Yakuza (7): Like a Dragon - Gotta Dispatch 'Em All!

[Mogster]

I had a curious experience with the management game today. I was feeling lazy this morning and decided to play a bit of it in bed using xCloud instead of my PC. As soon as I started the management game though I was able to employ a whole bunch of particularly awesome employees, all with great stats, and mostly

 

Spoiler

major characters from the other games in the series, including the Dragon of Dojima himself.

 

Obviously I immediately employed a bunch of them, and fired a bunch of my old, mundane staff.

 

Anyway, I just went to play a bit more on my PC and found that all of the new staff had disappeared without any warning. This confused me, but I eventually realised that they were all from a paid DLC pack I didn't own. I figured they were just a late game surprise, but clearly not. For some reason the DLC is automatically present and applied on xCloud, and sure enough all the new employees were present and correct when I switched back to the streamed version.

 

It's a bit annoying really because it feels like I've cheated, as it's the kind of unbalanced DLC I'd never normally pay for, but now it seems I have a choice of paying up or playing the rest of the minigame on xCloud.

[BossSaru]

Similarly, I tested the Game Pass streaming service with Yakuza Lead, and found that I had access to the dlc jobs, having not bought it. When I switched back to the version on the Xbox those jobs were gone, however.

[Hodge]

Completed with 57 hours on the clock. For me this game is the GOAT when it comes to the Yakuzas. Loved Ichiban, the side quests were back on point and the last 3rd was epic. Loved the new Yokohama setting to and having your crew around for most of the game to interact with. 

 

Can't wait to get my next fix with Lost Judgment in September.

 

 

[Mogster]

21 hours ago, BossSaru said:

Similarly, I tested the Game Pass streaming service with Yakuza Lead, and found that I had access to the dlc jobs, having not bought it. When I switched back to the version on the Xbox those jobs were gone, however.

 

I guess xCloud just runs the ultimate edition. 

 

I have to say, other than having to switch to xCloud to play it was quite convenient to have my DLC boosted money printer around to save up to progress a certain chapter.  It really does rip out any kind of challenge from that minigame though, and I certainly wouldn't pay £7 for it.

 

I'm almost at the end of the battle arena now (thanks for the heads up, thread  ), which I've actually found quite fun. One of the bonus conditions also made me realise you can tag out party members during combat, which was a proper facepalm moment and would have been extremely handy for some of the tougher fights.

 

It's such a good game, and one of my favourite RPGs in years. Ichiban might be my favourite game protagonist ever.

[Rayn]

I was all over this when it got released but I got side tracked by other games (I blame Game Pass) and I kinda forgot about this. Yesterday I decided I had to push on but I remembered nothing from my previous session. 
I'm stuck in some underground dungeon, I think I'm on chapter 5, 6 or 7.

When I started playing, the minimap said I was at B3F and after a lot of "dungeon crawling" I reached B2B. Aha, I'm headed upwards towards the surface, I thought. 

Next thing that happens is that I'm at B3F again and another massive chunk of the map has opened up. I think I ran around down there for an hour before I had to quit to make dinner.

How friggin long is this dungeon???

[Benny]

I think that dungeon was the main low point of the game for me. It was just endless and samey.

[Rayn]

53 minutes ago, Benny said:

I think that dungeon was the main low point of the game for me. It was just endless and samey.

Ok, giving it another go tonight. At least I'm getting stocked up on potions and experience points. 

[Benny]

Apart from that bit and maybe a couple of other small exceptions, the rest of the game never really hits a low point like that again.

[Rayn]

On 02/08/2021 at 12:13, Benny said:

Apart from that bit and maybe a couple of other small exceptions, the rest of the game never really hits a low point like that again.

 

Got past it, it was really outstaying its welcome at the end but the boss was kinda cool and the continuation of the story even better so all is well again  

[Mogster]

I was so glad I followed this thread and knew to play through the battle arena before progressing. Thanks to that, I was able to... still get my arse kicked over and over again in that battle. 

 

Everything about the fight is actually amazing, but it's really bloody hard. I might just play through the battle arena a second time to gain a few more levels, and probably tailor my equipment a bit better to the fight.

[Kayin Amoh]

You also get some materials from the arena that can be melded into your team's ultimate weapons, or work well on their own - and a few repeat runs can get mats for making excellent armours as well as the obvious level gains you get from it.

 

So yeah, wouldn't hurt to level up. Do you have the Job XP items equipped? Yakuza Training Gear is also an option if you're steamrolling them for better gains.

[Qazimod]

6 hours ago, Mogster said:

I was so glad I followed this thread and knew to play through the battle arena before progressing. Thanks to that, I was able to... still get my arse kicked over and over again in that battle. 

