Beast in the East: Yakuza 0 - Part 19

I don't use the Break dancing style because I find it boring. I stay in Thug mostly with Majima. He gets a lot of cool move as you go in it.

Vinny and Alex really did their very best to keep this one fun.

@cokesouls said:

Love that we're getting some beast in the east again but I agree that the negativity is coming through. I think it's especially noticeable since East has always been so positive under Vinny's infectious attitude.

Not saying that Dan isn't allowed to be frustrated but if he's being honest and wasn't just having a bad day when he said that he just likes the story and the hijinx and dislikes everything about playing the game, then the team should nip this in the bud and give the controller to someone else before Dan's resentment builds up too much from feeling obligated to play 2 hours of a game that he doesn't enjoy playing every week.

Dan: I don't want to look at bars while I'm fighting.

Dan: I just want to mash triangle for heat moves.

Dan: I want to keep hitting the attack button.

Dan: I don't want to dodge.

Dan: Actually this is a bad game outside the story.

I really think Dan just needs to be more patient with the combat. I'm new to the series with 0 just like them and really had no problems with it playing on normal as well. I also did like none of the training and still had no problems with it. I found the variety in the combat pretty interesting!

Also the secret styles are great, especailly majimas, but they both are somewhat finicky and I worry if they eventually grind to get them Dan will be disappointed in them.

Amen. I kinda feel like this would have been a Vinny game maybe. The combat isn't even that complex, I love you Dan but you're definitely that guy who in Street Fighter will try to jump in, gets anti aired and then proceeds to try and jump in like 10 times just to get anti aired every time and then just pulls the plug on the console. Just stop mashing and think for a second. I know it probably makes it harder that you guys only play this once a week but still. This series could have been so good!

Boggles my mind why they wouldn't just eat everything and get the CP...

>It's a Dan button mashes and blames the game episode again.

To his credit hes gotten better over time like we asked for, hes using the lock-on and quickstep more often which is great because otherwise he would be losing constantly at this point. But if they're going to have him play the rest of the games he's going to need to learn more than that since Yakuza 0 is so far the easiest in the series by far, evidenced by the fact that he's button mashing and still winning.

If he's not attacking more deliberately and trying harder to slip and counter he's going to keep getting fucked up by the bosses in the series. Like it should be obvious that he can't just press square square square after he's JUST finished a chain of that once on a boss, but he kept fuckin' doing it on Sera like he was just going to let that happen immediately after the last. Yakuza 0 is easy but it's not THAT easy that it will just let you hit square to win.

I really don't think anything is gained by jumping on Dan in the comments here after the episode posts. Dan just came across as someone who was having a bad day, or just having a case of the grumps. I know he's expressed some frustration in past episodes about the combat in this game, but so what? Don't sit here in the comments section acting as if you've never gotten frustrated by a game. We all have, but I'm willing to bet that most of us weren't being recorded while that happened.

Cut Dan some slack, I'm sure he realizes that someone getting frustrated isn't appealing, but he has other stuff to worry about beyond getting stun-locked over and over in a game. Maybe Dan will be a little more chill after he gets married in a Taco Bell.

@pixelsoldier: When he's still having the same problems almost 20 weeks into the series, it's more than "a bad day"

It's not hard to learn how to play a video game correctly, ESPECIALLY the easiest one in the series. As hard as it might be for him, Dan just has to use his head for like a second.

The problem with this game is that 99% of the fights you can win by simply mashing and killing everyone then they throw in bosses near the end that actually expect you to fight "properly." At that point the game has encouraged a sloppy play style so you didn't learn the combat system because you didn't need to. I had pretty much the same experience as Dan did where most fights I could just mash away and clear but then was totally unprepared when they actually had guys that could punish that style of play. They needed to start with guys you couldn't just plow through way earlier since most of the bosses pre-Sera are way too easy to just cheese out.

If they continue with the series (which I hope they do, cause it's really entertaining), maybe someone other than Dan should play. It's not his type of game (you can't just mash), and watching someone be frustrated isn't fun.

