Removed Features From the Yakuza Games 

By the way, when I say "Ishin Kiwami" that's because that's the Japanese name of the remake. Also, I didn't mention things like licensed products (such as Don Quijote or Pepsi) but you're free to comment those or anything else I didn't mention in the video here in the comments. ALSO also, if I got anything wrong or whatever, let me know... but, like... just one of you do it plz. And, yes, the Greg Chun thing at the end is real.

It’s so bizarre that the first bit of gameplay in Like A Dragon is a chase sequence tutorial, and then you never have a chase sequence again for the entire game

I think the reason why they don't have equippable weapons in the Judgement games is simply because Yagami can use only blunt weapons, like bats and Nunchucks . That's pretty limited, and using his bare hands is more fun anyway.

In *principle* I like the idea of Mortal Wounds as a way to demonstrate that Yagami isn't Kiryu -- he's not some Yakuza legend but someone quite vulnerable if things get hairy. That's not a bad instinct and a good way to differentiate him! In practice... well, as you say.

Removing viewable videos from Gandhara is the biggest crime.

Considering the wacky shit in LAD, Y8 is such a great opportunity to return revelations because there's no way Ichiban won't get inspired by someone else's moves in the story. Also speaking of revelations, 5 has it even worse than Ishin anyway. Did you know you can get weapon revelations by doing certain actiond with Heavy attack in 5? Yeah no one can really get it because it's so random and hard to pull off. Kiryu and Saejima shared this and so are both Akiyama and Shinada.

As for Yakuza 5 red moves, I think they are literally called special moves, they just have different names for each character, Kiryu having "Dragon Spirit", Saejima having "Tiger Puppetry", Akiyama having the "Launch Strike", and Shinada's "My Meteor Tackle"

One thing that several of the removed minigames have in common are physics. I imagine games like bowling, pool, and roulette were removed because of how wonky Dragon Engine physics can be. I guess they could've just made a Dragon Engine version like with darts, but idk.

I loved the underground mall and rooftops, I've always been a fan of non-essential areas that don't necessarily serve an obvious purpose as they do flesh out the world a little. That's something I loved about Shenmue 1 & 2, most of the locales were completely superfluous but it did wonders for immersion.

Something I miss: Purgatory. I always wondered what became of it since you couldn't access it from the Hill location anymore now that it was built.

Bro, ain’t no way they removed Cee-Lo Green… rip my homie. I see you driving round town with the girl I love and I’m like…

The pub minigame in 6 is one of my favourites, seeing kiryu make friends in a new town is just so wholesome

That montage of all the minigames at the end made me realize just how AMAZING this series is. Nice work as always man!

I kinda want an explanation as to why, for one game only, RGG switched sponsors from Suntory to Asahi (Judge Eyes/Judgment) then went back to Suntory again in Lost Judgment.

12:12 best thing about those character bundles for the Clan Creator is that you actually don't need to pay for you to unlock them, they're already in the game. All you need to do is look up the unlock codes online and them enter them by talking to one of the characters.

At this point I think the Yakuza games are just minigame compilations with a story mode attached to it

There is actually two cool feature in the PS2 Version of Yakuza 2 that I know never came back. One is when you are in heat mode if you look at the mini map Blue areas will pop up and these mark were you can perform environmental heat actions. The other is in the Colosseum it's possible when your opponent is low on health to hit them so hard they're break though the cage and smash into the wall, for a ring out KO. It's not a heat action, you can do it with Kiryu's Basic full Combo ender where he does the round hose kick, or Apparently a Tiger Drop, which I haven't done myself yet, but someone told me they busted Komaki out of the cage with one.

This video is literally how I learnt you had to match the Style color for the bosses' regeneration in Kiwami to do the special Kiwami heat actions. Jesus. I prolly lived under a rock until I got to Lau Ka Long

i think removing and adding different features and sidecontent is a good thing, as it gives each game an identity despite having the same setting experimentation also leads to innovation

I miss the underground section of Kamurocho. Throughout 0-3 and the Judgment duology, I constantly wanted to go underground, so being able to in 4 was an amazing surprise.

Really hoping their jump to Unreal means we might get some of those physics based minigames back because let's face it dealing with Dragon Engine's physics must have been an actual pain in the ass. Also battle dungeon is returning in the remake, they showed it off a few days ago in their RGG TV livestream thing.

there was a chase scene in yakuza 6 early on after kiryu returns to kamurocho but it was basically running behind a guy through the champion district

The worst thing missing from all of this is another main line title with Majima as a protagonist

I think the judgement series not having inventory weapons is more due to the characters These aren't criminals, or civillians, using weapons to inflict the maximum damage they can and finaggle an upper hand from the jaws of defeat against stronger adversaries. They're detectives, if a Yakuza or a Civillian gets caught with a gun or an illegal melee weapon, sure they're jailed. If a DETECTIVE gets caught with it, the whole agency gets fucked.

