So here's what the Memorial section on that exhibition look like:
192 notes
·
View notes
What if the reason it doesn't seem like Hoshino progressed in three years AT ALL between Judgment and Lost Judgment is because his grandpa was murdered in Ijincho and he's reeling hardcore from it?
Like, RGG doesn't just re-use names for main characters all willy-nilly. Hoshino, head of the Seiryu clan and Hoshino, dumb, insecure, useless little man at the Genda Law Office?
Hoshino is new to the Genda Law Office and doesn't even seem phased they're so cool with yakuza shenanigans. BECAUSE HIS GRANDPA IS A PATRIARCH!
It's my head-canon and I'm sticking to it.
39 notes
·
View notes
There’s literally no reason at all to believe that Hoshino-kun and Grandpa Hoshino are related but I choose to believe they are anyway. A young lawyer in Kamurocho with connections to the chairman of the Yokohama yakuza. No wonder he’s so comfortable teasing Higashi ❤️
2 notes
·
View notes
Weekly Shonen Jump 55th anniversary appendix in Weekly Shonen Jump 2023 issue #33
1968
Weekly Shonen Jump Issue #1
Otoko Ippiki Gaki-Daisho by Hiroshi Motomiya
1969
Dr. Toilet by Kazuyoshi Torii
1970
The Gutsy Frog by Yasumi Yoshizawa
1971
Tezuka Manga Award 1st Edition
Samurai Giants by Ikki Kajiwara & Ko Inoue
Boy of the Wilderness Isamu by Soji Yamakawa & Noboru Kawasaki
1972
Astro Kyudan by Shiro Tōzaki & Norihiro Nakajima
1973
Play Ball by Akio Chiba
Hochonin Ajihei by Jiro Gyu & Jo Big
1974
Akatsuka Manga Award 1st Edition
1975
The Circuit Wolf by Satoshi Ikezawa
Doberman Deka by Buronson & Shinji Hiramatsu
1976
Toudai Icchokusen by Yoshinori Kobayashi
Kochikame by Osamu Akimoto
1977
Ring ni Kakero by Masami Kurumada
Susume!! Pirates by Hisashi Eguchi
1978
Cobra by Buichi Terasawa
1979
Kinnikuman by Yudetamago
1980
Dr. Slump by Akira Toriyama
1981
Captain Tsubasa by Yoichi Takahashi
Cat's Eye by Tsukasa Hojo
Stop!! Hibari-kun! by Hisashi Eguchi
1982
High School! Kimengumi by Motoei Shinzawa
1983
Fist of the North Star by Buronson & Tetsuo Hara
Ginga -Nagareboshi Gin- by Yoshihiro Takahashi
1984
DRAGON BALL by Akira Toriyama
1985
City Hunter by Tsukasa Hojo
Miraculous Tonchinkan by Koichi Endo
Sakigake!! Otokojuku by Akira Miyashita
1986
Saint Seiya by Masami Kurumada
1987
JoJo's Bizarre Adventure by Hirohiko Araki
The Burning Wild Man by Tadashi Sato
1988
Bastard!! by Kazushi Hagiwara
Jungle King Tar-chan by Masaya Tokuhiro
Rokudenashi BLUES by Masanori Morita
Magical Taluluto by Tatsuya Egawa
1989
Weekly Shonen Jump reaches 5.000.000 copies in circulation
Dragon Quest: The Great Adventure of Dai by Riku Sanjo & Koji Inada
Video Girl Ai by Masakazu Katsura
1990
SLAM DUNK by Takehiko Inoue
Chinyuki by Man Gataro
Yu Yu Hakusho by Yoshihiro Togashi
1992
Hareluya II Boy by Haruto Umezawa
1993
Tottemo! Luckyman by Hiroshi Gamo
Hell Teacher Nube by Makura Sho & Takeshi Okano
1994
Midori no Makibao by Tsunomaru
Rurouni Kenshin by Nobuhiro Watsuki
1995
Weekly Shonen Jump reaches 6.530.000 copies in circulation
Sexy Commando Gaiden: Sugoi yo!! Masaru-san by Kyosuke Usuta
1996
Hoshin Engi by Ryu Fujisaki
Yu-Gi-Oh! by Kazuki Takahashi
Kochikame 20th Anniversary & Chapter 1000
1997
I's by Masakazu Katsura
Seikimatsu Leader den Takeshi! by Mitsutoshi Shimabukuro
ONE PIECE by Eiichiro Oda
1998
Rookies by Masanori Morita
