Majima is the saddest man to ever exist, wait for more
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I really like Y0 a lot and its deserving of inmense praise but kinda feel like its that great because they could play loose a lot since its a prequel in an established Universe at that point and all you gotta make sure it to keep Nishiki, Majima and Kiryu alive 
But the whole story is amazing and they knocked it out of the park.
I think it being a lot of peopleās first Yakuza game adds it to being viewed as the best game in the series. When i played it i had never played something quite like it so it really impressed me. Obviously as you go through the games you become accustomed to it and it doesnāt seem as āspecialā. I do think Yakuza 0 and Yakuza Like a Dragon battle for the top spot of best game though.
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I think this is it lol.
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The fact that RGG were able to iterate so much on their formula in majorly different ways is very impressive to me. The refinement of the general gameplay over time that led to how good Lost Judgment feels, and the marriage of pretty great story-telling and surprisingly competent RPG in Like a Dragon. Not to belabor the point but their output in the past 11 years is pretty crazy, even with the location and asset reuse:
Thatās 5 mainline games including a genre change on the last one and two (I think) engine changes. Two games in a PSP series spinoff. Two spin-off games about familiar characters in wildly different situations. Two remakes of their oldest games in their new engine. ANOTHER spin-off game that tied into a legendary IP. Two entries in a new spin-off series. And I guess a gatcha mobile and PC game that I heard has pretty good animations.
I was talking in another thread about how some series went from multiple releases in a series over a console gen to just a single one and how thatās a bit of a downer, but I would be thrilled with a release schedule of 3 years per game over a mainline and spin-off series. A new, fairly polished Yakuza experience every 18 months would be awesome.
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Man, Xbox should try to fund a remaster of RGG Ishin and bring to the west. It would be a great way to tie the Yakuza franchise with the Xbox brand.
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Dude, this is why Sega is the only fantasy acquisition that gets me excited. They have so many great games in their back catalogue that are a pain to play outside of Japan and/or because theyāre stuck on older consoles. My dream scenario is current Sega studios supported with extra money and MS sets up teams dedicated to porting some of their greatest hits.
Imagine (once the logistics are hammered out things have been cooking for a while) a new to Xbox JRPG every 6 months and a well-funded new entry in a dormant Sega IP coming out every year all directly on game pass. Iām talking a new Condemned for horror fans, a new take on Nights involving mixed reality, a Clockwork Knight 3 to scratch that side-scrolling itch, a Shenmue IV that actually delivers on its promises for the poor fools who were tricked into liking the first two, a Virtua Fighter with proper netcode which Iām told is a big deal, a new Trauma Center for heavenās sake! And thatās all from just glancing at a list of their franchises. And yeah, like you said, some games need remakes and not just to make them prettier. I would love to play the earlier Persona games without ripping out my hair because of bad mechanics and shitty takes on homosexuality and such.
Anyway, I apologize for the tangent; Iām digging Lost Judgment a lot. The bike mini-game is not good though, and Iāve had a weird bug happen a few times where an active enemy will disappear from combat and the fight will end. Iām kind of surprised how nostalgic I am for Ijincho considering I only stopped playing Like a Dragon last December. Itās a good city!
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I donāt care a lot about Xbox acquisitions because the only thing that matters to me in the end is the games being released day one on Xbox Game Pass.
But if I have some billions to invest, at least Iāll try a 10 year partnership with Sega to release their games exclusively in Game Pass and also use their infra structure and brand to make Xbox a thing in Japan (a modded XSX called Xbox Series D inspired on Dreamcast, for example).
Unfortunately, I donāt have billions to invest.
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Yakuza games fit perfectly on gamepass and have everything Microsoft could dream of. Being a yearly franchise at this rate is probably a plus in Microsoftās eyes.
I do wonder what Yakuza game weāll get next year. My heart tells me a Ishin kiwami style remake winter 2021 with Yakuza 8 in winter 2022.
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Do you understand that acquisitions and day one releases on GP are closely related? Big third party publishers wonāt ever release all their porfolio day one, so itās 1st party and indies.
My wishes for Yakuza 8 are the game happening in Isezaki Ijincho and in Okinawa because I love Okinawa and the Okinawa Penitentiary No. 2 is a perfect setup for a JRPG. Maybe Yakuza 8 can be inspired by Dragon Quest V like Yakuza 7 is inspired by Dragon Quest III, with Kasuga being imprisoned and working like a slave in a secret penitentiary.
