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

[karoliner]

Direct-feed version of the april fools video.

 

[Lyre Mors]

That was actually really cool.

 

[Hoaxmetal]

Rookie mistake - making April Fool's joke that people actually want to be real.

 

[Deflowerer]

Wouldn't be surprised if we get a minigame like that.

 

[HoboForEternity]

Rookie mistake - making April Fool's joke that people actually want to be real.

japanese developers are always doing that.

 

[Deflowerer]

Rookie mistake - making April Fool's joke that people actually want to be real.

But then there's instances where they become true: iirc Arika's fighting game was announced on April Fool's day and now R TYPE FINAL 2 also seems to be the real deal after all.

 

[HoboForEternity]

finally finished yakuza kiwami. it isn't as good as the yakuza 0. also kiwami is made after yakuza 0 but i dunno. everything feels like a step back. character animation and cutscenes are renderred better in 0, especially the facial animation looks better in 0. combat is mostly the same, but yakuza 0 also have better bosses.

Spoiler

the main story arent as good as yakuza 0. the characters don't get me as invested as 0 was. i mean there are still cool characters like date, but compared to people like tachibana, oda, makoto, lee the characters in kiwami don't hold water. the plot is a bit eh and the fact only the context provided from yakuza 0 made it better (such as kiryu's relationship with nishikiyama, how sera, dojima, and other characters that killed off-screen in kiwami were pretty barebone the way how they were presented in kiwami alone.) without yakuza 0, they are all feel 1 dimensional and you can describe them in 1 word. nishiki is jealous, majima is crazy, kazama is boss.

on their defense, the flat story is probably a remnant from 2005 original yakuza game. i heard yakuza 2/kiwami 2 and all other games onward is alot better story/character wise. the substory in kiwami 1 also alot more shallow compared to those in yakuza 0. most of them are just kiryu getting mugged or scammed. yakuza 0 had us exterminating cults, go on a treasure hunt, etc. the good sidequest from yakuza kiwami is usually the one that ties to the main story or the new addition to connect with 0 or the sequels.

by no means kiwami is bad IMO, it just doesnt reach the peak and expectations set by 0 as my debut into the series. kiwami 2 looks alot better from the trailers

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

Kiwami and Kiwami 2 were both clearly made with a lower budget than mainline entries like 0 and 6, one good example of this is that Kiwami 2 has a LOT less voiced lines than 6.

Anyway, the story in Kiwami is by and large that of 1, most notable difference is all the Nishiki cutscenes about what happens to him while Kiryu is in prison being added in. And they are an excellent addition, since it gives a lot more depth to Nishiki and his change, and builds on what they'd done in 0 by making it clear that it isn't about jealousy but that fundamentally Nishiki had spent his entire life just following after Kiryu and when he's suddenly placed in a situation without his bro around he's completely at a loss.

 

[HoboForEternity]

So the flashback scenes are kiwami added? Yeah, those were quite nice.

 

[Deflowerer]

The plot of 1 even back in the day was largely an excuse to get you introduced to the city and characters, so it's a bit barebones, yeah.

 

[taxalot]

I wonder if they will bring 3 to 6 on PC.

 

[Deflowerer]

I wonder if they will bring 3 to 6 on PC.

Pretty obviously yes. I think they are even going for the 0 to 6 release schedule on PC, instead of dropping 6 earlier.

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

Well I want to know if they're bringing the 3 to 5 rereleases to the West in general.

 

[Terra]

Speaking of the changes from Y1>Kiwami and the relative strength of the story in each, one of the things I thought they were going to do in 0 was retroactively flesh out Yumi a bit more.

Spoiler

Having just finished Kiwami myself I was reminded that just like in Y1 original, despite being mentioned you never actually interact with her till the very end of the game and I think one brief cutscene. Then in 0 I think she was only mentioned (to my recollection) but never actually showed up. Just struck me a bit of a weak link in Y1's story and a missed opportunity having recompleted it again.

 

[Deflowerer]

Yeah, doesn't make sense dude stays a virgin for a character we have barely seen.

