Kinda Funny Gamescast: Video Game Podcast - Yakuza Kiwami 3 & Dark Ties Review - Kinda Funny Gamescast

Episode Date: February 9, 2026

We’ve teamed up with Starsand Island to share this cozy tropical adventure with you! It launches in Early Access on Feb 11th, go to https://store.steampowered.com/app/2966320/Starsand_Island/ to start building your dream island.Go to Factormeals.com/kindafunny50off and use code kindafunny50offto get 50% off your first box, plus Free Breakfast for 1 Year. Thank you for the support! Run of Show - - Start - Greg’s Original Yakuza 3 Review - Roger’s Yakuza Kiwami 3 Review - Ads - Dark Ties - Side Missions - Does Yakuza 3 Hold Up? - SuperChats Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We've teamed up with StarSand Island to share this cozy tropical adventure with you. It launches in early access on February 11th, so click the link in the description or go to Kindoffuny.com slash StarSand to start building your dream island. Head to FactorMeals.com slash Kind of Funny 50 off and use code Kind of Funny 50 off to get 50% off and free breakfast for a year. If you want to get our shows ad free and our exclusive shows, go to patreon.com slash Kind of Funny. What's up, everybody, and welcome back to another kind of funny games cast for Monday, February 9th, 2000, 26, my favorite day of the week.

Ooh. And my two favorite dudes in the office. Boys, welcome back. We are back again for another fun review together. Yeah. We just did Dragon Quest. What, last week, boys? I don't know, man.

That's been a while. Review season doesn't stop. It's kicked on. It's always here. It's always happening. Embrace it. Will there be a review tomorrow? aren't you. God damn right there, we'll be.

Watch the buzz to find out all the information you know about the 4-1-1. You spoil the embargo? No, we go full redacted on it. You know, we go full-redacted. One day we'll fuck up. One day we'll break in a bargain. How mad do you guys get when, you know, you do the buzz that goes live and then an hour later, PlayStation's like, hey,

state to play. Yeah, fucking state of play, guys. I'm telling you, I didn't see if you even responded my slack. I saw a game in the year edition. I know. We'll figure it out. We'll figure out something for at least the audience. Free frame where Mike goes, it's Thursday, and then have Nick just go. And now it's going to be a state of play. But the funniest thing is that the people just love the buzz. They don't even care.

They don't even care about the things we're saying. They just care about us being there and Mike being there. You know what else they love? What? Rogers' crazy knees and party mode beer pong edition. Man, those knees were moving. On that subreddit, I watched that GIF lots of times. Yeah.

And I had a comment like, this looks like AI. Yeah. Because it looks like I don't even know what you're doing. I don't know what your angle of your body was. It was, it was good. Honestly, I was suspecting it was going to be like the jiff of me blowing. the ball into the other cup and fucking up. But it was just me moving

and look at me. I'm just fucking, I'm going. He's kicking. That looks like hyper extension. There's so much energy to the kick and then it's like slow mo. Yeah, dude. I just move like that. That's just how it's how you celebrated when you guys kept on winning. We just kept on winning until we didn't. So I fucked it all up. Everyone's got to watch that because that's

one of the best. Really good party mode. A lot of views on the party mode right now. So people are enjoying it having some fun. Of course, Riders is a Jiff person. Okay, that is the way the creator said it. Okay. If I say GIF, you might think I'm giving you a gift. No, only you think that. We're going to have a good review, everybody.

Say less is what I say. Let's drink every party mode. We just drink. I love this. Drink every podcast. Say less. A lot of PBRs in the fridge right now. Somebody go grab one.

Of course, welcome into your Kind of Funny Games cast. For Monday, of course, if you want to be part of the show and you're watching live on YouTube and on Twitch, don't forget over on YouTube. You can super chat on YouTube.

dot com slash Kind of Funny Games throughout today's stro to ask questions to our two review panelists to ask questions about the game that we'll be reviewing or your thoughts and opinions on the game. Don't forget, we couldn't do this without you, all of our best friends, over on Patreon. Thank you to our best friends who are Patreon producers for the month, Carl Jacobs, Omega Buster, and Delaney the Somm-Twining. Guys, let's just get right into it.

Let's start with topic of the show. We are here for the Yakuza Kawami 3 and Dark Ties Review. back again for another awesome review with Greg and Roger. Of course, the game releases February 11th from RGG Studios and Sega. This is a remake of the 2009 PS3 original. Roger, what the heck is Yakuza, Kewami 3, and Dark Ties? Of course, as you said, it is a remake of the original Yakuza 3. They are going down the list and they are remaking them all.

