[TiAgUh]

There seems to be 2 new Yakuza games..

The ancient Japan one


..aaand the modern day one


Gameplay Footage from the modern one, HD - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YT9c74Ii2EE
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Questions:
-Are these games like Shenmue ? It sure looks like it, especially the fighting\QTEs, the shops and minigames.

-Anyone played the first 2? Do I need to play them to understand the story and stuff? Are the first 2 good?

-The ancient Japan one, is it just a spin-off?

[Lucien21]

Technically it's the 4th game as the one set in Ancient Japan was the 3rd in the series (although it wasn't numbered as no 3).

That one could probably be seen as a spin off.

The video does look kinda Shenmue -ish for the 3rd one.

The first 2 games was more like Onimusha or Devil Makes Cry in that it was basically just walking about and fighting. The 2nd one did have a lot of mini-games which were a tad dull.

Decent enough games but no Shenmue.

[TiAgUh]

Since I really liked DMC3 and Onimusha2 (the item\gift trading system was addicting ) maybe I should try Yakuza 2.

...or do I need to play the 1st one to understand the story?

[Lucien21]

There is a summary of the plot of 1 at the start of the 2nd game so it's not essential.

If you do have a save game from the first one on your card you get some items in the 2nd game (first aid kit etc)

If you can get the 1st one though it's worth a go as the voice work and story are pretty good. (Michael Madsen, Mark Hamill, Eliza Dushku, Rachel Leigh Cook all did voices)

[TiAgUh]

^ Nice

Originally Posted by Lucien21

(Michael Madsen, Mark Hamill, Eliza Dushku, Rachel Leigh Cook all did voices)

I miss Batman Animated Series.

I've found a video review of the 1st one.
Nice to know that the fighting isn't as bad as Shenmue but .. random encouters ? The moves\throws really brings memories of Shenmue.

I've also read some reviews of the 2nd game, and from what I've seen Yakuza 2 (released just recently in Europe) is like a better version of the 1st game. I think I'll try that one.
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When will both Yakuza 3 games be released in Europe? Is there a release date yet?

[Lucien21]

No idea.

Mind you it took them 2 years to bring the 2nd one into English.

[TiAgUh]

*sad face*

[orient]

I loved the first Yakuza and I'm playing through the second one at the moment, which is just as good. Cool gameplay and great story/characters to match. It's definitely no Shenmue, though but I suppose it's not trying to be.

I've read numerous reviewers declare the Yakuza games as "Shenmue - done right", which is a fairly naive attitude in my opinion. Despite their initial similarities, Yakuza is very different to Shenmue. Completely different themes, plot and most noticeably, scale. The city's in Yakuza may be huge, but they lack detail. There may be hundreds of pedestrians walking the streets, but most of them are non-interactive and there's no voice acting in-game.

Shenmue had a completely different approach to a living world. It felt more real because everything was interactive. Your actions felt more real because you weren't just going around beating people up. So to compare them is rather pointless in my opinion.

I can't wait to get my hands on Yakuza: Kenzan! and Yakuza 3, if they ever come out here

[TiAgUh]

Originally Posted by orient

I've read numerous reviewers declare the Yakuza games as "Shenmue - done right", which is a fairly naive attitude in my opinion. Despite their initial similarities, Yakuza is very different to Shenmue.

Found a 1Up's Video Review of Yakuza 2.
They also say it's 'Shenmue done right' because it's not as tedious. I didn't found Shenmue tedious at all ...

Spoiler:

maybe the Harbor part, when every morning you had to race.

It also talks about the upcoming Yakuza: Kenzan!.

[orient]

Yeah, I have mixed feelings about 1UP. I listen to a lot of their podcasts - which are interesting, but their actual reviews are more like blog posts. Some are only about 200 words long and sometimes not very descriptive at all.

The racing could get irritating if you got stuck in the harbour like I did the first time I played Shenmue, but if the game plays out like it's supposed to then I think you only have to do the race about 5 times. It was kind of cool. Shenmue's my favourite game of all time. I don't find it tedious at all. I find it...perfect

[TiAgUh]

Ain't that a spoiler?

Racing the first time was pretty cool, the second time was to win those bastards .. but third? fourth???
2 was enough for me.

IMO Shenmue is awesome yes but not perfect you know what I mean...

Spoiler:

!!!THE FIGHTING SUCKED!!!

..which is kinda sad because there were some really cool moves and combos.

