Yakuza - Where to start?

Penn

After watching Jim Sterling's Jimquisition today about the Yakuza series, I have to admit it's piqued my interest in the series. It looks like a lot of fun.

Question is, where do I begin? I saw Yakuza 6 is out next month, and there's also Yakuza 0 and Yakuza Kiwami (I think) on the PS Store. Should I go for the cheaper Kiwami (€15 until Wednesday) or is it just a smaller DLC-type game, or is Yakuza 0 worth a punt?

Jimquisition for anyone who might also be interested:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DsEDhuDssZw

Sephiroth_dude

Penn wrote: »

After watching Jim Sterling's Jimquisition today about the Yakuza series, I have to admit it's piqued my interest in the series. It looks like a lot of fun.

Question is, where do I begin? I saw Yakuza 6 is out next month, and there's also Yakuza 0 and Yakuza Kiwami (I think) on the PS Store. Should I go for the cheaper Kiwami (€15 until Wednesday) or is it just a smaller DLC-type game, or is Yakuza 0 worth a punt?

Jimquisition for anyone who might also be interested:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DsEDhuDssZw

Both worth it,Zero then Kiwami I would think.

ERG89

Kiwami is a remake of Yakuza 1 & Yakuza 0 is a prequel.
I have only played 0 but the general consensus is that it's a good place to start.

ERG89

This gives a basic overview of the series. Kiwami 2 was released last Christmas in Japan but has no release date in the west yet.

Penn

See then if I'm going to get Yakuza 0 for €60, I may as well get the Yakuka 6 & 0 bundle for €68. If I don't like Yakuza 0, I'll have wasted 8 quid on Yakuza 6. But if I do like it I'll have saved about 50 quid on Yakuza 6.

I might just check out a few gameplay videos and see what it's like. I think I did before but the video I was skipping through seemed to be 80% cutscenes.

Sephiroth_dude

Penn wrote: »

See then if I'm going to get Yakuza 0 for €60, I may as well get the Yakuka 6 & 0 bundle for €68. If I don't like Yakuza 0, I'll have wasted 8 quid on Yakuza 6. But if I do like it I'll have saved about 50 quid on Yakuza 6.

I might just check out a few gameplay videos and see what it's like. I think I did before but the video I was skipping through seemed to be 80% cutscenes.

That is an excellent deal.

Penn

Sephiroth_dude wrote: »

That is an excellent deal.

Yeah I was kinda confused by it at first. 68euro for Yakuza 6 & 0 with PS+.

Zero-Cool

Yakuza 0 was my GOTY, absolutely brilliant. Cutscene heavy for the first few chapters but once it opens up, it's just brilliant. Kiwami is good but a bit of a let down at coming straight from zero. Haven't played any other ones but really looking forward to 6.

Definitely recommend starting with Zero.

Also the Yakuza website has a free digital comic covering each game to bring you up to speed for 6.

Penn

Yeah I started 0 last night. I think I had about two fights and a karaoke after about 40mins of playing. Enjoyed it enough to keep going anyway. Think I've already figured out one big plot point in the story though, but it's still interesting enough to keep me going.

Zero-Cool

For 0, I got to a point where the story started making sense and I was gripped but it was a case of throwing on the game when I knew I had a chunk of time for the cutscenes. After about chapter 4, it really lets you off the leash. One tip I would have is don't let the side quests and mini games bog you down. I got a bit burnt out by chapter 8. Said I'd just concentrate on story missions for a while and was so hooked didn't go back to anything else til I cleared the game.

Also the cabaret club mini game that opens up in chapter 7 is better than done actual games that get released.

hellsing101

Zero-Cool wrote: »

For 0, I got to a point where the story started making sense and I was gripped but it was a case of throwing on the game when I knew I had a chunk of time for the cutscenes. After about chapter 4, it really lets you off the leash. One tip I would have is don't let the side quests and mini games bog you down. I got a bit burnt out by chapter 8. Said I'd just concentrate on story missions for a while and was so hooked didn't go back to anything else til I cleared the game.

Also the cabaret club mini game that opens up in chapter 7 is better than done actual games that get released.

That cabaret mini game is so fun, something about it just makes it really addictive. As pointed out in the Jim Sterling video most of the side quests have well written story elements that push you to complete them.

Yakuza 0 is definitely the better game to start with as it has some story elements that will let you know more about some of the major characters in Yakuza Kiwami.

Generic Dreadhead

Zero-Cool wrote: »

Yakuza 0 was my GOTY

NO!

You have reached your allowance of 6x Games of the Year now, stop this madness! :pac:

I loved Yakuza 3 & 4

Haven't played any of the new ones yet but will get around to it at some stage.

Be prepared for long cut scenes though!

Zero-Cool

Generic Dreadhead wrote: »

NO!

You have reached your allowance of 6x Games of the Year now, stop this madness! :pac:

Ah Jaysus I get the same at home as apparently I have about 20 films in my top 5 of all time.

