General RGG Discussion

I think what I really appreciate is highlighting that some things might not be acceptable to modern audiences. On a bunch of Looney Tunes DVD's, there is a great introduction by Whoopi Goldberg explaining that to edit or censor these cartoons would be the same as pretending it never happened at all. I would rather watch something and think "this wouldn't work today and it shows how much progress we're making" rather than be told that I'm not allowed to watch it. All that will do is make me want to watch it even more (which is why i'm collecting the video nasties of the 1980's!).

I do have my limits though and whilst I think some things are too much for me, I just tell myself "I don't want to watch/play it". I'm sure I watch lots of things that others find offensive and that's OK too.
 
I'm not a fan of any of them, TBH lol. Karaoke's not my thing.

I'm saddened that Saejima's version of Rouge of Love didn't take off like I thought; it is far and away the funniest karaoke-related aspect of the series to ever be done.
 
Truck_1_0_1_ said:
lol, there is no doppleganger ;)

And yes; when Adelstein had 3 real-life Yakuza play 3 when it came out in 2008/9/whenever, one of them mentioned that, "this type of thing just happened," or, "this thing is happening right now!"

Of course, the CIA wasn't what they were referring to, but the land deal between a resort and military base was what they were referring to

EDIT* And wanted to mention, the Saejima/Haruka scene in 4 is absolutely brilliant and a reason why this series is phenomenal story-telling; that is something that 99.9% of heterosexual convicts would do, IMO and it is a testament to his morality and awesomeness, that he doesn't follow-through on it: Kiryu even references it in a later scene.

This is another reason why I want the series to remain in the East; the message and appreciation for this series is completely distorted and ******-up in the West (I'm talking the majority of casuals, not the fine folks that have showed a level head) and I would much rather engage with people by discussing the fine points of Kiryu's morality and demeanor, than engage with those who write, "Baka-mitai!" in every internet post they make or post stupid gifs that are silly and childish/sophomoric/unfunny.

Almost like we don't want the casuals that don't appreciate 'mue, to stay away from the series.
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Yes, the spoiler part is what I'm referring to. And doppelganger wasn't the right term, but that story concept and what is in the spoiler tags was enough to make me roll my eyes pretty hard.
 
I will pick up Yakuza 7, but I'm so hilariously behind on games right now, I need to wait to pick up the three to four I want right now.
 
You know, as much of an uneven time I had with Y7, thereā€™s something about the game that makes me want to play it again. I loved the atmosphere, characters, and Yokohama. This might be the only Yakuza game where I actually play the Premium Adventure mode.
 
There are even disclaimers at the beginning of all the remasters saying something like these games came out a few years ago and the views reflect the time or something.
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Yes, during 2009, the Democratic Party of Japan took over and became the majority, and when Hatoyama as Prime Minister, one of the main issues was the bases in Okinawa. He attempted to get Futenma's base relocated to Guam, but Obama said no and Hatoyama resigned.
 
Truck_1_0_1_ said:
This is another reason why I want the series to remain in the East; the message and appreciation for this series is completely distorted and ******-up in the West (I'm talking the majority of casuals, not the fine folks that have showed a level head) and I would much rather engage with people by discussing the fine points of Kiryu's morality and demeanor, than engage with those who write, "Baka-mitai!" in every internet post they make or post stupid gifs that are silly and childish/sophomoric/unfunny.

Almost like we don't want the casuals that don't appreciate 'mue, to stay away from the series.
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I know what you mean. I'm happy for all the success the Yakuza IP is able to gain
but on the 'negative side' all this promotion by Sega (sponsored influencer streams etc),
english voice casting, exclusive ads and so on gave us whole new communities with thousands of people
and theres a big part in there that never had to wait for any title in the series and all they care about is the
'weird and funny japanese part'. They take everything for granted.

