Wanna know the scary thing? Go to Shinjuku in real life… you’ll know the place like the back of your hand… it’s fecking wildTimely bump just about finished the first Judgement and I loved it. These guys know how to make great games all using the same map everytime too
Gaming Yakuza and Judgement (series)
- Thread starter mariachi-19
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I had that same surreal feeling when visiting Osaka after playing pretty much all the games. Perked up like a child when I saw the main canal area and the restaurant with a giant crab on the shopfront. Was half expecting to get into a random encounter with some Japanese thugs
Yep - did the same thing walking around dotonbori. I just said to my mate… I’ve been here beforeI had that same surreal feeling when visiting Osaka after playing pretty much all the games. Perked up like a child when I saw the main canal area and the restaurant with a giant crab on the shopfront. Was half expecting to get into a random encounter with some Japanese thugs
Yeah I heard about this, It's definitely in my bucket list!
No way!
Six episodes based on the story of the first Like a Dragon game. Live action too!
Six episodes based on the story of the first Like a Dragon game. Live action too!
Hope it isn't corny.
It's Yakuza. If it completely takes itself serious, then it won't be a good adaptation. Yakuza needs some corniness.
Some? There is 10% earnest conversations about the plot. The other 90% is karaoke, tearing your shirt off to fight lads, cracking bikes off skulls, more karaoke, a chicken real estate manager, darts, phone sex and this lad.
Just started with Like a Dragon: Ishin. It's a bit jarring to jump back from a polished Dragon Engine title like Lost Judgement to something that feels more like Yakuza 5, even if it was technically ported to Unreal Engine 4. Especially going back to that awful style karaoke minigame, I thought I was finally free of that.
Not sure if I'm going to enjoy it as much as the main series or Judgement, but we'll see. I don't think I'm ever going to call the main character Ryoma though, it'll always be Kiryu for me.
Not sure if I'm going to enjoy it as much as the main series or Judgement, but we'll see. I don't think I'm ever going to call the main character Ryoma though, it'll always be Kiryu for me.
My biggest disappointment will always be Like a Dragon. I keep wanting to go back to it but I’m hopeless with turn based combat.Just started with Like a Dragon: Ishin. It's a bit jarring to jump back from a polished Dragon Engine title like Lost Judgement to something that feels more like Yakuza 5, even if it was technically ported to Unreal Engine 4. Especially going back to that awful style karaoke minigame, I thought I was finally free of that.
Not sure if I'm going to enjoy it as much as the main series or Judgement, but we'll see. I don't think I'm ever going to call the main character Ryoma though, it'll always be Kiryu for me.
Finished Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name yesterday. Easily the shortest RGG game I've played, but also one of the best. Excellent combat (close to the Judgement games), great new characters, best Coliseum in the series and probably my favourite final sequence and boss fight RGG have ever done.
I love how the finale of this game fills in some gaps that Yakuza: Like a Dragon left, and how much of a love letter to the entire series it is. This was my 12th RGG game in about 2 years time and I'm glad I played through the entire thing chronologically. This made it all worth it. Really looking forward to playing Infinite Wealth now and finally not having to worry about spoilers anymore.
One mistake I hope they never repeat: live action hostesses. I cringed my way through these just to get some damn trophies. Don't play this with other people around.
I love how the finale of this game fills in some gaps that Yakuza: Like a Dragon left, and how much of a love letter to the entire series it is. This was my 12th RGG game in about 2 years time and I'm glad I played through the entire thing chronologically. This made it all worth it. Really looking forward to playing Infinite Wealth now and finally not having to worry about spoilers anymore.
One mistake I hope they never repeat: live action hostesses. I cringed my way through these just to get some damn trophies.
