There's definitely a number of oddities that make Kenzan a tricky topic to approach, whether we're talking its "mechanical age" or some rather disturbing narrative points. Considering RGG's consistently-improving writing and developmental practices, I believe these issues can be swiftly resolved, so that newer fans also get to experience the uniqueness this game offers. Hopefully, discussions like this one can lead to the team bringing this game back in some shape or form. Thank you for watching!
I’d love a ‘Like a Dragon: Lost Stories Collection’ that includes 1,2, kenzan, the psp games and dead souls all remastered. I mean I’d pay $70 for that. Real pipe dream tho 😔
I had the plaesure of playing Kenzan mid 2023 and I really enjoyed how different it felt from every Yakuza game before and after. The story feels so different and distinct, upgrades are fun to find and the sword combat is some of the most fun you can have in the series. I highly recommend anyone to track down a copy (like I did) or find a halfway decent emulator and translation to play it because it is definitely worth your time and stands alone as a unique entry in the series that doesn't conform to many of the tropes and ideas Yakuza games tend to fall into.
I think all remakes should come included with the original game, even if it's just a completion reward or something, since I think doing that makes everyone happy. Like I wouldn't be so mean to the Kiwami games if you could unlock the OG games inside them because you get the best of both worlds of the original game being preserved while at the same time being able to appreciate the things the remake does to set itself apart from the OG game, since I think the biggest problem with remakes is how they often try to retcon the OG releases from existence, like if you want to play OG Resident Evil 2 without emulation you're basically out of luck because Capcom decided that no one in their right mind would ever want to experience the OG game, either instead of the remake or because you loved the remake so much you wanna play the OG to see what the differences are.
Yeah I agree a bit and if they couldn’t put it there I’d say as a seperate download/disc or something like that and when it comes to RE the only games they really care about preserving is 4 and up.
Also forgot to add RE1 Director’s cut is on ps plus premium but that’s not even that great. Who knows but maybe they could put 2 and 3 there at some point.
@@MadDogSolo yeah, here's hoping they do, since with RE1 and 4 (the ones that are actually available on modern platforms) you could make the argument that they don't need to be preserved since their remakes replace them (not me, but I could see someone out there saying that) but RE2 and 3's remakes are so different from the OGs that acting like the remakes invalidate their existences is stupid
Thank you for this vid, gentlemen. I have a PS3 copy of Kenzan which I tried to play with a translation guife. Never got that in-game, so I truly appreciate this amazing discussion.
Played through Kenzan like a year ago, I was one of those players that went the whole game only getting the moves required for story progress and honestly the combat still felt fun. It was nice having a full sword moveset unlike in the mainline games, and I loved the two handed style. By the end I was sick of playing the game and wanted it to be over, but despite that I'd love to give it a second go if it got a modern port just to replay some of those long battles, especially that last one. Also loved how the world was like actually connected to each other.
I'd love to see y'all talk more, you guys have got great chemistry, whether it be more completionist focused stuff wether yall commiserate about how bad some of the requirements are in the various games, or even just talking about the state of the franchise in general. Been a big fan from a far of both yall's channels for some time. So it was a dream come true to see this meeting of the minds take place.
