Yakuza 0 (PS4)

[Happenstance]

Zero and Kiwami are coming to PC!

[bob]

Started playing this on Saturday, and so I'll likely be spamming this thread for a while.

I completed the first chapter, and write enjoying it so far. The story is pretty engaging, and the combat is ok (feels a bit flat after Spider-Man, but that's an unfair comparison).

Tokyo feels weirdly familiar to the real thing considering this is set 30 years ago...

[bob]

Played a bit more of this last night. It's very bizarre...and very Japanese.


Did the substory where you end up coaching a dominatrix on how to humiliate a client, as well as the one where Michael Jackson and Steven Spielberg turn up to shoot a music video, and you have to protect MJ from zombies while he moonwalks down the street. All pretty standard.


Learned a third fighting style, Beast, although I think I prefer Rush. Do you have to build up and use all of them? Or can you just use the one you prefer? I've deposited about 10million into the Rush abilities and far less into the other two, but i'm slowly dumping money into them anyway, as I don't want to keep too much money on me in case Mr Shakedown turns up again (what a dick).


Also, what's the deal with the erotic video parlour? Seems a bit weird to just have a load of softcore porn in the game for no reason.

[drahkon]

Game's absolutely nuts and I barely started...I'm like 45 minutes and I love it

[bob]

I fired this up as well over the weekend. I had originally stopped playing as I had grown a bit bored of it, but after reading HoT's post about it, I had an urge to play again. I bumped the difficulty down to easy, and just decided to focus on the story. The minigames and side plots are fun, but incredibly..... slow. I figured I'd play the main game and then go back and play some of the other bits if I still wanted to.

 

 

Anyway, the story is really good. There's a bit between chapters 6 and 7 where there is a good 20 mins of cut scenes, which of course is when my wife comes and joins me on the sofa. "Why are you watching a poorly animated Japanese soap opera?"

 

 

[Hero-of-Time]

3 minutes ago, bob said:

I fired this up as well over the weekend. I had originally stopped playing as I had grown a bit bored of it, but after reading HoT's post about it, I had an urge to play again. I bumped the difficulty down to easy, and just decided to focus on the story. The minigames and side plots are fun, but incredibly..... slow. I figured I'd play the main game and then go back and play some of the other bits if I still wanted to.
 

Good man. It was the best way to play it for me. Not doing all the sidequests and mini games helped me to really get drawn into the main story.

You spend any more time playing it, @drahkon.

[drahkon]

4 hours ago, Hero-of-Time said:

You spend any more time playing it, @drahkon.

Not yet. I have tomorrow off so I might spend a long time playing this tonight  

[drahkon]

@Hero-of-Time in case you're interested: I just finished Chapter 1.

Great stuff. 

I don't know if it was possible to explore the town. I actually didn't bother because the story was so engaging and suspenseful. The characters are great and every interaction seemed to be meaningful. 

Kiryu is in trouble, or rather...

Spoiler

...Kazama is. Looks like Dojima is likely to not be nice to him.

The battle in the Dojima HQ was awesome. I died twice, once before fighting Kuze because I didn't know you could buy restorative items and because I play on Hard difficulty  Second time I died was against Kuze himself. The Brawler style really wasn't the right fit for the battle. 

So far, I thoroughly enjoy it. Gonna be interesting to see when and what kind of mini-games open up. The only thing I really know about the Yakuza series is: It's wacky, insane and totally bonkers.  

[bob]

Played a few more chapters of this, just did Chapter 10 

Spoiler

Aka The Big Reveal. OMG, I was literally screaming at the TV when the camera panned down and showed the bat tattoo on Property Guy's arm! My wife was so confused at the garbled explanation I gave of why this was so important. 

 

I kept wondering how the two plotlines were going to join up, and even started wondering if they ever were, but now the game is on motherfuckers! 

 

 

 

[Hero-of-Time]

8 minutes ago, bob said:

Played a few more chapters of this, just did Chapter 10 

  Spoiler (Hide contents)

Aka The Big Reveal. OMG, I was literally screaming at the TV when the camera panned down and showed the bat tattoo on Property Guy's arm! My wife was so confused at the garbled explanation I gave of why this was so important. 

