Yakuza/Like a Dragon Megathread

[Diadu]

If true, which I can believe it is, that does make me think they won't do them for a potential Kiwami 4, either. That game having 4 protagonists, each with their own revelations. (At least, I'm pretty sure they all had revelations. It's been a minute since I've played it hehe)

Yeah 4 and 5 use revelations too and if they cut them in Kiwami 3 they will most likely do so for the inevitable release of Kiwami 4 and 5 too. Some believe it's to cut the character of Mack who introduces you to them.

By the way, for being a squel and having more characters, 4 only has 12 revelations vs the 10 found in 3 (5 has 17 I believe)

 

[here4outbreak]

すぼてぬひげうきろこせみてむ・Subotenuhigeukiro

dude i remember having to type this out on the ps4 version of 0 and i was kinda miffed you didnt have to for pc. makes me wonder what that was about to this day

 

[bjork]

Don't know about PS5 but on xbox they're not even straight upgrades/updates but entirely separate games. Can't use my existing save files from Kiwami 1+2 for the X|S upgrades.

On steam they're separate too and look at this, perhaps the most grave crime of the entire thing

That ordering is making my eyelid twitch

 

[Diadu]

On steam they're separate too and look at this, perhaps the most grave crime of the entire thing
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That ordering is making my eyelid twitch

This should be considered a war crime. I hate it when they do that (The Hitman trilogy is out of order on Xbox for example)

The Xbox Yakuza games are still neatly sorted, they simply slapped the X|S label on the new versions. (For some odd reason you can't take screenshots of the OS on xbox)

 

[iamthemilkman]

What does everyone think of the new look?

 

[Xenocloudarius Xenocloudarius]

What does everyone think of the new look?

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Original has more charm, While the remake suffers from the problem of RRG not knowing how to use brightness correctly.

 

[BrawlMan]

My older brother loves these games. I tried, but they're not for me. I love brawlers, but not the Yakuza games. I only got Pirate Yakuza, because it has Spikeout: Final Edition. You can play it from the start menu. So I don't even have to start the actual game to play an old arcade game.

 

[iamthemilkman]

I think the more colorful look feels more "Sega," however the lighting and water look worse.

 

[Diadu]

What does everyone think of the new look?

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Looks like one of those "RTX ON/OFF" memes

 

[Xenocloudarius Xenocloudarius]

Notice of Discontinuation of Standalone Digital Sales for Yakuza 3 (PS4/Xbox One/Steam)｜NEWS｜Like A Dragon Web Portal｜SEGA

Discover the latest announcements related to the Like a Dragon series here! Learn more about the games, events, RGG Studio's upcoming releases, exclusive bonuses, and more!

ryu-ga-gotoku.com

They did that shit again.

 

[GaleComprehends]

What does everyone think of the new look?

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Like the original look more. The Kiwami version looks too damn bright.

 

[Diadu]

Notice of Discontinuation of Standalone Digital Sales for Yakuza 3 (PS4/Xbox One/Steam)｜NEWS｜Like A Dragon Web Portal｜SEGA

Discover the latest announcements related to the Like a Dragon series here! Learn more about the games, events, RGG Studio's upcoming releases, exclusive bonuses, and more!

ryu-ga-gotoku.com

They did that shit again.

Why would you want to buy old product when new, better product exists? Consume already.

I used to love the series, but I'll be skipping this until it comes to gamepass (The pirate game made it to gamepass but I am not bored enough yet). Looks like they've cut a whole lot of content for this game too.

 

[bjork]

Anyone check out that 3-episode show that came out recently? I had no idea it was even coming out. The description I saw said it's supposed to serve as a tie-in to Kiwami 3, but as far as I could tell it just retold the events of Kiwami 1? Pretty well done, though. The actors maybe look a little older than you'd expect but they're all good, and it uses elements from the game too. Kiyru having the different colored flames when he switches modes, there are outdoor and greenscreen shots that are just footage from the games... it's got just the right amount of camp to it. Went in expecting something kind of middling like the Amazon adaptation, but left thinking that they did a really good job.

 

[Jayonnaise6105 Jayonnaise6105]

Anyone check out that 3-episode show that came out recently? I had no idea it was even coming out. The description I saw said it's supposed to serve as a tie-in to Kiwami 3, but as far as I could tell it just retold the events of Kiwami 1? Pretty well done, though. The actors maybe look a little older than you'd expect but they're all good, and it uses elements from the game too. Kiyru having the different colored flames when he switches modes, there are outdoor and greenscreen shots that are just footage from the games... it's got just the right amount of camp to it. Went in expecting something kind of middling like the Amazon adaptation, but left thinking that they did a really good job.

