Beast in the East: Yakuza 0 - Part 18

That thumbnail *Facepalms*

The guys are so in love with Majima, I can't wait for them to get to the other games and completely turn on that joker.

GUYS! Dancing is awesome. Just... move to the music and don't care. It feels so good. TELL 'EM, ABBY!

Okay, let me try taking this one at a time.

You guys ended right before the best action sequence in the game, the episode before you take an extended break. Oof.

Just a few points to reiterate:

- You have met Shibusawa, several times. He is the Lieutenant with the glasses. There aren't "so many lieutenants," there's three: Kuze, who you fought several times, Awano, in the purple jacket, and Shibusawa, the one with the glasses who hasn't done much yet that you know of.

- If the screen is dark on the Cabaret minigame, it means time is not moving, and you're in a paused state where you assign girls. Dan having a minor freakout over this makes me wonder if he could tell the screen had darkened or not.

- Unless you don't have enough girls and there are several who are tired, it never makes sense to go in with less than a full slate. You should be recruiting those girls around town and also spending CP at the shrine (which is near the Sunshine Cabaret) to get those girls, as well. If you overwork the girls, you will lose fans. You can also gain fans by partnering with nearby businesses, same as you did with buying businesses as Kiryu.

- Kiryu has less agency in the game than Majima because it's a purposeful inversion of the previous games in the series (or chronologically later games, if you would prefer). Yakuza 0 is about Kiryu not manifesting his own destiny, he kind of just floats along and does whatever people tell him to do. Majima's the opposite, he gets aggressive about what he feels is important to do. It's sort of an immovable object vs. unstoppable force thing. Kiryu is always kind of stoic, but he's a lot less like this in future games.

MAJIIIMAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!

I mean, I am a serious intellectual person who appreciates things intellectually.

MAJIMA MONDAY

Sure, but you keep pushing for "side episodes" that will be full of real estate/club management. Who wants to watch that? You've finished the first real estate area so you've basically seen it all, the rest of the areas are the same thing. The very light story that's there isn't important or worth caring about at all. Same thing for club management, once you clear one area you've seen it all. Instead of finally getting more than one episode a week but immediately wasting it on boring stuff, why not just put both to use and actually finish the game in a timely manner?

@dan asked if the other games are as dense as this with characters and clans, etc. To answer that question, let's just say that the other games have clan family trees that you can access from the pause menus.

The best kind of Monday.

Guys please, PLEASE, stop doing business stuff. You are never going to finish the business things unless you do a bunch of offscreen grinding, it is literally 100% a waste of time if you don't commit to finishing it.

For the love of god please stop talking so much during cutscenes.

Here's the thing though -- Yakuza Kiwami doesn't come out till August 29. When they started this back in February, I thought they'd finish it in two months, and that they'd have to think of something else to play in the interim. But with Kiwami just 3 months away and a fair bit of story content to go, I think they'll just take a break after they finish.

The way I see it, the more side stuff they do, the shorter the wait for Kiwami. Just let them 100% the game if they feel like it, and if you don't like what you're seeing, skip ahead.

Keep in mind there's also 100 hours of Persona 4 footage on this website. I sure as hell didn't watch all of that either, but plenty of people did.

it'd be one thing if they were going to 100% but that isn't going to happen, any time spent on business, which they will NEVER finish, is wasted time

@axersia said:

100 hours of them playing through the game every week day. Around 90 of those hours where actual progression was happening. The "filler" fusing heavy episodes were shorter than normal ones and you always knew they'd actually get back to the game the next day. Bad comparison, when we get filler here, it's a whole week long wait for something meaningful to MAYBE happen

They get money every time they do it that they can invest in their abilities. There is also cool unique stuff to see that makes it worth to do one club/district with each. Personally I think it would be boring to see them finish either business, but I think it`s worth it for them to do some.

The whole reason to what this is to hear them react to stuff and make jokes. As long as they can follow what happens int he cutscenes they should not be quiet during the cutscenes. If you just wanna watch the cutscenes without any commentary you can easily find that on youtube.