I think the problem Dan has with this game's combat comes from the fact that he is so used to the combat in games like God of War and Devil May Cry, which let the player button mash with relative ease through the Normal difficulty. Granted, there are times where the combat in Yakuza can be finicky. However,I genuinely believe the combat to be one of the best in the genre. I would compare the combat in Yakuza to Virtua Fighter whereas Devil May Cry is more like Dead or Alive. Both have fun gameplay mechanics, but the combat in Yakuza is more nuanced and rewards precise inputs.

Glad to have Yakuza back, but nearly an hour in and still no promised story!

Well...I just did the 4-hit spin on breaker and beat every fight. The 3-hit spin is too high, but the 4-hit hits low so you can just mash it until they forget to block and then you lock them to death.

What you said is true with Kiryu though. You'll be restarting a lot of fights if you don't know how to play with him.

I have to admit, Yakuza is one of the more complex brawlers out there. At first blush, it seems simple, but countering and evading becomes critical at higher difficulties. Plus, Dan isn't wrong about there being tons of styles and moves to learn. I heartily disagree that it's a bad system (and the rest of the game is certainly not either) but it's really complex for a breezy Let’s Play. Komeki had great advice, though, when facing a tiger you shouldn't be aggressive and over-extend yourself. It's best to practice moves and techniques that strike after the enemy makes their move.

I'll leave the general tips here again this week, but I suspect they're not being read (or retained):

1) You have a critically low amount of hostesses. That's why they're tired, because you're using the same girls every single night. It doesn't matter how long you wait, if you used a hostess the previous minigame, they'll be tired the next one. Doesn't matter if it's been six seconds, six hours, or six chapters. You should be recruiting the hostesses around town, doing subquests that gets you hostesses, and spending CP on hostesses. It is a more active game than Kiryu's Real Estate quest, but it's not like it requires zero planning.

2) Dan. Stop. Mashing. The battle system is really deliberate and, while there are options for cancels (which seems like what you want), you're unlikely to ever master them. The path of least resistance is to only hit the button for as many times as you want to attack. Hitstun is super generous in this game except for people who counter and it's obvious when they do.

3) Breaker is good for crowd-clearing if you are in the middle of the crowd. If you're in front of a crowd, slugger works better. If you're fighting one-on-one, it depends on the situation, but usually Thug is a good choice. You don't need to remember every single move of every style immediately, but you should at least know their basic properties. It's like in Breath of the Wild - yeah, slow weapons will work against Lizalfos, but faster weapons are better. Just remember what that style is suited for and change around.

4) You are nearing endgame. The game assumes you haven't been lazily not learning the battle system up to this point. You are going to get a lot more frustrated fighting bosses if you keep ignoring advice. It's all still doable with lots of drinks, but you'll be falling down a lot while yelling at the game.

I echo the sentiment to pass the controller off. It's not entertaining to see Dan get avoidably frustrated. I'm not eager to see him pushing "The game is actually bad!" during Game of the Year because no one else got their hands on it.

Vinny and Alex stopping Dan from buying all of the food options at the Sushi place made absolutely no sense given that it would only have cost around 20,000 yen, which is mere pocket change, and he'd have gotten 1 CP out of it.

I still love you guys, though. Thanks for the post-E3 episode.

@pixelsoldier said:

How do we give feedback then? You can't lump everyone with criticism as just being mean to Dan. Nobody wants Dan to be frustrated, and most people are making suggestions of either letting someone else play or to stop mashing. Reasonable advice.

@auspexao: The biggest example of Dan's impatience was when he was learning the counterattack move in Thug I believe and he was just punching the guy saying "C'mon, hit me!" It's a tutorial; just wait two seconds and he'll do it!

And I think he thinks there are way more opportunities for heat moves than there actually is. It is an extremely contextual thing.

For the love of god let someone else play.

it's fine that Dan isn't a Gamer God, since this isn't supposed to be a walkthrough; just don't blame the very thoroughly explained heat mechanics you mostly choose to ignore. Almost every fight you're mashing Triangle trying to get it to do a heat move even though the game goes out of its way to explain the requirements you need to meet for each move (I.E. wait for an enemy attack, be behind them, near a wall, etc).

