First off, here's a link to the tier list: tiermaker.com/create/iw-ab-yakuza-15891362 Secondly, thank you. As you could tell from this video, I've been dealing with some minor health issues yet again, which made the process of creating this video very troublesome. There are certain placements I would change if I were to redo the list, and there were some points of discussion I had to cut due to issues with my microphone during the recording. Regardless, I wanted to make another big milestone celebration like in the past, because I love everything we've accomplished thus far, and I want to keep adding to it as long as I physically can. I'm currently playing other games in my spare time to help avoid Yakuza burnout, but that aside, it's business as usual for the creative process, so I hope you'll look forward to whatever comes next. Thank you again. Cheers!
@gokudoni I'm hoping your health is swiftly restored, wishing you the best man. Also, congrats on 7.5 thousand subscribers, the channel has grown so fast and I hope it continues to do so. All the best, Aniki!
@@shadowtoad95 I still do, narratively speaking hahah. The thing with this tier list is that story is just one half of the bosses value. While the fight doesn't undo the narrative flaws, it's still a spectacle to behold, so it all evens out as a "middle of the road" boss entry for me in the end. As a character though, definite F tier :D
@@gokudoniI see that most people in your comments disagree with this take. Maybe you do a deep dive as to why bosses like Aizawa and Ebina do not work, since I find both to be the same in practice.
I really enjoy how different Ichiban and Kiryu's bosses felt. Kiryu definitely had the more "grounded" crime drama Yakuza. While Ichiban was taking on giant monsters and Hawaiian gods.
I'll be real, I was kind of disappointed that after the insanity of fighting a giant mutant shark and squid, we didn't get a proper boss fight with the attack helicopter
One of the reasons I love the 3jima fight is because the dialogue exchange beforehand shows that for them, this is not them testing their skills; they were genuinely angered and hurt by Kiryu's comments about wasting away and as such, they don't hold back in their fight, and when they lose, this was their very last valuable possession being taken away from them: their pride.
Liked seeing Bryce in A tier, I think the fandom underrates him a bit. He doesn't have the charms a "traditional" yakuza villain has, those sympathetic/macho qualities, but compared to Ebina I was way more excited to take Bryce down a peg. His delusions almost sort of parallel Ichiban's in a weird way, like he's a 90yo man in a trash heap chucking grenades at you but acts like he's some sort of primordial god. I love it. I think he's a BIT under-baked compared to the greats of Yakuza obviously, but he does the job as a villain in being properly built up, moving the plot forward, cathartic to take down, and all in a way that highlights Ichiban's own character traits.
I didn't get a psychotic vibe from Ebina, I kinda felt more sad for him as a victim of the Yakuza crossfire. Time and time again the franchise shows the Yakuza ruin lives of innocents. Ebina is a figurehead for those who've had their lives upturned and screwed over because of the Yakuza. I fundamentally disagree with the point made that he could be replaced with any other Yakuza member, because he can't. Ebina didn't deserve the life he had, and I obviously disagree with his ultimate solution to removing the Yakuza, because that's not justice. However, it's quite easy to see how he ended up in his situation. Sometimes a grudge is incredibly hard to let go of and I found that relatable.
Exactly what I was thinking. I think Ebina is a fantastic final villain for Kiryu. That being said the whole idea of him being Ichiban’s half brother was kinda unnecessary
One thing I REALLY like about the fights against the "giant monsters" (e.g. the shark and the excavators) is that your party is lined up like an old-school JRPG party, I thought it was a cool detail with respect to the classics
i think ebina really works for me in the sense that, throughout these games, we've always been playing as yakuza or ex-yakuza seeking to keep the ball going. these men we played as and helped are always portrayed as honorable yakuza in one way or another. because of that, we ignore the collateral damage caused by said men. ebina is a sort of culmination of that. he represents the collateral damage that kiryu and his story have caused on the people outside of his circle and thats why it works for me. kiryu fighting ebina is him finally atoning for those sins. kiryu has atoned for tons of stuff in the past, except this. this is him finally facing those consequences and thats why its excellent.
I played this campaign twice now, normal and Legend, and both times I NEVER knew the squid can swallow you in and you've a mini boss fight with an ink sac! I just attacked the tenticles first every time! This game never fails to surprise me!
Yeah I couldn’t get past it my first normal playthrough cuz I did no grind lol 😂 and thought it was the worst fight in the game then I grinded a bit and it was easy and never got to the ink sac 😂
In my opinion, (This may have been said before, but I want to say it anyway, even if I may not be able to word it very well.) I feel that the fact that you could replace Ebina with any other person is the whole point. Ebina is the personification of Kiryu's inability to take action in his position of power in the Tojo, and even while not in the chairman position, Kiryu is still a big inspiration to many Tojo Clan members and Yakuza in general. Instead, Kiryu, although thinking about others in the form of Morning Glory, did not think of the bigger picture, the consequences of not taking action to at least try and change how the Yakuza worked. Ebina was just an innocent whose life was ruined by how the Yakuza worked, and I think that Kiryu is confronting his 'sins' rather than fighting Ebina, if you get what I mean. I feel the name of the OST "The End of Denial" is beautifully used for Kiryu, it's the final fight when he realises and accepts that his running away from the Yakuza world, even for the sake of Haruka and later the orphanage, was not the best option for everyone outside of those he cares about. The past is not something he can just erase no matter how hard he, or even the Daidoji tries, and he should have embraced it and tried to fix it when he had the chance, rather than keep running away. (then getting dragged back like 4 times anyway.) Great content as always, I agreed with most of the tier list, but I disagree on your ranking of Ebina, I think he's not exactly S tier due to execution, but definitely not as bad as you would think. (Even though IW had wasted potential with Ebina, I think the fact that he was the personification of Kiryu's sins was the point they were trying to drive home, rather than focusing on Ebina himself as a character.) Perhaps I'm just overthinking it, and Ebina wasn't designed with that much thought, but this is RGG. I doubt they would just let the final boss of a 50+ hour game geniunely be this disappointing.