If this happens, maybe my wish for a Yakuza Kiwami 3 will be more closed. I like Yakuza 3 and that game needs a remake to make a decent combat mechanics and improve the minigames.
I do, what Iām saying is if the games are XGP day one, I donāt care if it was due to an acquisition or a partnership.
MS had the marketing (and even the next gen version timed exclusivity), but there was no day one GP release. Big third party games like Outriders, MLB The Show and Humankind are the exceptions, not the rule. Acquisition is the only way.
I donāt want to extend because this is off-topic, but itās the only way until it isnāt. Game pass is still a new business model in gaming, Iām unable to foresee how it will evolve.
What is undeniable is that Sega and Xbox are becoming close one another in the recent years. Not only Yakuza, but PSO2 in the west and games like Humankind and Football Manager releasing day one on game pass. I can understand if the decision of MS executives is to not buy all Sega but just work together with them on what matters to the gaming strategy.
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I agree with this, but Iām also trying to view it as MS covering their weaknesses by adding variety to the Game Pass library. If the optimistic view that GP lets first-party developers take chances and make games that wonāt necessarily be big sellers is right, and if thereās an internal push for providing games in lesser-served genres from first-party studios, then thatās what leads to my fantasy scenario of reviving dormant IPs to create experiences that arenāt as easy to find anymore.
I donāt enjoy the aspect of ātaking games away from other platformsā that comes with acquisitions, but the ideal of financial stability and creative freedom is extremely pleasant to think about as a huge fan of video games. Games coming day 1 to Game Pass and staying permanently is the cherry on top for me!
Anyway, I really am sorry about the derail and Iāll stop posting my dream journal here now =P
Iām still pretty early in Lost Judgment and itāll never stop making me smile that the side content dimension is entirely untethered from time. Yagami runs into a lady and gives her his card. She calls before he can reach the end of the block and says āWe spoke the other day.ā Yagami runs 4 death races in the same night. Yagami masters Virtua Fighter 5 in an hour. Yagami goes from āuh I have no experience dancingā to leading a crew to multiple dance meets in the same day. Itās like Kiryu collecting millions of yen every ten minutes from his real estate empire in 0 and I love it.
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Skateboard races are a lot of fun. Itās simple but satisfying.
Great way to get points for the shop too! The DLC board makes skateboarding super trivial too (or Iām extremely good at skateboarding 
)
A few observations Iāve made about Lost Judgment:
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One of the earliest side cases you get is about a ramen stall. Pursue this quest, because it will enable you to befriend cats which gives you a TON of SP. Like 5000 a pop, plus some items. I think there are 7 in Yokohama, not sure about Kamurocho. You can refresh it by talking to people nearby I think, like Onodera and the Chinese restaurant.
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Iām pretty sure that the empty extract vials are reusable, like bottles in most Zelda games. This leads me to believe that there are 5 you can get total? I traded SP for one at Onoderaās wares and bought one at the Chinese medicine shop in Chinatown (big stone statues on either side of the door)
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Iām guessing that money will be largely from the VR game again but Iāve found that the material Rainbow Pyroxene sells for like 50k, which is pretty great. You can get a bunch of them in the area between the Ichiban cracker store (extreme west of the map) and the bar district (thereās a parking lot and a little plaza with a river overview). Just do a circuit around the bar district and youāll pick up 1-5 in my experience. Nice thing to do when youāre leaving the school since itās right by there.
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Combat bonuses are nuts. I grabbed all the skills for it right away and Iām getting an extra 1500~ SP a fight now. Huge change from the first game.
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I couldnāt find the ramen stall side case, where is it?
I think itās on the board at 99 Yokohama. It should be one of the first ones you can access if memory serves.
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Oh, I skipped almost all of them, just did one in Kamurocho.
I started this game a few days ago and its a ton of fun. The story is a different pace and style compared to Yakuza which makes it more unique
Also shout out to Sega for putting RGGās game on Xbox over the past few years. These games would have absolutely skipped xbox last gen(tales of arise too) These games are amazing and even more amazing at 60FPS. First Like a Dragon and now this. Super fast loading, sharp visuals, amazing voice acting and animations and just a joy to play. People talk about what this generation will bring but these games polished and running like they are(tales of arise also) is good enough for me. No more 900p shoddy 30FPS gameplay.
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