Generic Dreadhead

I stopped saying "one of the best games I've ever played" cause I kept getting called out. Now I have a top 25, It was initially a top 20. But the key is I don't order them 1 -> 25. They just all end up bucketed in there to save me arguing with myself.

Penn

Okay, so I went back to playing Yakuza 0. Unfortunately, since I couldn't see any Save options in the menu the first time I played, I presumed it autosaved, so I had to start over again. The 90 minutes it originally took me only took about 15 since I could skip the cutscenes this time, bar having to do two fights, and bit of walking and karaoke again.

Still though, started Chapter 3 last night. I'm enjoying the game enough, and I can see from looking online (and the greyed out bit of the menu) that there's a Business element coming up, where you buy and control businesses. Story seems interesting enough too, though since I'm after switching characters I imagine there's going to be a good bit more setup and exposition just when Kiryu's story was getting good.

Just wondering though, do more entertainment things become available as you play? I did most of them during Chapter 2 and while some of them are good (though I still don't understand how I won a game of Nine-Ball pool without potting the 8-ball (I hit the 8-ball but it missed the pocket and hit the 9-ball into another pocket)), they're not enough to spend much time with bar the initial "I wonder what this is like". Also, their version of Chess can go suck a fiery f*ck.

Edit: Ah, just looked up the rules to Nine-ball pool. Turns out you can win that way so long as your shot hits the lowest numbered ball first.

Zero-Cool

Yupp, more activities will become available as the chapters go on. The main 2 side activities are Real Estate Royale for Kiryu which opens in Chapter 5 and
Cabaret Club Czar for Majima which opens in Chapter 7, both brilliant.

Real Estate has you buying and investing in property where you can unlock/hire staff to run it with you and challenge the 5 billionaires to take their districts.

Cabaret Club has you running a nightclub where you unlock/hire girls, open the club and run it in sped up time. Patrons come in and you have to make sure they leave happy customers. Sounds stupid but it is crazy addictive.

Cat fights open up around chapter 8 but I didn't spend too much time on that as I just wouldn't be able to explain what I was doing if my missus walked in.

hellsing101

The cat fight minigame was pretty fun, cant remember exactly how it worked as been a while since I played, could never really get my head around real estate. Cabaret is definitely the most fun minigame I found, also the story that goes with it is a pretty good incentive to become cabaret king.

Penn

Zero-Cool wrote: »

Cat fights open up around chapter 8 but I didn't spend too much time on that as I just wouldn't be able to explain what I was doing if my missus walked in.

Ha yeah, I've already done two side missions involving teenage girls selling their underwear and teaching a woman to become a dominatrix.

Oh Japan...

Shiminay

It's infuriating that there are no means of highlighting the various establishments that your characters can interact with for business purposes and that you have to randomly run around town looking for a prompt to appear to ask you if you want to buy or partner with it (depends on the character you're playing). That's my only real problem with that side of the game though, the cabaret management is kinda fun once I figured it out (learning the hostess hand-signals is important).

Zero-Cool

For the real estate I used a map from Google for the businesses, no way I was going door to door

Penn

https://gematsu.com/2018/05/yakuza-3-4-and-5-remasters-announced-for-ps4

Yakuza 3, 4 & 5 being remastered for PS4 over the next 18 months or so for Japanese release. No confirmation but likely they'll be released here too, though maybe later.

Zero-Cool

Awesome, that's my Yakuza fix sorted for the next few years.

Penn

Real life (and a yearning to play Overwatch again when I did get free time) knocked me away from Yakuza 0, so cracked back into it the last few evenings. Now on Chapter 7. Was just starting to get into the business side of things but now switched to Majima. I'm guessing their stories will properly intertwine further down the road, but not really a fan of switching protagonists like this. Both stories are interesting, but would rather stick with Kiryu and just belt on through.

Have about 80m as Kiryu and 20m as Majima, but haven't upgraded their abilities in ages. Should I bother, or just save the money for the business side of things? Haven't found any of the fights too difficult thus far.

Zero-Cool

Biggest thing I hated about Yakuza 0 was the upgrade system. I wish it didn't use money. Yakuza 6 did upgrades way better.

I only upgraded power of attacks and health early/mid game. Some later battles can be really difficult. Really advise upgrading the heat moves that mention boss fights. Can't remember what they are called but they meet you perform special moves when bosses are dazed, found them vital.

Penn

Zero-Cool wrote: »

Biggest thing I hated about Yakuza 0 was the upgrade system. I wish it didn't use money. Yakuza 6 did upgrades way better.

I only upgraded power of attacks and health early/mid game. Some later battles can be really difficult. Really advise upgrading the heat moves that mention boss fights. Can't remember what they are called but they meet you perform special moves when bosses are dazed, found them vital.

Cheers. Think some of those health and power ones are the only ones I've upgraded so far anyway. Though I did waste a whole bunch of CP as Kiryu under his Adventure tab as I didn't see the other two tabs.