/vr/ - Retro Games

[Anonymous No.8044797]

For as much as people meme about SECRET KOREANS, I found this to be a fairly compelling crime narrative. Characters felt more fleshed out than in the first game, cutscene direction was top-notch, voice acting was fantastic all-around, the combat was a massive step up from the clunky mess that was the first game, and had the series ended here I think I would've been okay with that.

[Anonymous No.8044824]

you get to punch tigers, it's good. I also love that I got my copy before the baka mitai zoomer meme.

[Anonymous No.8044837]

>>8044797
Best of the series, unironically does everything right.

[Anonymous No.8044843]

>>8044797
I didn't like how they are forcing even the most trivial characters from the first game into this one for a "oh remember that guy?" effect.
WHO
THE
FUCK
is the bartender and WHY does Kiryu talk like he has been oath brothers with him since they graduated middle school?!
Everything else is so typical Yakuza. Nobody is competent, Kiryu always has to save the day.
It relies way too much on the first game. Easily the worst Yakuza plot (which doesn't say much since all of them are weak)

[Anonymous No.8044850]

>>8044843
>is the bartender and WHY does Kiryu talk like he has been oath brothers with him since they graduated middle school?!
Kiryu helped get the heat off of the bartender after all those people were murdered in the bar so he's grateful

[Anonymous No.8045087]

>>8044797
I'd agree with you that the plot is pretty good, but I definitely felt like making a lot of the characters secretly korean was forced and needed touching up. Even then, it's only like 20 minutes in a 20+ hour long game, so it doesn't completely ruin the game. Other than that it's a clear improvement over the first game in every aspect and the best in the series.
>>8044843
>Easily the worst Yakuza plot
>when rubber bullets and all of 5 exist

[Anonymous No.8045124]

>>8045087
Shinada's story and whole character arc was 10/10. And frankly, I prefer the rubber bullets over the non-stop wailing in 0. The series and its dialogue became more and more JRPG-tier as the years went by and I think 3 was its turning point. I don't know if it was the new writer but it started leaning more on the drama in crime-drama.

[Anonymous No.8045173]

>>8045087
On some level I could say to myself "sure, there are a lot of Koreans who live in Japan and yes, the Yakuza has a LOT of Zainichi in its ranks", but after some point like a third of the characters are Koreans.

[Anonymous No.8045280]

>>8045124
The new writer, Masayoshi Yokoyama, has written for the series since the first PS2 game. He had a co-writer then though named Hase Seishu, who's a novelist known for his crime novels about the yakuza. Seishu left after 2, so with nobody there to check Yokoyama and tell him not to do dumb twists, he went crazy with them.
>>8045173
Yeah that's true. I think it was fine when only one or two characters were secretly Korean, but by the last couple hours, like five more characters are revealed to have been secretly Korean. By the time Goda was revealed to be both Korean AND Sayama's sister, I just clocked out and stopped caring. At least the final boss was terrific and the best fight in the series.

[Anonymous No.8045549]

>>8045087
Come on man, one of the Nishikiyama members pointed a gun to Daigo, Kashiwagi and 5 others and they were waiting like little sheeps for Kiryu to resque them. And you're seriously going to complain about rubber bullets?
But yea, the whole series is a stretch. I don't mind some silliness and random bullshit, but every goddamn Yakuza game has always been massively unsatisfying to me. Primarily because of how they treat their characters

[Anonymous No.8045860]

>>8045549
>Come on man, one of the Nishikiyama members pointed a gun to Daigo, Kashiwagi and 5 others and they were waiting like little sheeps for Kiryu to resque them
Fuck I completely forgot about that. Yeah that's definitely one of the most pants-on-head retarded moments in the series.
>But yea, the whole series is a stretch. I don't mind some silliness and random bullshit, but every goddamn Yakuza game has always been massively unsatisfying to me. Primarily because of how they treat their characters
I've stopped caring about the plots in the games since around 3 and 4 since it feels like they keep trying to one-up each other with how stupid and ridiculous they can make things. I still have fun just messing around in them though and they still manage to be a lot of fun for me.

[Anonymous No.8045884]

>>8045549
That entire side-part with MILF hunter Shindo was wierd. And what's even wierder is the Nishikiyama Family survived that betrayal, I mean at least in the first game Nishiki was simply trying to become the top family in the clan instead of tear the clan down.

