Hello everyone I just wanted to voice my opinion about all these other Yakuza games I've played through these past weeks. I also created a thread about 0 and how I thought it had the perfect balance of everything and how amazing that game was.
So for that matter I also bought Kiwami in the last sale in February (?) and finished that over two weeks and after that I immediately hunted down a copy of 3 (and had 4 and 5 on PS3 +). I've also watched a short recap of Yakuza 2 but also didn't really follow it because of Kiwami 2 in the near future.
I will write a short opinion about every game and then rank them in order.
Yakuza Kiwami - the begining of the end
Felt like a really good remake. The bits with scenes from 0 was a nice touch and this is the game where Kiryu meets Haruka (she is a little devil, but cute). The end fight is one of the most memorable moments in the series for me. Sadly a bit short, but the original was also like this.
Yakuza 3 - Kiryu the dad of the year
This one was really surprising to me because the story itself is very contained. I loved the first part with the kids in Okinawa and getting everyone to know and solving problems with them together. Dad Kiryu is best Kiryu. The game has not that big of an epic story but it also does not need it. The emotional scenes (Kiryu cries in this game! damn) are very heart wrenching. Gameplay wise that was the first Yakuza in the "modern" style without fixed cameras I think and it shows. The graphics are not that good, but totally fine for a playthrough nowadays. Cut content aside I thought the content in this game was okay.
Yakuza 4 - Big Bear, Skyfinance Bro, Detective Counter God and Kiryu should stop getting involved in everything
Game had more of the feel of 0 and Kiwami. It felt way more modern than 3, but the story was stupid. I mean
RUBBER BULLETS THAT KNOCK PEOPLE OUT LIKE THIS?!
and more...stupid plot holes. Also the final fight on the roof felt epic yeah but the whole plan was really really bad. This aside I really liked the whole part with Saejima and Majima. I only knew Saejima from 0 and seeing this whole story unfold was quiet cool to see when you only played 0 before. Detective dude was cool and I missed him in 5. 4 was just okay and Akiyama was the best part of the whole thing.
Yakuza 5 - where shit hits the fan
5 playable characters, 5 storys that should cross at the end. Did they manage to do that without the story being totally absurd? No. Was the ending still good? Yes. Yakuza 5 is a bit of a parody for me. The whole roof scene was the worst scene in the whole series. Everything including why they fight on the roof or Saejimas final battle was just shit.
Strangely I loved the Haruka and Shinada parts. Harukas part was good because you did something different and you had many options and mini games which were fun. Shinadas story part was the best of the whole group with the twists which were only a little bit stupid like
him getting watched by almost everyone all these years
but I loved the whole part with Takasugi. Holy shit what an awesome dude even though he wanted to break every single finger of ours (or didn't really ;)). The ending was okay. Good punch to the gut, but I also thought "Hmm what are they gonna do in 6?"
And then today I started playing 6 and after 2 hours I really really liked seeing the kids again at the begining. T__T I wouldn't have felt like this if I didn't play all these other games.
So to end this short voiced opinion about my playthroughs I rank them in the following order (excluding Kiwami 2/2)
Yakuza 0 > Yakuza 3 > Yakuza Kiwami > Yakuza 4 > Yakuza 5
6 so far seems like a good begining. :)
Anyone who is able to play 3 should play 3 imo. I think it's the most important game in the franchise in regards to Kiryus story and how he changes even more. Game is expensive in many countries though. :(
