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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 24 พ.ย. 2024
- RGG has always been able to balance the goofy with the serious, and that's never really changed. The Ichiban games lean into the goofiness a lot more than RGG has ever done before, but why is that? This goofiness is something that people hate despite being a huge part of the series since the beginning, and some people even say that it makes these games "not real yakuza." That's weird, but that's what I talk about in this video.
Ryosuke Horii interview:
dojimasdragong...
Masayoshi Yokoyama interview:
www.gamespot.c...
Y7 Ichiban model in thumbnail from ChaoAniki on Sketchfab.
Infinite Wealth Kiryu model in thumbnail from Me.
Tracks used in order:
Yakuza 7/Like a Dragon - Grand Prix 3rd Round
Infinite Wealth - Life is 創痍
Infinite Wealth - Cut Scene:Intrust
Infinite Wealth - Life is 邁進
Yakuza 0 - Guitar Substory Track (the iconic one)
Yakuza 0 - Furious Substory Track/"Please, Don't Hurt Me!"
Yakuza 7/Like a Dragon - KIBOU
Infinite Wealth - Let's Go Crazy!!
Infinite Wealth - Mahana
Outro Song:
Yakuza Kiwami - Substory "Happy Ending"
Yakuza always been goofy. but they are more confident of Showing it off.
@@alny0 some might prefer that the goofiness was more of a change of pace of the story's seriousness rather than being the majority of its identity. Hence, people complain when the games were shown as this wacky JRPG rather than a gritty crime drama with 'funny haha' moments sprinkled throughout.
People have the rights to be concerned about the series' tone, but they also have to open with RGG trying to experiment with the stuff they have in their disposal.
I fell in love with the games because they were over dramatic and goofy. Kiryus tone was just different than Ichibans, so it may have come across less goofy to people.
Also I am super happy they gave Kiryu and are now giving Majima some fun. Those guys suffered a lot in the end when the yakuza dissolved and they deserve friends and fun!
Back then, before yakuza 7 release, i was disappointed because they changed the combat, but i said to myself i love Yakuza, i will give it a chance and it turned to one of my best gaming experiences ever because of that i opened to games like persona 4g ,5r , 3r
Edit: Let it snow substory is Peak. It's goofy and almost made me tear 😂 😢
Awesome video brotha! I agree, the goofy part of Yakuza is so important and it is deliberately there for a reason! From one Yakuza youtuber to the next, I subbed! Looking forward to more videos.
You can’t just have my pfp and get away with it…
@@WillyTom-qg2pq Is that you, kyodai?
@@tigerdropfilms no this is Patrick
You could say the most grounded Game is Yakuza 1but then again as a main part of the story you need info from a guy who has a secret underground sex dungeon with a colliseum and he gets the info thanks to his hobo squad with that being said as long as RGG is having fun and its making the games they want to make I'm all for it because this is the way they want to express themselves but like you said if you don't agree or like the new direction it's completely fine just go and play something else if you stoped having fun with the games
thank you for this, this is a beautiful analysis of the games.
I'm not gonna lie and say that the games have never been goofy. But I will say the first game was actually pretty grounded. Kiwami made it goofy. However, the games did get slowly more goofy over time. And the amount of goofiness affecting the main story is ruing the story sometimes.
Rubber bullets in 4 was a terrible twist.
The blank in 6 makes no sense. A blank at that range would still kill a person. That's how the original actor of the first crow movie died
he could have you know just aimed the gun to the side
@@richardlionerheart1945 he didn't. Camera angles showed it was on the head
Sorry Rubber bullets is not as bad as 6's twist.
@@morkgin2459 eh I don't know. Blanks are a common misconception. The rubber bullets was real bad. The scene showed blood coming out and the only reason why there was rubber bullets was because they wanted Saijima me innocent
@@teneesh3376 I am not talking about blanks. I am talking about kiryu's choice and the ship bullshit. Also it is far better than 5's twist.
Best way to explain itchiban
If scrubs was a yakuza game
Here is my two cents on the matter. As a fan who does not find the tonal and gameplay shifts all that jarring, I think that the reason for a lot of the fan’s growing frustration of the series’s tonal shift primarily hinges on the misguided notions that the games were meant to be crime dramas. While there definitely are crime drama elements present in the stories, I always viewed the Like A Dragon games as slightly more grounded Shonen manga. Absolutely ridiculous, unrealistic, and convoluted plots that are held together by the genuine heartfelt emotions displayed by the characters.
The focal point of the games were never the crimes committed by the yakuza, but the crazy situations and conspiracies the protagonists get involved in. It just so happened to be crime related because that was all that could be afforded with the strict budget the games had at the time.