Whistle! by Daisuke Higuchi
HUNTERXHUNTER by Yoshihiro Togashi
1999
Hikaru no Go by Yumi Hotta & Takeshi Obata
The Prince of Tennis by Takeshi Konomi
NARUTO by Masashi Kishimoto
2000
JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Stone Ocean by Hirohiko Araki
BLACK CAT by Kentaro Yabuki
2001
Bobobobo Bobobo by Yoshio Sawai
BLEACH by Tite Kubo
2002
Strawberry 100% by Mizuki Kawashita
Eyeshield 21 by Riichiro Inagaki & Yusuke Murata
2004
Death Note by Tsugumi Ohba & Takeshi Obata
Gintama by Hideaki Sorachi
Katekyo Hitman Reborn! by Akira Amano
D.Gray-man by Katsura Hoshino
Muhyo & Roji's Bureau of Supernatural Investigation by Yoshiyuki Nishi
2005
Neuro: Supernatural Detective by Yusei Matsui
2006
To Love Ru by Saki Hasemi & Kentaro Yabuki
2007
Sket Dance by Kenta Shinohara
2008
Nura: Rise of the Yokai Clan by Hiroshi Shiibashi
Toriko by Mitsutoshi Shimabukuro
Bakuman. by Tsugumi Ohba & Takeshi Obata
2009
Kuroko's Basketball by Tadatoshi Fujimaki
Beelzebub by Ryuhei Tamura
Medaka Box by Nisio Isin & Akira Akatsuki
2010
ONE PIECE New World Begins
2011
Nisekoi by Naoshi Komi
2012
Haikyu!! by Haruichi Furudate
The Disastrous Life of Saiki K. by Shuichi Aso
Assassination Classroom by Yusei Matsui
Food Wars: Shokugeki no Soma by Yuto Tsukuda & Shun Saeki
2013
World Trigger by Daisuke Ashihara
Isobe Isobee Monogatari by Ryo Nakama
2014
Hinomaru Zumo by Kawada
My Hero Academia by Kohei Horikoshi
2015
Black Clover by Yuki Tabata
2016
Yuuna and the Haunted Hot Springs by Tadahiro Miura
Kimetsu no Yaiba by Koyoharu Gotouge
BORUTO by Mikio Ikemoto & Ukyo Kodachi
The Promised Neverland by Kaiu Shirai & Posuka Demizu
Kochikame 40th Anniversary and Serialization End
2017
We Never Learn by Taishi Tsutsui
Dr. STONE by Riichiro Inagaki & Boichi
2018
Jujutsu Kaisen by Akutami Gege
2019
Chainsaw Man by Tatsuki Fujimoto
Mission: Yozakura Family by Hitsuji Gondaira
2020
Undead Unluck by Yoshifumi Tozuka
MASHLE by Hajime Komoto
Ayakashi Triangle by Kentaro Yabuki
Me & Roboco by Shuhei Miyazaki
BURN THE WITCH by Tite Kubo
SAKAMOTO DAYS by Yuto Suzuki
2021
The Elusive Samurai by Yusei Matsui
WITCH WATCH by Kenta Shinohara
Blue Box by Kouji Miura
2022
Akane Banashi by Yuki Suenaga & Takamasa Moue
189 notes
·
View notes
like a dragon gaiden is really good. you can tell theyre kinda stretching their legs and expanding the way their stories are framed. i would never besmirch the earlier games but the relationships between characters tended to be simple "they are brothers" or "they are disloyal underlings". at the time of yakuza 3 i dont think they had it in them to make a kiryu-hanawa relationship. people like daigo, kiryu and saejima are "good people inside the crooked system" in the yakuza series but since yokoyama took charge of the studio you have people like kuwana, hanawa and ryuhei hoshino who have more complicated morals and instead have more realistic glimpses of virtue within their position as influential people in evil organizations. the stories are getting better for sure but in a very recognizable way. the localization of gaiden is sloppy and theres punctuation and spelling errors sprinkled throughout which i didnt notice AT ALL in yakuza 0 up through yakuza 7 but i can understand if this game just had less attention paid to it next to the monstrous behemoth omnibus of infinite wealth.
