Kinda Funny Gamescast: Video Game Podcast - Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii Review - Kinda Funny Gamescast

Episode Date: February 18, 2025

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Hey, what's up and welcome back to another episode of the Kind of Funny Games cast for Tuesday, February 18th, 2025. I'm one of your host, Snowbike, Mike, and today I'm joined by two incredible human beings. It's our Yakuza best friends. It's Roger and Britt. Hi, you two. I'll start with our guest. Hi, Brittany. How are you?

It's great to see you here on the big screen with us. Oh, it feels back. Feels like coming home. Talk about Yakuza with Mike, who I feel like you don't have a lot of clues of what's going on. Yes. He got hit in the head. I'm perfect for this guy. I'm hitting the head.

I woke up and I'm back. I'm excited for the fun. Every Monday. Every Monday he's like, ah, man, I don't remember the weekend. It's crazy because the last time we were with Brittany was you, me, and her, and we were talking about infinite wealth last year. So we were back again to talk about more yakuza.

And you have the yakuza newbie along with the two pros here. So it's going to be another fun time. Of course, kind of giving away the topic of the show. But today, the topic of the show is the like. A Dragon Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii review with these two and myself. But Roger, how are you? I missed you because I wasn't at work

on Monday. Yeah, that must be hard for you, Mike. You know, Monday's my favorite day and I'm not happy about it. Yeah, no, it was not the same without you. We did have Carl Jacobs here, which was nice. I was really great. It was really great. It was really great. But yeah, I'm feeling great. You know, it's like, I was selling Brittany and I was selling you, Mike, earlier, but like, it's my favorite time of the year, right? Like, and it is nice that it is a yearly thing, right? Like, we can

come together every year and just, you know, Get thirsty about Simajima, you know, talk a little bit. And the fact that you're here and you're talking about it, you're actually playing the game potentially. Like, talk about that. I'm playing a lot of it. I think we'll talk about it in the review, but this is the game that I've asked for from you two, right?

I wanted something that was dubbed. I needed that fast action combat. I wasn't getting that in like a dragon, infinite wealth, which is very much, hey, you get the dub, but you have turn base. I just didn't love that blend. This is all about me right here. So we'll talk about that and more.

But of course, today, it is the kind of funny game. gamescast for Tuesday, February 18th. Don't forget that this is the kind of funny games cast each and every weekday. We get together to talk about the biggest reviews, previews, and of course topics of discussion in the video game world live on YouTube, Twitch, and of course on podcast services around the globe. Don't forget if you like what we do, please consider supporting us with the kind of funny membership on Patreon and on YouTube to get all of our shows ad free, live as we record

them, and of course get your daily exclusive show Gregway. for a chance to be part of the show, submit your thoughts and opinions as YouTube Super Chats as we go, since it's a very special review, get those questions in with Super Chats. I'll make sure to pause the conversation. I'll have these two pros answer those ones. And of course,

you just want to say hi to Brittany. Brittany, I apologize. I kicked off the show right in the housekeeping and we needed a catch up. How are you, Brits? It's 2025. It's a new year. It's February. How are you in the family? How's life? Life is good, man. You know, what's good wrapped up in October, I think it was.

And after that, I kind of just took a break. Disconnected of it from the day-to-day video game news of the world. But slowly dipping my toes back in, reviewing some stuff, preview and some stuff. But it was good to kind of step back, you know, and play games for fun. Oh, the only games that are old. Oh, I mean, I say for fun, like, don't get me wrong.

I had the time when I played this game. But like old shit, you know, you can, like, go back and play something. It's like, oh, this isn't relevant, but it's fine. I can still enjoy it. I love that. I've gone through Resident Evil 4. I've gone through, I went through Half-Life 1. I just finished Biococ 1.

so I'm going through some old games myself. I'm playing a hollow night right now. You know, I feel like we're on our journey. We're going backwards. I like it. We are cultured. We are cultured individuals. Britt, how have you been?

I saw you talking about Kingdom Come Deliverance 2. What are some other games that you've been enjoying lately to start off the year? Oh, man. Well, I feel like when Kingdom Come Deliverance 2, when that review code came in, it was like a month before it came out, right? So I feel like I've been playing,

I've been reviewing games, which feels like since the beginning of the year, which I think I have, actually. So yeah, it was Kingdom, Kingdom come deliverance too, which is just, oh my God, so phenomenal. And then I previewed south of midnight and then I jumped into this game. So it's just been a lot of reviewing lately. That's great.

Yeah, yeah. No, it feels good. Just trying to strike that work life balance, you know, with a kid, three and a half now, you know, and trying to get this time flies. Oh, yeah. Rogers being a great uncle to Greg's child, Ben. I mean, I've seen a lot of Instagram posts about how Rogers the best uncle in the office. I'm the fun uncle. Well, at least I was present, Mike.

You know what I mean? He needs a present uncle. I did have a great moment yesterday. You know, so sorry to bust Nick's balls. But Nick comes in, he's just a little jealous because me and Ben are hanging out. We're playing. And then Nick's just like, hey, what's my name? And Ben's like, I don't know.

And then he looks at me and he's like, okay, well, let's try this. What's his name? And he points at me. And Ben's like, Uncle Roger. And I'm like, fuck you, Nick. Got you, Nick. There's nothing more validating. Brittany, of course, you're talking about doing all these reviews and previews.

with the wind down of what's good games. Where can all the best friends find you if they're like, hey, I know all about what's good games, but now the girls are off doing their own thing. Where can I find me mostly on the social media platforms of the world, so still on Twitter slash X, a little bit on blue sky. I post my videos natively on those platforms because it just does better than the YouTube algorithm,

but I still have a YouTube channel. So yeah, mostly just on social media. I don't really have a major platform right now, but, you know, I'm always posting my antics online, so it's not hard to find me. Yeah. That's great. Go find Brit. Go support Britain. Have some fun talking to all things, video games with her. Some housekeeping news for you, of course, today you've already gotten Lost Records, Bloom and Rage,

tape one review on Kind of Funny Games Daily with Joey, Roger, and Bleds. Of course, the stream after this is two awesome-sponsored mini-streams, showcasing Monaco 2 and Lost Skies. Very, very fun indie games. And then, of course, if you're kind of funny member, today you'll get your Gregway from Nick Scarpino. I have no idea what he'll talk. He might talk about the betrayal. He might not even remember what that is its day to day. But you'll get that from Nick Scarpino later on. Don't mean to blow up your spot, Brit. That was the biggest water bottle I've ever seen in my life.

Oh, yeah. It's huge. I always like casually pulling it out. There you go. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You've never met a hydrated human. So what's the goal there, Britt. Is that one a day or two a day?

With the growler, this big ass. Yeah, the big growler. My growler, my call it what it is. Acknowledge of the beast, please. I usually go through about two of these a day. Two is a good goal. Wow. It's a lot of water.

How big is it? Like a gallon? It's like 64 ounces, I think. Oh, shit. Yeah, Mike, pathetic. Step up your game, bro. What do you think that's going to be? Well, he drinks like four of those.

Yeah, I think about, yeah, it's a lot of money too. It's not good. It's not good. Smart water is legit. It's legit. Sponsor me. Call me. Me too.

But some fun more housekeeping news for you before we keep the show going. I'm going to Chicago. Ladies and gentlemen and M. out there. Blessing and Mike are coming to Chicago this weekend to attend MagicCon 2025 in Chicago. If you want to play some Magic the Gathering with me and Bless, you want to see me and bless. We have a meetup scheduled on Friday night. You can come out and see us. I will be all around the town on Saturday. Similar to when I went to Washington, there will be an insane snowmike, Mike. Meet me at this spot. Good luck and find me. So if you want to find me...

It might be the last tweet you ever tweet. Keep an eye out. I'll be around in Chicago on. Saturday as well. It'll be a whole lot of fun. Of course, we want to thank those who support us, just like our Patreon producers for the month, Delaney Twining, Carl Jacobs, Omega Buster, and Karen Lindener. Thank you so much

for your support. Today we were brought to you by Built Rewards, Factor, and Stash, but I'll tell you all about that a little bit later. Let's jump into the fun with topic of the show. No one does it. No one does it? No one does it? Well, I'm the host. I don't do it. You're supposed to do it, too. Well, I'm tired.

