Like A Dragon Gaiden

[DANGERMAN]

Strange one this, right off the bat it seems like one of the stupider Yakuza games. Kazuma is now lightning quick, and has a kind of magic electric whip that he uses to fling enemies around. It can be used to grab weapons (I've not actually managed to get this to work) and outside of battle there's items hidden around the world that can be reached with the whip. 

 

But then it's also the least whacky game since the original. For the few hours I've played there's no break from the story, no buying porn mags for a child, no catching pantie thieves, it's very straight melodrama. 

 

It's good though, although once it gave me the choice to switch to Kazuma's usual style I've pretty much stuck with it. There's no experience this time, which is a bit of a mixed blessing. To get stronger you have to spend money, but there's a lot of things eating your money early on, not least healing, so progress is slow. It almost feels like it encourages grinding more than if the game was packed with side missions and xp 

[mfnick]

I’ve only put 2-3 hours in so far. I’ve stuck with his new fighting style though, it’s so easy to pop people up and juggle them with it. Yakuza style feels a bit too slow to me now. 

[mfnick]

@DANGERMAN Have you reached Akame yet? I unlocked her stuff last night and that seems to be where the more ridiculous stories are. Just done one where I was trying to eavesdrop on some Yakuza and an old (in age and instalments) flame kept screwing it up. 
 

Did the coliseum mission too, that ending with the tigers! Amazing! 
 

Im starting to really get into this now after a bit of a lukewarm start. 

[DANGERMAN]

22 hours ago, mfnick said:

@DANGERMAN Have you reached Akame yet? I unlocked her stuff last night and that seems to be where the more ridiculous stories are. Just done one where I was trying to eavesdrop on some Yakuza and an old (in age and instalments) flame kept screwing it up. 
 

Did the coliseum mission too, that ending with the tigers! Amazing! 
 

Im starting to really get into this now after a bit of a lukewarm start. 

Yeah, I've been doing the small stuff around time, and checked out the club. I've encountered the old flame mission too, but I think that might be where I turned off last night 

 

Got to say, I started it on my main pc, but played a couple of nights on the Steam Deck and it runs pretty well on the defaults. Capped it to 40 after it was more regularly hitting 50 itself, but there's room to drop settings further and up the FSR 

[DisturbedSwan]

Have put in almost 4 hours into this so far, definitely agree that is the most serious in tone a Yakuza/LaD game has been for awhile, the first chapter was petty much all traditional stoic gruff Kiryu-san rolling his eyes as he needs to beat up some more bad dudes.

 

Not far into Chapter 2 now, just met Akame for the first time and she seems like a cool character. Done a little bit of exploring around Sotenbori, recognising some of the buildings from when I was there last month, playing some arcade games, Billiards etc. and that's about it so far.

 

I've been using both fighting styles, I think the new one (spy?) might be better for groups but for one on ones I prefer the Yakuza style. It feels like a 'back to basics' entry really, especially compared to LaD 7 (which was just chock full of stuff to do and distract yourself with) it's no bad thing at all, it has felt streamlined and more focused than recent entries. It's so nice to be back playing as Kiryu again with the real time battle system and everything as well, as much as I do like LaD 7's new turn-based system.

[DisturbedSwan]

Finished this on Sunday, took me either 30 hours according to Plat the game or 38 hours according to PSN. What a difference having the PSP makes to my playtime, crazy!

 

Pretty much loved every second of it, such a superb game and a return to a much smaller more digestible LaD game after the mammoth that was LaD 7.
 

I guess there's nothing really new here but it's a nice midquel that helps explain some of the events from LaD 6 throughout LaD 7, leading into LaD 8 early next year. It's a little bit like that GTAIV DLC at times as you see the other side of the curtain so to speak on events that go on throughout LaD 7, even some of the cutscenes from that are reused here but it's such a great game.

 

I guess you could argue this could've been DLC (and I believe it started off that way) but there's enough new stuff here for its length that it still feels worthwhile. For the Plat hunters out there it's a pretty easy Platinum to get as well.

 

Without giving anything away, the ending to this game is one of the series very best, with one of the most emotional moments at the very end. The only thing that really grated on me a bit was the Coliseum missions/story line, there was just a little too much of it really.

