An Analysis of Yakuza: Like a Dragon
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- Опубликовано: 22 фев 2021
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I tend to bounce off of JRPGs for a number of reasons, so by all accounts I shouldn't adore Yakuza: Like a Dragon as much as I do. In this piece I break down why the shift from brawler to JRPG works so well, why new protagonist Ichiban Kasuga ends up so damn loveable, and why the genre might be the most effective means of presenting the game's themes of kinship, forgiveness and solidarity against a hypocritical and unfair society.
Review code was provided at launch by SEGA PR.
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Text intro by Isaac Holland - / drazgames 
Игры
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the early game of like a dragon is amazing on how it makes you identify with how powerless ichiban is. Like, how excited I got when I found a 500 yen coin under a vending machine. Fantastic.
BRO ¥500 YEN THATS LIKE MILLIONS
Yeah. Beating up homeless people to collect cans for money really drove home how desperate and poor he was.
if you finish the business side quest/game money is never a problem again, you also get erin and stack slap which is amazing in damage
@@simen30 very true, the moment I unlocked the mini game, I maxed it out so I could be rolling in it.
Going from scrounging around vending machines for chump change just so you can buy a bento box or 2 to being able to walk into a store and literally buy everything until you can't hold anymore by the mid to late game is extremely satisfying.
Long live the JRPG!
"Fairy tales are more than true: not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten."- G.K Chesterton
JRPG ruined the game. I loved Yakuza... before that. The game would have been perfect if that conbat style had not ruined everything.
@@ryan-7358 well we still have Judgement
Salty asses lol. Issa good game
i was really not into the fighting system at first but after playing awhile i kinda love it.. What i like is it makes me explore the city in different ways and come by events that i might not have come by doing the smash and bash old school Yakuza.
@@ryan-7358 yeah I do miss the brawler combat but I think the silly cinematic extreme attacks that make me giggle every time make up for some of it and of course poundmates is also fun.
Even in real time action games, most enemies just stand around waiting to get hit.
Yakuza 7 was the first game in this franchise that I've watched and then thought it's fun. And then I watched Yakuza 0 and its somewhat random battles on the streets, there I saw it. They were planning this the whole time.
@@aberrant814 this is why i say yakuza was always a jrpg.
There's a strong Don Quixote theme here, and I don't mean the chain of convenience stores...
Don Quixote: the original himbo
Considering a certain armor set....yeah.
Although also RIP the Don Quixote stores in Kamurocho and Sotenbori
Oh yea i kinda notice it now. With the delusions and desire for heroism. Very interesting.
Yakuza LAD/7 has probably got one of best stories in the Yakuza series, up there with Zero and Judgement. Bar one major plot point that requires huge suspension of disbelief, I thought it was very tightly written and very engaging. Also despite the massive shoes to fill, Ichiban knocks it out of the park as the new protagonist.
What's the plot point you mention,? is it
SPOILERS
SPOILERS
SPOILERS
Mirror-Face?
@@wacky-physics7506 Yeah, that was kinda dumb even by Yakuza standards.
@@WritingOnGames that was probably the dumbest plot point in the series, trumping even the rubber bullets point in 4.
@@ezequielmarquez9513 I can at least rationalize Mirror-Face with High Effort suits or whatever. I don't think anything can trump rubber bullets. Though I understand why someone would disagree, both are pretty stupid.
I will never understand people's issue with the rubber bullets thing (these have never ever been realistic games and the point of that scene was the fact Saejima thought he committed those murders, not the mechanics involved) but mirror face was a little too Literal Fucking Magic even for me
Just finished this game yesterday. Just wow, What a game. Bloody loved it.
Such a great game isn't it
Also, the credits theme is a banger
@@Sackboy612 song was by Yasutaka Nakata, guy’s a jpop powerhouse. Check out the group Perfume if you like that sound.
It is a great game but it’s huge and I just couldn’t finish it. I’d still recommend.
