New to Yakuza? don't know where to start? README!

[TheShadowHatter]

I've been seeing posts recently of people that want to get into the Yakuza series and end up asking here where they should start. I just finished replying to one of those threads, but thinking on it now, if more people come, I'd hate to retype it all over again so I'm making this thread in hopes people will flock to this one to have their question answered. I'm going to just copy/paste that reply here so you can get all the information you need:

Here's the games and the timeline in which the events in the universe take place:

Yakuza 0 (1988)
Yakuza Kiwami (2005)
Yakuza Kiwami 2 (2006)
Yakuza 3 Remastered (2007 - 2009)
Yakuza 4 Remastered (2010)
Yakuza 5 Remastered (2012)
Yakuza 6: The Song of Life (2012 - 2016)
[Judgement] (2018)
Yakuza: Like a Dragon (2019)
[Lost Judgement] (2021) (play it before Gaiden though if you liked Judgement)
Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name (2019)
Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth (2023)

Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name, takes place right after Yakuza 6: The Song of Life and during the events of Yakuza: Like a Dragon. As a Yakuza fan, I personally feel it's important you play all of these games in the order I put them in, only because you'll not only love the story, but you'll love all the fun mini games and sub stories as you explore fictional cities based off of real cities in Japan. You'll also appreciate Gaiden's ending 5000% more if you go through Kiryu's hero's journey from Yakuza 0 - 6 and Yakuza: Like a Dragon gets summarized in Gaiden too so yeah. Take your time and enjoy yourself and welcome to one of the best niche video game series of all time!

Sidenote: I'm sure you noticed by now, but there's two games on this list that have brackets on them. These are the Judgement games, also created by RGG who created the Yakuza series. They take place IN THE SAME UNIVERSE as the Yakuza series, and have references to events that have occurred in the Yakuza series (involving Yakuza clans like the Tojo and such), but are NOT REQUIRED to understand any of the Yakuza games. I merely added them in just in case you fall in love with this series and want to play more games within the universe that CAN be connected, even in a small way. There IS however, a nice treat in Like a Dragon Gaiden, that will be very satisfying to those who played and enjoyed the Judgement series, assuming you're the type of person to try and 100% these games (or at minimum you want to beat all the substories in each game).

Sidenote 2: Like a Dragon: Ishin doesn't take place in the Yakuza universe as far as I know, but it is based off a true story of the life of Sakamoto Ryoma (though obviously the game's going to be loosely based off of that story with how wild RGG games are). It's one of the best samurai games ever made and characters in this game are played by characters you'll recognize in the Yakuza series (my headcanon is that they're all acting in a movie which makes it fun to enjoy that way). So even though Ishin isn't required to play, it is another great RGG game you should consider playing if you enjoy this series as I know you will.

Sorry for the long winded post, but I get passionate about Yakuza and I really hope you take my post to heart and you enjoy it dude. You have no idea how much of a good time you're about to have!

Just please don't rush them. I understand Gaiden is the newest one and Infinite Wealth is a few days away, but this game series is so fantastic, that you'd do a disservice to yourself if you rush through it just because of FOMO. Gaiden and Infinite Wealth will still be here when you're ready for them.

GOOD LUCK with the series dude! and good luck with Amon!

[E.P.D. Gaffney]

Weird, I keep looking and I just don't see Dead Souls on this list.

[TheShadowHatter]

Първоначално публикувано от E.P.D. Gaffney:

Weird, I keep looking and I just don't see Dead Souls on this list.

I've never played it so I don't know where it falls on the Yakuza timeline, though I imagine it doesn't land on the timeline considering that's a zombie game right? So just like Ishin, it isn't required to play it to understand the story of Yakuza. The point of this post is to highlight all the Yakuza games that Steam players can obtain on Steam and play through Steam alone. Dead Souls isn't on Steam as far as I know, otherwise I'd have mentioned it in the end along with Ishin as games people should try.

