[ZaidH]

@DoctorEldritch Yeah, in all the games before 6, they had a plot point early on that managed to hook me in. In 6 though, I wasn’t really interested in the whole “Haruka got hit by a car and GASP she has a baby!” bit 😅

That reminded me of Mambo No. 5. "A little bit of Ichiban in my life" 😅

😂😂😂

Haha, nope, you actually helped a lot! I was afraid of the grind, but you cleared that up for me. Also, there’s the fact that BG3 came out a year ago, but even after the discount, it’s still expensive. So yeah, like you said, there might be sales later, so might as well wait. LAD was too tempting at $10, so I ended up grabbing it 😄

Oh, I do not mind minigames if they are not needed for substories, I tend to ignore anything not connected to them.

The only time I was invested in these was with Pocket Racing in Yakuza 0 😅 Props to those who actually sit down and complete Mahjong and the various other games.

What they did was move the fighting from skill-based where it depended on your agility to number-based where it depends on your...well...algebra skills 😅

OH NO 💀💀💀 I’m so bad with numbers. Hey, maybe Yakuza games will end up being the catalyst for improving my math skills 😮‍💨

[DoctorEldritch]

@ZaidH This time they were going for...more of a detective story that is sort of growing from a domestic one with Haruka into a full-blown conspiracy, which ends up somehow at the same time ludicrous and completely in the Yakuza vibe. But such is part of the charm of these games, I guess 😋

I am sure you will enjoy LAD even if there is a bit of grind in there. When you bought it, did it come with DLC jobs too?

I guess there are completionists like that out there. Did you do the thing with eating every dish in every restaurant?

Originally Posted by ZaidH

Hey, maybe Yakuza games will end up being the catalyst for improving my math skills 😮‍💨

Oh an how LAD has a whole minigame about passing the exams, and two of those are in Mathhs, I kid you not 😅 Check out the amazing gameplay here at 11:21:

What excitement awaits you now!

[ZaidH]

@DoctorEldritch Yeah, on paper, the Yakuza 6 story is solid, but I personally found the execution a bit lacking. Then again, I watched it on YouTube, so I probably missed most of the emotional buildup 😅

Nope, it didn’t come with the DLC jobs. The package with the DLC wasn’t discounted enough, so I just went with the base game.

Did you do the thing with eating every dish in every restaurant?

Holup, is there a reward for this besides achievements? I ate most of the dishes, but definitely not all of them 😭

NO WAY LMAOOOOO 😂😂😂😂 Underworld Studies! 🤣 Those math questions brought back my PTSD 😭

[DoctorEldritch]

@ZaidH Maybe. It is always hard to "end" a story well. So hard, in fact, that Yakuza didn't manage still 😅

DLC jobs are not that critical, but they do make life easier at points, as I suppose most DLCs like this are designed to do. Still, that is one addition I am very much against in the new Yakuza games, stop with all the microtransactions and paid DLCs, the series never had that before.

Well yeah, if you eat all the food in restaurants once, and all the drinks, and do a bunch of other stuff (defeating a number of enemies in a certain style, winning race cups, complete hostess stories, etc.) you get Completion Points that you can then exchange for some useful items with Bob Utsunomiya, this system existed in most games in one form or the other, I think. You never used that?

To be honest, many of those questions were quite hard. Sony history, music, etc. Definitely can be PTSD-inducing. You can use this video guide if you like.

[ZaidH]

@DoctorEldritch What do you mean? Kiryu’s story is over. Now it’s all about Ichiban and this Joryu guy 😅

That’s... unexpected from RGG Studios. Did they do the same for Infinite Wealth? And yep, I’ve used Completion Points, but I never actually aimed for them—just got some of them organically. So I didn’t even know about the “eating all the food” part 😓 I’ll probably use the guide you linked to clear the tests and grab those points 😄

[DoctorEldritch]

@ZaidH True, but Kiryu still pops up in Ichiban's story, more so in Infinite Wealth, as far as I heard. The Tojo Clan may be gone, but it's fourth chairman's work is never done 😅

I have not looked into Infinite Wealth all that much yet, but from what I hear, it does have paid DLCs. A few are cosmetic and give you some new outfits for characters, but a couple actually have a bit of extra content like an extra dungeon. But I'll need to play the game to be able to say if that content is worth it or not.

