Like A Dragon Gaiden: Why Would They Do This, Are They Stupid? 

SEGA telling fans that this is perfect entry point is so fucking bad.

Why is Kiryu a super spy agent? Is he government?

6:07 barefoot actually cost you money is the funniest shit i ever seen

Okay but counter point: Akane's really hot

Personally, I thought the incompetence of the Daidoji was on purpose. The agents talk down on the Yakuza so much when they're not very different Regarding Shishido's not killing Nishitani, it seemed pretty obvious to me that he was pyschologicly dependent on him, which happens a lot in abuse cases where the victim will still stay by their side and even deny abuse. (Could've been explored more, but I thought there were enough context clues.)

To be fair to the Kaito substories, you have to remember, within the timeline, Gaiden takes place between Judgment and Lost Judgment. Kaito hasn't gone through the character arc he went through during the Kaito files yet.

"17th episode" if I'm not fucking up my math, implies you have pre-destined slots for the Kurohyo games, and that's kinda based

9:12 Did you know? The Obatarian has been in more games than Nishki. I hope this ruined your day like it did mine when I first realized it.

27:57 The reason he didn’t take the original deal was the get the 3 jimas out of prison to avoid war with the Yomei

Kiryu is not in kamurocho at the start the game says he’s in roppongi you could argue having him in Tokyo is stupid at all but that’s not really that close to kabukicho/kamurocho

While I enjoyed both games there’s no denying how they did Hanawa was so odd and infuriating bro ☠️

to me the last two chapters of the game was like if RGG men in black showed up to my house, flashed me with their mind erasing pen and said "you like this game, shishido is awesome and you want to kiss him" i kept thinking how fucking stupid the boat was, how dumb hanawa and the daidoji were for letting kiryu choose "joryu" as his fake name. anyways this game is perfect

About Akame points: I didn't have any shortage of them and by the end of the 4th chapter I was fully maxed out.There was not a single point in the entire playthrough where I had to purposefully grind them for upgrades. More so, I haven't completed even a half of the requests that you may get from town's folk. Substories and Coliseum give you enogh currency to be maxed out. Of course, you still have to complete those as well, but I doubt that you could call it a grind. And really there is no point in upgrading all of the abilities since then the game becomes a cakewalk even on the Agent difficulty. I guess we just had different experience with this aspect of the game, the system is indeed not perfect, however it is in no way as terrible as you make it sound like.

I’d like to personally thank DLC Majima’s special cyclone move for carrying me through the arena and money grinding 💜

I'm not sure how you can call Shishido undercooked as character but then praise Aizawa when Shishido is just Aizawa with the same screentime in a shorter game, but maybe they just didn't say yume enough in Gaiden for his dreams and ambitions to count.

On the bright side with the drones and cigarrette bombs is that you can hold both buttons down to use them in tandem. Having enemies distracted and standing around bombs so they can detonate makes for a decent crowd control option

Why did Kiryu not wear an actually good disguise? That's what I wondered. I'm sure they have the technology of at least a 2000s movie like white chicks...

9:40 Don't blame the fans too. Blame RGG and the magazines. They spoiled it literally WEEKS before the game's release.

“What if yuya saw him” ur so funny dawg, 7 whole times u've run around Kamurocho and u can’t recognize the immediate difference in location I’m cryin ☠️☠️☠️

Here on another episode of not letting dead men rest. At this point I don't even think writing Kiryu to die outright with a Metal Gear Solid 4 like 50 hour long cutscene packed with meaning is going to stop RGG from reviving him and putting him in the next game.

The whole point of “Everyone else fell for this games tricks” is really moot and honestly kinda rude, imo. It contradicts your point that we can enjoy this game in spite of your criticisms and makes it look like you’re playing ‘Pick-me’ cos you didn’t ‘fall for it’. There’s a lot of passive aggressive talk in this review and it’s not a good way to try and present your arguments

It's funny how the yakuza fanbase can never agree that a game is just good it's either the best in the series or the worst in the series

Still waiting for yakuza 3's retrospective

God damn glad you are ok! Some people don’t need a license

You got hit by a car while getting Infinite Wealth? Man, I know some games go all in on their difficulty, but this is ridiculous!