I don't really consider it huge. It's seems far more easier to get to point A to point B without having to fight all of japan everytime like in the other Yakuza.. Took me 55 hours to beat. That is pretty long tbf.
@@gchu149 Doubling down on this. Perfume is god tier electronic music.
On chapter 10 at the moment. I love that the game is a worthy successor to the original series of games and Kasuga is an absolutely fantastic new protagonist
Really was cheated out of the Game Awards.
_Awards?_ Don't you/(they) mean _adverts : P_
470K If it will sell more Yakuza games, I’ll take it.
Pity it didn't win best RPG :(
ofcourse it didnt win
naughty dog rigged everything in the shit of us part 2s favor
uh youre aware the last of us part 2 was not up for best rpg right
I just started playing this game and what really blows my mind is that the Jrpg gameplay fits so well into this official Yakuza game that it's scary
great analysis, this is the second time i've finished a JRPG. first one being persona 5. I completely utterly fell in love with Kasuga and his ideals. I gotta say, when I finished the game the one thing I wanted to do was be more like Kasuga. I feel his positivity, his confidence, his habit of always seeing the best in people, is something I've been lacking lately. This game reminded me how important all that is, more importantly, Kasuga reminded me all that. I know it sounds weird how I'm talking about a game character as if he is a real person but, I really felt as if Kasuga was a real person who reminded me to not be so much of a downer, and to trust people when possible and see the best in them. all in all, I'm grateful this game exists and that I played through it. Thank God I'm alive to experience RGG, I feel truly blessed..... fuck me, when was the last time a game made me feel so grateful to be alive?
In words of the game own director: "What does it mean to level up in a world that crawls up from nothing?"
Shit, this video just reminded me of how much I love the game. I want to go back and try to 100% it again. Thanks for the amazing video. It helps me understand better why I liked Kasuga as much as I did.
oh man, I actually only have 3 substories left and i will have 100% of the game. But i don't want to do it, because after that, the game will be over
RGG: every setting we implement makes sense and people happily embrace it!
Assassin's Creed: is it possible to learn this power?
well yes assassins creed 4 came VERY close
Having beat 6 this past week i'm going to take a breather before i jump into 7/like a dragon. Hesrd incredibale things about it though
I 100% understand the whole "taking a break after a yakuza" but Yakuza 7 is actually a very fresh game. I think you can actually go straight up to 7 and still have a great time!
You are in for a treat 7 is fucking amazing coming from a person who beaten every single one of the games and judgment 7 is my favorite
Is it bad that I like this more than P5? I love how every character has access to almost every element instead of one!
It's all personal preference buddy, both excellent though
You might like FF X then. Love how you can have anyone get any ability if you really try. That game gives you the freedom to make everyone totally OP by the end if you just move off the beaten path of the skill tree.
Xenoblade Chronicles 2 baybee!!!! (Ice is kinda trash as an element in that game, though)
Totally understandable that someone would like this game more. Seeing a JRPG use what feels like an innovative and exciting system for its combat while still being turn based is fantastic.
That said I still really love the P5 combat. I like how all your characters are essentially different solutions to defeating enemies. But the job system in Like a Dragon is good.
@@jomaq9233 I've heard it has a very slow start with tons of tutorials.
I think my favorite part of this game is the message that anyone can be good and strive for greatness, regardless of their background and history.
this game is so wholesome I can't
Sadly after finishing it i have no idea what to play:(
So does Ichiban
have been waiting for this video since your 2020 round up and as always, you didn't disappoint!
Can't wait to get to this one. Currently going through Yakuza 4.
Great video, I think that through your videos I’m coming to love and appreciate a series that I’ve never even played.
Keep up the grand work man.