And that's the problem, they don't do that at all. How many times will they forget almost every single characters name and motivations until they realize they should actually pay attention?

They have only done like one episode that was only business and even then it was real estate, so they were doing other stuff like the sub stories which is not filler in between. I agree that it would be boring to watch them 100% the cabaret club, but saying that we have to wait and see if something meaningful MIGHT happen in an episode is just not true.

I think that has more to do with them playing it once a week over the course of several months. They might be a bit more one point if they paid full attention during each cutscene, but that would also make it a lot more boring to watch.

@doctornieves: I want to see them enjoying the game, and if they enjoy doing that side stuff I don't want them to feel like they're not allowed to engage with it. That's all part of what makes Yakuza what it is. It's not just the story.

I just don't like seeing them stall progress for multiple episodes like they were doing with Kiryu's business. That's meant to be a largely background activity, so it's not very engaging if it's the the focal point of the episode. (They definitely shouldn't stop doing it though, because it's free money.) They clearly enjoy the Cabaret Clubs though, and I actually do find it entertaining to watch, so I hope they don't stop. Just, again, don't make it the focal point the weekly episode. This episode was a perfectly acceptable balance of story and business.

If they do end up doing an extra episode per week of just business then that's fine, I will probably watch most of it, particularly the Cabaret stuff. (For Kiryu they'll need to mix in some telephone clubs and karaoke and whatnot if they want to keep it interesting.) It won't take away anything from the usual weekly episodes. If anything it would just mean more consistent progress in the story.

I kind of agree, I definitely enjoy their reactions and jokes during cutscenes, but there are times when they start discussing some completely offtopic stuff like favorite food or something. I'm totally ok with that during running around or street battles, but it is kinda frustrating during story bits.

My favorite B game feature, and from what I hear there is finally some story stuff happening this week!

@doctornieves: The side episodes we're talking about doing are not episodes that would replace the weekly progression. They are episodes we would set aside time to record in addition to the regular episodes, and would release them same week as the main episodes. These are not replacements, they are supplements.

@nervesnormal: try watching before you post.

I'm still totally in the camp that will be thrilled to watch the planned business episodes. I can understand why people might complain when the weekly Beast in the East video is purely side-content, (Though I completely disagree that it's a waste of time) but they're going to be going bi-weekly after E3 so that complaint just straight up evaporates. I love this game and I love watching other people enjoying it; more content sounds like the best case scenario in my book.

This was almost entirely main story, and there is still a lot of great side content to see.

@danryckert I've lived my whole life in Minnesota and not ONCE have I heard anyone call a port-a-potty a "Biffy."

I was totally tearing my hair out when they were looking for the CP shrine and Dan literally stopped the cursor RIGHT BESIDE IT. Multiple times. So close... so close...

Oh, I also got distressed when they failed to notice Mr. Libido in a couple of spots. How can you just run past Mr. Libido!?!?!??!

@peffy: I was mostly disappointed they weren't mugged for their pants. They were RIGHT THERE. The guy said, "Hey you!"

When you guys burn out on that grind, can you keep that extra time set aside and have multiple main episodes per week like we've been wanting? :D

Dan doesn't understand how to play well enough to take advantage of the ability unlocks and they're never, EVER going to get Mad Dog or Dragon so.

Maybe pull up a girl-card map location thing like Alex did for the businesses. Since the # of cards you picked up triggers Mr.Libido story progression.

Skipping substories is a huge mistake, it's at least 50% of why Yakuza is great.

If they want to grind in side episodes, fine (took me like 24 hours to complete the hostess sidequest but for whatever reason I really liked it, kinda like cook, serve, delicious I guess in that juggling stuff was fun)

To put a positive spin on everything: I assume people are so picky and specific about what to do in this game because they really like the series.

This is my favorite content on the site right now, and I am literally actively not playing Yakuza in order to watch it all unfold with these episodes. Keep doing what you do. Sad to hear you are taking a week break.

For the club, always run with 8 girls, don't hold back on running a full roster just because you don't want to pay them -- you'll make more money keeping more tables occupied.

