I'm just finishing up all of the activities in Yakuza 0, and I'm loving pretty much everything about that game.

I already picked up Yakuza Kiwami, so I'm gonna do everything I can in that game pretty soon. I've read up on Yakuza Kiwami 2 being a Japanese only release. But that's eventually getting an English/North America release I assume?

What I'm unclear on is how I should approach the rest of the series leading up to Yakuza 6 in April.

Is Sega going to remake Yakuza 3, 4, and 5 like they've done with Yakuza 1 and 2? I've read that Sega is already in development of an entirely new Yakuza series set in 2018. Does that mean it's all hands on deck for that, or is there another team that's doing the remakes?

My ideal situation is finishing up all the Yakuza games up to Yakuza 5, before Yakuza 6 comes out. But if there's a strong possibility that Yakuza 3, 4, and 5 will get the Kiwami treatment, I'd rather wait and play those, then tackle Yakuza 6. Even if it takes years for English versions to come out. I have a PlayStation Now subscription, so I could play the PS3 versions of the previous Yakuza games before 6. I might be waiting a while to play Yakuza 6, because Kiwami 2 might not come to the US before Yakuza 6?

I guess my pertinent question is: should I wait and hope for remakes of Yakuza 3, 4, and 5? Or just play them on PS3/PS Now?

Considering we have no idea if they are going to make a Kiwami 3 and that we are not even certain that Kiwami 2 will be brought over I would play the original releases.

Nice, it is a really fun series. The story is pretty complex and for a newcomer there are a lot of names to keep up with, but usually they have a pretty well done reminisce mode that kinda briefly states which happens in all of the games and plays back the important cutscenes that have come before the one you're playing. Don't worry too much, I started with 3 back in the day and still had a really good time, I skipped the recap but eventually went back after things got pretty interesting.

As far as I know, Kiwami 2 is supposed to come out in the west but I haven't heard anything about them remaking 3, 4 or 5. I'd say if playing them in order is an option, it definitely is worth it, but don't worry too much about skipping some or just jumping straight into 6. I've also been playing yakuza 4 on PSnow!

I really feel it is worth it to play them chronologically as they all introduce some important characters and overall are all very good games.

I would play yakuza 2 on an emulator. It does look really good with a higher rendering resolution. Then I would buy yakuza 3 on ebay/amazon since that is the only way to play it unfortunately. As for 4 and 5 you can buy them digitally. Based on historical sales data on psn there should be a psn sale in early march where 4 and 5 should be on sale (speaking from the european store). Other wise 4 isn't all to expensive so you could buy it and then just wait for 5 to go on sale. 4 and 5 where also made available on PSNOW last week so if you don't have a problem streaming them that is also an option.

As for dead souls, only play that if you really like the characters in Yakuza because god damn that is a terrible game from a gameplay standpoint. It should also go on sale in march but psychical copies are dirt cheap since no one wants it.

The series creator has said that he wants all Yakuza games on platform. So who knows what that means and how long it will take for that to realize if ever. So I would just drop the cash now and play the series.

Yakuza 3-5 are PS3 games so the difference in graphics compared to zero is not that high. Going back to the PS2 games is hard these days but I don't see any reason to make remakes of 3-5 when they look fine as they are.

Honestly, I think it's pretty safe to skip over 2 and go straight to 3, then go back to Kiwami 2 later. 2's story is pretty self- contained, in that they really don't reference back to all that much in later games, so don't worry about being lost or having too much spoiled.

I recently replayed the series from 0-5 and Yakuza 2 holds up well for a PS2 game but if you don't have access to it it could be skipped (was the last one I played and I don't feel I missed all that much Re: story inter-connectivity).

I would definitely just play the PS3 3-5 as they're still great and not all that different from 0/Kiwami and who knows if/when we'll get updates for them. 4&5 really don't need it but the English language release of 3 is bare-bones by series standards. It's also worth bearing in mind that 3 (and maybe 4?) have story recap cutscenes explaining the more important details from 2 if you're looking to skip for now without missing anything relevant.

Play them in order, i watched yakuza 0 endurance run first but kinda wish i just played it last since it spoiled a few events in yakuza 4. Original Yakuza 2 plays well on ps2, and if you dont have a ps2 and a decent pc you can buy a copy(probably still in stock since they had a rerelease a while back) and play the emulator version(save states ftw).

Yakuza 4 and 5 are on psnow, but that service is fucking awful and the most laggy game streaming i have ever experienced(on live actually worked). I am debating dropping 40$ on 5, since this 5 year old game refuses to drop to a reasonable price and psnow sucks.

Probably 0 (or watch Beast in the East)->Kiwami->Kiwami 2 (when it releases here)->3-5 (on PS3)->6

I was planning on starting the series this summer. I'm not going to play 0, since I watched them do it. I'll have to just watch 3-5 on Youtube, considering I don't own a PS3.

Sidenote: I've seen Kiwami go on sale between $15 and $20 several times already. So that's a great starting point if you've watched BitE.