Its always saddened me how many people jump to conclusions about kenzan's story regarding haruka, so i really hope more people see this video and it clears things up for them because i love kenzan and i want it to get the treatment it deserves. Also I totally agree with the idea of bundling the original kenzan with a remake. RGG needs to do better with preserving their games. In addition to kenzan still being a japan only ps3 exclusive, it sucks how the newest versions of 1 and 2 are still the japan only ps3 remasters, and it sucks that they de-listed the original ishin after releasing the remake. Also dead souls still being stuck on ps3 and both kurohyou games still being japan only psp exclusives
If they bring kenzan like they did with ishin they are gonna change the story because of haruka thats almost a guarantee for those other games they are probably never gonna be released oficially on modern consoles so dont get your hopes up
@@xtr.7662 Yeah I know, I'm not getting my hopes up. I don't trust RGG to do kenzan and their other old games justice at this point but man it would be nice. I'm still upset over how ishin was treated
-cut content (opening movie, one substory, and the final cutscene of the main story) -new substories aren't even that good (satou can suck a dick for making me find all of those memoirs) -worse combat (brawler damage and parry buff duration were nerfed into the fucking ground reducing it to a practically useless style, plus enemies have lots of hyper armor and bosses love to instantly escape grabs or just can't be grabbed at all) -slower menus, takes like a full second to start appearing after selecting something, while in the original it was almost immediate -literally no one asked for the troop system rework. these abilities don't fit the games thematics and bosses using them doesn't make fighting them any more engaging, and not using them yourself does nothing to make the game play like the original due to the rebalances made to the core combat for them -shitty troop system rework made grinding materials from battle dungeons even more tedious. it's very easy and very fast to clear the final dungeon in the original game but it's much slower and more tedious in the remake -censored saigo qte in chapter 2 -in one of the last cutscenes of the game, the camera just shows ryoma's fucking shoulder instead of yamauchi yodo begging for mercy, and right before ryoma kills him, the audio for ryoma's final voice line peaks and it sounds like ass even though it wasn't like that in the original game -amon was turned from one of the hardest fights in the franchise into a fucking joke of a superboss, and his sword lost what made it unique. it no longer has the unique ability to create projectiles with every swing, now it's just miniscule life leech that other weapons can have. it also took me fucking FOREVER to get the materials to make it thanks to the shitty troop system rework -absolutely fucking godawful blacksmith rework, why are forging costs so much more expensive? and whose idea was it to make the seal system so heavily reliant on such bullshit RNG? there used to be a small, fast and easy minigame for adding a seal to a weapon which was always guaranteed, now that's been replaced with a pre-determined chance that is out of your control. you can't just use any seal from any weapon you want anymore either since the seals that come with equipment are now locked to that equipment, so the best way i found to get seals here is to exploit a mechanic the game never informs you of, which is randomly getting an extra seal when forging a weapon, which this extra seal, can actually be applied to other weapons so it'll count on the completion list. I had to refer to a fucking spreadsheet someone made to get what I needed for completion since different pieces of equipment gave different seals, and was forced to save scum an obscene amount of times to get them all. this is some of the most asinine and downright fucking horrendous game design I have ever had to deal with. they already had a perfectly fine system in the original game, but for some reason they decided to replace it with this total failure of game design. -why do these bizarre giant enemies like three times the height of ryoma even exist? who felt that adding them was necessary? -lazy model swaps with recasted characters really shows with yamazaki, sometimes his facial expressions look fucked up since they somehow thought it was okay to reuse animations from kugihara for han joon-gi who are very drastically different looking characters -they somehow fucked up the music sync for Izo's dynamic intro for his final battle -i had a huge graphical glitch when playing where during a cutscene everything kept becoming distorted and flashing in and out of existence rapidly making it impossible to watch -bullshit dlc (one time use material packs that are tied to your account and not save files, locking haori that were free in the original game behind paid dlc, also locking a new difficulty behind paid dlc) -removing the original game from the playstation store, somehow managing to make this japan only playstation exclusive even less accessible than it already was -more bullshit i couldn't be bothered to keep listing
@@RandomGuyxd lmao youre absolute nitpicking most of these the combat is definitely a mixed bag and i prefer the original but the nicer visuals the aesthetic is better in the original however the cutscenes are much better, and recasting is better for me at least
Before watching this I was somewhat interested in Kenzan but didn't hear much praise about it anywhere. But now after watching it I really want to play it cause you guys made it sound awesome. Shame I can't since it's difficult to get it but at least I found the Yakuza Archive Channel thanks to you! I've only been subscribed for a month but keep it up! I love watching your videos and ones like this are more interesting than movies for me 😂
havent watched much of the video, but man when y'all were talking about the licensed songs, nothing will be able to top life is beautiful in that emotional moment, it was so good and it fits so good so i cant imagine anything else sounding as good
I have never played Kenzan but I can appreciate this video for bringing attention to it. I would like to play it one day but Kenzan Kiwami I am not fully sure on. I am considering jumping back into Ishin, I never finished it.
isn't there an English patch being developed for Kenzan? Personally, that's what is stopping me from playing the game, that or not understanding enough Japanese yet.