I really think Eiji should have gotten a boss fight at the club or somewhere new. Like with so much of his character, it was a major waste of potential. Another spectacular video Gokudoni, you keep one-upping yourself every upload!! 👏
One thing ive noticed and kinda love about this game is the mix of comedy in the fights. Greats example is yamai 4 and the giant creatures. I love em to bits and the comedy honestly adds to them. ALSO BRYCE LOVE. I fucking love that fight so much and i feel bryce as a whole is very very underrated
For all the gameplay/content greatness that IW provides it traded a good finale for Kiryu. I still haven't come to terms with it but you can't be too bitter
to say my hype meter went out of the bar when i saw the yakuza 4 in the same party, probably the best finale set piece in the series (besides the final boss)
Lol, Fighting the shark and squid as a boss was definitely out there, at first i thought they we're side bosses because of the promos and stuff, i beleived at first that they're bosses for dondoko or the labyrinth so i was stumped looking for them and i thought i was missing something but i never thought fighting them as a main story bosses.
I really have to disagree about Ebina's character. Normally I'd understand the dislike towards him but it feels a little odd to single him out in s game filled with a slew of extremely lackluster antagonists who have even less going on for them than he did. Before that I will give you that him being Ichiban's brother was largely unexplored and the cackling was unnecessary, now on to my point. I felt that his primary motivation was one of the best in the series. His pure visceral hatred for the Yakuza makes so much sense when you look at it from the perspective of a normal person. Yakuza aren't just good guys with a heart of gold who do Karaoke all day, they are filled with murderers, rapists, assholes who ruin businesses because they can, ruin livelihoods because they can. While they do deserve a second chance, they have been a nuisance to society for god knows how many years. What makes this hatred skyrocket is his personal experience of his psychotic grandfather making Arakawa fly off the handle and Arakawa himself being negligent with Ebina's mother. You can call hid plan of sending Yakuza to a nuclear island lame but I definitely understood why he would do it. Again, I want to emphasize just how garbage the other antagonists are, especially Bryce. He's supposedly a charismatic, supernatural cult leader who's never charismatic or supernatural on screen, he's so undercook it's not even funny. I don't understand why you would scapegoat Ebina over Bryce but let's agree to disagree.
The reason why Ebina's is difficult is because you cannot really use the AoE attacks without wasting MP. Plus, his weaknesses change between phases. He is weak to blades in the first round, and weak to guns in the second.
I love impregnable triangle its the gives the feeling of a fight between a bunch of washed up yakuza Brutality rebuilt got similar vibe to something like unwavering belief where it feel like universe is at stake but with thr heaviness of older tracks Congratulations on 7k thank for the great content as always
Huh, it just occurred to me that Yakuza 3 is no longer the final time Majima and Kiryu fight. Still their last 1 v 1 fight, but they do finally fight again. Also, just gonna add "was easily held off by Seonhee" to my long list of reasons why Saejima is absolutely not on the same level as Kiryu despite the lies 4 and 5 try to tell.
I think in those fights, it was more kiryu holding back cuz he respects saejima. Saejima is one of the few people that has the physical strength to match kiryu but absolutely no technique beside tossing people
Seonhee doesn't even "hold him back", she just parries him (something you don't need to be that strong to do) and he easily blocks her subsequent retaliation
Yeah I agree that Ebina had lacked narrative buildup to being kiryus final boss fight, he’s seen as the amalgamation of mistakes and karma biting back on kiryu but I can’t sense a connection or worth in the fight between the two since we don’t see enough of ebina history to either related/abhor his actions.
I dunno I feel like Ebina works pretty fine when you look at him actual dude that hates the ugly truth of the massive criminal groups in japan. He's also a very tough boss fight that really put me on edge the entire time, his theme is great because of the multi meaning of it "End of Delusion" is not only the end of his own Delusions that he'll be able to take revenge on every single yakuza, but also the end of Kiryu's Delusions that he could just run away from all his problems and making those decisions in the early games were a good idea years ago when in actuality, its why we have someone as hate filled as Ebina existing, Ebina's Tragedy is on Kiryu's shoulders for being in a position of power to make things right, but refusing to do at every chance he was given. There's another youtuber who did a really good Ebina video that I recommend checking out here titled "Why Ichiban did not FIGHT Ebina" give a shot before you make an Ebina video in the future. Another thing I don't quite agree with is the complaint of "Man this dude so many status effects, AoE attacks, and healing, what an awful final boss" Like dude its the final boss, he ideally should be a challenge otherwise you get someone like Tendo who isn't really a threat at all beyond having an Insta kill that you can perfect guard against, Tendo was an awful and easy boss compared to the Majima/Saejima fight and Kiryu encounters before him. I can only imagine in your version of Ebina's fight he'd just be a giant stat stick that'd hit one character a turn with nothing to put a timer on you for dealing with him like Status effects or healing and that sounds way worse in my eyes and I bet you wouldn't even enjoy that fight either, didn't mean to get so heated here but I prefer my final bosses to be challenging, more so when Bryce is only barely a challenge due to his high speed and AoE attacks. I just want to hear how someone would IMPROVE Ebina's boss fight mechanics rather then just hear a dude complaining and not providing what they'd do to fix it, you see it so much on the internet where people go "man this blows!" "alright so how would you fix it?" "UUUUHHHHH I DUNNO BUT IT SHOULD BE BETTER!" and I just hate seeing that mindset in a video made by a channel I do enjoy wathcing.