I empathize with having to wait between videos and forgetting mechanics, but y'all are far enough into the game that you should understand basic heat requirements. If you continue to mash, later bosses are going to be annoying both for you and for viewers as you chug twelve staminans per fight.

Damn, these comments. Aww man, is this a Dan-gets-frustrated episode? I don't enjoy those, makes me uncomfortable. I'm just a chill Canadian man don't want no stress

I'll wait for next week

Dan, I love you, but you seriously can't mash your way through this one. What helped me a lot when playing through it was getting used to dodging around enemies (kinda souls-style) til I found a good window to smack them from behind while they're stuck in animation.

I'd say it's a little late in the game to hand off the controller to someone else and throwing Vinny or Alex into the endgame without any prior experience would probably be just as frustrating, but yeah maybe having someone who isn't Dan take the reigns when you guys start Kiwami would be for the best.

@sebmal: There is a 96% chance that if they gave Vinny the controller and let him have 20 minutes of practice off camera, he would be years ahead of Dan in terms of understanding how to play.

@vinny please save us from this hell

Not making light of Alex's color blindness or anything, but looking outside and seeing a green sky would be pretty neat.

Alex isn't colour blind. Vinny and Jeff are. Alex has perfect eyesight, actually.

Not looking to crap all over Dan here but this was the first episode where i became frustrated watching him get annoyed at the combat in this game. I fear that he's just going to get more frustrated as the challenges get harder further into the game. Maybe try two episodes, one with Vinny controlling and the other with Alex. Maybe make em shorter episodes and just do some side quests or business stuff mixed in with some fights around town so they can get to grips with it. Just a suggestion.

Thanks for another great episode guys! You might want to bump the difficulty down to easy. It'll make things less frustrating for Dan. I doubt anyone would care. We're mainly here to see you guys react to all the Yakuza stuff after all.

After Dan had Drew turn on auto-parry for Metal Gear Revengeance so it basically plays the game for you... Can we really be surprised?

Hey Dan - I loved this episode. Keep playing the way you want to play man. By all means don't stop playing I enjoy the stories and I enjoy the side stuff. Don't worry about performing for us and ignore the haters.

@vinny Minor problem, this vid is missing the magic that makes it appear in the appropriate categories in Video Buddy, like Latest or Premium. Can still find it be searching by name though.

So happy to see a fresh episode, this is my wife's favorite series at the moment!

@zaldar: it's not so much hating. I love this crew, I love Yakuza 0, I love this series. I think a bunch of people are just starting to get defensive when the game gets thrown under the bus due partially (not entirely) to how Dan is playing it. When he's enjoying playing that way who cares, although it's tough I think to watch the frustration and not be able to step in and try to help which is I think what everyone here wishes they could do.

So yeah, for now I think it would be helpful to have Alex maybe look at the controls and abilities and mess around with the combat for 10 minutes beforehand and play the game next week. Plus it's a fun idea anyways!

@zaldar: I don't think watching someone get really frustrated and crap on a great game is a good direction for a video series I otherwise love. So dismissing a ton of people's legitimate constructive criticism under the banner of "oh, they're just haters" seems incredibly silly to me.

I understand where you're coming from, but in doing so, you're trying to completely dismiss what seems to be a majority of the commenters here.

@BioSpock has it right. Give Vinny or Alex a go, and if they don't like it either, then okay. At least y'all can enjoy the story.

I know you guys read the comments, so I'd like to throw in another vote for less minigame/management/side-story stuff. I am really enjoying the main story of this game and I've just ended up skipping a lot of the series to get to the story beats.

That being said, thanks as always for making great content, I can't wait to see what happens! It seems like stuff is really hitting a boiling point.

Well I still support side content. It isn't as interesting to watch but it's core to the franchise and providing income that buffs the characters which seems important given Dan's on-again off-again patience with the combat system. He was getting really good a couple of episodes ago and I'll assume he'll pick back up after a week or two here but otherwise I'm on board with all the previous comments.

it's equal parts endearing and maddening every time vinny says 'CP point'

nevertheless, stoked for this series to pick back up!

