RedShell

There’s footage from all of the games playing in the background throughout, including a pretty major cutscene from Yakuza 6 at one point, but to be honest I wasn’t really paying much attention to the actual video as I was focusing on the subtitles. Can’t remember if Nagoshi mentions anything which could be considered a spoiler, don’t think so though. It’s basically just about the history and development process.

Fantastic vid that’s well worth a watch: Highly recommend checking out that channel too, interesting vids on there. Anyway, that has made me admire Toshihiro Nagoshi even more. Definitely one of the best in the business, and (for me at least) perhaps second only to Miyamoto actually.

Finally!! My first random dream didn’t disappoint either, was a really nicely designed island and all of its villagers had hilariously inappropriate custom phrases.

What type of connection are you on? Surely if you can post here on it, uploading a MM level should be no problem too?

A few clips: Sega should totally make that can collecting one into a competitive online multiplayer game, would be absolutely amazing!

That is genius!

Be hilarious if it was 256 MB. I wouldn’t put it past them either.

I’m going to have to sit this one out unfortunately. I was working on a level but somehow managed to completely break it and stupidly saved it in that state. Haven’t got the motivation or time to fix it now. Perhaps it’ll show up in the future as a regular upload. Oh well, looking forward to playing the level/s that did get made for this.

Cool. And thanks for the tip. Definitely yeah, the way characters react to objects and the environment is really good actually. The fact it not only looks cool but is also part of the strategy during battle is great as well. There can be the odd wonky moment (to be expected with all the physics and characters involved) but for the most part it’s incredibly solid. Hahaha! I was impressed by that too. Next gen bread!! I see. Hopefully it won’t detract from the overall experience too much.

There’s definitely more going on with this game, yeah. What are you playing on, base PS4? I remember Yakuza 6 and Kiwami 2 didn’t run particularly well on there either, and this is the same engine being pushed even harder.

When does that show up then? Is it linked to a sub story or the main story? I’ve not unlocked it yet, anyway. Did open up weapon/armour crafting yesterday though, and got my 4th party member. More chances for combo attacks in battle now! Speaking of battles, I’m loving the battle theme: Good job too considering how much you end up listening to it!

Ear to ear grin on my face playing this last night! I already knew there were a lot of references to... Laugh out loud funny! It’s still early days of course, and I probably say this about every new Yakuza game but I reckon this could be the funniest one in the entire series! Ichiban is such a fantastic character and his personality is just perfect for setting up entertaining moments. Really makes you want to keep playing just to see what he says or does next! Man, I really hope Like a Dragon does well for Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio. I know a lot of people will have probably been put off by the new direction (as was I initially) but it’s becoming increasingly clear that the series was in need of a gameplay shakeup and that the change was actually a very smart move. I’m someone who’s never been massively into the turn based RPG genre, but based on what I’ve experienced so far with this, I would happily play many more Yakuza games produced in this style! Oh- I also realised last night that if I connect my DS4 to the PC via USB cable instead of Bluetooth, the game actually reconfigures itself and displays the PlayStation button symbols! My ability to perform Karaoke is saved!

Only a couple of hours in and this has already ticked the usual Yakuza boxes. Drama ✓ Violence ✓ Humour ✓ Wackiness ✓✓✓ It does appear to start out very slow compared to other games in the series, but I guess it works (and makes sense) given the shift in gameplay. I’m playing with the English dub, and while it does indeed seem strange, I do get the feeling it’s also helping me to follow the story a bit better, so I shall stick with it now and then check out the Japanese version on my 2nd play through. Anyway, the game looks really great, easily the best a Yakuza game has ever looked. And I’m also happy to report that it’s very well optimised on PC, something I was slightly worried about beforehand but obviously shouldn’t have been. Can’t wait to get back to it!

Thanks for the invite, but I’m not actually subscribed to Game Pass at the moment so don’t have access to the game.

I suddenly want to watch Beverly Hills Cop again (for the millionth time ) and play Disaster Day of Crisis again too actually. Anyway, nice to see the game still being enjoyed today. It’s an underrated, cheesy classic.

Smart move. I was late to the party for both PS3 and PS4, which obviously meant cheaper hardware plus way more games that I was interested in playing. No plans to get a PS5 though, especially since I’ve returned to PC for my non-Nintendo gaming needs. So far I’m very happy with that decision too, games are a bit cheaper, no subscription required to play them online, and I don’t need to worry about Sony’s political correctness/censorship or you know... them randomly deleting a game from their servers for no good reason. That’s right, I still haven’t forgotten about The Tomorrow Children.

Thanks for the games. Sorry my connection was a bit flaky tonight though. @Sprout, that was a fun idea. We should do more theme nights with set characters/items.

Yeah, pretty sure it’s on my end though. If the new arena doesn’t sort it I’ll try restarting my Switch/router.

I’m up for a Bomberman themed Smash Bros. session! Red Bomberman for me.

Impressive stuff.

Same here. Well, just MH Rise actually. Oh, and BotW 2 of course, but who knows when that’s going to show up. Pretty much all my gaming time now is on PC, it’s been great catching up on games that I missed before (like Death Stranding and Monster Hunter World), discovering new gems via Game Pass (Sea of Thieves! ) and also replaying some old faves (like Bayonetta and Binary Domain) to experience them at optimal quality. And of course next week is Yakuza Like a Dragon! If it wasn’t for my daily check in on Animal Crossing and the N-E Smash Bros. sessions on Thursday, my Switch wouldn’t actually be getting used at all anymore!

Funnily enough I also had the Wii U setup yesterday for a bit of multiplayer fun with the family. Played some MK8 and Nintendo Land (which my 8 year old niece really enjoyed, especially the Animal Crossing sweet collecting game ) then a few rounds of Game & Wario’s Artwork. That one is always a winner. So funny!

Thought Alfonso was already on your Island?

Yeah, I found that World started out really easy, but some of the late game stuff is insane! And I don’t even have Iceborne. The monster that can 1-shot you unless you’re standing perfectly behind a boulder when it does an attack is particularly brutal! Definitely. The SOS system in World, or even just the fact that you can jump into ongoing hunts is an absolute game changer. Will be such a shame if those mechanics don’t get used in Rise. Pretty sure they’re separate dev teams, so I reckon we’re going to get both. Hope so anyway.