I feel like, they really missed the chance of making dwight the grudge villain, like how kuze and sawashiro was, recurring fight that ties meaningfully into the story, and for dwight, make him more despicable, remember he's a gang leader, dude has no honor or pride, I can't see him taking any order from fucking bryce, fuck bryce, dwight is his own man, let him make his own move, maybe after the 2nd fight, he's so fucking pissed at Ichiban that he ignores everything bryce says and purely just want Ichi dead
i managed to beat robo michio like two levels under them just spamming birthday bonanza and wild sweep. Even with that said just one robo michi was better than like 4
Another detail about Bryce that's kinda neat. If Tendo in the previous game was the Dragonlord from Dragon Quest 1, Bryce was Hargin from Dragon Quest 2. Both are the head priest of a religion, both are the second to last boss of their respective games and both try to commit suicide after being defeated. Kinda amazing how much they stick to their Dragon Quest theme without it feeling forced.
One of the thing that falls in well with Yakuza 0 Oath of Enma, the leader of the enemies that kiriyu sharpens himself against and truly learns the pride a Yakuza should have is what the actual Oath Of Enma was - To never obtain full deity status until every soul was saved from hells torments and redeemed. And that is what Ichiban the man who Kiriyu fights with learning a new meaning and value for his life. Ichibans brother was the result of him failing to keep the entire clan to the principles he had when given the chance and continued to bail out when they became corrupted and dragged civilians in on their power trippings.
Gokudoni: hmmm didn't like the shark fight and the squid is about the same. RGG: the squid has vore tho Gokudoni: S rank This is a 100% accurate retelling of events btw.
Some interesting opinions there! The three Jima, Yamai 1/4/5, and Sawashiro are definitely stand-outs for me. I thought Wong Tou's fight was also pretty good as sort of a turning point of the game's plot, and his Effortless Grace pushing the player to rely on proper positioning to get back attacks (Or guaranteed hits) to bypass his increased evasion was pretty neat, his healing is also relatively small, but it feels like it's a way to encourage the player to not wait out his evasion buff and instead use the aforementioned methods to hit him in spite of it. I'm definitely surprised to see the Blessed Leviathan in S tier too! I... personally didn't give it a single chance to apply its gimmicks since my damage output was high enough to never let its tentacles get two turns in a row, but I saw many people that were really not fond of the gimmick, haha!
Haha I got so mad at the final Dwight fight, some of my guys kept going towards the shark danger zone when it wasn't their turn. How they just randomly wander around? They kept going towards the shark. Stop doing that idiots, I don't need you becoming shark food! 🤬😂
I agree with the most of the opinons on story and OST, but I don't agree on a lot of gameplay comments. Wong Tou's self heal is a regen used near the end of the fight, to punish slow turtling strategies. If you're engaging with the actual mechanic of the fight - that you're supposed to use magic attacks to get around his evasion and exploit his elemental weaknesses - it might not even extend the fight by a single attack. Wong Tou in general is pretty clearly a check on if you've been paying attention to the game's mechanics because the bosses before him were fairly mecahnically simple. Silence is a legitimate threat in IW, not being able to use your skills hurts. It's not just slowing you down, it's preventing buffs, healing, and debuffing. Dwight 2 - His backup has low health, they're weaker than even street thugs. It's clearly to incentivise using AoE attacks. When I did this fight, most of the time they didn't even get an action cause I had something like Chitose using Bubble Bale to take out large groups. Most of your complaints are on mechanics that extend the length of fights - healing, restrictive status ailments and back up - but the fight against the three also does this, Daigo has an ability he can practically spam which increases the entire team's defence and willpower, and Majima boosts his evasion.
Personally I prefer Yamai 4 over 5 because of how it’s on his turf as you are rescuing kiryu. Also his sliding jump is a very kino moment in infinite wealth. The majima boss fight and the anti boss fight are some of the best combat encounters in this game and in RPGs in general.
I’ve seen a lot of Ebina/Mine comparisons, and interestingly Ebina has Mine’s taunt. Also not sure if this has anything to do with the character but his actor has been in quite a few bad movies.
Already knew he was was gonna be the main antagonist anyway when the story trailer dropped. There’s plenty of things that are obvious from seeing the promotional stuff.
Why does everybody mention that healing parts suck? In my experience, I was never irritated by them, most of the times bosses couldn’t even heal properly. And I was at the same level as they were.
I do really wish they gave the Amon fight more reverance in IW. The fact its the generic boss theme and in an unremarkable arena I found to be really disapointed. Fight itself isn't bad, just everything around it.
I agree with you, Ebina was a big disappointment story wise despite the fight being fun and quite challenging. The story (and the weight of levels and some of kiryu's side activities related to his story) is the only real issue of this game, but like you said being this a Yakuza game it unfortunately drags the whole experience down and it's a pity because gameplay, side activities and the general atmosphere are top tier
funny how my view on the two final bosses sorta mirror each other I liked bryces fight but wish more went on in terms of spectacle, im just not a fan of the uzi spam, kinda feels a little lame is all? It never felt like Ichiban was really ever challenged, and that what was I was hoping for in this Kiryu game disguised as an Ichiban game, Now I don't think ebina is the greatest, but I do like what he represents. I prefer his fight much better than Bryces. But me liking Ebina's fight makes me dislike some how, because I wish Ichiban's fight had more personally emotional stakes. Im tired of villains who are "pathetic and lame" narratively so the fight "Pathetic and lame" as a final boss. bryce is a good fight, objectively the best "Jackass with a gun and goons" boss in the series, but thats not what I want for final encounter in a yakuza game.
Honestly, I don't think I'd do a well enough job on that specific front. I'm not as knowledgeable on turn-based combat as other genres, so due to a lack of narrative depth and other oddities that make boss fights an easier thing to critique with substance, this would mean that a general list of enemies would likely devolve into mere personal preference as the criteria. I'd say Leon, Froob or Snowiest could do wonders with such a list though, considering their expertise with the genre 👍
I was going to feature him as well, but I was overlevelled when fighting him (one basic attack was enough to knock him out), so I had to unfortunately scrap it. Looking forward to redoing that on Legend though!