I believe so, but with most fan translations it's kind of hard to figure out if they're still being worked on, or if people have stepped away from tgem indefinitely. Thankfully, there are translated playthroughs of the game on RUclips, so if you ever go for, those could help fill in the blanks
awesome discussion about the least talked about game, i havent played for various reasons but watching has definitely interested me as much as ishin did really do hope we get a remaster or remake someday
I've not played Kenzan yet, but I intend to one day(I'm still struggling to emulate Dead Souls) it would be interesting to see Kenzan Kiwami but it doesn't sound likely!
Man lost paradise hurt my soul like thematically its one of coolest rgg games that could gone all out but sadly it not the case on the topic of kenzan im still messing around with the emulator to have functional lol tho it does seem very charming For reasons talked about i this video am never plat a yakuza game simply cause im not willing to put that time in time in lol Lastly thank you for putting all the making video and all the effort you put in these videos
I really hope the English patch comes out sooner or later so I can have a proper experience with Kenzan unlike last time. I got stuck at I believe chapter 2 or 3 because I couldn't figure out where to go, and sadly I had to delete the ROM because I was running out of space
Thank you for the feedback! The audio here had a number of issues going for it, and even manually fixing the loudness would result in certain segments suddenly being distorted, so I unfortunately had to leave it as it is.
I really do hope we get a remake or just a remaster of this game. The OST is amazing and they did it with isshin (even though isshin had some funny magic stuff that i please do not wnat in this one =:)
Great watch was good to see my friend get his time in the sun and convey his passion for kenzan on a larger platform i cant wait to play it with him this year after infinite wealth. his love of the series is contagious and he adds alot to my knowledge of the series the man is a great sum of information, again great video.
got to be honest, i want to see this game see the light of being rereleaased as a remaster or remake, whichever one. but yeah i get the issues with it.
I have not played Kenzan. I hope the progression system is not terrible. From what I recall, the ones for Yakuza 3 and 5 are awful, so hopefully it is not that.
Wow I despise changing or not releasing games because "modern western audience". Adult game has adult and disturbing topics big surprise, don't play if you don't like that, its that simple, stay in your comfort zone.
Why dragon engine physics are gonna be worse and kenzan combat is bad especially compared to the og ishin being on ue4 is only gonna be better even if it ends up with ishin kiwami feel
I've played the Japanese, original version of Ishin and the western release remake and I don't like how they've changed the game. They've changed the mechanics of the blacksmith, removed some side quest, fight with Amon was a joke when compared to the original and what was the worst they've changed the characters. It is a disaster and I'm definitely not going to repeat this with Kenzan.
comunity always called this game yakuza, so there was yakuza kenzan and yakuza ishin this is before the title change, and people still call yakuza kenzan, because is the name people always called before the title change.
There's definitely a number of oddities that make Kenzan a tricky topic to approach, whether we're talking its "mechanical age" or some rather disturbing narrative points. Considering RGG's consistently-improving writing and developmental practices, I believe these issues can be swiftly resolved, so that newer fans also get to experience the uniqueness this game offers. Hopefully, discussions like this one can lead to the team bringing this game back in some shape or form.
Thank you for watching!
The Slap was also in Yakuza 4 in the Sodachi Dojo iirc
Kenzan is a diamond in the rough. The story is among the very finest from the RGG.
I’d love a ‘Like a Dragon: Lost Stories Collection’ that includes 1,2, kenzan, the psp games and dead souls all remastered. I mean I’d pay $70 for that. Real pipe dream tho 😔
I had the plaesure of playing Kenzan mid 2023 and I really enjoyed how different it felt from every Yakuza game before and after. The story feels so different and distinct, upgrades are fun to find and the sword combat is some of the most fun you can have in the series. I highly recommend anyone to track down a copy (like I did) or find a halfway decent emulator and translation to play it because it is definitely worth your time and stands alone as a unique entry in the series that doesn't conform to many of the tropes and ideas Yakuza games tend to fall into.