(Warning: Rambling ahead) I think I remember hearing a rumor about RGG doing a GTO Great Teacher Onizuka type game with one of the protagonists getting a job at a high school. Can’t remember if it was Kiryu or Saejima. If this rumor was real, the project was likely dropped due to RGG not having the budget to design an entire school area at the time. Although, RGG is known for reusing assets.
I’m calling it now, the next Gaiden game will take place at Seiryu high and Star either Saejima or Akiyama.
(I would love it if it were Higashi from the Judgement games. Solely for the fact that his English voice actor, Steve Blum, played Onizuka in the english dub of GTO.
Maybe the arcade business didn’t pan out and Higashi decided to take one of the only other jobs he could get, a teaching position at Seiryu High. Now RGG has an excuse to bring back school stories. Maybe we could see what the Mystery Research Club has been up to. Maybe Amasawa joined Yokohama 99. Perhaps RGG can make the robotics club mini game not terrible.
A cool idea would be to implement the vocational school quiz segments from the Ichiban games and have so Higashi is correcting a students paper or trying to teach a class.
Maybe Kaito could get involved by having his son, who is not actually his son but totally is, attend the school. This random idea I thought up in five seconds actually has a lot of potential.)
(Returning to the main topic at hand.) Why is Majima doing weird pirate stuff all of the sudden? Well, the answer to that is quite simple, and it is one I feel most fans are not going to like. The reason why we will never get a 1990’s Majima game that is a Yakuza 0 sequel is because RGG will never allow a story where the protagonist is an active member of the yakuza for the entire duration. Remember, Kiryu was technically a civilian after chapter 1 and Majima was out of the family, currently shackled in Sotenbori as the leashed puppy of Sagawa. I guess RGG’s reasoning is that having a whole game where the protagonist is an active member of the Tojo could potentially be seen as endorsing the life of a criminal. Which was something that Yokoyama and especially Nagoshi were heavily against.
Finally, and this is more of a personal observation, I think this issue might also have something to do with some fans not being able to embrace change. I think people need to come to terms with the fact that we will never get another game like Yakuza 0 ever again. That was lightening in a bottle. Trying to recreate it will only result in an inferior product.
That is why I do not mind RGG experimenting a bit with the whole turn based format. I always prefer trying something new as opposed to playing it safe. Even if the landing does not always stick. But at the end of the day, that is just my opinion. You can think whatever you want about the Like A Dragon (Yakuza) games and criticize them however you wish. Just don’t put others down for not seeing things the way you do. I congratulate those who actually bothered to read this entire comment made by some random LAD fan. 🎉
Yakuza 1 and 2 were absolutely meant to be crime dramas. That's why they got a crime drama writer to write the scripts for those games. Even 3 and 4 are largely crime dramas. 5 was the game that begin to jump the shark genre wise, with stuff like porn reviewer baseball man (no, i'm not remembering his name) and Haruka's dancing segments
@@KyrieKirigiriyeah I forgot to mention the original PS2 games. Yes they do fit the crime drama narrative, for the most part anyway. But from 3 onwards, there was a slow pivot away from the crime element. I would argue that the crime drama aspects in 4 were relegated to Saejima and Tanimura. With a sprinkle in Akiyama’s story. And Kiryu is just sort of there in that game. Guess they didn’t have the budget to make a fourth new playable character.
5 is all over the place, with only Kiryu and maybe Akiyama getting the crime stuff. 6 I would say leans more towards mystery thriller. What happened to Haruka when Kiryu was away? Given the elements that would later be reused for that game, analyzing crime scenes, chasing down suspects, I believe that Yakuza 6 was actually a proof of concept for Judgement.
amazing video, i was trying so hard not to cry
The series title changed for no reason. Change my mind.
I'm not a fan of the dragon engine because it pretty much sucks out the old school charm that drew me into the series. The loading screens when you enter a building and the ps3 textures remind me of games I played on ps1 and ps2. Combine that with how it nerfs objects you use as melee weapons like bikes and stuff, and it just doesn't have quite the same appeal IMHO.
If anything the objects as weapons are stronger because of ragdoll. And the less loading screens the better, but if you prefer it because of nostalgia that's fair, but for most people it's much better and more immersive
One bike could end an entire fight even if it only has 3 hits lol
I came in during the transition to the dragon engine, I played Zero and 6 as my in to the series. So I had no nostalgia for the ps2 and ps3 era asthetic. My only issue with any of the RGG series was with Like a Dragon Ishin, and that wasn't so much the game itself, but because they used the Unreal engine for that remaster to make the process faster.
