I’m in between games right now so I’m searching for something to play. I checked out the latest Steam sale (there seems to be one nearly every day) and a few things caught my eye. In addition, people in the RKG Discord were talking about the Yakuza games. I have two of them in my Game Pass library–Yakuza 0 and Yakuza Like a Dragon. Two very different games with very different protagonists. Ian likes both the games (and the series in general) so I asked him which I should try first. We talked about the differences in them and I decided to try Yak 0 firrst. Why? I dunno. Kiryu is cute and it’s the classic game–and the prequel to the whole series.
On the other hand, Like a Dragon is fresh, exciting, and new. It’s a complete remake on the whole series and I really like the disgraced police guy. Then again, I liked Kuze in Yak 0, too. I have a thing for older heavyset dudes with husky voices. What can I say?
I installed Yak 0, which was a bit of a pain in the ass. I do not like that you have to sign into Microsoft every fucking time you want to play a game. That’s some hot fresh bullshit, but it’s a small irritant.
When I finally got to play the game, I didn’t actually get to play the game. What I mean is that there is a lot of cutscenes. MANY MANY cutscenes. So many cutscenes. All the cutscenes. Don’t get me wrong. They are well-done and very believable. Well, within the context of the yakuza. But I couldn’t help thinking, “This could have been a movie.” And it should have been.
In the first half-hour, I did maybe five minutes of gameplay. Mostly walking around and beating up a few thugs in the street. I got to the part about going with Nishiki to the bar and thought that was a good place to stop and take a break. I needed to eat lunch and feed my cat. The game told me that all unsaved data would be lost, was I ok with that? I was fine. I assumed that it meant I would lose a minute or two.
Oh no. I was so wrong. See, the game has this little mechanic that there are no auto-save. You can only save at a phone booth. Which, fine. You don’t want auto-saves? That’s your right. But at least fucking tell the player at the beginning of the game. Also, make sure they are plentiful because it’s disrespectful of a player’s time to not be able to save with ease.
My biggest gripe about this mechanic, though, is the boss fights. I’ll get to that in a minute.
So, yes, after a half hour or so, I lost everything. I could only start a new game, which definitely put a damper on things. I mean, I could just whiz through all the cutscenes because they’re skippable, but it was just the instant deflaition of having started a new game, only to have to do it again.
I will be frank with you–starting a new game that I didn’t think I’d like. I’m not interested in any kind of mafia life, and I am very bad at combos in a fighting game. And I LOATHE rhythm games. I am so bad at them. I have talked at length about how I have spatial issues and reflex issues, and these both play into my distaste for mini-games in which you have to quickly press a button.
I’ve always hated that, but it’s gotten even worse since my medical crisis. I am eternally grateful that I came back better than ever from my life-threatening experience, but that doesn’t mean that there weren’t negative consequences. One of them is that my reflexes are even worse than before.
So. One of the mini-games in the Yakuza series is karoake. That is a rhythm game. Which I completely and utterly failed. I simply could not process the button prompts fast enough to even go for the buttons let alone get the right one. And in the boss fights when they would suddenly cut to a ‘press this button not to lose a chunk of health’, well….Let’s just say that at the very end in the boss fight, I was just pressing all the buttons and hoping I’d hit the right one.
I’m not stupid. I’m not slow (in general), but it took several seconds for the prompts to be recognized by my brain.
Side Note: I saw a video of the actor who plays Kuze fighting himself (which I have included above), and he is much better at it than I am. Granted, he was given more tools, but it was still discouraging to watch him easily beat himself when it took me several tries. I’ll get to that in a minute as well.
Let’s talk about how the game looks. Incredible. It was released in 2015 and still looks pretty damn good. Maybe it’s the PC port–ok. Wait. It was released on the PC in 2018. So maybe it got a glow up. At any rate, it looked good. Kiryu looked hot as hell and not all pixel-y.
As for Kiryu…I have to admit that I got impatient with him. I know he’s had a hard life and that he got framed for a murder he didn’t commit (that’s in the prologue). But, my god, he’s got a hefty martyr syndrome. I understand why. He was rescued by Kazuma and felt indebted to him. I get that. And, yes, I know that I can’t fully understand the way the yakuza works (duh). But I rolled my eyes so many times when Kiryu talked. Yes, Kiryu, why don’t you throw yourself upon that flaming pyre? And I know that he had to do what he did in order for the game to actually happen–but that’s part of my issue.
Still. I was enjoying the game more or less–until the boss fight of the first chapter. And by the boss fight, I mean the whole level that leads up to the boss fight–which is actually the beginning to the boss fight. This is an assumption because you can only save at the phone booths, but if you don’t finish the whole level including beating the boss, you have to do the whole level again.
I don’t find anything enjoyable about beating up a horde of guys, only to have to do it again repeatedly until I reach the final boss. In addition, the camera is utter trash. It’s so limited and juttery, I don’t ever feel comfortable scanning the crowd. Why the hell can’t I look up? If I try, then the camera snaps back down to eye level.
I’m bad at combo fighting as well. It wasn’t terrible at first with just very limited combinations. But once it started expanding, I did not enjoy it. Nor could I get used to the sudden prompts to hit a certain button. In addition, you have to upgrade your abilities mid-level (during the long-ass level fights) if you want to have a prayer of beating the boss. At least I did. When I finally reached Kuze, I died to him several times. I hated that he had two phases. I hated that I had no idea why he could slip around my punches whereas I could not do the same. I hated that I had only one ‘estus’ to heal myself mid-fight. I REALLY hated the middle bit where I had to press one button when prompted. That’s when I just hit all of them in quick succession and prayed I got it right.
I said many many bad words during that fight. The only way I beat it was to upgrade my brawler ability and then it was a breeze. Also, my fight style would switch from brawler to rush for no apparent reason (I don’t haphazardly hit the D-pad buttons), which always annoyed me as I heavily preferred the former.
Beating Kuze just because I upgraded one ability befuddled me and did not make me think much of the combat mechanics. Look, I understand that it’s important to upgrade things. Lord knows you need to have a highly-upgraded weapon in a Souls game in order to beat a boss. But, it just felt strange that I went from massively struggling against Kuze to him barely touching me from one upgrade.
I love Kuze, by the way. Not the character, but his voice. It’s so yummy. I could listen to him talk all day. Anyway, after beating him, there was an extrended cutscene before the end of the chapter. Fine. I should be able to save now, right?
Nope! Straight into chapter two and another extended cutscene. Seriously, it was at least ten minutes long (or at least it was in my head). I was fuming because I was so done at that point. After a boss fight, I like to stop for the night. Making me sit through not one but TWO cutscenes was too much.
I quit immediately as soon as I was able and I have not gone back since. Will I? I’m not sure. I can understand why people love the game and series, but I’m just not sure it’s for me.