Yakuza / Hokuto ga Gotoku Thread - Previously on Holla Forums... Edition

I got bored of grinding the hostess club trying to unlock the ultimate style for Majima. I should go back and finish the main story at least.
I would love to have Hokuto Ga Gatoku release in the west, I enjoy Fist of the North Star.

If it doesn't happen (probably won't), you can always use the english walkthrough. It's very comprehensive and I was able to play all the way through without any problems.

Most important thing to know is that the Nishikiyama character is just as much of a whiny bitch as the original

Gotta be honest, I was and still am pretty hype for Hokuto no Ken. At first I had never seen Fist of the North Star and was just happy that they were going to make a Yakuza game for some anime. Now I've actually started watching Fist of the North Star and am wondering if they can do it justice for the simple reason that Ken is a fucking badass murder machine and any time a MC in Yakuza even thinks about killing, they either bitch out, someone else does the job for them, or by some ridiculous lot twist it turns out they were stupid enough to be tricked into thinking they killed people. (Lookin' at you Saejima.) I mean, we have already been shown an exploding goon getting shindeiru'd so I guess it can't be that bad, but I hope they don't go too heavy on the "THESE HANDS HAVE KILLED!" themes that are heavy in a lot of nip media.

I'm honestly more excited for Hokuto ga Gotoku than I am Kiwami 2.

Western Ishin and Kenzan when?
WHEN?

Never ever

If only people had bought the Pii U port of 1+2 maybe then we would have more cross platform releases.

Just finished it (71h and 72% completion). I accept it as something different but I think it's got a LOT of warts. My modest two cents:
There's about 10 weapons and their all the standard sort besides, arguably, Ryuuji's gatling arm. In some spots you'll find a stationary weapon that uses electric discharges, there should have been a portable version of that.
Melee moves are shared by all characters which was kinda disappointing. I was expecting Ryuuji to bash heads with his cyborg arm.
About 15% of Kamurocho is left unscathed (Nakamichi St and part of Senryo Av) and while I appreciate the idea of the expanding quarantine zone, in practice it piles up a lot of dead ends and shuts some shortcuts so it feels like you're "trading" some parts for others instead of expanding.
Game wears out its welcome quickly; every spot will have the same enemies while the subterranea (think of it like ghetto Chalice Dungeons) takes ages to finish unless you just leg it. You have to really love shooting zombies.
The back and forth from quarantine gate to wherever you have to go in there gets grating after a while, especially because you can't run here.
Substories are pretty weak. There's 15 per character but some have several parts that can play out successively so in practical terms it feels a lot less. They're also not all that entertaining which is a shame because the very first two had me in stitches (I'd say each character has about 2 good ones).
Partners are kinda pointless and besides Kiryu's (Arase and Date), the characters themselves kinda suck; Akiyama gets a literal cuck, Ryuuji gets a pussy ass host and Majima gets a 40 year old edgelord.
It's likely a honest-to-God coincidence but a lot of the big set pieces in the story feel like RE4-6 on a very tight budget.
Performance issues. Frequent frame rate drops, things just popping in and out and the game froze on me twice but I accept that last one being due to my PS3 being old.
There's no quick turn and using aim will make the camera face the direction the character is facing rather than the direction you're pointing at which forces you to run a few extra meters to turn around and engage.
On the previous note, all the zombies in this game were olympic runners before kicking the bucket; these fuckers run and will chase you to the ends of the Earth. Basically, the player handles like RE1 and the enemies act like they're from Nioh or something. There's also zombies that can knock you flat with a tackle which they can start with no momentum leading to situations where one zombie ultra combos your ass with 3 or 4 tackles in a row.
Personal thing and I know it's an actual plot point but Ryuuji feels very mellow in this game. Did Kiryu beat the testosterone out of him back in Yakuza 2? I get wanting to tone him down a bit since he's a "hero" now but his whys are never properly explained. On the flipside, Majima is probably too wacky for his own good.
Game looks very drab for the most part, a lot of washed out blues and greys though it does look nice at night in the quarantine with all the fires, smokes and lit signs.
The finale kicks in with no chance to play as the other characters besides Kiryu. Mixed feelings on this though since the sequence itself is pretty cool but it's all Kiryu and Ryuuji, it feels like they wanted to write a scenario where they're kinda sorta buddies and this was the only way.
Premium has a ton of good shit (costumes, replay options, a non-zombified Kamurocho so you can go play mini-games etc) but each character's "quarantine mode" is the same as it is in the story so, per instances, Akiyama only gets Tenkaichi St and Theater Sq which is pretty fuckin' lame.

All that said, there's some things about it I really liked: OST is top notch, the beginning of Kiryu's campaign goes exactly as you'd expect it to go, some substories, it has probably one of the better overall hostess experiences and to those who missed out on 3 and 4, it's a good opportunity to play some of its unique mini-games and karaoke songs since all the side stuff feels lifted from those games.
Don't think I'll be doing another run anytime soon if ever but for a €4 purchase, I'd say I got a lot of mileage out of it.

Been a long time since the last HGG update (TGS). Surprised they still haven't confirmed Juda, Shuu and Mamiya or Bat and Lynn if they want to Haruka it up.

(Heil!'ed)
Kenshiro's a cold blooded motherfucker but he does mellow down a bit as the story progresses. That or it's because the later parts don't have the unique Hokuto Shinken techniques being used as often and things like the freeze frame as the technique's name appears on screen or the "you have x seconds to live" countdown are almost dropped entirely.
On that note, I hope the five finger burst makes it to the game, preferably with the x-ray effect.

same.

i;d be more excited for kiwami 2 if it was using zeros combat instead of sixes.

...

Arase finally got her.
F

VA died yesterday, apparently of illness. She was found in her car with seatbelt strapped and ready to call it a day. She's mostly famous for playing Bulma in the Dragon Ball series.

I finished PS2 Yakuza 1 a mount ago and loved it. Easy could be one of my all time top 20 games list. Started playing Yakuza 2 and it starts out strong but took a break after exploring Osaka for a bit because I caved into temptation buying a copy of Yakuza 0 because I assumed the newest game would be "better"due to years of refinement of the formula. I figured considering its a prequel that it should be safe to play.

Zero is honestly its a mixed bag compared to the original. Its not bad, but its also verrrrrrry boring at times. The side quest are so cookie cutter and the main plot is not really that interesting ether, plus the combat is way too easy. I am honestly confused about Majima because the last time I saw him was when he was played by Mark Hamill and I assumed him to be a Sociopath but the character you play as in Zero so far has been a Boy Scout although the cliffhanger at the end of his chapter is interesting. A part of me wants to play the whole series at some point. There is also the issue that Yakuza 3 is Disk Only and my PS3 Blueray is broken (and I don't plan on upgrading my PC any time soon so I doubt I can run it on RPCS3).

Ultimately, I am a bit letdown so far by Zero because it is basically so far a watered-down rehash of Yakuza 1 & 2. Something missing without Haruka. On the one hand when its good, its good but when its boring its sleep-inducing. I often avoid threads about games I am currently playing but then when I am done with the game I often don't feel the compulsion to talk about them much.

where the PC ports at Sega?

soon

ever ask yourself, what is the deal with Pocket Tissues?!

New stream of the Yakuza 0 playthrough by the game's localizers. Starts at 12:55h.
And part 2 - youtube.com/watch?v=R5DGc7N5Gtw
Some tidbits from the stream:
In Japan it's perfectly fine to read the magazines and not buy them.
It's possible to pay bills and wire money at convenience stores.
Pre-production in localization plays a important role in the quality of the end product, instead of jumping in on the translated text, it's important to play the game to get a feel of things and what kind of challenges might pop up. Some titles don't get this benefit in their localization.
Cover art for Y6 revealed.
VGAs are mentioned and they're a bit disappointed Yakuza 0 was in no category. I don't know if you happen to glance Peruvian cave painting appreciation forums but know that it was my GOTY, Scott.
They mention the passing of Hiromi Tsuru, given they reach a story point that introduces Reina.
They mention that the scene where Awano and his underlings walk into Serena for Kiryu was something that would be very rare to see IRL because yakuza normally prefer to keep things discrete and not interrupt local businesses.

There's probably other things that slipped by. Tbh there's another user who does a much better job at summarizing these.

but honestly people. Haven't you ever asked yourself if you honestly ever needed a Pocket Tissue? WHY POCKET TISSUES? WHATS THE DEAL WITH THE POCKET TISSUES?! I mean honestly

The real question is why the game never prompts you to wipe your ass with them.

...

Couldn't resist doing one last thing before dropping Dead Souls - fight Amon. Unlike the previous games, this isn't tied to substories but the subterranea which is its own substory that every character plays a part in.
Amon is fought twice with the first being a very easy warm-up round. Though, overall, this is probably the easiest Amon or, at least, the one you can beat quickest not counting the knife throw trick you can use on Jo in Zero. It's basically the second last boss plus the trademark Amon dark energy beam.
Beating Amon earns you the satellite laser weapon which is as stupidly overpowered as it sounds.
A interesting tidbit is that the battle theme is 'Rebellions' from Yakuza 4.

It's a Japanese thing. You wouldn't get it Jerry.
Basically, it's a form of marketing with a side of pragmatism. In-game, there's a few moments where they're useful/needed.

