[ENG] Yakuza and The Freedom of Gameplay
(Polska Wersja Dostępna Tu! - [PL] Yakuza i Wolność Rozgrywki)
(Possible minor spoilers from Yakuza 0 and Yakuza Kiwami – You have been warned)
Yakuza franchise. Probably a lot of you have heard about it at one point or another but probably dismissed it as another GTA or Mafia clone. And to be honest, when I experienced this franchise for the first time several years ago on my PS3 – I thought the same. But recently, thanks to the generosity of my friend, I gave the series another chance with Yakuza 0 and Yakuza Kiwami and – well, I really enjoyed them both, but slowly. What is Yakuza?
Well, one – as I said – could say it's just a Japanese GTA or Mafia and... Although it would be partially true, it also would be an enormous understatement. It could be described as a 'gangster/mafia opera' (though I don't know how true it is since I played only 0 and Kiwami so... It may also be an understatement).
It's worth noting that it's really, really long franchise with 8 games in the main series and few spin-offs and as far as I know, majority of these 8 games (excluding only Yakuza 7, the newest installment in the franchise) follow mainly a story of Kazuma Kiryu, The Dragon of Dojima (with other protagonists like Goro Majima in Yakuza 0 or Kiwami 2 and Taiga Saejima in the Yakuza 5 but... They appear only in one or few games and often they are just NPCs so Kiryu can be easily called as the main protagonist).
Yakuza is a franchise where freedom of gameplay is kind-of key – you can of course rush through the story, but there are tens of substories (fancy name for side quests), activities and things you can do in each installment. And what's the best part? For the huge majority (excluding only very particular story moments) the games give you absolute freedom of what you wanna do – there is practically nothing stopping you from doing dozens of substories and side activities between two seemingly important story moments... Which creates a bit of ludonarrative dissonance since you can see that particular story moment is very important for Kiryu and should be done immediately, buuut at the same time you can spend few hours walking around town and doing various things.
Each installment can provide tens or even hundreds of hours if you decide to complete the game in 100%. The amount of activities, substories and things you need to do for 100% completion is at the same time very clearly visible, but also quite time-consuming (though to tell the truth you can do a lot of them naturally through your playthrough without even noticing it). Karaoke, Dancing, Bowling, Mahjong, Poker, Underground Fights – these are only few examples of minigames/activities available.
Let's start with Yakuza 0, shall we? It was released in 2015 as a prequel to what's happening before the rest of the series. 17 years before the first installment takes place with young Kiryu and young Majima taking place as two protagonists. It shows their painful backstory.
(Don't laugh. It's a very serious story objective... Okay, who am I kidding?)
Let's start with Yakuza 0, shall we? It was released in 2015 as a prequel to what's happening before the rest of the series. 17 years before the first installment takes place with young Kiryu and young Majima taking place as two protagonists. It shows their painful backstory.
It's a story presenting the harsh truth of what it means to be Yakuza and how severe consequences one has to suffer due to a single mistake. A story full of unexpected turns, surprising alliances and friends turning into foes (and vice versa), a story where lives and hearts (and a whooole lot of bones) are broken... A story full of betrayal, pain and lost hopes...
Story is divided into Chapters where each Chapter is finished with a boss fight and... Trust me, you will know when it's one.
Two plots of the game – Kiryu's fight for The Empty Lot (a small patch of land worth enormous amount of money) and Majima's painful Past and prices they both have to pay due to their separate actions. The plots start to surprisingly intertwine somewhere around halfway point of the story... Telling anything more would be too big of a spoiler so let's leave the story aspect where it is.
The game tries to be serious, but the music during fights really does the job of interrupting it – not that it's bad, quite the opposite – it pumps you with adrenaline and fighting spirit, but... Since Yakuza 0 has it's fair share of sound problems, I was playing it with music muffled as hell and let me tell you this... It's a completely different experience when you barely hear the music – it really looks like a serious tale that it tries to be.
