odinsmana

@odinsmana: Sorry, i was comparing it to the character slots in the online portion of those games, which i find to be a better comparison here then a single player game save slot. If i remembering correctly they gave you one or two custamisable character slots, after that you could unlock more for money.

This seems like a totally scummy thing in theory, but in practice there doesn't seem to be any utility to having a second character beyond changing gender(cuz you can change your appearance in game). I still don't approve, though.

@boonsong: The $40 price tag might be the reason they feel justified in doing this. After all, they could have easily made it a full price release.

Not all that shocking really, i want to say MGS4 had something similar, and some googling says it was added to MSGV also, but i think they at least give you 2 character slots. I was half tempted with this game since i loved how MGSV played, but its stuff like this that make me glad i passed.

I just imagine one of the bad guys from the yakuza 0 running konami.

If you just want to get caught up enough to be able to play 6 I'd suggest playing 0, Kiwami and 4. 0 is a fantastic introduction to the series and is what's going to hook most people, Kiwami is the most important game for understanding Kiryu's character and setting up the stage for the rest of the series, and 4 introduces two very important characters to the series and is a good showcase of what Kiryu's life is like after the original game's story.

I can't speak to exactly how much 6 expects you to know from the older games, but for 2 through 5 the actual plot of each game is generally pretty stand-alone and doesn't require any knowledge of previous entries. The important thing is knowing the characters themselves, and outside of the original game Yakuza 4 is the most important for setting up new characters. It also just happens to be the strongest of the PS3 trilogy. There's also some official digital comics on the official Yakuza website that are designed to help you get to know the characters without spoiling the actual plot of each game.

@odinsmana: I don't disagree, but I bet they prefer this to getting spammed with bullshit on Twitter or here or YouTube by coming outright and saying "We dropped the QL because of the developer". If that's even the reason. I doubt they see any of this, honestly. It's probably just annoying to the mods and Rorie, and some of the other posters.

I don't even think Hat in Time is the first time they've ever had a QL or something scheduled that never happened, it just also had all of that other craziness surrounding it so the speculation went a little crazy. It's still entirely possible they canned it for a completely unrelated reason.

To answer about playing chronologically, I wouldn't get too hung up on it. Some people may disagree, but in my experience they do a pretty good job of filling you in, and through context you will pick up on most things. I would say it isn't so much that the stories are self contained, because they aren't, but it's just that the Yakuza storyline is pretty much always moving forward. Though there are references and characters and things like that which appear throughout the series, and even some story arcs that carry from game to game, I personally I think you're fine just using the in game reference modes and skipping the ones you don't have access to at the moment. 2 and 3 are great games, no doubt, but if you don't have access to them, I wouldn't let it discourage you from jumping in to 4 and giving it a shot after Kiwami. You can always go back and play Kiwami 2 or even 3 later and I think you'll still have fun with them. TLDR version, just get in there and play 'em if you want, it will be fine!

@svengoolie: 1) I don't suspect you ever will; 2) Do you demand the reasoning behind every game they don't cover?; and 3) Why would them not covering it, even if it was because of the lead designer's actions, be them making a political statement? If anything, it'd really only become a political statement the second they came out and said "We're not covering this game because Vavra is with Gamergate."

Look, it's been 3 days. The game has been patched to high hell. Let's at least give it a little time before we start with the conspiracy theories and the demands (and even then, don't -- it's not a big deal).

@theht: It's just speculation for the most part(besides one of the crews retweet of a now deleted tweet), none of us can speak for the crew or anybody else. Hat in time supposedly had a quick look ready to go, but i personally never saw it on the site at all or heard anything about it but i don't follow the podcasts that closely anymore.