I think all remakes should come included with the original game, even if it's just a completion reward or something, since I think doing that makes everyone happy. Like I wouldn't be so mean to the Kiwami games if you could unlock the OG games inside them because you get the best of both worlds of the original game being preserved while at the same time being able to appreciate the things the remake does to set itself apart from the OG game, since I think the biggest problem with remakes is how they often try to retcon the OG releases from existence, like if you want to play OG Resident Evil 2 without emulation you're basically out of luck because Capcom decided that no one in their right mind would ever want to experience the OG game, either instead of the remake or because you loved the remake so much you wanna play the OG to see what the differences are.
Yeah I agree a bit and if they couldn’t put it there I’d say as a seperate download/disc or something like that and when it comes to RE the only games they really care about preserving is 4 and up.
Also forgot to add RE1 Director’s cut is on ps plus premium but that’s not even that great. Who knows but maybe they could put 2 and 3 there at some point.
@@MadDogSolo yeah, here's hoping they do, since with RE1 and 4 (the ones that are actually available on modern platforms) you could make the argument that they don't need to be preserved since their remakes replace them (not me, but I could see someone out there saying that) but RE2 and 3's remakes are so different from the OGs that acting like the remakes invalidate their existences is stupid
Thank you for this vid, gentlemen. I have a PS3 copy of Kenzan which I tried to play with a translation guife. Never got that in-game, so I truly appreciate this amazing discussion.
This video is pretty cool! I wonder who the featured guy in the video is... 😉
It's a pleasure, Musashi-chan 😄
Played through Kenzan like a year ago, I was one of those players that went the whole game only getting the moves required for story progress and honestly the combat still felt fun. It was nice having a full sword moveset unlike in the mainline games, and I loved the two handed style. By the end I was sick of playing the game and wanted it to be over, but despite that I'd love to give it a second go if it got a modern port just to replay some of those long battles, especially that last one. Also loved how the world was like actually connected to each other.
The completion rambling segment has gotta be my favorite thing about this video it’s just so relatable 😭
I'd love to see y'all talk more, you guys have got great chemistry, whether it be more completionist focused stuff wether yall commiserate about how bad some of the requirements are in the various games, or even just talking about the state of the franchise in general. Been a big fan from a far of both yall's channels for some time. So it was a dream come true to see this meeting of the minds take place.
Its always saddened me how many people jump to conclusions about kenzan's story regarding haruka, so i really hope more people see this video and it clears things up for them because i love kenzan and i want it to get the treatment it deserves. Also I totally agree with the idea of bundling the original kenzan with a remake. RGG needs to do better with preserving their games. In addition to kenzan still being a japan only ps3 exclusive, it sucks how the newest versions of 1 and 2 are still the japan only ps3 remasters, and it sucks that they de-listed the original ishin after releasing the remake. Also dead souls still being stuck on ps3 and both kurohyou games still being japan only psp exclusives
If they bring kenzan like they did with ishin they are gonna change the story because of haruka thats almost a guarantee for those other games they are probably never gonna be released oficially on modern consoles so dont get your hopes up
@@xtr.7662 Yeah I know, I'm not getting my hopes up. I don't trust RGG to do kenzan and their other old games justice at this point but man it would be nice. I'm still upset over how ishin was treated
@@RandomGuyxd what why it was mostly the same aside from recasting and the combat some things were bad others good but mostly its the same
-cut content (opening movie, one substory, and the final cutscene of the main story)
-new substories aren't even that good (satou can suck a dick for making me find all of those memoirs)
-worse combat (brawler damage and parry buff duration were nerfed into the fucking ground reducing it to a practically useless style, plus enemies have lots of hyper armor and bosses love to instantly escape grabs or just can't be grabbed at all)
-slower menus, takes like a full second to start appearing after selecting something, while in the original it was almost immediate
-literally no one asked for the troop system rework. these abilities don't fit the games thematics and bosses using them doesn't make fighting them any more engaging, and not using them yourself does nothing to make the game play like the original due to the rebalances made to the core combat for them
-shitty troop system rework made grinding materials from battle dungeons even more tedious. it's very easy and very fast to clear the final dungeon in the original game but it's much slower and more tedious in the remake
-censored saigo qte in chapter 2
