vivi

i made the tough decision to drop judgment. not permanently, mind. i fully intend on playing it and its sequel(s?). however, my roommate just recently blew through all the games she hadn't played before like a dragon 8: infinite wealth, and it got me feeling that pang of fomo. so, i installed yakuza 7: like a dragon and started playing it. i'm about 8 hours in now, around when ichi, nanba, and adachi start living & working together.

so far, my impressions of the game are good. i do have some issues with the combat system. it's so plainly obvious that the game should have let you position your character, especially since enemies can move around and how positional some skills can be. it makes some skills like adachi's charge feel useless. however, i do like the ways it has replicated some of the unique aspects of the traditional beat-em-up combat. the way the game incentivizes you to knock enemies to the ground and immediately follow-up with a ground attack shows they get it.

as for the new cast, i like 'em a lot! like most people, i am taken by ichiban. like many have pointed out, one of his greatest qualities how different he is from kiryu in his characterization. kiryu was a guy destined to be a yakuza. ichiban, though? i'm not so sure. he feels like the kind of guy who fell into it because he had no other way to go. he is just too kind, too empathetic to be a truly good yakuza. he shares a lot of the same qualities as kiryu. bravery, loyalty, principled. however, he lacks the stoicism. he wears his emotions on his sleeve.

what's great is that this comes through in the only things he's ever done to engender himself to the yakuza world he wishes to be in. loyal to a fault, willing to do anything for this patriarch. what value does a guy like that have to the criminal world? taking a dive for a crime he didn't commit and dying to preserve the status quo. it's only in his rebirth that ichiban can find that his value to society is better spent elsewhere.

I saw like a dragon: the movie which makes this yakuzaposting by my standards, imo

Vivi

Yakuza: Like a Dragon2007

★★★

Watched Feb 29, 2024

A really, really, really fun black comedy that ultimately suffers from a lack of cohesion. I appreciate leaning in on the comedic side of things, going all-in on the goofier aspects of the games. This movie honestly had more in common with Looney Tunes and Popeye than it did Sonatine or Miike's own Ichi the Killer. I love the format too, of these disparate stories that weave in and out of each other. It kept the pacing up and made sure no one story dragged for too long.

Unfortunately, I think the biggest thing holding the movie back is that the main thrust of the plot, the more serious side of the film really, feels very underdeveloped. The basic plot of the first game is here, but it is merely presented. The movie spends more time on Kiryu trying to find Kazama than it does on the ultimate climax with Nishikiyama and Yumi. The narrative of the Korean hitman was intriguing, but much like Jingu in the game, his ultimate target isn't interesting and gets little to no development.

Despite this, I had a fun time and could see myself watching it again, if only because of Goro Kishitani's performance as Majima. He matches the energy of the the character in the pre-Yakuza 0 games perfectly. He is by far and away the best part of this film. Generally everyone else does a great job (I particularly was delighted by Yutaka Matsushige's turn as Detective Date), but Kishitani was the standout.

for far too long me and those like me have been slighted and marginalized for too long. i will not stand for it any more. i will be loud. i will be proud. i will be annoying. without further ado:

more like Peakuza 5.

this didn't really dawn on me until i was close to the end of the game, but yakuza 6: the song of life feels like rgg studio taking another stab at yakuza 3. i have to wonder if this fully intentional, something they realized they were doing on accident and started to play into it, or it really was just a dumb coincidence. regardless of intent, there's really more parallels than i think you'd expect.

first is the setting. large portions of both games are set in quiet breezy sea-side communities, okinawa in 3 and the town of onomichi in 6. both lean into the general feeling of being the polar opposite of the hustle and bustle of tokyo's kamurocho. even with the section of naha that the majority of okinawa's gameplay takes place in within 3, it still has a different vibe to everything else. it's... chill. relaxed. kiryu is wearing a cheesy aloha shirt. onomichi is even more relaxed. kiryu is still wearing his usual attire, but he's taken the jacket off. while kiryu's time in hiroshima is by no means a vacation, it has a certain feel of respite that only okinawa matches.

the plot is another factor here. without getting into too much detail, both games ultimately reveal themselves to be about the shadow-y government groups controlling the fate of the nation. the same people trying to push the land deal in 3 are probably the exact same people for whom the revelation of The Secret of Onomichi would be career ending.

thematically there are links as well. both games are rather explicitly about the trials of parenthood. 6 is more overtly about this and it ultimately has the much more nuanced and impactful take on the responsibilities of being a parent. as for 3, well, half the game is literally about kiryu running an orphanage. this comes throughout the narrative. digressions like kiryu and rikiya putting on a wrestling match to cheer up one of the kids happen even as late as chapter 10. it's not merely an element of the game that get's dropped as soon as the plot starts really kicking into gear.

i think the biggest way 6 feels like 3 though is the characters. without putting a fine point on it, the hirose family feels eerily similar to the ryudo family, and someya feels like he was cut from the same cloth as mine. nagumo and rikiya both find themselves latching onto kiryu as their aniki and will remind kiryu of this point as often as they can. lastly, while he is obviously not a new character in either game, it's very interesting to me how daigo becomes such a hinge point of the narrative in the both game's respective ending. i won't say more for fear of spoiling more than i already have, but iykyk.

now, this isn't entirely shocking that this would happen. both games were, in their own way, meant to be the basis of the next 5-6 years of the franchise. yakuza 3 isn't actually the first hd game in the series (it was actually kenzan), but it firmly established how kamurocho and kiryu would look and play like throughout the entire PS3 era . 6, meanwhile, was the debut of the dragon engine, which would end up being the basis of 2 mainline titles, 2 spinoffs, a remake, and even remaster of virtua fighter 5. bold new eras of the franchise heralded by games that ultimately ended up being controversial. but i like them all the same.

p.s. if you want to be shitty you can also say that yakuza 6 feels a lot like yakuza 3 because the combat is bad and frustrating in both games. ;p