Always thought the rooftops in 4 were really cool, I suppose in the end though they were a bit of a superfluous addition, it would probably also end up looking really weird in the later games where the map is more seamless. Maybe one day though

I would guess the areas being sealed off in Lost Judgment was due to Yokohama being big enough already that they didn't want to put those sections in to waste the players time if there was nothing to do.

It bugs me that bowling has been gone for so long. Its a simple minigame, but I thought it was fun. And I know that there have been a lot of rythmn game minigames, but I still feel like the disco from Yakuza 0 was the best one they ever made. I would love for them to bring it back as a dance club

11:34 I'm like 10 hours into Yakuza 5 and i legitimately had no idea why the enemies would just randomly get scared and let you one shot them lol

Missed opportunity to end with "usually I make a joke here, but it seems like this time around that feature was removed..." or something along those lines lol. No but seriously great video, i know how time-consuming editing video can be so i loved the crappy drawings to illustrate points you couldn't get footage of. Have a like and sub.

Remembering Riichi Mahjong is in these games is shockingly a good reminder to play more of the series.

I did not know that the colors were significant in Kiwami when bosses healed themselves, i thought they were just random colors lol.

I'm glad they never brought back Yakuza 5 weapon proficiency mechanic, most people don't even use weapons and if you find a cool looking one you have to grind to use it.

Disco dancing was one of the few activities that i enjoyed despite being terrible at rhythm games, so when i heard that the maharaja wasn't gonna be in the future yakuza games i was abit sad but i learned that in the yakuza lore it was shutdown due to it not appealing to the younger audience for the people in kamurocho

14:53 Hey, you should actually check this out. It's actually a lot of fun. Don't let Haruka's comatose state put you off getting drinks, and singing karaoke with the boys.

The Cabaret Club Management minigame is actually confirmed to be in Gaiden.

This is completely subjective, but I thought that the Clan minigame we got in Kiwami 2 was way less fun than one in Yakuza 6. In 6 you are progressing through the map, potentially overwhelming enemy's troops with your own numbers. Meanwhile in Kiwami 2 you have to stay put, and defend against enemy's overflowing troops. ...Also, Yakuza 6's clan story has NJPW guys. They were way more fun than the old farts we got in Kiwami 2.

Great video! Always look forward to your deep dives and breakdowns.

3:16 I was on the Shimano fight for so long because I hadn’t gotten the right move and he just constantly kept healing himself

I only now just started playing the Yakuza games but I only got them because of your videos and all I got to say is thank you so much for introducing me to this amazing game franchise :)

SnowiestAngeman in the next-next Yakuza game confirmed

Amazing video. Currently on Yakuza 5 Remastered. I played Yakuza 0 (100%), Kiwami (100%), Kiwami 2 (100%), 3 Remastered (87%), 4 Remastered (89%).

Other cut content include: Shinada, Tanimura, the friendly Okinawa Yakuza, Akiyama in Like a Dragon, Haruka and the orphanage (post Y6)…

Another really interesting thing about Kiryu sprinting was that it actually originated from Kenzan as well. If I remember correctly you could only sprint during chase sequences when you'd get chased by the police, and in large battle setpieces where if you put away your weapon and run straight for a few seconds, Kiryu'd start sprinting with the same animation as in Yakuza 3. This feature actually had some uses when planting bombs to break down walls. (Another Kenzan exclusive feature)

I've played every single minigame and all the side content in the series, yet somehow i forgot about 90% of it until i swa this video. There is just so damn much.

That one Reinforcments bit Legit laughed my ass off. You're one of my favorite channels easily.

It would be cool to see you cover unused content in Yakuza games

The baseball management and mini game in 6 was one of my favorite. I wish it could make a return in "gaiden" . It s was funny and addictive.

The wounds on enemies faces after you beat them up in yakuza 3 and 4

The chase in the beginning of LaD is so weird. You never chase anyone again in the main story. I don't know if it appears in any of the sub stories either

Words known to Mankind can not explain how addicted i got to the Majima Construction Mini Game and the Cabaret Mini Game on Some days i played them for 4 hours straight. Cant wait to Buy Yakuza 0 and 6.

Should make the ultimate yakuza game where they have every single mini game they've done into one game

11:43 idk why but the comedic timing on this level of scuffage was entertaining as hell lmao, well done on the video!