I just said a lot there. Well, I'm tired. Do you want to go again? You want to go in an office? Let's do it. Okay, let's start off the show with what is topic of the show. I love that. Today's topic of the show is like a dragon pirate

yakuza in Hawaii review with Brittany and Roger are two yakuza pros. Of course, we're going to start off with maybe a score on the kind of funny scale, one through 10. And of course, a little short review. you liked you didn't like and then we'll dive deeper into the nuance and all the fun stuff but I think you know what let's start off with our guest Roger I agree Brittany if you could score this on a scale of one to 10 if you'd like to put a score on it you can do point fives

we can do whatever you want and then of course give me a little rundown of what you thought of pirate yakuza I would love to Mike I think I would give this an eight out of 10 and the reason is I think this is a wild freaking concept for a video game right give the series most unhinged video game character, Majima, or as might call them Mojima, amnesia, give him a pirate ship. And don't forget, this game is the narrative bridge between Infinite Wealth and the next game in the series, right? So this is an important step for the game, but still, they're like, yo, we're going to make this wacky and we're going to try to pull it off and they freaking pull it off. And so a testament to them, I don't know how they managed to do this kind of shit

and make it work all the time, but they absolutely did. And I think it also proves that Modima belongs in the leading role. And this is something fans have been screaming from the rooftops for a very, very long time. Glad to see they still have their charm and their spark when it comes to riding him. And I mean props for the ship combat as well. I think the ship combat, and we'll talk about it later, I know in depth. But I think that was a really cool, neat innovation to throw inside a crime drama game, which, again, has no business being there, but it freaking works.

But I do think I dock points because this is a smaller title on scale, right? And it was always intended to be that way, which is, you know, expectations and setting them are great. But I found some issues with the narrative. And I think, and Marjor, you and I were talking a little bit about this on, on DM. But there was just a moments that were a little too unbelievable. And like, listen, I'm someone who has been through the rubber bullet saga. If you know, you know.

But even sounds like, this just seems weird. Why is Majumov taking a 10 year old boy on the open sea without even talking to his dad first? He's just like, yeah, you want an adventure man to man. I'll take you. I'm like, bro, he hasn't even gone through puberty yet. Okay. You live your best life. And then a lot of moments that I think were supposed to be impactful, didn't feel impactful.

because the story just needed more time. It needed more runway. So if they're going to continue to do these smaller scale games in the future, I think that's just something they need to be mindful of because it just didn't hit the mark that we're accustomed to with their games. But other than that, I fucking loved it. I like that. I like that.

Short and sweet to the point. Roger, you're up next. Give me a score. Give me your thoughts on it. Yeah. This is an interesting one because we had the last in-between mini game, which was Man Who Erased His Name. which came out a few years ago, which was the bridge between the last game leading up to infinite wealth, right?

And I was not hot on that game at all. I felt like it was way too long, but also way too... What? I did not like that game. I'm sorry. I enjoyed Quito. I enjoyed seeing him do his thing, but it just felt like it could have been an email. It was a DLC originally.

It felt like it was a DLC. Oh, you heartless. You're heartless. Yeah, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. But, but with that all said, I played this one,

pirate yakuza, and I was cautiously optimistic. I mean, Majima, I love Majima, I love this boy. I'm excited to see him get hit in the head with coconut

and just forget everything and become a pirate, right? What that looks like. And throughout the game, I was like, man, this is like pretty good.

Like, it reuses a lot of assets. Clearly, it's a yakuza game, right? It's a lot of the same stuff. It's the same world, for the most part,

from like infinite wealth, right? So it's like, okay, that's fine. It's, it's, Ashie, it's whatever. And then I beat the game, and I just couldn't stop saying the word

great. Like, you know what I mean? Like, I just, I just could, it's, it's an eight out of ten for me. Like, it's so funny because like all the pieces together, like, probably are seven, right? It's a good game. It reuses a lot of stuff. It's, you know, the story is really, it's 20 hours. It took me 20 hours to beat the game. It probably, you can beat in probably 15 hours, right? You know, we'll talk about Brits run times in a little bit, but it took me about 20 hours. I think the story is just too padded out. Like, I do think there's like five hours. of a really good story, but there's enough going on. They just kind of stretch it out,

stretch it out. So by the ending of it, you're like, all right, you could have just cut a few of these subplots and we could have just been going here. But again, by the ending of it, has that Yakuza magic, right? Where I'm just, I'm at my desk, I'm finishing the game. I'm like, a few reviews. Let me just finish this at work. And I'm just there and I'm just like tearing up a little bit. And I'm, and Barrett's looking at me. It's like, what's going on?

And like, this shit means something to me. You know what I think? This story means something to me. It is so fucking dumb. It is absolutely ridiculous. but I just couldn't stop playing it and there was no point in the game where I was bored even when I was doing the same shit over and over right the combat is so good

the ship combat is surprisingly pretty good the exploration is fun right like finding all the side stuff going out there beating up all the bounties like there's so much stuff to do in this game that you know again again even when I'm doing the same stuff that I did you know a year ago right I'm like you know what this is just a fun way

to play this game and I'm having a great time so yeah 8 out of 10 I love that from both of you Of course, I do want to ask about runtime really quick. Roger, how many hours did you put in one more time? I think I did 23 hours all said and done. And that was me taking my time. I really took my time with this one. I was like, you know what?

I'm not going to do all the side stuff, but I'm going to do a lot of the side stuff. I did all the bounty, most of the bounties, running around, having a good time. Yeah, 23 hours to finish the entire game. How about you, Britt? Not bad. 45.

And I easily could go back for another 10 to 15. So, yeah, I mean, that's a really good point, too, is there is a lot of side stuff. We talk about bounties. And I don't want to like jump the gun here because Mike I like I want to hear what you have to say to you. But depending again, like to your point, Roger, I was never bored either. Even if I was doing the same bounty hunts over and over again, even if I was just wandering around, even if I was just trying to do photo rally stuff, it has the same magic that Infinite Wealth had,

Hawaii did specifically where you can just hop in and you can just wander around and you'll get lost. You'll spend the whole evening, bam, six hours gone and you don't even really know what you've done, but you've been productive and if you've done some stuff, right? it's that it just sucks you in and it's just fun no matter what you're doing yeah and Mike you this is your first yaku's a game you've touched infinite wealth a little bit

you don't like the turn-based element of it I want to know what your experience is how much of it have you played are you willing to give a score yeah this first first this is your true blue first yeah this is going to be my true full head dive into this because I have tried like a dragon before I fell in love

with Ichban but I could not get into the turn-based combat so I always put it down at about the 10-hour mark. Similar to what we talked about last year with Infinite Wealth, and it's fun to now dive into this one where I've put 12 hours of nothing but smiles into like a dragon, pirate yakuza

on this one, because I've fallen in love with the characters. I love that it is dubbed, so I don't have to worry about just reading subtitles all the time. I can enjoy all the awesome shenanigans happening on the screen, and I love the moment-to-moment combat that is that fast-paced engaging, punch, punch, slash, and

jumping all around the map combat. So, For me, this has been a great time. This is an awesome experience that I can't wait to dive more in, and I will see all of it through because there is so much to this. I have always heard that Yakuza has a lot of things going on, but now when you really are like, I'm committed to this, there is so much going on. I can be a pirate and go out and treasure hunt.

I can go into ship combat and go fight the other pirate gangs that there are. I can go into the pirate Coliseum. Oh, wait, I fell in love with Hawaii again. I've already been to Hawaii once, but somehow they've made me smile again in a place that I've already been with new fun things, same familiar things. Like I love going to the mall

and being hit with the nostalgia of like, oh, I've been here. Oh, wait, now it's a little bit different. There's different people. I'm doing the same friends link thing where I'm saying, Aloha to people all day. Like, I can't stop with that. And so I found so much fun in this because of the combat, truly,

and because it is dubbed, it has finally brought me on board as the yakuza a fan that wants to be a fan, but it's not quite there. And like I said, there's just been so much to do. I told Roger, I found the baseball minigame for the first ever time. And I said, Roger, I might not finish this because I'm only going to play baseball. And he's like, don't worry, Mike. Like, there's even more to do.

And so my response was, that is the Ljaku's away. You know what I mean? You find your mini game and that is all you play for 10 hours. And then you hop out of the mini game. You're like, oh, shit, there's a whole game. You know what I mean? Like, it's like you kind of like walk out of a casino after at 4 a.m. I have a save that is at the doorway to the baseball

because I was like, don't leave this moment, this could be you. You know what I mean? And so other fun things, of course, recruiting crewmates onto your ship. We're going to talk about it. It's always been fun. But I also fell in love with the animal kingdom.

All of a sudden, I'm getting different animals, which is insane, like, mini-game, but also just like this weird thing that you can do. It's like, all of a sudden I got a cow, and I'm in love with this cow. And I'm like, this cat was me. Like, whatever this cow wants, I'm like, get it. And the guy was like, I can't own this cow anymore.

