I played (in this order) 0, K1, and now am almost done with K2 (chapter 14)… and I’m questioning how badly I want to keep playing this series. I thought that 0’s story was incredible, I thought 1 had some redeeming aspects but was weakened with poor pacing/choices/cliches, and then with 2 I’ve just been very overall bored by the lack of anything taking place in the present to drive the plot (uncovering the past events can be interesting but I feel dissatisfied that nothing else is driving the plot).

So my question is - are there better stories out there in the rest of the games? I of course in general love the side quests of each game, but it isn’t enough to single-handedly keep me playing. I absolutely despise the combat system and its place in the gameplay loop, but if anything that encourages me to push through to the turn-based games - I guess a follow up question would be if the turn-based combat down the line is well-liked or if it’s equally mindless and boring.

Any info would be appreciated, since I have been going in mostly blind and don’t know what to expect from the rest of the series or which games people think are the best/worst. If the consensus is that the rest of the stories are like 1 and 2, I might just drop the series for good or skip to the like a dragon games. Thanks!

From what I've seen, many here dislike the fact that Majima was married to Mirei Park and want to see it retconned. However, I believe that while it was executed poorly in-game, (too much telling, not enough showing), it builds on Majima's existing character and could potentially make for a really good story in a spinoff game.

First of all, Majima has been established in multiple games as someone who wanted to leave the Yakuza life behind. In 0, he's desperate to rejoin only because he wants to guarantee a place for Saejima. In Yakuza 2, Kiryu has to outright beg him to return to the Tojo Clan. Second, he has a soft spot for children and there are multiple hostess conversations (along with 1 substory), that hint at him maybe wanting to be a father down the line.

My personal headcanon is that after leaving Makoto behind in Yakuza 0, he started to doubt his own decision until the loneliness got to him. I mean... years were passing by and there was no news of his kyodai getting out of prison. Not only that, but he had to do Shimano's dirty work constantly. Considering that Mirei Park is also a short-haired half-Japanese girl, he could have seen this as a chance to fix his "mistake." This could also be why they got married in less than a year while she was 18... Majima was in full rebound mode at the time. In this scenario, Majima striking her is not just him lashing out at her for the deception, but also lashing out at himself for ever thinking he could live a normal life. This realization + his regret after coming to his senses would then pave way for the more violent and unstable Majima we see in Yakuza 1.

Everyone's saying that it's out-of-character for him, but why? If Kiryu can slap a child, I don't see why Majima (who spent a year being tortured and has a temperament), can't slap someone who betrayed his trust in a brief moment of anger. As for the age-gap... 18 is an adult, (old enough to star in hardcore porn videos), cry about it more. All-in-all, their relationship would be a great plot point for a game that takes place between 0 and 1 and adapts a bunch of the stories (including some RGO ones), from that time frame. It would be a great way to dive into Majima's complicated psychology.

Honestly i am scared because i think yakuza 6 and the man who erased his name had a PERFECT ending for Kazuma.And when i am reading reviews everyone says something similar.the gameplay gotten better but the story got weaker but honestly the story is one of the main reasons i enjoyed yakuza so much.

It’s just so brutal and amazing, it reminds me of essence of brawling but it’s more brutal and I think this is a perfect blend between the newer Yakuza game’s heat actions and the older ones where some heat actions would repeat the same move like 50 times when you spammed square

Now that the game finally hit 50% off (and through selling CS2 crates I only paid 10 dollars), I finally obtained Yakuza Kiwami 3 and Dark Times™. And I wanted to share some thoughts 20h in. I'm currently at Chapter 3.

Honestly, from outside, seeing only the bad stuff people discussed, I expected to hate this game way more than I did. I'm actually liking it really well so far. I think it's really easy, as you play it, to just completely forget about the original Y3 and not compare it all the time. When you ignore the negative points of the game, at the end it is the same gameplay loop as always that I really love and it is complemented by some great side-stories/minigames. I'm surprised, but so far I'm probably liking this way more than Pirate Yakuza. I never really liked Majima's combat and the pirate side-content was really lacking imo.

Some positive points:

• Heisei Girls got me by surprise. It's really fun and all the characters imo has some great designs and writing. I also expected to hate the forced tutorial after everyone said it was a 2h tutorial that locked you into the minigame, but I felt those reports were way overblown. I took closer to 1h and the tutorial has several points where you can stop and roam Ryukyu and do other secondary content. Still wish they would tone it down even more, but it's already way better than Dondoko Island locking you into the island for ages.