@chaz934: you can try psnow on PC, it didn't work well for me but it might for you. They have a 7 day trial and ykuza 4 and 5 were added.

Yeah, not to get too off topic here but man PSnow has not been a great experience for me, which is a shame because the idea of the service is really good to me. I thought initially it was just my internet but it sounds like some other people are having trouble with it too. It does ok like 90% of the time, but sometimes it would just completely drop inputs and be like a couple frames a second. It honestly did fine until I got further and further into yakuza 4, and it has been worse with katamari forever. I wish they would put katamari on ps4 :(

@oursin_360 Oh you can use it on PC? I will for sure try that out in the next couple days, at least I'm connected by cable on my computer.

@oursin_360: All I have is macbook at the moment. But good to know!

I just finished Kiwami tonight, I enjoyed it but for anyone who has not started the series yet I really recommend Yakuza 0. It is a much better starting point as its story and missions are not held back by the source material like Kiwami is. I am going to take a break for a while now before playing 2 as I am getting a little burned out with the combat.

@odinsmana: Play the original games regardless. The original Yakuza 2 has a better presentation than Kiwami 2.

Also, don’t skip Yakuza 2, like someone else said in here. It is one of the best entries in the series, and deserves to be played by more people. If you like, I made a guide for this on Dtoid https://www.destructoid.com/like-a-dragon-a-guide-to-the-yakuza-series-412484.phtml

Or you can watch Hyperbit’s video on the series here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xkN9oru-qCQ&t=1161s

I played Zero and Kiwami. I'm going to just jump straight in to 6. They made a bunch of web comics to catch you up on the story and I might use that just before release.

Just play whatever that you can. I played both the original Yakuza and Kiwami and honestly, the two versions play so different that they might as well be different games. Don't skip on the old versions as they were all interesting in their own way (Yakuza 3 has an amazing facial deformation bug on the guys you beat up that is terrifying). Feel free to skip them if you just don't feel like buying them now, but don't use "waiting for remake" as a reason.

I started with 4, then 5, then 0, then Kiwami

I think four is a fine starting point, as is 0.

I will agree that yakuza 2 is a must play(whether kiyami or original). I have played 1,2 and 4 and watched 0. 2 is my favorite so far

@mudkatt: Not off-topic at all to discuss PS Now. Yakuza 4 & 5 was just released on PS Now, which was a factor in my goals of trying to find the best ways of playing previous Yakuza games.

I don't own a PS3, so PS Now would be my only official way of playing Yakuza 4 & 5 barring any future Kiwami remakes. Still not sure how I'm going to play Yakuza 3, since that's not available digitally or on any other platform than the PS3.

Thanks everyone so far for the suggestions. Some people have mentioned that going chronologically is important because it introduces characters that are vital in the newer games. But some people stated that the stories don't carry over from game to game. So can I jump out of order chronologically if all the plotlines are self-contained? Or would I be missing out on overarching character developments if I do?

@tuxedocruise: My advice was coming from the understanding that you had a ps3. So if you can't get one cheap enough to be worth it maybe you should skip 3 and read/watch a recap. If you have a pc capable of emulating a ps2 I would still play 2 so you can get the most out of the series. In my opinion 2 is one of the best games.

The stories are for the most part self contained, it's mostly about the characters introduced and their development that matters the most to the overall series.

I can't speak on the performance of PSnow but you could always give it a try and see if it's good enough.

@tuxedocruise: It depends from game to game, imo. You'd want to play 1 before 2, but it isn't deeply important to play 2 before the rest. Same for 3, as it is both relatively unimportant and a weak entry in general. 4 however introduces a bunch of new key characters that are important in 5 and 6, so that's a hard one to skip. Simply put, if you were to only play one other Yakuza game between 1 and 6 it should be 4.

Ideally you should play all of them in order, but that's obviously not feasible for most people.

@tuxedocruise: Yakuza 3 is a profoundly skippable entry in the series so if that one remains trouble then don't even worry about it.

@tuxedocruise: For what it is worth, I've been messing around with PSnow quite a bit the past few days, and tried what oursin_360 mentioned and played it on pc. I've used it a good bit on ps4, and stick by my 90% of the time it works fine comment. It does have slowdowns here and there, and it seems like the graphics take a pretty good hit, but they aren't enough to make the game unplayable. It has worked pretty much flawlessly on PC, but I wonder if that is because I have it hooked up via Ethernet cable? I can't say one way or another really, maybe you have better internet service than I do or something. Bottom line is, if you have no other great way to play the games, give it a shot. Also, if you do try it, play katamari forever! It's so good!

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!

@zeik That's a good way of putting it, and very true. I agree with you.

I wasn't able to play 3, but 4 has a pretty good recap and there are probably recap vids online that have all the cutscenes etc.

