How good are the rest of the games story-wise?

[UnderCore]

I decided to play a 2nd run through this game after finishing it a while ago and after doing it again I fell in love with it once more. Now I have that feeling of wishing that I could play it for the first time again so I was wondering why not try out the rest of the series.

[Lar Dass]

Obviously subjective opinion incoming, but one that has 100%ed the rest of the games (except ones released after 2019)
Story-wise it does become a hit or miss. Kiwami 1's story is great and since youve played 0 alot of the scenes there will have MUCH more impact than if you skipped 0, plus added new cutscenes which the og ps2 game didnt have is always a good thing. Kiwami 2 has one of the best final bosses, but the issue comes with the whole story being quite forgettable and kiwami 2 is generally considered to be one of the least popular too. Yakuza 3's story is amazing, it flows well and the final boss is also very amazing, and has even more discourse than kiwami 2's boss. This story is where kiryu's life takes a massive turn and so the first few chapters might not scream "yakuza" but its necessary for kiryu's character which the director wanted to push as main story and not side content. Yakuza 4's story is confusing as it goes on but start to make some sense as it gets to the end, lots of plot twists and betrayals here, but it introduced the multiple protagonist formula and one of the best characters in the series, akiyama. Yakuza 5's story makes sense and leaves you on cliffhangers similar to 0, i was always wanting to find out more, sadly the ending is just confusing unless you really read into it to get the bigger picture, another amazing character introduced, shinada who sadly doesnt appear in future games. Yakuza 6's story is one of my personal favourites, with some of the best bosses in the series, amazing OST and gripping story which changes kiryu's life from that point forward. Yakuza 7 (like a dragon) is ichiban's story and a new protag for the series, turn based combat replacing brawler which i also loved. The story starts off slow but once it gets going it really excels

I have not played gaiden as i need to get through the judgments first so i cannot comment on gaiden or yakuza 8, but what i have heard gaiden's shorter story is extremely good and yakuza 8's story is just okay

[UnderCore]

Originally posted by Lar Dass:

Obviously subjective opinion incoming, but one that has 100%ed the rest of the games (except ones released after 2019)
Story-wise it does become a hit or miss. Kiwami 1's story is great and since youve played 0 alot of the scenes there will have MUCH more impact than if you skipped 0, plus added new cutscenes which the og ps2 game didnt have is always a good thing. Kiwami 2 has one of the best final bosses, but the issue comes with the whole story being quite forgettable and kiwami 2 is generally considered to be one of the least popular too. Yakuza 3's story is amazing, it flows well and the final boss is also very amazing, and has even more discourse than kiwami 2's boss. This story is where kiryu's life takes a massive turn and so the first few chapters might not scream "yakuza" but its necessary for kiryu's character which the director wanted to push as main story and not side content. Yakuza 4's story is confusing as it goes on but start to make some sense as it gets to the end, lots of plot twists and betrayals here, but it introduced the multiple protagonist formula and one of the best characters in the series, akiyama. Yakuza 5's story makes sense and leaves you on cliffhangers similar to 0, i was always wanting to find out more, sadly the ending is just confusing unless you really read into it to get the bigger picture, another amazing character introduced, shinada who sadly doesnt appear in future games. Yakuza 6's story is one of my personal favourites, with some of the best bosses in the series, amazing OST and gripping story which changes kiryu's life from that point forward. Yakuza 7 (like a dragon) is ichiban's story and a new protag for the series, turn based combat replacing brawler which i also loved. The story starts off slow but once it gets going it really excels

I have not played gaiden as i need to get through the judgments first so i cannot comment on gaiden or yakuza 8, but what i have heard gaiden's shorter story is extremely good and yakuza 8's story is just okay

I'm really invested in the plot so I don't mind the more confusing parts. As for the more "forgetable" ones, I'm willing to get into those as well. Looks like I'll be busy for a long while

[Hagger]

Note that Yakuza 3 is the oldest game, so it will feel a bit weird but once you've played a few hours it will be fine.

I can tell you that Gaiden is excellent, the Judgment games too even if Lost Judgment's story is meh.

Y8 has, imo, a very lacking story but its gameplay is excellent and the new city is a breath of fresh air (you will also have new cities through the games btw).

Ishin is also great except if you want to 100%, it will be painful.

Honestly all games in the franchise are great. You will have an awesome time. I started 5 years ago when Y0 was in Humble Bundle and became a fan.