As I said there two protagonists in this game – Kazuma Kiryu and Goro Majima – each with a tad bit different fighting styles (more about combat and fighting styles later) and separate bag of problems to deal with. Kiryu is just too pure for his own good, he always wants to keep others safe even at the cost of his own life. Duh, let me tell you this – after Kiryu watches soft-porn video (one of the activities in the game) he thinks how amazing marriage can be... J-just how pure a character can be?!
The game tries to be serious, but the music during fights really does the job of interrupting it – not that it's bad, quite the opposite – it pumps you with adrenaline and fighting spirit, but... Since Yakuza 0 has it's fair share of sound problems, I was playing it with music muffled as hell and let me tell you this... It's a completely different experience when you barely hear the music – it really looks like a serious tale that it tries to be.
(Hands down of the best characters to ever appear in video games!)
As I said there two protagonists in this game – Kazuma Kiryu and Goro Majima – each with a tad bit different fighting styles (more about combat and fighting styles later) and separate bag of problems to deal with. Kiryu is just too pure for his own good, he always wants to keep others safe even at the cost of his own life. Duh, let me tell you this – after Kiryu watches soft-porn video (one of the activities in the game) he thinks how amazing marriage can be... J-just how pure a character can be?!
Majima on the other hand has an amazing entrance, he looks like a successful guy on the outside, as a manager of the biggest cabaret in Sotenbori, Majima is often called as Lord of the Night. But behind the happiness and success, lies the fury and city that is Majima's cage. His prison. Majima looks successful, but once he is left alone or out of the public – his true, bitter nature reveals itself... It's not bad, don't get me wrong, but it shows how broken Maijma is.
And just like there are two protagonists, there are two major locations – Kamurocho and Sotenbori – for huge chunk of the game the former is place of Kiryu and latter of Majima, but just like the plots, the characters start travelling between these two places due to story events.
As mentioned at the start, there are literally dozens of minigames and activities in this game, but except these already mentioned before – Yakuza 0 gives you 'Catfights' – you can place your bets and watch as two barely clothed women stand off against each other in a fight... It's bizarre to say the least.
But Yakuza 0 presents two quite time-consuming and one could say 'economical' minigames. Namely – Kiryu's Real Estate and Majima's Cabaret Club. Both of them are quite similar, in each you have 5 rivals to drive out off business and shut them down and... They are completely optional. Personally I haven't spent a lot of time in them, but I have asked a good friend of mine who did it what benefits it gives you. And as far as I know – each driven out rival gives you huge amount of money (Money is used to unlock skills – more about character development a bit later), as you progress with driving out the rivals, much more skills become available to you and if you manage to drive all 5 rivals out – you get bonus fighting styles – Dragon of Dojima for Kiryu and Mad Dog of Shimano for Majima. (In Kiwami 1 Kiryu has 4 fighting styles right from the start, but as I said Yakuza 0 is a prequel and it wouldn't make sense for neither Kiryu nor Majima to have these styles so... It makes sense why they are hidden and why you need to spend some time to unlock them)
(Completion List for Yakuza 0. This is all to get 100%... Well, if you will enjoy the game and will have a bit of spare time in your pocket, you may as well try and do this!)
Okay, I mentioned both fighting styles and character development before so let's tackle them, shall we?
Character Development. Skills are unlocked with money and you earn money by fighting enemies, doing activities and minigames, completing story chapters, substories and much more. But there is a good prevention measure – it prevents you from hogging money and kind-of forces you to buy skills as soon as one is available to you – namely Mr. Shakedown. It's an enormous mountain of flesh and muscle that is almost certain to be a pain in your ass throughout your playthrough because... Once he beats you, you lose all your money – do you already see why he is a prevention measure? Buuuut he is also an embodiment of high risk – high reward gameplay, because... You see, once he beats all the money out of you – he will keep it when you meet him the next time and you can knock him out with profit, be ware though – the more often you beat Mr. Shakedown – he WILL carry much more money (reaching into billions at some point), but he will have significantly more HP.
