When I first heard about it, I assumed the Yakuza series was just Grand Theft Auto in a different area.
I was so very wrong. 
Yakuza is a slice of life anime occasionally interrupted by a hybrid crime drama/martial arts movie
yakuza is a hostess club management simulator with an oddly complex crime drama minigame
Yakuza is the long awaited sequel to the popular Sega Saturn game Shenmue.
You could say it's the same basic concept but with a Japanese approach
Yakuza is emphatically not an open-world game like GTA. It's much closer to a JRPG where you are confined to a small area that's very dense, and they even eventually went all the way to making it one with 7. Also, the writing doesn't suck.
the writing doesn't suck.
You sure about that?
:::spoiler spoiler Saejima's rubber bullets, Kiryu's mentor's CIA twin brother, in fact just everything about 3, ”Kiryu would never kill anyone”, etc.
Most of the bad bits are charmingly bad, but the series is definitely not consistent in its quality of writing.
Like, yeah, it's not high-class writing but I'm laughing instead of cringing. The charm is undeniable while GTA is 99% manchild "le funny weed/sex joke" writing.
I now realize you meant in comparison to GTA. Yeah, I'll take Yakuza's sometimes stupid writing over GTA any day.
The humor in GTA V seemed anachronistic even back in 2013, it felt like Rockstar had never moved on from the ”Area 69? Get it, lol!” jokes they'd been doing for over a decade. Can't even imagine what it'd be like playing it today, my face would probably look like this the entire time: 
I dunno; it had such different vibes, beats, even messaging. It didn't feel like an edgy-for-edginess' sake nihilistic mess. I cared about the characters.
That's what I meant
calling this a 'Japanese Approach' has some weird racial undertones that aren't really alleviated by doubling down
also pretending that Japanese media doesn't also have its fair share of edginess for its own sake is wild
racial undertones
I wanna take everyone on this site with good faith, and im gonna take Ulysses' advice and ask cos i might be misreading entirely and it's irresponsible of me to be making assumptions so I'm really sorry about that, but are you not saying that Japan was able to make 'GTA but Good' because they're Japanese (i.e. not steeped in western culture like the GTA team)? sorry if I misunderstood the 'Japanese Approach' comment
I didn't even mean to say Yakuza was "GTA but good" just that it has a completely different set of priorities and emphasises different things
I was talking about one specific game, not the entirety of Japanese media. Is there someone here saying otherwise?
I thought "Japanese approach" meant the setting, not some general statement about Japan-made games.
am I misreading this? you talked about how Yakuza and GTA being different, and then doublepepperoni chipped in that that's because it's like GTA but with 'a Japanese approach'
then you said that what you meant is the lack of edginess, the care for the characters, and then doublepepperoni said that that's what they mean by 'Japanese approach'
i took that to mean like, Japan was able to create 'GTA without being edgy' because the devs behind it were either Japanese or coming from Japanese culture
which maybe has its merits? but it does feel a little idk it feels iffy i dont know what to tell you
again, i get it if that's not actually what's being implied, i might be on edge because I've been dealing with a lot of privileged white people getting stuck in their 'Eastern Mysticism' stuff and I'm seeing issues where there are none, which would be valid
am I misreading this
You might be.
I read the same user's responses quite differently than you did.
again, i get it if that's not actually what's being implied, i might be on edge because I've been dealing with a lot of privileged white people getting stuck in their 'Eastern Mysticism' stuff and I'm seeing issues where there are none, which would be valid
I can only speak for myself here, but I only meant the Yakuza series in particular being refreshing and nice, not Glorious Nippon as a whole (I've ranted exhaustively about the anime industrial complex's increasing focus on pandering to otaku and how much that's harming creativity and smothering many potential projects before they even have a chance to start), so maybe it's best to just to ask the other user.
Kiryu says trans rights too.
In fact Kiryu is consistently cool except that one time he tried stealing a baby in 6
this, among other reason, is why I disregard anything outside of Y0-Y5 as not canon. Excluding everything outside of 1988-2012 keeps the canon good
spoiler about Majima
I really try to ignore Majima beating his ex-wife in Y5 and I wish it weren't canon. Especially because it's over how she had an abortion. That seemed really out of character, even though Majima was presented as being more sinister prior to Y0. Although he does kidnap Haruka in Y1? I think the writers would flip-flop on how morally ambiguous the characters are supposed to be if they're supposedly these hardened gangsters who commit crimes, but they're also these wacky lovable doofs who sing karaoke and race toy cars.
I still hold Y5 as the best game, despite all of that. I love that the climax involves four characters trying to coax the evil mastermind out of hiding by having a fist fight on top of the tower. "If we take off our shirts and have a cool karate fight on the helipad the bad guy will simply appear like always."
ugh. i completely forgot about that part of Majima in y5. I guess it was so bad my brain deliberately forgot about it
Most people tend to ignore Akiyama and his ”poor people just don't work hard enough” garbage when talking about the worst characters in the series.
god there really is a lot of rose tinted glasses wearing i do for this series, huh?
I know, but to me there's more good than bad. Even Akiyama's character is toned down after 4.
The worst character is still obviously Tanimura 
yeah fuck tanimura. at least they replaced him for Shinada in the next game though
god i miss that guy. How come he's never come back?
I don't think most people liked his gameplay that much. tbh, it's kind of a slog at the beginning since his damage output is so bad without weapons. Once you've played his baseball minigame and unlocked some unbreakable weapons, it becomes much more fun and pretty unique in the series, since the only other primarily weapon user I can think of is Majima's Mad Dog style in 0.
Fair. His combat was pretty meh and difficult but I liked playing as someone who didn't really feel like a legendary martial artist like Kiryu. He's just some guy and that part about him felt fun
Now only if they let Haruka take after her old man and fight people too then Y5 would be the greatest game ever made
Haruka can just bowl people over on the streets, Kiryu obviously taught her something.
I would've settled for more than three songs for her rhythm fights.
Is this about that bit they cut from Yakuza 3?
Yeah, Kiryu has a long conversation with a masseuse who turns out to be a trans woman. He's really sweet with her. The original release had a line or two that got removed later in the remaster. Also the entire scene with her wasn't in the original English release for some reason.
Hmm... I wonder what that reason could be? Western countries are above censorship...
I know your pain! I've been let down by women too.
Yakuza is peak
The side stories from Yakuza series really are fun to play, which I usually skip in other games.
From my experience (0 and 8), the side-stories are better than the main stories.
Let's protect the lesbians.
@EstraDoll@hexbear.net this is the most you post I have ever seen on the Bear and you didn’t post it.
my posting game has been week recently, unfortunately :(
I love Kiryu so much 
This was one of the hostess club side quests in 0, right? I remember it being super wholesome
No, i'm like 95% sure this is a screenshot from Yakuza Kiwami. Same engine but Kiryu is 37 in this pic, not 20
You're right, Majima had the hostess club stuff in 0, not Kiryu! The 0 engine was throwing me off
He's right you know
"So keep falling in love" is such a cornball Kiryu line, I love it.
Tabletop, DnD, board games, and minecraft. Also Animal Crossing.
3rd International Volunteer Brigade (Hexbear gaming discord)
Rules