Oof. Sorry to hear about you getting in a car accident. I hope you're doing okay.

Sega is much like the Tojo in the Yakuza series. Whenever Kiryu tries to get out, or gets kicked out, they bring him back. Every. Single. Time.

In an interview it was proven that Gaiden was supposed to be part of Kiryu's story in 8 but it was so long that they had to scrap it to a smaller game. This game could've suffered from bad writing solely because it wasn't the priority. But now other question is how this game would even work in 8? Considering they made an entire Kiryu list section only to have the bucket list option, could suggest that they planned more. But... It feels like RGG shouldn't really be splitting their games in half as in 6 months they really did not make this game seem that good.

The Aslume spreads THE ASLUME SPREADS

What’s with the nonchalant bayo 3 spoiler? Makes the point about Kaito feel a little mute.

Had to stop watching the video 9 mins in. I don't love this game, but you whine too much and aren't funny. The comments even warned that you randomly spoiled judgement.

44:45 I'm praying Shishidō comes back in another game. The Oni or Tojo clan trying to make a back would be great.

I still REALLY enjoyed Gaiden, but I also agree that the events of IW make it worse on the narrative side. I also played this before LJ and in hindsight, it's unfortunate that Gaiden's combat isn't as good as it is in LJ, but i still had fun with it. I'm also very conflicted on IWs ending, and I'm curious to hear your full thoughts when the retrospective comes out in 2047

As soon as I saw the notification my day got so much better. I'm always looking forward to your uploads

i feel so vindicated hearing someone bring up kiryu's totally but totally not for real daidoji pact. over the two weeks or so in which the main plot stuff in infinite wealth is happening it felt like kiryu had 5 different "the world now knows that the legendary dragon of dojima is alive!" moments that more or less went nowhere and ended with nameless grunt number 8 walking up to kiryu and go "yeahhhh, sorry about that man, you're free to go, go nuts" massive letdown, piss story, GREAT video

I'm glad you've recovered from your car accident, I was very surprised to hear it mid video. Amazing video as per, regardless the subject, you always make it enjoyable!

28:04 That's Roppongi, not Kamurocho. This is a pretty huge oversight in your review because it makes your point irrelevant about Yuya and Kazuki seeing him. Even if you'd argue both are in Tokyo, It's still almost 6 km away from Kamurocho so there's no way people who actually knew him would spot him there.

Honestly Gaiden is higher up in my RGG tier list, a lot of the points made in the video are valid, they just didn't negatively effect me. After Infinite Wealth though, this game definitely did not need to exist and the daidoji stuff is the source of the more baffling plot points.

Wtf is with the Judgment spoilers with no warning? That was a fucked up thing to do man.

gaiden is one of my top yakuza games, the only point i agree with is that the daidoji is pretty stupid and incompetent. Edit: 59:30 marketed as a missing piece between 6* and 7* not 7 to 8

I didn’t DISlike this game, but certainly thought it was aggressively mediocre. For it to be the highest rated of the series is insane

Once again I’m here to say i shall return when i finish the game and also show my support

I usually love your videos. But throughout this whole video you kept whining about the smallest things.

I also feel you 100% on the Yakuza burnout. Infinite Wealth has burned me out severely. I've played it on and off for a few weeks, reaching the ending with a good, "not rushing it" pace (grinding a little bit after Yakuza 7 difficulty spike I decided it would be wise to be overleveled a little bit) but my God, Yakuza 8 is quite rough. The whole last part of it all feels rushed. And I really hope RGG reels it back a little bit with this writing style and waits a bit before making a new one.

