker!!

kevin6877

Zero-Cool wrote: »

Now I did hit a slump around chapter 7 but it was because I was arsing around with mini games and side quests. I decided to plow on with the story and it hooked me til the end. The voice actors were absolutely brilliant. In not sure if the game has a dubbing option but if it does, I'd hope people don't use it. I got more invested in this than most films, even the way they'd shout his name KIRYUUUUUUUUUU was epic.

Has anyone played Yakuza 1? I hear it's not as good as Zero but will still be getting it day one. Series has it's hooks in me now.

I've played the entire series up to this point, including the Japanese only ones. I'm actually a really big fan of 1 and especially 2. The story in both of them is very well written. Only other games that have gotten close to capturing that same feel are 5 and 0.

Regarding Yakuza 1 One thing you'll notice should you decide to go back to 1, 2 etc. is that the combat is less deep. Ishin introduced the style switching you'll see in 0 and Kiwami, but before then, Kiryu only had the one style of combat. That, and there's no karaoke, but there's still mahjong and stuff. Karaoke was introduced from 3 onwards.

Kiwami is a remake in every sense of the word. I've some reservations about it compared to the original, but one of the big things for me was that it was a full price game when it released in Japan back at the start of 2016. It definitely had a lot of attention put into it, but it just didn't feel worth the ¥70,000. Sega seem to have realised this and made it much cheaper for the English release, so I'm a lot happier to recommend it to people now.

For the completely uninitiated, I'd recommend playing the series in order of release, as this is the kind of series that makes you feel rewarded for having stuck with it. 1 and 2 can be kind of hard to come by, but otherwise, there is a PS3 HD collection that was released in Japan if you don't mind playing with a guide. PS3s are region free, so you just need to import a copy either physically or get it off Japanese PSN and you're set.

If you've already played 0 and can't stand the thought of going back to the much shallower combat of the originals, then yeah, definitely get Kiwami and play the first game that way. It's definitely a lot more worth €30/35 than ¥70,000.

On that subject, though, the RRP or whatever for Kiwami in English was announced by Sega to be €35, but I checked in Gamestop and they're charging €70 for it. What's the story there?