A game with a story that's half yakuza 3 and half yakuza 6 is a mostly enjoyable time
Erm...kyoudais... wasn't this game supposed to be about Ichiban...?
Hawaii's alright. I take issue with how they utilize it more so than the location itself on paper. It has hardly any distinct locations that are utilized in main story scenes, which makes it a lot harder to build a mental image of this 3D space. However, I must add, every enemy NPC speaks in generic 'guy we grabbed off the street' ps2-core english one liners and it is brilliant. I was smiling from ear to ear every time an American yelled "I'LL SUE YOU" to me or when a bleeding enemy said "I JUST DONATED TO A BLOOD BANK!" etc. It felt like I was in America. I've never seen a more damning example in favor of how non-English battle lines should be subtitled in English (why aren't we doing this yet? 13 Sentinels Aegis Rim did this 5 years ago)
This game is very odd. It's a good time. I love a lot of it, but the stuff I don't like is unusually frustrating and I haven't been annoyed at a story in this series (wait does Lost Judgment count . . .) since yakuza 3 or 5. The Yakuza 3-ness of the story structure is really funny actually, trust me. In both games I thought to myself "Ok now the story is going somewhere" before realizing two chapters remained until the game was over. Also one of the central antagonists is maybe some of the worst shit the series has ever seen, I love it.
Virtually everything except the main story is a clear step up from Yakuza: Like a Dragon. It's so good that the game is worth playing despite the main story, even in a game genre I primarily play for its sense of adventure across its main storyline. There's still a lot of narrative enjoyment to be had, primarily in everything they decided to do with Kiryu's nostalgia-core gameplay systems as well as the optional added characterization of your party members. I'm also finding it harder and harder to be pissy about Kiryu's story not concluding by Yakuza 6 (a game I love) when they decide to add even more excellent closure with every new title that features him.
Yamai is the best guy ever, he is the true number one and I love him.
I'm excited to see how the nuanced story of Wong is developed in future installments!
Erm...kyoudais... wasn't this game supposed to be about Ichiban...?
Hawaii's alright. I take issue with how they utilize it more so than the location itself on paper. It has hardly any distinct locations that are utilized in main story scenes, which makes it a lot harder to build a mental image of this 3D space. However, I must add, every enemy NPC speaks in generic 'guy we grabbed off the street' ps2-core english one liners and it is brilliant. I was smiling from ear to ear every time an American yelled "I'LL SUE YOU" to me or when a bleeding enemy said "I JUST DONATED TO A BLOOD BANK!" etc. It felt like I was in America. I've never seen a more damning example in favor of how non-English battle lines should be subtitled in English (why aren't we doing this yet? 13 Sentinels Aegis Rim did this 5 years ago)
This game is very odd. It's a good time. I love a lot of it, but the stuff I don't like is unusually frustrating and I haven't been annoyed at a story in this series (wait does Lost Judgment count . . .) since yakuza 3 or 5. The Yakuza 3-ness of the story structure is really funny actually, trust me. In both games I thought to myself "Ok now the story is going somewhere" before realizing two chapters remained until the game was over. Also one of the central antagonists is maybe some of the worst shit the series has ever seen, I love it.
Virtually everything except the main story is a clear step up from Yakuza: Like a Dragon. It's so good that the game is worth playing despite the main story, even in a game genre I primarily play for its sense of adventure across its main storyline. There's still a lot of narrative enjoyment to be had, primarily in everything they decided to do with Kiryu's nostalgia-core gameplay systems as well as the optional added characterization of your party members. I'm also finding it harder and harder to be pissy about Kiryu's story not concluding by Yakuza 6 (a game I love) when they decide to add even more excellent closure with every new title that features him.
Yamai is the best guy ever, he is the true number one and I love him.
I'm excited to see how the nuanced story of Wong is developed in future installments!