I was mad a t the character and gameplay change at first but its probably my favorite Yakuza game now
Agree man this game was fucking amazing so excited to see where the series goes and I’ve been a loyalist since the original yakuza game waaaaay back in 2005
Welp, just another reason I should get started on this sooner rather than later. The line you spoke, the one about the marriage between mechanics and themes and being the “best way to tell this story” really hit home to me. As I’m beginning to wrap up Cyberpunk, as well as trying to parse out the game enough to tackle my first ever script, I’m met with the myriad writing struggles accompanying pondering on a game that comes with actively playing it, then mulling it over. My ambition to experience all you spit out within this video is strong, so hoping to power through the rest of the game and get my thoughts in gear. I know they’re mostly contrasting games, but your ability to dissect just what makes Like A Dragon tick helped unfurl the greater ideas I’m trying to sew together for Cyberpunk. Thank you always for your work, Hamish, and hope the move is setting out well!!
As someone who usually likes RPGs, mad props for sticking this one out as someone who usually doesn't.
I’ve been waiting for this! I found your channel a few years ago because of your Blightown video. And I’ve loved your videos ever since.
With the added free time of the pandemic, I decided to try both Yakuza and Hitman. I loved them so much I consumed the rest of the games in both series. And then, I was so lucky to find that their newest titles would soon be coming out in the next few months.
Not only do you make amazing videos; you also lead people to amazing experiences. Thanks for all you do!
Thanks so much for watching and for your lovely comment!
08:48 Hey thats the JRPG experience I love!
I love your Yakuza videos, please never stop!
I agree with every word of this. I usually dislike turn-based RPGs, but I'm really enjoying this. Yakuza games are usually very repetitive and are way too similar/recycled feeling, but Like A Dragon changes things and makes it interesting.
PS I love that it's also in English!
I generally hate turn-based games, but this being a Yakuza game is enough to at least make me give it a chance.
This game is one hell of a love letter to Dragon Quest, and JRPG'S in general. Not to mention that this game is a rock solid JRPG in its own right.
I just loved how Like a Dragon literally takes every popular Japanese RPG franchise and makes a joke out of it.
The combat system is exactly like "persona" but instead of a "persona" you have a Job, which influences your attacks.
At some point you find a professor who sends you on a quest to find all the "sujimon" for him (criminals). hell you even get a "sujidex" app on your phone and there are achivements like "I wanna be the very best" (encounter half of all types of sujimon) and "gotta catch em all".
Then there's "dragonkart" basically a parody of mariokart.
so it's a parody of yakuza, persona, mariokart and pokemon.... which makes it so great!
The only thing like SMT/Persona is the UI really lol
The job/class system is literally borrowed from Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy, but a staple of many RPGs both Japanese and Western. Nothing like Persona at all.
Now everything else you mentioned is a proper parody!
The social stats element is very much Persona, though
@@jomaq9233 You’re absolutely right! I just forgot about it since it’s not utilized as strongly or important as in Persona
I was originally going to pass on Like A Dragon because I'm also not a fan of turn-based JRPGs; but I ended up giving it a shot and I'm so happy I did because it ended up being my favorite game in the whole series.
This game was a love letter for me when I first play Final Fantasy 7 PlayStation 1 and I love it because it had good story characters good motivations any good combat this is why I love the yakuza series💚🎮🕹💚💚🎮🕹💚💚💚🎮🕹💚💚🎮🕹💚💚
It’s truly the best yakuza game made imo. Everything was perfected and improved on and I enjoyed every single second of it. Even with the new RPG style instead of beat em up. It’s definitely in my top games of last/current gen. No doubt about it.
Yakuza 0 will always be the best Yakuza game, Yakuza 7 I'd say is the second best
Great essay on this game. The story and character are so well written I hope everyone experience it.
Loved 7. Played it after marathoning the rest of the series. Gonna miss Kiryu but I love the new style of gameplay, and I'm looking forward to what happens next in Ichiban's story and seeing how they improve and expand on the new system :)
This is SO GOOD
After watching a few reviews while super stoned I'm now horribly aware of how we Brits and Irish say YACKuza and Americans say YAHkuza and I think the Americans got it more accurate but I can't naturally say it 😔
I don't know if this helps but it is read as yea instead of yah or yac...
