New to the Series / Watched the Show.

[Knud den Store 🧙‍♂]

I watched the show, I liked it.
I am new to the series.
Is this a good starting point or should I start with Kawami?

Also I thought the show was good, exactly what I should be mad about?
I don't mind if the story is different between the adaptation and the game, if the games are better than the show that is a huge plus to me. To me an adaptation needs to be good for its own merits.

As I said in another thread, I can tell you why the Amazon Fallout show is bad without needing to recur to the lore of the series. Amazon's Yakuza is nowhere near as bad as that and even if it is a separate story, on its own, it was an okay drama.

I mean It's it not "City on Fire" but the show seemed alright to me, I really want to know your opinions. I do not mind spoilers at all.

Edit: Okay I guess I should had waited to see the LAST episode, still miles better than most adaptations.

[Kwcten]

i started with this one and then played kiwami 1 and 2 then played 3,4,and 5 so yea this is a good starting point

[Coffee Addict]

if you liked the show you will love the games

if you love the games you will hate the show

[Knud den Store 🧙‍♂]

Originally posted by Coffee Addict:

if you liked the show you will love the games

if you love the games you will hate the show

Okay nice.

[Luna ~]

start here yeah, This series is PEAK.
Ive never seen the show but i heard everyone who loves the games usually ♥♥♥♥♥ on the show.

if you need entire time line, Its Yakuza 0 through 6, Judgement - Yakuza 7 - Like a dragon Gaiden - Lost judgement - Infinite Wealth

ishin can be played when/where ever technically starts first because it takes places in the 1860;s or something. Judgement series can technically be played whenever but there are small Easter eggs that add up if you play in timeline order.

[Top Dollar]

I got into the series two years ago. Still only played 0, 1 & 2, in fact, I'm starting the series from scratch and hoping to do it all this time.

Yakuza / Like a Dragon is a pretty unique series in that it actually works better to start with the prequel FIRST. Most prequels don't actually work as a starting point because they either require knowledge from the existing games to fully enjoy them, or they give away spoilers for the games that take place later in the time line (example: the Infernal Affairs movie trilogy. I thought I'd be clever and start with Infernal Affairs 2 first since it's set before 1, and in the first 10 seconds had a massive surprise twist ruined for me in 1).

Yakuza 0 on the other hand isn't really like that. No spoilers for events later in the timeline occur, at least not for Yakuza or Yakuza 2, and 0 is presented as though it's the true "starting point" of the series. It's also pretty light on nostalgic references to events later in the time line - there's one exception here with the character of Majima, since his entire character arc in this game is one surprise origin story for fans who already know him from "previous" games. Without giving too much away, Majima's personality in Yakuza 1 onwards is radically different from his personality in this game, and a big part of the fun of this game for longtime fans was finding out that he actually used to be a very different person, and finding out how he becomes the "Mad Dog of Shimano."

I started with 0 and went in blind. I had no knowledge of Majima or anything from the series and so I had no idea what his character arc was going to be - and it still totally worked. His story in this game is actually pretty riveting and even emotional. I was gripped.

Yakuza 0's story starts fairly slow and you might even find yourself getting a bit bored in Chapter 1, but I can pretty much guarantee that if you stick with it, within a few chapters you'll be hooked and you'll find the story is as emotionally engaging as any game you've ever played.

The game has you playing as two protagonists: Kiryu and Majima. You start out playing as Kiryu, then in Chapter 3 & 4 you play as Majima, and you switch back and forth every two chapters until the end of the game. Kiryu and Majima's stories SEEM completely unrelated, and part of the fun is trying to figure out how they're connected (and trust me, they are, and it's a pretty great reveal when you finally find out how).

When I first played it I got into Kiryu's story pretty quickly, then when Chapter 3 had me playing as this random new guy, Majima, in another city, I was actually frustrated. Within an hour I was hooked on Majima's story line and was frustrated when it put me back onto Kiryu's, lol.

It really is a great game with an absolutely explosive climax.

Also, if you like 90s/00s electronica, the soundtrack is excellent as well. The track "Firelight" that plays during the final showdown will change your life.

COMPARISON TO THE TV SHOW

The TV show wasn't terrible as far as TV shows go. It just wasn't anywhere near as gripping, emotional or fun as the game.

I read a lot of reviews defending the show saying that no one ever played the Yakuza / Like a Dragon games for their main story, and that the real fun of the games is in the whacky side missions, and so by focusing on the main story the TV series lost its charm. I completely disagree and don't know what these fools working for websites like Gamerant are talking about: I play Yakuza / Like a Dragon for the main campaign and find the main story line infinitely more interesting than the side missions.

The problem with the TV series was that it DIDN'T adapt the main story line. It took some elements from the first game's story line and remixed it a bit, but the bulk of the show was focusing on characters that were either entirely new or were very minor characters in the games. It was actually quite baffling to me why 60% of the show was spent exploring the drama between a reckless mother and her friend. FYI her daughter, Haruka, had about 3 minutes of screen time in the TV series when she's like one of the main characters of the game... The took minor characters from the game and focused on them way too much while reducing the main characters of the game to side characters. It was just very, very strange.

It also didn't have anywhere near the tension of the games. You'll see pretty quickly after playing this game that some of the scenes that just feature a few characters talking can be absolutely nail-biting, whereas the series struggled to be interesting in the middle of fight scenes and shootouts.

Also, the TV series reduced Majima to a really minor background role with a 2-dimensional personality. You'll see from this game especially, but from all the games in general that Majima is actually a fairly complex character and the TV show could have done so much more with him but chose not to. I actually think the guy they got to play him was a great choice and he did a really good job with it. He was just criminally underused.

My hope is that the makers of the TV series will wise up and choose to make Season 2 a loose adaptation of this game, Yakuza 0, and really go to town on Majima's characterization. It would screw up the continuity in comparison to the games since 0 is set before the first Yakuza, but they pretty much already threw close adherence to the lore out the window with Season 1 already.

So yeah, that's my little review of Yakuza 0 / Like a Dragon 0 and its comparison to the TV show, for what it's worth.

If you liked the TV show then I think you'll love the games - unless what you liked about the TV show was all the boring stuff...

[Hotel Security]

I just got into the series as well (not because of the show, no thanks) and started with Yakuza 0 and this was a fine starting point. There's vague references to other games but, if anything, it makes you eager to see the characters in later games. I'll be following it up with Kiwami 1&2 whenever I get to them.