Quick Look: Yakuza: Like a Dragon

this will be the first game I play on my xsx

Talking while playing this game seems hard lol, I hope this isn't Alex's real save :o

Anyways, this is absolutely the game of the year 2020

Is there an order that these games should be played in? I've never played a Yakuza game, but always get curious when a new one comes out

@mattchops: Yakuza 0 is definitely the best starting point to get into the series.

Always a pleasure seeing y'all experiencing these nutty games.

That's rad.

I've come to trust Alex and only Alex when it comes to Yakuza coverage.

A "Gary Buster Holmes summon" is way more threatening than Ifrit or something.

So weird that Yakuza is now being considered a "launch" game, but that just shows how popular it got here in the states. I'm playing on a PS4, and while they are not as quick here, the loads aren't terrible, just the initial, and after big cutscenes. The 60 frames in game would have been sweet.

Yeah, you can end up in a section of town that you are underleveled, and get crushed.

This is my favorite Yakuza game by far.

By the way, if you press Block just as the enemy attacks you take less damage.

Did Yakuza get weirder, or is the marketing this time around just focusing more on the weird? This will be my first Yakuza game and I'm not sure what I'm getting into...

I think Haruka is the first controllable female protagonist in a Yakuza game, not Saeko, I guess Saeko would be the first you could fight as though

In Yakuza 5 you play as Haruka for a bit. However, her whole gameplay are rhythm games, she doesn't fight hands to hands but have dance battle instead.

is it just me or does alex doesn't know how to block actively? i know you can press buttons to block damage and do extra damage

@brad: If it's anything like the prior games, then the tone of the main quest will be fairly serious. But the combat and all the side-quest stuff will be absolutely bat-shit insane.

For example, the main quest of Yakuza-0 is a pretty straight-faced Departed-style meditation on honor and brotherhood within a criminal underworld. But then there will be a side-quest where you need to go to the bowling alley and win a turkey by getting three strikes in a row. Except that the turkey isn't a turkey, it's a live chicken and that chicken can manage your property in the property-management mini-game.

@brad: They've embraced the weirdness more as the series went along but it's always been there. The main story thread (at least in the Kiryu games) is usually very serious and has a fair bit of melodrama though.

@brad: Did you manage to play Judgement?
Anyway, besides maybe first two Yakuzas, the side quests are usually batshit crazy.
For this new one, they just go full on crazy with the new summon mechanics.
Please play, at least Yakuza 0. Judgement is good too.

I am not sold on turn-based combat judging from the video, especially if the number of encounters is as high as in other Yakuza games. Just seems like another totally serviceable turn-based combat system without anything special to hook you in.

@brad Yakuza games always walked the line between super serious and super wacky and weird, but I think they just marketed it pretty straight-faced before.

@brad: The side content in Yakuza games was always a bit weird and more lighthearted as a counterbalance to the main plot that can get pretty serious and dramatic. But yeah, the marketing for Like a Dragon seems to lean way more into all the weird quirkiness of its JRPG mechanics.

@brad:

Battles are a bit weirder than they previously were, but the story itself is about the same level of weird.

Also I think Alex needs to buy some armor. I was getting trucked like that around this spot too until I bought equipment.

I'm about 3 hours in and I think this could be my goty. I loved yakuza 0, but fell off kiwami. The combat, story and humor is top notch.

It would be nice when Vinny brought up the auto-battle and flee mechanics, if Alex was able to show those off instead of just acknowledging they were there. Since as he pointed out, there seems to be so many random battles in this game, and can get tedious.

I know it's not how Alex normally plays, but for a Quick Look, and with this being not his main save, it would have been nice to see. Just my 2 cents.

I have a feeling this game might get Tomb Raidered

Couldn’t hear half of Alex’s explanations in this.

Game looks rad, dat dragon engine paying dividends on next gen

What made you fall off from Kiwami?

Did Alex completely give up on the perfect guard mechanic?

Wow sucks that they changed the combat

WOW. I hate this!

This is the polar opposite of what I want in a Yakuza game.

edit: the combat. the jrpg turned based combat is what i hate. the rest is standard fare yakuza wackiness, and is good.

Honestly? Yeah. This is a big problem I've had with a lot of the videos on this site. And I've been here since day 1. For a Quick Look, I feel like they should be doing a little more to show off the variety in the game. Like fighting games where they just replay matches with the same characters, games with class- or weapon-based combat where they stick with one class/weapon type instead of showcasing the others they have in their inventory or loot while playing, that sort of stuff.