Since I already mentioned HP I can briefly explain what I mean – enemies and bosses can have multiple HP bars that need to be lowered before finishing an enemy off. As far as I can tell, HP bars cap at 5 – Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue and Purple. And now imagine fighting Mr. Shakedown with purple health bar when he was giving you trouble with yellow or green. Of course it will only happen if you will fight with him and win consistently, but... Story bosses are bound to have multiple health bars. Even the very first boss you will face will already have 2 HP bars to scrape off.
As for the combat system... Oh dear. Basically – both Majima and Kiryu have 3 fighting styles (With the 4th one being unlockable as already mentioned). One slow, one fast and one balanced. So Kiryu has Brawler (Balanced), Rush (Fast), Beast (Slow) and Majima has Thug (Balanced), Slugger (Slow) and Breaker (Fast/Hands-down one of the best fighting styles I have ever seen in a video game). There are a lot of skills available for each style that make overall combat much deeper and richer. There are also Master Skills that can only be unlocked after training with a particular trainer (of course you can't cheese all of them early, you will earn more money as the game progresses which will make unlocking all Master Skills much easier).
It's all incredibly well made and thanks to that seemingly simple combat system is much more deep. You see, majority of the problems in Yakuza are solved in two ways – money and fighting – with the latter being the preferable option in many fragments so it makes sense that they needed to make combat at least somewhat enjoyable. And trainers... What a bunch of colorful characters, though it can be as well said about huge majority of characters in the game. You can also use weapons like Baseball Bat or Dagger during fights though they break easily and are often used as a 'last-resort option', you can also use environment – bikes, plants, trash cans – as temporary weapons. And on higher difficulties or/and in late parts of the story – game kind of expects you to know how certain styles work and when to change them mid-fight so you can face certain enemies... Ooooor you can just heal your way through majority of the boss fights, but – let's be honest – where is the fun in that?
There are also collectibles in form of 'telephone cards' which you can use to watch soft-porn videos, but much more interesting than that are substories. I'll give you just two examples from dozens available in the game – during one you have to 'train a dominatrix' and teach her what does it mean to be one, and during another you have to help one poor guy get some medicine, shoes etc. cause' he's an errand boy for certain girl and in conclusion you have to beat the shit out of this girl's lover so the poor errand boy can finally rest... Absurd, sometimes serious, rarely related to the main story (though I can't think of any such stories in Yakuza 0, there were one or two in Kiwami) but all of them give either a pretty good side-story to enjoy and/or rewards – be it money, weapons or items you can sell for much more money – completing substories is rewarding.
Saving system in this game can be quite annoying if your game will start crashing a lot. You see, there are no autosaves, you have to save manually at phone booth placed around Kamurocho and Sotenbori (the game is also saved after completing a chapter). Truth be told, these phone booths are quite dense – to the point where there is at least 1 on every major street in the game so... Just remember to save regularly so you won't lose for example 4 hours of completing minigames and substories.
Oh, and it may be worth noting that the game only has Japanese dubbing, but if I can be honest, I don't think English would be bad, but rather it would kind-of kill that magic of the game. Not to mention that karaoke songs would never be the same.
The final chapter... Duh, the entire endgame story segment is something I enjoyed immensely. I loved the pacing and fury that was boiling within Kiryu and Majima. The final encounters that were partially a test of how well you understand the fighting system (okay, truth be told – with Majima's Breaker you are capable of melting both enemies and bosses without much effort, this style is amazing, but it's also quite broken). I can't tell much more because I don't want to spoil any other major characters or how the story ties up, but... As a prequel to the entire series, it was amazing.
