Didn't give this game that much attention at first since my Yakuza phase has passed a long time ago, started the franchise back in 2020 when the 'Dame Dane' meme began and I got really engrossed in the games and the story. It's a very engaging series with fun combat and likeable characters. Eventually the magic died out and I jumped onto other franchises and games, sadly.
Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth released two years ago and it was rotting in my Playstation Store wishlist for a long time, one day it went on sale and I finally bought it. First time I played it I didn't give too much shit to it because the game is a JRPG and I don't really enjoy this kind of game for how slow it is in the beginning. Played for a week or two, dropped it, and I got back into it some time after playing other titles (Dead Island 2, Dead Space 2, Portal 1 & 2, and Dispatch) and I ended up liking it, a bit too much if I'm honest, I was going on 5-hour gaming streaks almost everyday and I was feeling like a kid again, the kid that got his PS4 for the first time and booted up GOW4 and Spider-Man back when they released. The game has been the main reason I have not been active in .is and I kinda like it this way, love the forum but I'd rather copemaxx, spending hours watching movies and finishing game after game than to sit on my ass and scroll threads. I'm writing this after I finished the game and now I can comment on it with some authority.
How does it play?
It's a JRPG so if you're familiar with the genre I don't have to explain much, but if you're not, the game is turn based but with its own twist. Like its peers, it has some heavy grinding that honestly isn't too engaging and is slow most of the time but the game compensates it with extra activities and minigames across its three maps. The twist on the turn based gameplay is that you're kinda free to move but not really, you can reposition yourself behind enemies and hit them from behind to get more damage, and what I mean by not really is that you can only move within the limits of a circle around you. You can also grab items from the floor and use them as weapons if you stand close enough. When you use spells/skills sometimes there will be a QTE that if you hit correctly you get bonus damage, the exception to the rule is Kiryu, his basic attacks on Rush and Brawler mode also have QTEs and don't waste mana.
That's it, the rest is basic knowledge, damage spells, buffs, debuffs and etc. The open world is pretty nice, it's worth exploring it for rewards and the minigames are fun for the most part; I didn't play all of them but the ones I did play are fun enough to keep you hooked, the best one are the Sujimon fights, it's a Pokémon rip-off that instead of little monsters you "capture" the goons you fight throughout the game in the different regions of the map, there are 200 Sujimon or so that you can collect. The gameplay overall is satisfactory, way more engaging compared to any other turn based combat RPG out there, even if the only change was that you can move yourself with the joystick and have QTEs to hit, those are are welcome changes that add to the experience, makes you feel like you are doing things instead of only watching the characters slide on the screen and deal damage.
The Story
As always, I'm not commenting on the story for too long, this time because this is a 60 hour long game, and I don't have the patience to watch cutscenes and read dialogues that last five to ten minutes each, but all you need to know is: Kasuga (MC) is a former yakuza member that got back into society and has a job, but he got fired and went to Hawaii for a trip to clear his head and have a quick vacation there. But then he met a woman that took him home and drugged him, taking his passport, clothes and money, leaving him butt naked on the beach until he wakes up. After that Kasuga goes on a journey to find the woman and get his passport back, meeting an older Kiryu and Tomizawa, a taxi driver that tried to mug you but you ended up beating his ass and after some time you became friends.
When you get that part settled, you find out that Kasuga's mom is somewhere in Hawaii but is missing and instead of getting your passport back, your mission becomes finding the woman that gave birth to the protagonist (in the last game you know that he's an orphan that did not meet neither his dad nor his mom). From this point forward I stopped paying attention, it doesn't matter really, the real fun is in the combat, just writing this so you get an idea of what you're getting into.
The Bad
The pacing is awful if you're playing this for the first time and don't want to skip cutscenes, they take way too long and disrupt the gameplay, since in the first 10 hours you MUST do the main storyline if you want to unlock every activity the game has to offer. Aside from it the only other bad part of the game is that the progression is also slow, but that might be characteristic of the genre, I'm not sure. Even with XP enhancing items and food, it takes a long time to level up, and the game LIES to you when it tells you the recommended level for long missions; for example, when you go to district five, a long mission where you have to fight your way multiple times through it to advance and finally go back to the free world, it tells you that you need level 13, if you do enter it on level 13, you will struggle quite a lot, so when the game tells you one level, it usually means three to five levels above it. And now, the most important part for the noticers: THIS GAME HAS SOME WOKE STUFF IN IT, but it does not disrupt the gameplay as badly because these elements are present in sidestories in the form of infantilized men, simps and white men being pathetic. But that's pretty much it, you won't be hit with propaganda during the main story and when you do play these sidestories, in case you want to 100% the game, they're purely for comedic value because Japan loves this type of shitty humor which I don't enjoy.
In conclusion
Should you buy the game? Yeah, I think you should. If you're a fan of the genre you will have a great time playing it, there's a ton of things to do and has its replay value. We all know how cucked Japan became in the past few years and Yakuza is one of the woke propaganda victims, the game has some infantilized men and twinks but it's part of the substories (you don't have to play it) and it's for comedic value and humor alone, so I let it pass. It's fun and you can play it for a long time and not get sick of it, so it's a nice investment.