I hate the fact that they just refuse to let go of Kiryu so damn much. 7 was good! Not exactly my personal preference for the series on the gameplay front, but it went in a fun, interesting direction - and hell, had they limited his role to just that game, I wouldn't even have minded Kiryu's presence/cameo all that much, but no. This shit just keeps. on. going. And now we get Pirates of the Caribbean with Majima next? What the actual fuck is going on at RGG Studio these days?

not to hate but a lot of gaiden complaints ive seen really feel like people just figuring out they dont like the series cause i really dont think a lot of the elements have any much difference or better justification in any of the other games

Yakuza 6 pretty much wrapped up Kiryu’s story. Bringing him back (as the main playable character in a game) was obviously going to be a soulless cash-grab. For that reason I never took it seriously, I think it can be fun but I had no real expectations of something great.

I definitely enjoyed the game but I actually find it refreshing to hear a different perspective!

Like a Dragon Gaiden & Infinite Wealth is what happens when Toshihiro Nagoshi & Daisuke Saito leave. The series has gone to complete garbage after there departure. I'm glad to know others feel the same that these games were horrible and that me and my buddy aren't crazy for thinking that way.

i liked gaiden because of it being a small/ straight to the point story compared to the rest of the series. however i think if it were attached as a DLC to lad8, id probably enjoy it more as it would be like kaito files but with (hopefully) some new side content. It would've been a neat way to hint towards a yakuza 9 with shishido making an appearance because it seems gaiden was written after lad8. i hope they make more gaiden games but with better campaign pacing as i didnt like doing side content during my main campaign.

Who'd ever call anyone "Brother Conflict".

I like to consider myself generally easy to please, I like gaiden because at that time I mostly blasted through the story and really liked the ending and shishido, I dunno why but he felt way more present than what you claim, and thats besides the point. It takes me like experiencing the story a second time to fully grasp it (which is probably a bad thing), and could've possibly been recency bias, then again I _am_ easy to please. So imagine my shock when infinite wealth, as good and as fun as that game is, managed ti make me feel like something was _clearly_ wrong.

As much as I like Yakuza series, even I think that series should take few years break(that includes Yakuza like games like Judgment), for its own good. When it comes back they should leave Kiryu be, maybe include him as cameo in side mission and concentrate on totally new character or at least one of the previously playable character that isn’t Kiryu, like let’s say Akiyama. In mean time SEGA could try and bring back some other series like Shinobi, Skies of Arcadia or Sakura Wars etc. RGG could help if not straight up develop one of these themselves.

One step closer to the time we all Fly, my friend

I’m not done yet but your combat gripes give me pause. The random expert blocking and countering has been in yakuza games for ages. This is why you can step cancel out of most moves and reposition yourself . The fighting engine is a simulation with respect to directional damage similar to virtua fighter . It’s a best of class fighting engine and I don’t doubt that the enemy density and other factors make it seem janky but I really think you should’ve dug deeper into the character action aspect and found more reliable methods to dominate combat

I feel like RGG studio has been spending to much budget of every entry into the series on more new side content which nearly always is underbaked with bad characters while they could be spending it on bettering the main content instead of perpetuating the ``WOW this serious game has so much goofy side content`` shtick which misses the point of these games.

Very much enjoy the video, well edited, entertaining, and you explain your position and thoughts well. It's very telling how good you are at these that I loved the vid while disagreeing with almost all of it, lol. I loved Gaiden, especially coming from 6 being the last Kiryu game I played, which I thought was a horrible ending for Kiryu, both narratively and in terms of an overall game. For Gaiden, I thought the characters were great, combat was excellent, though a step down from the Judgment games, and the story it had to tell was sick, getting to see the dissolution from another perspective and how Kiryu was doing after 6. Though the Daidoji as a whole aren't great in terms of writing, and like you said, Nishitani felt a bit undercooked (I did really enjoy Shishido, myself). It's clear with this and your other Yakuza vids that you're really passionate about this series, and it's genuinely saddening that you'd consider Gaiden actively bad, especially when I'd probably put it in my top 5 games in the series. Hope that the series can improve for you soon, as it sounds like you didn't enjoy Infinite Wealth too much either. Thanks for the vid