Clearly they provide a tissue box there, which is more than can be said for public restrooms in Japan.

I didn't know about the KHH translation, I'll keep that handy for whenever I get Ishin. Thanks user.

I felt bad for Nishiki after Kiwami fleshed him out. It and 0 kind of made me wish he was playable, though I guess that would clash with how incapable/weak he's meant to be prior to becoming evil.

0 is a huge reference to 1, and has events basically lifted from it (like the Tojo HQ escape), which makes playing 1 or Kiwami before or after it feel really weird.

Though I really think 0 is one of the best ones; but you actually get the MOST out of it if you played the other games beforehand. Like in 5 Majima's crazy facade starts to crack and you learn more about him pre-Yakuza 1 And there are references or "call forwards".

0 is basically repressed Majima, and gives him the reasons for him to go wild and start living without caring.

The story starts off kinda uninteresting but the plot of land is basically at the center of the Millenium tower in future games. Majima's side starts off more interesting with Makoto, but it takes a while for Kiryu's side to get really good.

Meanwhile I think 0 (and Kiwami's) gameplay is the best in the series. Some of 0's shit is broken, though, which was fixed in Kiwami. Yakuza 1/2 are pretty stiff compared.

I also really think that 1 has pretty bad padding/pacing in the main story, having you do what feels like busywork put in to pad out the game. A lot of the sidequests are also really short and shallow, compared to the later games.

I really like 1, but compared to the later games (especially 2, 5 and 0) it falls somewhat short.

Even with his shortcomings, Nishiki was given a pretty rotten hand to play with. A lot of terrible circumstances play out and I'm left wondering if Shimano wasn't right in saying that Kazama purposefully gave him a bunch of unruly assholes just to fuck with him; I cant accept the fact they're a shit test but that fat cunt might as well have plugged a bullet on Nishiki's sister. I find it hard to believe Kazama wouldn't know about his sister.
And after all that, the Nishikiyama family continues being a shit magnet until it finally expires. Poor guy can't even rest in pepperoni.

I can attest to that. There's way too many parallelisms and some feel kinda dumb like Kashiwagi coming with a truck full of goons.
0's my favorite though Kiwami fine tuned the combat to a much better state.

...

Definitely, they did a good job of making him more sympathetic this time around considering how hard he was to empathise with in the original. Also, I think his new model really helps in that regard too. It goes without saying that the Kiwami model's more expressive since the first game's 11 years older, but in the first game Nishiki had this insufferably smug look on his face all the time which made him even more of a dick.
That's a good point, never thought of that.

but it is sorta why I don't like it. The Original games combat could be a bit changeling at times, not because its that sophisticated but because there was just some idiocracies with the controls that forced you to pay attention and play more deliberate. While minor their was a genuine luring curve with the combat. The refined systems of 0 are great in theory but in practice its overkill and ends up being more like Batman: Arkham Asylum at times. Maybe if they started introducing enemies with weapons earlier and had team of more than your typical 3-5 goons. Don't get me wrong, I actually really like 0 and my option might change by the end of the game. I'm only on Chapter 6 but so far it feels like they where playing things too safe at times so it comes of as derivative. The best two fight's so far was the first one with Kuze and the optional fight with Mr. Shakedown. Every other Chapter boss has been rather anti-climatic. Then again I am a procrastinator, having sent hours completing every single side quest I come across, addicted to Pocket Racing so being over-leveled might be the issue.

learning*

Yeah, part of the problem with 0 is that it's really easy to get overleveled from side content, because the game keeps pouring money on you.

Kiwami's leveling up system is different, requiring you to get experience. And the best way to get experience is from Majima Everywhere, which you can't exploit because the game stops Majima from appearing when you've fought him enough, until you've advanced the story enough. So you either have to grind for minuscule experience from random battles or just advance the story. That way it limits how much you level up and keeps the game challenging.

It also helps that generally the game feels tougher than 0.

To be fair at least Kiwami showed more why became as twisted as he did, he simply went to far with it.

I could be wrong and correct me if I am, but I think this is Lin. She appears very brief. It is around the 1:40 mark.
youtube.com/watch?v=desQTBKk5fY

And now I'm picturing vid related but with Nishiki, Kiryu and Kazama, the later going "Are you gonna let your kyoudai play? Are you gonna let your kyoudai play? Are you gonna let your kyoudai play?"

On that note, with them constantly modeling the new characters after their VAs, the old ones will start looking odd, particularly oddballs like Hayashi, Shimano and manlet Dojima.

Could be a plothole or, if indeed competitive underwater 7D chessmaster Kazama foresaw it and thought it would be a good motivator for Nishiki to step up to the plate, he's kind of a total piece of shit for making that gamble.

(checked)
I meant fine tuned in relation to 0 since it adds a lot of little nuances that improve the overall experience by a huge margin. But yeah, I see your point, Beast and Breaker basically melt mobs. Though add a enemy with poise and sturdy guard and shit gets real (Colosseum in particular is littered with absurd stuff).

You shouldn't play a Yakuza game if you're not.

I'm going to say no simply because the character designs so far have all stayed faithful to the source material. Then again, I could be wrong. We'll see.

that not necessarily inappropriate but it does seem a bit odd. Takaya Kuroda doesn't even bother to play it a bit differently?

So you're saying that you're playing Yakuza the way it's supposed to be played?

What the hell? Seems like theres a new Yakuza game coming out every day. Is the quality still top notch?

Yakuza is almost a yearly series in Japan. If it's not a mainline game being released, it's a spinoff or remake. It's just that it's been struggling so much in the west until recently. And we're still only getting the mainline games and remakes.

The series was pretty much dead in the west after 4 and Dead Souls released with zero fanfare. Then SEGA asked Sony for help in releasing 5 in the west, and that amounted to a digital-only release.

Afterwards it seems as if the series got a second wind in the west to the point where, according to the streams that the localizers do, SEGA America has dedicated staff to localize the games. This resulted in Yakuza 0, Yakuza Kiwami in quick succession this year, and Yakuza 6 next year. They've hinted at being ready to work on Yakuza Kiwami 2 as well.

SEGA Japan's Yakuza team is still going strong, they're making a Fist of the North Star game (Called Hokuto Ga Gotoku) in the same vein as the Yakuza games. They've also announced what seems to be a continuation of the series after 6 with a new protagonist (named Ichiban) called Shin Ryu Ga Gotoku. And they've remade Yakuza 1 and Yakuza 2.

As for the quality, that's subjective. IMO it's still going strong. 5 is amazing, albeit a bit convoluted. 0 is amazing. Kiwami is a remake of 1 with new scenes and sidequests, with tweaked gameplay from 0.

Although, according to some people who's played 6, it seems like it could be a mixed bag. It's especially hurtful because it seems to be Kiryu's last game. It uses a new engine called the Dragon Engine which allows you to seamlessly enter and exit some interiors and fights, but the framerate takes a hit (it's back to 30, sub-30 at times like the games before 0. 0 and Kiwami were 60). Apparently the story is the worst hit, but I don't have the specifics of how.

Though after playing the demo you can get from Japanese PSN, I really, really like the gameplay.

They revamped Kiryu's combat style; he still has old moves like Tiger Drop and others but his combos are much different; seemingly made for taking on groups of enemies at once. The combat in general takes a while to get used to (and seems pretty slow, but there are upgrades for combo speed), but when you do it starts to feel really good. It feels like he's permanently stuck in Dragon Mode from 5 but slower, and his animations are different save for a few moves.

The heat moves this time around are especially brutal and/or funny. The ragdolling of enemies add another layer of hilarity because they can fly all over the place. Because of the seamlessness of entering battle, you can actually throw or punch enemies into hazards without heat moves. And since there's no wall of people forming an arena, you can actually leg it and run from battles (but why would you). You can get into fights in places in places where you never fought before, like inside convenience stores and fast food places. You can even carry a fight from the street into a store.

Yakuza Kiwami 2 (a remake of 2) uses 6's engine and gameplay, but they'll probably tweak it to make it better the same way Kiwami did for 0's combat.

T R A N Q U I L O

They also said Kiwami 2 is happening because of how well Zero and Kiwami did in the West. They definitely acknowledge the waito deviiru fanbase now.

Must have been a hit with the fans because Kiwami 2 is bringing a truckload of 'rasslers - Keiji Mutoh, Masahiro Chono, Riki Choshu, Genichiro Tenryu, and Tatsumi Fujinami no clue who's who or how big they are popularitywise
They'll be enemies in the new Clan Creator as well as Colosseum opponents, complete with signature moves.

Mutoh and Chono are big, they were on the WCW. Choshu is also big, but I don't know about the other ones.

I don't understand why they don't use Minoru Suzuki, an actual heel, as a bad guy in these games. The NJPW dudes in Y6 are all good guys except for Naito.

Okay can anyone explain to me what this "Clan Creator" stuff in Y6 is about? Don't tell me it's going to be some cancerous online shoehorning where you'll "invade" someone else's "world" with your dudes?

How do we get more Holla Forumsirgins to play these fine games? There are three targets to consider:

1. Normalfags in denial who play mainstream games 'ironically': plus, they would find the action satisfying; minus, they would complain it's too japanese.