TLDR: Yakuza 8 is fun, play it.
Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth released two years ago and it was rotting in my Playstation Store wishlist for a long time, one day it went on sale and I finally bought it. First time I played it I didn't give too much shit to it because the game is a JRPG and I don't really enjoy this kind of game for how slow it is in the beginning. Played for a week or two, dropped it, and I got back into it some time after playing other titles (Dead Island 2, Dead Space 2, Portal 1 & 2, and Dispatch) and I ended up liking it, a bit too much if I'm honest, I was going on 5-hour gaming streaks almost everyday and I was feeling like a kid again, the kid that got his PS4 for the first time and booted up GOW4 and Spider-Man back when they released. The game has been the main reason I have not been active in .is and I kinda like it this way, love the forum but I'd rather copemaxx, spending hours watching movies and finishing game after game than to sit on my ass and scroll threads. I'm writing this after I finished the game and now I can comment on it with some authority.
How does it play?
It's a JRPG so if you're familiar with the genre I don't have to explain much, but if you're not, the game is turn based but with its own twist. Like its peers, it has some heavy grinding that honestly isn't too engaging and is slow most of the time but the game compensates it with extra activities and minigames across its three maps. The twist on the turn based gameplay is that you're kinda free to move but not really, you can reposition yourself behind enemies and hit them from behind to get more damage, and what I mean by not really is that you can only move within the limits of a circle around you. You can also grab items from the floor and use them as weapons if you stand close enough. When you use spells/skills sometimes there will be a QTE that if you hit correctly you get bonus damage, the exception to the rule is Kiryu, his basic attacks on Rush and Brawler mode also have QTEs and don't waste mana.
That's it, the rest is basic knowledge, damage spells, buffs, debuffs and etc. The open world is pretty nice, it's worth exploring it for rewards and the minigames are fun for the most part; I didn't play all of them but the ones I did play are fun enough to keep you hooked, the best one are the Sujimon fights, it's a Pokémon rip-off that instead of little monsters you "capture" the goons you fight throughout the game in the different regions of the map, there are 200 Sujimon or so that you can collect. The gameplay overall is satisfactory, way more engaging compared to any other turn based combat RPG out there, even if the only change was that you can move yourself with the joystick and have QTEs to hit, those are are welcome changes that add to the experience, makes you feel like you are doing things instead of only watching the characters slide on the screen and deal damage.
The Story
As always, I'm not commenting on the story for too long, this time because this is a 60 hour long game, and I don't have the patience to watch cutscenes and read dialogues that last five to ten minutes each, but all you need to know is: Kasuga (MC) is a former yakuza member that got back into society and has a job, but he got fired and went to Hawaii for a trip to clear his head and have a quick vacation there. But then he met a woman that took him home and drugged him, taking his passport, clothes and money, leaving him butt naked on the beach until he wakes up. After that Kasuga goes on a journey to find the woman and get his passport back, meeting an older Kiryu and Tomizawa, a taxi driver that tried to mug you but you ended up beating his ass and after some time you became friends.
When you get that part settled, you find out that Kasuga's mom is somewhere in Hawaii but is missing and instead of getting your passport back, your mission becomes finding the woman that gave birth to the protagonist (in the last game you know that he's an orphan that did not meet neither his dad nor his mom). From this point forward I stopped paying attention, it doesn't matter really, the real fun is in the combat, just writing this so you get an idea of what you're getting into.
The Bad
The pacing is awful if you're playing this for the first time and don't want to skip cutscenes, they take way too long and disrupt the gameplay, since in the first 10 hours you MUST do the main storyline if you want to unlock every activity the game has to offer. Aside from it the only other bad part of the game is that the progression is also slow, but that might be characteristic of the genre, I'm not sure. Even with XP enhancing items and food, it takes a long time to level up, and the game LIES to you when it tells you the recommended level for long missions; for example, when you go to district five, a long mission where you have to fight your way multiple times through it to advance and finally go back to the free world, it tells you that you need level 13, if you do enter it on level 13, you will struggle quite a lot, so when the game tells you one level, it usually means three to five levels above it. And now, the most important part for the noticers: THIS GAME HAS SOME WOKE STUFF IN IT, but it does not disrupt the gameplay as badly because these elements are present in sidestories in the form of infantilized men, simps and white men being pathetic. But that's pretty much it, you won't be hit with propaganda during the main story and when you do play these sidestories, in case you want to 100% the game, they're purely for comedic value because Japan loves this type of shitty humor which I don't enjoy.
In conclusion
Should you buy the game? Yeah, I think you should. If you're a fan of the genre you will have a great time playing it, there's a ton of things to do and has its replay value. We all know how cucked Japan became in the past few years and Yakuza is one of the woke propaganda victims, the game has some infantilized men and twinks but it's part of the substories (you don't have to play it) and it's for comedic value and humor alone, so I let it pass. It's fun and you can play it for a long time and not get sick of it, so it's a nice investment.
TLDR: Yakuza 8 is fun, play it.
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