Give me $2,000. You can have the cow. I was like, sir, I have so much money. I'll take the cow. And so, yes, I have fallen head over heels for this yakas the game. As I was reviewing it, I knew Brittany and Roger were going to have you with the big review. But as I was dipping my toes and I was playing more and more, I was doing the one moment of, well, maybe I'll just golden path it.

And then there was moments where I was like, stop. This is too much fun. I don't want to do anything, but like all the side stuff. right all of a sudden one of my crewmates is like my dad he needs us to find these golden balls and he says if we collect seven golden balls he can grant us one wish and my head exploded right because i've been watching dragon ball for the first ever time and i was like oh my god dragon ball reference this is crazy so like i'm having a great time that's all i can say and so that is your snowmike mike impression so far i love i love every moment of it and there's so much to talk about so yeah brittney and roger let's talk about it. Where do you want to start things off for this? You know, review where we dive in. I mean, there's the setting to talk about.

There's the story, the combat, all the crazy side objectives. Where do you guys want to start? I want to allow you guys to take me anywhere and we'll just go along for the fun ride. Yeah, I think I want to start with the combat, right? Because it is a beat him up as you've alluded to. And I really love this combat because it is vertical, right? It's the first time, correct me if I'm wrong, Brittany, but it is the first time, like, you can actually be jumping in the air and, like, throwing people around.

I believe that that is a new thing. Yeah. So that's, that was a huge part of this combat that made it so fun, right? Is being able to use the two different styles, right? You have the C-Dog and I believe the Mad Dog. The Mad Dog is like the fast and light combat,

combat with a focus on air combat. And it's a first for the franchise, as I said, with the air combat. And the ultimate, which is great. Each mode has two different ultimates, or I guess multiple different ultimates, as we'll talk about, allows you to have multiple different versions of Majima.

So you just press R2, and then you just have just six, seven modules run around, beat him up. And they're just like random NPCs. It's awesome. It's so fun. And then you have the Seedog, which is the pirate version of him, right? He changes outfits, which is so sick. You're able to go in there and customize your outfit, customize the little tiger's

outfit, as we'll talk about later. He's a cat, but, you know, he's a tiger. He's a cat. And, yeah, and it's a dual sword in the C dog format. It has a grappling hook. It has a gun. You can also go in the air as well. It's a bit heavier, but that was the way that I mostly played it.

and then it has some crazy alts, which I won't spoil, because they have spoiled it in the trailers, but don't look it up because it's some good shit. But yeah, it is just so fun because it is the same thing. Like, that's what this game is. That's what Yakuza is, for the most part,

just doing the same thing over and over, but it is, there's so much fun to be had in this combat. And there was a certain point, probably 15 hours in where I was like, I've never played a Dynasty Warriors game, but I assume that this is like where the fun comes from. It's just like,

turn your brain off and just mashing buttons and then finding like that right upgrade, that changes it just enough, right? Where you're like, oh shit, this is, this feels different, right? So, yeah, I just got into that flow state where I, yeah, even more than infinite wealth, where infinite wealth did have that grind. Of course, that game is like double the length, right? Like more than double the length of it.

So it didn't overstay its welcome as much. But even then, I was just grinding, but it didn't feel like grinding. It was just me having a great time. Just smashing the X button. You're just making fun of it. We made fun of Roger a couple times because Joey and I, we sent like a triangle, me, Joey and Roger. And all you heard was a button smash.

from Roger for eight hours straight. He would giggle and laugh and it would just be a button smash. So to anyone out there in your life, if your significant other or partner is just button smashing, they have a problem there in love with yucky. That's what it is. That's the telltale sign. He knows what they're doing that out of the room.

Yeah. What's interesting to you, Roger, is in Mike, you probably notice this as well, is this game shoves money resources down your throat. You're going to be so rich so quickly because the way you upgrade your skills and the way you get more powerful,

whether it's Majuma or your ship as you are getting money and you have reputation points, Right. And I found for me anyway, because I also did most all the side stuff. By the time I hit chapter three, the beginning, I was a god. Nothing could touch me. Right. I felt like those DBC scenes when like, like, like, Goku's just using his finger and he's just like blocking everything and you're like, I'm a god, you can't touch me. Uh, so when you talk about getting in the flow state,

I also found that. So I think don't be afraid to up the difficulty. If you do like a little bit more challenge in your games, because before you know it, you'll be drowning and you will be fully maxed out with everything. The other thing with the combat too, that is really fun is they have these much larger scale battles. And we'll talk about this, I'm sure, a little bit more as we get into more, like, the ship mechanics and all. But you have these moments where it's like you versus 100 dudes or you versus 30 dudes or something.

And you really just get to mash. It is just the most amazing button master pulling off sit combos. You're doing things that I didn't even know. I didn't even really use a grappling hook until the last like four hours of the game. It's like, oh, yeah, I forgot I can do this. And the game was giving me a little hints in the corner. It's like, hey, you know, you can do this, right? We work so hard on it.

Please. Please use it. I know. But I'm like, oh, I can just smash stuff. But yeah, I really enjoy the combat too. I like the quick pace. And I do appreciate that. There was not much of a grind here because, yeah, like the grind is good with the turn-based stuff.

But I just didn't want that with this game. So I'm so glad they stuck to the fast-paced combat. Yeah, the combat for me was what gripped me and got me, right? And I really enjoyed both styles. I found myself more on the Seedog using those two cutlasses, using the grapple hook. I loved the ultimates that you can unlock and earn. It's a lot of fun to have. and it will lead to a lot of laughter,

a lot of just fun breaking up the moments. But what I enjoyed, you two both kind of got to it was these interesting Dynasty Warrior moments where it's like normally it's, you know, you versus three, you versus maybe 10 in a small arena, and you laugh and you beat them up. Then there's this moment where it's like, no, there's a hundred guys here.

You're like, what? It's like, well, bring your crew. And then you fight a hundred people on a pirate ship or on an island. And it's like coming off of Dynasty Warriors origin, that really spoke to me of like, that's cool, right? Like, that's fun moment.

that you can enjoy. I really enjoyed the combat the whole entire time, switching between the two. What I didn't like was there's a moment in this game where all of a sudden it wants to become a parkour platformer for just a brief moment in a dungeon. And they want you to jump and kick some alarms off, is what I'll call it?

And I had the hardest time jumping and trying to kick those. It's like, hey, like, I love the idea. I thought that was really fun and different of like, hey, let's have like this parkour moment where you're jumping over lasers and you're going all crazy. And like, I'm like, hey, this is cool. But then I'd get to a wall moment where it's like, this thing is 20 feet in the air and I cannot jump and kick it for the life of me.

Plus dodge lasers down below. I just wish that was a smoother thing because it was fun in the combat zone. But when you're doing like a weird park court thing, it just didn't fit the moment. Yeah, thankfully. You're actually in the combat mode when you're going through that, right? And so it's not like you can just run into smoothy. You're stuck as if you are stuck in combat. So you're moving like you're in combat.

I forgot that part. even happened because I think that's the only freaking time it happens. Yeah. It's weird. It's so weird of like you jump in and it's like oh I'm in combat mode but nobody's around but I'm running this is interesting and then they also use the grapple hook in the

world where Noah will be like there's treasure around and I'm like Noah I got this and then you'll go into this interesting first person view with your little aim down sights and you'll look to grapple hook onto something new you'll quickly get on a roof get a treasure chest but like it is fun how they incorporate

the hook into the open world that you guys have already been in in Honolulu and of course Madlantis which you'll run around in and it's like oh I like that a lot that was fun yeah yeah my only criticism with with the grappling hook is I don't think in the at least for me correct me you know tell me what you guys's experience were but like for me I didn't really find too much of that verticality I there but I just it wasn't like being made clear to me like with man who races name right when they give you that little other grappling hook pretty much And you were able to just find things up there and just bring it down to you. I think I was finding a lot more of that.

And also, Japan is a little less, you know, all the buildings are a little less tall. But yeah, I just wasn't going, I wasn't finding all that verticality that I'm sure is there. But it just wasn't made clear to me. I think it was only clear, yeah, when there was treasure up top or something. I know it would be like, hmm, what's that? I don't know. And then you'd have to, yeah, then you'd have to aim. And then everything would highlight in blue.

And then, you know, you would be able to like grapple up there and get the treasure or whatnot. Yeah, I mean, it's a fun little interesting. interesting addition to the to the moment to moment gameplay, I guess. You know, I, I would have preferred the fishing mechanics more that you have on Dondo Island with a spear or something. But instead, no, you just grapple these like mahi-mahis and bluefin tuna is like out of the ground, like it's no big deal. It's like, oh, I just got this big bluefin tuna.