[E.P.D. Gaffney]

Първоначално публикувано от TheShadowHatter:

I've never played it so I don't know where it falls on the Yakuza timeline, though I imagine it doesn't land on the timeline considering that's a zombie game right? So just like Ishin, it isn't required to play it to understand the story of Yakuza. The point of this post is to highlight all the Yakuza games that Steam players can obtain on Steam and play through Steam alone. Dead Souls isn't on Steam as far as I know, otherwise I'd have mentioned it in the end along with Ishin as games people should try.

I was basically joking. But kind of not because everyone should play Dead Souls. You have never seen Majima so happy as when he gets to mow down hordes of zombies. And I don't want to give spoilers but do you really need a hand on your arm when you can just put a chain gun on there instead?

[TheShadowHatter]

Yeah they definitely need to port the rest of the Yakuza games to Steam. Especially with the divide they've created in the fanbase with the turn-based combat of future games (which I have ZERO problems with personally), it would be cool for them to appease their older fans by releasing Dead Souls along with the rest of the missing games.

[E.P.D. Gaffney]

Sadly I have my doubts they'll do it. There are three different aiming modes and none of them quite feels like what people think of as a shooter, especially nowadays. But if you're a Yakuza fan, at least the kind that I am, who loves the characters and how crazy a lot of the side content is, to me nothing is more Yakuza than how they handled just about everything in that game. As a dating activity you can invite hostesses to the quarantine zone, give them any gun you want, and have them tell you how much fun they had yelling 'Headshotto!' and doing dual heat actions with you.

The one I really want is Kenzan but I heard they said it's too old to bring it over without remaking it, which I'm not sure I want.

If you're curious about Kurohyou, the fan translation is decent, the first game is quite good, and the second one is a step down in a lot of ways but I don't regret playing it.

[TheShadowHatter]

I'll have to check those out one of these days. Especially now that Infinite Wealth coming soon it'll be nice to keep the Yakuza hype going.

[DrGonzoRoyale]

If only i had 1000 hours a day to play.
Will i play em all before reaching 80 years?

If u gonna play them all from start as a newcomer, u will burn out and never finish.
It is the sad truth.

Isn't it better to play 0, then 6, then gaiden and then newest.
Can always play earlier ones when feeling like u want to catch up

[Rumitus]

Първоначално публикувано от DrGonzoRoyale:

If only i had 1000 hours a day to play.
Will i play em all before reaching 80 years?

If u gonna play them all from start as a newcomer, u will burn out and never finish.
It is the sad truth.

Isn't it better to play 0, then 6, then gaiden and then newest.
Can always play earlier ones when feeling like u want to catch up

Why exactly would that be "better"?

[E.P.D. Gaffney]

Първоначално публикувано от DrGonzoRoyale:

If only i had 1000 hours a day to play.
Will i play em all before reaching 80 years?

If u gonna play them all from start as a newcomer, u will burn out and never finish.
It is the sad truth.

Isn't it better to play 0, then 6, then gaiden and then newest.
Can always play earlier ones when feeling like u want to catch up

6 isn't even liked by a lot of people (I love it, personally), and Gaiden isn't a game you rush to; it's a game you enjoy primarily because you already love Kiryu from playing the other games.

[TheShadowHatter]

Първоначално публикувано от DrGonzoRoyale:

If only i had 1000 hours a day to play.
Will i play em all before reaching 80 years?

If u gonna play them all from start as a newcomer, u will burn out and never finish.
It is the sad truth.

Isn't it better to play 0, then 6, then gaiden and then newest.
Can always play earlier ones when feeling like u want to catch up

Except its NOT true because that's exaclty how I did it. Just admit you're falling into FOMO dude because normal people play games for fun or for story. You wouldn't watch the last Harry Potter movie out of nowhere you'd be watching all the movies before it to understand the last movie. Same applies here.

And NO, it's not better to skip games to reach the end unless you're someone weird that only plays the latest games that come out for reasons. Skipping games means you aren't going to care about certain characters and parts of the story, which then what is the point of even playing this series? So you can be in on the jokes and memes or something?

[Xenobia]

People who skip games in this series are playing the series for all the wrong reasons. You wouldn't start a TV show from the 5th season. This series is a phenomenal journey and deserves your time and attention.

Jumping to the new and shiny game because you don't want to play the series in order takes away so much, and you'll just be so lost and ruin one of the best series out there.