 

[HoboForEternity]

i was messing around in google map Kabuki Cho, and i found that expensive BBQ restaurant in kamurocho yakuza

some part of the town looks different from the game's counterpart but considering, kamurocho feels friggin authenthic in the game

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

Another example of finding a real world counterpart to a restaurant is the outdoor ramen restaurant in Sotenbori (in Sotenbori it's probably easier in general finding the Dotonbori counterparts since they have such big signs advertising the restaurants there).

 

[Terra]

i was messing around in google map Kabuki Cho, and i found that expensive BBQ restaurant in kamurocho yakuza

If you've never seen it before, this dude has a bunch of videos showing off the real life locations that Kamurocho is based off. It's a good watch.

 

[flyingjohn]

The more i play yakuza 0 the more the cracks are starting to show.

Every single thing after chapter 3 minus the core brawling and story are just tedious.

Real estate is a boring grind,the subtories drop in quality and amount and most new mini games are just bland to terrible.(cat fights and telephone club especially)
Kinda neutral at the cabaret club.
The rewards for estate and cabaret are great(new styles) but i don't think it was worth the boredom to unlock them.

The rest of the game just never lives up to that chapter 2 high.Especially the pocket circuit sub story.

I know they are all optional,but that is pretty much ignoring a prety big chuck of the game.
What a shame.

 

[Misco Jones]

Judgment may come to PC says producer
"It is considered as one of the options."

...

"I think the hurdles have been lowered by putting [Yakuza] on Steam," Hosokawa said. "I think that we were able to increase the player base because people who do not have PS4 can also play the games. At present, [Judgment] has not been decided yet, but it is considered as one of the options. We are in the process of considering the possibilities not only for Steam but also for other formats."

https://www.pcgamer.com/judgment-may-come-to-pc-says-producer/

 

[Readher]

PC version of Yakuza Kiwami 2 spotted on Metacritic.

https://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/yakuza-kiwami-2

 

[Gearmos]

SEGA has a new profile avatar on Steam:
https://store.steampowered.com/publisher/Sega/

(Bayonetta, Vanquish or Catherine were teased in a similar way. This time it hints Kiwami 2)

 

[Urthor]

The more i play yakuza 0 the more the cracks are starting to show.

Every single thing after chapter 3 minus the core brawling and story are just tedious.

Real estate is a boring grind,the subtories drop in quality and amount and most new mini games are just bland to terrible.(cat fights and telephone club especially)
Kinda neutral at the cabaret club.
The rewards for estate and cabaret are great(new styles) but i don't think it was worth the boredom to unlock them.

The rest of the game just never lives up to that chapter 2 high.Especially the pocket circuit sub story.

I know they are all optional,but that is pretty much ignoring a prety big chuck of the game.
What a shame.

The problem with this thesis is the idea that you should be playing JRPGs without speedhacks IMO.

Never play JRPGs without speedhacks to speed up travel/grind/random shit

 

[Deflowerer]

Hopefully summer release.

 

[flyingjohn]

The more i play yakuza 0 the more the cracks are starting to show.

Every single thing after chapter 3 minus the core brawling and story are just tedious.

Real estate is a boring grind,the subtories drop in quality and amount and most new mini games are just bland to terrible.(cat fights and telephone club especially)
Kinda neutral at the cabaret club.
The rewards for estate and cabaret are great(new styles) but i don't think it was worth the boredom to unlock them.

The rest of the game just never lives up to that chapter 2 high.Especially the pocket circuit sub story.

I know they are all optional,but that is pretty much ignoring a prety big chuck of the game.
What a shame.

The problem with this thesis is the idea that you should be playing JRPGs without speedhacks IMO.

Never play JRPGs without speedhacks to speed up travel/grind/random shit

I don't really have a problem with any grind in jrpg's since the grind is mostly the core gameplay repeated.
Yakuza grind is not related to brawling and is mostly just very shallow repetitive stuff that you have to beat to actually access the bigger chunks of the brawling options.
That is just mind boggling to me. Almost as bad as putting unlimited running as a cp requirement.