Don't just acknowledge it's there, show us. And if they don't know how to do it, I mean, learn? Learn the very basics of the game's systems, the ones that are clearly documented in game or otherwise easily accessible*, before playing it for your job.

*I'm not demanding for World Tendency-level knowledge of secret/hidden/undocumented mechanics

@mattchops: Either this one or zero are good starting points after that you can just play them in numerical order.

Hmmm...buy this on PS4 now, wait to maybe play this on XSX|S if I maybe buy one of those consoles, or buy on PC and be mad that it has Denuvo. Or wait to play this in 10 years when I finally get through playing Y0-6 + Judgment?

41:20 - "Certified"

@mattchops: Not really. This new one is a completely new protagonist, setting, and combat style so it's fine to start here. If you want to check out the older games, I would recommend Yakuza 0.

Unbelievable to see people complaing about the combat when they are constantly releasing Yakuza games with normal beat em up combat. Gamers folks.

@brad: They are definitely I think leaning on the weird in marketing because they usually are leaning on the melodrama and saga of the Kiryu character when marketing all the other games. However, the games are always weird as hell once you get into them.

@toughshed said:

I really liked old Yakuza combat though. I don't think I can get into this new one.

Yeah, just *unbelievable* that people think this bog standard turn-based fighting seems bland.

Well, I'm going to have to play this...

I enjoy a lot of the Yakuza series but goddamn if it isn't one of the most formulaic game series. Even the sappy side story resolution music is the same as previous games.

The combat was always the worst part of the Yakuza games for me, just felt like a slog and a means to get to the good bits. I'm a huge fan of this change and it's actually really fun to play, the way they justify it in world is really good. It feels nice having a little gang of pals going around with you too. I'm only about 10 hours or so in but I think this might be my favourite Yakuza game?

Extremely glad Yakuza is taking the beautiful art of identifying different kinds of guys off of twitter and into Yokohama

Finally a combat system that appeals to me. Sad to hear so many core fans are disappointed but this might finally be the Yakuza game that actually brings me in. I'll probably wait until the PS5 version next year (and see if my interest is still there) but definitely a huge plus for me that they got rid of their beat-em-up combat.

I love every single bit of this

I have no interest in playing Yakuza games, but I would watch Alex do it for eternity

Pushing about 10 hours, and the combat isn't yet clicking for me. The dyanmic camera makes it very hard to guard against the incoming attacks, and in my experience most boss fights boil down to doing the same three moves again and again. It suffers from exactly the same issue as the old Yakuza combat had, formulaic and easy-to-cheese, but instead of being active and allowing you to use your environment and surroundings in battles, you and the enemies just shuffle around like you all have poop in your pants and sometimes also are punching people. Like I had infinitely more fun throwing people throw glass in Kiwami 2, or breaking people's knees and elbows against walls in Yakuza 0, than I am having mashing out special moves in Like a Dragon.

but seriously, "sudden death or suds on breasts" (?)

@goulash_enjoyer: Yeah, I agree. Yakuza actually had really unique combat. There aren't a lot of beat 'em ups with actual depth out there. To see it become yet another RPG (Hello Assassins Creed), is kind of a bummer.

I get that for most people, the biggest draws of this series are the story, the locale, and the characters, but there are a LOT of people (myself included), who really enjoyed the combat.

@bradAs a fan of the series since 2005, Yakuza has always been a balance between a serious (albeit melodramatic) main plot and wacky side quests. On the one hand, shirtless, tattooed men brutally beat each other up in cutscenes. On the other hand, said tattooed men partake in debauchery and can get caught up helping out fictional famous people.

And as Alex said in the quick look, fans of the series will always go with Japanese dub, English subs (myself included). The thing that disappoints me about the English dub is that like Judgement, the game isn't 100% dubbed outside the main characters and villains like say in anime.

That said, I hope Like a Dragon is a gateway drug for you to retroactively check out the rest of the series. While the brawler combat does get repetitive and loses its lustre in the Dragon Engine games (Kiwami 2, 6, and Judgement), man if it doesn't retain the spirit of Renegade/River City Ransom of yore. And if you're really feeling adventurous, Yakuza: Dead Souls is a third person shooter that would influence Binary Domain.

@mattchops: I’d say at least finish Yakuza 6 before this as this game does spoil that one a bit.