2. Weebs who only play moe grindshit or VNs: plus, they are familiar with japan; minus, they get triggered by 3D.

3. Retrokids who make a status symbol of playing old games: plus, Yakuza has plentiful of classic games to dig up; minus, the series is still relatively unknown so there's nothing to virtue signal.

Specification: it's representations of the real world, not 3D graphics.

It's not as obscure as you might think as really big ecelebs like Videogamedunkey has been shilling the series for a good while now.

Dead Souls has awful controls and camera goddamn that flying boss but the autism and story hit all the right notes.

People complained they ripped off Left 4 Dead and Resident Evil, which is true, but who cares. You get it for ruined Kamurocho, and the Majima+Goji arcs which are great. Earnestly so, not like a turn off your brain thing. It also helps if you lower your expectations, as I approached the game like it would be some shitty halloween event.

I only know chono as the guy who slaps yamazaki every year in the gaki no tsukai new years batsu games.

There's two reasons why I still haven't played those games even though I'm convinced it could be one of my favorites of all time :
- fucking money, dude, I'm no richfag
- I have no idea in which order I'm supposed to start since there is a Yakuza 0 and two Yakuza 1 since there's been a remake. Should I play 0, original 1, remake 1, then 2/3/4… or should I play original 1, then remake 1, then 0, then 2/3/4… or…
This doesn't make enough clear sense and as faggy as this sounds it makes me unsure of where to start, and thus of starting at all.

It's best to play them in the chronological order of the games, as they came out. Even though 0 is a prequel there are many references to future events in the previous games, similarly the remake added a lot of new stuff to the story which you may not understand if you haven't played the previous games.

play them in release order. The first two are easy to emulate so you can try em out for free. The third and fourth should also be able to be picked up cheaply if you've got a ps3.

So orig1, 2, 3, 0, remake 1, 4, etc ? Thanks a lot anons ! I guess I'll do just that then. Simply needed that clarification. Can't wait to enjoy that shit, everything I've seen and heard about it makes it sound genuinely like a series I'd adore.

I love these games but seriously this Majima Everywhere system can fuck right off. Having to wait until endgame to finally make the Dragon style worthwhile to use is tedious. I'm probably being a whiny bitch but grinding for Komaki's scrolls was enough for me.

Am I meant to do this shit on a second playthrough or something?

Nah, it's a flaw I found with Kiwami as well. Majima is fun to fight the first few times but gets tedious later on, especially when you need certain types of Majima to spawn. Dragon Style is useless until near the end of the game which I found severely annoying. The strength of it helps make up for it, but only a little. You're not meant to do it on NG+, since Majima will stop appearing until you progress the story.

I really hope Kiwami 2 doesn't have anything like it, or anything like a super-enemy that you're required to defeat repeatedly to level up a style. Shakedowns in 0 were fine because you could ignore them and level up all your styles because money kept pouring in from other places.

It's a tactical RTS kind of thing where you recruit people through substories and scouting people in random battles. Also you can get unlock codes to get characters, like cheats I guess?

I'm not sure how it works but it seems to be a single player thing with an optional multiplayer feature. The single player part is taking on the gangs trying to take over Kamurocho and Onomichi, and the multiplayer thing is just pitting your gang against another player's gang online. Because it seems like the boss wrestler dudes are bosses of a single player campaign.

This is what I gathered from here, where they mention taking your clan online last, yakuza.sega.com/yakuza6/adventure-clancreator.html

Easy

Thank fuck it's optional. Also I hope it'll end up better than fighter maker in Yakuza 4 where I ended up most of it yelling at the TV because your disciple's AI was fucking retarded

He has some good “AH-TA”s. But yeah, this game is pretty much “The Kamurocho Theatrical Society presents; Fist of the North Star.”

Well, Kamurocho is based on a place called Kabukicho. I mean sure the theater its namesake is based off of was never built, but whatever.

I think user meant the fact that every character in HGG is voiced by someone who voiced a character in Yakuza (something they make a point in underlining) and there's even semblances between some like Nishiki-Shin, Ryuji-Raoh or Majima-Jagi.

let's talk about Takumi and how he should have been the real final boss. >That entire fight, >That music. Absolute KINO

It reminds me a bit of Kenzan and Ishin in that sense.

i like how kiwami's end-game features a date-a-loli mode where you walk around with a loli holding hands and buying her things and taking her places to date.

THAT'S YOUR DAUGHTER MAN, WHAT THE FUCK

age and dna are just numbers and number sequences. cant get in the way of true love.

die

...

DELET THIS

WHERES KENNY!

nice trips but die

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Seems better than the jacked up salaryman but does it really make a difference? Chronologically speaking, Ryuuji was probably the last guy that seemed like a threat. Ever since, it's been Kiryu schooling some punks who thought they were too big for their britches.
But speaking of worthy opponents, Amon got cucked out of his win.

I see these then I look back at how I perform and just fuck my life.

TOTAL REMAKE

...

I have always actually wondered if the Yakuza series took some inspiration from Hokuto no Ken with some of the similarities.

When do you think the Kiwami 2 demo will be up on Japanese PSN?

I wonder if I can at least start downloading it early.

I get a lot of Golgo 13 vibes from the series a lot of the time.

A glimpse at the new cabaret club mini-game. Includes the introductory cutscene. Starts around the 9m mark.

Honestly, after reading the manga and watching the anime I can't shake the notion that practically every manga, anime or vidya where people get punched took something from HnK.

Probably tomorrow. Guess it's a matter of making the occasional "龍が如く 極2" search on YT, surely someone's gonna drop footage of it asap.

I kinda wished Zero had rebooted the series, so they could have mopped up all the weak plots from the sequels. And possibly featured the return of Zero's surviving villains.

Seems like they're going to have the traditional heat gauge. Yakuza 6 has orbs that I'll probably take a bit to get used to.

Is the girl with the glasses… Yuki? And she's the owner of club Four Shine?

Goddamn, I really liked her in 0, and I'm glad she's back. I assume she's in her late 30s or early 40s, because I'm assuming she's around 20 or more in 0. She's still adorable.

Also the Obatarian is present.

The cabaret club looks just like 0's but probably with a little more tweaks. Seems like when you send out Platinum hostesses for the first time in a club battle they get introductory cutscenes. And Kiryu gets the same cutscene as Majima when he responds correctly to a Platinum hostess' request.

They put how much the rival club(? I think) is earning just for a little more pressure, it seems. In 0 the earnings were measured by gauges.

I don't know how the rich guy in the last 10 seconds happened, but it was funny seeing the Obatarian jump up and down for money.

Yikes. This seems weird as hell. I hope the other girls are better.

what makes it better is shes supposed to be based off the girl on stream.

She looks fine IRL, but her face looks terrible in the game. I wonder how the other girls will look.

Yes, it was confirmed in a previous update. I wonder if Majima will stop by to grill her for old time's sake.

The bit that got me curious is the girl's now have a
"Potential" icon.

When her actual self appeared on the stream I was honestly confused, thought the bitch was CG for a second.

I thought she had a pretty odd face in IRL too, but didn't think much of it, since I thought she was just some other developer/arists or whatever. I'm surprised that she's a hostess.

The other girls do look better.

Yuki is the best, though

i always thought the hostesses that were based on real people looked off especially when compared to original girls the team designed like pic related.

Never gets old.

Debatable.

Must suck not having a husband and kids.

She's plenty cute.

I liked Saejima and Akiyama. Tanimura and Shinada were the weakest parts of their respective games.

Shinada grew on me, but Tanimura never did.

I love Shinada. His personality, district, quests and his fighting style. Tanimura was meh but I really liked his parry and grapple-based style.

The only thing I liked about Tanimura was his counter-based fighting style, which is the most OP shit when you think about it since you can parry both fists and weapons from any direction, remember that crazy Russian guy in the underground arena in 0 that had Saejima's moves? Remember what a tough son of a bitch he was? Imagine if they gave someone Tanimura's parry, now THAT shit would be unfair as fuck.

You look at her and think the most risqué thing she's done was take photos in a bikini but she's got around 1400 videos and she's about 29-30. That's a lotta dick. JAV can be a bit scary sometimes.

Shinada is great as a character but suffers from a move style that feels like a Frankenstein of half-baked ideas and even if his arc is interesting, he adds jack shit to the story besides making it even more complicated when it's the last thing it needs.
Saejima and Akiyama are great. Shame we'll probably never have a game with them revamped to the Zero/Kiwami system.

Who do you think controls the JAV industry?

I know that was just a figure of speech, but I can tell she takes dicks by the "smile" and lack of wedding ring. Taking dicks is basically a requirement to model anyway.

Legitimate business men wrongfully accused of a litany of crimes like extorsion, running gambling and prostitution rings, loan-sharking, taking hold of construction contracts etc.

They must be pretty chivalrous organizations then.

Kiwami 2 demo is out

store.playstation.com/ja-jp/product/JP0177-CUSA10583_00-RYUKIWAMI2JP0000

Almost 10GB.

The demo takes place in Sotenbori. Also the combat feels much quicker and tighter than in 6.

Although that could be because you start off with upgraded stats and abilities. Because I saw some things in the upgrade menu selected, and I managed to pull of a Tiger Drop on someone.

am i the only person who liked tanimura?

Japanese boxart.

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Kiryu has context sensitive throws when he's on a flight of stairs. I'm not sure if this was in Yakuza 6 or if it's an upgrade.