I dunno man, I largely agree with your takes but I feel like you missed the mark here and there. For starters, healing in bosses isn't bad and just tests the player with a damage check (otherwise I guess any fight could be beaten with any party comp that can simply survive). But also, I don't really agree with almost anything you said about Ebina? It feels like a lot of people just failed to understand him as a character
@@rkrooShishido is the correction of Aizawa. Ebina is Aizawa 2. The issue with Ebina is that his motivations are only known way into the end of Act 3, while the motivations of Shishido is already known before the end of the first half of the game. On top of that, Shishido already shows us that he is an absolute MENACE from Act 1.
I like how you acknowledge Ebina is the best fight in the game in terms of OST, QTE's and gameplay then just say "fuck that guy, his writing sucks, B tier"
I found Bryce slightly better than Ebina but I thought he sucked as an antagonist and his boss theme is, so dull. I'd rather fight Ebina than Bryce again as End of Denial is so fucking good. That said, there's a lot of narrative failures with the game that I hope RGG doesn't do again.
In my opinion, Kiryu's final chapter is better than Ichiban's final chapter in every aspect. The Millennium Tower long battle and Ebina are simply way cooler and more emotional than generic Nele Island and Bryce
I agree about Ebina. It's a shame that he of all people was Kiryu's final boss fight that we will ever get to experience. Iwami was a way better send-off fight than Ebina. Though Ebina's unarmed fighting style is easily the coolest moveset in the game.
Honestly I don't understand the hate for the healing, they barely heal any health you can hardly say it extends the fights unless you just sit there and do nothing but apply status effects for 5 turns lmao healing is far from an issue
If we are talking about kiryu's fight with Ebina i would compare him more to Iwami because one Ebina hates yakuza but still joined them.While Iwami wanted to be but failed.One it better as a person while the other it pice of shit thet you hate. And they both kinda are left off while the real deal is Kiryu who it half dead in both games in Yakuza 6 because of his fight before with,,kosimitzu" (i know i write it wrong) and in yakuza 8 where he has cancer both times he needs to go to hospital. Ebina for me it S but it still debatable.
The healing complaints feel a bit nitpicky considering how mostly inconsequential it is, especially with the ridiculous damage you can dish out. Same for boss debuffs like silence, we kinda need these in a turn based game
Amon fight would feel like a good conclusion if not the fact that it's a bad one with several flaws at that. Wrong player models, lack of voice acting for Jo, lack of his music during his fight in the dungeon, no win condition when you beat him for the first time. It feels rushed and last minute addition when you realise that all the Amons look like Shin if you remove their cosmetics. The fight gimmick is really cool but I'm sorry, It's worse than the Michio Rangers in terms of aesthetics.
Nah the Jima fight is high A tier. Reason being is that when we enter their reality marbles, its stupidly easy to burn through them. Dragons Resurrection makes a joke out of it.
I agree with pretty much everything, even down to Ebina being a flawed villain who just needed more screentime to tie all those tropes together into an actual character. However, I feel like the game did build him up as an actual threat like his actual fight shows, at least when read between the lines. He's shown to have climbed the ranks of the Seiryu while gaining respect from even cutthroat Yakuza, he's shown to be isolated and brutal and when his tattoo is revealed, to me that just indicates dedication to his ideals. I think he'd be A tier and with more screentime he'd have been an easy S tier. Also Narasaki should be B, the fight is cool and entertaining, even if he's a clown (partly because he is a clown. (especially with the fucking shark in B) The squid is also a great fight, except on normal, it's so painfully easy on normal, while being great on a higher difficulty
First off, here's a link to the tier list:
tiermaker.com/create/iw-ab-yakuza-15891362
Secondly, thank you. As you could tell from this video, I've been dealing with some minor health issues yet again, which made the process of creating this video very troublesome. There are certain placements I would change if I were to redo the list, and there were some points of discussion I had to cut due to issues with my microphone during the recording. Regardless, I wanted to make another big milestone celebration like in the past, because I love everything we've accomplished thus far, and I want to keep adding to it as long as I physically can.
I'm currently playing other games in my spare time to help avoid Yakuza burnout, but that aside, it's business as usual for the creative process, so I hope you'll look forward to whatever comes next. Thank you again. Cheers!
@gokudoni I'm hoping your health is swiftly restored, wishing you the best man. Also, congrats on 7.5 thousand subscribers, the channel has grown so fast and I hope it continues to do so. All the best, Aniki!
I am surprised you did not give Ebina an F tier. You hated him with a passion.
@@shadowtoad95 I still do, narratively speaking hahah. The thing with this tier list is that story is just one half of the bosses value. While the fight doesn't undo the narrative flaws, it's still a spectacle to behold, so it all evens out as a "middle of the road" boss entry for me in the end. As a character though, definite F tier :D
@@gokudoniI see that most people in your comments disagree with this take. Maybe you do a deep dive as to why bosses like Aizawa and Ebina do not work, since I find both to be the same in practice.
I really enjoy how different Ichiban and Kiryu's bosses felt. Kiryu definitely had the more "grounded" crime drama Yakuza. While Ichiban was taking on giant monsters and Hawaiian gods.
Ichiban is Yakuza in its meta era, Kiryu brings it back to Earth
I'll be real, I was kind of disappointed that after the insanity of fighting a giant mutant shark and squid, we didn't get a proper boss fight with the attack helicopter
One of the reasons I love the 3jima fight is because the dialogue exchange beforehand shows that for them, this is not them testing their skills; they were genuinely angered and hurt by Kiryu's comments about wasting away and as such, they don't hold back in their fight, and when they lose, this was their very last valuable possession being taken away from them: their pride.
