RedShell

I did indeed love it, game is an absolute no-brainer for anyone that enjoys the Souls formula. BTW, you just reminded me that I need to try and get back to Wo Long at some point! Not played it in a few months, but was pretty far into it I think.

Nice. What was your playthrough time?

Whoa! Looks like I was actually further through the main story than I thought, as... I'd heard this game's story was shorter than your typical Yakuza game, but that still came as quite a surprise. However, I've done so much side content stuff now that I'm approaching 20 hours of game time anyway, and I still have a few substories left to do, quite a bit of mini-game stuff, plus a big chunk of the coliseum as well. So I reckon 100% completion will probably end up taking around 30 hours. But for anyone that isn't a fan of the extra content in these games, if you were to focus purely on story I get the impression you'd be done with it pretty quickly indeed.

That’s awesome. I love seeing how the Yakuza series has been steadily gaining fans, not just here at N-E but in general. Long may it continue! It’s mad to think that since I first started playing this series back in 2015 (with Yakuza 4 on PS3) I’ve now played through all 8 of the mainline games, 13 games in total if you include the spin-offs, and that’s without even including the two Judgment titles! Still not sure when I’m going to be able to squeeze those in. But yeah, it’s a phenomenal franchise that has produced many games in a relatively short period of time, without dipping in quality. Sure, there is a lot of asset recycling going on between the various titles, but even so, the rate at which RGG Studio has been releasing these, and the ongoing quality and entertainment value of them is simply amazing! And you know what else, it’s just so nice to also have a series that gives zero fucks about political correctness or conforming to certain social ideologies. The devs behind the Yakuza/Like a Dragon franchise know their target audience (very well indeed ) and are not afraid to cater specifically to them, regardless of what that means for sales or public perception. You’ve gotta love that kind of integrity, and especially at a time where seemingly everything else is primarily concerned with… not being offensive, having enough diversity, virtue signalling etc., often at the expense of entertainment. Anyway, I’ve rambled on enough. Can’t wait to get back to playing Gaiden tonight (I’ve actually started making progress on the main story again! ) and I’m also looking forward to you lot starting that game. You’re gonna love it… trust me.

This looks (and sounds ) absolutely glorious! I really hope they also plan to release it outside of Japan.

OK, I've never been so damn distracted by side content in a Yakuza game as I have with this! Over 12 hours played but I'm still only at the very beginning of chapter 3! Once the game opens up it really opens up, and is packed with so much highly entertaining stuff to do. I love the way substories are handled in this version as well, it's super streamlined compared to previous games. Also, the coliseum mode in this is pure crack, cannot get enough of it. Especially since unlocking... more on that bellow: So yeah, that's where I'm at with the game so far. I should probably get back to focusing on the main story, but they really are making it extra difficult to do so this time around.

Have they changed his English actor since Like a Dragon? That's the only game in the series that I've ever played though with the English dub, but yeah, don't think I ever will again.

It's Pocket Circuit time!:

Those vids I posted before are from the PC version though (managed to refrain from quadruple dipping on the Switch version ) so it’s definitely an across-the-board optimisation, just a pretty rare one probably.

How calm is the geezer that got caught up in the fight with the bicycle? The combat in this feels just like Yakuza 6 but with physics and particle effects dialled up to 11! I bloody love it! They've also made some crazy additions to the gameplay with... While I eventually ended up loving the new turn-based direction with Like a Dragon, playing Ishin recently and now Gaiden has reminded me how much fun the real-time combat is too. Hopefully RGG studio is planning to keep using both gameplay styles going forward, because they're both fantastic.

Shame about that D/C just now, I was about to call it a day anyway so I won't bother to rejoin. Enjoy the rest of the session and thanks for the games!

Oh yeah, forgot about that. I imagine all that video footage for the hostess stuff is a pretty big chunk of it too.

Holy crap, this comes in at almost 90GB on PC! Played through the opening section, loving it already. Man, Kiryu's movement in this is crazy! The way he picks up weapons off the ground is so slick! And what's with this Spider-Man web move!? This is absolutely insane, even by Yakuza standards.

Not exactly what I had in mind, but I'll take it: Suddenly Banana... Suddenly Green Shell?: I literally spent most of those races constantly beeping the horn, especially as Funky Kong... that sound! Cheers for the games.