Kiwami 2's demo starts you off at a higher level with upgrades (vid related), but Y6 is the first hour of the game. So I can't see the tweaks beyond the UI, if there are any.

Also it seems like you can't save your game like the Yakuza 6 demo allows.

Love it. Can't wait for it to come stateside.

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I don't think it's the stairs but rather a counter when you've grabbed a enemy, Satan. He has something to that effect in Kiwami.

The regular throw can fling them off? That's quite the game changer but I suppose it's the same in 6.

Wonder if Kiwami 2's gone gold by now. After all, it's out in about 3 weeks.

Watch when he grabs the first pair of enemies and pushes them down when he's higher up on the staircase. When he's lower down than the enemy, he grabs their legs and pulls them down.

You don't get like the normal grab when you're on the stairs, Kiryu immediately pushes or pulls an enemy down. You don't get an option to do otherwise, Kiryu automatically does a throw.

I have to test this somehow in the demo of 6, to see if it's there.

And yeah you can throw them over barriers. In the demo of 6 I don't think there's any areas you can do that since it takes place in Kamurocho. I know you can do it in Jingaicho though.

The problem with the regular throw is that you can't be close to any solid object, otherwise Kiryu will lose his grip on the enemy while swinging them around. So you can't be too close to the barrier you're attempting to fling them over.

I didn't even know I got satan trips

Never mind. I was paying more attention to the Heat move because in the original 2 he has a staircase throw Heat.

Anyway, what Kiryu lost in move sets, he certainly makes up in savagery. Damn!

That groin-to-pole one is from 6 too. I think all of 6's heat actions return as well as some new ones. I know the brutal knife one is in there too.

The clothes iron one is great. You get access to a ton of weapons in the demo so you can do heat moves with most of them.

Yakuza 6 demo doesn't have weapons unless the enemies you're fighting brought some.

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Sigh, I can no longer play the entire series on my PS3

I know that feel bro. I'm buying a PS4 solely for the Yakuza series, but I'll be able to do it in a year's time at the earliest because I'm a poorfag. I only played 0 for about an hour at a friend's house and it blew me away.

I got a PS4 for 0, honestly. I don't really have any regrets since I play the console a fair amount.

I won't have any regrets either, it's just that financially I can't afford a PS4 with all the Yakuza games just yet. I always get more than my money's worth on Yakuza game since I have the completionist's curse, so I often clock in 100+ hours easily. On the bright side I did actually learn how to play Shogi for example I still don't know how MahJewng works though, I just used cheat items and pushed buttons, fuck that minigame

I dig the fuck out of it but it also looks a bit Liefeldish. Something about the cover girl's CLAMP as fuck noodle arms.

Well, Tetsuo Hara's getting up there in age, right? I'm sure his Keratoconus is especially harsh in his old age at this point.

Maybe it has zombie hostesses like that one substory in Dead Souls.

On that note, Y6, YK2 and HGG are pretty much my whole list at the moment. You can easily clock 100+ hours on these games Y5 took me about 220+ hours to finish and it was at around 70% completion but wish there was something else because the risk of getting burned out is there. Nips blew their load this year.

I see the soft/hard contrast he went for with the figures but yeah, it does look a bit iffy in some points. That said, I kinda want it to be the western cover just for the shitstorm over muh damsels.

Yakuza 5 was something else. I doubt we'll see something as ambitious again and it makes me kind of sad. It was convoluted and Shinada's connection to the overall plot makes no sense but fuck I loved every other bit of the game.

As for my list; there are a bunch of games that are multiplatform like Ace Combat 7, but they're on my list mostly because my PC is kind of a toaster. It's getting up in years and can't run most games without stuttering on medium/low difficulty. It does require a fair amount of upgrading, too.

I have a few games I've yet to buy, like Odin Sphere Leifthrasir and FFXII Zodiac Age.

Lemme guess… you got stuck at that coliseum battle where you have a limited amount of health? I swear that shit took me about a week to beat with Akiyama

It's the opposite for me, I fucking love Nip mahjong but can't understand shogi at all.

would it be too much trouble to actually make the character models look more fucked up as the fight goes on? every game should be expected to have that level of detail now.

A friend of mine was so fed up with shogi he actually went through the effort of trying to find a good shogi engine, looking through nip torrent sites (he can't read moonrunes) and then after somehow finding and setting it up he replicated the engine's moves and won every time.

Due to Hokuto Ga Gotoku I wanted to listen to Ai Wo Torimodose again, and I came across this.

I can't really stop listening to it.

Bretty gud. Been meaning to get back on this one.
Price tag aside, it certainly should be the gold standard for remasters/remakes. Funny how it's the studio of half a dozen dudes the one that bothers giving a shit.
If you don't have it for PS3, I can't recommend the upcoming Dragon's Crown Pro enough. Personally, I'm still booty blasted there's no new classes but to people who missed the original and have a PS4, I dare say it's a must.

Nah. I just horse around a lot. I don't play for 100% completion but if there are things I think I can or aren't too tedious, I go for it. The colosseum did take me a lot of time, mostly just to build rank there and I haven't even taken Shinada and Akiyama to do some serious fights. Zero's is even worse; I still haven't unlocked the last tournament and along with the last two opponents (and I got the gold pistol and god of war charm to speed it up).

no trumpets/10

Oh man yeah, I had Dragon's Crown on PS3, which is why it isn't on my PS4 list. If it had new classes and whatever I'd be all over it.

To be honest if Muramasa vita got a port I'd buy it in a heartbeat.

Also I can't wait to see the hostess girls in Hokuto.

ARE YOU READY TO SEDUCE Yuda and crossdressing Jagi?

I picked up Yakuza Kiwami on a whim a few days ago. The game feels really railroaded and I'm 2 hours in. Does the game ever turn me loose? I just caught up with Reina after the 10 years in prison.

Yeah, it turns you loose soon. You have to run around and do some busywork for a small while but eventually you'll have the whole of Kamurocho open to you.

Went back to 6's demo to test the stairs thing. It's present and it seems like something Kiryu has from the start.

Also man, going back to the unupgraded Kiryu in the 6 demo after playing the pre-upgraded Kiryu for the Kiwami 2 demo feels weird.

Should I even though I haven't played through the original?

How would that even work? Though I guess the Joke with Majima was that he stuck out like a sore thumb with his eyepatch and goatee. But trying to apply the same joke to pic related seems like overkill. Yuda seems like it could work, especially if Rei is involved in some way

I'm pretty sure the actual characters will retain their original characterizations, it's just that the voice actors voice them. Kenshiro's doing different stuff since it's a Yakuza game, but I don't think you'll get Jagi acting like Majima. If I remember in the Kenzan and Ishin games, Majima's character was more a straight up villain, it'll probably be the same here.

Trips confirm somewhat, Majima's characters were just as unhinged as Majima is. The difference here is that Hokuto no Ken already has an established role and everything so I doubt they'll change it too much, while they had more free reign to characterize the historical characters from Kenzan (Miyamoto Musashi and his exploits) and Ishin (the Shinsengumi)

Yeah. As is, I'm not gonna double dip either.

Ditto. One of the few games I feel I'm missing out on.

They've shown the ones Kenshiro will be working with. Seems like Zero's cabaret club plus bouncer duty. Omae wa mou too much to drinkeiru.

IIRC the game takes the leash off on Ch4.

I'd say get it if you've the coin to spare and if playing the original first is a factor, put it aside until you've done that. It's a good deal. These games seem to be resistant to price drops.

There will be shenanigans nonetheless.

So far I've played through the first game, haven't completed the second, don't have a copy of the third, and got 4 from PS+. Pretty much sitting on 2 till I get interested again. It's pretty easy to get people interested in Yakuza if you just show them the gameplay or story. Probably the only trouble you'd have are the first two games, given their age.

I don't understand why weeaboos would not want to play Yakuza. I mean, they can't be so shallow that they'd avoid game just because the game is too "3D". Doesn't the series get a little more "anime" or "action movie" later on too?

Yeah I've been wanting to get into the series though I hear it's most rewarding playing in release order. I've played a bit of the first game emulated but man it controls rough and the English voice acting.

If you don't like the voice acting Date's voiced by Goofy and Majima by Mark Hamill by the way, remember that the rest of the series has no dub since it'd be too much work and anyone who got hooked by the first game probably isn't the sort to strongly demand dubs for any reason. It's not like Sonic where only the west likes it much.

I bombarbed a friend with screenshots from Zero's side quests and that did the trick.
But in Zero's specific case, I gotta agree with the localizers - if the scene where Kiryu meets the three lieutenants or Majima's opening scene do nothing for you just move along, this game isn't for you.

Probably because it's a full blown testosteronefest in a contemporary setting with arguably no waifus (certainly no playable female characters) and dome might have even fallen for the "nip GTA" meme, regardless of how abhorrently wrong it is.

And then, I guess there's the reluctance to play the games by order or do the homework to catch on the stories and characters because this shit sure ain't easy to get into with the added hurdle of poor translations in the first games. On that note…

Every time you see them talk about some guy named Fuuma in the first three games, the actual name is Kazama. The geniuses who localized the first game changed his name thinking we're a bunch of retards who couldn't tell the difference between Kazama Shintaro and Kiryu Kazuma.

