The BIGGEST Yakuza Tier List Yet - Almost EVERY Story Boss Ranked 

i like how everyone memes about kuze everywhere system, but he really had the best overall fights in the game and was prob the best enemy to fight often.

Your years long dedication to RGG is something to be admired. I don't know many people who could do a 4 hour video like this.

For the note on Aizawa, I believe he does see the contradiction in his mindset vs his circumstances, which is exactly why he wants to take down Kiryu, because he believes if he can defeat the infamous Dragon of Dojima then he will have in some way earned his position at the top of Tojo and Omi

Holy cow, Leon. This ought to be a fun 3 hours.

Bonus point in the Y6 Akiyama fight: If you stall long enough or give him enough breathing room, you'll see his AI is tuned not to get extra aggressive on Kiryu and he'll even have an animation where he puts out his hands trying to calm deescalate Kiryu. Small but nice touch that adds to the tone....of course being the one in control of Kiryu, you are forced to fight him.

Yakuza 0, Y6, Judgment, and LJ have a lot of epic boss fights in my opinion

Why do we need a tier list when we all know Kosuke is God Tier? ...HOLY SHIT, THE VIDEO LENGTH

3:19:25 Kuwana doesn't actually have a long theme, it's 2 separate ones with different names but Hai Dudu put them in one video as the same song for some reason. The first one is called "Dig In Your Heels" and the second is called "unwavering belief"

Judgement series had a lot of S tier antagonist. I can’t wait for the next judgement game so we can get some more S tier antagonist

The only gripe that I have about the fight against Kiryu Kazuma in Yakuza Like a Dragon, is that they referred to him as the Ex-Chairman of the Tojo Clan in the dynamic intro. Though true...I would've preferred it if they used his signature title instead: Dragon of Dojima They've already introduced him as the Ex-chairman upon his first appearance. So when it came to the actual fight, the lore that Kiryu humored Ichiban with would've made for a befitting Title drop, aka Kiryu Kazuma -> The Dragon of Dojima.

Hirose's definitely one of the strongest boss in the series lore wise, blocking and parrying kiryu's heat actions and attacks like that while being almost 90. I'm pretty sure if other protagonists fought against him, they would be dead for sure except majima and saejima.

Battle for the dream and Fly makes Aizawa and Mine's boss fights s tier imo. Well also because they're both fun to fight as well.

This is amazing and I applaud your commitment to this process.

Kuwana might actually be one of, if not the most well written character in the whole yakuza series, maybe even in recent video game history. Such a great character

I admittedly wish you had gone into their movesets a bit more since I feel like they're pretty important parts of characterization as well as making a boss memorable. Saito from Y4 is probably one of the best examples for this - even if you don't see any other scenes with him, if you compare his moveset to those of his fellow guards you can easily figure out he's unhinged as all hell, what with his brutal, sorta graceless strikes mixed in with flips and leaping attacks more reminiscent of Majima than anyone else.

Hot damn Leon, that video length! I can already tell this took you a lot of time, this'll be great to listen too over the next few days for me.

(Sees Kuze ranked as S tier multiple times) Ah, excellent, excellent.

Devilleon woke up and chose violence today

Loved this video. Glad you're back to talking about Yakuza.

Damn 4 hours of fun. Thank you for such a detailed opinion about the bosses. You can still do about long battles :)

I would honestly say that the 2nd Majima fight in yakuza 1/Kiwami is much better than the first fight. This is sheerly due to the fact that the floor cracks under you which adds a lot more atmosphere than the first fight where it's just fighting in a batting cage with other people there. Honestly the 2nd fight stood out a lot more than the 1st fight. Also love the video and respect to your opinion.

Kosuke is appropriately ranked. Mega like!

4 Hours video damn, good work. Good to see I share some of your unpopular opinions for characters like Ryuji.

I will watch it when I have beaten Yakuza Like A Dragon & Lost Judgment. Love your videos Leon, take care!!

I love ur tier list vids they are honestly the best kind of vids just chilling back and watching!You should one with every amon in the series!

I went through your entire lost judgement playthrough, I can get through this XD Still, I admire your dedication to RGG as a whole

Ok I'm in the minority that love Oda as a character, what he did was insane. Okay as a boss, not the greatest.