I started playing this about a month ago and finished the story last night. The final product was a lot better than the demo implied, and those annoying UE4 stutter issues have been (for the most part) completely fixed. They say you shouldn't judge a book by its cover, well I guess the gaming equivalent is don't judge a video game by its demo. If you look back a few posts you'll see that I did exactly that earlier this year, but it was a mistake. The reality is that Sega just put out a really bad demo for Ishin, on PC at least. That, or they sorted it via patches since, either way, the game is all good now. So yeah, I ended up enjoying yet another Yakuza game, what a surprise! Was great to play one with real-time combat again as well, as it's been a long time since Kiwami 2. Anyway, there are a total of 4 different play styles available in Ishin, but I mainly stuck with the swordsman style for my entire playthrough and just dabbled with the others. Each has its own unique weapons/skill tree and it's easy to switch between the various styles at any time, but the katana just felt the most appropriate given the setting of this game. Definitely looked the coolest too, some of the moves were super flashy and blocking bullets with a sword is always entertaining. As for the story, it was fun seeing so many familiar faces from across the Yakuza series pop up, but everyone (well, almost) having different names than usual made it incredibly confusing, and I struggle to follow the plot on these games as it is! It's cool how the Yakuza cast of characters are portraying historical figures and that it's based on a true story though... I imagine quite loosely. Yep, pretty sure they added some zazz here and there! But regardless, the main story is still often slow paced and dramatic, perhaps more so than any of the games from the main series. Luckily the substories are here to provide comedic moments, and there are some absolute doozies in this, like... Minigames are on point too, you get all the usual stuff like Karaoke, fishing, gambling etc. but also cooking (it's Yakuza x Cooking Mama ) and farming! Which comes in handy for making extra cash or satisfying the vegetable lady. And there's quite a bit more content that I've not really had the chance to properly check out yet, but with Like a Dragon Gaiden having just launched I'll be turning my attention to that for a while now.

I see. I'd heard there was a trick going on with how many gems can appear on-screen at once (where the total value will eventually get merged into and represented by a single gem or something) in order to maintain smooth performance, but walls turning off is a new one for me, and has never happened before in over 50 hours of playing the game.

Live action? Hmm... Hollywood? Ugh... Yeah, not confident about this one at all. I also think animated would've been the way to go, traditional even. Will be interesting to see how it turns out, but unfortunately it's pretty much guaranteed that it won't be my cup of tea. You can count the number of modern films that I've truly enjoyed on one hand though, with only one finger!

Awesome! Is that Matt Berry narrating the trailer? There's seemingly always new stuff coming. Don't think this game is ever going to end! I just wrapped up the latest DLC myself, so am all set for this adventure update. Anyway, check this out: Are you supposed to be able to do that? I can never tell with this game. Hmm... probably not.

Hey, @Hero-of-Time, great to see you back!

Yep, here it is: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1968909921?t=0h45m11s Sorry, @Ike. And you're welcome, @S.C.G.

Great theme @Glen-i, made for a hilarious Smash session this week, absolutely side-splitting stuff. Will have to check the replay vid, but I think I may have pinched someone's final smash target as Ness in one battle. Oh, and my Nikki Mii getting KO'd during her final smash was another highlight. Then there's what went down on the infinite custom stage, which was quite frankly... absurd. Cheers everyone.

I zoned out for a bit there.

Cheers for the games guys. I hope you enjoyed the new (and old-ish ) spooky custom stages too. Oh, and thanks again for switching to the earlier start, think I was a little bit more with it as a result... just a bit. See you next time!

The credits have rolled. Looks like I've still got some levels and quite a few badges to find though, and I still haven't used any other character than Mario yet! This is going to be a super replayable game though I reckon, so I'll probably end up going through the whole thing with all of the different characters. Will give local multiplayer a go at some point soon too. Do you still get online ghost players during local play? I really do love that feature, it's useful but without being intrusive, not to mention incredibly entertaining at times: Speaking of entertaining, Mario's stance in this pic really made me laugh: Was hoping it'd be the end of level freeze-frame, but unfortunately it wasn't so I did my own capture to preserve his awkward pose.