 

Pics and Plat:

 

 

 

Spoiler

 

 

[mfnick]

I’ve just completed this now too. While I still really enjoyed it, personally I’m nowhere near as big a fan. The side missions felt very repetitive very quickly compared to normal and apart from a few early ones they really miss the fun and craziness that the series is normally great at. Too many of the story missions felt like filler IMO. & really, the main story was a bit boring at times in general. 
 

It’s still a really enjoyable experience though. The high points are worth putting up with the more middling bits & you’ll still get a lot out of it if you’re a classic Yakuza fan. It also has one of my favourite final boss fights of any game I’ve ever played within just a great final in general. 
 

7/10

[AndyKurosaki]

I absolutely loved this game, it’s one of my absolute favourites of 2023. I adore the Yakuza series, and Kiryu is an absolute legend. 

 

This may be short in comparison to a full length Yakuza game. But that wasn’t an issue for me. Too many games use an absolutely massive map, with an overwhelming amount of icons with stuff to do. Yakuza uses a smaller map, but there’s always something to check out. 
 

I vastly prefer the original combat system of this, to the RPG style of Like A Dragon. On my PS4 playthrough of LAD, I gave up about halfway through, due to the increasing difficulty spikes. Completing Gaiden made me give LAD another chance on PS5, which I eventually also completed. But still, there’s just something far more satisfying about kicking arse, hand to hand. 
 

And as for the ending of Gaiden? I won’t spoil it. But it was one of the most emotional moments for me, in over 40 years of gaming. 
 

This may not have won any ‘Game of the Year’ awards. But to me, it was a strong contender. 

[DANGERMAN]

I finished this at the weekend, and had I done so earlier I think it would have been a little higher on my GOTY list. Not top, but probably 3rd. It's really good, up there with the better Yakuza games, not least because it's more condensed. 

 

I think I ended up falling on not really liking the leveling up system, there were too many moves I just didn't bother spending money on because I just wanted more health and attack, so my combat experience barely evolved. 

 

As others have said, the end is really well done, genuinely a bit emotional if only because we've spent so long with the characters and the world at this point. Brilliant stuff. I'd be ok with more of these more bitesize LAD games going forward, especially if they want to focus on other characters for the main series 

[AndyKurosaki]

Yeah, there was a lot of moves that I never really bothered using. Zero remains my all time favourite game in the series, but Gaiden is most definitely up there with the best of them. 
 

It’s extremely rare when a game has hit me as emotionally as the ending of Gaiden. It probably won’t hit as hard for people that aren’t as familiar with the series. But for those of us who have been with Kiryu since the start of his journey, it had me close to tears. 
 

If the Judgement series is boned due to licensing issues with the main actor, I’d most definitely be up for more Gaiden style games. To me, I’d far prefer playing an area like Kamurocho, which is small but packed with things to do, than play a Ubisoft style massive map of a game, but an overwhelming amount of icons on the map to sort through.

[mfnick]

10 hours ago, AndyKurosaki said:

the Judgement series is boned due to licensing issues with the main actor, I’d most definitely be up for more Gaiden style games. To me, I’d far prefer playing an area like Kamurocho, which is small but packed with things to do, than play a Ubisoft style massive map of a game, but an overwhelming amount of icons on the map to sort through.

This a million times over. 
I’ve played these same areas in Yakuza many times and spent literally hundreds of hours in them without getting bored. In fact I’ve just grown to love visiting these same areas over and over more with time. I know them intimately and that just adds to the experience. Whereas I get bored within 10 hours of most generic open world games. Especially Ubisoft ones. 

[AndyKurosaki]

Exactly. There’s always just so much to do in a Yakuza game. And each time you bump into a new side quest, it’s always exciting, because you know it’s most likely going to be absolutely insane, and well worth doing. 
I’m most definitely looking forward to getting back into Infinite Wealth when I get home from holiday on Friday. But it’ll take some getting used to being in a completely new map in Hawaii. That being said, I can’t wait to see what they’ve come up with.

[spatular]

Been playing some sega racing classic 2, its good fun ive been enjoying it, won all the races so probably done with it now, i mean its not outrun 2 but what is.