my biggest concern is substories at this stage. gaiden is of course not a full LAD game and the substories are simple, but i also was not really able to get into them in judgment and lost judgment, probably because in those games theyre longer winded and less numerous, but also i think because of the way you come across them. in previous yakuza games you would just run down the street and somebody would be like "hey man can you help me out" but in judgment, lost judgment and gaiden, you have to go see a bulletin board that says "i will be in this location so you can come talk to me and help me". i hope infinite wealth uses the traditional substory style and i have no reason to assume it wont.
8 notes
·
View notes
Character Introductions
Yokohama Seiryu Clan
Hoshino Ryuhei
Totsuka Yamato
Takabe Mamoru
From the Yakuza 7 guidebook, 龍が如く7 光と闇の行方 完全攻略極ノ書 (ファミ通の攻略本)
9 notes
·
View notes
How do you do, fellow kids?
521 notes
·
View notes
477 notes
·
View notes
524 notes
·
View notes
Yakuza: Like a Dragon Persona AU
I probably should make an updated post, or maybe an addendum to the last once since some stuff has changed since then.
This is just a list of social links applied to the plot of Y7 with a persona twist to it. I semi-thought out idea of integrating personas into the story but ill probably flesh it out another day.
They're organized in three different ways because I'm like that.
Y7 Persona AU Tag
Guide:
* = Party Member
- = Gained Confidant over the course of the story
& = Ichiban’s already existing social links from the start of the story
Tarot Order (kinda)
Fool: Ichiban Kasuga * (In game this would be the SL for the Kasuga Party)
Magician: Yu Nanba *
Priestess: Saeko Mukoda *
Empress: Seong-hui -
Emperor: Zhao Tianyou *
Hierophant: Masumi Arakawa &
Lovers: Sumire Sawa -
Chariot: Mitsuo Yasamura &
Justice: Koichi Adachi *
Hermit: Kazuma Kiryu -
Fortune: Eri Kamataki *
Strength: Iroha Yanagi -
Hanged Man: Masato Arakawa/Aoki Ryo &
Death: Ryuhei Hoshino -
Temperance: Osamu Kashiwagi/Bartender -
Devil: Jo Sawashiro &
Tower: “Akira” -
Star: Nick Ogata -
Moon: Joon-gi Han/Yeonsu Kim *
Sun: Hamako -
Fool: “Heroes from Rockbottom”, Formed after reuniting with Adachi
Judgement: “The Heroes of Tomorrow”, The period in time after Ichiban reunites with Masato at Otohime Land
In order of appearance in the story
- Prologue -
Hierophant: Masumi Arakawa
Devil: Jo Sawashiro
Hanged-Man: Masato Arakawa/Ryo Aoki
Chariot: Mitsuo Yasamura
- Post Imprisonment -
Justice: Koichi Adachi
Star: Nick Ogata
Tower: “Akira” (Right after he gets shot)
- Waking up in Yokohama -
Magician: Yu Nanba
Sun: Hamako
Fool: The Heroes at Rockbottom (Obtained after reuniting with Adachi)
Temperance: Osamu Kashiwagi/Bartender
Strength: Iroha Yanagi
Death: Ryuhei Hoshino
- Nonomiya gets killed -
Priestess: Saeko Mukoda
Lovers: Sumire Sawa
Fortune: Eri Kamataki
- Sent to the Geomijul -
Moon: Joon-gi Han
Emperor: Zhao Tianyou
Empress: Seong-hui
Judgement: The Heroes of Tomorrow (Obtained after meeting with Aoki in Otohime Land)
Hermit: Kazuma Kiryu (Post fight)
Organized
Party:
Ichiban Kasuga: Fool
Koichi Adachi: Justice
Yu Nanba: Magician
Saeko Mukoda: Priestess
Eri Kamataki: Fortune
Joon-gi Han: Moon
Zhao Tianyou: Emperor
Social Links:
Nick Ogata: Star
Iroha Yanagi: Strength
Bartender/Osamu Kashiwagi: Temperance
Sumire Sawa: Lovers
Hamako: Sun
“Akira”: Tower
Seong-hui: Empress
Mitsuo Yasamura: Chariot
Kazuma Kiryu: Hermit
Social Links (Ranks with story points):
“Heroes from Rockbottom”: Fool
Ryuhei Hoshino: Death
Masumi Arakawa: Hierophant
Jo Sawashiro: Devil
Masato Arakawa/Ryo Aoki: Hanged Man
“Heroes of Tomorrow”: Judgement
Again I have some ideas I thought of for the AU but I probably won't get to them until after I finish up the confidant menu project, which is the main reason why I made this list in the first place lmao.