Source : I'm asian
@@nazril456 kinda actually
I just finished and loved every minute of it gonna grind for the platinum now. This was my first yakuza and had high hope and this exceeded it 10 times. I figured it would be unbalanced but it was very well built with care and love and I couldbt ask for much more. With such a powerful start I'm afraid to go back and see what kiryu's story is about because I don't wanna get let down.
is agree with everything said in the video...
and then I'm reminded of Ace combat and how similar both games nuances are.
indeed this is a Bisaed Analysis. and so was that Ace combat analysis.
So remove that biased tag. it's unnecessary.
The Yakuza/Like A Dragon series perfectly exemplifies how crafting an engaging story is just as crucial creating one that's "logical". In fact, I'd perhaps make the case that to truly entertain the eschew the "logical" trappings in a positive regard. Now, there have been certain twists and turns over the course of the franchise which pull you out of the experience but all things considered the writers are generally skilled enough to hold everything together through the strength of each game's characters. I don't think that should be underestimated. With Ichiban, I think they created the most relatable protagonist I've ever seen in a videogame, he's endearing, effortlessly likeable, compassionate but he's not perfect. He embodies qualities rarely seen in characters within gaming and to me that's why he's so memorable. That's something I really have to applaud RGG for, despite the many flaws inherent within the stories of their games they're able to convey themes/messages in a relatively naturalistic manner and explore (perhaps only on a surface level) character traits seldom (if ever) witnessed in Western media these days.
I need this game! Waiting for a sale but will gladly purchase it once it happens 😁
the. best thing about this game is that one of the party members is called Adachi and is an ex-police officer. you cannot tell me that wasn't intentional.
And he shares a voice actor with Solid Snake, to boot.
@@yourboyrussell6738 so lets just hope LAD adachi hasnt killed anyone.
I think the best thing is when Nanba (homeless Hideo Kojima) hides in a cardboard box.
Yakuza: Like A Dragon is a serious JRPG about serious crime dramas
So i got the game when it came out got to the point where ya get your hero's sword aka the bat. Before i decided to just play the yakuza games in order from the start. I beat the first one. Still waiting on the rest of them to come thru the mail. It was such a good game it made me wanna retry a series that i couldnt stand. Now i enjoy it. Only other time this happened was witcher 3 that took me 4 months to finally enjoy after 3 false starts.
Ichi-san introduced me to Dragon Quest.
Ichiban reminds me a lot of Zack Fair.
I'll come back to this video but im currently playing judgement then ill play and finish yakuza 7 it'll take some time but I'll be back!
Fantastic story and great sub stories, minigames characters etc, but the fact that there is no difficulty option made me give up about half way through the game. I was fighting a certain grey haired Korean and kept dying due to the limitation in party members. I managed to get Eri from the businesses management minigame and win but then found i was always constatnly underpowered and eventually quit after not being able to respawn in the fight and having to go back to the start of the level. I think they should add a "safe mode" similar to Persona 5, where no matter what you'll always win, because even though it takes all the skill away, as someone who is here for the story i would of stuck with it. At the very least have an easy, hard, extreme ect. 1 difficulty doesn't fit all.
Good video
I 100% agree with you on all of this man. I might also argue that it may be due to us both being Scottish. For me, personally I know plenty of people who "live in the grey", good and honest people who might have something that people would generally say is criminal yet have no desire to go out and harm people. You can't just put people in a box, and this whole game was an emotional journey for me, as well as the grinding as you say, which I think some self-righteous people might look at it as an arbitrary process to make the game longer, those who can't see it from another angle or look beyond the processes to the nuance of it as a storytelling and implied bonding method itself.
Appreciate seeing your view on this man, keep it up
Love this game
My only complaint is kume didn't get his comeuppance
Gotta leave a thread hanging for the sequel
Please do Hitman 3 analysis!!
It was such a wonderful game with a wonderful story
11:03 HOLY SHIT!!!
>Not exclusively referring to him as Number One
Great video though man.