They also changed Kiryu's orphanage name from Morning Glory to Sunshine for some reason, it's even explained why Kiryu renamed the orphanage from Sunflower to Morning Glory, it's because they're both flowers which gain full bloom in the sun. Also the renaming thing kinda reminds me of the old LotR cartoon which changed Saruman's name to Aruman because they thought that kiddies would be too dumb to differentiate him and Sauron.

Yakuza 1 at least is rather gynocentric, ironically, since two of the most important characters are a missing woman and a little girl who hangs out with you for a large chunk of the story. Many of the characters also have fun and do immature things, even Kiryu sometimes, so it's not like it's a playable testosterone injection. I can understand the anime/LN/VN Otaku having little interest in Yakuza since they appear to think that even having more than one male protagonist is too much of a sausagefest or potentially a cuckfest. When it comes to weeaboos I understand that many of them are into effeminate things but the only people I've come across who openly hate masculine anything in entertainment, or when entertainment isn't a cute girl tacofest are half/a/ users, Holla Forums users, and self-hating nu-males. There's some anons even here who refuse to play male characters even if it limits gameplay or playstyle options, but that's still a fringe opinion.

man this is some good shit, im glad they did a good job with outlaw's lullaby

Thank fucking god

Kiwami demo 2 is pretty good. My nip is limited but improving and I haven't played 2 so my understanding of what is being said is limited, but it is pretty good. I definitely look forward to it. Was hoping the arcade games would be demo playable but no dice. Also happy the music is less remix more remake. I love electronic music but it doesn't fit the series so well. Fights are smooth. Like the fact that I can mow down benches and bicycles and I don't have to wait for small indoor areas to load. Overall, pretty great.

Definitely getting increasingly hype for Hokuto Ga Gotoku as well.

That nose is pretty european

The music is great in the Kiwami 2 demo. I don't appreciate most of the music in Kiwami at all beyond a few tracks.

One thing I find slightly irking is that Kiwami 2's fights aren't as snappy to get into as 6.

In 6's demo the enemies detect you, run up to you, and as soon as their name appears on screen you can start punching away. At first it caught me off guard when the enemies clocked me a few times as soon as the fight started but once I learned that's how they start it felt way smoother to get into combat.

In Kiwami 2's demo, the enemies detect you, run up to you, their name appears on the screen, and you have to wait for it to disappear before you can start fighting. It even feels like it has a little delay before you can start grabbing someone at the beginning of the fight.

Same here. Some of the tracks actually do sound better with Kiwami's 0esque makeover, but most of them don't, some are even ruined like For Who's Sake imo.

Yeah, I saw the bit where the localizers talked about that. Brought it up as a example to never make shit up because it might come to bite you in the ass (case in point being Club Sunshine in 0).

Guess I'm in the minority here when it comes to Kiwami's OST since I prefer it overall. Admittedly, I'm not a big fan of the original and even in Kiwami, I don't like the standard battle themes all that much. I'll be much more critical of Kiwami 2 though since I really like Y2's OST.

Side note, took a peek at the PS stores for Blacked Friday deals and no dice. At least not in Yuropoor. Nothing for PS3 and the PS4 deals are mostly the shitty AAA games that came out this year. For weebshit, there was P5, NieR Automata and Nioh IIRC. Also Witcher 3 and Bloodborne GOTY editions for €20 each. Witcher 3 is one of the few games that might make Yakuza look like an arcade game in terms length and with all the dotteru protecting, getting shitfaced, beating the shit out of the locals and goofy antics, Geralt almost feels like a slav Kiryu.

Unironically hoping for Bella. rip

I forgot how tough pulling off Tiger Drop is at 30fps.

I think I remember the older games having a skill that allows you to execute Tiger Drop easier. I wonder if it's in 6 and Kiwami 2 as well.

Remembered I had a JP account so I decided to give the demo a try. I haven't played the Y6 one so this was all very new to me.
First of all, I was surprised by the changes in the lower half of Sotenbori. Shofukucho (sp?) St is no longer a straight line and a couple of sections are gone - the park and that narrow middle section where Club Sunshine originally was. And on that note, Sunshine is a lot larger while Four Shine is where Odyssey was and now I'm curious why Yuki isn't running Sunshine instead of Four Shine.
The combat is a bit odd, if on one hand I feel it's a tad more sluggish, on the other, the action's faster and fights end much quicker. I couldn't figure much of Kiryu's abilities besides the charged attacks and I've no clue of how the burst mode works, never got one of those Heat moves where you see a close up of the enemy's face with a fist or feet pressing against it. And maybe it's because of the engine's new perk of making Kiryu's animation change to target the enemy, I still feel I don't know exactly what it is I'm doing.
Also had a hard time working the camera because the control's reversed; I wager the option to switch it is there but I can't read a lick of moon. On the note of moon, I was surprised by the amount of available substories though I didn't get much of it besides helping the barker and the dominatrix. I mostly went locker key autismo and got 42 out of 50.
Side note, I like how they kept the tradition of using some tracks from previous games as background music for stores and bars; in this case it was Kiwami's PC menu theme playing in the DVD store.

Glad to know it's not just me then. Pulled it a grand total of twice. It also doesn't help that enemies won't attack until they're in point blank range; at least that's the impression I got.
And yeah, in 5 you learn Max Tiger Drop which is a more lenient version.

Yeah, I noticed that about the street too. It feels a bit weird. I know for sure Yakuza 5 has the park in Sotenbori, but it's not there in Kiwami 2.

I'm kind of hoping that Yuki elaborates on what happened for her to start running Four Shine instead of Sunshine.

In 6's demo Kiryu is much slower. Possibly because Kiwami 2's demo starts you off already upgraded with lots of skills acquired (so it's possible that a "combo speed upgrade" is somewhere in there). 6's starts you off at the very beginning of the game.

And yeah, "combo speed upgrade" abilities are confirmed to be in 6 (three levels, 1, 2 and Extreme), so I'm sure they'll return in Kiwami 2.

I think despite going back to 30fps and the change of animations and flow it's still pretty fun. To do the closeup thing you have to enter into Dragon Mode (I think that's what it's called. Or "Extreme" mode) and then do a normal combo (rush and then double finisher), then you'll get a prompt coming up telling you to mash triangle repeatedly.

Kiryu's basic moveset has changed but after playing it a few times you'll understand how his combos flow even if his animations change to
target the enemy.

1 x rush attack, then both finishers is a punch, a hard punch to the gut which makes them stumble back, and then a kind of leaping punch.

2 x rush attacks, then finishers is a sweeping kick and a football kick.

3 x rush attacks, then finishers ends in an uppercut and and a roundhouse.

It's just a matter of getting used to his new combos.

He also gains his ability to throw enemies after a combo but I don't think it's an upgrade you have in Kiwami 2's demo.

So, apparently you can actually walk around in first person in this one. It isn't just a look view. That is fucking awesome! Freaking lost it when I realized you could do that. I jave to guess 6 already did this and I just didn't know, but holy cow being a virtual tourist in HD not-Osaka just makes the demo alone worth it. Can also access the gambling halls too. Now if only they let me play Virtual On…

There are 4 options, actually. One for each axis in both views I think they are all in the third options menu in-game. I dont remember where it was in the title menu. Either way it is the one for comtrolls. They are close to the top and you can tell because the kanji for your selection is the same 4 times in a row. Just change each option to the other kanji and your stick should be fixed.

If that is too confusing I may try to take screenshots before tomorrow.

You can walk around in first person in 6 too. Also both 6 and Kiwami 2 have a camera mode where you basically go into first person and can take pictures to store on Kiryu's phone. I think it's one of the d-pad buttons while you're walking around. You can also make Kiryu take selfies.

I saw some footage, maybe of 6, where the player went JoJo ga Gotoku mashing Square away from the enemies and then the action played out so I kept associating it with a bunch uninterrupted punches being thrown.
I've also seen one triggered by connecting a jumping kick during Dragon Mode.

I saw this in Y6 footage and have been trying to do it. I miss Saejima.

I'll fiddle around. Thanks.

Was wondering where that was since the camera option seems to be a viewer. Side note, I'm surprised they didn't take a cue from Gravity Rush 2 and make it a online component but then again they'd probably have to pay up servers just for something that trivial.

Got the camera working as I like, pulling those Dragon Mode Heats and taking selfies. Thanks again for the pointers.
Now all I need is to not get excessively self-conscious at my own scrubbiness.

Side note, just me or are enemy encounters sparser? Feels they're more far between compared to 0 and Kiwami but I appreciate that there's more diversity to their numbers. I've ran into varied situations, from a single guy to packs of 5-6. Even found a small gang hassling a couple.

Completely slipped my mind that you can just mash square to get into a heat action from Dragon Mode. But the closeup to kicking/punching a guy's face is usually done with a finisher during Dragon Mode.

Also to do a jumping kick (in or out of Dragon Mode) you can hold Triangle. It's a charged attack. Standing still gives you a really cool kick (vid related), but running gives a kind of jumping triple kick. If you're in Dragon Mode when you do them you can initiate a Heat action.

The encounters are sparser but they usually have set areas where they roam around. You don't see them standing around, they usually walk around.

Like usually there's a bunch of thugs walking out of the golfing center.

