Once you play a single Yakuza game. You instantly become a walking advertisement. I’ve played almost all Yakuza games and each one has their charm. Even the two deemed “worst” yakuza games are still great but has dated or experimental gameplay. And plot twist which would seem completely bullshit in other games is completely normal in a Yakuza game.
Like a Dragon was my first yakuza game and I liked it so much that I went back to 0 and played through every game in the series including spinoffs. Do it, I highly recommend it
I'm happy a lot of people are jumping on board the Like a Dragon train during the year of the Dragon. The fun part about playing the rest of the series is getting to see why it's sp rad when Kiryu-chan shows up as Ichiban's mentor. And then one of the hardest bosses in the franchise. You will laugh until you cry. Or just cry. Welcome aboard!
I recognized Kiryu and Majima when I played Yakuza: Like a Dragon, but I didn't know the significance of them being there. If I played it for the first time again, after having played through a handful of Yakuza games, I would've been a lot more excited!
Around 2 years ago, I remember seeing a copy of Like a Dragon that was on sale for £12, and I thought “Might as well buy it, it’ll give me something to do over the summer.” You can probably imagine how obsessed I got 😂
I'm DELIGHTED to see that someone got the same infinite esteem for this game as I do, I remember getting it for christmas 2020 because I heard good things about it and quite frankly, because I had no other ideas as to what to ask for, even the person who offered it was like "Dude, what' that shit?". It stayed on my shelf untouched for about 4 months (still baffles me) then I put in on the ps4 and it was OVER. I think you made an amazing point with the "zero expectation" because this is exactly how I experienced the game, yet it exceeded EVERYTHING I could have dreamed of. Sometimes I feel like that game was tailored for me 😂 and was a gift from heaven. Since then I finished all the Yakuza games and spin-offs (bar Dead Souls and Kenzan !) And this has turned into my top 3 favourite franchises of all-time. I could go on and on but that comment is already too long and you did an amazing job as to explain why it is a must-play ! Once again, amazing job hope that video will get the recognition it deserves !
As someone who has committed to playing through the entire Yakuza series this year starting at 0, I agree with everything you have said, I am currently on chapter 12 of like a dragon and 110+ hours in and I have done and completed so much of the side content and I love this game and the entire Yakuza series and I am so happy with my decision to play through this entire series. Up next is the man who erased his name and then infinite wealth. After I finish the Yakuza series I am committed to playing through and beating persona 3, 4 and 5
That's some serious dedication there! I'm trying to work my way through all the games right now, but I'm not quite going in chronological order. I'm playing Infinite Wealth right now, but I still have to play 3-6 and 0
Good luck man🙏 I started both yakuza and persona series two years ago and they both became my favorite story series with final fantasy right behind them. Funny enough im still on infinite wealth and persona 3 due to time constraints but im hoping to beat them soon
@@Toe-collector I am at the end of like a dragon. I am going to play the man who erased his name before infinite wealth and then I am starting persona 3.
The beauty about like a dragon is that unlike many popular JRPG's that have shounen or minor as protaginst while LAD uses full 30 and 40 year olds as their main canvas. Obviously ichiban story about restarting life hits but its honestly one of the greatest JRPG when looking at the cast alone. Cant even mention the music as rolling eyes is arguably the greatest song in yakuza history closely rivaled by burn me down.
I agree with you on that, a lot of stories have young protagonists that seem way more skilled at fighting than they probably should be for their age, but it actually makes sense for someone like Ichiban
I always love seeing new people experience Yakuza: LAD for the first time. I wholeheartedly agree with you on Ichiban being such a lovable guy. He just makes you want to be a better person with his positivity and story. I commend RGG for keeping the game’s theme of positivity all the way through even with that emotional ending. Enjoy the rest of the series!
We in the Yakuza community love new fans! But honestly, I only played Like a Dragon back in November, because mentally I was going through an incredibly hard and depressing point in my life, and aside from the story and gameplay, Ichiban was a character that genuinely changed my life. He's gotten that crap-end of the stick in most situations and yet he bears a smile and pushes on no matter how rough things get. His philosophy on life is now what I adopt and I do what I can to be a light in peoples' lives, much like how Ichiban does for his friends.