I tried to focus on the story and stick mostly to it, since I got quite interested and... Honestly I wasn't really interested in many minigames or activities presented in the game. My friend on the other hand, loved many of them – karaoke, dancing... He always tried to max out the score in each minigame and I think it only shows that anyone can have fun in this game. For a variety of reasons. One can enjoy all the minigames and activities the game offers; others can enjoy the depth of combat system and some, like me, can also enjoy the story. But I said I tried to focus – that's because I very often got distracted by substories, teaching myself Master Skills or just walking around town.
Yakuza 0 was my introduction to the series and I think it should be for everyone. You will get a good understanding why certain characters behave like they behave in other installments and you can get a good grip on what this all Yakuza series is all about.
Since I already mentioned HP I can briefly explain what I mean – enemies and bosses can have multiple HP bars that need to be lowered before finishing an enemy off. As far as I can tell, HP bars cap at 5 – Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue and Purple. And now imagine fighting Mr. Shakedown with purple health bar when he was giving you trouble with yellow or green. Of course it will only happen if you will fight with him and win consistently, but... Story bosses are bound to have multiple health bars. Even the very first boss you will face will already have 2 HP bars to scrape off.
(The beautiful absurdity of this combat system at it's finest. Literally biting a blade and knocking it out of opponent's hand)
As for the combat system... Oh dear. Basically – both Majima and Kiryu have 3 fighting styles (With the 4th one being unlockable as already mentioned). One slow, one fast and one balanced. So Kiryu has Brawler (Balanced), Rush (Fast), Beast (Slow) and Majima has Thug (Balanced), Slugger (Slow) and Breaker (Fast/Hands-down one of the best fighting styles I have ever seen in a video game). There are a lot of skills available for each style that make overall combat much deeper and richer. There are also Master Skills that can only be unlocked after training with a particular trainer (of course you can't cheese all of them early, you will earn more money as the game progresses which will make unlocking all Master Skills much easier).
It's all incredibly well made and thanks to that seemingly simple combat system is much more deep. You see, majority of the problems in Yakuza are solved in two ways – money and fighting – with the latter being the preferable option in many fragments so it makes sense that they needed to make combat at least somewhat enjoyable. And trainers... What a bunch of colorful characters, though it can be as well said about huge majority of characters in the game. You can also use weapons like Baseball Bat or Dagger during fights though they break easily and are often used as a 'last-resort option', you can also use environment – bikes, plants, trash cans – as temporary weapons. And on higher difficulties or/and in late parts of the story – game kind of expects you to know how certain styles work and when to change them mid-fight so you can face certain enemies... Ooooor you can just heal your way through majority of the boss fights, but – let's be honest – where is the fun in that?
(During fights a huge glowing aura starts glowing around you, bosses have aura like this as well... During certain point Yakuza changes into pure anime fight)
There are also collectibles in form of 'telephone cards' which you can use to watch soft-porn videos, but much more interesting than that are substories. I'll give you just two examples from dozens available in the game – during one you have to 'train a dominatrix' and teach her what does it mean to be one, and during another you have to help one poor guy get some medicine, shoes etc. cause' he's an errand boy for certain girl and in conclusion you have to beat the shit out of this girl's lover so the poor errand boy can finally rest... Absurd, sometimes serious, rarely related to the main story (though I can't think of any such stories in Yakuza 0, there were one or two in Kiwami) but all of them give either a pretty good side-story to enjoy and/or rewards – be it money, weapons or items you can sell for much more money – completing substories is rewarding.
Saving system in this game can be quite annoying if your game will start crashing a lot. You see, there are no autosaves, you have to save manually at phone booth placed around Kamurocho and Sotenbori (the game is also saved after completing a chapter). Truth be told, these phone booths are quite dense – to the point where there is at least 1 on every major street in the game so... Just remember to save regularly so you won't lose for example 4 hours of completing minigames and substories.
Oh, and it may be worth noting that the game only has Japanese dubbing, but if I can be honest, I don't think English would be bad, but rather it would kind-of kill that magic of the game. Not to mention that karaoke songs would never be the same.