The daigo, majima and saejima fight was incredible, loved when you get to fight them one on one and their old themes play, for me it was the best
The last Yamai fight is definitely my favorite Ichiban fight in the game. The visuals of Yamai breaking the Molotov was mind-blowing.
Liked seeing Bryce in A tier, I think the fandom underrates him a bit. He doesn't have the charms a "traditional" yakuza villain has, those sympathetic/macho qualities, but compared to Ebina I was way more excited to take Bryce down a peg. His delusions almost sort of parallel Ichiban's in a weird way, like he's a 90yo man in a trash heap chucking grenades at you but acts like he's some sort of primordial god. I love it.
I think he's a BIT under-baked compared to the greats of Yakuza obviously, but he does the job as a villain in being properly built up, moving the plot forward, cathartic to take down, and all in a way that highlights Ichiban's own character traits.
I didn't get a psychotic vibe from Ebina, I kinda felt more sad for him as a victim of the Yakuza crossfire. Time and time again the franchise shows the Yakuza ruin lives of innocents.
Ebina is a figurehead for those who've had their lives upturned and screwed over because of the Yakuza. I fundamentally disagree with the point made that he could be replaced with any other Yakuza member, because he can't.
Ebina didn't deserve the life he had, and I obviously disagree with his ultimate solution to removing the Yakuza, because that's not justice. However, it's quite easy to see how he ended up in his situation. Sometimes a grudge is incredibly hard to let go of and I found that relatable.
Yes exactly how I felt
Exactly what I was thinking. I think Ebina is a fantastic final villain for Kiryu. That being said the whole idea of him being Ichiban’s half brother was kinda unnecessary
@@officialiamkhaos2769 To be honest I don't see Ebina and think Ichi's half-brother, I only think Masumi's other estranged son.
One thing I REALLY like about the fights against the "giant monsters" (e.g. the shark and the excavators) is that your party is lined up like an old-school JRPG party, I thought it was a cool detail with respect to the classics
RGG did Wong Tou dirty!😤
i think ebina really works for me in the sense that, throughout these games, we've always been playing as yakuza or ex-yakuza seeking to keep the ball going. these men we played as and helped are always portrayed as honorable yakuza in one way or another. because of that, we ignore the collateral damage caused by said men. ebina is a sort of culmination of that. he represents the collateral damage that kiryu and his story have caused on the people outside of his circle and thats why it works for me.
kiryu fighting ebina is him finally atoning for those sins. kiryu has atoned for tons of stuff in the past, except this. this is him finally facing those consequences and thats why its excellent.
I played this campaign twice now, normal and Legend, and both times I NEVER knew the squid can swallow you in and you've a mini boss fight with an ink sac! I just attacked the tenticles first every time! This game never fails to surprise me!
Yeah I couldn’t get past it my first normal playthrough cuz I did no grind lol 😂 and thought it was the worst fight in the game then I grinded a bit and it was easy and never got to the ink sac 😂
Bryce is awesome. Extremely simple but also hilarious. Really entertaining
If like a dragon infinite wealth had such an obvious name:
Like a dragon: Infinite Fanservice
In my opinion, (This may have been said before, but I want to say it anyway, even if I may not be able to word it very well.) I feel that the fact that you could replace Ebina with any other person is the whole point. Ebina is the personification of Kiryu's inability to take action in his position of power in the Tojo, and even while not in the chairman position, Kiryu is still a big inspiration to many Tojo Clan members and Yakuza in general. Instead, Kiryu, although thinking about others in the form of Morning Glory, did not think of the bigger picture, the consequences of not taking action to at least try and change how the Yakuza worked. Ebina was just an innocent whose life was ruined by how the Yakuza worked, and I think that Kiryu is confronting his 'sins' rather than fighting Ebina, if you get what I mean. I feel the name of the OST "The End of Denial" is beautifully used for Kiryu, it's the final fight when he realises and accepts that his running away from the Yakuza world, even for the sake of Haruka and later the orphanage, was not the best option for everyone outside of those he cares about. The past is not something he can just erase no matter how hard he, or even the Daidoji tries, and he should have embraced it and tried to fix it when he had the chance, rather than keep running away. (then getting dragged back like 4 times anyway.)
Great content as always, I agreed with most of the tier list, but I disagree on your ranking of Ebina, I think he's not exactly S tier due to execution, but definitely not as bad as you would think. (Even though IW had wasted potential with Ebina, I think the fact that he was the personification of Kiryu's sins was the point they were trying to drive home, rather than focusing on Ebina himself as a character.) Perhaps I'm just overthinking it, and Ebina wasn't designed with that much thought, but this is RGG. I doubt they would just let the final boss of a 50+ hour game geniunely be this disappointing.
I really think Eiji should have gotten a boss fight at the club or somewhere new. Like with so much of his character, it was a major waste of potential. Another spectacular video Gokudoni, you keep one-upping yourself every upload!! 👏
One thing ive noticed and kinda love about this game is the mix of comedy in the fights. Greats example is yamai 4 and the giant creatures. I love em to bits and the comedy honestly adds to them. ALSO BRYCE LOVE. I fucking love that fight so much and i feel bryce as a whole is very very underrated
I would also add the fight in the fashion show in the Barracuda's HQ, it have intros, unique music and an unique enemy the MC.
Did not know about the squid thing, I one shot the tentacles as soon as they showed up lol
For all the gameplay/content greatness that IW provides it traded a good finale for Kiryu. I still haven't come to terms with it but you can't be too bitter
to say my hype meter went out of the bar when i saw the yakuza 4 in the same party, probably the best finale set piece in the series (besides the final boss)
Lol, Fighting the shark and squid as a boss was definitely out there, at first i thought they we're side bosses because of the promos and stuff, i beleived at first that they're bosses for dondoko or the labyrinth so i was stumped looking for them and i thought i was missing something but i never thought fighting them as a main story bosses.