-in one of the last cutscenes of the game, the camera just shows ryoma's fucking shoulder instead of yamauchi yodo begging for mercy, and right before ryoma kills him, the audio for ryoma's final voice line peaks and it sounds like ass even though it wasn't like that in the original game
-amon was turned from one of the hardest fights in the franchise into a fucking joke of a superboss, and his sword lost what made it unique. it no longer has the unique ability to create projectiles with every swing, now it's just miniscule life leech that other weapons can have. it also took me fucking FOREVER to get the materials to make it thanks to the shitty troop system rework
-absolutely fucking godawful blacksmith rework, why are forging costs so much more expensive? and whose idea was it to make the seal system so heavily reliant on such bullshit RNG? there used to be a small, fast and easy minigame for adding a seal to a weapon which was always guaranteed, now that's been replaced with a pre-determined chance that is out of your control. you can't just use any seal from any weapon you want anymore either since the seals that come with equipment are now locked to that equipment, so the best way i found to get seals here is to exploit a mechanic the game never informs you of, which is randomly getting an extra seal when forging a weapon, which this extra seal, can actually be applied to other weapons so it'll count on the completion list. I had to refer to a fucking spreadsheet someone made to get what I needed for completion since different pieces of equipment gave different seals, and was forced to save scum an obscene amount of times to get them all. this is some of the most asinine and downright fucking horrendous game design I have ever had to deal with. they already had a perfectly fine system in the original game, but for some reason they decided to replace it with this total failure of game design.
-why do these bizarre giant enemies like three times the height of ryoma even exist? who felt that adding them was necessary?
-lazy model swaps with recasted characters really shows with yamazaki, sometimes his facial expressions look fucked up since they somehow thought it was okay to reuse animations from kugihara for han joon-gi who are very drastically different looking characters
-they somehow fucked up the music sync for Izo's dynamic intro for his final battle
-i had a huge graphical glitch when playing where during a cutscene everything kept becoming distorted and flashing in and out of existence rapidly making it impossible to watch
-bullshit dlc (one time use material packs that are tied to your account and not save files, locking haori that were free in the original game behind paid dlc, also locking a new difficulty behind paid dlc)
-removing the original game from the playstation store, somehow managing to make this japan only playstation exclusive even less accessible than it already was
-more bullshit i couldn't be bothered to keep listing
@@RandomGuyxd lmao youre absolute nitpicking most of these the combat is definitely a mixed bag and i prefer the original but the nicer visuals the aesthetic is better in the original however the cutscenes are much better, and recasting is better for me at least
Before watching this I was somewhat interested in Kenzan but didn't hear much praise about it anywhere. But now after watching it I really want to play it cause you guys made it sound awesome.
Shame I can't since it's difficult to get it but at least I found the Yakuza Archive Channel thanks to you!
I've only been subscribed for a month but keep it up! I love watching your videos and ones like this are more interesting than movies for me 😂
Once a complete English translation is available, I feel like more fans would give it a chance. I certainly would.
havent watched much of the video, but man when y'all were talking about the licensed songs, nothing will be able to top life is beautiful in that emotional moment, it was so good and it fits so good so i cant imagine anything else sounding as good
I have never played Kenzan but I can appreciate this video for bringing attention to it. I would like to play it one day but Kenzan Kiwami I am not fully sure on. I am considering jumping back into Ishin, I never finished it.
Great discussion! I learned a lot of cool things about Kenzan as well as multiple other games that I hadn't known before.
As someone who has played kenzan its goated.
isn't there an English patch being developed for Kenzan? Personally, that's what is stopping me from playing the game, that or not understanding enough Japanese yet.
I believe so, but with most fan translations it's kind of hard to figure out if they're still being worked on, or if people have stepped away from tgem indefinitely. Thankfully, there are translated playthroughs of the game on RUclips, so if you ever go for, those could help fill in the blanks
I love both First of the North Star and the RGG series, so I should give that game a try.
awesome discussion about the least talked about game, i havent played for various reasons
but watching has definitely interested me as much as ishin did
really do hope we get a remaster or remake someday
I've not played Kenzan yet, but I intend to one day(I'm still struggling to emulate Dead Souls) it would be interesting to see Kenzan Kiwami but it doesn't sound likely!
