First off, I can't find any obvious pre-existing topics about this (which surprises me a little, since this news is almost a day old at this point) but forgive me if it's already been posted on the forums and I somehow missed it.

Anyway, if you don't follow GB-related stuff on Twitter or Reddit, or wherever else it may have been cross-posted to, perhaps you missed this news.

Who's excited? I'm excited.

Oh wow. That's going to be amazing.

Legitimately the best news I've heard in awhile. I'm kind of extra excited they're starting with 0, because the extra over the top 80's Japan setting should make it all the more entertaining.

Great stuff.

That sounds freaking awesome, though I hope Vinny will at least partially take part. I want to see him experience the sheer madness of Yakuza as well.

I'm really excited. I'm guessing they will play Yakuza 1 right after Yakuza 0? Is there any way to play Yakuza 1 other than on the PS2?

I'm most excited for Yakuza 1 because that's the one with the super cheesy and horrible but also fantastic English voice acting. It's also the one I have most knowledge of, having played through it like 5 times.

Austin also needs to be in on one of these, he just has to find time for it.

@magmamud: It sounds like they plan to play Kiwami (current-gen remake of 1) once that's out, but no idea beyond that.

That is excellent. Although I want to play through myself before seeing this.

@cloudymusic: Ah. Man, that's a shame. I mean I don't know much about the remake, but the cheesy dubbing was part of what I loved about the original Yakuza. The constant swearing, the hammy line delivery. It had fucking Mark Hamill in it.

Still, I don't want to sound too bummed out. I'm sure it will be great nonetheless.

From the wise words of Nanako-chan:

I wouldnt mind seeing these games played as i missed out on them myself, but only if it does not hinder a shenmue 2 endurance run in any way.

I do love the direction gbeast seems to be going now.

This series is going to take literal years for them to get through. Hopefully they skip Dead Souls because nobody needs to see that.

@teddie: If they truly intend to see them through then this will likely be GBeast's "Metal Gear Scanlon". But you're right, when you compare the average length of a Yakuza game vs that I'm not even sure they know what they're getting into.

I hate when people try to get them to play through ER's the "right" way, but I really, REALLY hope they spend more time fucking around with side activities+missions than they did in Shenmue. Haven't played Shenmue myself so it could just be because it was bad/because they had a time limit of Dan's stay in NY, but more than half of the Yakuza series' appeal to me is in the side missions (the taxi stuff, weird DDR minigame, etc. in 5, secret move stuff etc.) and activities (batting cages, sega arcade stuff, and yes, the hostess clubs). It would be a real shame if they just mainlined the story through all these games, since such a large part of the appeal of the series is all the stuff you can fuck around with.

Other wish I have is that Austin can find the time to show up in an episode or two, since he's spent at least a little time with the series based on the Yakuza 5 coverage on the site.

@zeik: I think it'll be more like Vinnyvania/Blue Bombin' based on Alex's 2nd tweet, in that there isn't going to be regular installments, they'll just play a couple hours every couple weeks, in between other Blue Bombin'/Playdate episodes.

i picked up and looked at a Yakuza game once.

Think i might fire up sleepy dawgz.

also i'm sad again that dan won't be around to annoy jason anymore. :(

@dystopiax: He just said it won't be a daily ER, that doesn't mean it won't happen on a semi-regular basis. Metal Gear Scanlon was never on a consistent schedule either, but it was often enough to make consistent progress.

If they decide to treat these like Vinnyvania and just do them occasionally when they feel like it they'll be at this forever, considering these can be 50+ hour games. Forget even playing any of the other games.

They really REALLY shouldn't start with Zero and then chronologically step back to the first game. That's going to be a rather jarring transition and they'll get a lot more out of the prequel if they've gotten acquainted with the characters beforehand. I mean Yakuza 0 is kind of a treat if you've been following these games for a while but kind of meaningless if it's your first one.

Sure, alright, put Alex behind the wheel though. As cocky as Dan seems sometimes he tends to get frustrated over slower paced things.

The Yakuza games are like 'Best of Sega' themeparks if you try and play them like regular games you wont get much out of them.

I havent played Zero though (for obvious reasons) but I look forward to playing it before watching them play it.

Now that I think about it, it'll be crazy disappointing if Vinny's not taking part in this feature. I feel like he'd be able to get more enjoyment out of playing one of these than Alex and Dan combined.

I think that luckily(?), a lot of the minigames are introduced in the story, and some of the funnier sidequests just sort of force themselves on you. I guess by the nature of it being a video feature, they'll be trying to mainline it, but I really hope they take some time to drink in everything the games have to offer every now and then.

Also like @zeik said, if they just do an hour stream when they feel like it like they're doing with Megaman, the heat death of the universe will come sooner than the end of this feature.