And it kind of created a new image on the internet because suddenly Yakuza is all about
funny meme songs, memes about how Kiryu never kills, haha there is a chicken,
omg such lewd minigames etc etc etc

Its like we switched from 'this special insider tip for hardcore japan fans' to
'thats the funny series where all the memes are from'.
That was not really the point back then when a small group of western players
were interested in Yakuza 3, 4, 5, 6 but it almost felt like the series might die in the west.
Now the series is more alive then ever over here but suddenly its just all about the 'fun'.
I still think its kind of disrespectful to act as if this whole series is just a big funny weird joke.
'haha this dev team is nuts'

And these new communities and people are also bringing us these discussions and articles
about 'controversial' stuff and this has the potential to reach important people at Sega
who are able to stop the dev team from doing it again, just because a group of people in NA / EU
demanded a change.
So basically yes, the dev team and Sega deserve every dollar, euro, whatever
they gain because of the new bigger fanbase
but at the same time i really really hope that the japanese division of Sega and the dev team
are not listening to any western feedback.
If they start to change the game concept, like if they make it more stupid (funny) on purpose
to push the internet meme potential even more or if they start to put characters in the games who clearly
are only in there to address western moral values or any of that stuff,
i will immediately stop my support for the series.
 
I feel like thereā€™s still been a pretty decent balance even in 7 with Ichiban being a bit more of a goofy lead than Kiryu - I think thatā€™s part of why the rest of the cast is there to offset that and keep him a bit grounded. Even in the earlier games, the side content was silly a lot of the time, whereas the serious moments were almost exclusively in the main parts of the story.

That said, I do understand and agree it is a bit worrying a lot of new western fans focus almost entirely on the memes. I do think that with 0 being more or less the previous favorite and still being lauded for its good story is a good sign, however itā€™s hard to predict what the consensus will be in the future. I do have to wonder when a larger and larger portion of each game tends to be the side stuff when the majority of it ends up being silly in nature. Thatā€™s why I appreciate that at least a few so far in 7 had some restraint.
 
Excellent posts, you two; I couldn't have said it better.

Nagoshi (and, by extension, Yokoyama) have created and developed this series in such a way, that is remarkable (for the most part, lol) story-telling and message conveying; outside of pure ridiculousness like Parodius and Cho Aniki (which are shooters, so that is absolutely a genre where you can be silly), almost all Japanese-developed games have a moral or an Aesop to them and the RGG/Yakuza series is so strong in this regard, the, "true," fans (like us ;)) feel it and recognize it for all its worth.

I get the same feeling about 'mue and always will, which is why those who don't get it bug the shit out of me.

I won't stop my support, as Tosh said, but I will definitely not be as over-the-moon about the series, as I always have. Thankfully, I don't think anyone at the Dev team cares about the West; they will continue to push the series in the same direction it's always gone, I have no doubts..
 
Random thought: I think I still prefer Kiryu over Ichiban as a protag.

I like Ichiban well enough and think he is charming in his own right, but the goofy child like nature of him has worn a bit thin at times on this second playthrough. I think I still much prefer Kiryu overall...or maybe that's unfair considering Kiryu had 6 games. But I think there is something about Kiryu that I much prefer as a protag.

I think the ratio of goofiness in Y7 is maybe a little too overkill for reasons other people have already gone into here. Yes, Yakuza has always had its weird goofiness, but I think it played better with Kiryu because Kiryu was so straight laced and made for a good reactionary to said goofiness in the side stories. Whereas with Ichiban, I sometimes wouldn't put it past him being the type to indulge said goofiness hence something is kind of lost in some of these side stories. Kiryu made for a good straight man to the weirdness of Kamurocho. Ichiban less so.

I think that has something to do with why I prefer Kiryu. I just think Kiryu is a really interesting character that will always stay with me. Granted, I know it's unfair to compare considering I've had more time with Kiryu than I have Ichiban, but yeah, just throwing a random thought out. Kiryu is loyal to a fault and grounded which helps to off set the weirdness around him. And that is kind of lost with Ichiban a little.

I'm up to Chapter 10 with 55 hours. And most of those hours have been spent fucking around in Yokohama...a lot of Mahjong...and a LOT of Oicho Kabu in between doing side stories and such.

Also, still no listing for Yakuza 3, 4 and 5 on Steam? I thought those were supposed to be coming out this month?
 
