Up until this point my only experience with the series was playing the Yakuza 3 demo once shortly after getting my PS3. Although I didn't hate what I saw, it didn't exactly hook me to want to go out and pay money to play more. I pretty much wrote off the series at that point and probably never would have givin it another thought.

I just finished playing Yakuza 4 though, and it was pretty fantastic. It starts off slow (with some heavy exposition dumps) but once it got going it got its hooks in me but good. The story ended up being quite good and once the gameplay started to flesh itself out smashing punks' faces in never quite got old. (I think the game switching between the different protags with different playstyles helped.)

Yakuza 5 has gone from complete indifference to one of my most anticipated games coming out this year. They really picked an excellent time to do this too. Right now is pretty dead for new games and it's not long after that Yakuza 5 announcement, so I don't have to worry about praying to the SEGA gods to actually know if I get to play it, unlike most existing Yakuza fans. Not yet anyway. I definitely recommend anyone who has been curious about these games but never took the plunge to give it an honest go.

On a random side-note, being able to take Haruka out to do Karaoke and bowling and stuff may be one of my favorite post-game bonuses in a video game. It's like if you got to take Nanako in Persona 4 out to Junes and buy her lamps whenever you pleased. Though on the subject of post-game, I really like the way the game handles that. Opening the game up into a free adventure mode where you can freely finish up any side-content you have yet to do, even the stuff that was time-sensitive in the story, is a really great way to handle that. More games should really do something like that.

It's a good game. Id say the previous 3 are worth checking out, but warning: 3 has a (imo) weaker story than the rest.

Kinda fun to see the exploits of Kiryu.

Yeah it's a really really good game. Looking forward to 5 and hopefully 0.

If you liked Haruka you'll be happy to know she's a playable character in 5. She's an up and coming idol and she dance fights.

I forgot to mention, I felt like this was a great place to jump in for the first time, as it seems to be the least connected to the previous games stories. It does come with some handy narrated recaps of the first three games, which seems to fill in the majority of the info you need to know, but most of the game focuses on the new characters, so I never really felt like I was missing something. (Pretty much the only time that happened was with some of Kiryu's side-content, which regularly made call backs to what I assume is previous game's side-content.)

Yes! Yakuza 4 is amazing! My only complaint is that Akiyama is an underused character and suffers from being the "tutorial guy".

Let's go Yakuza 5! Please come out, 0!

I have no idea what I'm doing in this game. Apparently I'm some loan shark who doesn't take payment, but requires people to perform odd tasks. Literally all I have done was play the karaoke......alone. Nobody seems to want to hang out. Sometimes on my way to the karaoke bar people will try and pick fights with me, to which, I always win. Probably jealous because I have beaten all the songs with the highest score.

@thesecondagent: You should just continue with the story. You don't have anybody to do karaoke with because you don't have enough money to go to hostess clubs yet.

I've been trying to finish up as many side quests as I can before I move on to the next protagonist. I'm not really feeling it as a result. I did start to enjoy a lot more once I could pick up motorcycles and hit people in the face with them. The story seems to be intriguing anyway.

@mosespippy: Right before the end of the game they let you switch between all 4 characters so you can do all the sidequests then.

@corevi: I have to pay to make friends : ( ?! I did have cash, but lost it all to that silly virtual fighter machine. It's probably rigged.

@thesecondagent: The VR Fighter isn't worth engaging with until near the end since you need to beat a boss to fight them in VR and the only reward other than a longer heat meter (not that important) requires you to beat every single VR fight.

@corevi: I think he was talking about the VF pachinko machine, not the VFT-7 or whatever that thing is called.

@mosespippy: Oh man, fuck that Pachinko machine and fuck Sega for tying a trophy to it.

@mosespippy: @thesecondagent: I wouldn't worry too much about trying to clear everything as soon as you can. Not only does the final chapter give you mostly free reign to do anything you want, but after you beat the game you also unlock premium adventure mode, which basically gives you free reign to do just about anything you want with any character, regardless of the story.

I think it's worth trying to clear most of the story related side missions with each character before moving on, simply because some of them are pretty entertaining and help flesh out the characters, but don't feel obligated to do so, because it doesn't seem like you can miss anything. If you want to advance the story then feel free. Knowing how that premium adventure mode works I feel like you should only do as much side stuff as you feel like doing and then just focus on the story.

Well, I was on the fence, as I always wanted to try a game from that series... This looks like this a good one and a good entry point at that ! Let's give this a downloading :'D

My one big complaint about this game? The huge file size. I felt like I had to delete half my HDD to make room. D:

20-ish GBs doesn't seem that bad, but the PS3 has that annoying issue of requiring double the actual space to download and install stuff.

It is great to have you with us !

Now, feel the pain and dread of waiting for Yakuza 5... I've been waiting for this game since 2013 :(

Welcome aboard. Its a series which probably rivals and surpasses Metal Gear for most story. I am excited for 5's eventual release.

@giant_gamer: Well Yakuza 5 already got confirmed for localization this year, so the wait shouldn't be that bad. (By comparison.) I'm more worried about 0. I don't want to wait 2-3+ years to play that in English. :(

@shindig: Quantity or quality? It would be pretty damn hard for them to top MGS4 in terms of quantity. The game may not shy away from cutscenes, but nothing comes close to 71 minutes of uninterupted cutscenes. But for quality? I would already put the story in this game ahead of most of MGS. Yakuza 4 had just about the right amount of Japanese eccentricity without going too overboard. Unlike MGS, which jumped the shark several times over ages ago.

Yakuza is so good you guys. I think I still prefer 3 to 4 though.