So, disclaimer, I haven't played Zero, obviously, and I'm comparatively a series newcomer (my first Yakuza was 5).

That said, I think a lot of long-timers might underestimate how possible it is to start off with a late game in the series and still manage to keep up. For me, even starting with 5, after a few hours it really wasn't too difficult to figure out who most everyone was and largely what was going on, at least as far as it was relevant to the story being told. Maybe a person would have a better appreciation and pick up on more small references if they started at the beginning, but it feels like I've seen a lot of people somewhat overstate how important it is to "play the old games for the backstory" to be able to enjoy the later entries. It's possible that Zero is a special case because it's kind of a weird prequel-that-assumes-you're-already-familiar-with-the-characters, of course, but I can't speak to that specifically.

Like other people have said, these games can be really huge especially if you (rightfully) do a lot of the side activities, and I think it's somewhat likely that they might only actually get through one or two of the games before tapping out. In that case, I would say that playing the more tightly-designed, modern, better-looking current-gen ones is preferable, even if it's perhaps not the best way to get a complete view of the long-running story.

@cloudymusic: Oh sure it's entirely possible to get the gist of what's going on when you start from the middle, but like you said there is a ton of fun nuance that you'll be missing out on.

It's sort of like being a newcomer to Star Wars and watching Rogue One and then A New Hope - chronologically it makes sense and Rogue One is a perfectly good place to jump into, but you miss out on the fun details.

!

Nice I missed this announcement. Should be fun.

Oh my fucking God. Guest in Austin every so often and I'm there!

I still think even this is overestimating it's importance. Again, unless 0 is special as sort of a prequel episode, I don't think it really matters much at all. I started with 3, but with a huge gap in between playing each consequent installment I go into each one barely remembering anything that happened from previous games, and it hasn't really hurt my enjoyment at all.

Also, since they're going to play Kiwami instead of 1, you can't really start from the beginning anyway lol

@dystopiax: I'm not saying it's important I just don't think it makes any sense to play the prequel first and then go back to a "remaster" of the first one (I'm not really familiar with why this Kiwani entry is) and then go through 2 and 3.

It would be better, and a lot of funnier, if they play d the original first game with all the terrible voice dubbing. Honestly that ridiculous dub was one of the reasons I stuck with that game when it came out and no one knew what the heck it was.

Well, there really is no "perfect" way to get into the series at this point. The original is a PS2 game, with clunky old mechanics and a punched up dub script. The Kiwami remake isn't out in English for a while and adds new story stuff that references events in Yakuza 0. And 0 was specifically made with the intention of making it easier for new players to get into the franchise, just because there are things new players might miss, doesn't mean it won't serve that purpose better than the other options.

Anyway, looking forward to this. I hope as others have said, they take the time to mess around the the side stuff eventually... Karaoke, crafting, training with masters, eating out, etc.. At least, unlike in Shenmue, this is all clearly marked in the interface/map so they don't have to go around and guess at what's available.

@blacklagoon: yah but that dub is soooo good. Also when you play the clunky PS2 game you can really appreciate the later entries.

I mean for Metal Gear Scanlong they didn't play Twin Snakes, they dredged up the original.

I will say that I'm interested in seeing the gameplay changes in Kiwami, because as said the original had some poor combat. That game was all about putting points into upgrading the side and back dodge ability, and then stocking up on health items before every mission. But that also made the game piss easy.

I know it's not a realistic proposition, but if they could somehow include the English dub in the NA release of Kiwami, that would be the best thing ever. Because I know that Dan for one would want to play it that way.

@magmamud said:

From what I understand Kiwami is built on 0 and uses a lot of its mechanics. As for the dub, yeah, including it would be great, but there are probably too many issues, not to mention it would be incomplete as there are new cutscenes in Kiwami. Someone's actually taken the time to synch the dub to Kiwami's cutscenes on YouTube though, so Alex and Dan could make a bonus episode where they watch some of it like with the MGS trailers.

@blacklagoon: Wow I didn't know someone already synced the dub. That is a fantastic idea. Hopefully they check that out.

One thing I have expected is that GBeast would become a place with lots of game playthrough content now, since Dan used to do a ton at GI and Jeff and Brad have always seemed against it. Vinny has done a lot and I think he and Alex are game for that commitment too. I would love to see a lot of ER type stuff out of them.

*Alex rage intensifies*

As soon as I started playing this (my first one in the series) I was thinking how it had Endurance Run / at least some sort of GB play through potential, but mostly that was because I wanted to hear Vinny's reaction to everything. If it's just going to be Alex and Dan, not sure that I'll even bother tbh. This stuff is what Vinny does best.