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Tosh said:
There is a new trending Yakuza thread on Era and guess what its about ...
the most 'disturbing' scenes of the franchise
(Saejima w Haruka, Kiryu buying a adult magazine for a kid, franchise doesnt care about women ...)
and why this stuff is still in the western releases / remasters and not censored.

I dont even know where to begin ... why are 'we western' players such crybabies
who think that absolutely everything should be made just for us and correrspond to our moral values.
Like ... demanding censorship because of topics and themes we dont like personally ...
this is very dumb.

'I didnt like that scene, its very uncomfortable', yeah ... maybe thats the point?
Maybe, just maybe, not every joke is compatible with every human being on this planet and thats just how it is?
It is okay to not like something in movies, games, books, whatever. But removing or censoring content
for everyone just because you are against this content?

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It's RESETEra. You answered your own question. It's a forum made up of entitled spoilt brats who cry about the entitlement of others while never checking their own.

They like being "outraged" because it gives them attention. For all their talk about how cultured they are, they've never actually gone and lived in another culture to actually embrace just how different it is. They're sheltered, pampered cry baby fucks who sit on the internet and project their misery on the world because it gives them a glimmer of attention among the "woke" journos (read: clickbait hacks who have to pump out one shit article after another to meet quota) that reside in their community.

Yes, I hate ResetEra....it's a joke of a forum. Always has been. Always will be. I stopped giving them attention years ago and became happier for it.

I feel like nowadays on one hand people dont want any kind of offending jokes,
no sexual controversial stuff, no 'super dark themes', not too realistic, nothing about controversial politics ...
like every content should be enjoyable for everyone on the planet.
But at the same time on the other hand a lot of people are also bored with modern movies
and games because they dont have the guts to do / tell / show anything special anymore.
And then someone comes around with something controversial once or twice a year
and you can bet that it wont take long until the digital online crowd is back on the marketplace
because they want to see heads roll.
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That's the problem when you try to please everyone...you end up pleasing no one.

I mean, take TLOU2. Very much a divisive game and very much one I hated for certain reasons...but I will say this much for it...at least it had the balls to toy with its audience and I do kind of respect it for that even if I think narratively speaking it doesn't work...even if I didn't like the story it told and thought it was a mess...I'll give it some props for at least having the balls to do something challenging with it. It's the one good thing I'll say about that game. It at least had the balls to try...even if I don't think the end product amounted to much of anything.

But I think it is a problem of trying to please everyone. It has become more about pleasing everyone and less about just telling the story the artist wants to tell. And that's the thing, you're never gonna please everyone so why bother trying?

It does get tiring though...the constant witch hunts.

In regards to "no controversial politics" though...if anything I would say it's become super didactic with that shit. When people say they don't want politics in games, I think people read that sentence the wrong way.

I think what they really mean is they don't want to be lectured and that's the problem I see with a lot of games that want to deal with politics. I think most modern games that are dealing with politics are super cringey about it and thus it usually comes across being more didactic than anything else as opposed to something you can mull over or give thought to.

I've never had an issue with politics in games, but I do have an issue with overly preachy story telling that is less about telling a story and more about the creator preaching their own ideals on everyone else. I think when people say "they don't want politics in gaming" that's really what they mean. Although, i have seen some people flat say "NO POLITICS" and mean it so who knows.

I think everyone just wants to live in a bubble and has become so afraid of reality...maybe this is what happens when you helicopter parent kids? I mean I was bullied pretty badly as a kid but in a weird way, I'm kind of thankful for it as an adult as it helped to make me stronger and more of a fighter in some regards. That's not me condoning bullying, but maybe there is an argument to be made that safe protecting kids too much results in a generation that becomes increasingly fragile to anything that opposes them because they didn't have those experiences in life to learn from?

You see it in colleges with all this "safe space" shit...I thought college was the place you went to have your ideals questioned? Not be sheltered from all opposing thought.

I mean this opens up a bigger can of worms for me...especially with all the shit that is going on in the world at the moment. Say what you will about Trump and I don't care whether you hate him or not (I was largely ambivalent; he did some good things and some bad things like all politicians; never had a hate boner for the guy though), but it does kind of worry me that so many people were so happy about his censorship on Twitter.