Finishing LaD was a rollercoaster of emotions!! Originally I wanted to play Yakuza 0 to Infinite Wealth, but Its a huge time sink. Everything about the game was so good even if there was some annoyances with the gameplay. I love the fact that the battle system is all played in Ichiban's head and it makes me wonder how does the Kiwami Essence work outside of his mind. I believe it was the second game I've played in my lifetime that nearly made me shed a tear. The way how Ichiban pushes through impossible makes me motivated to find more experiences and hobbies even if getting older gets in the way. The end credit theme is my favorite song to play at the gym when I really need to get a boost of energy alongside of other LaD music.
I don't know if you played Infinite Wealth but that game has a side story with the f'n Gondawara family (The grown man in diapers) and it made me cry! I hope you played or gonna play Lost Judgment cause that's IMO the best game of RGG studio's and it changed my life.
I'm playing through Infinite Wealth right now, and that side quest did hit me in the feels! I've been meaning to finish Judgement, but once I do, I'll get to Lost Judgement!
tbh, i thought this game will focus on tatsuo shinada from yakuza 5 because of the baseball bat weilding protagonist(ichiban kinda looks like him too) lol.
I gotta play Yakuza 5! There are so many Yakuza games and so many things to do in each of them! It feels like it will be an eternity before I get there 😭
@@idiosyncrasygaming Play it from 0 to infinite wealth! Sometimes Sega does sales on steam! You can purchase yakuza 0 - yakuza 6 for like 50 bucks or more. I say just enjoy the story as you play every title! I kinda like their spin off titles like the judgement and lost judgement. The judgement takes place before Y:LAD. It kinda tackles the 3k Plan a lil bit.
i honestly suggest u play the past yakuza games especially yakuza 0 before finishing the other games, cus legit i played through all of em and did NOT GET BORED ONCE
@@idiosyncrasygaming Ngl, It's a bit of an odd order. Since IW covers a big chunk of the whole series. It just won't have same emotional impact as it would've if you played at least some of the original in between Like a dragon and IW
Playing through IW when having not played the Kiryu saga is an interesting choice. I'm actually very interested in how certain things in IW will make you feel having not played the original since a big part of IW relies on Kiryu stuff. It sounds like a good experiment!
it's actually a really bad turn-based RPG because it's super easy. It's about as deep as rock-paper-scissors. And for some reason, female characters don't get as many jobs as male characters? Then you just get finished grinding them early and get stuck grinding the male characters whether you like them or not. I don't even think females can learn an electric spell. I'd rather play a game that's Kiryu-only than a game with a bunch of characters but some of them are underwhelming for no reason. At least you don't notice the bullshit that way. I mean one of the female characters is actually optional (she's not even in story cutscenes) so, if you don't get her, you only get one underwhelming female. The Man Who Erased His Name, now that's a real game
I don't know man. I enjoyed it a lot, especially because is not that deep. I usually hate JRPGs. This is the first one I ever actually finished. And this was because it was accessible. You have to consider that I am a long time fan of the series since the PS2 days, so I went into LAD with tons of scepticism. But it worked out well, mostly because it was friendly towards non-JRPG players like me. I would have hated it otherwise.
@@gab_gallard I've played all of the RGG games except Japan-only spinoffs all the way up to Infinite Wealth which I think got its name because you'll be buying more DLC if you pre-ordered it. The least player-friendly thing about that game, to me, was that normal difficulty (what the game delivered with) presented no challenge, and to unlock the two harder levels, you had to buy it as DLC. Even post-launch, you had to make sure you were buying the right bundle or else you only got normal. They are fun games for Yakuza games, but as turn-based RPGs, the strategy is pretty shallow.
It's not incredibly deep or incredibly difficult, but I thought the turn based gameplay was fun. Admittedly, I had no idea about the jobs since I rarely felt the need to switch them. I did enjoy The Man Who Erased His Name, but I think that the new turn based gameplay is the natural evolution for the series
@@idiosyncrasygaming it can't really compete in that niche. There are more impressive and innovating things going on in that genre and LaD is like on a very basic level comparatively. On the other hand, it's the best (and probably only ) open world beat-em-up franchise around and it is very excellent in THAT niche (which it pretty much defined)
@@idiosyncrasygaming wait are you saying you completed the game without even changing jobs? Right, so this is what I'm talking about when I say the game is too easy. Someone developed all those jobs and then you went and beat the game without even using those jobs. Why did they spend so much time overdeveloping game features that you didn't need to use? It's too easy. YOU DID complete the game, right? You wouldn't make this whole video without finishing, right?
I played Yakuza after seeing videos and thought to myself huh can't be bad and god did it hit hard I haven't cried since red dead redemption like damn the story was great and made you understand ichiban
