So this morning I started Like a Dragon on stream, and plan to stream all the games. It’ll take a while, but still, I LOVED it. Like, LOVED. I’m still thinking about it hours later.
I’ll get back to this one in like six months when I finish watching 0-6 on YouTube while I’m on the exercise bike.
I know that feeling. Still working my way through the earlier games before I get onto Ichiban’s saga and ‘Like a Dragon’. Eternally glad 3, 4, 5 and 6 are finally available on PC but damn if it didn’t add to the number of hours of Kiryu’s saga that I have to make my way through first, haha.
Also delaying me is that I started watching Armored Trooper VOTOMS on the bike in the meantime.
You have a TV mounted on your motorcycle? That’s badass.
Just hit chapter 4 in Like a Dragon. Went from being reallly annoyed with Ichiban to kinda loving the guy. Are all the games this good at laying out their stories?
YES. Some of them are better than others, mind you, but all the ones I’ve played (0, Kiwami 1 and 2, and Like a Dragon) are pretty good.
Speaking of which, Yakuza 0 is the pinnacle of excellence in the series for me, as far as story and acting goes. There are some truly breathtaking moments there.
I’m excited to get to Zero and the rest of them!
Nearing the end of Yakuza 5 (with just 6 left to play), and generally, yes, they’re remarkably good at humanising their protaganists - Saejima and Shinada both come across as complete dicks the first time you play as them, but it’s hard not to like them by the ends of their parts.
And the shift into J-Pop idol rhythm game in Y5 is something that only this game series could get away with.
What I also like about them is that they’re pretty open about being purely for a Japanese audience, which must make them a nightmare to translate, given that, e.g. Yakuza 3’s plot is all about the massive tensions and ambivalence in Okinawa regarding US forces there, or the subquests about finding the perfect ramen.
This is universally relatable, though.
Yes, but I can’t think of a British game going so much into the mechanics of crackling being necessary to get a decent pot noodle.
I think the Yakuza series does a great job of introducing Westerners to Japanese culture–especially the quirkier side. It pokes fun at itself, but in a way that is endearing and loving.
I really need to get back and start playing this series again, but I moved my computer and my wife can see exactly what I’m doing. And well this game has some weird shit like the video clips in Zero. She doesn’t mind, but it makes me uncomfortable lol.
So in today’s session, I got the “Pokeman” game and the “Poundtown” ability. God I am loving this.
When I saw the “Poundmates” flier I was expecting, uhhhh, something else. I have noticed more than a few times that the Japanese in games has a tendency to be a lot more straightforward than the English it gets translated into, so it’s not a huge surprise (but a bit of a disappointment) to see that in Japanese this service is called, simply, “Delivery Help”.
Oh man, is the joke as funny then?
And it just keeps on giving. And giving. And giving. And giving.
Oh god I can’t wait.