[nomadsoul]

I love fighting games, brawleres to be more precise more than slashers, yakuza series has no competition in market, shenmue is nothing , shenmue was just first step in big saga which succeeded as virtual world simulation but fell flat on face in opther departments like story and gameplay, shenmue character(ryo) walks like tank run like tank let alone fighting game mechanic which was rehash of VF2 mechanics.

In yakuza series you get

Tight dope gameplay, with rpg elemnts of random fights but you can escape them, learn moves and do lot of side missions, which aren't masseffect type superficial rpg missions.
Outstanding choreography of heat moves which are 96 in yakuza2, and you need to do sidemissions to earn them.

Really nice selection of minigames that again aren't superficial like GTA series, like shogi, it took me whole month just to play shogi, i learned shogi and mhjong for this game and it was fun to beat AI.
Alos you can host clubs, make and manage your own hostessclubs.
Interacting with hot chicks, and the script/chats of these hostess is way more true , authentic and educating(yeah it shows evry kind of women you can possibly meet in this world) than any love simulation game.
Also the dialogues in these chats are just funny full of dirty talks.

Yak2 has atmosphere, and GREAT story and mature story not revenge drama i mean shenmue was too generic and lame in design and evrything even ryo(shallow) as lead character has nothing on kiryu(yak hero).

Yakuza has got attitude, full of it, bad s-ery to limit (the characters has no match in dialogues and badsery +style but mind you its japanese style not western one which can go overhead ), and mature undertones, out standing cutscenes heck i can even go as far as to say that
kiryu > solidsnake
yak2 cutscenes > cutscenes of any game to date even MGS
and story too is best on ps2. Almost evry emotion , drama, action and whatnot....it has evrything even cheesy parts and humor.


Do yourslef a favor and get this game, its definately one of best 5 ps2 games.

and as far as yak3 is concerned its much better than heavyrain no matter how much i like heavyrain yak3 trailers has thorwn heavyrain out of window.

I am getting yak3 on ps3 in japanese, release date in feb 26 nextyear, cant wait.

[Kolzig]

Yakuza 3 looks really cool, I recently watched a video from gametrailers and it looked really sweet, just like the good old Shenmue with lots of interactivity and small detail everywhere.

Too bad it's only for PS3 so I will never get to play it. Also it actually seems too large for me to ever play it. I suck with games that are too large. I much more like smaller games these days like World of Goo.

[nomadsoul]

Demo is up on japanese PSN, absoultely nuts , even ordered it , will cost me around 80$ so it just explains how much i love the series my first GOTY nominee right here, the gameplay is as nuts as before with more excellent moves with more AAA polish of high budget game, plus the new original game boxcellios( minigame in arcade) is dope and highly creative in shmups saturated market.


Its also a treat to have first person view and full camera movement so that you can explore fully.

[TiAgUh]

I want this!

[Trickless]

Played the demo. Awesome.

Although I am kinda sick of the Kamurocho town lol. Hopefully the game will spend more time on exploring the town in Okinawa.

[Kolzig]

It's good that this game is good, because that shows that Sega can still accomplish in making good games.

Who were the makers of Yakuza? Internal team or some outsourced team? Are the makers perhaps some old legends from Yu Suzuki's Shenmue team? Because it's quite obvious that Yakuza games are spiritual sequels to Shenmue.

[Trickless]

The series is headed by Toshihiro Nagoshi of Amusement Vision, an internal team of Sega. Previous works include Super Monkey Ball and F-Zero GX.

Shenmue was created by Sega AM2, and I don't remember anywhere mentioning if their staff had helped out with the development of Yakuza. If there was, then I don't think it would be someone famous in the gaming industry.

[TiAgUh]

Just finished Yakuza2 and dang.. what an overrrated game.
Lame ass story with some of the most stupid and predictable moments i've ever seen. Long and boring cutscenes (every character can take up to 10 bullets and still talk for hours about his f-ing past ) and the fighting... the fighting is simply a joke, only saved by the HEAT moves. And come on, i had all that trouble just to see a big pink heart? really?! come on!

Managing host clubs was awesome and some side missions were pretty cool (even if most of the rewards sucked).
The last fight was the only one that I liked, it was kinda msg1+godhand, it was some raw sh*t .

Btw Majima rocks, all the others suck.
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Well, here's a review of Yakuza3 - http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/ya...-review?page=2 (8 out of 10)

[nomadsoul]

There is so much brainstorming we do on forums, why its not hit outside japan, and people like you helps us to understand the situation much better.