Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio (Yakuza, Judgment, Binary Domain + more!) Discussion Thread

[Alphons]

Shogi cheat

Spoiler

Look for Shogi online or download shogi app on your phone.
Pick the hardest difficulty.
Allow opponent in Yakuza to start.
Use his moves in the shogi app and mimic what the app opponent does.
100% foolproof and much faster than using Shogi Basics item

 

[Silentstorm]

Lost Judgment only has one tailing mission required for story and it's like the first thing you do and so far the longest of the game, tailing people seems to take less time overall and thank God, side stories do have more "mouse over stuff to see if Yagami says anything" including one annoying series of side stories about a shady detective, have no shame in saying i didn't even bother with the spy cams over the school side story and just checked a guide online.

Also, new minigames and yes, side stories based on those, not really a fan of some, the Robotics Club mini game is kinda boring and once you get to the main tournament, there is a big difficulty spike i wasn't ready for...because the initial robot model served me just fine and i find the mini game so boring i didn't even feel like investing time in getting materials to make better robots.

Oh, and the Judgment games have no Karaoke, though Lost Judgment has a new dancing minigame which is different from the one in 0 and is more like a standard rthym game.

Yagami is...of the three main characters(not counting the PSP spin-off games because i haven't played them) he is my least favorite, he is stoic a bit too much and unlike Kiryu doesn't seem to emote as much or get invested in stuff, Kiryu is a stoic man but he does react when something makes him angry, or he is near people he loves or gets invested in nerdy stuff at times almost getting child like, still love how in Yakuza Kiwami 1 he outright accepts fighting Majima if it means he won't ruin racing with toy cars for him, and even if he gets good at stuff instantly fast, it doesn't seem like he becomes the best at everything right away.

Yagami however...i guess he celebrates winning in Drone Races and smiles sometimes, but it's subdued stuff compared to Kiryu and Ichiban, and he is far less nerdy, also just seems to be instantly good at stuff, oh, he never danced before...not to worry, the first time he dances in his life he will be instantly compared to a professional dancer, oh, he never skated before...don't worry, the first time he skates in a competition he beats someone that has been skating for a while and instantly knows how to do some tricks, even when it comes to terms of getting injured, he is just...kinda too cool and stoic, like Yagami can't be too excited, can't be too scared, cartoonishly angry or anything, as if he was a standard badass action movie character...and in a way this makes him feel more generic and boring than Kiryu and Ichiban, say what you will, but when they find something they enjoy, they seem to actually become a master over time and really get into stuff rather than Yagami being like "well, i guess this is my 549th amazing skill i have that i just found out...oh well, carrying on" which is the vibe i get from him.

Maybe it's because Yagami's actor is actually famous and was so before they used his likeness for Yagami and Sega can't make him look bad and he has to be cool, professional and amazing all the time unless he gets a time to make a speech about justice and morality.

 

[Silentstorm]

Playing Yakuza:Lost Judgment and the School Side Stories seriously overstay their welcome to an insane degree because of one thing, mini games, holy shit, Yagami becomes a counselor for several clubs and each one has a mini game that you must do, and it's never just 3 or 4 times, but a lot more, like, why do i need to do a dancing minigame 3 to 4 before going to the tournament where you have to do the whole song again, look at how many boxers there are for the boxing minigame!

While that user didn't unlock all of them, you have to fight almost everyone, need to do 4 matches before any significant side story match, it must be of the last row you unlocked, there are also matches for the Robotics Club, and the Esports one, and Skateboarding, and can't forget about the biker gang where by the time you get to the last opponent you just want it to be over with.

And yes, there are tailing missions for them, the dance club tailing mission is shockingly fast and easy, the boxing one has little place to cover and the guy quickly notices you so it's one of those where you feel like you must be barely able to see the guy you are tailing or you are too suspicious.

The school stories do give you gear and skills...and they are like 15 hours worth of content...of many minigames that are either bad or are only kinda fun for 5 minutes before you must do them too often and they become annoying.

Thankfully, it's really a side story, people can completely ignore these and focus on the main story as the villains are completely different...though that means no Amon fight.

 

[Ivan]

I'm hoping Judgement has the same goofiness Yakuza has. This song came on my playlist and I recalled this quest:


TELL EM ONO MICHIO'S COMING FOR YOUR ASS!