If Twitter can silence him then what is to stop them from silencing anyone they deem inappropriate? It does worry me how censorship-happy people have become in general and how afraid people have become of anything that opposes their world views.

But that's opening up a bigger can of worms and I probably should stop right now. I just think that people on all sides of the spectrum have become so wrapped up in their own bullshit that they're afraid to be challenged.
 
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danielmann861 said:
I mean this opens up a bigger can of worms for me...especially with all the shit that is going on in the world at the moment. Say what you will about Trump and I don't care whether you hate him or not (I was largely ambivalent; he did some good things and some bad things like all politicians; never had a hate boner for the guy though), but it does kind of worry me that so many people were so happy about his censorship on Twitter.

If Twitter can silence him then what is to stop them from silencing anyone they deem inappropriate? It does worry me how censorship-happy people have become in general and how afraid people have become of anything that opposes their world views.

But that's opening up a bigger can of worms and I probably should stop right now. I just think that people on all sides of the spectrum have become so wrapped up in their own bullshit that they're afraid to be challenged.
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Yeah, I don't want to focus too strongly on this, at it is grossly off-topic, but for the past 3 months, his tweets and any media opportunity he got, he used it to basically rile up and incite shit with his fanbase; I mean, he tweets inflammatory crap all around the 6th, but during the actual riot at the Capitol, he doesn't tweet a thing. At all.

Then he goes on television and says, "go home, don't worry. You're special and we love you all very much." EVEN IF YOU DON'T MEAN IT, don't ******* pander up to these assholes and coddle/praise them; TF's wrong with you?

The President of the United States was always deemed to be a position of high integrity, maturity and class; not only did he sully that reputation, but he was using that platform (Twitter/his position) as a means to spread his narcissistic and damaging personality; if Twitter didn't exist, I highly doubt there would've been anything like what has happened the past 2 years.
 
Nah nah, I don't want to go off topic. I've already opened a can of worms as is. But I stand by my overall point. I do think people are becoming increasingly afraid of being challenged...and I say this on all sides of the spectrum. And as such, we are where we are right now.

Worse still, I fear this censorship happy craze is gonna get worse in the next few years. It's not gonna get better. Cancel Culture is gonna get worse. I guess this is why I don't have a Twitter account (fuck that platform, too many crazies and I don't want any part of it.)

But we've gone off topic as is and I don't wish to derail this any further than I already have.

TLDR version: Resetera is (mostly) filled with assholes -- or at least their moderators tend to be assholes. People are becoming increasingly in need of shelter to hide themselves from the scariest thing of all; diversity of opinion. I think that sums up my original wall of unfiltered text.

Political Position? Centerist usually leaning left, but these days I feel I'm leaning more to the right on certain regards...I don't know, I try to balance between the left and right but the inner punk in me looks at the left and thinks "it has become the establishment and I need something to rebel against." But none-the-less looking at both the far-left and far-right with equal amounts of disdain and trying to find rationality in a crazy world.

Come at me, Crazies of the Internet! I'll be here with open arms ;) :D (since the internet is a dangerous place; I might as well just put it all out here front and center. Obviously this is me being half-hearted and playing around!)

There, I think we're done. Just to clear all bases...back to Yakuza talk :D The ONLY thing that truly matters in this thread.
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Still playing Yakuza 7. Entered Chapter 11 today. I will admit, I do kind of miss the beat 'em up mechanics from time to time. Don't get me wrong, I don't hate the turn based combat, but there are times during the random street battles where I think "this would be so much quicker to beat with the beat 'em up mechanics"...if they keep going down the Turn Based RPG route, I hope they scale back or give the option to avoid random street battles because it does get a little overkill with the turn based mechanics.

I think this is the first Yakuza game where I find myself overly relying on the Taxi's to quick travel just to skip the random battles. I think it's also because the random battles don't give you much in the way of XP so they feel worthless...like I said, it would be nice to have the "throw money, avoid battle" mechanic that Y0 had in this game.
 
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