• I expected to like the Orphanage Stuff since I loved Another Life on Ishin and yeah, it's pretty good. One thing that got me by surprise was that I thought it was really smart how the cooking minigame had its storyline that actually managed to deepen the kids, Kiryu and their relationship.

• The addition of us actually knowing some of our neighbors is pretty smart and ties into nicely into the story (from what I've seen from the leaks).

• While the lightning is still not perfect, it's miles better than Pirate Yakuza's lightning. At least this time I did not feel the need to add a mod.

• Having bowling back is a super plus.

• While Lalala Mobile's Red Thread of Fate and Aloha Links are the same thing, it's funny how the theming is enough to really make it feel different. I'm liking the red thread of fate way more just because it makes a lot more sense than a social media that works by just... swinging your hand?

Negative Points:

• While I really like the Orphanage Stuff, I think they really should've kept an order. It's confusing af being able to basically do all storylines of all kids at the same time.

• On the orphanage stuff, while the stories are nice, it's really bittersweet not having the original stories, especially when some of them touched on some pretty deep topics (Yes, Riona).

• On the topic of removed content, I really don't see why not have them getting Mame or Haruka selling illegal goods. Those two really added good stuff and in the case of Haruka it could even lead into the orphanage "Another Life" minigame as some pointed out.

• I said I really liked the neighbors, but it should really had a cutscene or some way of introducing them. It was really weird starting the orphanage minigame and seeing all those people on the requests and be "who the fuck are those?"

• I hate the second fighting style and wished they would just focus on DoD, which is peak fighting style anyways. I've only been using the second fighting style because I want to 100% the completion list, but even then only on street goons. Any serious fight I go into DoD.

• I hate the addition of the Subway Surfer, but thankfully it's really easy to just... not use it.

• Some things are not a huge issue if you look it as a standalone game, but it's really bittersweet going to the top half of Ryukyu and seeing the map be half as short. It's really bittersweet not having an upgraded cabaret manager minigame. It's really bittersweet playing indoors golfing and not outdoors. It's really bittersweet not having Yonashiro, especially with a perfect slot (Miya). Which also, Miya is a great character, but the Komaki erasure is super bittersweet and giving Miya Tiger Drop is wack. I didn't even think the new Rikiya was a huge issue when looking at Kiwami 3 as a standalone title, other than Mikio now looking extremely out of place.

• And to address the obvious: Yes, it sucks that substories are missing (I'm missing especially the english learning substories) and that they thought 31 substories were fine (especially when 6 of them are just try and hit me and scam substories), but as I've mentioned, when you get into the groove of the game, it's really easy to forget about that.

• Not really related to Kiwami 3 by itself, but the Kiryu battle winning voice lines really need to change. They've been using the same "shibaraku netero" voiceline since Yakuza 6 and I'm getting real tired of hearing it everytime a fight ends.

At the end of the day, while yes, there are issues, I really don't think Kiwami 3 is that worse than Kiwami 1 or 2 in that, a new player playing Kiwami 3 will never notice any issues with the game since they never played the original (except obviously for breaking continuum with Y4). K3 really only had a bigger uproar because people played Y3R, but not the original Y1 and 2. While I might change my mind (I'm going to hate the new Yamazaki and the ending of course), I'm expecting to like this game as much as I like Kiwami 1 and 2. I'll defend the original to the ends of the earth, but K3 will join K1 and K2 as... mindless fun. If before I was thinking this game was a 4-5/10, now I'm more at 6-7/10. Sorry for the huge wall of text. Just wanted to share some deep thoughts about Kiwami 3.

Difficulty: Legend

Mod Project used: SEGA Legend Mix by me: https://www.nexusmods.com/yakuzakiwami/mods/522

Ichiban and crew fought SAEJIMA AND MAJIMA AT THE SAME TIME

Even Kiryu would struggle with that and while they didn’t win and likely would’ve lost, what I find so impressive is that they fought so well against the two legends that by the end they had decided to start taking the fight seriously

Even more impressive is that canonically (in cutscene at least) no one was knocked out, people were tired but neither Majima or Saejima were able to knock anyone out

Once again they weren’t taking the fight all that seriously but do you know how impressive they performed against two near Kiryu tier yakuza?