Cool. I don't. Yeah. I wish the grapple hook in combat was a little more. It feels like it was only to hook onto someone and pull me closer. Yeah. Because there's like items that you can grab, like you guys know of like a bike or like a barrel and I wish I could like grab that and like swinging around me or grab someone and swing

them around. It never felt like that. Let me introduce a video game called Man Who Raises' name with that exact mechanic. Yeah, I actually was thinking about this because that was the last game in the Yakuza franchise that did this type of like beat them up combat and it has a similar mechanic where yeah, you're just running around. You have this little whip kind of that's like going around. You have rocket boots and all this crazy stuff. It almost made me wish that we could just like merge that with with what we have here and then just make like one big happy family

and I think that that would have been like the perfect like turn your brain off like I can play this for 300 hours type video game because you felt so powerful in this game you feel very powerful here but to a different degree right well let's keep the combat talk going because not only are you on land you're also on sea and Brittany has talked about it before there is

that naval ship to ship combat that we want to get into of course there is these open segments open mini world something massive but there are moments where you are sailing from island to island. There's also a Coliseum. So once you guys talk to me about the boating mechanic itself when we're talking about combat and also just kind of floating around the world.

Brittany, what did you think about that? Oh, man, it was really fun. And again, like, I would never think that RGG would be the kind of studio that's like, yo, we're going to make a whole ass shit mechanic and make it work and make it fun and enjoy it. But again, they surprise me all the time and they somehow made it work. Yeah, so like the moment to moment traversal in the ship itself, it's fine. I mean, the thing moves like a brick.

Yes. And you're going to want to use those turbos as much as you can and all these boost rings that are throughout the ocean and they get you going and whatnot. You know, I would say the traversal is probably like the weakest part of it. The maps themselves are little bare bones. So unless you just want to go and enjoy the sites, I never really found myself going back to the ocean to just sail around and relax.

I will say there are some gorgeous moments, though, while you're on that ocean. Maybe there's a storm and maybe the sun is set. and the way the light just reflects off the water. It's like, oh man, that is sexy. I really, I did enjoy it. And also having to sea shanties and then having, I had a spiritual moment, Roger, 24-hour Cinderella was playing,

and I was sailing my sea and my bright pink ship. And it was just like, this is it. I've healed my soul. I'm a fixed person. I'm a new person. Like, this is beautiful. I enjoyed my time with the ship stuff. I was pleasantly surprised, right?

Because when I had the initial preview of the game, I asked them, I was like, hey, you're showing any ship stuff? Like, what's up with this? And they're like, no, we're not showing any ship stuff. Which I was like, oh, man, like, is this going to be rough? Like, what's it going to look like? And it's very serviceable.

I think it's fun. I had a lot of good moments, especially towards the end of the game when it gets really hard with some of the ship stuff, even though mine was super upgraded. Yeah, mine had all the durability and everything. I was fighting a few enemy boats that were kind of giving me a run for my money. So I had to do some crazy maneuvers. My biggest issue with it is just moving around the world. world. There was a lot of, they open up a lot of different side quests where, yeah, you have

these little mini worlds where you have to go from one island to another, and it just takes a little too long, even fully upgraded to get places. Like, there's a boost mechanic, which is awesome, and it's so sick and it's so fucking yakuza, right? Having a nitrous boost on your own, your pirate ship, right? Yeah, exactly. Being able to drift with it. It's so sick, but I just want to have that forever. Like, I just want to be able to hold that butt and just go. And I, it's kind of an oversight of my mind that they didn't let you do that because I don't think there's any positive to just kind of making you have to wait and then do the thing like just let me go like if I'm fully upgraded let me spend three million dollars I'll do it to get the the nitrous out of the nitrous just

going forever because that was that was the only thing that was stopping me from having so much fun grinding in the regular coliseum beating up people uh but going around and I did it all I did that entire side quest uh I forgot what the name of the crew is or whatever the legend of the garro pirates yes no no oh the devil flags yes the devil flies I did that entire thing I did the entire thing I did the entire The entire Devil Flag stuff, but it just, that felt like a grind. That was the only time where I was like, oh, shit. Like, I want to do it, but I have to go from this island to this island to get to the, I will also, they give you lighthouses in the middle of each of these islands. But, you know, you can't go from lighthouse to lighthouse unless you're at a lighthouse.

So you have to get the worst decision. Yeah. But here's the thing, like, that's cool about Studio RGG is like they have this and they've built this. And now they can just iterate, hopefully, and make this for something really fucking cool. Like, I don't want to get into the conversation of a future game. Maybe we will at the end of this. But if they do get to that point where, like, hey, this is successful and they make a sequel, this could have a run for its money for like a black flag or whatever it is.

Like you can really kind of fine-tuned this and make this something really special because they got the stuff here and it looks really good. So yeah. I say, yeah, I think the foundation is definitely set there. I think there is a lot more innovation that needs to be done and a lot more hands-on customization if you want to have like a fully-fledged ship type experience. And I feel like that's kind of how I feel about this game in general is everyone's like, it's the best pirate game ever.

And it's like, no, I feel like it's a lovely baked yakuza honey-baked ham with a little bit of pirate garnish on it. Like that's what it feels like to me. It doesn't feel like the ultimate pirate game. But I think with the ship customization they offered, how freaking cool is that? I mean, I had a ship dedicated to Kuru. I had a ship dedicated to Majima. I had a pink ship. I had a big vibrator on the front of it.

Oh, me too. I felt so bad about it. I was like, oh, I don't feel bad. Why would you feel bad? I put it on. I was like, ah, Jesus. Like, loud and proud. I'm trying to imprint a good impression on Noah.

It's a back massage. I felt bad. I was like, I'm sorry, Noah, don't look. Don't look, kid. And I do love how you could have the most wild weapons on your ship, right? You could have lasers, you can have flamethrowers, you can have shark missiles and stuff. Like, that's the kind of wackiness that I think also made it feel really fun and unique. But there needed to be more balancing when it came to the actual power of these weapons,

because why would I use a shark cannon that has a, like what 400 power when I could use a laser cannon which has 2,000. Yeah and you can up and you get that one before if you just have a little bit of money, right? So yeah, I agree with you. Like I wish there was some type of like transmogging or something like that where I can like get in there and be like, okay, I want the shark cannon and I'm

going to upgrade this a bunch of times. Yeah, it was just a little bit on balance and it didn't, I wouldn't see, he felt underbaked, but it didn't feel half baked if that makes sense, right? Like this is definitely a mechanic that I think stands with this game and I'm happy to play it and I had a good time. It's just not fully there. So

hopefully we do get some time to iterate this eventually one day. Yeah, I'm right there with both of you. Just if it wasn't for the traversal being so slow, I would enjoy it a lot. I liked the combat. I liked pulling up to islands. I didn't appreciate that I can't fast travel in the middle of it. I hated that I had to go to a lighthouse. But, you know, all in all, it was a fun, different idea there.

I really enjoyed getting more. There I was. That's beautiful. Because we'll talk about it in the story here in a little bit. But like me and Noah, we really built a connection. I did all of the links with Noah. I did all of those. And so there's some really nice moments, right,

where he's trying to be like, hey, don't look at this adult store. Like, you're too young for that. And then he also has like laughter. Like, well, like, should he look at it? He's like, don't look at it. And so I felt parenting a child that has a parent. I have two parents.

I was like, I can't do this. But yeah, I mean, for me, I loved the ship upgrades. I was similar to Brit where I had so much money that when I did finally get deep into the coliseum, I was so strong already. I was like, oh, I'm steamrolling you right now. But I think Brits says it well.

It's like up to difficulty if you ever feel like that. Have some fun, getting the challenge and enjoy it because it is really cool. But I want to talk about more pirate yakuza because I want to talk about the setting. I want to talk about the story right after a word from our sponsors. This episode is brought to you by Build. Y'all already know I'm a big points and rewards guy. But here's a PSA for anyone who rents. If you haven't heard of Built, you're about to thank me.

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Welcome back. All right, you two. I want to dive into a couple more fun topics before we get out of here. So we have a whole second half for this show. I want to talk about setting. I want to talk about the story. I want to talk about some fun subplots because there's some fun stories I would love to tell and hear your guys' stories. And then of course

the future of the game franchise, where you want it to go. You talk about building off of the ship combat, what else? could we see in this? So let's open it up. Let's talk about the story really quick, Roger. Why don't you set the tone? Maybe for people who got bumped on the head by a coconut, forgot everything. What is the setup of this story? And what did you enjoy? What did you not enjoy? Well, the cool thing about this one is, I believe, let me see if I could find the comment right here. Nate, 19, no, sorry, Nate Neo, 94 asks, is this a friendly game for newcomers?