12:06 that's kinda hard to explain to some people out there
8:30 So you're telling me you don't feel the compulsive need to hit lvl 99, max out every stat, and breeze through the story as a walking God? Weird.
In all seriousness I love your video. I'm someone whose loved turn based and action rpgs, but I can understand how other Yakuza players were initially turned off by the change. I think you do a great job talking about how it works thematically from the perspective of someone who didn't immediately like it.
RGG games are something special
Thoughts on Hamish using a Skill Share trial to take some segue classes?
This one may have been the “best” one yet!
Glad to see my effort to pick the absolute worst possible segues has not gone unappreciated.
Ima be honest
As much as I usually absolutely hate turn based jrpg’s this is one of the only two I actually really loved
If you're wondering how this game was able to shift to a turn based RPG so easily it's because they lifted WAY more than you think from Dragon Quest. Right down to the mechanical use of a lot of spells. I wouldn't be surprised if they copied the math equations used to calculate damage and debuff chances.
Just off the top of the dome there's..
-Losing half your cash on death.
-There only being fire, ice and thunder elemental spells.
-The main character being thunder based.
-Pretty much all of Ichiban's exclusive moveset are based off the main Dragon Quest hero's kit i.e a general all purpose range of abilities like a basic heal, a heavy melee move, debuffs, a spell that just removes enemies from the field, ect.
-The class system and cross class mechanics. This is an RPG staple thanks to FF but Dragon Quest dipped into it first with 3 and 5, 3 coming out 2 months after Final Fantasy 1 and having class switching and cross class mechanics.
-In fact now that I think about it the way aoe spells work in this game might be a way of converting Dragon Quest's whole grouping battle system where most aoe spells only hit all of the same type of enemy on the field.
This is only what I've found from playing the first, like, 3 and a half Dragon Quest games and 30 hours of XI the game itself was most likely using the first 6 as a template since those are the ones Ichiban would have played by that time.
Anyway this is a good video and I love seeing this point of view it's just funny to hear someone who doesn't like turn based rpgs wax poetic about how Yakuza 7 did it different tho, man.
Yakuza Like a Dragon is game full of RPG tropes, but there are done in a way there are fun, and even laughs itself about some of the ridiculous things, like the likeable moron protagonist and the Pokémon parody in one of the big subquests.
@@nidohime6233 I guess so long as a turn based RPG is cheeky about it's mechanics you don't have to feel weird and off brand about playing one.
The game has some problems, but you can't help but love how charming Kasuga and Co. are.
I can't wait to see how his next adventure pans out!
Just started a new game+ on Legendary difficulty.
It's so difficult but so damn fun. Just wish Saeko and the secret character had better jobs, they're sadly pretty useless.
1:25 you DON'T need to grind levels in ANY good RPG, even in hard difficulties that is true for most of then
and if you need, there is probably places made for it so you can do it in minutes, and it is there in case you did something wrong with your skill tree or something like that
I don't know why people still have this mentality in this day, the need of grinding is like, for RPG at the time of the first dragon quest, or super specific niche games that are all about the grind, like disgaea
if you need to grind in the game, or you did something really wrong, didn't get how the game work or the game is just bad and you should stop playing
Because grinding requires minimal thinking
It makes sure that everyone get past a section of a game regardless of their skill level
@@pn2294 and then, people that mindless and needless grind in an RPG will get mad at it because "they need to grind"
yea, ive noticed that people who mention grinding in pretty much any rpg made after 2000 just didnt play the game how it was intended, which you could still blame on the devs as a fault
Yeah crazy how they’re complaining about grinding in a game soloy on grinding sure it gets tedious at times but it pays off like for an example I doubled my level to level 60 with ichiban being at level 80 when I came to the final millennium tower and it was more easier to fight the enemies and tendo then I’d you were to play at level 60
I wish I could get into these games
Start from 0 and go from there
@@alezarde211 yeah I know what order they go in but I started playing Zero and wasn’t really enticed to continue
@@Hasbulla761 give it another chance. At first it might not grip you, but for me once I got to the part with Kuze for the first time I fell in love with the game and I'll forever be grateful for that gaming experience
@@dantess2693 yeah I think I’m gonna give it another shot
@@dantess2693 how many hours in until this point (roughly)? And which game is this?