They could've made Kiwami Majima better by having him style switch throughout the main fights with him. He does switch styles but I mean he'd do it dynamically and somewhat randomly. This would make it feel worth it to fight Majima everywhere because you'd be dealing with him on the fly style switching like Kiryu can in the game. It'd really make it feel as if he is going all out.

Good tier list man, may not agree with you for some (especially the ishin one) but you have your own reasons and that's cool, been a cool 4 hours !

something about awano's qte is that in legend difficulty it can instakill majima even on full health plus it's really quick

Yakuza 5 bias, those last fights were beautiful and meaningful. The story isn't that hard to understand either

All 3 of Joon gi hans bossfights in y6 were so sick! Especially the QTE with the illegal boxing moves

This is gonna be the best spent 4 hours of my life.

Before reaching the Lost Judgment part I already knew Kosuke would be S tier

You should totally do a tier list of all the dynamic intros. I feel like for me, my personal tier list of the bosses would line up pretty well with my tier list of the dynamic intros.

What a great way to spend 4 hours, loved the video. BTW, have you thought about doing a Amon's tierlist too?

Very epic list @Devilleon7. Huge 4 hour long video going through everything. Must have taken forever to put this video together. 2:33:00 Despite playing Yakuza Like a Dragon since a week after it released, I still haven’t finished it. Just before the Majima/Saejima boss fight is where I’m up to. Somehow I got there at only level 33 and job rank 17 to make it that far. In fact, I actually got burned out from trying to grind up to a better level playing this game.

great video Leon :)

S tier video :D

Actually Lau Ka Long has a heat action with his spear that he stabs kiryu and threw him.( I knew it because of the car chase in Legend :( )

Well, 3 hours of tier list. That's a great dedication.

awesome list!

had no idea QTEs and dynamic intros from 6 made reappearances as skills in 7 until this video, that's rad

This might be a hard one to make, but could we see a long battle tier list in the future? They're usually highlights of the games, so it'll be interesting to rank them.

this video is the move for tonight thank you for saving my boredom leon

Great video, would love to hear your opinion on the long battles as well

Woahh, a whole almost 4 hours worth of goodness I will humbly accept my meal

Hayashi's theme in original 2 was Evil Itself. You're thinking "beast" because the two tigers theme, which is a remix of Evil Itself, is Beast Itself

I like how Iwami and Mine both have similar Dynamic Intros. With Kiryu's first and last Dynamic Intro being a clash in the air. Edit: This has aged poorly lmao

Regarding Sera logic to send assassin as a way to protect Kiryu , i believe he send the order through the consortium (forget the group name) which in Y0 explain as elite assassin group of Tojo , doing so send a subliminal message that Kiryu's live is a matter of Tojo's top brass concern , if some random inmate try to kill Kiryu that will be seen as disrespectful to Tojo clan