I played Yakuza 3 a couple of years ago and finished 4 this year. I actually bought it digittaly right before they it was a PS+ but whatever. I really like them as comfort food games. Its fun to run around punching people and playing this incredibly rigged pachinko machine. And other things like fishing or kicking people. I spent like 30 - 40 hours in both games beating story mode, not yet touching the premium stuff.

I like 4 better than 3 from a gameplay perspective but, the stories in both these games are dumb. I guess I didn't expect them to be so melodramatic. It feels like what I imagine a Japanese crime drama is like, including the part where I lose track of whats going on and why. I can't even hate it because its so earnest and charming. I eagerly await Yakuza 5 and all of its shirtless man punching.

@iamterics: I didn't feel like it was that much more melodramatic than a western version of this would be. And it's not like it takes itself too seriously all the time. There's plenty of that shirtless man punching and other super Japanese hijinks to balance things out. I mean c'mon, Saejima pulls a fucking log out of nowhere and carves a wooden statue whenever he has a "revelation". That's the kind ridiculous that makes it all worth it.

@zeik: I honestly was expecting it to be way more serious, which made it extra weird when they turn up the crazy at key story moments. The gameplay really does match-up to the story in ridiculousness and it works out for the most part. But you have to admit, fake bullets are really dumb.

Quantity. The story re-caps are so lengthy they rival the game itself for time spent. They throw a button prompt into it between chapters to check you're still watching. Yakuza's more soapy melodrama than MGS's anime.

I've owned this since it launched, but I'm glad more people will be able to try it out. I don't think this is really a better game than Yakuza 3.

This game is so much fun, me and my girlfriend just spend ages doing the hostess quests.

@iamterics: I admit that part was kinda dumb. I would give it a pass the first time, but the fact that they went back to that trick multiple time was just silly. Arai should have been smarter than that.

@shindig: I really don't think those count. They're literally just the cutscenes from previous games crammed together and narrated over.

That's like calling the MGS collection 1 game. They're not part of this game's story. You have to go into a completely separate menu to even watch them.

@sammo21: As much as I liked this game, I'm not sure if I'll bother going back to 3. Several of the things that I liked about this game aren't apllicable to 3, and I already know what happens in the story. Maybe if I'm dying for more after 5.

It's hard to find the second one and I want to play them all in order. The first one was pretty good.

@sethphotopoulos: It's kind of a shame they didn't release the the HD collection here. I'd be much more likely to play the earlier games if that was an option.

so is there any point in playing Yakuza 3, or is it better to just watch the recap and jump straight into 4?

@oodli: I think you will enjoy the later games much more if you play the previous games first. I think that this is especially the case for Yakuza 3 which is best enjoyed after playing through 1 and 2. It's probably the worst one to start with. I recently played through all the western releases and felt that the recap videos weren't brilliant, probably because all the events that happened in the previous games were fresh in my mind. I still think the recaps are decent and you should definitely watch them if you are new to the series but in Y3's case, I feel like you need to be more familiar with the characters established in the previous 2 games. All that said, people have started with Y3, enjoyed it, and as a result got into the series.

@oodli: Start with 4 and then if you like it go through the rest of the series. All of them are good games (except Dead Souls).

@zeik: That's much better. With allot of games now, I feel the need to clear everything before carrying on. I don't want to miss out on a cool side-mission just to be told I have to replay several hours of the game to see it. This in mind, I will continue with the story because it seems really interesting.

@oodli: I would personally start with 3 IMO.

There's no point, unless you wanna deprive yourself of a great game. Boom.

@oodli: If it means holding off until you maybe possibly buy Yakuza 3 someday then just play 4 now. I thoroughly enjoyed 4 with no prior experience with the series, and if I had felt the need to go play Yakuza 3 first I probably wouldn't have played it at all. It's an unfortunate side-effect of trying to jump into a story heavy series several games deep, but I didn't have a problem jumping into 4.

But if you're planning to play them anyway and don't care about spending the money first then you should probably start with 3 (or earlier.) Stuff that happens in that game does affect this one, so I don't doubt you'd appreciate them more seeing it all first hand.

Tanimura's Chapter 3 is perhaps the greatest chapter 3 in the history of video games.

Fuck! I was going through the waves of enemies before the end of Part 4 when the game quit out. It claims my license expired even though my PS+ subscription still has 149 days. Fuck this game.

@mosespippy: Sounds like your internet cut out.

@corevi: Nope, popped up with the message this content will expire in 15 minutes, this content will expire in 5 minutes, then quit out. I was online the whole time.

@mosespippy: That's...weird. I've never seen that happen before, in any game. Is it still having that issue or was it just a one time thing?

@zeik: Just a one time thing. I can load it up and play again, but I lost about 25 minutes of grinding through waves of enemies. Really don't want to bother with it anymore.

Bummer. :/

If it was me I'd just take a break and come back later. It's worth finishing. You can always drop the difficulty down to speed through the fights.

I finally gave this a shot, having never played or even known much about Yakuza before. I know I watched the QL way back when, but I didn't retain any of it.

I think I really like Yakuza. This game is crazy. Any game that lets you graphically crush somebody's jaw (good god, I didn't think the game would be this brutal) and then unwind with karaoke, all while on your way to give a client a makeover, is alright by me.

What are the projected playtimes on these games, anyway? There's just an insane amount of stuff in this. Yakuza 5 may very well have just been added to my "must play" list.

@shagge: For 100% completion easily 80-100 hours.

@demoskinos: Sounds about right from what I've seen so far. I probably won't 100% it (I always start games with lofty goals of doing everything in them, but it's extremely rare for me to ever actually do it), but I can definitely see myself doing a good portion of it.

Is this the one with the orphanage or is that 3? Cracking skulls and then sorting some minor-league kiddy whinging is great.

@shindig: That was 3.