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.