It's the same way in 6.

now what's the point of the heat action toss over the railing when Kiryu's normal throw does it for free?

I guess that heat move throws your enemy to water definitely ending him while with normal throw can't always do it cause your toss can hit the barriers and if your enemy still got health, he can stand up and fight some more

You triggered my autism.

It's harder to do with his throw. You have to be a certain distance away (if you're too near or too far, the enemy won't go over), as well as aim at a proper angle to get them over (has to be pretty much straight on) and can't be near any objects otherwise Kiryu will lose his grip on the enemy.

So if you're down on the footpath in one of the narrow areas it's almost impossible to do because the walls or railing will knock the enemy out of Kiryu's arms.

The heat move is a definite thing.

Yeah, I've been getting those now. A thing that's confusing though is that the Heat prompt appears once you press Triangle but pressing Triangle again does the second the heavy attack. Got me wondering if it's possible to trigger it in the first heavy attack.
Incidentally, is it possible to trigger the co-op Heat Action with the dominatrix or the barker? I beat up the dudes hassling them and started fights near them but nothing happened though the dominatrix was cheering instead of cowering like most NPCs that are too close to the fight.
And after doing a FP walk, couldn't help but notice the pedestrian models repeat a lot more. Guess it's the price of not using character models that are two generations behind the rest of the game. Also a LOT of blonds; do so many women there dye their hair like that?

Sorry, Mr. Dubs.

Kazuma

Kiryu

Shinada and Tanimura would have been more bearable if they were bonus scenarios, unlockable after completing the game and then same % of quests. That way you would avoid the information overload toward the ending, and there would be a reason for their campaign to feel a bit sidetracked.

Have you tried fighting those streetboss guys yet? (a guy with a blue jacket, holding a pipe in the south part of Sotenbori. And a guy with a red jumpsuit in the north-eastern part of the map). They're decent challenges to see how well you're grasping the combat.

The ones signaled with red skulls, yeah. The one with the pipe beat my ass like a ginger stepchild in my first play (I forgot I had weapons) but the other was mostly for Tiger Drop practice given he has a very telegraphed straight punch that he starts from a distance.
But overall, I felt the tougher enemies will be a serious challenge. Common thugs get smoked in a couple of hits but once enemies with some poise or that just bother blocking pop up, things change pretty quickly. Then again, that's probably true to every game in the series. A thing I found interesting is that even when Kiryu's attacks seem to bounce back from a enemy block, he can still continue the string, at least with the second heavy attack.

The pipe guy is pretty challenging. Though I probably make him more difficult because I keep trying to Tiger Drop him.

As for weapons, I generally don't use them ever, in any Yakuza game, beyond seeing what heat moves they can do. I'm way too fond of the unarmed combat.

Even when I played Shinada I used weapons sparingly, mostly for heat actions.

I use weapons a lot with Majima in Zero. The high tier ones are good for making quick work of Mr Shakedown. For Kiryu, I like using knuckles with Rush since they take nothing away.

I felt that using weapons (the Sturdy ones) with Shinada actually added to the challenge. Damage was pitiful and those hitboxes couldn't hit the side of a barn. Shinada's really is a life of suffering.

Am I remembering things wrong or are there more unnecessary steps in Kiwami compared to the original? I kind of liked the spin on finding the badge for the funeral but the dog food bit really didnt need much added.

Remix for the game when?

It's probably the Japanese IGN but Famitsu already put their score for Kiwami 2 – 9/10/9/9 [37/40] - the highest in the issue (1513).

I know the song itself has been announced as something optional in game as DLC in the "premium" edition along with other stuff including using a Kiryu model for Kenshiro. Knowing how SEGA does Yakuza, it may wind up as just free or day one content for the US.

Yup. Copy-pasted from Gematsu:

Hokuto ga Gotoku will launch for PlayStation 4 on February 22 in Japan for 8,390 yen, Sega announced at the 2017 PlayStation Press Conference in Japan.
A 12,301 yen “Century’s End Premium Edition” will include a “Premium Downloadable Content Set” with the following add-ons:
Change Kenshiro’s Appearance to that of Yakuza‘s Kazuma Kiryu – With this add-on, you can change the appearance of Kenshiro to that of Yakuza series protagonist Kazuma Kiryu. You can change the character model at any time. Some event scenes may not reflect the character model change.
Product Code for Additional Music “Ai wo Torimodose!!” and “Tough Boy” – With this add-on, you can use the songs “Ai wo Torimodose!!” by Crystal King and “Tough Boy” by Tom Cat as in-game background music. You can change the background music at any time. Music can only be changed in some scenes.
“Nanto Gosha Sei” Set – An item set with equipment that has various efefcts and will allow you to proceed the game more advantageously.
Tetsuo Hara-illustrated PlayStation 4 custom theme and Fist of the North Star avatars – A PlayStation 4 custom theme with visual design illustrated by Tetsuo Hara and a Fist of the North Star PlayStation Network avatars set.

Figured as much since he was in Binary Domain

What is the Binary Domain crossover supposed to be?

character swap in online co-op

a break from laughing at pic related

I never got around to playing any of the online, so that makes sense.

Some new scans, courtesy of the wikia. Still not sure if I like the idea of changing the character's appearance to match the VA's likeness.

Is that the EmptyHero DLC?

So what's your guys' favorite Receive You
Mine's The Prototype

I like that one, but I also like the original and 0's version.

I find myself humming or singing the original one frequently. And sometimes 0's version just plays in my head.

Can't wait to see what this guy does with Yakuza 6's/Kiwami 2's combat.

I don't know why you can make a mean face for selfies; I guess Kiryu likes to practice it before beating ass.

Tech Trance. Great workout music.

I love when NPCs pose or react to your camera. It happens in 6, too.

Yeah, Tech Trance is what I expected to be a frequent answer too because in my experience the Receive You theme people like the most is either from the original or from 0

That's true for me, at least.
I like Tech Trance because it starts pretty strong so you can enjoy the 20-30 seconds the fight will last. Meanwhile,

Tell me about it, that shit is a fucking crime. It's right on par with the final boss themes of all the games, but it gets wasted.

Recieve and Bite You, pretty much because 4 was my first Yakuza

Checked

...

Thing with these games is that sometimes they set the mood a little too well. Like how the COOL GUY SOSUKE has a theme that wouldn't be out of place in a hidden boss fight when it's just some guy teaching you a few moves.

Hitler-powered Super Satan has spoken.

Hey old man, the COOL GUY SOSUKE could beat your ass any time he wanted, he just went easy on you. I mean, face it old man, he's a better fighter than you and even more good looking to boot! C'mon old man, why don't you actually give it your best shot and 1v1 him and his grandpa? Is it because you're scared? Yeah, that's what I thought, old man.

You might not want to hear this, but Tetsuo Hara has always suffered from a condition that doesn't allow him to draw outside his style. It's more or less forced on hi, and it will get worse as he ages. It's like with Louis Wain's fractal cat, but Hara's condition has yet to be unnamed, and during the last decade has not even been mentioned.

too bad it wasn't 14886666 otherwise there'd be a weeaboo gestapo that would enforce that everyone would have to listen to it daily

Embed related was another criminally underused track I think.

Receive and Slash You

Keep talking pretty boy, and you'll be making your JAV debut on KUROED to pay back my 30 gorillion yen.

My basketball american.
I'll admit the track flew under my radar in my first playthrough. It only really clicked on the second one during the Bontan Hunter fight.

Anyway, giving the Y6 OST a second more attentive listen, gotta admit I didn't give it enough credit at first.

To be fair Sosuke pays Kiryu back as soon as Kiryu goes back to Kamurocho and visits Komaki's dojo

There needed to be a Miracle Johnson bossfight.

Speaking of underutilized tracks…

You came here from the GG thread, didn't you Felix fag?

i can beat that

A certain drink from vending machines can help you smash through blocks.

Charging square gives you the Beast style attacks.

I also seems like the charged kick counters attacks if released at the correct time?

I have no idea what magic he pulls off at the end of the video to do that quick dropkick.

I think I figured it out.

When you do a rush combo, you can press and hold Square AND Triangle together to do a finisher and start the charge. Then let go square to do the first Beast attack, and then let go Triangle to cancel into the dropkick.

It seems to only work after you do the first finisher. So something like Square x 2, Triangle, THEN Square + Triangle.

You'll do the normal string, and while you're doing the last finisher, you'll be charging both attacks.

Doing it this way seems to drastically reduce the charge time for the dropkick.

Need some practice to pull it off (sometimes forget to hold square + triangle, or sometimes I release both at the same time instead of square first).

Wonder how useful that will be on boss fights. Gonna take a mini-fridge to Amon.
On the note of guard breaks and the charged string, a thing I noticed on (but forgot mentioning) is that, against pipe guy, he uses one charged attack and then follows it up with a full string.

Was also wondering about this, how he pulled that charged kick out of nowhere.

Good stuff.

This motherfucker isn't on the official OST either.

Embed related's a good channel for that sort of thing, it's got a bunch of piano covers of songs that weren't included on 0's official OST. I was pretty happy to find it since I was really annoyed that the tracks that play in the final cutscene with Sagawa and chapter 6's ending aren't on the OST, they're both really nice.