Okay, so here's the thing about Ishin's bosses(and a bit of Ishin as a whole): 1. Okada Izo was a staunch supporter(and enforcer)of the Tosa Loyalist Party. Takechi Hanpeita was the number 2 guy of sorts of the organization and when he got to meet Sakamoto Ryoma after what was probably a long time, he gave Ryoma an important position in the organization. Izo didn't like that at all and held it against Ryoma, which is why he fights Ryoma 4 times. He simply gives up just before he dies. 2. See 10. 3. "Nagakura Shinpachi" was the 2nd Unit Captain of the Shinsengumi and Ryoma fights him as a sort of initiation into the Shinsengumi ranks. 4. Yamanami Keisuke(former 3rd Unit Captain)wanted to leave the Shinsengumi. The Vice Commander Hijikata Toshizo arranged a duel between Keisuke and Ryoma. If Keisuke won, he'd be let go. If he lost, well... 5. Can't even remember what Kanai's name is here lol...never mind, just found out his name is Yoshida Toshimaro. 6. Katsura Kogoro was the head of the Choshu Loyalist Party. He and Saigo Kichinosuke(the head of the Satsuma Loyalist Party, also the Huge Man who just barged into the bath-house, which starts that famous naked fight. lol)were to have a meeting about a plan of action in Ikedaya but Shinsengumi units raid the place. 7. Kondo Isami was the head of the Shinsengumi and Ryoma pays him a visit because if anyone knows who killed Yoshida Toyo using Tennen-Rishin kenjutsu, Isami would know. 8. "Okita Souji"(1st Unit Captain of the Shinsengumi), having realized who Ryoma really is, challenges him to a fight. And this was just after the whole Sengoku reference lol 9. Yeah, you nailed it. 10. Yes, what you said is true, but here's the kicker: "Souji" picks a fight with Ryoma because "Genzaburo Inoue" was found dead in a river and "Souji" blames Ryoma because, spoiler: "Inoue" was the one who killed Toyo. This is also where we learn that "Souji" isn't Souji. In addition, there's a flashback that reveals that "Inoue" had killed the real Inoue, the real Shinpachi and the real Souji. The true identity of "Inoue" was Serizawa Kamo, the former head of the Shinsengumi(I think?). This then brings the following question: who are "Souji" and "Shinpachi" really? Spoiler answers: Hirayama Goro(what a first name. lol)posed as Souji while Hirama Jusuke posed as Shinpachi. Goro decides that he won't sell Ryoma out because of his(and Jusuke's)own secret. 11. Yeah, you nailed it. 12. Kinda sad that Sasaki Tadasaburo doesn't really have any presence in the story and is seen as a joke. 13. Harada Sanosuke was the 10th Unit Captain of the Shinsengumi, known mostly for his insistence of using a spear for fights. He seems like that cool fight that's just there, almost like Aizawa in 5 lol 14. What can anyone say about Takeda Kanryusai? He's basically Hayashi with Arase's gunkata stuff. 15. The Jusuke, Toshizo and Goro fights were basically prep battles for... 16. Tadasaburo rematch. Eh, whatevs. 17. Ito Kashitaro was the Military Advisor of the Shinsengumi. He basically pulled a "you got got" a couple chapters ago but this time he can finally be taken down. 18. Yeah, you nailed it. 19. Finally, Ryoma gets to confront Hanpeita after learning that he actually engineered Toyo's murder to take control of the Tosa Loyalist Party in his radical hopes of "bringing Japan to a new age". Ryoma thinks he's lost it and well, that's how one of the best fights of the RGG series begins. After all that, a wild Jingu appeared and I was rolling on the floor laughing for a very long time, lol. Sorry for the wall, man.

About Ryuji bringing a Katana for a fist fight, kinda shows why he isn't the "true dragon", and in a way, i really like how Ryuji shows why Kiryu is the "dragon".

Wdym soma’s first fight was more chilling? You literally fight him in a freezer in his final fight! /s But seriously, I really like this tier list. On the topic of soma though, I think the reason why he’s less intimidating than kuroiwa was because kuroiwa was a much more active and impatient antagonist; the dude is out for blood, and that made his crazy factor a lot more threatening, meanwhile soma is just doing what he feels in his twisted mind is his job.

In lost judgment side case VR Paradise Upgrade it is revealed that Ryo Suzaki and Cane Man who real name is Masashi Suzaki is actually not a siblings but they are the same person.

wow devillion, 4 hours! cant wait for the 27 hour ranking of all the substories!

I can't lie, I fucking love the Iwami fight at the end of 6. It's not hard, by any means, but the fact that it's so easy makes it feel absolutely amazing to beat the ever loving shit out him. Also that final boss theme is incredible. Really, I'd put it in S tier for how good it makes you feel once you finally beat that piece of shit into the ground after all he's done.

I feel that if we're counting the story for these fights and cutscenes that directly follow and precede then Masato has to be in S because those cutscenes were amazing, especially Ichiban's delivery!

It's amazing to me how you can remember who all these bosses are and how they fit into the stories of each relevant game. I've played through the entire series 3 times and platinum'd all the games, but I don't have a clear memory of all this stuff at all. To me, the whole Yakuzaverse exists in some kind of cloud where all the plotlines and bosses are woven together.

Noice video man :)

2:06:13 I think he was trying to fight and defeat Kiryu as a way to prove that he deserves the Tojo clan and the Omi alliance instead of just accepting it from Kurosawa

Phew! What a video! Can't imagine the dedication it took to take screenshot of all these bosses and you missed just one fight! The only part I skipped was Lost Judgement cause I'm still Going through it 😄. But good list overall. I feel like saying something about Kuze, but I'm probs gonna get flac for it, so Imma keep it to myself. Maybe you can guess what it is. I also believe I'm not the first person to express that opinion. You might've seen it on twitter already so that's a clue I guess.

And soon, maybe, a tier list about the amon secret boss fights.