(Yakuza 0 also introduces you to a lot of characters so you can immediately recognize them and feel a connection in for example Yakuza Kiwami)
The final chapter... Duh, the entire endgame story segment is something I enjoyed immensely. I loved the pacing and fury that was boiling within Kiryu and Majima. The final encounters that were partially a test of how well you understand the fighting system (okay, truth be told – with Majima's Breaker you are capable of melting both enemies and bosses without much effort, this style is amazing, but it's also quite broken). I can't tell much more because I don't want to spoil any other major characters or how the story ties up, but... As a prequel to the entire series, it was amazing.
I tried to focus on the story and stick mostly to it, since I got quite interested and... Honestly I wasn't really interested in many minigames or activities presented in the game. My friend on the other hand, loved many of them – karaoke, dancing... He always tried to max out the score in each minigame and I think it only shows that anyone can have fun in this game. For a variety of reasons. One can enjoy all the minigames and activities the game offers; others can enjoy the depth of combat system and some, like me, can also enjoy the story. But I said I tried to focus – that's because I very often got distracted by substories, teaching myself Master Skills or just walking around town.
Yakuza 0 was my introduction to the series and I think it should be for everyone. You will get a good understanding why certain characters behave like they behave in other installments and you can get a good grip on what this all Yakuza series is all about.
(As you see... I didn't really spend a lot of time on completion list or anything, well - at least in Yakuza 0, I did much better in Kiwami, but let's take it slowly)
Yakuza Kiwami 1 is a remake of the original Yakuza. It starts 7 years after the events of Yakuza 0. But only during the first chapter, due to the events that happen – Kiryu goes to jail for 10 years and comes out in 2005. 17 years after the Yakuza 0. Why such pure soul like Kiryu went to jail? Well, because he is too pure – he took the blame for certain event to protect his sworn brother – Nishikiyama. Suffice it to say that Kiryu's sentence was the beginning of downfall for Nishikiyama as well as the entire Tojo Clan (the clan is divided into Families so despite Kiryu and Majima being in the same clan, they are in different families)...
Just like Yakuza 0 – Kiwami 1 is a story filled with betrayal, sacrifice, unexpected foes and surprising friends, a tale of lost loves and words left unsaid. A story of Kazuma Kiryu and his noble sacrifice that would change everything. Once he gets out of prison, nothing is like he remembered...
In contrary to Yakuza 0, here you actually receive Experience Points to unlock new skills, but sometimes you need technically 85 levels to unlock certain skills (You gain levels here quite quickly and... If you focus on fighting with Majima [hold your horses, I will explain in a second] – you will easily unlock all the skills and reach level '9999' before the story ends.) So instead of money from substories you often get quite a lot of Experience Points for completing them. You also earn a lot of EXP from Chapter boss fights... As you see, some things haven't changed that much but maybe it's for the better.
And now about fighting with Majima. Why Majima wants to fight Kiryu? He is not bad, angry at him, he doesn't seek revenge... Instead he stalks Kiryu 24/7 and fights him so Kiryu can regain long lost strength that has perished during his sentence. 10 years ago, Majima wanted to fight the legendary Dragon of Dojima, his goal hasn't changed, but Kiryu is now too weak to be called a Dragon so Majima decides to help him with that.
In contrary to Yakuza 0, here you actually receive Experience Points to unlock new skills, but sometimes you need technically 85 levels to unlock certain skills (You gain levels here quite quickly and... If you focus on fighting with Majima [hold your horses, I will explain in a second] – you will easily unlock all the skills and reach level '9999' before the story ends.) So instead of money from substories you often get quite a lot of Experience Points for completing them. You also earn a lot of EXP from Chapter boss fights... As you see, some things haven't changed that much but maybe it's for the better.