@vhdblood: Some of the game's best content is in the side stuff. I'd much rather them continue focusing on side stuff and just adding a timestamp for people who only want to see the story.

I don't think this is about him worrying about performing rather than... well, as he said, he straight up doesn't like playing the game. He IS playing the way he wants to play but the game is not built for the way he wants to play. He doesn't want to look at the bars and doesn't want to block or dodge anymore than the amount that he's currently doing.

We already have a breaking brad series where the player is meant to be frustrated and broken. This isn't the guiding philosophy for Beast in the east.

@stordoff: @omgfather: @winsord: I don't know if I'd assume Vinny or Alex would be any more skilled or nuanced at playing the game than Dan. However, what I do know is that if Dan isn't the one playing the game, the chances of him derailing an entire episode with random off-topic conversation, talking over top of major dialog and plot points, increases like ten fold - as happened all the time during Shenmue.

I'd rather hear him complain about the combat than witness all three of them completely lose a narrative thread because they were too busy explaining what a mortgage is...

Dan playing the game at least keeps him fairly focused on it.

@msta: I don't think anything is gated behind the minigames where they are managing the clubs, etc. You only need to do enough of that to make a bit of money and then it's just for completionist reasons. I'd guess we have 4+ hours of them doing meaningless money earning stuff. I mean how many times did they need to play the freaking crane game.

I don't mind the actual side-quests as much as the minigames and things.

And yeah, a timestamp would be pretty great for episodes like these. I get that everyone doesn't agree, I just wanted to add in my opinion since they seem to pay attention to the comments here and have talked about it on the episodes.

@sweetz: I honestly don't mind at all if the person playing isn't very good, I just don't enjoy watching people get angry/frustrated with games (excluding cases where they're intentionally playing bad games), which Dan clearly was at a couple of points during the episode (and has been in several episodes now).

For me, it puts a damper on things when getting knocked over in fairly normal combat frequently brings up how 'bad' the combat is, especially when it seems like most people would disagree. Based on most quicklooks, playdates, etc, I don't feel like Vinny or Alex would elicit the same response from simply getting combo'd.

I don't mind the off-topic tangents, though it can be a little tough if they're happening during major story cutscenes.

I've played every game in the series and the combat is terrible in all of them, always has been, it's never been the games selling point, Yakuza 0 just happens to be the most accessible outta the lot so if Dan is having no fun with it now or it's starting to grate on him the older games (if they get there) are going to really suck to play through, if you've played one Yakuza game, you've basically played them all.

That said I still enjoy the videos though so long as they're having fun with it, play the game for the over the top story and dumb side stories, the clunky ass combat that comes with it is just part of the Yakuza package.

@vhdblood:

You are incorrect. There definitely is important stuff gated behind the club and real estate minigames. I agree that they shouldn't bother since it's clear that Dan doesn't enjoy the actual GAMEplay, but for anyone who understands and enjoys the combat, there are very cool rewards for progressing those sidestories.

Has Dan ever beaten a Souls game?

C'mon Dan, this isn't some super technical fighting game, but it demands attention and patience.

Don't be like that.

@estragon:

*does a full combo of damage to the boss then immediately keeps attacking instead of backing off for even like two seconds*

*gets punished for it*

"FUCKIN SHIT THIS GAME IS PISSING ME OFF"

If the combat is getting too frustrating (or if you don't have patience to learn, or if it's hard to learn while only playing once a week), I fully recommend changing the difficulty to Easy. You'll get through fights faster, and (I think) you won't get stunned/knocked down quite as often. You could even do that just for boss battles. I'd call myself a low-skill player, but I rarely ever had to use healing items.

If you don't want to change difficulties, there is a lot of great combat advice posted by others here that would benefit you a lot.

Also, yes, now that you have unlocked Bottomless Stomach, it's a really good idea to run into every restaurant and eat everything to get a bunch of easy CP.

Bad news, game will be over soon. Good news, Dan will stop complaining.