I'm not sure why I slept on Kena: Bridge of Spirits, but it is pretty good. Sort of a Zelda-meets Pikmin action-adventure game, some puzzles, light on story. It looks stunning.
It's just been sitting on my shelf since two or three Boxing Days ago.
It was in development at Ubisoft India but it looked dreadful in previews so they basically scrapped it and handed it back to Montreal, who made the original (following the Metroid Prime 4 blueprint). Probably be a couple years still at least.
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After being introduced to the franchise by skipping six or seven of the titles that had already been released (first played Yakuza - Like a Dragon, then Like a Dragon Gaiden - The Man Who Erased His Name), I went on a Yakuza series downloading frenzy yesterday and have started playing through Yakuza Kiwami.
You should start with Yakuza Zero. From all the games so far, that's still the best storyline IMO and it's chronogically the beginning.
You should start with Yakuza Zero. From all the games so far, that's still the best storyline IMO and it's chronogically the beginning.
Right, that's a good point, but I'm already a good 4 hours into Yakuza Kiwami and I've already played two far newer games, so at this point the Yakuza series has been introduced to me like the storyline in a Tarantino movie.
Right, that's a good point, but I'm already a good 4 hours into Yakuza Kiwami and I've already played two far newer games, so at this point the Yakuza series has been introduced to me like the storyline in a Tarantino movie.
One thing I also realized is the difference between real world development date, release date and in came chronology.
So Chronological vs North America release date wise, Kiwami is a remaster of an original and chronologically earlier than the first Yakuza games released in NA. But in Japan it was released before the games that showed up in North America.
I got confused by this too. For a while I was confused why the Kamurocho map was so much smaller and seemed so bare bones vs games that were translated and released in North America earlier than Kiwami. Until my friend explained that although it was one of the latest Yakuza releases in North America, it was one of the first in the whole series in Japan.
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Yeah, that's the reason I started with Yakuza Kiwami before Yakuza 0 -- I wanted to play them in release order because maybe -- from a storytelling perspective -- that's how they wanted to tell the story.
Release dates:
Yakuza (2005) (Kiwami remake in 2016)
Yakuza 2 (2006) (Kiwami remake in 2017)
Yakuza 3 (2009)
Yakuza 4 (2010)
Yakuza 5 (2012)
Yakuza 0 (2015)
Yakuza 6: The Song of Life (2016)
Yakuza: Like a Dragon (2020)
Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name (November 2023)
Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth (2024)
Chronological order:
1. Yakuza 0 (2014)
2. Yakuza (2005) (Kiwami remake in 2016)
3. Yakuza 2 (2006) (Kiwami remake in 2017)
4. Yakuza 3 (2009)
5. Yakuza 4 (2010)
6. Yakuza 5 (2012)
7. Yakuza 6: The Song of Life (2016)
8. Yakuza: Like a Dragon (2020)
9. Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name (November 2023)
10. Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth (2024)
#8 and #9 are chronologically happening at the same time -- except for the initial bit of Ichiban's story arc -- but from different character perspectives, like playing GTA IV vs The Ballad of Gay Tony vs The Lost and Damned.
I gotta say after seeing Yakuza's fictionalized version of some of the neighbourhoods around Japan, it has very quickly scaled up my "Where do I want to travel to next?" scale... to #5, which is pretty damned good.
__________________
-James
GO FLAMES GO.
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One thing I also realized is the difference between real world development date, release date and in came chronology.
So Chronological vs North America release date wise, Kiwami is a remaster of an original and chronologically earlier than the first Yakuza games released in NA. But in Japan it was released before the games that showed up in North America.
I got confused by this too. For a while I was confused why the Kamurocho map was so much smaller and seemed so bare bones vs games that were translated and released in North America earlier than Kiwami. Until my friend explained that although it was one of the latest Yakuza releases in North America, it was one of the first in the whole series in Japan.
This is wrong, though. While Yakuza Kiwami is a remake of Yakuza 1, Yakuza 1-5 original versions all released in North America well before Yakuza Kiwami existed anywhere.
This is wrong, though. While Yakuza Kiwami is a remake of Yakuza 1, Yakuza 1-5 original versions all released in North America well before Yakuza Kiwami existed anywhere.
Sorry, my wording is probably wrong and I didn't look at it in detail myself. I was told it was a remaster not a remake. My bad for not confirming it myself.