(I was not joking about needing 85 levels to unlock certain skills)
And now about fighting with Majima. Why Majima wants to fight Kiryu? He is not bad, angry at him, he doesn't seek revenge... Instead he stalks Kiryu 24/7 and fights him so Kiryu can regain long lost strength that has perished during his sentence. 10 years ago, Majima wanted to fight the legendary Dragon of Dojima, his goal hasn't changed, but Kiryu is now too weak to be called a Dragon so Majima decides to help him with that.
And I'm not joking about him following Kiryu 24/7. He can appear anywhere – from walking down the streets, jumping at you from the roof, from the trashcan, from the manhole, he can even force his way into your casual street fight with someone! Sometimes you even need to play bowling or other minigames with Majima! And that's all during free play! I'm not even mentioning the story events here!
Majima can appear at very different forms and styles – Thug, Slugger, Breaker, Mad Dog, Officer, Zombie... Majima is everywhere. Sometimes he can even hide in trunk of a car and... Trust me, you will hear when he lurks there.
As you rank up in 'Majima Everywhere' (Basically you rank up by fighting Majima... Pretty simple, right?) you unlock more skills for Dragon Style. It's the only style you can't unlock with EXP and... It may look boring and pathetic, but once you get a grip and understand how to use it (and unlock quite a bit of Dragon skills) – it becomes devastating. First fights with Majima are easy, he only has one HP bar and his attack isn't so ferocious (Oh, and you can't cheese Majima Everywhere from the start of the game because for example if you reach Rank C, without following the story – the game will ask you to continue the story if you want more fights with Majima and more Dragon skills). But when he starts having three or four HP bars... His combos become devastating and you really need to know his moveset at particular styles to be able to attack and counter him without getting too hurt. Let me tell you this, whether you want it or not – you will fight Majima a lot of times, and if you decide to unlock all the Dragon skills like I did... Prepare for fight after fight with Majima. But at some point one clash with Majima gives you around 300-400 levels so... Fighting with Majima is hands-down the best EXP farming method if you want to unlock all other skills fast.
Whereas in Yakuza 0 I had to play with the muffled audio, in Kiwami I could hear music very well and very clearly and I must admit – it both enhanced the story moments and disrupted the seemingly serious story tone. Examples given – after really heartbreaking moment you have a boss fight where music gets really intense and pumped up which... Well, kind-of breaks the serious tone of scene that has happened just a while ago. But during the endgame segments, the slow and emotional music really enhanced what was happening and... Okay, I tend to get too emotional in games, but in few moments I couldn't help but shed a tear or two. (Okay, I cried really much but let's skip that).
Majority of the minigames are similar to Yakuza 0, but this time I've decided to take my sweet time with it. Namely Pocket Circuit and MesuKing. The former will be easier to explain – you customize your model car and race with other people on various tracks. (And yes, at some point Majima joins and challenges us for a race), but the latter... Well, similar to catfights from Yakuza 0 – two women (or 'forest fairies' since MesuKing is a 'wholesome children game') are barely dressed and fight against each other. It's a glorified rock-paper-scissors game, you just need to counter an enemy (You know, rock beats scissors and so on) enough times to knock out an opponent fairy... This minigame has it's own substory storyline which continues through 9 fricking substories in a row!
And you can either buy or find more 'bug cards' in the Kamurocho. These serve as a collectible together with Key Lockers. You can find them and open said lockers to receive various items – weapons and items boosting defense for example.
I am really looking forward to playing Yakuza Kiwami 2 somewhere in the future (As far as I know – Kiwami 2 also has Majima as a playable character!) as well as maybe tackling remasters of Yakuza 3, 4 and 5 – but these are currently only available on Sony consoles as well as the 6th part.
But! Yakuza 7 is supposedly going to be available on PCs and Microsoft consoles (Xbox One and upcoming Xbox Series X) as well and Yakuza won't be limited to only Sony consoles. But Yakuza 7 will also change the main protagonist from Kazuma Kiryu to someone else. I don't know if I will have an opportunity to play Yakuza 6 or 7 (And even if I will have, I'd rather play through Y2 to 5 first), but I look forward to another story involving Kazuma Kiryu, Goro Majima and dozens of other characters! I look forward to another story filled with betrayal, love, hate and surprising plot twists!