I will say that the history you build with the characters heightens at least my enjoyment of the games a lot and I think you lose a lot of that by skipping. Someone can probably read/watch story summaries and start the series at 6, but if they don`t know and care about Kiryu and Haruka and have experienced their journeys the game will probably have a lot less of an impact. I will agree with you though that if not being able to play 2 and 3 are stopping you from playing the series you should skip them.

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.

I agree that the stories in 2 and 3 are fairly stand alone, but while I haven`t played it yet 6 seems to pick up right after the story of 5 and a lot of important stuff happens in 5 in general, so I think you would porbably want to play that. It`s also great (my favorite in the series) and as easily available as 4, so I would recommend playing it.

I'm not adversed to purchasing a PS3 and Yakuza 3 if people think the game is a worthy entry in the franchise to warrant the purchase. There's no feasible way to play it given the current state of PS3 emulation and how it strangely didn't get included in to PS Now alongside Yakuza 4 & 5. But some people are saying that Yakuza 3 is a skippable game, what're your thoughts?

@zeik So are Yakuza 4-6 heavily tied together more than 2-3? If so, I wouldn't mind playing 4-6, and playing 2-3 later on if the character or story arcs naturally allow for that.

@mudkatt@oursin_360 I was on the 7 day trial for PS Now a few weeks ago, and it worked out surprisingly well! I used it to play the PS3 God of War collections of 1 and 2, and the PSP collection. Some games felt swimmy to me. Games that have acceleration on analog movements and aiming like Killzone: Shadow Fall and the Uncharted games.

How does Yakuza 4 & 5 feel like on PS Now in your experience? I might resub to PS Now if I decide to not pick up a PS3 for Yakuza 3.

That's easier said than done for a franchise that spans 3 generations of consoles. And on top of that, entries that are sometimes delayed a year from its Japanese release, or sometimes not even confirmed or announced at all for releases outside of Japan. It gets more muddied up by tossing in remakes of older entries, digital versions of some games but not others, and varying quality across the entire franchise.

Hence why I'm asking the GB community for an ideal approach to the series, and how to fully enjoy the story and characters from game-to-game.

I don't have access to a PS3, that's why I mentioned PS Now in my original post. It has the PS3 entries of Yakuza 4 & 5 but not the rest. But as I mentioned before, if the GB community really feels strongly about Yakuza 3, I wouldn't mind nabbing a PS3 for it.

I would play them in order as you originally stated, but you can't find them all on one platform. Hell, even in one country.

@tuxedocruise: I literally couldn't get a game to work on psnow, it stuttered every 5 sec's regardless of port settings, wired vs wireless etc. I am on a 50mb connect as well.

@tuxedocruise: I actually like 3 very much. I like it more than 4 at least. I kinda see why people would say that though and can agree that if it is to much of a hurdle to play 3 then skipping it is fine.

I do really wish they would put 3-5 on the ps4 in the same way they put the uncharted games on ps4.

@tuxedocruise: honestly you can go as far with it as you want to. Story wise there's the comics and they always include some type of summary video of the other games in each game, so it's not absolutely essential you play each one. Honestly, as someone who started with 3 and then played each new release as it came, personally I don't feel like it matters too much. I barely remember what happened in 3 and 4, and while there's some characters and stuff you won't get the backstory to I feel like you actually can go into each story and experience it as a self-contained thing.

That being said, I have fond memories of all the games and I think 5 is the next best game after 0 (not including 6 or kiwami 2), so I do think the other games are worth going back to just for the fun of it. I don't think you need to get a PS3 for 3, though. Like I said, there are good plot summaries in the games anyway, so imo it really only matters if you want to be a completionist.

Slightly OT but given the relative success of 0 I'm optimistic they bring Kiwami 2 over, and really hope it happens.

6 pretty much starts where 5 leaves off, but I don't think much of the story outside of the ending matters, and 4 is a much better introduction to those characters. I also personally think 5 is one of the weaker entries in the series.

@TechnoSyndrome: I actually thought 5’s story was less nonsensical than Yakuza 4’s ridiculousness. The weakest part of 5 was always itz plot, but anything else is superb. Having said that, it is ideal to start with 4 before jumping to either 5 or 6.

In retrospect, I think it is best to play through them all before jumping to 6, not just because I think 6 is weak compared to the rest but because of all the character growth, relationships and recurring characters that show up throughout the entries. The games and its world evolve and progress in conjunction with the years they are released, seeing how Kamurocho changes through all of them is another big aspect of the series. The town itself can be argued as a character on its own, and I think it factors heavily into how you approach these games.

I started with 0, Kiwami, 4 and now going through 5 and I don't feel like I've mised a ton after watching recaps for 2 and 3.

Some of the story beats in 4 and 5 (Saejima, Majima) work a lot better after having played 0 imo.

On peyote.

@TechnoSyndrome: on the contrary, Yakuza 5 is one of the best in the series and my personal best.

The game features five playable characters and each of them have an interesting story tell along with their own side stories. Although i understand that Shinada is their weakest but i don't feel that his inclusion negatively affect the game.