I never knew anything about Mahjong before I played the Yakuza series, and now it's the FIRST thing I check for in the completion lists. I *really* came to love Mahjong. (and to a lesser extent Koi Koi and Ouchi-Kabu)

Judgment not having weapons actually makes sense to me because why would a cop be carrying around a bunch of illegal weapons that are likely gonna kill someone

your videos are single-handedly saving my lofe

A moment of silence for the 3 best playable protagonists that we only got to officially play as once, and the other 2 removed from the main universe. You will be missed on my gamepad tanimura shinada and majima

Great video. That kamarucho rooftop and underground gave me some good memories of Y4 wow

You didn't mention Dead Souls! I liked that one dang it! lol man I LOVE the Yakuza/Judgement/Ishin games. They're still such underrated gems. I'm playing Ishin right now for the first time and I LOVE it. The one thing I miss the most is BOWLING. I want the bowling mini game back so bad!!

Its such a shame that the rooftop sections were removed. They were so cool

3:10 it took me forever to beat the last boss in Yakuza Kiwami on my first playthrough because that boss needs the Dragon heat action to interrupt the healing, but I had gotten bored of Majima Everywhere and hadn't unlocked the Dragon heat action.

14:49 Ai Uehara.

The catfight explanation was too great. I won the “tutorial fight” in zero and then after that my picks would get flawlessly comboed by the opponent and there would be nothing I could do. Kinda glad they are gone because I was skipping the scenes anyways.

First thing I noticed they removed, was the option of actually hide the hud ingame (without having to go through the options menu) it was more funny to not use the hud at all and activate it when you actually need some help... but not anymore, it was removed in 5 I believe and since then never more... not to mention that in judgment even with the hud off it still there -.- I 100% almost every game in the series, and one thing I noticed is that everything tends to get easier (or nerfed as well) as the releases go... also it turns out to be more grinding through the years than actually any challenge at all... except for mahjong.... that's one son of a dragon... it gets more rigged as you play, and is always there to 100% (except the platinum of K2 and RGG7 as I recall) but also it got so much grinding, it was funnier to go out with certain kind of hand, than win every table in the game (not to mention the one in chinatown), or at least they could have done something similar like the book of shogi, something more visual to see what sets are available as you go (they did it with koi-koi, so i don't see why not give us a help in mahjong, and also they've benn forgetting to explain the Dora points in the last games, and is a MUST to get more points, idkw)... So that's my percepction, the saga got nerfed, changed the challenges for grinding, and they're are treating us like noobs since the dragon engine, forgetting that we have been cleanning Japan more than a decade now (the hud from lost judgment is the top of the cherry... why?)... ONE ANNOYING THING they (I assume) forgot was the QUICK LOAD OPTION in judgment and lost judgment, cmon men, i don't see reason why to not put that option there.... and the sensation I have is that they are getting more lazy with everything, specially the maps... like cut half of kamurocho, half sotenbori, and obligating the player to go in a specific route to actually trigger the cutscenes, with barricades, cars, crowds, etc, that's so f lazy... yeah maybe they compensate with other stuff, but they release the games and never update em again sooo... with the PC ports, they did a perfect optimization work with Judgment and Lost judgment, Idkw they can't do the same fix to 6, 7 and k2 , aaaah but rise the prices YES... c'mon... the developers are forgetting to challenge themselves or they are fighting deadlines like a boss rush... well anyways, it was a great video to actually recall all these "changes" ... like redo this video in ten years and add the beat'em up fight style to the list... 🥲 (I wonder what if Ichi was a Zelda fan and not a Dragon Quest... hyaaaaa xD)

new snowiestangeman video wooooooooo

i have no idea what ishin is about or like yet, but the footage of edo period kiryu just unloading mags and shooting them point blank in the stomach is hilarious

Mortal reversals are cool, but i remembered them being kinda easy to pull off. i just mash the dodge button until the counter qte pops up. it made the enemy's mortal attacks less intimidating.

I personally hope they bring back Tanimura to the judgement games. Either as a playable character or a side character. Either way I feel he'd fit in better in those games. I'd also love to see his character expanded upon because the backstory he had was pretty cool and I feel whatever lore he may have would fit best In the judgement storyline.

It makes me sad Dead Souls did a great job taking a different approach with the underground, I loved that area in 4 and it was refreshing to see it again. I think Gaiden could make a good use of it if Kiryu goes into hiding in Kamurocho or something like Saejima did back in 4.

16:26 TEKKEN MUSIC LETS GOO!!!