8:20 It shows how ‘brutality’ and heartless Bruce is(by kidnapping Wong Tou’s son), and Dwight have no motivation to tell who his mastermind is.
Babe, wake up. New Gokudoni upload just came out.
I really have to disagree about Ebina's character. Normally I'd understand the dislike towards him but it feels a little odd to single him out in s game filled with a slew of extremely lackluster antagonists who have even less going on for them than he did.
Before that I will give you that him being Ichiban's brother was largely unexplored and the cackling was unnecessary, now on to my point.
I felt that his primary motivation was one of the best in the series. His pure visceral hatred for the Yakuza makes so much sense when you look at it from the perspective of a normal person. Yakuza aren't just good guys with a heart of gold who do Karaoke all day, they are filled with murderers, rapists, assholes who ruin businesses because they can, ruin livelihoods because they can. While they do deserve a second chance, they have been a nuisance to society for god knows how many years.
What makes this hatred skyrocket is his personal experience of his psychotic grandfather making Arakawa fly off the handle and Arakawa himself being negligent with Ebina's mother. You can call hid plan of sending Yakuza to a nuclear island lame but I definitely understood why he would do it.
Again, I want to emphasize just how garbage the other antagonists are, especially Bryce. He's supposedly a charismatic, supernatural cult leader who's never charismatic or supernatural on screen, he's so undercook it's not even funny.
I don't understand why you would scapegoat Ebina over Bryce but let's agree to disagree.
Nah, Bryce is kinda funny in his presentation.
The Bryce fight was so easy, yet Ebina’s was difficult and he didn’t have goons 😭 the OSTs in this game were so good
The reason why Ebina's is difficult is because you cannot really use the AoE attacks without wasting MP. Plus, his weaknesses change between phases. He is weak to blades in the first round, and weak to guns in the second.
Oh god💀 Kiryus side before ichi?The Ebina hate is strong with this one I can’t wait🗣️‼️
Ebina feels like a "Aliexpress" version of Shibuzawa from 0
1. Majima, Saejima and Daigo
2. Anything Yamai
3. Uhhhhh, shark, squid maybe?
4. Everything else
Sawashiro was S tier
I love impregnable triangle its the gives the feeling of a fight between a bunch of washed up yakuza
Brutality rebuilt got similar vibe to something like unwavering belief where it feel like universe is at stake but with thr heaviness of older tracks
Congratulations on 7k thank for the great content as always
Huh, it just occurred to me that Yakuza 3 is no longer the final time Majima and Kiryu fight. Still their last 1 v 1 fight, but they do finally fight again.
Also, just gonna add "was easily held off by Seonhee" to my long list of reasons why Saejima is absolutely not on the same level as Kiryu despite the lies 4 and 5 try to tell.
I think in those fights, it was more kiryu holding back cuz he respects saejima. Saejima is one of the few people that has the physical strength to match kiryu but absolutely no technique beside tossing people
You know that’s an outlier.
@@whatisface917Why would he hold back? That makes no sense. If he respects him, then he wouldn’t hold back.
Seonhee doesn't even "hold him back", she just parries him (something you don't need to be that strong to do) and he easily blocks her subsequent retaliation
Yeah I agree that Ebina had lacked narrative buildup to being kiryus final boss fight, he’s seen as the amalgamation of mistakes and karma biting back on kiryu but I can’t sense a connection or worth in the fight between the two since we don’t see enough of ebina history to either related/abhor his actions.
I dunno I feel like Ebina works pretty fine when you look at him actual dude that hates the ugly truth of the massive criminal groups in japan. He's also a very tough boss fight that really put me on edge the entire time, his theme is great because of the multi meaning of it "End of Delusion" is not only the end of his own Delusions that he'll be able to take revenge on every single yakuza, but also the end of Kiryu's Delusions that he could just run away from all his problems and making those decisions in the early games were a good idea years ago when in actuality, its why we have someone as hate filled as Ebina existing, Ebina's Tragedy is on Kiryu's shoulders for being in a position of power to make things right, but refusing to do at every chance he was given.
There's another youtuber who did a really good Ebina video that I recommend checking out here titled "Why Ichiban did not FIGHT Ebina" give a shot before you make an Ebina video in the future.
Another thing I don't quite agree with is the complaint of "Man this dude so many status effects, AoE attacks, and healing, what an awful final boss" Like dude its the final boss, he ideally should be a challenge otherwise you get someone like Tendo who isn't really a threat at all beyond having an Insta kill that you can perfect guard against, Tendo was an awful and easy boss compared to the Majima/Saejima fight and Kiryu encounters before him. I can only imagine in your version of Ebina's fight he'd just be a giant stat stick that'd hit one character a turn with nothing to put a timer on you for dealing with him like Status effects or healing and that sounds way worse in my eyes and I bet you wouldn't even enjoy that fight either, didn't mean to get so heated here but I prefer my final bosses to be challenging, more so when Bryce is only barely a challenge due to his high speed and AoE attacks. I just want to hear how someone would IMPROVE Ebina's boss fight mechanics rather then just hear a dude complaining and not providing what they'd do to fix it, you see it so much on the internet where people go "man this blows!" "alright so how would you fix it?" "UUUUHHHHH I DUNNO BUT IT SHOULD BE BETTER!" and I just hate seeing that mindset in a video made by a channel I do enjoy wathcing.
Ebina was awesome imo
I feel like, they really missed the chance of making dwight the grudge villain, like how kuze and sawashiro was, recurring fight that ties meaningfully into the story, and for dwight, make him more despicable, remember he's a gang leader, dude has no honor or pride, I can't see him taking any order from fucking bryce, fuck bryce, dwight is his own man, let him make his own move, maybe after the 2nd fight, he's so fucking pissed at Ichiban that he ignores everything bryce says and purely just want Ichi dead
Ebina is like Ryuji to me, great characters with deep themes that were unfortunately not very present when needed
i managed to beat robo michio like two levels under them just spamming birthday bonanza and wild sweep. Even with that said just one robo michi was better than like 4
Another detail about Bryce that's kinda neat.
