Yakuza Kiwami 3 & Dark Ties (Nintendo Switch 2) Review
The Yakuza franchise has been hard to recommend to others over the past few years. It’s not because they’re not fun; they are very fun. It’s not because of a boring plot; their plot and subsequent side stories are hilarious and engaging. The series is tough to recommend because it’s confusing to figure out where a new player should start. For a Yakuza super fan like you and I who’ve been around fo...[Read More]
Yakuza 0: Director’s Cut (Nintendo Switch 2) Review
Back when I reviewed Yakuza Kiwami on the Nintendo Switch, I was enamored by Ryu Ga Gotoku’s (RGG’s) successful attempt in porting many Yakuza players’ first favorite game of the series. It ran great, barring a few hiccups and graphical differences between the port and other versions. The one thing on my mind as I was playing and writing (of course) was…what does the future of Yakuza look like for...[Read More]
Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii (PC) Review
What do pirates and yakuza have in common? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Yet, Ryu Ga Gotoku reached deep to make these two disparate thematics work in their tried-and-true bonkers fashion. Every time I have picked up a new Yakuza game, I think I’ve seen it all. Yet, once again, I’m pleasantly surprised to no end. We don’t deserve Ryu Ga Gotoku, folks. We don’t deserve them at all. I spent the past ...[Read More]
Yakuza Kiwami (Nintendo Switch) Review
Yakuza Kiwami was added to PlayStation Plus in November 2018. At that time, I was not in a position to play it because of school and my obsession with Final Fantasy XII (which, for the record, I have yet to finish) on the PS4. Fast forward to 2020 when the whole world shut down, I was reminded that I was reminded that Yakuza was in my library when I was looking for something to play while I had no...[Read More]
Yakuza: Like a Dragon (PS5)
Last year, we reviewed Yakuza: Like a Dragon when it splashed onto “next-gen” on the Xbox Series X. After a few months of semi-exclusivity, PlayStation 5 owners can experience Ichiban Kasuga’s bizarre journey with a handful of new features. Personally, I’ve only dabbled a bit in the Yakuza franchise–mainly because of a lack of time–and was slightly fearful of ap...[Read More]
Yakuza Kiwami 2 (Windows 10)
Yakuza 2 was the game where you could punch a tiger in the face. Its 2008 release to the PlayStation 2, while a pleasant gesture from Sega, was buried under the next console generation. Its status as a sequel to a commercial failure, lacking the marketing budget and english dub of its predecessor, emptied the rest of the clip into its chances of success. On forums and through budding forms of soci...[Read More]
Judgment
Yakuza’s Kamurocho is a seedy slice of Tokyo that grants meteoric elevation to charisma, coercion, and capacity for violence, but only to one person at a time. For ten games—seven core entries, two remakes, and one imprudent spin-off—this power was devoted to Yakuza’s infallible protagonist, Kazuma Kiryu. Others tried to assume that power, Yakuza 5 juggled five active protagonists, but...[Read More]