[Anonymous No.8045903]

>>8045124
That part of the series isn't retro but Yakuza's story seems to be at it's best when it has fresh new material that allows for self contained character-focused vignettes rather than a sprawling, interconnected, complex story, it just doesn't seem to be cut out of that like other series. I think that's why 0's story is so loved since there's less juggling in the plot to be done and it looks at how two characters we've come to know very well got to here they are as people.

I would kill for yakuza-team to make a genuine anthology game series of the everyday lives of the people of japan only vaguely tied together by crime families and a basic theme because going off Akiyama's story in 4 and Kiryu and Shinada's story in 5, not to mention Judgment and Yakuza 7, they would absolutely kill it.

[Anonymous No.8046114]

>>8044837
Sorry, but is 0.

[Anonymous No.8047716]

>>8045280
That makes a lot of sense, you can tell the writing definitely went downhill after 2. There's a lot of atmosphere in the first 2 Yakuza games that was lost in the sequels (although Yakuza 5 recaptured some of it). Also around the release of Yakuza 2 was about the last time the Yakuza were even relevent in Japan. Nigerians are the ones committing all of the petty crime in Tokyo now.

[Anonymous No.8047748]

>>8046114
t. pleb

[Anonymous No.8047865]

Reminder this is what they took from you with their soulless remake

[Anonymous No.8048373]

>>8047865
And this.

[Anonymous No.8048440]

>>8044797
I don't really see why people say this has a good story. ||Kiryu gets himself into a mess nobody asked him to after leaving the crime life, Ryuji is one of the worst villains in the series, all that's going for him is how stubborn he is in being the strongest man with a dragon tattoo. If Sayama wasn't there, I don't get why anyone would care about anything that happened in the game. The "secret koreans" is the least of the problems IMO.||
Also the entire chapter 12. ||Forces Haruka into the plot, makes Kiryu go to a japanese castle that fucking splits in half and spawns a similar castle but made of gold from the ground for no fucking reason, starts fighting ninjas, samurais and literally a couple tigers. If this isn't the dictionary definition of jumping the shark, I don't know what is.||

[Anonymous No.8048446]

>>8044797
I don't really see why people say this has a good story. Kiryu gets himself into a mess nobody asked him to after leaving the crime life, Ryuji is one of the worst villains in the series, all that's going for him is how stubborn he is in being the strongest man with a dragon tattoo. If Sayama wasn't there, I don't get why anyone would care about anything that happened in the game. The "secret koreans" is the least of the problems IMO.
Also the entire chapter 12. Forces Haruka into the plot, makes Kiryu go to a japanese castle that fucking splits in half and spawns a similar castle but made of gold from the ground for no fucking reason, starts fighting ninjas, samurais and literally a couple tigers. If this isn't the dictionary definition of jumping the shark, I don't know what is.

[Anonymous No.8048454]

>>8048373
I'll take Virtua Fighter 2 and Virtua On over this weird mess.

[Anonymous No.8048464]

>>8048454
I somewhat agree, I don't get why yakuza games took so long to add Sega games when Shenmue did it way before. But they could have made a better version of this in Kiwami 2 that looks and plays better.

[Anonymous No.8048471]

>>8047865
Those are some nice babs

[Anonymous No.8048472]

>>8048464
Yeah we didn't get an actual arcade game from SEGA until Yakuza 5 which was Virtua Fighter 2 and a demo Taiko No Tatsujin. That said, I did find myself enjoying Boxcelios when I was playing through 3 and 4.

[Anonymous No.8048474]

>>8044797
I wish pic related got some more love.

[Anonymous No.8048724]

>>8048373
Honestly I'm not sad that was taken away because it's a fucking mess and you only really do it for the heat gauge increase.

[Anonymous No.8048731]

>>8048446
I like Ryuji, for once he isn't some guy with a grandiose plan, he's just a thug who wants to be the toughest guy there is.

[Anonymous No.8049904]

>>8045549
Of all things that are wierd or out of character, the Nishikiyama family coup is one of them that actually makes sense. Yakuza 2 (and 3) establish that the only thing the Nishikiyama family gives a damn about anymore is getting revenge on Kiryu for the death of their patriarch (even though technically Nishiki killed himself in an honorable act, but the only living people that know that are Kiryu and Haruka). They refuse to do anything to help him in either game and actively are antagonistic to him whenever possible. The coup, the hostage situation, all of it was to create a scenario where they could have a showdown with Kiryu. Sure, Shindo wanted to fucked Daigo's mom but that was just a bonus for him. His goal in the end is just Kiryu.

[Anonymous No.8050607]

>>8044837
For me it's 4
Luv me some Akiyama and Tanimura combat