I was gonna play Kiwami after 0, but I think I'll play this next.
It's much better of you play the rest of em before it
@@obviusthemaxim2509 this is probably true, but that's 200 hours easy, even disregarding 0. I finished 0, played a quarter of 1, but there's only so much you can take of what the OG Yakuza games were before getting tired of it, and 7 is purposefully built so players can jump into it new and not miss a whole lot.
But if u buy some dlcs you don't have to level up you know
A truly wonderful game. Best yakuza yet ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
Nanba is the best
This dude would hate morrowind
how the hell do you come to that backwards conclusion?
not gonna lie after all the parts i played i gotta say
i kinda ship kasuga and saeko
I want to finish Yakuza Kiwami-6, but I’m tempted to just skip to this one
Do not recommend. It got marketed in the West almost like a reboot, but its very much Yakuza 7.
@@FreeBurd0620 I skipped most of 5 and all of 6 , and it doesn't bother me at all. Loving Like A Dragon
YLAD is designed as an entry point to newcomers, but I don't recommend skipping those games. I think they're all very much integral to Kiryu's story. There are certain aspects of YLAD that I don't think I would love as much as I do now if I hadn't played the previous games. 6 is especially important.
I guess I’ll be back here in a few months once I’m caught up
Skipping this entry is a crime
Can't stand "beat em ups"
I'm a RPG FANATIC & wish SEGA would make subsidiary entries to not piss of the "loyalists"
came in due to this month PS+ , I wonder anyone play again once completed lol? I own Yakuza 0 once completed never play anymore.
Weirdly I'm in sort of the opposite position. I should really like this game, but a combination of being regularly furious at Kasuga's decisions sometimes leading to massive ludo narrative dissonance, and the ridiculous length of some end game fights left me annoyed with it by the end.
i feel like turn-based JRPG is one of if not the most dislike genre in videogames at least in the west, more than any genre, making it a dying genre kinda sad really.
Dude what are you talking about? Jrpgs are still popular.
I hate JRPGs but I loved this fucking game
or maybe don't wander around in districts you're told not to wander around in kekw
JRPG for grown ups
Interesting you love this game while SuperEyePatchWolf hates it. A schism in Irish gamer opinions??
Not Irish!
@@WritingOnGames my confidence in accent spotting is irreversibly shook
It's all down to personal preference really. He calls it a bare-bones RPG, and he might be right in a way, but that doesnt mean I don't enjoy the FEEL of playing it, the game world, the characters, the wealth of enemies and items on offer etc etc. Just my reasons for loving it
SEW is better at selling something than critiquing it
@@HxH2011DRA agreed. He is actually one of the reasons I got into the Yakuza series.
11:16 - Yeah this is where the game is kinda falling apart for me. Trying to avoid spoilers for people who haven't gotten that far, but being obvious enough for people who did: I just got to _that_ boss fight in chapter 12. I keep getting my teeth kicked in. I am level 35, and guides I'm looking at are recommending level 45-50. I don't want to do that grind, even if the game right before did just go "hey here's a great spot to grind." I could just be playing other video games or doing other things with that time.
And I feel like it's a great place to give up on this game. Realistically, with his weird little idea of how he needs to just stand there and let the enemies have a turn, there's no way Kasuga should win this fight. He absolutely would lose. He's up against a legend, one who has plenty of experience fighting crowds and still winning like it was nothing. Kasuga can bring at most 6 people with him? A mob of 7 total tough opponents is still nothing to these legends. Losing this fight and not seeing what happens next with the rest of the characters honestly feels like the canon ending to me. The mechanic of "Kasuga isn't a legend and has to rely on having a party to win" stops working when you put him up against one of those legends. Kasuga simply should lose that fight. Even that throwaway line they included about this legend being "rusty" doesn't really sell that Kasuga has a chance at winning to me. The rustiness might matter in a legend VS legend fight (for example, the fight in Yakuza 4 where an injured Saejima can still hold his ground against Kiryu because Kiryu's rusty), but as the game has stressed so many times, Kasuga isn't a legend. The legend would mop the floor with Kasuga (possibly literally, thanks to that awful hairdo).
