Yakuza: The Greatest Soap Opera You'll Ever Play 

Theres only one type of Yakuza player that knows how to play mahjong, and its the people who go for 100% completion

ichiban legit gives me hope because there are people like him in real life. He lost 18 years behind bars. He's essentially a middle aged man with a brain of a 20 year old. And yet, he still keeps embracing life's hardships and moving on and staying possitive and helping others. Ichiban, Kiryu, Saejima, and Majima never use their horrible past history as excuses to be held back or blame others. They can still feel sympathy towards those who objectively have it less worse, but are still going through a hard time.

Y'all ready for Yakuza Like A Pirate: Dragons Raid Hawaii?

Thank you for perfectly describing why I fell in love with yakuza after playing judgement back in 2020 🙏

Damn, youtube is on a crazy streak of introducing me to one great small channel after another.

Yakuza/Like a Dragon series changed my life for the better ngl, the stories and even the substories have been a rollercoaster of emotions. Looking forward to watching the Prime Video live action in October

And believe it or not, Yakuza has ruined open world games to me. Sure, There are many good open world games like Cyberpunk 2077. But none has hit me as hard as Yakuza did.

Seeing more and more Yakuza content on RU-vid from creators of all sizes is really heartwarming. This series is special and I am glad you enjoyed it. As someone who “accidentally” got into the series and happily(begrudgingly in the beginning) 100%ed all games(minus 3 lol), I share a lot of sentiments you have. This series, it’s characters, the world is magnificent and truly a love letter to Japan among other things. In all my years of gaming, I’ve never fallen in love with something so quickly and easily, glad to see it pop off and so many people enjoying it. You should definitely go for Judgment and Lost Judgment next! They are PEAK RGG. Fingers crossed for Judgment 3 soon and thanks for the video! :)

At this point the newest games have made it clear that 100%ing every game is what is canon. If its a thing you can do, then in canon, they fucking did it.

I'm glad people recognise that Yakuza is, very much, a soap opera. I think even the weakest entries have moments of excellent writing and presentation, but to get to those, you often have to wade through hours of telenovela chicanery and all the subtlety of a 70's martial arts flick.

I remember one of my friends recommended me to play yakuza, he told me its a very serious game about the yakuza doing yakuza stuff, i thought it was just crime thriller but towards the end of the game with my last game being like a dragon, i now believe that pocket racing, karaoke, and sub stories are part of the story, im planning on buying infinite wealth this week

My favorite part about this series is how the characters age over time throughout the games. Just like DBZ. Seeing Kiryu grow from a young man to an older man. I felt sad and happy seeing little Haruka go from a little innocent girl to a pregnant young woman. Sad because Childhood innocence us only a once in a time thing that we all had. But griwing up is even more important. Seeing the orphans become adults. Majima is touching 60. Ichiban lost 18 years of his life in prison. Saejima lost even more.

One thing I love about the Yakuza series is how the entire series harkens back to the style and personality of games SEGA made when they were back in their prime. It’s like the whole company port it’s entire identity into one series after they dropped out of the console business.

Dug in it’s WHAT? 0:19

I sorta really miss the brutality of the ps2 games, like those punches look like they HURT

i went on a weird trip similar to yours with these but i had played kiwami and 6 while still not quite "getting" it until i went back and played the rest when a bunch of them went on gamepass in 2020 iirc. now i have full blown RGG disease, the amount of hours i have on infinite wealth is disgusting

6:29 gayden?

You are kinda right, I like everything in a jakuza game thats basically outside the norm, like business mangement minigame, race car, doki island, cabarate club and damm do I love it.

26:55 Bro really decided to send Obatarian to the customor. Also your editing was amazing as well, and I was hooked into the video. The way you made it look like you were walking in the streets of Kamurocho yourself or looking over the Sotenbori river it was nice. Good job bravo. While I generally liked your video essay I would've shared with a lot of people if you hadn't spoiled the entirety of Kiwami 1 lol. I know you were making a point but yeahhhh

Let's gooooo, peak content

plot bros we're eating today

This is so well edited, I gotta be here before this video blows up!

And then they just plop out and go "in the next game you will be Majima, as a pirate, in Hawaii, with legit 1800s ass lookin pirate ships and canon balls, but its set in modern day too." And my first thought was "that is this is dumbest shit I've ever heard in the series, but you got me at Majima"

Combat peaked with the Judge Spinoffs ngl. More specifically with Lost Judgment. It incorporates the power and fluidity of the dragon engine with the variety of the Ishin Engine and Yagami’s multiple styles. Also Gaiden has a 6 second juggle limit whereas Lost Judgment doesn’t. Juggling itself began with Judge Eyes too. It’s weird how some of the best stuff is left in a spinoff over a mainline game.

4:21 jumpscare warning

bro casually dropped the greatest video essay oat

Nakeyjakey at home

don't forget Judgment and Lost Judgment plus Yakuza/Like a Dragon's spin offs

Kiryu is the toughest character in the franchise Yagami is the coolest and most badass Ichiban is just the best overall (no pun intended)

holly molly your edits are so good and man i love the yakuza series i hope this gets others to play the games with the new pirate one coming out

I thought this channel had to have like 1m subscribers. Only 2k?? This edit is masterpiece

Yes, my favourite release: 6:29 Yakuza: Gayden

Great video! Watched it all and you described the series perfectly in about 30 minutes. Your story of how you started with the series is really similar with my story: Didn't like the first few hours, gave a second chance after a few weeks, and look where it brought me LOL. After that I started giving second chances to other games that I didn't like, Persona for example. Yakuza franchise is really great, I love making videos of it and I feel like everyone should at least try playing one of the games from start to finish.