Glad they found a way to make it less stressful for their dev team, and I'm glad that game finally got localized. But the Unreal engine doing Dragon engine things felt just a TINY bit off to me, and I think it led to some weird graphical issues, etc.
Nothing game breaking, just noticeable.
@@awanshura what do you mean?
@@shizuwolf It's hard to explain how it feels off. Most of it is absolutely fine. But the easiest gripe to point out is the strange graphical glitches. The lighting is what stuck out in my mind. Whenever a light source was VERY bright, the Unreal engine didn't know how to handle it sometimes. Like, the entire section where Kyo was on fire, I remember parts where some characters' hair was such a shiny black, the engine didn't know what to do when reflecting the light of the flames off their hair, so it made them look blonde... like they went super saiyan.
I’ve never seen anyone complain about the goofy ness
I hope with the actual peak of sell of the serie they will localise zero and kiwami 1 and 2 for the rest of the world and probly make the reste of the kiwami too
I don't know why but i stop imaging ichiban's gang preparing to take down some villain and they're like (we got this super evil politician thats using thugs to do his dirty work) meanwhile ichiban is like ( don't forget that he's a level 999 and lives in a huge tower dungeon with his helicopter dragon)
Do you eat the cotton candy from your walls?
My only real issues with Infinite Wealth is that I wasn't a big fan of the new setting and imo the story kind of fizzled out in the final act. Still better than Y6 though, imo.
Still a really good game, though.
Love Yakuza LAD and Gaiden. I'll give Pirate Majima a fair shake like the others.
Yakuza 1 was not goofy. The English dub that doesn't reflect the original artistic intent isn't evidence of anything. Yakuza 2-0, outside of substories, played the goofy plot elements completely straight - the gold castle, the rubber bullets, Kanda's bathhouse - they were all treated seriously in universe even if they were goofy to the player. In addition, the goofiness was still grounded to an extent - it was believable goofiness, like the James Bond films. Starting a little in 6 but full force in 7, presumably due to the influx of western fans from 0, the series just went full on stupid to the point where I can't care about it anymore. It's got to a point where a joke Pirate spinoff is actually canon - imagine if Dead Souls and Cyber-Goda were actually canon, it would render the entire series into a joke.
Ichiban is pretty god damm goofy in the way he acts imo
I love ichiban and I know Yakuza since 2 un play stattion 2ichiban is what I want
I think what most people are bothered by is that the increase in goofiness highlights a problem many RGG games suffer from. A wonky direction.
IW was an absolute mess writingwise. Like, the VTuber thing was just straight up stupid, the romance between Ichiban and Saeko is... there... or not, the antagonists were incredibly underwhelming, Chitose wasn't exactly likeable, Kiryus potline was implemented crudely and moments like the deaths of Wong To and Hanawa felt forced and had no consequence.
The inclusion of even more silly stuff than before kinda didn't do the writing a favor. It felt somewhat flanderized and overall like the writing quality has gotten worse.
But this ain't the first time it felt like that. Y4s finale turned into an absolute clown show, Y5 was bloated with not fully thought through ideas, and the story was breaking down under its own weight. Yet, I still liked every game, including these two. Hell, Y5 might be my favorite. And I could talk about the shit it didn't do well for a long time.
And I still liked IW. I loved playing it for all those character moments.
I loved seeing Kiryu being happy, and I had a blast with Ichiban and the boys overall.
As long as the characters remain intact and true to what they are supposed to be, I'm there. They are what make these games, they are the heart of the franchise.
No matter what they have to struggle through. Be it fighting shirtless on top of a skyscraper or against a giant squid before punching an ancient, Uzi wielding cult leader.
@Casshio I feel a lot of the same way about Infinite Wealth's story tbh. Really feels like RGG wanted to do a lot but had no time to do it again, and it just became Yakuza 5 (2). I guess it just shows that RGG is still RGG especially when they can't beat the clock.
I agree, what makes these game's stories so good are the characters. Even with Yakuza 0, that has a story that's highly praised, people won't talk about how genius the empty lot plot is, it's just the yakuza trying to buy a property. What's really good is how it affects the characters and how they struggle with the situation,
it's not really the plot itself that's the most interesting part. It's how the plot affects the character's lives and how they deal with them, as long as this part is great, I don't think that's a huge problem. The Judgment games though, are the exception, their plots are incredible
@@pedrol5004 I was genuinely shocked by how well the Judgment stories are written.
There are still things you can pick apart, for sure, but it's got some real good crime drama going on. Funnily enough, and in an ironic twist, I do not care for Yagami.
