I've been wanting to get into the Yakuza series for some time...

I've been wanting to get into the Yakuza series for some time, but I felt like starting with Yakuza 5 or 6 would be like starting a TV series at episode 150. Where do you recommend me to start playing it? The prequel (Yakuza Zero), the original PS2 game or the recent PS4 remake?

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I'm personally going with the original PS2 version. I think the remake is recommended, I'm not entirely sure.

Yakuza 2

The remake then two then 4 then 5 then 0

why no 3

gee, I wonder how

Or you can do it like me and play them in order of release

I can't find a copy of Yakuza 3 anywhere. Is 3 really that skipable? I heard they cut a lot of content from the japanese version.

But zero isn't the first game in the series, just story-wise.

this. If you play in order of release you pretty much get what everybody else got experience wise.

If you own a PS2 and don't mind hunting down physical copies, then fine, start with Yakuza 1 and 2.
I'm not going to judge somebody for not going to that length just to get into the series. I started with Yakuza 3, which opens with a recap of the events of the previous two games.
The easiest way is just buying Yakuza 4 and 5 off PSN, that's open to anybody with a PS3. Yakuza 4 has an even more extensive recap of the first three games, and it includes many of the cutscenes from those games in that recap.
A lot of the charm of the series is from the characters and their interactions, but they don't just rely on the first games, they also build those interactions over time. This means starting at 3 or 4 is going to be a fun experience, and then if you're curious about something they keep hinting at, you can just go look it up. These are long-ass games so it's not like you're cheating yourself out of content, there's more side quests than you'll ever want to finish.

the cut content from Yakuza 3 primarily consisted of a trivia quiz that would have had to have been completely rewritten for non-Japs to play, and the hostess club segments. There are extensive hostess club segments in 4 and 5, so you aren't going to be hurting for hostess club time in these games.
Some people say you can skip 3 because the plot is basically "The Dragon wants to get out but they keep pulling him back in", but honestly that happens in every single game.

Start with the very first one?

Are you all intentionally being retarded or is reading just beyond you?

Play the original PS2 game first. The gameplay evolves from series to series and it'd be weird to start out with the remake which has 0's gameplay ripped out of it only to move to 2.

I recommend emulating or pirating the original 2 games, mainly because the series does get better and better with each game. If you want to get that up to date with the series there's no shame in starting with 0, Kiwami, or any of the entries on PS3 barring Dead Souls, though it does mess up the sense of progression and it might feel like a drag going backwards.

I started with yakuza 3 not knowing about all the cut shit and thought it was a fantastic game, it was even worth getting a PS3 for.

Yakuza Dead Souls

HAHAHAHAHAH !

the remake hasn't come to the west yet, you'd have to wait till 2017 unless you know japanese.
like says, the remake uses a different system and it would be strange and probably not helpful to go from that to yakuza 2's combat system.
Yakuza 1 was dubbed in english unfortunately, and the voice acting is not great, there does not seem to be an undub yet either.
i tolerated it and finished it, Yakuza 1 is kind of a pain in the ass for many reasons, having to do those training moves 10 times when trying to get new moves from that martial arts guy, one boss has I-frames where he does a ranged attack, hordes of fuckin people who want to fight you in the city and you can't skip the fight start cutscene so it takes a while, etc. Yakuza 2 is easier so far but i am only at Chapter 4. first two games have this fixed camera angle sort of thing which can be annoying at times.
i'm emulating it by the way, in 1080p. it has some graphics issues, especially in yakuza 2 which gets blurry sometimes, but only at resolutions that aren't the original resolution. plus sometimes there will be glowing vertical lines on the right side of the screen in both games at that resolution sometimes. i found it tolerable.
probably would be. lots of stuff happens and its enjoyable to experience it.


first two images are Yakuza 1, last one is Yakuza 2.

>tfw you had to deal with that dub tho

Man, emulated at a higher resolution something about those images just doesn't look right to me.

Man, I really didn't want to skip a game after playing the first two, even with bad localization. They didn't even bothered to make a PSN release for Yakuza 3, the game really mustn't have sold well.

