Topic: Yakuza 0

@Kidfried @KratosMD I think with both Yakuza games the impression you are given at the very start is completely different compared to when you are well into the content. The additional gameplay unlocked at hour 20 or 30 in most games is a variation on a gimmick you have already tried within the first 5 hours, with Yakuza something totally new will shows up.

That for me is the series main draw. All 3 of us play a ton of different games and Yakuza scratches that itch in one big game.

@KratosMD After getting in deep with Y0, are you glad you chose to start with Kiwami? I debated a little about where to start and I remember you were one of the few who had some reasoning for doing Kiwami first. It’s too late for me, btw, since I already started Zero, although I’m just on Chapter 3. I was just curious if your opinion still holds.

@KratosMD Thank you sir. It takes a real man to admit when he was wrong.
But it’s good to hear that I’m on the right track. And by extension of your newfound logic, I think the best course after Kiwami may be to do Kiwami 2 next, rather than Yakuza 6, especially since it is almost out now.
It’s also good to hear how much fun the game becomes. I’m enjoying it so far, but apparently I haven’t even scratched the surface yet.

@KratosMD Have you spent much time bowling, playing darts, batting cage, majong, etc? I’m wondering if the game simply just has too much content, if there is such a thing. I’m with you, I don’t necessarily want to get stuck in the game for 200 hrs since I’d like to work on my backlog. At the end of the day, if your having fun, I guess it doesn’t matter if you just play one game forever, but there are not only many more good games to experience, there are 6 other Yakuza games alone! 😂

Honestly I am the type of person that can play a game forever if I like it that much. When Skyrim released I played it for 9 months straight, even though there were many other games coming out. Something similar happened last year with The Witcher 3, which I played for 6 months without interruption. As a result I missed out on so many great 2017 releases, and I'm still trying to catch up. But I wouldn't change a thing, because that was time well spent.

It's not exactly the same with Yakuza. But I've still played the game for close to 200 hours, so the game certainly has me hooked.

Most of that time was spent 100%ing all the different minigames.

I've never played any Yakuza game, so 0 should be a good choice to start the series, right?

@KratosMD @Kidfried @th3solution I completed the estate management and quit the club management after taking over the second club. The estate management is designed so you can keep coming back to it during your playthrough. So run to the office, delegate responsibility, go and do something else. The nightclub stuff was fun the first few times but gets repetitive quickly imo. So I binned that off at some point.

@KratosMD You're going fast. You're finishing it before me if you keep it up. (I'm still a few chapters ahead, though!)

And like I said, I just care about having a great experience. So as long as the experience is great, I can forget all about the millions of games in my backlog. I have just accepted I'll never keep up with releases. Feels like everyone on here plays more games than me.

@themcnoisy I see how the nightclub stuff can get boring. Especially leveling up the ladies can be a chore. However, I did enjoy battling the other club managers. Some of them were quite demanding.

Can I just say, that after playing some more, and spending some time doing several side quests with Majima (now on Chapter 4), that I am really impressed with the localization / English translation of the game. The dialog is hilarious! And they have managed to fill the dialog with very culturally appropriate slang and vernacular. The quips and sarcasm hits the mark consistently. Some of the humor and narrative is very Japanese, sure, but the conversations come off surprisingly natural with an English twist. Phrases and syntax reads as very conversational. And they even did the Chinese foreigner broken English spot on during the fake heart necklace sidequest. It’s weird to think the game was originally in Japanese, then they had to translate it into English and at the same time make it read like what a Chinese person who speaks poor English would say. Brilliant!
I suppose some of the slang they use wasn’t really in vogue for conversation back in the 80’s but it’s asking too much to not only localize it for an American and English audience, but also hit the language used in the time period as well.
@Kidfried Since English is not your native language, do you find the conversation easy to follow and do you understand the jokes?

@KratosMD snap for me. Love the series. I think as an older gamer now Yakuza hits enough old school and new school notes. Amusement vision aka the Yakuza team are amazing. F Zero GX, the original Super Monkey ball and Yakuza. Absolute legends.

I cant wait for Kiwami 2!

Hopefully we get a relook at Magic Johnson. Woooooo.

@kidfried how you getting on in your game bro?

@KratosMD sounds great. I hope they put some effort into remaking 3, 4 and 5 else there will be a gaping gulf in quality.

Does Mr. Shakedown get harder to beat the further into the game you go?
I’ve been running away from him after getting clobbered twice and losing all my money. But I need to beat him at least once for the trophy and I just realized the longer I wait he might get tougher and tougher in the later Chapters as I have felt sharp up-tick in difficulty in the average goons on the street here lately (still in late Chapter 4)

@Th3solution I don't think he does but he's much much easier to beat when you've upgraded your power and health a lot. I kept running from him after he gave me a good thrashing a few times but when I decided to eventually take him on in chapter 12 he was a cakewalk.