But what TorqueDog posted just above you is essentially what I meant.
The reason I advocate for Yakuza Zero as the starting point is while Yakuza 1 was the first game released in the series, Yakuza Kiwami (I'll call it Kiwami 1) is very much the sequel to Zero rather than the mirror image remake of Yakuza 1 which is quite a dated game. Zero is basically a reboot of the universe with major improvements and the Kiwami games were purposely designed to follow its version.
Zero probably has to best-to-date (my opinion) secondary playable character and story arc in Goro Majima in the Osaka based Sotenbori map and Kiwami 1 and Kiwami 2 have some very emotional story points for Majima that were based off on Yakuza Zero exclusive material and won't hit properly if you haven't played that first.
Playing Kiwami 1 and 2 before Zero is very much NOT what they wanted to do storytelling wise as the content of Kiwami 1 and 2 is dependent on experiencing certain characters and moments in Zero.
But you could still finish Kiwami 1 (as it's quite a shorter game) and go back to Zero without hitting those points I mentioned IIRC because its more in Kiwami 2 that you revisit Majima proper.
If we are talking about release-date things, the tech used is also interesting. Zero and Kiwami 1 both share the same updated engine from the PS3 days but Kiwami 2 jumped to the Dragon Engine used in Yakuza 6 and newer games.
There's also the Judgement games which is another can of worms. The other crazy outlier is Like a Dragon: Ishin! (the 1800s Edo era one) which I played to death last month and was only localized into English last year. They completely rebuilt that game in Unreal Engine for the modern and first english release.
Last edited by Hack&Lube; 01-23-2024 at 04:39 PM.
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The reason I advocate for Yakuza Zero as the starting point is while Yakuza 1 was the first game released in the series, Yakuza Kiwami (I'll call it Kiwami 1) is very much the sequel to Zero rather than the mirror image remake of Yakuza 1 which is quite a dated game. Zero is basically a reboot of the universe with major improvements and the Kiwami games were purposely designed to follow its version.
Zero probably has to best-to-date (my opinion) secondary playable character and story arc in Goro Majima in the Osaka based Sotenbori map and Kiwami 1 and Kiwami 2 have some very emotional story points for Majima that were based off on Yakuza Zero exclusive material and won't hit properly if you haven't played that first.
Playing Kiwami 1 and 2 before Zero is very much NOT what they wanted to do storytelling wise as the content of Kiwami 1 and 2 is dependent on experiencing certain characters and moments in Zero.
But you could still finish Kiwami 1 (as it's quite a shorter game) and go back to Zero without hitting those points I mentioned IIRC because its more in Kiwami 2 that you revisit Majima proper.
If we are talking about release-date things, the tech used is also interesting. Zero and Kiwami 1 both share the same updated engine from the PS3 days but Kiwami 2 jumped to the Dragon Engine used in Yakuza 6 and newer games.
There's also the Judgement games which is another can of worms. The other crazy outlier is Like a Dragon: Ishin! (the 1800s Edo era one) which I played to death last month and was only localized into English last year. They completely rebuilt that game in Unreal Engine for the modern and first english release.
I'm playing Judgement right now. It's really weird and kinda clunky. But from the very beginning, I felt that Judgement was a beta test for certain content and game design aspects they might consider adding to Yakuza. Some of the features are kinda cool. Some feel like steps back. It's weird seeing ragdoll physics more extreme in Judgement than Kiwami.
I don't know for certain, but I believed they wanted to test these mechanics in another similar sandbox so that there wouldn't be fans that get upset for the changes being too extreme. (ie: How the styles in Final Fantasy go all over the place). This is why Judgement series was created and maintained the Kamurocho map vs adding weird random numbers for side stories the Yakuza series.
Damn, Blizzard got nuked. After fighting so hard to keep Activision out of the Blizzard decisions, they made the Call of Duty manager their new president. Don't have much hope to go back to Diablo for a while.
Damn, Blizzard got nuked. After fighting so hard to keep Activision out of the Blizzard decisions, they made the Call of Duty manager their new president. Don't have much hope to go back to Diablo for a while.
Did you see the tweet from one of the programmers praising her hiring hoping it would save the esports and then literally within 24hrs being laid off. I can't post from work but this is why you can't trust anyone in the higher positions, no praise is deserved.