40 notes
·
View notes
Omi Pins
Tojo Pins
okay onto the final part: everyone else! as with the previous two, mild spoilers across all the games
Atobe Family
Do you remember these guys? no you don’t. if you said yes you’re lying. This is a family from Asakusa who shows up for approximately 10 minutes, has their name mentioned once, and you see their pin once. That’s right, this is the family involved with that part in Y1 where you gotta deal with the Florist’s shitty kid. A really great pin, shockingly, very striking and good use of silver black and grey as well as breaking the circle. I would have expected this to be from a major player
Ryudo Family
Not to be confused with the Omi Ryudo, this is the Okinawan family from 3 featuring Nakahara, Mikio, and of course Rikiya. I.............. don’t think any of them actually wear it though, so you only see it as fight intros. A stellar pin, the use of the shisa is great even if it is a little hard to read. The way it encircles the family kanji really gives off the protective vibe of the shisa
Ueno Seiwa Family
so normally I complain about gold on gold being hard to read, which is true, but the shape of this is so different than anyone elses’ that you can tell at a glance exactly what family you’re dealing with. A good pin
Yamagasa Family
This pin has always slapped. It’s bold and geometric, easy to read, and looks great on a formal hakata. It’s very sleek and modern imo, which is once again funny for a very traditional family like the Yamagasa out in Nagasugai, but overall just a top tier pin
Yahata Family
It makes sense that the direct subordinates would just tweak the design, but adding in the calligraphy 八 clashes a little with the nice geometry, making this a worse pin. It’s also extremely hard to tell from a Yamagasa pin, but that’s fine since they’re part of it and they benefit from people thinking they’re higher up than they actually are. Still a pretty good pin
Kitakata Family
Y5 really went off on its pins, this one’s for those guys up in Tsukimino. It’s bold and easy to read, but not quite as good as the Yamagasa pin. Very effective still though
Yomei Alliance
Time for these assholes out in Onomichi. So obv we got that rising sun iconography kind of going on which is Not Great but does tie thematically with what that family was founded on. Definitely very good at conveyance, you’re not going to mistake it for anyone else in the area
Masuzoe Family
Remember this dude? I sure didn’t. The Yomei guys don’t really stick to a theme, which is fine, and this pin is pretty good. It’s a little busy, I think the center kanji could use a little more room to breathe and feels slightly off center due to how the line on the left almost touches the edges unlike every other part of it
Koshimizu Family
Remember this guy? Maybe you do, he was a lot more memorable than Masuzoe. His pin is actually really great. I love the evocation of a sword hilt and how the scalloped edges are cut out internally to slot in the calligraphy, it gives a very nice organis flow to the whole thing. The color balance is also very good. 10/10 pin, one of the best in the series imo
Hirose Family
Simple, effective, unmistakable. Hirose has a good pin. The edges remind me of a government organization, which gives it a nice sense of authority despite being a tiny little group. The use of the grass lines helps break up the space so it’s not just a boring circle and draws the eye up to the top kanji, which has the lines to draw the eye back down. A good pin
Kyorei Clan
An Osaka based group that isn’t Omi! It’s from judgment and most famously Shioya is a member. Really cool pin! I like the angles a lot, and it’s a very unique shape! very cool, great pin
Seiryu Clan
what no I totally didn’t forget this one the first time. shut up. So this pin has a lot going for it. The swirling waves leading the eye in, and the fact that it has the full family name + clan sets it apart. A fun fact on this one is that the patriarch is 星野 龍平 (Hoshino Ryuhei) and this family takes the first kanji from his family and given name to make 星龍 (seiryu) which is a homophone with 青龍 (seiryu), the blue dragon of the four legendary beasts (also the one Kiryu is represented by!). However while the blue dragon’s kanji is literally blue+dragon, this family is star+dragon, which is fucking baller as hell. A great pin on that aspect alone, and a solid design to back it up
