Can I play Mahjong online with Friends? Or is it matchmaking only?

[Sugaku]

I've played Yakuza for years and love it. I got into Riichi Mahjong thanks to this series. I'm considering repurchasing Yakuza 0 on steam for some friends so we can all play and learn mahjong together.

Can we all set up a lobby and play together? Or is it just random matchmaking?

[Рафнсвартр]

Are you having 230 IQ? How you play this ♥♥♥♥?

[Sugaku]

It's a combination of patience, trial and error, and watching tutorial videos. Also, some of the higher value hands are easier to recognize or work towards, but less likely to occur. So you can get your checkmarks for Mahjong in Yakuza games with a combination of grit and good luck.

[32x32 Riker jpeg]

I have attempted this, and since litterally no-one plays this online, it should automaticcly put you and your friend in the same loby. It did for me.

Didn't see an "invite friend" or "private match" option though.

[Sugaku]

Then it seems we'll have the opposite problem, as there are only three of us. Will it fill out the lobby with CPUs if literally nobody else is available?

[32x32 Riker jpeg]

Originally posted by Sugaku:

Then it seems we'll have the opposite problem, as there are only three of us. Will it fill out the lobby with CPUs if literally nobody else is available?

Yes. Even if it's just 2 people in the loby, AI players will fill in and provide yen.

[Sugaku]

This is great news. Given that the competition on steam is a $12 Riichi Mahjong game (3 copies for $36), $20 for Yakuza 0 (3 copies for $60). It's $24 extra to give my two friends a copy of Yakuza 0 along with our new Mahjong software. Not too shabby.

[32x32 Riker jpeg]

indeed. Hope you enjoy the game. ^^

[Sugaku]

Thanks! I appreciate your quick and informative reply on the nature of multiplayer in this game.

[June-pie]

One thing to note though, you can't choose the rules for online games. It will always be a quarter game (one east round) and no red dora. I imagine Kuitan and 2 han minimum at 5 chonbo are turned on, but those are such edge case rules they almost never come up, and there's no way to check.

Also, Yakuza is exclusively Japanese style mahjong, if you were looking for a specific kind.

Also, unlike single player that lets you take as much time as you want, each player has 15 seconds to take their turn in online mode, and 3 seconds to decide if they want to pong, kong, or chow. There's no way to change this either, so I imagine new players that want to take time to look at their hands will get punished severely until they can actually play the game at the rapid pace the game wants to them go.

[32x32 Riker jpeg]

Originally posted by June-pie:

One thing to note though, you can't choose the rules for online games. It will always be a quarter game (one east round) and no red dora. I imagine Kuitan and 2 han minimum at 5 chonbo are turned on, but those are such edge case rules they almost never come up, and there's no way to check.

Also, each player has 15 seconds to take their turn in online mode, and 3 seconds to decide if they want to pong, kong, or chow. There's no way to change this either, so I imagine new players that want to take time to look at their hands will get punished severely until they can actually play the game at the rapid pace the game wants to them go.

To add to this, I recomend this video for all new players, I found it very helpful.
https://youtu.be/tRCb_LOkEmQ

[Sugaku]

June-pie, thanks for the details on the rules being locked down. That sours my take on this option... that's not a dealbreaker...but... that 15 second turn limit - yeesh, that is a SUPER aggressive speed for a newbie. I'm now leaning towards the $36 option if it offers me that freedom.

Mitsota101, thanks for putting that tutorial in this thread, it's one of the few tutorials that I'd recommend to beginners. But that reminds me that I should probably gather a bunch of "newbie" materials for my friends before starting.