He just feels like a vessel to move the plot forward. I like the side characters way more than him and that's mostly down to Kaito, Higashi, Saori and the very compelling antagonists, but even them are nowhere near the level of my bois from the mainline Yakuza games.
I guess RGG can't do both within the same game. Maybe because the focus simply leans towards different aspects when it comes to the writing of the respective franchises.
And maybe because the writing teams are different. Would explain why Kaito seemed off when he appeared in Gaiden.
@@suhpple They are really pushing themselves. They ought to slow down a bit.
Their pacing these last few years, when it comes to releasing games, has been a bit insane. It's like the release of Y5/6/0 all over again. They, too, released back to back.
But this time it's much bigger in scope, with the much bigger international market and them spin-offs/remakes in between.
I wouldn't be surprised if they announce Kenzan or Dead Souls Kiwami next year, haha
@@Casshiothe games have always been a yearly deal. They save money by reusing assets(essence of Face Grinding has been in every game since the ps2 days).
i saw the thumbnail and i started losing my shit
Amazing video dude I’ve always loved yakuza games and this was a huge twist but nonetheless I adapted to it and I love it also oil up pls 😢
It’s a fine line. But I think that they’ve gone too far now. My main problem is with Ichiban. I want to like Ichiban as a character. But then in combat his “hero” schtick causes him to make it so his teammates get hurt more (forcing them to fight turn based as well). He’s been stated to be a capable fighter without the turns, so it just means he’s dragging others into danger to make up for his pride Because he could handle these fights solo. Not only that, but it turns a heroic fight against a powerful opponent (Tendo) into 7 armed thugs attacking a single unarmed opponent. By the end of the game, I was rooting for Tendo! I really want to agree and fit in with the fans and say I like Ichiban, and I almost do. But he feels like an effort to make the game more wild and wacky and I feel like his antics won’t get him punished.
Kiryu was punished for handling all his conflicts himself, it wore him down over the years.
Yagami is constantly beaten down by strong foes because he restrains himself within the law even if his opponents won’t.
But I don’t think the writers will have Ichiban get called out for this. It feels like he’s a bad person who’s getting justified by the writers.
Ichiban happily drags women into combat, unlike the other protags, and cheats on them later. But we’re supposed to root for him because he’s some gamer self-insert “Guys, its just like persona!” . Why should I want Ichiban and Saeko to end up together when he’s a womanizing coward? Ichiban also hits his teammates when drunk (even the women!).
I feel like the series is trying to keep playing up things for laughs, awkward relationships, goofy battles, zany protags. But the new direction forgot why the story was so famous, the character. Nagoshi struggled to get the violence of yakuza 1 greenlit but it was so necessary to characterize the setting. I want to see Kiryu win because I can see the struggle and risks, I want Yagami to succeed because of the danger he’s in. I want Ichiban to lose because he doesn’t take the situation seriously. If Yagami and Kiryu got careless like Ichiban, the story would immediately punish them. (Rikiya for example). But Ichiban gets away scot-free every time.
Apologies for the rant, especially for the fact that it’s only partially related to the video topic.
I feel like the reason why he is not going to be called out for this one of the main purposes of changing the combat into turned based was to show the theme of freind ship and actually controlling them (and having them walk and talk next to you) makes you feel more connected to them instead of awkwardly fight next to you.
And of course they are going to play along with Ichiban little imagination because you can not play 3 different characters in real time at the same time.
Also multiple protagonists in the series have fought with woman notably kiryu with sayama yakuza 2 and both saiko and sonhee in yakuza 8 and akiami with hana Chan in yakuza 4. But also they are clearly not dragged in fighting with Ichiban every party member is clearly very willing to fight with and FOR Ichiban (especially clear in the cutscenes before fighting MAJIMA in yakuza 7).
I also disagree with you saying that he takes nothing seriously I feel like you tell by the cutscenes and the bar talks that he very much take things seriously but I can see why you think he doesn’t.
I do agree that those “harem” substories are awful though I think yakuza 8s are worse the yakuza 7s
@@someonethatexists.767 I see what you mean. I do think that they could’ve handled the “teamwork” aspect better though. Looking at Judgement, the group dynamic plays out well with several team heat actions.
About my point on his fighting alongside women, my main issue is that Ichiban is dragging office workers and hostesses into fights against major threats whereas Akiyama wanted to keep Hana from fighting (mostly for the enemy’s sake, lol) and Sayama was a trained combatant.