 

Everything about the fight is actually amazing, but it's really bloody hard. I might just play through the battle arena a second time to gain a few more levels, and probably tailor my equipment a bit better to the fight.

 

Also, it doesn't hurt to mop up those bonus objectives and get as much out of the arena rewards as you can.  

[Mogster]

Victory. 

 

It took one more run through the battle arena, plus a couple of extra fights to reach level 50. I still failed one attempt at that fight, but managed to keep control of the next attempt. Honestly, I've not felt like this outside of the Soulsborne games.

[Mogster]

And the rest of chapter 12 was the perfect reward. This game!

[Hodge]

8 hours ago, Mogster said:

Victory. 

 

It took one more run through the battle arena, plus a couple of extra fights to reach level 50. I still failed one attempt at that fight, but managed to keep control of the next attempt. Honestly, I've not felt like this outside of the Soulsborne games.

Yeah, I hit a brick wall at that part to and required some hefty grinding as I was around mid 40s at the time.  Rest of the game I got through ok.  

[Mr. Gerbik]

Not to defend it, but story-wise it makes total sense that *that* fight is the hardest fight ever looking at who you're fucking up against. I got through it okay after rinsing the battle arena for all it was worth but man, what an epic battle that was. I was so goddamn excited when I saw who it was.

[Mogster]

1 hour ago, Mr. Gerbik said:

Not to defend it, but story-wise it makes total sense that *that* fight is the hardest fight ever looking at who you're fucking up against. I got through it okay after rinsing the battle arena for all it was worth but man, what an epic battle that was. I was so goddamn excited when I saw who it was.

Yep, same. It's always a difficult balancing act in jRPGs to make fights feel tough without grinding the game to a halt through mandatory grinding, especially when people will have put different amounts of time into side-quests and stuff. I do think RGGS maybe took things a little too far, but it certainly made for a thrilling fight.

[Rayn]

So forget me being bullied for being one of few kids loving video games back in the 80's and early 90's, games were more basic back then compared to todays games but had I (and the rest of my school mates) only known how far games would go I'd be looked upon as a pioneer of future entertainment back then. 

My point is, this frigging game tells such an intricate story with so much emotion, with plot twists that doesn't feel tacked on, superficial nor forced and with such a degree of drama that it would make any TV series from back then yearn for better writers. 

I agree we can criticize this game these days for being video gamey, shallow and not very believable but I challenge you to find any TV drama with better dialogue, plot twists and "world building" from that era. 

 

The Yakuza series has always been a great vehicle for story telling but I'm really impressed with this particular outing of the franchise, even if it started off a bit classic and safe. My word what a ride this has been, and I'm not even finished yet! 

Crossing my fingers that the latter half doesn't let me down!

[Benny]

Oh boy.

[Mogster]

Finished! Brilliant game, perfect ending, surprisingly awesome ending theme. 

 

I'm going to miss these characters, until the next one at least.

[VideoGamer]

the next one is lost judgment innit. I'm definitely going to play it but it will definitely feel like a step back after spending so much time with ichiban and his crew.

[Qazimod]

 

[Mr. Gerbik]

More Ichiban

[gospvg]

Great news! Glad they are carrying on with Ichiban.

[Mr. Gerbik]

Best main character in a videogame ever? I'd say yes!

[carlospie]

This game is so good. Love the auto battling and comedy. Much better than the other Yakuza games 

[carlospie]

Are there any preferred jobs for the characters for endgame? Don't want to waste my time with useless jobs. Curren tly have the main guy as some weird copiera dancer 

 

Also. Best game ever. 

[Kayin Amoh]

Most of them are fine in their default jobs. So long as you have a healer, a tank and AOE you'll be fine. I made Adachi into an enforcer, Saeko into an Idol, Eri into a Dealer and the rest in their default jobs (Ichiban's initial job evolves into Hero fairly early on) and had no issues with my setup.

[Qazimod]

Have at least one healer… and maybe check for anything with free MP regen, as I found that pretty useful. Some job-specific skills and weapons generate MP after an attack, or there are accessories that automatically regen a bit of MP.

 

So my main party was Breaker/Idol/Musician/Enforcer: the Breaker has a Rolling Thrash move that damages opponents and returns a bit of MP. I think the Idol can get a microphone weapon that returns MP after a standard attack. There’s an accessory for any role that regens a bit of MP at the start of a turn, so I put that on the Enforcer, and so on.

 

However, this is my personal preference based on how I play - you don’t have to build your party around MP management!

[kensei]

This is my first Yakuza and it's a weird, weird game. However it's weirdest choice appears to be a completely momentum sapping sewer crawl. It's like they wanted to make Persona, but shit.