Further, because SEGA was not shy about "spoilers" in the promotional material for this game, I know that even if I overcome this boss fight against this legend, there's another legend coming, a legend who's even stronger, has taken on even bigger mobs and come out unscathed, a legend who routinely beats the legend I'm stuck against right now, that would in no way lose to Kasuga.
Also there's just other things annoying me anyway:
Kasuga's "revive a fallen party member" mechanic has never once worked for me
The run button has never once worked for me
Losing the entire fight instantly if Kasuga runs out of HP is incredibly stupid. Isn't one of the themes that he needs to get by with the help of his friends? So then why can't one of his friends still standing in the party use a revival item on him? I've never liked this "you lose if the hero dies" mechanic in any RPG, but it's especially obnoxious here since it runs in such stark contrast to the themes this game is using.
I would seriously like some kind of extra options or strategy or something in this combat. That's one of my biggest problems with turn based RPGs overall: most of their combat systems are too basic to keep me interested for the massive run times they want to have. Very rare is the RPG that has interesting enough combat that I want to sit through it all.
I want a sort button for my items. It's become a little annoying how scattered my inventory of heals are.
I found the battle system to be way too simple and basic from beginning to end. in other JRPG it at least gets more complex or interesting bit by bit but this one is just a waste of time and annoying. worst being the last boss, having a move that can 1 shot anybody (perfectly blocked or not) and he likes to target Ichiban...resulting in a game over right away. Thats just cheap and annoying. or the bulky dudes being pretty much immune to anything but stabbing attacks. meaning if you dont have a char with such attacks with you at the moment, you spend over 30min repeating the same stupid attacks over and over, heal, heal MP rinse and repeat foreeeever. no point to that at all.
You can swap characters in and out of combat
I kind of bounced hard off this one after loving the first couple hours. Really it came down to the fact that after a point, I couldn't root for Ichiban. I won't be too spoilerly, but there comes a point in the story where he starts praising the "true yakuza code" which includes being terrible to civilians, and the way that he continually makes excuses for awful men in a way that the game never really examines. Much as I love this series, I really do wish it would admit somewhere that even the "good" version of the Yakuza is a horrific organization.
I think part of this is explained in this games storyline surround grey zones and the black/white element of Bleach Japan. It's funny how the protagonists of Yakuza are usually those exiled from the Yakuza itself, and generally good hearted people, allowing us to be angry at the "bad" Yakuza who abuse their position and do unlawful, horrible things. Although both Kasuga and Kiryu never claim to be saints, we don't really see a darker side to their characters much. Intentionally of course, the writer loves to keep them "pure" I suppose
While I finished the game and enjoyed it overall, I absolutely agree with this. The whole time I was hoping that the plot would make the conflict a bit more nuanced - especially seeing as a big theme of the story was that things aren't always black-and-white - but that never happens.
Look I don’t hate turn based games, and I enjoyed Yakuza 7 but the gameplay was so repetitive by the end of it I didn’t even try to get to 100% like I’d done on literally every other game in the series, I abandoned it straight after the story ended, I did side quests but the turn based combat was too repetitive and slow paced, it literally dragged my play through out by about 30% and that was mostly just wait time in combat slowing the whole progression through the story down.
There must have been backlash, as it seems like they’re potentially going to split the series and bring Kiryu back now, with the announcements of the next few games.
What I’d really wished they’d done is made the combat style selectable, in the style of FF7R where if you hit a switch, it locks into turn based otherwise it becomes an action rpg, it would then allow all players to enjoy their playthroughs and not alienate a chunk of the fan base.