@kestrelpi:

Yeah I don't really get why they all can't be present like with Shenmue and pretty much any other playthrough they have done (Life is Strange, Contradiction, Phantasmagoria etc)

@kestrelpi: @magmamud:To be fair; Vinny does an absurd amount of work already. Not only is he the only "video guy" at GBeast, he's also head of media for Giant Bomb which means he has to take part of multiple meetings, some of 'em being fun chats with Drew and Jason, others not so much. Ontop of that, he's also attending just about every quick look, as well as numerous live streams each week. And the fella has two children who are at an age where they demand a lot of attention and time.

I'm just saying, a feature that lets Vinny do less work for once? Maybe not the worst idea. Besides, you guys really underestimate Alex. Give the series a shot at least before you make up your minds.

Great! I'm gonna play Yakuza 0 and was wondering what to do to see the older games.

@do_the_manta_ray: That's fair. And don't get me wrong, I personally love Alex and Dan just as much and I would be as bummed if Alex wasn't part of this series or if Dan wasn't. I just feel these playthroughs are the funniest when they are all working off each other.

I'm definitely still watching it, just wish Vinny was part of it too. But you mentioning it, I get that he has a lot of work to do.

@do_the_manta_ray: I mean yeah, I'm not trying to say he has to be involved in everything - but it does seem like it'd be a bit of a weird choice in this case because this is exactly the sort of thing that is hugely improved by his presence. I could stand for him to be in fewer retro game playthroughs, if it meant he could be in stuff like this.

I like Alex and I've grown to... tolerate Dan, but riffing on goofy shit is Vinny's jam

Aren't a lot of these as long as an average JRPG? Can't believe they're committing to the entire series. I think it'd make a lot more people happier if they tackled like 1 or 2 of these and like 10 completely different and separate titles.

Is this like the new Souls' or Persona games or something? Like they were already good but now everyone's decided to latch on to it all at same time for whatever reason.

@liquiddragon: I haven't played the later ones but the first 2 are the length of your average Action RPG or Action/Adventure game, which is to say like 13 hours with much of the side content included.

@kestrelpi: @magmamud: Hey, I get you. In a perfect world, Vinny would be in everything. And who knows, maybe he'll sit in for an episode here and there when he has time. If he does, I bet those will be all kinds of special with all of that "Vinny-juice" he's gotten the chance to save up. (Vinny-juice is also known as rainbows, whiskers on kittens and a cold beer after a long day's work.)

I don`t remember the length of the first couple of games that well, so you might be right, but the later ones are definitely a lot longer. I would guess they are about 20 hours or so with no side content and somewhere between 25 and 60 hours depending on how much side content you do. Doing at least some of the side stuff is a big part of the game and a lot of it`s really good, so even if you are not a completionist a single game in the series can quickly become 30 hours. (For context I am about two thirds of the way through 0 doing all of the sub stories along the way and have spent about 40 hours with that game so far.)

There is definitely some really fun and weird stuff for Alex and Dan to react to, but the games also have a lot of long conversations (often in text form) that you kinda have to pay attention to if you want to enjoy the story. I am especially curious as to how Dan will react to that part.

It does seem absurd that they would try to play through EVERY Yakuza game this year. Unless they skip all of the side content (which would be missing more than half the point of these games), that is an enormous commitment. And let's be honest they all play pretty samey. I'd rather they play 0 and Kiwami and call it a day. If they want a big commitment this year there's this game called Persona 5...

@odinsmana: I might have underestimated the length of the second one. But I've beaten the first one several times and unless you spend a lot of time finding locker keys and flirting with hostess girls, its a fairly short game. The rest of the side quests are pretty minuscule. Yakuza 2 may be when all that side content got more involved, and as you say it gets pretty crazy with the PS3 games.

Re: Vinny participating, he is the only video guy there so even if he's not officially part of the feature he'll still be there ala Jason in Metal Gear Scanlon. That studio is small enough we'll probably be able to hear Vinny yelling "FUUUUUUCK" when they suplex a guy into a railing either way.

@thewildcard: At no point did we say we were going to try to play them all this year. This is planned as an ongoing thing until we finish all the games or the heat death of the universe. Whichever comes first.

EDIT: So just to be totally clear: The goal is to play through Yakuza 0 over the course of the next few months. By the time we're done with that, Yakuza Kiwami should be out or nearly so, at which point we'll tackle that one. That's probably all we'll get done for Yakuza in calendar 2017, but we do plan on tackling the other games after that.

Been a fan of the series since 2...I'd avoid Yakuza 1 though. I kind of wish they would just wait for the remake, but I get that they want to start this while Yakuza 0 is still fresh.

Does anyone know if this will be a premium only series? I imagine it will be but I don't' know if they have said or not.

@alex: it saddens me that you can't provide at least 18 hours of daily yakuza content. *tsk tsk*