As far as taking things seriously goes, when you look at the fights in the series, they’re very “life or death” if the characters mess around they’ll die. But because of Ichiban’s rule on turns, it means that if someone were to get seriously hurt from a major antagonist, that would be totally avoidable! Kiryu was on death’s door multiple times to protect those around him. But Ichiban conveniently never has to “go all out”. I feel like the writing caters to his antics and he shouldn’t be rewarded for that. On several occasions, when yakuza characters get complacent, someone around them gets hurt, except when Ichiban does it. I think this could be alleviated by giving Ichiban a “dragon’s resurgence” type of ability where he shakes off the turns for a bit. Because frankly, it’s ridiculous to say “We have to go save this person!” And double the time it takes to get there via turns.
I think you might be taking the whole turn based fighting thing a little too seriously. Not only are the essence moves Ichi’s imagination, but a majority of the fights themselves.
A clear example can be seen in Infinite Wealth during the first Yamai fight at Akane’s house. We see Ichiban’s imagination kick in the turn based fighting style in gameplay, but the cutscene shows that in real time, Kiryu and Ichiban are just punching those guys once and knocking them out. They don’t even actually fight Yamai because we can see that he is still on the porch.
Same thing with the fight against Tendo in the end of 7. Although Ichiban might be hitting him with a bat in gameplay, the cutscenes clearly depict him fighting hand to hand by himself. Freelancer is actually his canon job believe it or not. The bat scene was really only there for the Dragon Quest reference.
So no. Ichiban is not literally waiting for the enemy to hit him and his friends. That is just a gameplay thing. In a real scenario, he would either dodge or block the punch. Or likely take the force of the blow if they tried to hit anyone else in the party. Like how Ichiban nearly gets shot to death pushing Tomizawa out of the way of oncoming fire.
Just like how Kiryu and Yagami can break bones and cave the skulls of their opponents but they are relatively fine after the fight, what we see in the gameplay is not what is literally happening.
Is it a weird decision? Yes. But that is apparently what RGG is going with.
@@AnotherLikeADragonFan2019 I know the heat actions are exaggerated by Kasuga’s imagination. But he does let the enemies hit him. This is stated by Ichiban in the tutorial of yakuza 7. As he wants to give them “a chance to fight back”. While I can’t say for sure about the other jobs. Both Freelancer and Hero are what Ichiban uses, as the characters refer to his bad in yakuza 8 in reference to him using it.
@@elijahfyffe5176Yeah I forgot about the tutorial scene. An interesting debate could be had on the whole, let enemies fight back mantra. Sure they could get a hit in here or there but does that include blocking? It is a stretch but judging how Ichiban and the other party members, besides the Tojo battle, Majima boss, and final boss, show no significant signs of injury, I’m inclined to believe that they rarely, if ever, get hit.
Keep in mind that while he does have high endurance, Ichiban is not that physically strong. Sure he can handle himself against common punks, but he won’t last long against someone who actually knows how to fight. You could argue that he went up against Tendo fine, but besides him having a dragon tattoo and being told that he is strong, there is nothing indicating that he is anywhere near the level of someone like Kiryu or the other Tojo legends. Same thing with Yamai. But Tendo shattered glass! But Kiryu exploded a marble statue.
Besides, the winners of those final battles are more determined by who has the right ideology, rather than who is stronger. That is literally what Heat is. The manifestation of one’s force of will. Combined with adrenaline and martial prowess.
Also keep in mind that Ichiban is not forcing the party members to fight alongside him, they fight alongside him by choice. Saeko even makes a point about this when Nanba tries to shield her from a battle. Ichi is not dragging anyone into battle. They can leave at any time and he would not hold it against them. As they say themselves before Ichi goes to fight Aoki, We can survive without you.
Could Ichi be more cautious and treat the situation with more seriousness. Yes he can and should. Bringing a bunch of civilians into a money laundering scheme should have been a red flag. Adachi and the rest of the party totally would have perished if it wasn’t for the last second intervention of Joon Gi. How did Hello Work guy even convince the Liumang to give them the jobs in the first place?
The stories of these games definitely have flaws. They all do. There are also many flaws with the character of Ichiban himself. He is not perfect and he often has a hard time seeing the forest for the trees. But that is the point! Ichiban is learning about life in time with the player.
I could be wrong, but I think Ichiban’s narrative will get progressively less turn based as the games go on. Representing Ichiban growing as a character and coming to terms with reality. Notice there are a lot more real fighting quick time segments in Infinite Wealth, and I am certain that Ichiban is going to inherit Dragon’s Resurgence.
I won’t fault you for not liking him as a character though. I know a lot of people who despise him for some of the reasons you point out. I just wanted to provide you some perspective on how a fan of his character sees things.