Non-Yakuza Organizations
Peace Finance
Okay so all the non-yakuza “pins” are out of Y1 (with 2 exceptions), because they just fucking loved making pins and icons and shit during that game. No one actually wears this one, it just flashes during one of the very early fights in Y1 when Kiryu helps Shinji deal with some shitty loan sharks. It kind of reminds me of a cult? It’s definitely trying too hard to be non-threatening, which ends up making it threatening, which is perfect for the organization it’s used for
Purgatory
Damn do I fucking love ho-o’s. Nagoshi please put a ho-o on someone’s back. You can have my oc. Please. This isn’t a pin, it’s the floor of the colosseum, and it looks great
Snake Flower Triad
Another one that no one wears, it’s very effective. You got snakes. You got a flower. There’s three things. Got it in one, everyone go home. The shape is unique enough that even being the worse kind of gold on gold you can tell whose it is
MIA
This one does get worn! It’s effective as a weird government shadow group, with the military look to it alongside the divine looking wings/halo/rays of light. It’s super hard to read from a distance, but that’s okay for a group that isn’t trying to advertise itself to anyone who doesn’t already know them
Jingu
Jingu’s personal pin. It’s very government-y, being not far off from the royal family’s pin or a lawyer’s badge, and the kind of purpley look is really nice. A good pin for an awful guy
Dragon Heat
This is from Kurohyou, and like the Purgatory design it’s what’s on the colosseum ring. It’s got two dragons fighting each other, what more could you want for a bloodsport? It’s scuffed and faded, showing that this place either gets a lot of use or isn’t making that much cash, which is some nice environmental storytelling
Ashura
Same deal as before but this time it’s for Kurohyou 2. Another fighting ring, another scuffed up floor, this time featuring an asura, beings in a state of constant battle with the devas of hinduism, which is fitting for a fighting ring that’s supposed to be even more brutal. a good design, though I wish it had a little more of the depth that the dragon heat one had
and that’s all of them! except for whichever ones I missed! But we can ignore those!! I’m sure they’re not important
48 notes
·
View notes
Sega has released new information and screenshots of Yakuza: Like a Dragon introducing Yokohama Seiryu Clan characters Ryuhei Hoshino and Mamoru Takabe.
Get the details below.
■ Yokohama Seiryu Clan
The “Ijinsan” are the three major powers that control Isezaki Ijincho in Yokohama. The Seiryu Clan, one of those three powers, is the single greatest yakuza organization in Yokohama. Chairman Ryuhei Hoshino, an old-fashioned and genuine yakuza, has controlled the underworld of Yokohama since long ago.
—Yokohama Seiryu Clan Headquarters
The Yokohama Seiryu Clan Headquarters rules over the underworld of Isezaki Ijincho. Thorough measures have been taken to prevent intruders from raiding the building. It is said to have relentless security layered throughout, and that even if an intruder managed to make their way inside, they would not be able to make it out alive.
Ryuhei Hoshino (voiced by Tetsuo Kaneo)
The chairman of the the Yokohama Seiryu Clan, the sole yakuza organization in Isezaki Ijincho. He is a genuine yakuza who values duty, humanity, and honor, and is committed to the ways of old-fashioned chivalry. While he is a big-shot who has controlled the underworld of Isezaki Ijincho for many years, he is also a gatekeeper who has continued to protect Ijincho from the invasion of foreign enemies.
Mamoru Takabe (voiced by Taichi Endou)
The sharp number two of the Yokohama Seiryu Clan. He has sworn his allegiance to Ryuhei Hoshino, who has placed great trust in him as his right arm. While he has a calm and collected personality, his hot-bloodedness allows absolutely no tolerance for his enemies.