 

[Silentstorm]

There are some goofy quests in both, but I think less than the other games, Lost Judgment in particular seems to get the silly quests done fast in the first few chapters though I think chapter 7 or 8 has one really goofy one, the rest seem to go for the Side School Stories and really only the Bike Racing one where you have to play a mediocre racing game 16 times to beat it but it at least has some goofy characters including some that feel like they could be in a Fist Of The North Star game...the other school stories now that I think about it are more teen drama shenanigans...even if former Yakuza are in the boxing side quest.

 

[Ivan]

you have to play a mediocre racing game 16 times to beat it but it at least has some goofy characters including some that feel like they could be in a Fist Of The North Star game

so literally what they did in Yakuza 7. I didn't mind Dragon Kart that much. Not a great diversion ( I preferred the recycling minigame more) but still solid. Thanks!

 

[Deflowerer]

Haven't played Judgment yet but frankly yeah, pretty sure Yagami's character is constrained by his actor. He has been wooden and boring in almost every project, yet he plagues large chunks of Japanese cinematic media due to his idol clout.

 

[Ivan]

 

[Häyhä]

Haven't played Judgment yet but frankly yeah, pretty sure Yagami's character is constrained by his actor. He has been wooden and boring in almost every project, yet he plagues large chunks of Japanese cinematic media due to his idol clout.

Yagami is a great lead character for the Judgment games. Obviously he is quite different from both Kiryu or Ichiban Kasuga, they are after all yakuza who grew up homeless/orphaned and on the street and went to the life of crime where as Yagami has high education and is (or was) a part of the higher class of society. He's more analytical, thinking and introverted than the two, but he also has a fun side and he does show emotions like anger and grief, he's just not as emotional as Kiryu or Kasuga. I would certainly welcome one more Judgment game with Yagami to make up a nice trilogy.

 

[Silentstorm]

His agents do make things harder for Sega, there were restrictions, heck, the reason the games took so long to come to PC was that Yagami's actor agency refused and said they didn't want the actor's likeness on PC...why he could be on game consoles but not PC is anyone's guess.

To a point where Sega easily decided that the story DLC for Lost Judgment wouldn't have Yagami at all but focus on Kaito, with Yagami being out of town and only sending some text messages, it kinda felt like Sega trying to do a Judgment game without Yagami and see if it worked...and the response to the DLC has been nothing but positive, people love the story, Kaito as a protagonist, the new characters and it felt like what Majima's extra story in Kiwami 2 should have been.

Response to the Kaito files and not dealing with a certain agency may lead to Kaito being the next main character and a running gag of Yagami becoming unavailable.

 

[Häyhä]

Yep, the agency crap is completely batshit crazy, but I guess it's just some "Japanese" thing, how things are handled there. Imagine your talent agency trying NOT to get more publicity and audience for their client, but what ever, it is what it is.

Kaito is a great character (still haven't played the expansion as I'm not paying 30€ for it, lol) and I wouldn't be opposed to him starring in Judgment 3 if Takuya Kimura's agency is too dumbfuck to get him more work. However I think Kaito resembles Kiryu and Kasuga a bit too much and therefore I'd prefer to get a final chapter for Yagami.

 

[Silentstorm]

Ok, finally finished Lost Judgment, always get a bit winded after finishing one so i will wait a while before playing Kaito Files.

Still, no spoilers, but the game felt much easier than any previous game in the franchise, with the hardest thing about it being QTE's in that in hard mode, you have to press various buttons, with a controller you got directions, buttons and the triggers as options, sometimes one of each for a QTE which makes those harder than normal.

Not required to win, but investing in health is a good option, by the end some enemies could deal a lot of damage and those are always in big groups, even with all the first and style based health boosting skills, it felt like some could one shot Yagami if they get a red aura, still not enough to actually make this game that tough.

Congrats, there is only one tailing mission in the story, bad news, those first person investigation segments seem even more common, there are now stealth sections where mooks now seem to get abnormally strong as Yagami loses in a short cutscene if he is caught and like many stealth sections in games that aren't about stealth...they are not great, oh, and parkour, you may be thinking it's you running across rooftops and doing sick jumps, nope, it's slowly going up or down buildings with a stamina meter and those appear a bit in the story and feel like another worthless addition the developer put just to be different.