The Breakdown of the engines is a bit incorrect. As a modder I've had to deal with all 3 of the engines. 1 and 2 share an engine, it's really weird and difficult to mod. Kenzan, 3, 4, Of the End/Dead Souls, 5, Ishin 2014, 0, Kiwami, and Hokuto ga Gotoku/FOTNS: Lost Paradise all share the same engine, you'll find remnants of Kenzan and 3 in even the later games. This engine got a pretty big upgrade in 5 and Ishin but it's still the same one at its core. Hokuto is literally just Kiwami with a different world, story and the upgrade system reverted to how it was in Ishin 2014, the Kiwami UI assets are just straight up part of the Hokuto retail version despite never being used. Then everything from 6 onwards with the exception of Hotoku is the Dragon Engine, including the new turn based games. Other than this minor nitpick, great video

Hey man, great video ! I particularily enjoyed you using the different locales to both show off the game and make your presentation more visually interesting. I am also glad you had a dedicated section for the music. I think video game OSTs are still kind of looked down upon by a large majority of people as something lesser. Series like LaD show that it´s not true at all. Every new release I am most excited by the great soundtracks these games have on offer. The production value on most of them is just incredible, and they tackle so many genres with such finesse. My favorite OST as a whole has to be from Judgement 1, though Lost Judgment has a few tracks that stand above the rest. RGG is currently providing the absolute best gaming has to offer in my mind, everything they make is just so genuine and heartfelt and joyful. I am so excited for the new big RGG announcement coming in a few weeks (hopefully not that leaked mobile title 😭) You should do a video on the Judgment games too. I´d watch it

New sub, thnks for this beatiful video, baka mitai.

FIrst time seeing Yakuza was compilation of the Super Best Friends Play. It got me curious Then Kiwami 1 got free with Ps Plus, and I got to play, and I got into it! Then I bought 0 and... yeah, it hooked me into the franchise. Now, ya boi is a member of the Like a Dragon Family with pride and my favorite part of each game is seeing how Kamurocho changed and evolved with time.

A lot of the Yakuza series feels cheap especially when so many games have so much money dumped into them a lot of things that Yakuza does other studio wouldn’t do. Like the cutscenes being low quality sometimes or the side missions not being voiced or reusing the map. But this is all done to give focus where it is needed to still push out an amazing product compared to so many over budget games that have less to offer than just one Yakuza game. I think Yakuza 3 is the weakest but I would still rather play that game than most other open world games that just have good graphics and nothing else going on.

If yakuza like a dragon had the refined combat of infinite wealth it would be my favorite in the series not even close to

Nice editing man

I just beat Ishin and I have no more RGG content to play. It's rough out here, my favourite series in gaming

finished 5 last week. i bought 0-5 and for now im taking a break with shenmue 1 and 2 until i decide to either buy 6 or judgement first (judgement is in on sale limbo)

So what’s your thoughts on the latest Yakuza game trailer

As you like >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Any other song

you’re so right, spider-man shirt guy.

20:32 Mahjong best minigame

Speaking of yakuza series parodying other franchises, do you think the Majima pirate game is a parody of skull and bones?

Goated game

Yakuza mentioned

As a fellow fan, I highly suggest playing the original PS2 versions of Yakuza 1 and 2. 1 has a really funny dub, and I genuinely prefer 2 to Kiwami 2. There's also the spin-offs, Judgment, Lost Judgment, and the PSP Kurohyou games, developed by Syn Sophia. TLDR, there's a lot more series for you to enjoy.

Kamurochu is in more games than Kiryu...

I was never a big fan of the dragon engine. The physics just felt too floppy in K2 and 6. Gaiden definitely feels tighter now tho so i think the action combat games from here on will feel way better now.

Good video, you captured what makes the games so fascinating. Just the pronounciation of Japanese names wasn't always spot on 😅

no way you said "gaiden" as "gayden"😭 it would be "guyden"

I want Kiwami Dead Souls so phreaking bad. I don't see why they'd do a Kiwami 3. 3 was easily the weakest story of the entire franchise

gayden

Gayden

yippie!

I think the only part I disagree with is the sniveling nerd part. If a game is very heavy on story it's fair to criticize story. Never liked the shut up and turn off your brain approach. A particularly strange approach since the rest of the points are laid out fairly eloquently. For instance, I was hoping Park would be the first female villain in the series (the series has a bad habit of treating all women as innocent and never in the wrong as it is). But instead, the game/other characters treat her like a goddess to be revered despite doing some pretty mean and unlawful things. Doesn't make you a condescending dork to point out bad writing.

13:12 Kino Der Toten... Right where the Double Tap machine is. You're a based gamer

A lot of the Yakuza series feels cheap especially when so many games have so much money dumped into them a lot of things that Yakuza does other studio wouldn’t do. Like the cutscenes being low quality sometimes or the side missions not being voiced or reusing the map. But this is all done to give focus where it is needed to still push out an amazing product compared to so many over budget games that have less to offer than just one Yakuza game. I think Yakuza 3 is the weakest but I would still rather play that game than most other open world games that just have good graphics and nothing else going on.