Holy shit, thanks user. Now the last thing I'm looking for is that Kamurocho Lullaby version which you hear when you go to the sushi restaurant that isn't sung by Kiryu but by someone else, in that way it's similar to the Machinegun Kiss version you can buy for your taxi in 5. The singer's wailing speaks to my genes because where I'm from wailing like that is characteristic of traditional ballads and I love it.

I joined the stream slightly late so I caught them in the middle of going through that long battle before the Kuze fight in the sewers.

They say Kiryu swears the most in 0, but in other games where he's older, he very rarely does so, seldomly going above a "damn". So it's kind of like he grows out of it.

They added some quality of life improvements to 6, such as telling you what each Mahjong tile is what you're playing.

Scott says that Kiryu wore black when he was a Yakuza, then when he turns into a civvie, he puts on a white suit. And during the entirety of 0 he struggles to figure out what a Yakuza is and what he should be, after observing characters like Kuze and Awano. and then at the end, he doesn't wear white or black, he puts on a gray suit to symbolize himself walking that line between black and white.

They say Yakuza 6 wraps up Kiryu's character perfectly (they don't comment on the story, just his character), and how he's come full circle.

Sam says that there's a term for people who import the games before it's localized, but I didn't quite hear it. I think it sounds like "recruiters"?

Also apparently there's a scene in Yakuza 6 that made both of them cry. Especially since they have to translate it and make it have the same weight.

The VA on the "previously on" segments apparently speaks so fast, it made translating them really hard.

The Japanese have a way of saying "just a flesh wound", they say "missed the vital point/mark". It's like there are certain places on the body where it's a definite kill if you hit, but if you miss, you're sure they'll live.

In Japanese, Majima's fighting style is "Fighting Master". But it was too long character-wise. "Master" gave the idea that he was of a master of fighting. They believed Thug was perfect for him because of his fighting dirty.

Sam and Scott will be at PS Experience with the Yakuza 6 show demo.

They say it's really hard for the marketing staff and whatnot to get which Yakuza game they're marketing, especially since games are coming out in quick succession. Every game needs to have time in the limelight.

There will also be no new announcements during PS Experience. They'll be focusing on Yakuza 6 for some time going forwards. However, Scott's still working on Yakuza in general so don't fear.

They keep mentioning Ishin which gives me some hope but I don't want to get excited

Apparently the cult sidequest, if you fail to enter and then try again the dialogue options change up. This is something I personally didn't know.

They reiterate that Yakuza 6 has Virtua Fighter 5 in the arcades. And also that they played it a fair amount. Sam's favourite character is Shun Di.

They want to take the "FART" jackets from Yakuza 2 and make it into a real thing to sell.

Scott actually had to go back and check to see if they slipped in Majima's name anywhere in any conversations with Makoto, because apparently Makoto never learns his name.

They also show off who won the art contest. It's a picture of Haruka and Haruto being surrounded/protected by Kiryu's dragon.

That's disappointing but I appreciate they got that out of the way.
We'll probably get Kiwami 2 by late 2018. Maybe even early 2019.

Yeah, she only knows he's a one-eyed yakuza. Part of why I still think she might recognize him in the end or, at least, is left wondering.

We'll find out in Kiwami 2. I think she'll recognize him when she sees him but won't say.

I want to have a meaningful conversation with Anri-chan.

You'll talk to her in Yakuza 6.

...

I finished Ishin, it was great. No idea what was going on though

Hah. I think people would like to understand. I think even if I learned Japanese I'd want it to be localized too so other people can enjoy it.

With the new softmodding trick for PS3s, I plan to finally try Kenzan and Ishin first hand.

So does anyone know what the plot of Y6 even is? The only thing I know is that Kiryu attacks Akiyama in some daycare for no real reason and that the last boss is some salaryman-looking guy. Speaking of, I know that Ryuji is really almost impossible to beat, but Y3 has a rich, gay version of Kiryu who is the pawn of some CIA nigger (not 100% sure about that one, I should replay 3 next since I remember least from it, I do remember that the CIA niggers were very involved and that Kazama had a twin brother who just happens to be a high-ranking CIA nigger), 4 had some corrupt high-up cop who might as well be a cop version of Jingu for all intents and purposes, even the boss fight is the same. If you count just Kiryu's final boss, then it's just Daigo getting his beating which he gets every game (speaking of, will 6 continue the long-standing tradition of Daigo getting his ass beat?), 5 had a daddy's boy who already got his ass beat TWICE before, one of those beatings was administered by Saejima, 0's was just a power struggle over who's gonna be Dojima's second-in-command, but it's a prequel so I'm not that mad and it works really well for establishing what Kiryu had to do to become the Dragon of Dojima

Since Kenzan/Ishin have been brought up, there's something I've been meaning to ask about Kenzan. I've heard a claim about it having certain plot points revolving around things that wouldn't sit well with the Western audience; I've no clue what it is just that who claimed it said it's something that's universally reviled here. Any idea what that might be? I don't think pachinko machines existed back then.

Basic premise is that after the events of Y5, Kiryu served a 3 year sentence for his participation in those events and meanwhile, Haruka's getting tons of shit for having confessed Kiryu is her family until she eventually flees the orphanage so the other kids don't suffer the negative attention she's getting. Kiryu leaves the big house and searches for her and eventually discovers she was the victim of a hit-n-run plus that she has a kid. Wants to get to the bottom of it and the one lead he has is a photo taken in a town in Hiroshima. Kiryu heads there; the place is run by a yakuza organization with no ties to either Tojo or Omi.
Website might be worth checking to get a idea of the cast: yakuza.sega.com/yakuza6/cast-kiryu.html

And I hear ya, after 2, it feels like Kiryu is the final boss walking around and putting punks in their places.

From what I remember it's because the Haruka character becomes a child helper in a sex ring

Looked it up and that seems to be the case. Apparently, she turns tricks to pay Musashi to bring her family killers' to justice but it seems that there's a twist and the killer is actually Musashi himself.

Thanks for clearing that up.

No problem, Kenzan is the other game I don't remember much of and it's the next on my list of Yakuza games for replaying. The only two things are the thing that made it most likely not get localized and which made me extremely salty due to the fact that it's not localized, and the final fights, where if I remember correctly you fight an army, then you fight a team of expert samurai, then you fight samurai-era Jingu, but with no helpers during the fight, but with his pain in the ass factor being turned up to 11.

Happened to see that one, the fucker treats that old ass revolver like it's a porta-gatling. The summary for feudal Haruka mentioned Tenkai a lot and that got me curious since bar one exception, he's always portrayed as a benevolent figure, mostly thanks to a contemporary story claiming that he is actually Akechi Mitsuhide, the betrayer of Oda Nobunaga.

Really wish we were able to get the songs that were originally there. this is the song that plays during **that Shinada vs Daigo fight on the roof top*

...

...

This song really gets me hyped to start punching some dudes.

If Yakuza 6's combat can grow into this via upgrades then man, I'll be having a ton of fun.

Any point to exploring Sotenbori as Kiryu or just get on with the main story?

Yakuza 0? I think you can enter the underground colosseum in the river as Kiryu. And if you completed Mr. Libido as Majima, you can probably go to the drug story and buy shittons of the Incomparable Habu Drink.

I think you can play arcade games you can't as Kiryu. As well as the casino, since Kamurocho doesn't have one.

But other than that, I don't believe there is a point.

Post people who have gone too soon. If someone who looked like Reina existed in real life I'd make disgusting hapa children with her without even thinking about it, she just makes my cock rock solid like no other collection of pixels on the TV screen.

I maintain they should do a game starring him in his teenage/young adult years.

F

Probably the only new character in Y3 I liked.

My melanin-enriched individual belonging to the Congoid race!
I personally also liked Joji, Kazama's brother, despite him being a CIA nigger. He's the true successor to Ryuji imo, or he would've been if he was younger, hell even Kiryu acknowledges that if Joji was in his prime that he probably wouldn't have beaten him.

Reina is fucking gorgeous. Went head over heels for her in 0 and even more so in Kiwami when she's even much older.

Hell, I found her quite hot even back in ye olde PS2 era, but her appearance in 0 and Kiwami? Jesus Christ, have mercy. I think her beauty mark is what seals the deal for me, she already looks hot as hell, but the beauty mark is the one little thing that just sends me over the edge and makes all my blood shoot straight from my brain down to my cock, I can't even think straight. There are tons of other hot collections of pixels on the TV screen in the world of video games, sometimes they're even tailor-made to get a rise out of your dick, but as I said none of them have made me feel actually hot and bothered until Reina, best part about her is that she's never even blatantly sexualized, her hotness speaks for itself.

I felt the premise of Kazama having a twin who's a elite bioluminescent Central Intelligence Agency basketball-american was borderline silly. Most of the Y3 story didn't sit all that well with me tbh. The whole thing is about grown ass men bullying orphans so very few of the antagonists do anything redeeming. Knowing what the fat fuck was doing with the women he nabbed was probably the one saving grace for me, that bit was funny IMHO.

You had a shit ton of raw deals, Nishiki but this one's on you for being a dumbass!

Sure, the whole premise of 3 was completely retarded, but Joji as a 60-year-old Japanese badass who is still a force to be reckoned with, I can respect. His theme is also one of the best in the whole series imo.

...

Nishiki not marrying that is his greatest failure.

get with it, scrub

This. So hard.