And no, judgement is not the same as this series, it’s a good series and stands alone, but it’s not a complete substitute for the Yakuza style of game.
I started Yakuza 3 weeks ago. Today I finished 0,1,2,3,4,5 and 6. I loved it more than everything I played before. Then i bought 7. I had my forst fight. I could not move. I had to wait my turn. I could not control anything. No skill is required. NO one ever said that the combat was bad and should be changed to that shit. Yakuza was legendary. The irony is that I paid the best games for 5 to 10$ and bought the shittiest one for 45$. I will keep playing just for the story but RGG, you fucked up, and anyine who prefers this system instead of the one before is mentally handicapped. It destroyed the game.
Calm down Beyonce
Dude calm down. It's a style. You don't like it, move on.
I finally got Yakuza 7 and while the story is really good the RPG mechanics are subpar. The game is super unbalanced, bossfights are huge difficulty spikes but still not hard and just take too long, normal encounters are always super low level and are everywhere so they're just annoying, the money making game is super boring (at least it's not as bad as Judgment's), the job system is interesting but feels really useless (specially if you don't go for NG+), half the party feels like filler characters...
The sequel has potential but for now Y7 has one of the best stories in the franchise but some of the weakest gameplay since it loses it's novelty really fast.
People who think canceling others is okay should watch this. Don’t boil people down to a single comment
I really do not like jRPGs and after beating 7, I have to be honest - if they continue with this direction I am simply not sticking with the later games. The first couple of chapters are really good DESPITE the combat system but there is only so much tolerance I had that immediately ran out when hit with the infamous difficulty spike in chapter 12. It also doesn't help that the story kinda starts fumbling there. Like it has that usual Yakuza syndrome where they shoot themselves in the foot and have that *one* stupid thing everyone always talks about always instead of discussing anything the story was actually trying to tell
I understand why they chose to do this and I frankly don't believe them for a second that the game actually changed based on the April Fools feedback, but I just can't stand the combat. And I can't stand this stupid point that gets made time and time again, that "oh combat is only a small part of the game", usually paired with "you'd know that if you were a TRUE fan" but what these truest fans don't seem to understand is there is a reason Y0 is half the size of 5. At the end of the day the combat is still the focus and what ties the elements together, and as someone who just can't really get through any long jRPG - i was really forcing myself to push on by the halfway point and gradually having even less and less fun with it.
I'm glad they tried something new for once, but I feel like the real-time gameplay has a lot of potential that RGG Studio just chose to never fulfill. I mean, if Kurohyou's one of the best combat systems in the franchise clearly something went wrong since that's a PSP game
a lot of the points here made me appreciate the game more and at the same time realize why i dislike the game - clearly i'm just the wrong audience, but i really do hope that eventually we'll get games for that original niche, that i don't think any other game or studio on the planet can replace, this time with its full potential fullfilled thanks to the studio being able to take a break from remaking the same game over and over again, even if just partially
I think they may make more games with actual fighting combat, even if they are spin-offs like Judgement. Either way 8 games is long enough to stick with that style, they tried something different and it was a success - they've gained new fans and probably sold a lot of copies, but also lost some fans like yourself if they continue making them in this style. It's a sacrifice they have to make in changing things up - some people won't enjoy that change. They knew the risks.
The idea of Like A Dragon being an RPG and the ways those elements are implemented within the game world is great to me. I love how it is an RPG about RPGs.
I can go back and play any of the others in the series if I like, or Judgement which I'm yet to play, if I want a game with the fighting combat.
Put some emotion into your voice, for Christ's sake. Accent's only go so far. You sound more like an ASMR video than anything else.
No
@@WritingOnGames How dare you
@@WritingOnGames I don’t mind it how it is
You sound fine. I can hear the passion in your videos. Sounds like a 'you' problem, guy who wrote the original comment.
Why JRPGs are so annoying and boring.
It's not for everybody
it's the only turn based game I've completed outside of super mario legends of 7 stars