And it absolutely is because the story of this is that Majima, this character that is a story throughout the yakuza franchise has amnesia lands on a random island and he's trying to figure out who he is right so you learn a lot about majima through the lens of him having amnesia they don't do a lot of the big history dumps as i expected right they're not like here's the entire history of majima here's it like they don't overload you i mean you can talk from your perspective later on but like yeah i don't feel like that so basically he lands on this random island a little boy named noah and his cat who's a tiger comes up and they save him and and then, you know, he just becomes a pirate.

Like that's just like, that's just kind of it. Like this guy just is like, okay, well, I'm a pirate now and he just starts finding people and stuff. Little Noah wanted to get off the island. Yeah, he just, yeah, a little Noah's here on. He's on Rich Island and the little island that his father runs a bar on, it's just kind of just boring. There's not much going on. This is a young, we'll call him 10-year-old that wants to see the world and wants to get out there. And thanks to his newfound friend, maybe they have the opportunity to go out there and explore.

Yeah, yeah. And that's what it is. It's beautiful. And that's the part of the story for me. that I was again, DMing with Roger. I'm like, what the hell? Like, this is crazy. This dude like, yeah, because he like washes up on the shore.

And then within 24 hours, he's like, I will take you on the seas young man. Yeah. I'm like, don't you want to ask your father first? Granted, he's probably drunk at the bar. Probably doesn't even know you're here kid. But I mean, most dysfunctional family ever. But that was the moment where I was like, okay, like I, and this is my only issue with the story.

I touched on this a little bit earlier is it just feels a little rushed at times. And I know, Roger, you said that you wished it had less padding. Is that what you see? Yeah, yeah. There's a section in the middle where there's pretty much like a few side quests that become part of the main story that I'm like, we could have just taken that out and had a five, five hour main story. And so I feel like I, but the problem is I see them, I see the blueprint.

I see the framework of like what they were going for, right? But the problems, yeah, it's just because of the scale of this game, there just was not enough time to actually make everything feel real and authentic and not, and you couldn't really connect with all the characters. So there were these emotional moments and I could tell they were supposed to be emotional, but I felt dead inside. I'm like, oh, no, this is not good. I am a psychopath. What is wrong with me? And then I realize, well, I've only seen this person on screen for two minutes, so I don't really care that much. So, and I think that is the weakest part of this game is just the

story, whether you wish there is a little bit more or you wish there was less. But the final chapter, I'm not going to spoil anything, is one of my favorite chapters in this entire franchise. Yeah. It sticks the landing so damn good that I was like, oh, I'm never going to forget this. Like, I also have a safe and I also have a screen share of like everything that happened. And I was like, I go back and I watch it like all the time because it was so impactful and it was so freaking hype but yeah. Yeah, no, I agree with you.

Yeah, my issue was more of like the padding in the middle becomes very like, hey, gameplay centric, right? Like it's less about the actual story. It's less about like the twists and turns, which is what I expect and I like about Yakuza, right, where I'm always excited about, oh, the end of a chapter,

holy shit, there's a massive twist. Oh my gosh, I'm so excited to play that next one where it was just like, okay, like in the middle, like do the pirate coliseum thing. Like, do this, do that. And then you finally, by the ending of it, we get back to the core. of it, which is a pirate doing pirate shit, which is like finding treasure and like the,

the people betraying each other and all this fun yakuza stuff, or yaku's a pirate stuff, which I'm looking forward to. And we get there by the ending of it. But yeah, it, it starts off pretty strong. It gets kind of weaker by the middle of it. I think as we talked about it, like the whole thing is that this little boy, he really wants to get off this island. He's got a, he's got a little bit of a cough. He's got a little bit of asthma. He's trying to get off this island. And then Majima, who, by the way, everybody, like he has amnesia. He's still Majima. Like, there's no, like, he just doesn't remember where his address is.

That's like, that's the only difference. You know what I mean? He's the same guy. Same guy exactly. Like, no differences at all. So he's like, man, I'm going to take this kid. And I'm going to, I'm going to take him, have him sail the seas with me, get him off this island. He has a father, right?

Like, he has a father that exists that's like, is present. Like, but Jason doesn't want to leave. Jason was like, I'm setting my ways. I've been there before. But then he comes with it. He's like, you need the humidity for your cough, Noah. You must stay here. My favorite thing of all, all things.

I'm sure this happens in a lot of yaguz. It's like, no, my son can't go with you. But if we fight each other, I'll go with you. I will beat your ass and then I will take your son. I'm not a man of words. I'm a man who speaks with his fit to get to know someone. It's like, I've heard that all over again. Roger, real quick, though, I do want to say,

I don't know if I fully agree when you said that he's still Majima. He just doesn't remember his address. Again, like, I fully admit Majima is my favorite character. I am probably slightly unhealthily obsessed with this man. And I've seen a lot of his scenes over and over again. And there definitely is a show. shift in his personality, which makes as the game unfolds even more fascinating. So I'm not sure you probably don't study him like I do. Let's be real. No, I don't. I'm excited to hear the history lesson

after this. Oh, no. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But the point being is like you definitely, there's just a softer glow about him, a certain or if you will, even the kindness in his eyes and the way he has the patience to talk with certain people. It's like, oh, wow. And this is what I was kind of gushing about earlier. And again, not going to get into spoiler territory. Talk too much about this. But it is utterly fascinating to watch him throughout this game, especially, you know, if you've played Dukuzziero, you've seen him in Kiwami, you know about who he really is at his core versus Mad Dog persona. But as the game to go on, you've kind of lost track of who is he really? And what is his mad dog persona?

Are they the same? Like, who is his man truly? And you, for the first time and so long get an actual look at him because he is one of the most fascinating characters, I think, in all of video games, if you understand his story. So that's just my little, like, gush moment. I like that. That's where I connected, right? As being a newcomer on this

and seeing some yakuza before, I kind of knew the character and what I expected from him, but I saw a different side of him this time. Being next to Noah, being kind of that like, hey, we're two buddies. I'm also kind of like a father figure here and we're going to go on this grand adventure.

I really loved the moments that we had where it's like, oh, this is a softer side of this jacuzza character that I didn't think I would get because normally it's like hot dude, tough bod, punch and people. Wrip the shirt off. There's a crazy lobster over there

that we're going to fight. no, this was like, hey, we have some really good connection moments. And there's a crazy bear. I'm going to tell you about this bear. It was a crazy bear, Roger. It was a crazy bear in Hawaii, bro. And so, yeah, I liked the story. And it felt like a, it felt like a pirate story where I totally get what you're talking about in the middle

because I felt that, but it felt like, oh, we're just introducing more pirates stuff. Oh, did you know there's another pirate gang that? You got to go over here. You can explore them. But guess what? You don't got to do it right now. And it always felt like that. It always felt like that.

It was like, do one mission? You don't got to do that. Hey, we're going to introduce you to the pirate coliseum. You ain't got to do that right now. Until you do. Until you do. A lot of it. Yeah.

I liked a lot of it. I'm looking forward to seeing how it wraps up because I like all the layers that it adds, I guess, is what I'm getting out of. I enjoy, they're adding so much. Oh, there's other X-Yakuza. Here we go. Boom, that's cool. Oh, there's a pirate gang here. Oh, this lady's running the whole pirate coliseum.

Oh, this guy's got money. Like, that's cool. I liked everything that they threw at me. But I'm like, okay, you got something in the pot here. let's see what it looks like at the end. I'm excited. For sure. And I do want to also mention that if you have not played infinite wealth,

but you think you would be interested in infinite wealth, try to play that first if you can because this game does spoil what happens within that game and it is a continuation of some of the events of that game. But if you're like, no, I don't have time before that, you can hop right in. But just be prepared that. It's not going to be as emotionally impactful if you have not seen what went down in that last game. Yeah, absolutely, especially for the very, very ending, the post-credit scene potentially or like any other, like that ending,

yes, but also I will say, it says a lot of, I feel like I was putting myself in like the, the mindset of somebody who's never played these games before. And I was like, this is a lot of them talking about things that I just, I don't feel like I would remember. You know what I mean? Like, it would be like, oh, this thing happened and this thing happened. And I'd be like, what the fuck? Like, I don't, I don't understand that. So I think I agree with you. It does spoil things, but I don't think it fully spoils it in the sense that if you went back and played infinite wealth now, Micah, you wouldn't be like, oh my God, they spoiled that thing. Holy shit. Like, yeah, you would be, you would be just fine. Yeah.