Look, I get that you dislike Gaiden and Infinite Wealth after watching this video. Even though you make some valid points and I do feel that the story and writing (especially) are definitely questionable (Hanawa's build up in Gaiden only to die in IW, Ichiban X Saeko forced subplot, the rushed ending of IW, etc.), the gameplay themselves are some of the greatest in the franchise (especially IW which I'm quite surprised considering I don't like turn based combat as much). I just cannot agree with your points and I definitely feel you're overreacting on the bad aspects of both games. Plus, since you are experiencing burnout from the series, I definitely feel the negative bias you had and didn't highlight enough the good aspects of it.

I relate to your statement about people having negative opinions on the series being viewed as crazy. Some of my hot takes like “Judgment is boring” or “Lost Paradise has the best combat” makes me feel like people are going to put me in a straight jacket

Literally was just looking for a in-depth review/discussion dor Yakuza 8 after just beating it. This works perfectly.

Hope you’re doing good Cvit. Just watching your intro (and knowing your other Yakuza opinions) I think we agree on most points but I think a lot of the extra stuff was a call from outside the studio to make the game worth it and accessible to new comers when it absolutely the hell shouldn’t have been. Any story accessibility was pandering even to newbies. Looking forward to watching the rest of this while I job hunt.

I never had a problem with the gaiden combat, i can easily combo in people in the air, the best way to get enemies in the air is to use spider

This dude is a textbook whiny, entitled American consumer. Talking way too wild.

I think Yakuza 6 was leagues better than this game. Stronger theme, fun side characters, detestable villains and an open ending. I loved it - its only flaw is the wonky combat honestly. They really didn’t need to keep Kiryu after that; should’ve just gone full hog with Ichiban and his friends. RGG Studio are so good at creating new and compelling characters so it’s genuinely baffling why they can’t let go of Kiryu. Also, Gaiden has an insane amount of filler. Thought I was playing a Kingdom Hearts game with how little presence the story had until the end of the game.

this is the worst video I have ever seen and it’s not close

The Daidoji are even more incompetent in Infinite Wealth. 😔

The video has 400 dislikes since civit randomly spoiled games throughout this video

Kaito being incompetent for the protagonist's sake is especially egregious considering that a massive part of why his character was so fantastic in the Judgments is that he had so much agency. Side characters feeling like they exist for the protagonist and have absolutely nothing in their lives beside the player character is an issue with almost every video game and Yakuza couldn't really escape it until Judgment either which is why it's such a big deal that Kaito felt like a real person with an actual life and goals separate from the protagonist. He was a friend to Yagami and not his obedient servant inferior to him in every aspect, only existing to aid him and not doing anything on his own. He DID do lots of shit on his own, he was integral to Yagami's success and they were actually equals and partners. It felt like a real friendship and Kaito felt like a real person. Sometimes he wouldn't be in a quest just because Yagami called him for help and he said he has other stuff planned for that time. Sometime he's solve something offscreen on his own without any involvement from Yagami because he's a competent person who'd act on his own if involving Yagami wasn't necessary. He had an unprecedented level of agency for a video game NPC and it made him into such a well-rounded character who you could believe and get invested into as a real person. I'd bet that's why he's so beloved and why he's the only character beside Haruka to turn from a side character into a playable one. So turning him into a tool to show off how cool and sexy Kiryu is is especially offensive compared to any other character in the series.

Good video. Regarding launchers its mostly the same as in lost judgement. Use a launch attack and immediately swap to consistently keep enemies in the air. I wont act like i know what kind of black magic they use to make this work but it is what it is.