Looking at Reina's competition and not counting hostesses/celebrity cameos, who is (second) best girl? Images are just examples.

Makoto easily

Start with PS2 1 unless if that isn't an option then go Kiwami, Kiwami 2? Depends if it's shit or not, 3, 4 5, 0 and then Ken

I wish Ryuji would get his own game. He is one of my favorite characters and I wish I could see how he became the Dragon of Kansai. Unfortunately, he isn't very popular like Majima so I doubt he ever will.

Well they're going to reboot the series right? So we'll get to see a new legend rise at least.

Kaoru was nice

But she's korean.

So what? So is Ryuji

Nippon banzai, gooks get out reee

It's hard to say. I really like mature women so Reina hit the nail on the head for me.

T-Set is kinda cute, I guess. But I can't even remember their names.

I don't like Ms. Tatsu's hair. Turns me off

This guy is streaming Kiwami 2.

At the rate he's going, the guy's gonna finish the game in one sitting. If anyone wants to kill their liver, do a drinking game where you sip every time he says "nice" or "bitch".
Anyway, I forgot mentioning her but Daigo's mom is kinda hot if you're into that whole trad MILF thing like Shindo. He's a total douchebag but I respect his tastes. But speaking of Shindo, I didn't like the remix for 'The Grudge', could barely recognize the melody.

Press F for Crazy Ken

No Sam on Friday
twitter.com/SEGA/status/938535170424037376

DEAD SOULS
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A
D

S
O
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The song they used to replace it is fucking shit too.

He teased a bit of Majima gameplay there at the end. From what little he played of it it doesn't look very good. Majima can't grab anything or anyone, which means he probably can't use weapons, and he seems to only have one heat action. It didn't seem like he was able to kick objects at enemies either. On top of that, his fighting style is just the Mad Dog style from 0/Kiwami and there doesn't appear to be any new moves. Granted, he only played Majima for about 5 minutes and didn't look to see if he had more heat moves to unlock. From what I understand it's only meant to be a little side campaign rather than one the size of Kiryu's, so it's probably unreasonable to expect it to have as much Majima content as 0, but even still it doesn't look great.

As for the default game though it looks fine. There are a lot more new dynamic boss intros than in the first Kiwami which is cool, and there's not as much asset reusage in the bosses' movesets (though there's still quite a bit; off the top of my head I noticed Kuze's, Shibusawa's Rush style, Lee's, Saejima's katana style, Majima's Mad Dog style and Baba's at different points). It also reminded me of the first Kiwami in that the penultimate miniboss seems loads more difficult than the actual final boss. I haven't played 6 yet so I can't comment on whether or not the combat seems better or worse. Towards the end there are quite a few framerate dips but other than that it seemed really stable.

Also, the credits music is shit

Perhaps he can equip weapons and switch them in and out using the d-pad. We'll have to see. Kiryu's style is basically one style in 6 and Kiwami 2, but unlocks upgrades and heat moves.

We'll have to see if Mad Dog gets upgrades.

...

I guess we can take solace knowing those songs likely won't be on the Western version.

Besides the counter stab, rush stabs and the shadow step, Mad Doggo kinda sucks. Sad to hear it's mostly the same. I'm not banking on them adding much to it.

Should I start with Kiwami or 0? I dont have last gen console to play the original 1-4 games, might as well start with the remake.

If you can emulate, you can play 1 and 2. If you wanna play the prequel+remake whether before or after, it's best to play 0 first. 0 has shit that ties into Kiwami.

play in release order starting with 1.

Fag who never played the games here, in what order should I go about it?

See
Emulate or play the first two on PS2 if you can, then grab 3, 4, 5 on PS3. If you can't find 3, it's best if you go with 4, which has a reminisce option that allows you to review the events of 1, 2 and 3.

Then 0, Kiwami (remake of 1 with some added stuff) and 6 (March 2018) on PS4

You can start with 0 and Kiwami but it'll be tough to go back to the 2nd game on PS2. 3, 4 and 5 have gameplay closer to 0 and Kiwami but they have lower framerates (30fps)

There is a Kiwami 2 (remake of 2 with added stuff), but that uses the same framerate (30), engine and (tweaked) gameplay of 6, and it just released in Japan. So it'll be some time before it releases in the west.

Starting to think this whole "what order I should play these games?" business is some sort of running joke.

Also if you are a buyfag like me, you can pick up the 1 and 2 HD ports on the ps3 and play with youtube open for cutscenes. Seems like a workaround but those version are the best versions of 1 and 2 and its much cheaper. and it's better than Kiwami

I finally somehow found it and I'm pissed off, it was in Yakuza 2's soundtrack all this time and I didn't know??? Is this what taking a deal with the devil feels like?

No Sam this week. Instead we have a girl named "Vampy" along with Scott.

They streamed a (English) preview of 6 instead of Yakuza 0 today. They don't show Onomichi, only Kamurocho. Expect the following to be information on 6 until stated otherwise.

They loaded a Premium Adventure save, so they won't run into any story.

They inserted text into the loading screens, just mentioning events that happened throughout the series and summarizing them. This will be something that's exclusive to the western release.

Kiryu has an app called "Troublr", that allows people to post and say when/where trouble is going down.

You can place markers on the map, and on the minimap they appear as a green arrow.

They keep running into substories. All of the substories are fully voiced.

"RIZAP" is a real fitness chain in Japan; and of course Kiryu can go there and get fit.

Scott says that Kiryu has gotten tired of the shit he keeps getting dragged into, to the point where he's tired of taking shit.

Working out at RIZAP gets you a diet plan, and you have to go out and fulfill it by eating the correct foods and whatnot. After working out, he gets a recommendation of what meal to eat. For example he recommends eating beef, but no carbs. You go to the correct place, find the correct meal (by reading the description; beef plate with no rice) and eat it. When you head back to RIZAP you get an evaluation.

You build up stats from working out.

When you get a message on the phone, you can respond with stickers. Hostesses actually respond to the stickers if they message you.

They run into Sodachi from the dojo Saejima helped out in Yakuza 4 and I think 5.

They go to Club Shine. They request Sora because she's into video games and cosplay. Hostess conversations are all voiced too.

The Hostess minigame is also pretty different too. You select conversation topics/order a drink/order food. Each conversation topic has certain traits (such as "Sexy/Talk/Dapper/etc"). When you choose a topic, the dialogue plays out, and then you get presented with another set of topics.

Some topics can have multiple traits. The idea is to choose the right conversation topic that resonates with the hostess, and then choose another with similar traits that form a chain. The bigger the chain you form the higher you raise her heart meter.

You can also level up the conversation ability to get better topics and swap topics that you don't want, out.

Scott really likes Saki, who's a wrestler turned hostess.

They check out the cat cafe. And start that sidequest to go out and gather cats.

They call the mode Kiryu can enter in battle, "Extreme Heat" mode.

The entire stream was just around 45 or so minutes so that they could show off Yakuza 6 for a bit.

twitch.tv/videos/207842898##

Oh wait they actually DID do Yakuza 0 today.
twitch.tv/videos/207818515

Fuck me. I hate navigating Twitch.

I don't think they talk about anything really interesting. I really like when Sam's here because they talk about lots of localization stuff.

They start with the introduction to Club Sunshine.

Some of the biggest chunks of text in the game is from the Cabaret Club girls. Scott had trouble translating Yuki, because he made her a little too ditzy. Sam, however, is a fan of Yuki and was angry with him for making her ditzy. Yuki isn't dumb, she's just naiive/somewhat childish and a bit lost.

Scott says he got a Sailor Moon vibe from the Five Stars in Sotenbori, since they all seem like they reference Sailor Moon in some ways.

I kinda skipped through the rest since they were doing cabaret stuff and not doing much else.

I'm glad they changed the hostess mini game, hopefully it's not for the worse though. Absolutely loathed talking to the lesbian in kiwami.

I've been thinking why not make a host minigame where Kiryu's the host and he has to listen to women's bullshit?

They kind of did that in the 2nd one. It was kind of interesting, but it was pretty similar to the hostess stuff, except instead you were looking for the right response to milk them for cash.

From what I've seen the hostess minigame actually looks a bit more engaging.

In the first pic you see the conversation topics as "cards" on the bottom of the screen, including two "Order Food" cards. Which he attempts to swap out (they have the "Change" stamp on them) so he can get more topics.

Sometimes when you choose a topic, you get some branching dialogue.

Also, Hokuto Ga Gotoku demo in February.

From what I have seen Kiwami 2's OST seems quite good. But having heard the remix of a scattered moment I reckon they went a bit overboard.

I thought Ryuji was the all time favourite antagonist, have I been alone in thinking this all this time?

Out of all the characters Majima in general is incredibly popular. Ryuji is probably the best antagonist, but in terms of general popularity Majima beats him.

Lets make it 1m

As a straight antagonist Ryuji is without a doubt the most popular, but Majima is vastly more popular even though he's not a straight antagonist, but over time became character who you gotta beat up at least once per game because reasons, if I remember correctly he became this as soon as Yakuza 2.

Without doubt Majima is the most popular but I imagined that Ryuji was and is popular enough to warrant further appearances, perhaps even as a playable character if they ever decided to do another prequel title.

B-but he is playable in Dead Souls

Might as well go all the way and punch in that last bump.