Let's talk about the setting because of course you bring up Infinite Wealth We return to Honolulu We've also added in a new location What did you guys think about going to those locations Did you ever feel like Oh man, I'm back here I wanted something new

Or were you pleased with going back again? Yeah, I mean I was pleased to go back to it I think my biggest quote unquote issue Which is not really an issue Because these are the mini games are fun And they are returning A lot of them are returning from Infinite Wealth But like they're not upgraded at all

Right? So, like, I was, I was having those moments of playing, like, the crazy eats or whatever, where I enjoyed crazy eats, but I literally just played it, you know, a year ago in Infinite Wallet. And it just feels like the same thing and the same small issues that I had with it are still there. So there's a little bit of that throughout the open world is like, oh, I've done this, I've seen that, right? It just isn't upgraded, right? It's the same thing. But I, it is, it has been enough time and there has, there is enough things to do in there. And you're not also, you're also on the ship a lot, right? So it's not like you're like, you know, clinging to Honolulu. like, oh my gosh, I got to be here all the time. Like there's enough to do outside of it that I was totally fine with them reusing it and, you know, adding the little things that they did. How about you, Britt? Yeah, no, I agree with that. I think what just made honestly more enjoyable, I mean, not more enjoyable than Infinite Wap,

but made it enjoyable just to be plain as that you are Majima again. And again, as someone like who is sick in the head and it's like, yo, like, I just want to see how this man interacts with the world around him because I want to try to understand his psyche. That was really cool to you. Yeah. And I mean, unfortunately, Dondoku Island isn't in here. Sujiman is in it in here.

You do have bounties, and I don't think those were in the last game. No. And there are so many bounties, dude. Oh, my God. So many. And it's like, once you think you cleared them all, you get a little text message and they're like,

there's way more. I got a gift for you at the bar. And it's like a piece of shit. The rewards were like not good. But the cash that you got for doing the bounties was really great. But no, I mean, being in Hawaii was fun, you know? And because it was a smaller scale game,

I didn't feel as much pressure to spend as much time doing everything. But being able to play darts with their crewmates. That was really fun. And the Drake and Cart mode, I don't know if that one was in the last one where it's kind of like a, it's like a Battle Royale mode. Like that was cool.

But the main side thing, that was just the fucking best, was Masoro's love story. And I don't know. Oh, I didn't do this one. I'm currently on that right now. I didn't even do this one.

Yeah, it popped up at the end of a play session and I literally just remembered it now. That's crazy. I got to take a sip of water before I talk about it. Oh, shit. Because this is a good one. I get thirsty. Oh, Mike, how far are you in this story?

I'm probably part two three area, I would call it. Step three, maybe. So this gets introduced to you as like the main part of the game. So you can't really miss it, but it is your choice if you want to pursue it or not. But essentially your dude has a thing for these type of girls. We saw this casting last year and we're like, what's a Minato girl?

Apparently RGG is looking for Minato girls for the next game. A whole lot of speculation coming. I did not anticipate. This is what it was for. But essentially, yeah, you got a wingman for your boy. And the payoff, my friend. is almost 40 minutes of live action cinematics where you have, it is the most unhinged shit you will ever see,

and it is glorious. It is the epitome of what RG is good at. But yeah, I mean, it's worth it alone. It's better than The Bachelor. This is what I said. Instead of having a rose, dude, he carries a dandelion. And he's like, I'm like a dandelion. I grow through the cracks of cement too, and I have hardships and blah.

It's just so ridiculous. So funny. Oh, shit. I got to play that. Okay. Yeah. I'll go back. There's a lot of good stuff.

hidden in there. And it's like, it's easy to get overwhelmed, especially as a new player, I'm sure you guys know, it's like, you probably pick and choose your battles or you try to play it all, but like, you get hit with so much. And especially like, if you are trying to progress it, there's that moment where it's like, oh, he's sad. Oh, he wants a girlfriend. It's like, I don't care about that

Jabotty. Like, we got things to do. Like, what do you mean? And then when you try to do those, like, because I laughed. I did that a couple nights ago where it's like, you have to go back to the bar to go speak about that. I was like, no, no, I got to get on the pirate ship. We got to go. And they won't let you. So you have to go back. I was like, you slow me down

Jabroni. Like I'm trying to do things. But yeah, I love, for me, I like to going back to Honolulu because of my time with Infinite Wealth, I smiled seeing back some of the characters that you see the iconic locations was great. The little fortune teller dog costume guy where it's like, Jebroni,

I remember you. You know what I mean? It's the same dude, y'all. It's like my favorite. And you can bring them on your crew. A lot of them. Oh, Roger? Yeah. I'm going to tell you about the crew in just a second because I assembled a crew, Roger. I will always love the phone taking a photo. I will never, I will never not enjoy running around the town and be like, a little photo up right there.

I'm like, oh, get that camera around. Hard stop on the same way. Give my little photo camera right now. But yeah, I loved recruiting, you know, cast members onto my team or fellow pirates because there's a moment where it's like, hey, you need 10 more crew members if you want to progress the story. And you stop and you look at Honolulu and you can hover over all these different crew members and you go up to them and you think, okay, well, what are I got to do?

And the first couple are like, hey, I'm down on my left. I need money. Pay me $2,000 or join a crew. Hey, I'm having a bad day. Can you get me a drink? And then it progresses past there. Or the normal telltale one. I got to prove if you're worth my time, fight me. And it's like, okay, well, I'm going to fight you.

And so I enjoyed every single one of those. And I liked the different casting crew. I had an old lady pirate who just wanted to be whined and dined. And I was like, lady, that's not me. But it could be me. Did I find her on the ship? Give her some roses, Roger? Of course, I did. He wasn't even sad. He just wanted Did I get a lady ninja?

Yeah, it was pretty dope. You know what I mean? Do I have a lemon head guy on the front of my boat? Of course I do, because I like that guy. The best part is you make all these characters, you meet all these characters and you recruit them onto the ship and then you can play with them on where they are in your boat, right? They can be on the cannon side.

They can be on the, you know, we're going to jump on the ship and fight people's side. So I loved having different cast and crews all over the place and being like, well, who is my second mate? Oh, is the polar bear now? like my best friend and that needs to be on the crew. Of course the polar bear is. So yeah, I loved that.

I fell in love with that. I'm so happy. That's when the 100% Mike came out where I was like, I can't leave until I do all of these. And then the guy was like, I need a bento box. I was like, fuck you. I don't know where the bento box is. I'm leaving you know.

That's what a man in need. The man needed food to survive and you're like, nope, go star, go die. You want $2,000. I give you $2,000. No bentzo box. No bento box. Take the money.

Get the bento. There's a lot of crew. There's a lot of crew to recruit. I think 89 total that you can recruit. And I also recruited every single one of them. Because that's off the fun. Yeah, no, I was just kind of like I did my piece. I got my team and I just kind of bounced off.

So like, yeah, yeah. It wasn't like a, like me saying I didn't like it. I wanted to build my perfect crew. Once I set in of like you have your 10, like Brits said once I saw them, I was like, oh, now I want to hand select my crew. So I'm going up and I'm finding who I like. I like your backstory. I like the look of you.

You know what I mean? I got the one. who's he's all about stats and he's trying to break down how powerful I amvious stats. I was like, how about I punch in the head right now? You'll join this crew. It was great. This is great, Roger. This is great. It is so good.

And that's a good point, too, because you will not use half your crew because you have a certain allotted, you know, you have certain spaces that you can only fill with your crew, right? Because everyone has strengths and weaknesses. Some of them are good with cannon. Some of are good with ship repair. Some of them are good for fighting when you board the ships. And so you have to decide where you want them to go.

And you can level them up. You can level them up by putting them through actual content. or you can just give them gifts like Mike did, give them roses and stuff, and they'll be very happy. But it is fun to min-max and try to get those points as high as possible. So when you do have those battles, you just destroy them all. Yeah, of course, because the crew also, yeah, goes into your ship battles where they all have stats. They all have proficiencies into different things, right? So you want people with good cannon use to be on your cannons.

You want people that are on the shipboarding crew to be strong in combat. And they all have their different stuff. They all have different stats. Some of them help heal and are kind of medics. Some of them are just more for the physical side. So yeah, it is cool to kind of min-max it is right, Brit, and think about who am I adding on. And then to the animals, which I got to get to, the animal kingdom.