@Th3solution The fighting skills upgrade and you unlock new fighting abilities. Majima has this crazy dance fighting and Kiryu can unlock the Dragon style. Both are overpowered compared to your initial fighting styles. I never use the speedy kiryu fighting style as the lack of power makes the fights go on for ever.

You unlock counters also which help massively.

I can't find the Playstation Hits version of the game in any italian site. Amazon shows only 6 games for € 20 with release date 18/07. All the other games announced in the PS blog, Yakuza 0 included, will arrive later?

@themcnoisy A bit late of a response, but here I go.

Just being back from holiday, I'm still kind of settling in. But I just got back to playing Yakuza 0. However, I made the mistake of playing Fantasy Zone for the challenge.

What a mess of a game. Terrible hit detection, off screen stuff and a camera that shows you what's behind you instead of in front of you. 80's or not it's just a bad game.

Anyway, I'll keep at it until I unlock the challenge, before I continue the story. I'm at chapter 13 still!

YES YES YES! I do apologize for the double post, but this is the only place I feel I can celebrate my 100,000 points in Fantasy Zone. Really feels like I accomplished something today.

How many of you bothered to go for all the CP? (Not nearly done, but I'm getting there)

@Th3solution Sorry, I totally missed the part of your comment directed at me on the writing.

In general I hardly ever have trouble understanding writing in video games, but I do always have subtitles on in case I miss anything. I read some complaints on the forums here through the years on subtitles; but they don't distract me at all. Even moreso, sound mixing in games can be so bad sometimes that I have trouble even hearing what people are saying, for instance due to too loud music or voices differing in volume (another example is Fallout 4 in which people chatting in the distance sometimes are louder than the person next to you which you are talking too, and talking at the same time). Anyway, that has nothing to do with Yakuza, actually. 😅

Overall, I think Yakuza 0 is much more accessible to me as a non-native English speaker, because the language used is much more common spoken English than many other games. Take for example Fallout 4 again, the way people talk is very artificial. Often I'm like 'thats not how people talk to each other'. I really appreciate that Yakuza 0 in all its over-the-top dialogue still manages to feel more natural in its writing.

Stuff like 'street vocabulary' (there's probably a better word for this) and cussing not only makes these gangsters more believable as characters, but it's also the kind of language I know from watching American entertainment (series/films) for all of my life. So it's way natural for me to understand.

Many other games feel like it has the writing they teach you at school: more complex sentence structures and a lot of two dollar words.

Did that make any sense? :')

@Kidfried Oh yeah, it makes sense. That’s exactly what I was wondering. I find it fascinating. The fact that English is my native language, I take for granted understanding both proper “textbook” English, what we might call formal English or “the King’s English” and also the casual conversational and “street vocabulary” as you say or “street slang.” The two really can be quite different. Not only the words used, but we English speakers tend to throw proper grammar and syntax out the window when we’re speaking casually.
And that’s the amazing thing about Yakuza is that the written translation is very conversational like you might hear on the street, and that’s hard enough to get across when it’s a native English game, and more impressive when it’s a translation from Japanese.
Sure, there are cultural misfires, things for which simply no good translation exists, usually humorous colloquialisms, that are native to Japan. For example, last night I came across the side story where Majima helps the couple who is in disagreement over the crossword puzzle. I thought the localization of the puzzle was very well done (minor tiny spoilers here) with the use of western foods like mashed potatoes and popcorn but then I had no idea on the last question that Japanese people say a normal soft face as opposed to a rugged foreign looking face was called a “soy sauce face” Lol. Not sure it makes sense quite to me, but it’s just cultural and there is no getting around some of that.
It’s the same really in American English and British English. Same language, but different slang and based on a different culture. I love Push Square but occasionally all the British guys here are in on a joke that doesn’t make sense to me. 😂 So I was wondering how often that happens in a game like Yakuza, or any game really for that matter that relies on humor, for a non English speaker.

@Th3solution I think the fact that this game is in Japan, a country I know just as much about as the average American players actually makes it easier. Because we both are kind of 'tourists' in this game, so the game presupposes less knowledge of what's going on.

Something like Fallout is more difficult relatively speaking. Because it is an environment you are probably more familiar with, and possibly its accompanying vocabulary, than I am. For instance, before Fallout 4, I had never heard of a 'hot plate'.

And it might be possible I missed out on some very American references in that game of course. Just like the 'soy Dave's in Yakuza.