Yakuza 7 - We're turn-based RPG brawling now!

The other day I was playing Yakuza 0 and was doing the slot car racing just to show my daughter how ridiculous the game is. 2 hours later I’m broke and amazed at how much detail they put into a random mini game.

The Mario karts game in Yakuza 7 was quite hard for me. I couldn’t beat the levels.

I’ve found that you really need to fully upgrade your kart in order to get through.

That was fine until I got to the part where each one is 5 million. I was laughing because it’s hilarious how they rope you in with low prices and then BAM. I’m sure it was 100 percent intentional and that’s why the game is the best.

I got unlimited funds by save scumming poker.

What’s umm, somewhat improbable in Like a Dragon is how conciliatory so many people become after getting beat up by Ichiban and company. The widowed shop owner/hoarder for instance, or those “man-babies,” heh.

Don’t get me wrong, I still love it though.

I finished up the business management game at the first opportunity, and now money isn’t much of an issue for me.

This is a game with a magic bat, part-time superheroes and giant vibrators as weapons and THIS is the hill you wanna die upon? ;)

Ah, I see someone else was dragged deep into the world of Pocket Circuit Racing in Yakuza 0. I was basically switching between completing that and the real estate business stuff for a fair few hours, haha. The real estate side activity stuff was essentially fueling Kiryu’s pocket car racer addiction. The equipment for the final races wasn’t exactly cheap, hah.

I really should dive back into the real estate. The game is so goofy in that I didn’t realize for a long time that the time to do side stuff is in between whatever main thing they are telling you to run to. There’s never a downtime point where they are like do your own thing. Once I figured that out I had so much more fun. The random stuff is what makes this the best game series.

Unfortunately the real estate game degenerates to start game, then go AFK while the too-long thing plays out. It’s a bit of a grind but the in-game rewards are worth it

Shareholder meetings. FUCK. I think the last time I was that tense in a video game, I was in an Assault Gunboat with my shields out surrounded by eight A-Wings in TIE Fighter. Christ.

The mechanics in shareholder meetings are not super clear. You’ll need a little practice to get how it works. It could be helpful to watch or read a guide on that particular aspect to avoid frustration, because it’s not all that intuitive at first.

A lot of that is the bloody awful explanation. It gets easy to smash them once you realise that it’s rock paper scissors and occasionally you need to change after the first smash to get the massive combo bonuses that allow you to knock people out quickly. (Still loved them, though.)

I’m playing Yakuza 6 at the moment, the last of the mainstream games to play, and it’s interesting how thin it is in terms of extra content and user-friendliness to 5 or 7. (Sub-stories aren’t shown on the minimap, eg.)

I think the relative leanness is an asset for 6. I replayed it after finishing 5, and that was the game that made me wonder if perhaps - perhaps -there was such a thing as too much Yakuza. Five different protagonists with a ton of subgames - oh now you’re a taxi driver, now you’re playing a hunting simulator, now you’re battle dancing

And 6 still has you being a deep-sea fisher, managing a baseball team, and a quasi-RTS mini-game.

In chapter 3 after the release on gamepass today. Having a blast so far.

Oh OK, so Yakuza 7 is Like a Dragon, good to know. Yeah, I think I’ll check this one out now that it’s on Game Pass. Pretty sure this is the one I saw McMaster playing as some corporate Raider type with a chicken as his head of HR.

Yup, that’s this one. Chicken is also your mascot.

I installed it yesterday. I can’t wait to check it out tonight, I didn’t get the chance to play any games yesterday.

In all previous Yakuzas, I was going in, all excited by all the cutscenes and story, and then boom, I run into the combat and it’s soooooo not for me. Finally in this one, there’s a chance! Very excited to try it out tonight.

Yeah, although the combat was a bit of a disappointment for me. I like it better than the boring brawling, but they half-assed it in my opinion. If they had made it a full-on SRPG it would have been so much better.