Because at first he teased me. He's like, hey, look at this chicken. We've got to save this rooster from getting its head chopped off. It's a phoenix. It rises from the ashes. I'm like, me and this, Phoenix, we're about to be best friends. Because you start off with a little pen and you have the animals, right? And then you immediately leave them. And all in the back of my mind, it's like, well, what's up with these animals?

I just left all these animals. I have it coming back to this. And sure enough, you will. will. And then the best is, is when you go to these islands, you can go save more animals. So there was a monkey in a tree. And it was like, here's three options to try to get the monkey out of the tree. Shake it, throw a coconut at it or pose. And I was like, of course, I'm going to hit it with a strong pose. Let's see what happens. And I posed in front of this monkey, threw a coconut at me, didn't like it. Oh, shit. Yeah, but I got the monkey to fall in love with me. You throw a

coconut at him? Uh, yeah, but like that's not how it came. Once he hits you in the head and then he appreciates you. He loves you. It's so funny, right? Because I played so much, so much of yakuza and when people like mike explain to me something that happened in the game that i just didn't get to i'm like that's a fake thing like that's not real like i don't know how anyone gets into this franchise like it is it's insane it's a fucking miracle that's crazy mike i'd actually love to hear just like real quick your your fast thoughts what do you think about that because it has been known and it's so hard to explain like roger was saying how crazy this game can be but also how serious it can be is that interesting for you yeah my fast thoughts is i love that i love the quick like

coin flip of this could be a really serious pull at your heartstrings moment. This could be an intense fight where we're going to break down insane yakuza mafia backstory that you need to know about and then all of a sudden I'm at a moving circus in Honolulu that's all about creatures in the Antarctic circle

and he's got an ice cage around a polar bear but how do you keep a ice cage more or cool in the middle of Antarctica or in the middle of Honolulu and it gets out and you got to re-freeze it I love that bray and that's what I told Roger at the beginning is, I came to Yakuza for those crazy moments. I see

these cutscenes. I see my friends talk about, oh, this crazy lobster fight, you know what I mean? It's like, I looked at a restaurant. I was like, there's not enough humor right now. Where is that? And Rans was like, you'll get some, but I think you find more of the humor in the subplots. I think you have to pause. I talked about it with you guys at the beginning of, I used the term, park

the bus, which means like in, you know, soccer any sports, just stop what you're doing and slow down. And that's where I think you find those fun, outrageous. moments because you don't get that in the moment to moment story beats you'll get fun moments but like you won't get outrageous moments and that's where i was like oh i wanted that that's what i want the mix of and so i had to really slow down brit and get into the subplots because i was looking for those and i wasn't getting enough of it right now that's perfect that's that's actually a really

good piece of advice do the sub stuff and i don't know if you all did sick of snap again this is we didn't talk about this this is like the Pokemon snap version of yakuza where you're going around taking pictures of men and tight leotards and butterfly maps. That's in this game? Yes. Oh my gosh. It's always so funny talking to me. I feel like we play different games.

That's crazy. I think it's a better version than it was an infinite wealth because at the end you have to find the legendary crystal to go. And it's a whole ass Pokemon snap level, not even fucking joking. That's incredible. And I mean, that's, it made me cackle so hard. Like, you know, it just the laugh out loud moments. I think I had more of these than I didn't probably infinite wealth. It's just insane.

But that's because it's Majima. Yeah. It's great. I love every moment. I love the connections. All of a sudden, me and Noah, the little kid are back at the Revolve bar,

which he loves. He's drinking a glass of milk. He shouldn't be allowed. I got a beer. We're like connecting. And I'm like, I know I should be getting this in Infinite wealth

that everybody tells me to play, but like this is my moment. Yeah, this is yours. Hey, it's fun. We're building this connection. Anywhere you can get out. We'll welcome me. We'll welcome into the franchise.

And so, yeah, I really enjoyed that. Like Brits said, I think you got to enjoy those subplots. You got to stop and do that. I think you get overwhelmed quickly with how much there is. And you can get lost and doing your favorite stuff, but you should get a little taste of everything because it's really cool.

Yeah, there's one subplot, which I will not spoil because it's just so. We'll talk off air. It was hilarious, but it was genuinely uncomfortable. And we'll talk about it. It's where a, I'll pitch the main idea is where someone comes to Majima and says, hey, the tiger that you're with, you can talk to the tiger.

have technology to talk. It's a genuinely uncomfortable one, but it's also fucking hilarious, but it's also the weirdest thing that I've seen RGG ever do, and that's saying a lot. So, yeah, you're going to get some really good ones that run the gamut from, you know, that and then also had one where I was talking to a fan of an idol, and he may or may not be getting scammed by this idol. So that was a really, really fun one. As I start to ramp down the podcast, I want to talk about the future and where you guys want the franchise to go, what kind of cool things you'd like them to kind of carry with us from, pirate yakuza. But before that, did we forget anything? Do you want to hype up anything? Do you want to talk about anything? Brittany and Roger

that maybe we kind of skirted over a mist. We only had an hour so there was a lot of things to talk about in this game. Did we talk about Madlantis, the new location? Yeah, that's true. We didn't. We didn't talk enough about it. We talked about Honolulu. Let's talk about Madlantis. What did you think? Okay, so Madlantis is in the middle of the ocean and it's kind of like if Comorotcho

and a pirate hideout had a baby. It's like this little mini pleasure district, right? And within it you have again we talked about the batting the batting cages or whatever that is there's golf there's arcades there's a bar and then you have the coliseum which is the main draw right and this is where you get to do all those pirate battles we talked about that a bit i think it's a fun location and it was something that i think a lot of us were looking forward to and are still looking forward to if you haven't played yet wasn't a heck of a lot there besides the coliseum i would say to really just kind of sink your teeth into unless you want to do some of the side activities which is great

but other than that like i think that was the other only major when we were talking about the setting we just kind of skirted over that a bit. Yeah, no, that's a great call. It reminds me of the ship that they had in Man Who Race's Name. It's kind of the same vibe, right? I like the history behind Madlantis. I don't love walking around and getting around Madlantis. That was my big issue with that.

Is that like you have the area where you get off and you run, you can do the Pyrocococyan, which is mostly what I'm doing. But anywhere, anytime you have to get anywhere else, like they do have a fast travel system, but it's not really great. So you have to go find a person. It's just always out of my way. That's my only criticism of it. I liked it.

good vibe setter, especially in the beginning of the game, right, when you get to Atlantis and they tell you how it's a ship graveyard and all these crazy things about it. It's a solid, nice way to start the story. So, yeah, it's cool. And I think this is a way to go for like these, you know, smaller experiences, right? You don't have to build out an entire world that is, you know, part of the main story. You can just put all the fun stuff in one little area. You can fast travel there and have a good time.

Didn't like the layout of it, but I enjoyed the look of it. I enjoyed what it offered. I didn't love, like, when you go to the map and you see, like, it's kind of, just an awkward, like circular strip that you're just really tight on, especially coming from Honolulu where you get lost in the streets. But yeah, like you guys said, it's like a fun tone of like, hey, this is pirates, right?

We're all about pirates. We're going to have some cool stuff in here. We want that pleasure district look. I think they nailed that for sure. I enjoyed all the mini games. Right there I was playing blackjack. And I'm like, oh, snap. So my wife is playing hours of blackjack here.

Poker. I'm so deep in poker, bro. I love it. I love it. That's actually the game that taught me taught me how to play. play poker. It's the office of zero. So yeah.

I like that. The other thing real quick, I think we should talk about is the fact that you can customize Modumus outfit. Yes. We didn't talk about that and all of the rings you can wear and that's kind of your buff his gear. Yes.

Right. Oh my God. The rings. They're so good. So you don't equip gear in this game like you would in another game. Instead, you have all these, you have 10 fingers.

So you have 10 rings that you can equip. And if you equip certain combinations of rings, it'll up your attack battles and your attack power in certain combat modes. There's a lot. you can play around with there, but honestly, I just love the shiny rings. I was like, this looks fucking hot. Even in the cut scenes, I was going to say. It's so cool. I was looking out for all my cool.

I was buying rings at every shop. Like I made a point of like, I'm buying rings at every shop, it doesn't matter what you got. And I did love that you could go in. He's got the thumb rings. He's got the pinky rings. And you're going through like, what's the stats here? What do I want? Yeah, that was a nice touch right there. Yeah, it was a great time.