Yakuza: Like a Dragon is due out for PlayStation 4 on January 16, 2020 in Japan, and in 2020 in the Americas and Europe. A demo is also planned. Read more about the game here, here, here, here, here, and here.
View the screenshots at the gallery.
9 notes
·
View notes
Essence of Combat, Part 3: The Pinnacle
(major Yakuza: Like a Dragon and other Yakuza spoilers below)
(previously)
In the waning moments of Yakuza: Like a Dragon, Ichiban and crew defeat governor of Tokyo Ryo Aoki and his flunkies after successfully exposing Aoki's true nature and unsuccessfully trying to bring him back from his excessively paranoid megalomania. As the battle proves to be ultimately too strenuous for the party members, Ichiban sets off on his own to end it all and settle things one-on-one. But not with Ryo Aoki, governor of Tokyo, political phenom, ruthless schemer, two-faced hypocrite, the man behind the murders of Ryuhei Hoshino and others, and the source of just about everything that's gone wrong for Ichiban since New Year's Day 2001.
No, he's settling things with Masato Arakawa. The young master. A man who he served without hesitation, a man who he saw and still sees, despite everything, as his own brother.
Besides the obvious emotional weight behind the final battle, there's also a few mechanical quirks. The first is that Ichiban is in a battle by himself for the first time since he teams with Adachi to infiltrate the Omi Alliance meeting in Kamurocho. The second, and what I find significantly more interesting, is that Ichiban is automatically reclassed into the Freelancer job that the vast majority of players will not have used since the aforementioned bat-drawing scene that gives players access to Ichiban's Hero job.
I find this switch to Freelancer interesting, because it reflects another hallmark of the Yakuza action combat. Or, more accurately, a hallmark of Yakuza combat in the context of its plot: the final boss fight.
The Yakuza games have a long history of having one-on-one climactic final boss fights to mark the end of gameplay. As you would expect, these bosses tend to be among the toughest in the whole game, and the choreography of the cutscenes in the fight, along with the usually highly dramatic circumstances surrounding it, generally mean that they rank among the most memorable encounters in the series as a whole.
Going back to the Freelancer switch, it's worth noting that for this fight, the game reasonably assumes that most players haven't leveled the job at all and helpfully gives Ichiban access to the entire skillset of the Freelancer job.
The Freelancer skills, in order, are:
Tenacious Fist: A windup right hook.
Rock Swing: A headlock into a hip toss.
Headbutt Barrage: A collar grab into two headbutts, then a jumping headbutt.
Hyper Swagger: A taunt that raises attack and evasion.
Dropkick: A standing dropkick.
Ruffian's Kick: A jumping side kick.
Atomic Drop: An atomic drop, as seen previously in Yakuza games as Essence of Knee Slam.
Release German Suplex: A release German suplex.
Notice that all are unarmed techniques, befitting of a job that has no weapon type and must be unarmed, and all of them wouldn't really be out of place in a Kiryu Saga protagonist's moveset. (Again, Shinada and Kiryu can already perform an atomic drop as Heat Actions in Yakuza 5 and Yakuza 0 and Kiwami, respectively.)
As a bonus (and a bit of a reach), every previous mainline Yakuza protagonist can learn the ability to build Heat by taunting, often through the White Tiger Spirit upgrade, and at least in 0 (and possibly other games), having Heat can increase your damage and evasiveness. What does Hyper Swagger do, again?
To really drive things home, the top level Freelancer skill is the job's Kiwami Action, Essence of Roadside Weapon. In many situations, it's simply the Essence of Might Heat Action that's been in many previous Yakuza games, but as its description suggests, performing it in other specific contexts has you instead performing attacks that may be, let's say, familiar to series veterans.
So the framing is really clear. For all intents and purposes, the final battle against Masato is the climactic final boss fight of Yakuza: Like a Dragon, further punctuated by Ichiban's Freelancer moveset making him the closest to a standard Yakuza protagonist he can possibly be. In this moment, Like a Dragon most closely and deliberately resembles the Yakuza games of the past.
To which I can't help but ask: if you're going to go this far in embracing Yakuza tradition, why not go all the way and let you control Ichiban in action combat?