I recommend playing through at least Yakuza 0 to see what it is all about and then... Well, who knows – maybe you will enjoy the freedom this franchise offers and you will play through next installments. One way or another, Yakuza is a franchise that in my opinion needs a bit more worldwide recognition so it could stand next to behemoths like GTA or Mafia (Okay, let's be honest, GTA has quite a monopoly on games like that – I could mention Mafia, Saints Row, Yakuza – but GTA is the strongest and the most recognizable).
Kind Regards,
Wing.
(As you can see, Dragon skills have visibly written requirements about how to unlock them, I did unlock all other Dragon skills before finishing the game, and if you see the levels... Yes, I did hit 9999 before the end of the game)
Whereas in Yakuza 0 I had to play with the muffled audio, in Kiwami I could hear music very well and very clearly and I must admit – it both enhanced the story moments and disrupted the seemingly serious story tone. Examples given – after really heartbreaking moment you have a boss fight where music gets really intense and pumped up which... Well, kind-of breaks the serious tone of scene that has happened just a while ago. But during the endgame segments, the slow and emotional music really enhanced what was happening and... Okay, I tend to get too emotional in games, but in few moments I couldn't help but shed a tear or two. (Okay, I cried really much but let's skip that).
Majority of the minigames are similar to Yakuza 0, but this time I've decided to take my sweet time with it. Namely Pocket Circuit and MesuKing. The former will be easier to explain – you customize your model car and race with other people on various tracks. (And yes, at some point Majima joins and challenges us for a race), but the latter... Well, similar to catfights from Yakuza 0 – two women (or 'forest fairies' since MesuKing is a 'wholesome children game') are barely dressed and fight against each other. It's a glorified rock-paper-scissors game, you just need to counter an enemy (You know, rock beats scissors and so on) enough times to knock out an opponent fairy... This minigame has it's own substory storyline which continues through 9 fricking substories in a row!
And you can either buy or find more 'bug cards' in the Kamurocho. These serve as a collectible together with Key Lockers. You can find them and open said lockers to receive various items – weapons and items boosting defense for example.
(As you see, despite having similar play time to Yakuza 0, I had much higher completion rate in Kiwami)
I am really looking forward to playing Yakuza Kiwami 2 somewhere in the future (As far as I know – Kiwami 2 also has Majima as a playable character!) as well as maybe tackling remasters of Yakuza 3, 4 and 5 – but these are currently only available on Sony consoles as well as the 6th part.
But! Yakuza 7 is supposedly going to be available on PCs and Microsoft consoles (Xbox One and upcoming Xbox Series X) as well and Yakuza won't be limited to only Sony consoles. But Yakuza 7 will also change the main protagonist from Kazuma Kiryu to someone else. I don't know if I will have an opportunity to play Yakuza 6 or 7 (And even if I will have, I'd rather play through Y2 to 5 first), but I look forward to another story involving Kazuma Kiryu, Goro Majima and dozens of other characters! I look forward to another story filled with betrayal, love, hate and surprising plot twists!
I recommend playing through at least Yakuza 0 to see what it is all about and then... Well, who knows – maybe you will enjoy the freedom this franchise offers and you will play through next installments. One way or another, Yakuza is a franchise that in my opinion needs a bit more worldwide recognition so it could stand next to behemoths like GTA or Mafia (Okay, let's be honest, GTA has quite a monopoly on games like that – I could mention Mafia, Saints Row, Yakuza – but GTA is the strongest and the most recognizable).
Let me drop few screenshots that didn't make it into the post!
(As my friend called it - The Meeting of Boomers)
(Majima can attack you from surprise as you're chilling on the streets)
(MesuKing - 'The wholesome children game')
Uncover the ugly truths behind Tojo Clan and let your fists do the talking!
Kind Regards,
Wing.
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