How about customizing? What cool outfits did you wear? I noticed I didn't like changing my outfit often. I really liked my look. But I did find some cool stuff when I'm like, ooh, am I putting them in a sweater and sweatpants today? Yeah. No. I honestly, I was having so much fun with the game and I forgot about the customization because I got it, I feel like I got it right the first time. But I do, I did want to go back to, I do want to go back to it now because I forgot that they had the entire Majuma look from Yakuza Zero. So I got to put that on. I got to put that on. I got to put

that thing on. But I had the long hair for the Mad Dog, the Sea Dog, rather. And then I have a shorter hair for Mad Dog, right? So you grow some hair. I think I saw there's 200 different articles of clothing that you can customize. So you can do shoes and eye patches and hair and tops and bottoms. You can have them walking around nothing, but like I can't remember what the actual name is, but it looks like a little towel thong thing. You can do that if you want to with socks. It's glorious.

I had a lot of fun with this and I also Roger recreated him like Yakuza Zero. But I mostly just had him in sweats and a ponytail. I'm like, this is my perfect version of them. I love that. So it's really, really, really fun. And you can walk around in your hostess outfit too. I mean, you can make this wild because the looks translate into the cutscenes. Yeah.

So you're supposed to be. having this intense scene and it's Goromi with her bright makeup and her blonde hair and her pink tight dress and you're like, okay, sure. And even on the little tiger, even on Goro. The tiger you can customize, the ship you can customize. Question for you. So those are like load out

presets will come because like it was cool of like I can customize them but then I noticed it was a two, three, four, five for everything meaning I could have five different looks. I can just quickly choose and switch between. Love that. Love that. Roger, anything else you want to highlight because I have a couple things I want to ask you about.

Oh, okay. I was going to talk about the future. Oh, yeah. We'll get to the future. Some things I want to highlight the dubbed version. I'd love to know you guys' thoughts on that. I didn't listen to it. Did you? Did you print? I played the whole game and duh. Well, I started my first four hours in sub. Then I switched to dub.

Tell me about it. I liked it a lot. I didn't love the voice for him. When I look at him, I think of a little bit different style of voice. But to me, it made the game more accessible to me of like, I can just enjoy this without having to read a bunch of subtitles and get lost in the text. and not see above.

And so for me, I loved it. I really enjoyed it. Everyone was voice acted. Everybody, it's like, it was just good. It fit well. Wasn't as good as infinite wealth and what I think Ichibon and that cast words? No, but do I think it was good enough?

Yeah, for sure. Yeah. That's awesome. That makes me really happy because I think it goes to show how important it is that RG went to go do that, right? Because they didn't start doing that

until with their recent game. So, because a lot of people just don't like reading subtitles. And I can totally understand that, but I never considered how many people that was probably alienating from the, the franchise. Yeah, no, absolutely. I'm happy that you like it. I agree with you. I don't think

I'm the biggest fan of Majima, the way that they cast it in him. But I mean, if it helps you and it's serviceable, then yeah, for sure. Yeah. So I enjoyed that one a lot. And yeah, let's talk about the future guys. You know, you talk about the ship, ship combat. What do you want to see from the future for Yakusa? Do you want another Majima story? Do we want pirates to? Where do you guys want to go with this. I know, Britt, you have a lot of ideas and theories and everything. Of course, we have infinite. At 9th, Yakuza 9, right?

I mean, that's the next one, right? Like, I assume that that is the next one. I assume we don't get another in-between game. I could see it's it, but I hope that we just go to 9. There is a part of me, and this is hopefully not controversial, but maybe a little bit. We just take a break for a second. We take a break and we may be, we may be, because here's the thing about Studio RG, right?

Like, they are now on the cutting edge. floor of trying to push their graphics engine. They're trying to, with a virtual fighter, that's the next, that's the game they're making, right? Virtual Fighter. Whatever, they're making the next virtual fighter. They're making Project Century. They're making a lot of different games, probably a super monkey ball in the meantime, and they are pushing their engine. They're pushing their gameplay. I kind of want Project Century to come out and kind of see what they learn from it, and maybe they can take some of that and put into Yakuza 9, right? Because the a Waucuso 9 to me,

doesn't seem like the end of the franchise very clearly. We're going to make a billion of these games forever, but it seems like it could be an end to some things, right? So I want them to take their time and kind of build that up to, hey, by the time we get to the next yakuza,

oh shit, we have the in for yakuza, pirate yakuza, right? People are in it, people are playing it. People loved infinite wealth that sold a bajillion copies, right? Let's now go and try to make this next one the definitive

yakuza game for the next generation, right? That's my hope. And I also hope that we do another Pyra Yakuza because we need to go back to these characters and there's enough world building here that we can sustainably make a sequel that doesn't feel like we're just shoehorning it in, right? We can do this again.

Yeah, I am processing. Okay, so I think obviously, when it comes to Yakuza 9, like a dragon nine, I think what we're going to see is we're going to see everything that the series has built up into this point, including the ship and the naval stuff.

I think it's going to be inserted as a main mechanic into the next game. I think it just, I think it just makes sense. If you play this game and you watch kind of where the story unfold and where it looks like it's going, it looks like it could be a very stark possibility because I don't know. I mean, they have done Eishon in like those kind of like older type games, right? Where the more period setting. But I think with the ship combat, I think this could easily belong in the next game.

And like my ideal one of you, who's at nine, will have Dondoclo Go Island again, a better version of a bitter ship combat. And I feel like you can fit all of those in the same thing and make sense. because I also think that we're going to see Majima as a core character in the next game. I think we're still wondering what's going on with Kiru. Like we know at the end of Vinfinna wealth, something happens with him,

and we're going to see what's going on with that. And then a bunch of other loose ends that have not since been tied up. So with that to the side, you mentioned Project Century. And I don't know, and I want Project Century to come out. But my feeling with this game

is that this is going to be taking the core like a Dragon formula and just applying it to that narrative. because my theory with that game is that is going to be telling the origin story at the Chojo clan. Yes. Because if you look at right when that game takes place and when the Yamaguchi-Gumi, I think that's the actual like name of the clan in Tokyo was founded. They take place in the exact same year. Oh, wow.

So I don't know if they're going to be doing a lot of innovation stuff, if they're going to be retelling that story. Again, all hypotheticals here, right? But I think that's more of where I'm leaning is nine is going to continue to innovate and apply everything they've learned and push the boundaries where they're going to apply the same formula to century, maybe with a few different narrative tweaks here and there, but nothing too outrageous. Part of me about

Project Century, just from that trailer, and I know it's based off nothing, gives me the vibe that this might be like a Solzzi type game. I don't know. Something about it feels a little bit different with this gameplay, at least just from the very small amount that we saw. So yeah, I just want to know about Project Century, and I wonder if it

does come out in this next year? Do we get a Project Century before we get a new Yaka's a game, right? To where we get Virtual Fighter, right? Like there's so much, they're working on so much shit. Like, Studio RGG is an insane studio and one of my dream projects is to do probably a podcast with, UBrit and people from Studio RGG and sitting down and being like, how the fuck do you make these games?

Like, I need to know, like, the behind the scenes of how this works out. So, yeah, I hope that we get a project entry before that, just so I can see, like, are you pushing the formula forward or is this just, you know, we're just adding new things, new ideas, Dias, new spinoffs. But I have a feeling that Project Century is doing something different here. So I want to see that first. Let us know where you want to see the franchise and the team. Take your favorite Yakuza characters and beyond.

Of course, let us know as well in the comments below what you thought of like a dragon pirate yakuza in Hawaii because this has been our review. A big thank you to Roger and of course the lovely Brittany for joining us today. Both of you were fantastic. Britt, before we get out of here, where can people find you? What cool stuff are you doing that you might want to share about? And let's get out of here. Let's get out of here.

I know this has been super, deeper fun. Thanks. I was bubbling inside with all this excitement because I had nowhere to get this all out. But I did today. So thank you. I feel relieved now. You can find me on X at Blond Nerd. You can find me on Instagram at Blonde Nerd.

YouTube at Blonde Nerd. I'm everywhere. I'm just doing, like I said, pick and choosing certain game reviews and previews right now. Having fun with everything. Gonna probably take a break because I feel like I've just been reviewing games until 3 a.m. For the past two months. So, but I think there's a few games coming out. This year looks like to be pretty beefy that I'm going to check out.

But yeah, I mean, I'm always just posting my antics online. So, yeah. That's great. Go find them. Thank you so much to the both of you for all that. Thank you to everyone who watched and listen to today's podcast. This has been your games cast for a lovely Tuesday in February. We'll be back with more. But of course, if you're watching live on YouTube and on Twitch, The fun does not stop.

We have more stream in action coming your way where me and the crew are going to go into the lab and play some awesome in the games you need to know about. And of course, with that, thank you all so much for tuning in. We'll see you tomorrow. Goodbye.