If Tendo in the previous game was the Dragonlord from Dragon Quest 1, Bryce was Hargin from Dragon Quest 2.
Both are the head priest of a religion, both are the second to last boss of their respective games and both try to commit suicide after being defeated.
Kinda amazing how much they stick to their Dragon Quest theme without it feeling forced.
Wong Tou is kinda like the Awano of IW. Like they’re both middle stepchild antagonists.
I stunned the shark and it only got to attack one time 😂
One of the thing that falls in well with Yakuza 0 Oath of Enma, the leader of the enemies that kiriyu sharpens himself against and truly learns the pride a Yakuza should have is what the actual Oath Of Enma was - To never obtain full deity status until every soul was saved from hells torments and redeemed.
And that is what Ichiban the man who Kiriyu fights with learning a new meaning and value for his life.
Ichibans brother was the result of him failing to keep the entire clan to the principles he had when given the chance and continued to bail out when they became corrupted and dragged civilians in on their power trippings.
Gokudoni: hmmm didn't like the shark fight and the squid is about the same.
RGG: the squid has vore tho
Gokudoni: S rank
This is a 100% accurate retelling of events btw.
I won against both the giant shark and squid with a dropkick, thats even more epic
Best fight in the game is the fight with da boys on your side before Ebina. Also for me the story is 80 percent of the fun.
Some interesting opinions there! The three Jima, Yamai 1/4/5, and Sawashiro are definitely stand-outs for me.
I thought Wong Tou's fight was also pretty good as sort of a turning point of the game's plot, and his Effortless Grace pushing the player to rely on proper positioning to get back attacks (Or guaranteed hits) to bypass his increased evasion was pretty neat, his healing is also relatively small, but it feels like it's a way to encourage the player to not wait out his evasion buff and instead use the aforementioned methods to hit him in spite of it.
I'm definitely surprised to see the Blessed Leviathan in S tier too! I... personally didn't give it a single chance to apply its gimmicks since my damage output was high enough to never let its tentacles get two turns in a row, but I saw many people that were really not fond of the gimmick, haha!
Eh, using skills easily bypasses raised evasion. It's really not hard to overcome at all. Kind of a pointless buff.
The only nice thing i can say about ebina is that his voice acting is really good
Man the shark have more personality then Ebina 😄
Haha I got so mad at the final Dwight fight, some of my guys kept going towards the shark danger zone when it wasn't their turn. How they just randomly wander around? They kept going towards the shark. Stop doing that idiots, I don't need you becoming shark food! 🤬😂
I agree with the most of the opinons on story and OST, but I don't agree on a lot of gameplay comments.
Wong Tou's self heal is a regen used near the end of the fight, to punish slow turtling strategies. If you're engaging with the actual mechanic of the fight - that you're supposed to use magic attacks to get around his evasion and exploit his elemental weaknesses - it might not even extend the fight by a single attack. Wong Tou in general is pretty clearly a check on if you've been paying attention to the game's mechanics because the bosses before him were fairly mecahnically simple.
Silence is a legitimate threat in IW, not being able to use your skills hurts. It's not just slowing you down, it's preventing buffs, healing, and debuffing.
Dwight 2 - His backup has low health, they're weaker than even street thugs. It's clearly to incentivise using AoE attacks. When I did this fight, most of the time they didn't even get an action cause I had something like Chitose using Bubble Bale to take out large groups.
Most of your complaints are on mechanics that extend the length of fights - healing, restrictive status ailments and back up - but the fight against the three also does this, Daigo has an ability he can practically spam which increases the entire team's defence and willpower, and Majima boosts his evasion.
Personally I prefer Yamai 4 over 5 because of how it’s on his turf as you are rescuing kiryu. Also his sliding jump is a very kino moment in infinite wealth. The majima boss fight and the anti boss fight are some of the best combat encounters in this game and in RPGs in general.
I feel like they could of took a hour out of the start and spend that hour building up Ebina
I’ve seen a lot of Ebina/Mine comparisons, and interestingly Ebina has Mine’s taunt. Also not sure if this has anything to do with the character but his actor has been in quite a few bad movies.
The reason why Ebina is the main villain cuz he looks like Yong Yea
@@yoavitanzehavy6244 Didn’t just see that I mentioned he’s played by a Japanese actor.
Already knew he was was gonna be the main antagonist anyway when the story trailer dropped. There’s plenty of things that are obvious from seeing the promotional stuff.
@@MadDogSolo still he looks like Yong Yea
Narasaki fight would be S tier if he was replaced by Jiber from Taxi movies.
Unlimited Health
The chapter 12 boss fight vs…
…Daigo, Majima, and Saejima > *
…and Gaiden’s final boss > IW’s
Why does everybody mention that healing parts suck? In my experience, I was never irritated by them, most of the times bosses couldn’t even heal properly. And I was at the same level as they were.
I do really wish they gave the Amon fight more reverance in IW. The fact its the generic boss theme and in an unremarkable arena I found to be really disapointed. Fight itself isn't bad, just everything around it.
Yeah no, I disagree with the Squid been S tier lmao
bro didn't have immunity to cold
I agree with you regarding Kiryu’s final boss. It felt so disappointing, I definitely think that boss should have been switched with Ichiban’s.
I didn't like the Bryce fight, whereas Ebina's is cooler imo, despite the writing you mention- legit thoughts.
The jima moment had but a single flaw. It was too short.
