Yakuza 4 - Official Thread of Nagoshi the Gingerbread Man

[Sega Uranus]

Last section, 20+ hours in. Yes I got the game on Thursday night.  :oops:

I am really surprised how much I liked the characters. Tanimura seems annoying (and kind of is), but his play style is really interesting and how he accesses some parts of the world are really cool. Taiga's play style seemed awful in the demo, but I love it in the full game! Especially how awesome of a feeling it is to bounce people around like crazy. Whoever wants realistic physics in this series needs to GTFO.

That said, I was also surprised with how much I liked Taiga's storyline, though it was pretty awkward when my mother walked in on the first scene with him and Haruka.  :shock: Akiyama's story was kind of slow, but he is a great character and Hana is kind of cute in a weird way. DON'T HATE.

Some of the new additions are some of the smartest things I have seen added to any game sequel in years. Even little touches like how bosses' music starts off during the cutscenes and seamlessly blends with their introduction... So badass...

I am tired so everything I typed out just now is probably really weird. Groovy!

[SOUP]

Akiyama and Hanna were pretty great. I'm glad they'll be showing up in Of The End.

[Sega Uranus]

I love how the extra content in this game is so expansive. I was just trying to see what Taiga's battle trainer mode thing was like and spent three hours straight on just that, and I only completed one of it's sections out of like... Seven?

Not just for that, but everything... I think this game topped Skies of Arcadia as my favorite RPG of all time. I have no idea why the whole community is not going nuts over the title. What a masterpiece!

[CrazyT]

Is it me or does kazuma look better in yakuza 4?

[George]

Being stabbed will do that to you.

[CrazyT]

Lol. Don't know of it was mentioned yet, but even if I did end up satisfied with his changed look in yakuza 3, it seems as if they adjusted his looks a little bit to make him look a bit more similar to his ps2 renders.

Well anyway, this is so far the best yakuza game i've played. Man what a storyline. They cross each other in such a fine way that you don't even care when they change.

[Sega Uranus]

It is the same model as far as I can tell, his animations are different/more realistic though, maybe that is it?

I know that Sonic Unleashed attempted to emulate how Yakuza handles substories, but I really hope they go full throttle with it this time in Sonic Generations, especially with how much they are trying to sell it on just nostalgia alone. I love how you are constantly meeting with characters from past Yakuza games in really very unique ways. Even simple stuff really makes it that much more special.

Even if I am very mixed on OF THE END, I cannot wait for it now. I am really, really hoping for an E3 announcement! Fingers crossed the title is The Yakuza of the Dead.

[Aki-at]

I see Sanus has just beaten [spoiler:169gc7m3]the Joker![/spoiler:169gc7m3] Yes, the series is becoming pretty great when it comes to borrowing from other franchises, I can only hope Of the End has tonnes more of this stuff, seems like it is going to though!

Though back onto Yakuza 4, it's great to see so many NPCs return, it really builds a sense of identity for Kamurocho, in particular when [spoiler:169gc7m3]Tanimura meets the artful dodger and how Kazuma basically ruined his life.[/spoiler:169gc7m3]

It's a great game overall and the best in the series for me.

[MadeManG74]

I still think I enjoyed Yakuza 3 more than 4, but it's really really close. The main difference is I liked playing just Kazuma through the whole game and slowly building an enourmous repertoire of moves rather than having smaller amounts per character.

But yes, the cameo appearances in the game are awesome, more games need to have thinly disguised appearances.

Here's a list me and Aki-at have come up with from Yakuza 4:
[spoiler:12908k49]The Joker - Purple Killers Leader
V (V for Vendetta) - Assassin's Squad leader
Dr Emmett Brown - Minimura (sp?)
Bruce Lee - Bruce Ebimura (Sp?)[/spoiler:12908k49]

[Sega Uranus]

I was having so much fun with the game. I decided to start the hostess stuff, and for the most part I enjoyed it until...

Why is the Hostess Maker so much worse and way harder than it was in Yakuza 2? Literally everything I do seems to make her less requested and her stats drop. I just wasted a damn hour of my life on this garbage.

How am I supposed to know what is a conservative outfit, for instance? There are no stats to inform me like in 2. Even worse is how there are like 40 things you can change about her so it seems like it will take forever unless I just check extremely detailed guides to cheat.

You cannot even alter the building either. Why did people bitch about SEGA removing this from the English version of Yakuza 3? It is just not fun at all.

I swear, if THIS shit is what keeps me from getting the platinum trophy I will freak out.

[Centrale]

You cannot even alter the building either. Why did people bitch about SEGA removing this from the English version of Yakuza 3? It is just not fun at all.

There is a certain segment of the internet population that is looking for any excuse to bitch about Sega.  But I agree, I've never been that interested in the hostess portion of the series.  It's just a lot of trial-and-error.

[George]

I don't think they are. You just have to remember what they say and how they are. Its easy to guess the right answers.

[Sega Uranus]

It is not meeting with the Hostesses that bothers me, I actually like that. Some of the comments are hilarious, like how when one girl says she is so upset with her dog pooping while he walks and how you can insinuate that he learned it from her.

It is the "Number 1 Hostess Maker" that I dislike. It is really tedious and requires too much luck. It was way better in Yakuza 2 where you ran the whole building, could expand it and stuff. In this you just tell her what to wear and she gets stressed out when you tell her to have a break. FUCK.

[Aki-at]

As far as hostess stuff goes, Yakuza 2 still is the best at it I felt. But overall I just avoid that part of the series, could never understand the outcry against it being cut in Yakuza 3.

[Ben]

Well people don't like having content cut from localizations. It's just a matter of principle.

The fact that the localization was a year late didn't help.