Don't play this with other people around.Not 100% on topic but any excuse to keep this thread alive is a good one: just got home from a 3 week trip to Japan which basically turned into a Like a Dragon pilgrimage. Visited no less than 6 locations which are in the game:
- The Nakasu neighbourhood in Fukuoka which exists as Nagasugai in Yakuza 5 (lovely place with all the riverside food stalls in the evening)
- Onomichi, the fishing town which is the main location in Yakuza 6
- Dotonbori in Osaka, known as Sotenbori, probably the second most iconic location in the games
- This one is more of a stretch: historical areas like Gion and Kiyomizu Dera in Kyoto, which are still the same as the 1800's setting of Like a Dragon: Ishin
- A few major locations in Yokohama which were first introduced in Yakuza: Like a Dragon, like the Yamashita Park and Yokohama China Town
- And last but not least, the Kabukicho neighbourhood in the Shinjuku ward of Tokyo, known as Kamurocho in the games
All of these places are way more accurate than I ever expected, down to the exact locations of certain shops or billboards in the game. I had takoyaki at the same Dotonbori stand where you can actually get takoyaki in the games. Going shopping in the Don Quijote corner store in Kabukicho felt a bit surreal. It even had a billboard with Kiryu from the Netflix series above it, so they know their audience well.
If you've played all the games in the series, I highly recommend making this trip once in your life. You will constantly run into stuff you know from the series, down to restaurant or store chains like Tsuruha Drugs, Sushi Zanmai, Ikinari Steak, Gindaco Highball and of course Don Quijote. Oh and all the Boss vending machines. Loved every second of it, such an incredible experience.
Bit of a shame that the last game I've got left (for now), Infinite Wealth, is not set in Japan.
- The Nakasu neighbourhood in Fukuoka which exists as Nagasugai in Yakuza 5 (lovely place with all the riverside food stalls in the evening)
- Onomichi, the fishing town which is the main location in Yakuza 6
- Dotonbori in Osaka, known as Sotenbori, probably the second most iconic location in the games
- This one is more of a stretch: historical areas like Gion and Kiyomizu Dera in Kyoto, which are still the same as the 1800's setting of Like a Dragon: Ishin
- A few major locations in Yokohama which were first introduced in Yakuza: Like a Dragon, like the Yamashita Park and Yokohama China Town
- And last but not least, the Kabukicho neighbourhood in the Shinjuku ward of Tokyo, known as Kamurocho in the games
All of these places are way more accurate than I ever expected, down to the exact locations of certain shops or billboards in the game. I had takoyaki at the same Dotonbori stand where you can actually get takoyaki in the games.
Going shopping in the Don Quijote corner store in Kabukicho felt a bit surreal. It even had a billboard with Kiryu from the Netflix series above it, so they know their audience well. If you've played all the games in the series, I highly recommend making this trip once in your life. You will constantly run into stuff you know from the series, down to restaurant or store chains like Tsuruha Drugs, Sushi Zanmai, Ikinari Steak, Gindaco Highball and of course Don Quijote. Oh and all the Boss vending machines.
Loved every second of it, such an incredible experience.Bit of a shame that the last game I've got left (for now), Infinite Wealth, is not set in Japan.
Wow that must have been some experience. I’ll be honest, the locations in these games just never really register with me. As much as enjoy the atmosphere, my brain just squishes them into an “it’s Japan” memory card.Not 100% on topic but any excuse to keep this thread alive is a good one: just got home from a 3 week trip to Japan which basically turned into a Like a Dragon pilgrimage. Visited no less than 6 locations which are in the game:
- The Nakasu neighbourhood in Fukuoka which exists as Nagasugai in Yakuza 5 (lovely place with all the riverside food stalls in the evening)
- Onomichi, the fishing town which is the main location in Yakuza 6
- Dotonbori in Osaka, known as Sotenbori, probably the second most iconic location in the games
- This one is more of a stretch: historical areas like Gion and Kiyomizu Dera in Kyoto, which are still the same as the 1800's setting of Like a Dragon: Ishin
- A few major locations in Yokohama which were first introduced in Yakuza: Like a Dragon, like the Yamashita Park and Yokohama China Town
- And last but not least, the Kabukicho neighbourhood in the Shinjuku ward of Tokyo, known as Kamurocho in the games
All of these places are way more accurate than I ever expected, down to the exact locations of certain shops or billboards in the game. I had takoyaki at the same Dotonbori stand where you can actually get takoyaki in the games.
If you've played all the games in the series, I highly recommend making this trip once in your life. You will constantly run into stuff you know from the series, down to restaurant or store chains like Tsuruha Drugs, Sushi Zanmai, Ikinari Steak, Gindaco Highball and of course Don Quijote. Oh and all the Boss vending machines.
Bit of a shame that the last game I've got left (for now), Infinite Wealth, is not set in Japan.