I agree with you, Ebina was a big disappointment story wise despite the fight being fun and quite challenging. The story (and the weight of levels and some of kiryu's side activities related to his story) is the only real issue of this game, but like you said being this a Yakuza game it unfortunately drags the whole experience down and it's a pity because gameplay, side activities and the general atmosphere are top tier
funny how my view on the two final bosses sorta mirror each other
I liked bryces fight but wish more went on in terms of spectacle, im just not a fan of the uzi spam, kinda feels a little lame is all? It never felt like Ichiban was really ever challenged, and that what was I was hoping for in this Kiryu game disguised as an Ichiban game,
Now I don't think ebina is the greatest, but I do like what he represents. I prefer his fight much better than Bryces. But me liking Ebina's fight makes me dislike some how, because I wish Ichiban's fight had more personally emotional stakes.
Im tired of villains who are "pathetic and lame" narratively so the fight "Pathetic and lame" as a final boss.
bryce is a good fight, objectively the best "Jackass with a gun and goons" boss in the series, but thats not what I want for final encounter in a yakuza game.
Can you do enemy/sujimon tier list next?
Honestly, I don't think I'd do a well enough job on that specific front. I'm not as knowledgeable on turn-based combat as other genres, so due to a lack of narrative depth and other oddities that make boss fights an easier thing to critique with substance, this would mean that a general list of enemies would likely devolve into mere personal preference as the criteria. I'd say Leon, Froob or Snowiest could do wonders with such a list though, considering their expertise with the genre 👍
I don’t really consider the big swill as a spoiler, it really shouldn’t have been a DLC dungeon along with new game plus
Guess no one thinks of Asakura as a boss then.
I was going to feature him as well, but I was overlevelled when fighting him (one basic attack was enough to knock him out), so I had to unfortunately scrap it. Looking forward to redoing that on Legend though!
@@gokudonihe's pretty fun when properly leveled, lovely substory
The blessed leviathan has vore, best boss
I dunno man, I largely agree with your takes but I feel like you missed the mark here and there.
For starters, healing in bosses isn't bad and just tests the player with a damage check (otherwise I guess any fight could be beaten with any party comp that can simply survive). But also, I don't really agree with almost anything you said about Ebina? It feels like a lot of people just failed to understand him as a character
Ebina is just aizawa2 wasted potential and good Boss fight imo
aizawa2 was shishido imo, their boss fights were equally as grand
@@rkrooidk I feel daidoji should have been involved more. Shishido and nishitani as agents
@@rkrooShishido is the correction of Aizawa. Ebina is Aizawa 2. The issue with Ebina is that his motivations are only known way into the end of Act 3, while the motivations of Shishido is already known before the end of the first half of the game. On top of that, Shishido already shows us that he is an absolute MENACE from Act 1.
I like how you acknowledge Ebina is the best fight in the game in terms of OST, QTE's and gameplay then just say "fuck that guy, his writing sucks, B tier"
I found Bryce slightly better than Ebina but I thought he sucked as an antagonist and his boss theme is, so dull. I'd rather fight Ebina than Bryce again as End of Denial is so fucking good. That said, there's a lot of narrative failures with the game that I hope RGG doesn't do again.
In my opinion, Kiryu's final chapter is better than Ichiban's final chapter in every aspect. The Millennium Tower long battle and Ebina are simply way cooler and more emotional than generic Nele Island and Bryce
Only real problem with Sawashiro's fight is way too easy he went down quick to where I didn't get to see much of his moves
I agree about Ebina. It's a shame that he of all people was Kiryu's final boss fight that we will ever get to experience. Iwami was a way better send-off fight than Ebina.
Though Ebina's unarmed fighting style is easily the coolest moveset in the game.
Honestly I don't understand the hate for the healing, they barely heal any health you can hardly say it extends the fights unless you just sit there and do nothing but apply status effects for 5 turns lmao healing is far from an issue
If we are talking about kiryu's fight with Ebina i would compare him more to Iwami because one Ebina hates yakuza but still joined them.While Iwami wanted to be but failed.One it better as a person while the other it pice of shit thet you hate. And they both kinda are left off while the real deal is Kiryu who it half dead in both games in Yakuza 6 because of his fight before with,,kosimitzu" (i know i write it wrong) and in yakuza 8 where he has cancer both times he needs to go to hospital.
Ebina for me it S but it still debatable.
No eiji “fight”?
The healing complaints feel a bit nitpicky considering how mostly inconsequential it is, especially with the ridiculous damage you can dish out.
Same for boss debuffs like silence, we kinda need these in a turn based game
Never let bro cook again
You did not give Ebina an F tier? I am disappointed…
Jk :)
Amon fight would feel like a good conclusion if not the fact that it's a bad one with several flaws at that.
Wrong player models, lack of voice acting for Jo, lack of his music during his fight in the dungeon, no win condition when you beat him for the first time. It feels rushed and last minute addition when you realise that all the Amons look like Shin if you remove their cosmetics. The fight gimmick is really cool but I'm sorry, It's worse than the Michio Rangers in terms of aesthetics.
L
why u not put chitose on that rank
SHE DESERVED IT FOR VILLAIN
Nah the Jima fight is high A tier. Reason being is that when we enter their reality marbles, its stupidly easy to burn through them. Dragons Resurrection makes a joke out of it.
The most overrated yakuza ever
Why it is overrated?
let us know why it is overrated
I agree with pretty much everything, even down to Ebina being a flawed villain who just needed more screentime to tie all those tropes together into an actual character. However, I feel like the game did build him up as an actual threat like his actual fight shows, at least when read between the lines. He's shown to have climbed the ranks of the Seiryu while gaining respect from even cutthroat Yakuza, he's shown to be isolated and brutal and when his tattoo is revealed, to me that just indicates dedication to his ideals.
I think he'd be A tier and with more screentime he'd have been an easy S tier.
Also Narasaki should be B, the fight is cool and entertaining, even if he's a clown (partly because he is a clown. (especially with the fucking shark in B)
The squid is also a great fight, except on normal, it's so painfully easy on normal, while being great on a higher difficulty