Yong's performance as Kiriyu makes the original English dub for Symphony of the Night look like Shadows of Valentia.

Why did you spoil Bayonetta out of the blue like that? Was it really necessary to give that example? I don't think it really added anything to the video, It seems to me that you just spoiled it for the sake of it.

5:35 lol that's the 1st thing I when I got the jet boots. I wish they were usable outside of combat tho.

infinite wealth is basically a kiryu game which is even funnier.

Sorry Bro, but Gaiden was good. How can you have such an L take Also saying the kiryu crying scene should have been in 7 is the stupidest thing they could have done. 7 was a soft reboot, why in the hell would the crying scene be put into that game with no context surrounding it? Stop making videos dude, take a break from being so negative and full of hate and touch some grass. For your health. Respectfully.

Oh goodie, another multi hour cvit video on a new entry in an RPG series, can't wait to watch this. Sure the last time he did this, I wanted to scoop out my eyes with a rusty god damn ice cream spoon, but I'm sure that's just a coincidence lmao

Damn bro how you give a spoiler warning for Infinite Wealth then spoil Bayonetta 2??

Babe wake up new cvit dropped

That said this definitely feels like a DLC-length campaign they stretched to fill a full game.

It really is a shame that RGG couldn't let their cash cow go after 6. They didn't even wait one fucking game and just had to shove him into the main plot of 7. Couldn't even just make him an optional superboss or something. And he's practically the main character in 8 which completely shits all over the idea of having Ichiban take over the series.

54:20 feels like they try to kill off Kiryu for years but can't go through with it fearing the series won't survive without him. Kinda sad but that's sadly how it is over such long times xd.

Just my thoughts. The entire rant about the grind feels like a non-complaint. You're claiming the existence of the grind is bad which I'm sure everyone can agree on, yet you intentionally ignore the even longer and far more tedious grinds from almost every other entry in the series. You're also ignoring how easy it is to get Akame points (map tasks, completion list, substories, leveling up the network), and framing multiple items as expensive despite the fact a couple of rounds in the coliseum in the mid game can buy you most things and a single round in the end game just breaks the economy completely. Whether or not you like the tasks and substories it's undeniable that the majority of them are lightning fast which makes the grind less tedious than how you portray it. There's also the fact that RGG have taken a more free approach in their skill trees which is objectively better than previous games. Individual skills can now be picked according to your preferences, entirely ignored, or you can choose to grind for every single one (like every other game ever made.) Simply dismissing the entire system over a tiny grind is so odd to me. Combat is something I half agree on. I like Gaiden a lot but its inconsistency makes it worse than even the middling combat systems in this series. As for the rest I'm iffy on what you say. Agent Style has quite a few sweeping kicks in its arsenal which combined with the multiple quicksteps and general speed of its regular attacks make for a style that can be used effectively without relying on extreme heat. I also think locking the strongest heat actions in the game behind extreme heat is not a bad move at all, the problem is that there are barely any regular heat actions beyond the few super situational moves or your basic ground and wall heat actions, things that shouldn't be treated as special but rather the bare minimum for heat moves. Also just get out of here with the whole "oh, I'm different, sorry for NOT liking your game dude! I'm not your average reviewer, I'm like doing my own thing man!" Having a different opinion is not impressive at all and if you want people to listen to and engage with you then the last thing you should do is go after every positive review and act like they're crazy for having an opinion that doesn't align with yours. What you add in the description about people being free to enjoy Gaiden won't matter because it's not as important as what you wrote down, voiced, and gave a pass to while editing. Dislike the game all you want, treat it as bad as a meteor striking the earth if you really had a bad time with it, but these were the parts I disagreed with and I don't care to spend another 40 minutes of my life watching this if I can expect to be passive aggressively talked down to just for having a good time with the game.