I saw a short clip that someone on YouTube did fansubs for a little while ago. I didn't know more came out :O

 

[bjork]

I saw a short clip that someone on YouTube did fansubs for a little while ago. I didn't know more came out :O

All three episodes on Sega's youtube. Also elsewhere like IGN, for some reason:

I think I might've misread, but I was looking at the IMDBs for these guys and I think it said the fellow who plays Nishiki is actually the same guy who voiced Nishiki in the games? That's kinda cool.

 

[NeonKnights]

All three episodes on Sega's youtube. Also elsewhere like IGN, for some reason:

I think I might've misread, but I was looking at the IMDBs for these guys and I think it said the fellow who plays Nishiki is actually the same guy who voiced Nishiki in the games? That's kinda cool.

You just reminded me that the movie exists. The drama looks good btw.

 

[zombie100379]

i watched the " Yakuza : Like a Dragon " movie around 2 years ago - not bad at all , its low budget and infinitely better then the tv series that came out last year.

 

[TruthandConsequence]

Real Question is how do we feel that Yokoyama is basically rewriting the entire series at this point? Of course my new favorite series has to fall off within 5 years of being into it.

I think Kiwami 3 is telling of the issue of companies that aren't in synergy with their playerbases not realizing that you should never design a Remake to be a full replacement for the original. There's only been 2 remakes in gaming history for me personally that I'd say are good enough to replace the original, and even then they can't replace those games full legacy. To mention, the remakes I'm mentioning are Dead Space 2023 and Resident Evil 1 Remake.

Or I guess that's just how I look at remakes, they can't replace a game, but they can definitely supplement my enjoyment of said game, Kiwami 3 isn't even the same game, they actively rewrote the entire series going forward with their rewrites.

I think a big problem with Yakuza is the age old feeling of, once something from Japan gets popular in the west, the company feels an unnecessary need to cater to their new audience, completely switching up what made the series so popular and endearing in the first place. Most of the newest titles really lean into the "what is Yakuza even about" meme where people just make Yakuza out to be this "hoohoohaha funny random game" instead of how it actually is.

What I loved about the Yakuza games immediately as I picked up 0 in 2021, is that the games really remind me of the older Saint's Row games, where they have this perfect blend of random encounters mixed in to the gameplay, while the stories they told were fantastical but at least a bit grounded. They always knew when to be serious and when to be funny. But now, RGG seems like they just want to make crazy over the top comedy games instead of making a serious crime drama at the forefront of the story.

I know a lot of people have their gripes with IW, but I think Pirate Yakuza was the real point where we can see where the franchise is actually headed under Yokoyama. And I don't want to just damn the guy like most of the community. He does seem like he wants to put games out that people enjoy, I just think he lost the plot on what made those games identity, and now with Kiwami 3 he's trying to do some weird type of damage control so he can just make what he wants instead of trying to continue what was set up.

Overall, now that they've butchered my personal favorite game in the series, I'm not too excited for Stranger than Heaven anymore, I think I'm gonna let my homie buy that one and be disappointed again, he already didn't listen to me when I was warning him against buying K3. Let's hope that Kenzan translation releases sometime soon huh?

 

[bjork]

Real Question is how do we feel that Yokoyama is basically rewriting the entire series at this point? Of course my new favorite series has to fall off within 5 years of being into it.

He's been there since the beginning so if you had to pick someone, he doesn't seem to be the worst choice. But I'm also not closely invested in the series, so I might not be the best judge. I played Yakuza 1 back in 2006, bought them all as they came out and then didn't play them, and have only kinda poked around in Zero for a little bit. So any missing content due to a rewrite would be lost on me.

 

[Megarockman _1987 Megarockman _1987]

What is Yakuza about?

 

[TruthandConsequence]

He's been there since the beginning so if you had to pick someone, he doesn't seem to be the worst choice. But I'm also not closely invested in the series, so I might not be the best judge. I played Yakuza 1 back in 2006, bought them all as they came out and then didn't play them, and have only kinda poked around in Zero for a little bit. So any missing content due to a rewrite would be lost on me.

I mean, he was the main writer for 4 and 5 as well, So what I said doesn't come from full hatred like some have for him, I just think he's doing too much honestly.

Kiwami 3 has so much lost from the original, and rewrites the ending so that every game that comes after doesn't really make sense. That, combined with him talking about how they are done making remakes and are gonna start something new leads me to believe he's just rewriting the whole series beginning from 3. Which sucks too because we only got one really good game with the new guy Ichiban, and a game where he was heavily sidelined for Kiryu.