Have you been? I felt the same way until I went to Japan. Up until that point I didn’t care or realise how ridiculously modeled they were until I went to Yokohama, Osaka and Tokyo… then it was like… wow.
It’s not quite 1-1 but it’s not far off.
Even if you don't think they really register, if you've played many of these games you will at least have Kamurocho and Sotenbori imprinted in your brain on a subconscious level. And then you get to the real life Kabukicho and Dotonbori and realize you've walked those exact streets over and over and looked at those same buildings and signs.
It might sound obvious "well duh they're modelled after real locations, that's nothing special", but with the scale being so small compared to other open worlds and the locations being reused so often, it feels like you develop a much more intimate relationship with them compared to, say, GTA's version of New York or something like that. Makes it all the more special when you see it in real life.
Finished Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth. What a disappointment that was. Some of the worst writing in the entire series, terrible villains, pointless macguffin plot shit and just generally a slog to get through.
I hated almost everything about Ichiban's part of the story. We're constantly chasing Akane and Lani because the latter is supposedly hyper important, but she's nothing more than a plot device with zero personality that ultimately has no relevance to the overall narrative at all. The big bad wants to kill her, but even after she's captured, they keep her alive (for reasons?) and she wasn't really any threat to Bryce after all. To make matters worse, the entire stuff about Bryce and his island was pretty irrelevant as well, as it was doomed to fail soon anyway. All of it felt like an insanely contrived way to get Ichiban to Hawaii and reunite with his mother, but she kinda disappears from the story at the end anyway. The entire thing was completely pointless.
The worst part about Ichiban's story is how much they flanderized him. Sure, he was always a lovable goofball who wants to see the good in people, but here he's almost reduced to comical relief half the time, and the other half he's literally forgiving everyone, including complete psychopaths, for everything they do, again and again and again. That's become his entire personality now. And then we get that farcical final scene with Saeko where he messes things up in the most ridiculous way again, because haha goofy Ichi! Urgh. It does not fill me with optimism for his future games. We're just going to get the same stuff over and over again.
Kiryu's bucket list was fun, but ultimately little more than pointless fan service, with very few meaningful interactions, if any. This was supposed to be a final wrap-up for him ("for real this time!!"), yet we don't even get that. Like a Dragon: Gaiden had such an emotional final sequence, this one felt so empty in comparison. We don't even get to see him reunite with Haruka. I guess it's implied that they did, but we just have to guess that for whatever reason, the Daidoji (who are handled astonishingly poorly this game) are suddenly ok with him using his name again. We have to headcanon our way through the final cutscenes.
And then there's Majima, Saejima and Daigo. Their entrance in Y7 was fantastic, and fighting alongside them in Gaiden felt great as well. Here though? They return for a couple minutes of minor fighting and have no influence on the story or Kiryu at all. Just more pointless fan service. And wtf was that ending with Kiryu leaning and crying all over Ebina? How do they expect us to take that seriously?
Anyway, long rant over. That was terrible.
The worst part about Ichiban's story is how much they flanderized him. Sure, he was always a lovable goofball who wants to see the good in people, but here he's almost reduced to comical relief half the time, and the other half he's literally forgiving everyone, including complete psychopaths, for everything they do, again and again and again. That's become his entire personality now. And then we get that farcical final scene with Saeko where he messes things up in the most ridiculous way again, because haha goofy Ichi! Urgh. It does not fill me with optimism for his future games. We're just going to get the same stuff over and over again.
Kiryu's bucket list was fun, but ultimately little more than pointless fan service, with very few meaningful interactions, if any. This was supposed to be a final wrap-up for him ("for real this time!!"), yet we don't even get that. Like a Dragon: Gaiden had such an emotional final sequence, this one felt so empty in comparison. We don't even get to see him reunite with Haruka. I guess it's implied that they did, but we just have to guess that for whatever reason, the Daidoji (who are handled astonishingly poorly this game) are suddenly ok with him using his name again. We have to headcanon our way through the final cutscenes.
And then there's Majima, Saejima and Daigo. Their entrance in Y7 was fantastic, and fighting alongside them in Gaiden felt great as well. Here though? They return for a couple minutes of minor fighting and have no influence on the story or Kiryu at all. Just more pointless fan service. And wtf was that ending with Kiryu leaning and crying all over Ebina? How do they expect us to take that seriously?
Anyway, long rant over. That was terrible.