It's boring but the last stage really requires it, and that damn Dice VR game has Parkour challenges, and in The Gauntlet, there are parkour challenges as if the developer actually...thought the parkour is fun in this game somehow and not something that makes you wish they would just play a cutscene or let you run instead, there are other games that do parkour much better, oh well, maybe something that can be done better in future games.

I did like the game though, story wise it's decent even if i personally think Judgment had a better story.

 

[Ivan]

How would you assess the difficulty. I wasn't a fan of how the difficulty resulted in more annoying encounters before, with many enemies spam blocking or countering.

 

[Silentstorm]

In hard mode, i didn't see many enemies countering if at all, or even blocking, but by the end there are usually one or two guys with a bigger lifebar and they have super armor, at times i could be walloping and they just seem to do a normal attack, one encounter by the very end even has a guy like that whose normal attacks either one shotted me or took like 95% of my health...and i don't mean the guy getting a red aura or anything, just regular attacks, but running and doing Heat Actions pratically destroys that one particular bastard.

So there isn't that many blocking and countering, there are some guys with super armor...but Heat Actions destroy them and the game has new mechanics to help, in particular the Snake Style that can deflect melee and melee weapon attacks, any that aren't red aura attacks, and it's even easier to do than Tiger Drops, it's easy to see them attacking and have Yagami just push them aside though the snake style...which also can take away guns and weapons from any mook(yes, really, if you found guys with swords or bats annoying in previous games, Yagami's first attack in Snake Style can basically make them drop their weapons or guns and if they don't break, you can use them) unless it's a boss in disguise mook, but deflection is enough for those guys usually.

 

[Häyhä]

Lo and behold, just when I was complaining about the price of Kaito Files yesterday, Sony puts up a DLC sale and it's 30% off. So I folded like a house of cards and now I'm back on the streets of Kamurocho for who knows how many times. I'm not even joking but it kinda always feels like coming back "home" with each new title in the series.

 

[Rean]

I'm not even joking but it kinda always feels like coming back "home" with each new title in the series.

I feel the same.

 

[Alphons]

Puyo-Puyo?

More like Pain-Pain

 

[Nirvash]

How are the minigames in judgment?

 

[Modron]

How are the minigames in judgment?

Darts, Mahjong, Batting Cage, Drone Racing, UFO catcher, Shogi, Virtua Fighter 2/5, Fighting Vipers, whatever the VR game was called, Kamuro of the Dead, and 2 more arcade games I can't remember the name of offhand. Kind of lacking compared to earlier games and also less rewarding since there are no completion rewards nor equipment in Judgment just a handfull of skill points and some achievements for your effort.

 

[Silentstorm]

In Kaito Files, is it true that Kaito fights like Kiryu in Yakuza 0 and he has basically the Beast and Brawler styles?

That is what I heard and that seems kinda lazy even if Kaito being able to pick bikes to fight people is awesome.

Also, did Kaito at one point in his life just see Kiryu fighting twice and both times yelling "That's rad!" and then stealing Kiryu's moves?

 

[MpuMngwana]

Lol the Judgment main villain actually fails when he tries to pull off the series' staple gambit of pulling out a concealed weapon after being beaten and killing someone important

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Lol the Judgment main villain actually fails when he tries to pull off the series' staple gambit of pulling out a concealed weapon after being beaten and killing someone important

Fucking finally. At least someone is a learning animal.

 

[Endemic]

Ishin preorder is up, releases February 2023: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1805480/Like_a_Dragon_Ishin/

 

[aweigh]

Last Judgment game update introduced stutters when running around Kamurocho. Similar to what happened with Yakuza: Like A Dragon though not as severe; hopefully this time it doesn't take months to fix it... dropped the game until the stutters get patched out.

 

[Silentstorm]

Ishin preorder is up, releases February 2023: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1805480/Like_a_Dragon_Ishin/

A rare game where i actually want to pre-order even if the pre-order bonus isn't that much...unless you can use costumes without having to beat the game, i mean, extra weapons are cool and all, but even then i expected some sillier weapons for a pre-order, i mean, Lost Judgment at least gave you extracts that in one battle basically gave you super powers, i recall one big endurance fight at the end of the game and gleefully using that energy wave extract to basically launch Kamehamehas at crooks...and doing the final boss fight in a joking way by giving Yagami lightning powers and more after doing it the normal honest way.

This is...just normal swords and to be fair, a cannon, does the game have some mechanic like weapons breaking?