Honestly, without going too deeply so you know what I'm talking about without getting spoiled. It seems to me like Nagoshi left them with Yakuza 7 and Ichiban to give the team a new start while he planned to depart, and they still didn't really know what to do next after Yakuza 6, and so just found a way to write Kiryu back in. But then the way they wrote him back in didn't really make sense or leave room for them to keep using him so now they are moving forward with a soft reboot starting from Kiwami 3.

It's a really weird situation overall and it really disappoints me specifically because I feel they didn't really use Ichi to his full potential yet, but just seem to not like him as a character.

 

[Jayonnaise6105 Jayonnaise6105]

I mean, he was the main writer for 4 and 5 as well, So what I said doesn't come from full hatred like some have for him, I just think he's doing too much honestly.

Kiwami 3 has so much lost from the original, and rewrites the ending so that every game that comes after doesn't really make sense. That, combined with him talking about how they are done making remakes and are gonna start something new leads me to believe he's just rewriting the whole series beginning from 3. Which sucks too because we only got one really good game with the new guy Ichiban, and a game where he was heavily sidelined for Kiryu.

Honestly, without going too deeply so you know what I'm talking about without getting spoiled. It seems to me like Nagoshi left them with Yakuza 7 and Ichiban to give the team a new start while he planned to depart, and they still didn't really know what to do next after Yakuza 6, and so just found a way to write Kiryu back in. But then the way they wrote him back in didn't really make sense or leave room for them to keep using him so now they are moving forward with a soft reboot starting from Kiwami 3.

It's a really weird situation overall and it really disappoints me specifically because I feel they didn't really use Ichi to his full potential yet, but just seem to not like him as a character.

I still need to play it for myself, but the way they've apparently changed the story in Kiwami 3 makes some stuff even in Infinite Wealth obsolete.

Not to spoil anything specifically, but they've pretty much written Kiryu out of the games by this point and they just won't commit and move on. I love Ichiban and was sold on him being the new protag with his debut game. I'll be disappointed if they just do remakes for now and rewrite everything.

 

[TruthandConsequence]

I still need to play it for myself, but the way they've apparently changed the story in Kiwami 3 makes some stuff even in Infinite Wealth obsolete.

Not to spoil anything specifically, but they've pretty much written Kiryu out of the games by this point and they just won't commit and move on. I love Ichiban and was sold on him being the new protag with his debut game. I'll be disappointed if they just do remakes for now and rewrite everything.

All I'm saying, is that the Daidoji plot has been the absolute worst thing for the series. And I didn't even start hating it until after 8. They're just phoning it in and using that as a scapegoat for all of their poor writing decisions.

One last point I want to mention, and it's more of something I've only really mentioned myself, didn't see a lot of people talking about it. When they did Kiryu Gaiden, it brought up the question in the community of whether or not RGG would make side games for some of the other side characters. It was pretty exciting wondering what they would do with that. and I remember it was asked if they would consider doing an Akiyama game, where Yokoyama brought up that he wouldn't even consider it because Akiyama is uninteresting and boring as a character to him.

There is a specific plot point in one of the later games (I don't want to mention the specific game because it's a spoiler just mentioning the game) that they could pull for a game about him, and it pisses me off so bad because it would make such a great story. But now I guess we'll never get anything as cool as Kiryu Gaiden again so you know.

I heard people didn't really mind Dark Ties so much, but I only played like an hour and a half of K3 and knew I didn't like it so I'm probably not gonna play it to find out.

 

[UnDubious]

All three episodes on Sega's youtube. Also elsewhere like IGN, for some reason:

Nihon Touitsu is a long-running V-cinema yakuza series. Basically they film a bunch of short low-budget movies each year and release them gradually, probably straight to streaming*. So basically they teamed up with the Nihon Touitsu team to make a Yakuza series, maybe because the amazon show supposedly wasn't accurate/good (I haven't watched either yet). That's the idea behind this series.
I'm waiting to see if they'll put the whole season on there.
The 2007 movie was pretty good. It's Takashi Miike after all. Not his best work, but still pretty good.

*For those who may not know, "V-Cinema" was a brand Toei started in the late '80s for the video rental market. Unlike in the West were straight-to-vhs/dvd was almost always trash, some of those movies were quite good (not all, of course). Of course the video rental market died long ago, so nowadays V-cinema is even lower budget than it used to be, but they can still be decent when the stories are good, and I guess the market is streaming now.

 

[Boo Man]

Like a Dragon is the only game I've played in the Yakuza series
I did about 50 hours on it and finally unlocked Eri from doing that silly business management thing
kinda had enough of Japan after that and uninstalled it and lost my save file
i did like the turn based combat, story, characters and humor but im not doing it again from the start