Of course, there's a very obvious answer. They can't, because introducing an entirely new control scheme at the final hour in a game explicitly intended as a soft reboot for the franchise would be an ill-advised move. Additionally, while I've no insight into the intricacies of working with the Dragon Engine, I would not be even remotely surprised to find out that implementing action combat in Like a Dragon would be exceedingly difficult; making video games is very, very hard. And even if was feasible or even relatively simple, I would not be surprised if the testing and debugging necessary to make sure it was up to snuff would be considered too prohibitive to be worthwhile. Again, making video games is very, very hard, and making good video games is even harder. (And all of this is without considering RGG Studio's prolific output. They've put out games of this scope, almost every year, for over a decade.)
But putting aside the pragmatic reality of the matter, I do think it's worth interrogating the implications of Ichiban adopting the most mundane job and using the most mundane techniques against Masato but retaining the turn-based structure. Ichiban, by all accounts, is well within his rights to hold nothing back against Aoki, who's callously ruined innumerable lives in the name of his own need to attain absolute power and avoid being among the used at any cost. Ichiban could absolutely brain Aoki with a bat and give him the definitely not fatal concussion to end all definitely not fatal concussions, and it would maybe be a step too far, but not by much. (And as a consequence of transferrable skills and battle items, it is actually somewhat likely that you, as Ichiban, can do things like stab Aoki with a katana, throw dynamite right in his face, or blast him with a rocket launcher.)
But again, Ichiban's not fighting Aoki. He's fighting Masato. No one would blame him for not holding back, as he did back in prison against the three prisoners, but he still does. The Freelancer job switch means his stats are almost certainly objectively lower, across the board. He becomes unarmed, and loses access to many of his most powerful skills. And he still approaches the fight with his turn-based mindset, letting Masato get his hits in, just like every other enemy he's faced up to this point, because it's only fair. Because in spite of everything Masato has put Ichiban and his loved ones through, Masato is still the young master, still a brother to Ichiban. He just does not have it in himself to go all out against Masato. He's not fighting Masato to prove he's stronger; he's fighting Masato to stop him from losing himself further to his worst excesses and fears. To help him start over from rock bottom, just as he has.
Tremendous resonance between gameplay and story, to be sure, but it leaves an intriguing door open. Veterans who've played Yakuza 5 and 6 may remember that those games openly toy with the idea that while Kiryu has not purposefully killed in cold blood, he knows and more or less states that doing so is never fully off the table. So even if it somewhat obviously never comes to fruition, the specter of that possibility is played for drama in those games. Will this be the step too far that drives Kiryu to kill?
I posit that the Masato fight in Like a Dragon poses a similar question. It's not the case this time, but in future Yakuza games, will Ichiban ever be in such a dire situation, and come across an opponent who he deeply hates so much, that he drops the turn-based mindset entirely? And if so, will he be controlled like Yakuza games of old?
I've said as much before, but I don't think this is a given or even necessarily a good idea. Knowing what we do about Ichiban and the kind of person he is, it might very well be the case that this final boss fight is an intensely personal one and therefore special, and future final boss fights will be more along the lines of the more traditional (in a Like a Dragon sense) boss fight against Tendo, which would certainly be more in line with most turn-based RPG final boss fights. Hell, there are already people who treat Tendo as the true final boss fight and both fights afterward as bonus story fights.
Personally? I'm of two minds with this. On one hand, sure, I would have a lot of fun controlling Ichiban in action combat, even if it was just for one boss fight, because I do have considerably more fun with Yakuza action combat, hitting counters and performing Heat Actions, and the character implications of doing so would be a lot to chew on. But on the other, I also find the turn-based combat satisfying in a different way, I know that the action combat I prefer isn't going away any time soon in other games, and I think that it'd be better for the Ichiban games as a whole to make a clean break. The circumstances of the Masato fight are a neat throwback and acknowledgement of Yakuza's past, but I suspect if they do something similar in future games without going all the way, it'll land considerably flatter.
In other words, regardless of what direction they choose to take final boss fights (and to a lesser extent, combat mechanics like Kiwami Actions writ large) in the Like a Dragon sequels, I'm saying they should follow Saejima's evergreen advice.
0 notes
WHATTT is ryuhei hoshino voiced by caesar from fnv
0 notes