Topic: Games you've recently beat

@Ralizah surprised to hear that actually, as I’d always heard that Yakuza Kiwami 2 was a high point for the series. I’ve still only played the original Kiwami myself but am looking forward to playing 2 in the next 6 months or so. Doesn’t hurt at all to have my expectations put in check though.

@colonelkilgore I had too. Plenty of people list it alongside 0 and LAD as one of the best entries in the series.

I don't get it.

There's a really bad shark-jumping bit halfway through where the game just starts tossing in random stuff that doesn't make sense. And chapters where it feels like all you do is babysit Haruka, or are forced to walk around helping meaningless side characters before the plot is allowed to progress (I like substories, but not when they're used to pad out main plot progression).

It all feels like a build-up to the ending, which is heavily reliant on a series of heavily telegraphed twists.

That said, it is a very attractive game. Dragon Engine puts in the work.

@Ralizah Kiwami 2’s combat I feel slightly lets it down for me. And yeah, the plot’s insane by the end. I’d probably pick 5 as my favourite after 0 and 7, it’s absolutely off the wall bonkers and the most stuffed game I’ve ever played but personally I’ve never subscribed to anything being too much of a good thing. There’s plenty wrong or janky with it but it gives so many more great moments that I think it outweighs the crazy.

@nessisonett I'm okay with crazy when it's somewhat grounded in reality. Yakuza has a lot of crazy in a 'Florida Man' sense. But in Kiwami 2, when you have magic castles rising out of the ground and have to beat up ninjas and tigers with your bare hands, the suspension of disbelief goes away.

5 seems to be incredibly polarizing. I've frequently heard it quoted as being both among the best and the worst entries in the series by various people. Should be interesting when I eventually get to it.

Unfortunately, Y3 is up next, canonically, and nobody seems too sweet on that one.

@Ralizah The tiger fight is probably a bit too ‘zany’ for me too but 5 does flirt with the silliness in a similar vein to that, although I do think it’s handled slightly better as it suits the environment, if that makes sense in a spoiler-free way!

I love Yakuza 3’s setting and the vibes are sweet but it starts very slowly and never really gets going. And the enemies loooove to block. It does have the best Engrish on PS3 though! I have positive memories of it as I usually just remember how much I loved running around Okinawa. But then I watched my brother play it (he’s on 5 in the space of not even a month) and he was struggling a lot with the combat. All I’ll say is let us know your reaction the very first second you gain control of Kiryu in that game and start moving 😂

@nessisonett I guess I'll have to decide for myself.

Blocking? Ugh. Please tell me I can at least Heat Action the bosses to death like I could in the previous two games.

Also please tell me the enemies that stunlock you with bazookas don't return.

@Ralizah I think basically every game has that one boss who stunlocks you with guns but 4 has the worst offender so you’re a while away from that! And heat actions are ok in this game but you do have to engage with the side content to make yourself powerful enough to not be completely screwed by some of the bosses.

@nessisonett :/

I pray you mean substories and not the inane cabaret club stuff.

@Ralizah Just substories! They give you a decent amount of EXP that really comes in handy. Plus there’s the trainers to give you moves as well. You’ll really need all the help you can get.

@nessisonett Sounds good. I try to do all of the non-annoying substories I can anyway, since they comprise the majority of the funny writing in these games.

@Ralizah I’ve been playing Lost Judgment and the lack of substories is one of the only issues with it, they’re usually the highlight of any Yakuza game.

@nessisonett Yakuza sans substories sounds like a cake without the icing. But then, aren't the Judgment games a bit different in terms of their gameplay loop?

@Ralizah Judgment 1 replaces most substories with detective cases, but does have smaller ones around the city that are closer to the Yakuza ones. Lost Judgment removes the vast majority of these and instead has different school clubs you get involved in, except you have to play them quite a bit to unlock the next one, removing a lot of the pick up at any time nature of the Yakuza substories. But yeah, the combat is good fun and feels very Yakuza but you also do a lot of other things like tailing, chases like in Yakuza 3,4,5, taking photos like a creep, finding clues etc. They’re great games but Lost relies on plot points from Yakuza 7 so I’d play it afterwards.

@nessisonett The interconnectedness of this series is giving me Trails vibes.

Gotta play these ten games before you play the newest ones, because plot threads and characters pop back up and will spoil those older games.

Ugh. This is why I like Ys. There's connections, but it doesn't really matter if you catch them or not.

@Ralizah I guess it’s just the perils of having Kamurocho as the centre of the series, the city goes through changes so it can indirectly spoil you on earlier games.

Just finished The Legend of Heroes: Trails from Zero on Switch after 40 hours of playtime. Another fantastic Trails game! I really enjoyed the story and unlike the first Cold Steel, the plot became more engrossing towards the end. So as a standalone game, the overall experience was better. But I still didn't like the sprite-based graphics. Cold Steel has definitely spoiled me with regards to that. When you see actual 3D models and the characters' expressions, you become much more immersed. Granted, there were character portraits in Zero that helped with that. It's also unfortunate that Zero only had Japanese VOs as I played through all Cold Steel games in English. But I'm glad to have experienced the first half of the Crossbell arc now. Looking forward to playing the second game in the future! If it's anything like the Erebonia arc, the second game will be even better than the first.