Also forget these clowns telling you not to do the businesses stuff, you make so much money,and the sidestories of beating the Five BIllionaires or five clubs are worth it, as is the final reward. Although I support doing them in supplemental episodes as you say so people will stop being upset about it.

I have gotten into the Yakuza series as a direct result of Beast in the East. At this point I have finished Yakuza 3 and moved into 4 and it's so damn good. Last night Yakuza 4 taught me how to play baccarat and holy shit what a game that is. I can see why that is the game of choice for high stakes gambling and now I can know what is going on in James Bond movies when they play it. Gambling in general is top notch in Yakuza. I put about an hour yesterday into Cho-hun which is incredibly entertaining, and betting chips on the roulette wheel feels so good. I even tried my hand at pachinko, but that insanity is just too much for me. Gambling in game just feels so damn good, I'm genuinely worried that I would lose a massive amount of money if I ever tried it for real.

Great episode. Dan using the thug style and evading was some good watching. If you guys are going to play some sub-episodes with the club, reward your girls often as its keeps their HP up and stops them from calling in sick. Get as many ladies as you can and run with a full team every time don't worry about the cost as the profit will be in your favour always.

Also please use a standing heat knife or umbrella attack with Majima.

I just want to say I really like this feature and however you choose to play it is fine by me. The game, you guys are entertaining and for me I don't want to tell people that are doing something that I enjoy how to do it. So have fun in whatever way you like.

That was the time I went to the Alamo and didn't remember it. Dan Ryckert

That`s only for Kiryus Mr. Libido.

For those that have finished the game I was thinking about something (game structure spoilers ahead):

If I remember correctly when they go to the Benten Inn with Majima aren`t they locked out of Business and Substories until the final chapter with Kiryu in Sotenbori and Majima in Kamurocho? I was just thinking about this in the context of bonus business episodes since that means they can`t actually do any of those until their penultimate episode.

When Vinny said "Don't wanna get the bends" and paused, I was thinking "Dan's gonna ask what the bends is again". Yep.

i hope Vinnie, Alex and Dan do a Japanese travel documentary based on the events and places in Yakuza. Maybe some interviews with real life Yakuza and other characters. I know it's no longer the 80s, but it's always interesting to contrast what has changed, and what is the same. It could easily be adapted for wider audiences.

I can't believe Sagawa just lets you off with a little bit of a beating, in the ensuing conversation even Majima just doesn't even care as if to him Sagawa just gave him a rough massage

Don't talk during cutscenes, don't do any of the side-stuff, record maybe 3-4 episodes each week and also make sure you don't miss anything, alright? Good.

Nice episode, even if I have questions in regards to that whole secret death Thunderdome.

Just gonna drop a comment in here to say that this is still my favorite content on the site, and it's by far the thing I look forward to most on GB each week. Just wanted to counterbalance some of the annoyed comments in here. I really hope you guys are still interested enough at the end to try Kiwami!

I agree with maybe not pouring too much more time into the business stuff beyond getting whatever amount of money you think you need.

Additional weekly side-stuff episodes each week sounds like the best solution:

1. Those that want more Beast in the East get more.

2. Those that keep complaining about side stuff can skip the supplements.

3. The gang will learn the game more through additional play time to appease the perfectionists.

For me, the more the better - this is my favourite feature on the site.

@alex@vinny @danryckert: Fantastic episode. This continues to be my favourite feature in a long time. And good job on that boss fight, Dan! That actually looked like some Tekken with them wall-bounce combos and that side-stepping.

Only tip I got this at this point would be to learn some hot ass new moves for Majima before you "storm the castle". You've unlocked a bunch, just haven't done the actual training for them. And unlike Miss Tatsus techniques for Beast Style, you just learn the moves straight away, no need to do any "quests" for your trainers.

Also, the Shrine is riiiight next to the Club, just to the North East (Up and to the right). It's got a super market icon on it, and the colour is a slightly brighter yellow than normal shops.

@alex Please only buy the highest tier of recovery items available! T_T

"Better buy a smitten of low potency health items. Running low with 55 million yen in my pocket."

Dan sometimes I think you do this to hurt us.

ice in your wine lol