Yakuza 3 bowling felt like a fight, but all the other bowling minigames were great and played really well! I bowled for my varsity High school team, and bowling is a huge passion of mine. Seeing it not be in future games is simply sad, as not many games do much bowling these days at all. ALSO ONLY LIKE 6.4% OF PEOPLE ON THE STEAM VERSION OF YAKUZA 4 DID THE TURKEY IN BOWLING CMON GUYS WHAT

Bro the music sync in the endcard was godlike

My guess is that they removed Mahjong in The Kaito Files because Kaito probably doesn't know how to play it.

Yakuza 3 had Mine heal himself iirc

This is purely speculation on my end, but about equipable weapons for both Judgment games... my best guess is that Johnny & Associates (Kimura's talent agency) didn't want their actor portrayed carrying around a dozen melee weapons and firearms shooting and stabbing people

11:11 Wild Dance's red heat in Ishin was really dumb, it turned you into a Beyblade and did massive damage even to Amon

i miss the disco in 0 so much also i swear enemies that were scared could run away in one game and then in the game after they got rid of it but this series has so much i could have hallucinated this

idk, most of the exploration/combat features that got dropped over the years felt deserved. I also don't think I'd call something that returned for multiple games dropped necessarily. Regardless this was a good video. Your editing work around 11:45 got me lmfao

It just hit me while watching this video just how much minigames and things you can do in the yakuza series, jesus

Stuff from 5 not returning makes a lot of sense when you consider that game takes place up in Hokkaido whereas the others don't. 3 is much the same but down in Okinawa. Most of the games are on the main island (Honshu) so really it makes sense for the removals in 3 and 5 both...2's iirc was a time related issue but I cannot recall for sure on that one. But uh yeah 3 and 5 make as much sense to not come back as Ishin's removals. They don't want to focus on those areas, so even with the orphanage being seen a few times later it's just not their main focus as far as where to have things take place.

from the bottom of my heart i hope theres no puyopuyo anymore

4:31 tbh, Yakuza 6 removed a lot of things. The game is definitely unfinished.

Can't wait for the Yakuza ishin setting and sides stories

I really liked the fear/escape/backup call mechanics in Y5's street fights, they added a nice bit of realism

My subscribe button didn't come with day 1 patch man

UMMMM ACKSHUALLY in Yakuza 6 there is one, incredibly weird situation where you chase someone! After visiting the crime scene with Date and other cop in one of the early chapters, you get told that someone's watching you, and you chase them up Senryou Ave. North adjacent to the Champion District and catch him next to the Shichifuku parking lot, where he tells you about Someya. It's a completely pointless chase, not even in a formal sprint mode, and since it's early game you can't sprint for very long so the pacing is terrible, but yeah, that was the last chase that Kiryu ever got into, to my memory. Maybe he threw out his hip.

The most important removal not mentioned: Don Quixote... 😢

with the arcade games, not only do we lose some here & there but they also removed the various difficulty variations of them....take Virtua Fighter 5 for example, in Yakuza 6 1 machine was easy, 1 machine was normal etc but in Judgement it's just 1 standard setting.

I now understand why you were playing all the games as we discussed on twitter lmao

I hope LaD:8 will have an OG arena mode where Ichiban has to fight one on one where you have to find an enemy's weakness and use it against the enemy. Sorta like that one part in Persona 5 during the casino palace. Idk I sorta miss the underground arena might be a silly idea sorry.

I missed the arena, but I liked the boxing mini game in Lost Judgment.

The battle king and speed king coliseum were removed before the remastered was released along with running away from the Utsunomiya.

10:58 To be honest I liked Akiyama's Extreme Heat, it was stylish, matched his vibe and enabled me to do amazing heat actions. I used it a lot when I was playing recently. Especially with upgrade that prevents enemies from being able to guard against it

I miss Vincent, having played all the games there was just something nice about a bar that did pool and darts in one place. It makes sense, I often like playing them back to back to give a real night out feel. I expected it to be a bar that stuck around for every game and so to find out that it was put there for Yakuza 0 and that in the rest of the series pool is in less convenient places was annoying

The kamutocho of Yakuza 4 Its the best map! I hope they use it in the future with the engine of judgment

It's crazy how you saying the shit im thinking just makes your video more hilarious. Suuuubscribed

*quickly* became my fav channel

Very infomrative. Thank you

Actually the Mahjong simulation in the Yakuza games is pretty good. I sometimes install a yakuza game just to go to my favourite Mahjong Parlor to play a few rounds. And when money was tight I usually could alleviate that problem with a few mahjong games..

9:13 Nooooo.... Mahjong is how I make money in the early game. :D I got forced to learn because of that substory in Yakuza 2 where you have to win a match starting with 10,000 points instead of 25,000. I still can't play Mahjong outside of the series, but it's my go-to money maker.

Great video 👍🏻