 

I kept wondering how the two plotlines were going to join up, and even started wondering if they ever were, but now the game is on motherfuckers! 

 

 

 

Haha. That was pretty much my reaction as well. Hit the little arrow at the top right to see.

 

[bob]

Haha. That was pretty much my reaction as well. Hit the little arrow at the top right to see.
 

Ha, our comments are almost identical!

[martinist]

Once I got the hang of the property aquisition and management side game I started making more money than I knew what to do with. If you're looking for a new building manager then go bowling and bowl a turkey.

[bob]

The story keeps getting better in this. I'm up to chapter 14 I think, and it's great.

However, the rest of the game is far too busy and confusing. I only just worked out how to equip a weapon during combat - it doesn't tell you anywhere how to do it! I only found out by accident.

Also, how do you acquire extra properties? I've only got two, but can't figure out how to buy more.

Also, the missable trophies are such bullshit. I saw one about defeating the afro dude in the highway, so when the highway level came about, I was ready for it. I still missed him though. He zoomed past and fucked off down the road, and that was it. Have to restart the game again to get that trophy? The fuck?!

[Hero-of-Time]

There are a few missable trophies in the game. Not that it matters though because you have to play through the game twice in order to get them all.

[Happenstance]

Just enjoy the story and don't worry about the trophies

[bob]

Oh man, I didn't think anything would beat the end of Chapter 10, but I just got to the part of Chapter 16 where you

 

Spoiler

Have to slowly lead a blind girl through the streets of Tokyo to get a snack. 

 

[Blade]

Im enjoying reading people's opinions on this.

It is probably the biggest surprise of the generation for me. I loved it. 

I really need to buy the others.

[bob]

So I finished the main story last night. Absolutely amazing. Probably one of the best stories in a game I've played in a long time, if not the best ever. I don't remember being so engaged in a games plot before. I couldn't wait for the opportunity to fight that smug turtleneck prick, and finally getting to do it was so satisfying.

I was actually complementing the developers on managing to create such a punchable face, but then I found out it's a digital version of the actual actors face, and now I feel a bit sorry for the poor guy.

I've not played the other games, but I'm assuming the reason Majima suddenly gets a shit haircut and a horrendous jacket is because that's what he looks like in subsequent games? Seemed an odd change of direction for him.

Going to do a few of the substories now and see how far I get before I get bored.

[Blade]

Majima is such a bad ass in this game. That first scene with him is so good.

I've not played the other games but I hear he is a bit of a joke character. Which is an odd and absolutely different direction as a character from this game.

[bob]

I think I'm done with the game now. I thought I would do a few of the smaller trophies and finish off the real estate storyline, but the thing is just too damn long.

The game does not respect your time at all. There's just too much pointless shit to do that takes ages. According to Howlongtobeat, the average time to complete the main game is 30 hours, but the time to get the platinum is 136 hours. And most of it is pointless grinding like eating every single meal at every single restaurant. 100 hours of faff. Just overwhelmingly too much to do.

In my opinion, a well designed game should place you about 70% of the way through all the activities in the game, once you complete the main story. Then if you like, you can go through and finish a few other things off. Adding 350% of content into the game is just insanity.

Anyway, good game.

[Vanilla]

I have spotted the Yakuza thread.

 

I've got a love-hate relationship with Yakuza's achivements/trophies. On one hand, they're not stupidly annoying to get. i.e. You just need to play the game's content and not do much else. On the other hand... some of said content is stupid and worthlessly grindy. *Cough* Mahjong *Cough*.

As far as the series goes, I'd rank it up there with some of my favourites. It's really hard to find a game these days with such a silly amount of side content and stupid hijinks like Yakuza has. Makes me glad that Sega kept itself hanging in there so the series could get a resurgence.

[bob]

Lmao.

[Happenstance]

I might have to replay Zero again soon. It might be my favourite game in the series. The era adds so much.

Edited June 4, 2019 by Happenstance

[Happenstance]

Interesting that the above post was my last on this. Found myself tempted to replay Zero again (I never did get around to it after that post) despite having 2-5 still waiting to be played. I think I’ll buy it again on Steam as it’s on sale. Apparently it looks really good on ultrawide monitors.

[Happenstance]