To be honest, Kiryu's saga could have ended in Yakuza 2. He became the Yondaime, and used his power to name his sucessor, while abandoning a powerful position to live a simple life with Haruka. That's why in Yakuza 3 there's a lot of goofy ideas, like Kazama's twin brother, "Andre Richardson" - the weirdest US name for an agent, and so on. But after all, we all know that Kiryu is there because he's the main face of the series. Maybe they need someone like Nagoshi back, someone that will defy RGG's and Sega's corp decisions to make the Yakuza series have the most needed wake up calls to avoid a possible downfall for the series.

I still haven't finished this game. The combat was fun but yeah, I kinda had the same feeling about the story/writing as you did. And i don't think i found any decent sidequests. I'm not a fan of when a series gives a character a good send off, and then brings them back. Makes the entirety of Y6 essentially pointless.

I could be wrong, but this game was a DLC of the 7th game before becoming its own thing, and the weird missions and arena was for the game to be long enough to justify the full price.

Honestly, Hot Take, I enjoy this type of Yakuza Combat more than Turn-Based , and I'm happy to have this opinion, I rather Punch, Kick and Titty Twist more than the Wait to do the Cum Guzzler in LAD:Y (the ones with Ichiban)

This video seems to have a lot of holes and was poorly researched, also pretty nitpicky.

It really says something that this is one of my least favorite games in the series and yet it still was more impactful to me than half the games I thought were good last year.

I enjoyed Gaiden for what it was but you're unfortunately on point about the pacing/padding issues and the fact that 8 essentially makes Gaiden's story pointless. $50 filler arc with a fantastic ending.

I havent played infinite wealth I knew Hanawa was done dirty there but god...

I think the problems with the writing and content comes down to the changes in management at RGG, which is sad to see. I felt the same way with how ishin was treated

4:15 I swear I heard Joey yelling this in my ear for every moment I chewed my way through this game. LMFAO

I agree with some of your takes but overall this video feels like one big "Quit having fun" statement. Sorry you couldn't enjoy the game like everyone else dude but no need to make an hour long rant video about it with a "Look at me, I don't like this game. I'm so different and cool" tone all over it. I also laughed out loud when you said Yakuza 6's O MY SECRET GOVERNMENT BOAT was a good ending for Kiryu, I almost thought this video was a joke because of that.

I adore this game. It’s a nice good bye to one of the most iconic characters of all time, the dragon of Dojima, Kiryu. I enjoyed every thing this game offers, story wise and gameplay wise. The last scene in which Kiryu cries after seeing the kids was very emotional and genius at same time. Thank you Goraryue

I do agree The story of IW was laughable at some points. No really, I laughed when Kiryu explained how he got cancer as if he never had a smoking addiction. It says something when they had to bring in a straight man (Tomizawa) to ask the questions for us as to why the plot would get so messy at some points. I’m serious not even a minute later when Chitose was explaining her back story did I ask my tv set ‘well if she’s rich then why did her parents not give her money’ did Tomi ask Chitose the same question. The only reason I cried at the end of Gaiden and IW was not because of what was happening in the plot (because trust me it was a shitshow)- it was because Takaya Kuroda knows how to voice act. I think the only fun thing to come out of IW’s plot was Yamai.

I still feel like Gaiden (+the Ishin remake) is taking up a slot in their dev cycle that was supposed to be for something else that didn't pan out (like Judgment 3, or some other spinoff idk)

48:45 You described it perfectly. It was nice playing as Kiryu again in a brawler but the middle section was so lacking. Remember guys don't let twitter hype paint your expectations for games. 😅

So this is going to be just like the P5 video all over again isnt it?

24:24 wel at least your honest about being wrong cause omg its like you are trying to actively search for things you can nit pick because you are acting like a child who just wants to be different

Aizawa is the best finale boss? Dawg what… how….? I generally respect your opinion on most takes regarding the yakuza series but this is a wild one, love the content tho keep up the great work and thank you 47:54

okay but Sawa-sensei