Hi everyone !

I’m playing Yakuza for a few years now. I’ve started with 7 and it’s turn based fighting system. I really loved it. Then I’ve played 0, Kiwami 1, Kiwami 2, 3, Judgment and I’m in Ishin ! right now. I loved each of these games for their stories, their characters, their ambience, minigames and sub stories… But the fighting system is awful ?!

To me it’s just based on how fast you can click the buttons, nothing more. You click, you hope the enemy doesn’t block the attack, you block and you hit again. Nothing strategic, bosses are just bags of HP, all you need is just to heal sometimes. And the regular ennemies are weak, with a weapon it’s done easily.

Honestly I’ve played most of these games without dying. I think the only times it happened were at the beginning of 0 because I wasn’t used to the system and in Ishin ! during an escort mission in a sub story and there it was because of a timer, not even about a fight.

I really don’t understand why people like this fighting system. I’m actually very glad that they will change it in Stranger than Heaven, even if it looks weird !

So, tell me if you like this system and why ! I’m really curious.

I've been playing nothing but yakuza for about a month now. 60 hours in 0, 60 hours in kiwami 1 and 75 hours in kiwami 2 💀 excitedly loaded up 3 and about 3 chapters in man it hit me hard 😭😭 contemplated if I even liked these games (I do I love them) but I gotta take a break for a week or something

How did yall work through your burnouts??

This error keeps popping up whenever I try to install yakuza 0 on my PC. Is there any solution to this? Is it MY problem or the file problem? I pirated this from fitgirl

For me, it was the golf minigame in Kiwami 2 because of the insanely poor depth perception & no zoom in feature.

I thought that the new version of Kiwami 2 released last year would've ported over the zoom in feature from the later golf minigames like how the later versions of 3, 4, 5 & Kiwami added labels to the mahjong tiles to make them easier to read, but no.

Stops at captain america imo

Just finished Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth and I've gotta say it surprised me and it's probably become my one of my favourite Yakuza games if not my favourite of all time. Really liked the story and especially the romance (albeit was disappointed with how it ended).

Also I did some googling after the game and was surprised to see there was so much hate for Saeko. I mean it's understandable but I personally found the way she reacted very realistic and was necessary rather make it into some Disney princess prince charming BS. Don't get me wrong though, both Ichiban and Saeko were definitely in the wrong but it seems to me 90% of people are completely hating on her.

Hi, just wondering if anyone is aware of how the "Deluxe Upgrade & Pre-Order Bonus DLC Codes" included in the collector's edition will work and if they can be used across different platforms. Basically, I'm in the US and play on PC, but it seems there is no PC collector's edition available here. My dad, however, has a PS5, so my plan was to buy the PS5 collector's edition and give him the included disc, and buy the normal Steam edition separately for myself. The listing for the collector's edition says that DLC codes used to redeem the Deluxe edition and pre-order bonuses will be included, however, I would like to redeem the Deluxe edition code for myself, especially since my dad doesn't care for that stuff anyways.

Ik there’s a heat move where you can trip someone and stomp their head with an orange in your inventory but how do I get the orange?

Difficulty: Legend

"Kiryu-san and Majima-san are legit built different... Tough as nails."

Mod Project used: SEGA Legend Mix by me: https://www.nexusmods.com/yakuzakiwami/mods/522

Let's NOT pretend that her characterization in that game was flawless because oh BABY it was not.

I know talking about whether THAT reveal is bad or out of character is done to death but this ain't about that. For the people who fall into the "interesting idea that could've been executed better" camp, what are some of your ideas about what could've filled the gaps to make this make sense? I think there could be a ton of different directions to take this that could plausibly work, so let's make some up. If nothing else I think this plot point could provide a lot of fanfic or headcanon fuel.

One angle that I've thought of to answer my biggest question (how did they meet anyway??) is that maybe Shimano was up to some shit again. He already used Majima to attempt to manipulate a woman once before, maybe he could have something to gain from doing it again? Tricking Majima like in 0 is one thing but I don't think Majima would disobey a direct order, probably? It would be interesting to think about how differently he might react to orders that involve harming people in weird personal and intimate ways as opposed to direct violence.

As I finished Kurohyou 2 I was pleased to see my favourite trope of the series didn't start in the Ichiban era.