I just hope I can get into 4 without feeling I missed a chunk of the story. Also knowing how things work they will probably release a collection with all 3 PS3 games on the PS4 the moment I go and buy Yakuza 4.

most of the textures are low res but being displayed at a high resolution
it may be a bit blurrier than it should be as well, typically around light sources.
heres more screenshots from Yakuza 2, which has worse problems than Yakuza when emulated.


why skip Yakuza 3? i've heard a Shenmueaboo say its better than Shenmue.

at this rate that will happen in 2021. Yakuza 6 is supposed to come to the west in 2018, after all.

Now I havent gotten that far in Shenmue 1, but I'm not sure if you can compare the two. Shenmue still has a day to night cycle, loads of object interactivity, Sega arcade games, and poor english voice acting Along with a cliffhanger ending

Fuck, that was exactly my plan since the price of a decent copy of Yakuza has shot up above $100 here, and that's not even everything (usually just a scratched disk and the case)

Of Yakuza 2*
It's really annoying that there haven't been digital rereleases as well. First 3 games are physical collectors items across two platforms and then you still have the PS4's slowly building lineup as well?

Having fun with 1 but the series is too expensive for its own good

user emulating Yakuza, any special settings for the games to work? I feel that the PCSX2 wiki is ancient as fuck.
I could probably ask this on the emulation thread but whatever

the problems only happen at above native resolutions as far as i know, so i think you could emulate it just fine at native resolution. but i like things in high resolution more than i care about blur and some other problems. the most notable flaws are the full screen blurriness that happens at times and weird lines through some 2D images, like some item images in the inventory. occassionally the right side of the screen will have bright vertical lines at the edge, not that horrible but can be annoying. i'd rather not bother with this game on native hardware, its nicer in higher res even with the annoyances at times.


download the most recent dev release, for Windows you get it from here: pcsx2.net/download/development/git.html
then in your GSdx Settings, use the OpenGL hardware renderer. set the CRC hack level to none (debug), enable accurate date, put blending unit accuracy to full (ultra might be better?) or closest to that setting your computer can handle, in shader configuration enable FXAA, enable large framebuffer if your computer is good enough. anisotropic filtering is x16 but i don't think it really does much of anything. internal resolution is set to custom, at 1920 by 1080 of course. for emulation settings, aspect ration of the GS window is 16:9 and MTVU (for people with 3 or more cores, usually helps to speed it up if its slow) is enabled, rest are stock settings. these settings seemed to make it work the best at this resolution. iirc when i was testing it using native x4 it eliminated the blurriness but there are giant black lines on the bottom and right sides of the screen, like part of a box. sort of annoying and not easy to ignore.

might be worth asking the emu thread guys anyway, maybe someone got it to work better.


yeah i know, although the object interactivity is often just for show and doesn't really even accomplish much from what Shenmue i have played. play an undub if you don't like the voice acting, some of it just hurts my ears honestly.

Oh dear this thread is not going well.

we got people saying to start with the remake others saying start at 0 and a few claiming some games are skippable.

start at release order 1 and 2 emulate fairly well then move your way through the series. if you go right now it will take you around a year to a year and a half to get through all of them just in time for 6!

This series takes work to fully enjoy your gett ing into a series that is over a decade old with games that span 3 generations of hardware start from the beginings and see how mechanics grow and evolve over the course of the franchise.

and to those saying that 3 is skippable just because it has cut content go and import a japanese copy and get a walkthrough if it bothers you that much, 3 has some of the best characters in the entire franchise in my opionion.

Yakuza 3 is a good game but it has a lot of issues with it's cut content.
Even if you can get over the cut content it still has issues and quirks resulting from the cut content.
The parts in Okinawa are pretty cool though if you like Japan.

Here is how you should progress:
Yakuza (original): emulate on PC if you can or just buy a copy off ebay
Yakuza 2: same as original
Yakuza 3: buy off a site, play through
Yakuza 4: buy off PSN and play through
Yakuza 5: buy off PSN and play as well
Yakuza 0: This is a prequel game, more of an origin story than anything, not out yet.
Yakuza Dead Souls: Spinoff zombie shooter
Yakuza (Ishin/Kenzan): spinoff games in feudal japan, not released in west
Yakuza 6: not out
Yakuza Remastered on PS3/Wii U: not released in west, no english version
Yakuza Remake on PS4: not out in west, probably not coming out


I don't think Yakuza remake will come to west. We were lucky to get Zero as it is.

Yakuza Kiwami was announced for mid 2017

I'm still surprised Kiwami and 6 are coming out in the west, I guess 5 did great and 0 had good pre order numbers.

Jesus Christ.