Cool video! Why do you think you'll never play Kenzan? I bought it a few months ago and it seems very interesting 🤔

the one part i have to disagree with the most is Mine. He's a clash of ideology against Kiryu, who's a shining example of hope and justice, whereas Mine is a deep mire of cynicism and doing whatever it takes. Mine's reasoning for killing Daigo is rooted in his mindset; he's already dead, there's no point in hoping he is going to come back. And Kiryu, who despite everything, still believes that he can comeback and that he's so filled with hope, is something that Mine despises, because deep down, he wishes he was like that. That's why Mine is easily my top 3 villains, and definitely my favorite main antagonist for his own game.

Few days passed and I'm still shaking because you put Shibusawa in A tier.

like to see you rank yakuza minigame Leon ty as usual 👏👍

I know this is your opinion, but damn, you putting Takechi Hanpeita on B tier kinda pisses me off lmao. Anyways, great video

Mine in B and Tendo in S loool, what a joke

Very nice video with references to soundtracks, but what about Amon clan bosses, or they just automatically go into sssssssssss tier and deserve a seperate video ?

I think the thing with Aizawa was that he felt like it was OK for the clan to be handed to him so long as he proved he was strong enough, and him fighting Kiryu was his test

Kinda wish you would make a Amon tier list

sugiuchi is an S tier boss for me, his whole arc and realtion to tanimura is a big high point in 4 i really like it

I love your video. I've wanted to make a tier list several times, but I don't really know how to... well, make images for it. Could you tell me a good way of finding/creating images for these Create-A-Tier Lists? God Bless

A request, could you verbally say which tier you're putting the item in for future tier list? Understandably, I get why it comes and goes away in a list this huge but I think it's a good thing to keep in mind for future tier lists..

What you said about cane man’s second boss fight also can apply to mirror face

we eating good today

Best. Tier list. Ever.

Im just starting on Kiwami 2 i will go back here in a few months

Yakuza 3 Lau Ka Long boss fight is the worst thing to ever happen to humanity

You didn't include Kenzan. That's what I think one of the best Yakuza game in terms of combat, that is a crime!

Dude sera have his own fighting style

Now do one for all coliseum opponents across the series.

Wait I just realized Andre Richardson has two phases like Kuroiwa

Hey devilleon you should try the Story translation patch of Kurohyou, so you can understand the story, is really really good, i love it

Personally I would’ve put shibusawa in S but 0 was my first RGG game but I still respect you placement for him and respect you as a RGG fan

As i see, Aizawa decided to fight Kiryu to prove he can actually accomplish it by himself and not his father giving him the Tojo and Omi

3:01:15 There is another actually, Shindo from Yakuza 2.

I just realise that there is no Kenzan but still, I am satisfied with this

I personally call Majima's fight at Shangri-La 'the Shangri-La Showdown'.

I said it on one of Leon's streams and I'll say it again. Kiwami my first Yakuza game and Shimano for me was definitely the moment that forced me to learn to play this game properly. I've experienced something similar in Metal Gear Rising, where I didn't learn how important the parry was until Monsoon, who is fucking impossible without parries (for your average player at least).

I watched this only to see you put Munakata on D, thank u

2:44:58 Straight out of No More Heroes Also, I got a bad first impression of it, but Kurohyou actually looks pretty sick

reason mine wanted to end daigo was cause he saw no more value in daigo whom couldnt give more validation for him , whom might not even survive so he sees him as useless. after all mine is selfish. seeing that getting to the top instead gives him what he wants instead. giving his life the meaning he desperately wants.

Is the order of the images in the bottom of the tierlist only jumbled up for me?

so to take away from thsi video, dont skip out Judgment series just because its not called yakuza, it has some of the best fights in the series.

I always think of Nishitani as Majima's Majima

i'm sorry but who the Fuck puts Andre in A tier above Mine and Ryuji

3:01:20 Yakuza 3 Andre Richardson kinda counts

i feel like ranking how good a boss fight is shouldnt revolve around plot relevance, or whether it relies on gimmicks, all a good fight needs is a balanced moveset, a bit of difficulty and how it feels aesthetically in general. for that i feel aizawa is actually an incredible boss especially on hard, the animations during the fight, the voice acting, the aesthetics and callback to yakuza 2 with the fight against shindo also being throughout the tojo headquarters. in terms of my favourite plot fight its gotta be nishki tho

Someone should start a tally every time ‘I don’t know what to say’ or some variation on it is said lol