Well, with me, I was after completion points for the item that allows you to sprint indefinitely, Yakuza has a lot of going from A to B even with taxis, so I was after that. I think in a couple of games I even used a mod to make sprinting faster.

You can try to use the guild, but remember that they made the test unpausable and questions are randomly selected from a bigger pool (well, it is a test and all), so it may not be that much help. I'd say textual hints with all questions and answers outlined on a sheet rather than in a video like that would be better.

[ZaidH]

@DoctorEldritch Oh man, it feels so weird playing LAD without the Tojo Clan around. It’s almost as integral to the story as Kiryu himself. Seeing how the plot is moving towards modern times, with the police setting up shop in Kamurocho, I do wonder how they’ll tackle the gang aspects moving forward. Maybe Project Century is the answer to this 🤔?

Speaking of going from point A to B, wow, you weren’t kidding about Yokohama being gigantic. I really dislike hailing taxis, but man, it takes forever to reach objectives 😅

Lmao I never thought I’d be stressing over exams in a Yakuza game 😂

[DoctorEldritch]

@ZaidH Project Century may indeed pick up the pace, but that Majima Hawaii experiment is curious as well, they may lean into...more unrealistic aspects of their universe more, rather than going for "more or less realism" than they did before. As of LAD, they did come up with a somewhat logical solution, but I will not spoiler it.

IKR. Previous games were more "compact" but here it almost feels like GTAs, with cars and everything... If you were on PC, you could use something like this. And I think they repurposed Yokohama from Lost Judgement, too...

Well, if there is one thing about Yakuza games it's to expect the unexpected. So yeah... But you're right, last time I had something like that was when I was playing Bully ages ago.

[ZaidH]

@DoctorEldritch Oooh I’m really looking forward to the solution for the gang dynamics in LAD! On that note, would you be interested in an RGG Studios game set in a completely different part of the world, with no ties to the current Yakuza universe?

Oh man, if I were on PC, I’d install a mod for that can-collecting cart immediately 😂 I’m on Chapter 6 now, and the gang is holed up in that dingy apartment across the lake, and Nanoha’s workplace. It’s not helping me remember Yokohama’s layout at all. With Yakuza 0, I had a pretty solid grasp of the map after the initial hours, but this... not so much 😅

YAY, a Bully mention! My heart aches every time I think about what could’ve been with a sequel 😖 Apparently, Rockstar did some work on it, but they ended up canning the project 😭

[DoctorEldritch]

@ZaidH It is less of a solution and more of a possible explanation and you learn it at the very end of the main story.

As for other RGG games, it is a difficult question. One of the appeals of the Yakuza series is that it managed to capture that "weird" Japan vibe, Japan that exists when the stereotypical perception foreigners have of it meets the stereotypical perception Japanese people have of it meets parody meets humour, it is a rare combo. I ant to say locations in those games are as much "characters" as people.

So is it possible to make it somewhere else in the world and not connected to Yakuza? Probably, but finding such a place is hard, not only a place needs to be known, but also weird, controversial, and, most importantly, be a pillar in popular culture. Not sure if RGG can do games about other places than Japan as well unless they contract another studio with local talent, and that too is hard.

Possibly they could do something like that if they focused on some popular universe, like what CD Projekt Red did with Witcher and Cyberpunk, but take a universe that is more comical and fits their vibe. There would probably be something like that out there somewhere, though how well it may be known popularly is another question.

Yeah, Yokohama is a bit too big, I honestly don't know why they made it so big. That's some GTA stunt right there.

Ah, yes, big shame, that, I'd want more Bully. But hey, maybe after RDR remaster they may do Bully, and if that does well, they may make it after all, chances are after GTA 6 they will be swimming in dough and be able to afford to spend it on a project like this. One can hope.