Waiting for the day someone has a podcast with snowiest and someone says “lost paradise was good”
I think UE5 Kenzan will be RGG’s first current gen only game
I heard there would be some big RHG announcements like that in 2024 from Famitsu. So, Let’s hope Kenzan would be in there.
Man lost paradise hurt my soul like thematically its one of coolest rgg games that could gone all out but sadly it not the case
on the topic of kenzan im still messing around with the emulator to have functional lol tho it does seem very charming
For reasons talked about i this video am never plat a yakuza game simply cause im not willing to put that time in time in lol
Lastly thank you for putting all the making video and all the effort you put in these videos
I really hope the English patch comes out sooner or later so I can have a proper experience with Kenzan unlike last time. I got stuck at I believe chapter 2 or 3 because I couldn't figure out where to go, and sadly I had to delete the ROM because I was running out of space
Damn, I should try and get into Kenzan. Sounds pretty good
If you have a handy guide on the side, it's a really fun ride :D
Great video but I don't know if its just me, but I think the audio needs a boost. The video is very quiet compared to others.
Thank you for the feedback! The audio here had a number of issues going for it, and even manually fixing the loudness would result in certain segments suddenly being distorted, so I unfortunately had to leave it as it is.
It does sound a bit off, but I don't think it needs an audio boost. I guess it's because I'm watching this on my phone
I really do hope we get a remake or just a remaster of this game.
The OST is amazing and they did it with isshin (even though isshin had some funny magic stuff that i please do not wnat in this one =:)
We can only hope the patch gets finished this year...
There's an english patch on the way?
RGG Subs was doing that, yea?
Great watch was good to see my friend get his time in the sun and convey his passion for kenzan on a larger platform i cant wait to play it with him this year after infinite wealth. his love of the series is contagious and he adds alot to my knowledge of the series the man is a great sum of information, again great video.
i really hope rgg, do a full remake of this game, not like ishin, but a total remake, in dragon engine, better graphics, better gameplay etc.
0:02 Japanese man from Edo period after I showed him Yakuza 3 Alap
I'd watch a podcast of you two talking about how shitty crafting in these games is and never get bored of it
I love watching your videos but please fix your audio input. I can't hear anything. Even in max volume. 🙏
Bruh I can’t fucking wait for infinite wealth
got to be honest, i want to see this game see the light of being rereleaased as a remaster or remake, whichever one. but yeah i get the issues with it.
Glad to see you've seen the light on Bushido
I don't care about a remake I need a remaster
Kenzan Kiwami please
I have not played Kenzan. I hope the progression system is not terrible. From what I recall, the ones for Yakuza 3 and 5 are awful, so hopefully it is not that.
kenzan was great time playing but if there was sub this game would be even better for me maybe we will get remaster of this game
I want Yakuza Kiwami 3 more, Or Maybe Dead Souls remake
Wow I despise changing or not releasing games because "modern western audience". Adult game has adult and disturbing topics big surprise, don't play if you don't like that, its that simple, stay in your comfort zone.
Kenzan Kiwami but not on fucking Unreal Engine 4
Why dragon engine physics are gonna be worse and kenzan combat is bad especially compared to the og ishin being on ue4 is only gonna be better even if it ends up with ishin kiwami feel
I've played the Japanese, original version of Ishin and the western release remake and I don't like how they've changed the game. They've changed the mechanics of the blacksmith, removed some side quest, fight with Amon was a joke when compared to the original and what was the worst they've changed the characters. It is a disaster and I'm definitely not going to repeat this with Kenzan.
They are gonna change a lot more with kenzan ishin was mostly the same
"Yakuza Kenzan" lol. It was never called "Yakuza". It's not about the yakuza.
comunity always called this game yakuza, so there was yakuza kenzan and yakuza ishin this is before the title change, and people still call yakuza kenzan, because is the name people always called before the title change.