It's been a while since the last Kwame. I don't know the exact day, but it's been a while since they did Kwame 2. People have been clamoring for this one, and Dark Ties is a additive experience, a standalone experience that basically shows the backstory of what is, they spoil it pretty much, the main villain of Yakuza 3, which is Mene. So that is the two dual pack situation right there, Mikey. Okay, that's kind of cool. I like that.

Well, you know, Roger, I know you are the Yakuza guy here in the office. we turned to all things, Yakuza to you. But here on this desk today, there's Yakuza freak. There's a man who reviewed Yakuza way back in the day. And that's Greg Miller. The year was 2009. Oh, wow. Ladies, gentlemen, NB.

Roger, how old were you in 2009 ballpark? 10. 10 years old. How old were you in 2009? I was 19. Wow. Okay. That's good.

That's good. I like that. I was 10 years old. 14. It wasn't about you, Barrett. It's always about me. I love you, very. Yeah, Mike, so I, there it is,

Yakuza 3. Just when you thought it was safe to pick random fights in Tokyo, that was me, that's my strapline from way back in 2009 when I got to play this game for IGN.com and jump in there. What, like, I, can we, I don't even want to read it. Do we have the video review? Can I listen in on that, please? I'm so excited.

Can we see a bit of this IGN video review, pay or don't copyright claim us. This is, uh, uh, Jesus Christ, quite old, has been around a long time. Bear, do you have it? I lost it, I'm bringing it back. Bear is finding it.

He's getting it for it. 2009. Okay, here we go. Now, maybe I'm wrong, because IGN.com on the Google says May 9, 2012. When did it come out state side? Anyways, here's this for you.

Oh. Maybe that's when it got updated. I can never... If the three shows us one thing, kids. If you're out long enough, you'll get your way. Yes, after releasing the title over in Japan, in denying that it would ever come to the States,

Sega is given in to fan demands and is releasing Yakuza 3 on our shores. But before you begin celebrating friends, let's see if this game, the love child of a JRP and Grand Theft Auto, has what it takes to be a Western heavyweight. Pause it right there. Pause it right there.

Not bad. I like that. Pause it. Geaming You says in the chat, I remember watching that review, a lot of Yakuza and Japanese GTA, LOL. Fuck y'all. Fuck every one of you, all right?

I don't think you understand that no one gave a flying, fuck about these games at all in the West, let alone IGN. So I'm sorry that I came into a game that had no fucking dub. It's all Japanese. I'm reading everything. I pronounce everything wrong in this game because I was all alone. And then, yes, I don't know if you know this.

I was the caveman that discovered fucking fire. So yeah, I do keep comparing it to GTA because I'm trying to get you fucking cretans in 2009 to play the motherfucking game, all right? I went to Japan. I had gone to TGS. Me and Damon go to these business buildings they have that are just bars. And we saw this businessman get carried out of a, on a stretch,

you drank too much. It was amazing. But more importantly, when I was at TGS, what I saw was Yakuza 4. And I was like, God damn, this game's fucking amazing.

And then they finally announced they're bringing Yakuza. Yeah. Three over. And I was like, this is fucking incredible. And I did my best. All right? Go ahead and play it.

Let's see how much worse it's fucking gets. I love this graphic package, though. Oh, this is top nine. It's so good. They gotta just bring it back. Yakuza 3 is basically a Japanese mafia flick. You're Kazuma, a guy who was once a higher up in the family,

but has since left the life of prime to start and finish in a normal life. However, he'd you, not Cosma, but yeah. No, his name in the game is Cosmo. Well, it's his last name. Exactly. They all call him Cosmo in the game when I was playing it. I don't want to be held responsible. Again.

Again. Again, I will not accept any shit for this because this is how it was back then. This is how it fucking was. Then everybody calling him Kiru. I'm like, I don't know this man. I knew Kuzma, all right? I fucking Kuzma, they called him Kuzuma. I fucking talk to him as Kuzama.

Go ahead. I'm not at trial here. Your old associates start getting knocked off and a fishy land slash military deal threatens your kids, your inner badass shines through, and you have to go whoops some ass. This makes for a great story.

I connected with these characters and that makes the final chapter's pretty intense. One moment everything's fine and the next my jaw was on the floor and I even teared up. Yakuza 3 is a hell of a ride that's worth the price of admission. This tale's presented in some beautiful cutscenes,

but they're often interrupted by in-game sequences that you need to read through and click-through before returning to the CGI movie. Pause, go back right there. Why is it say fucking Kazuma? If that's not his name, Roger. One frame ahead. Cosuma.

Yeah, you're right. Oh, I can't imagine why I wouldn't, I don't know if it's QRu or Cosmama. Thank you very much. You're an asshole. Otter Cox says Greg sounds so different. Yeah, I didn't know how to present, number one. And number two,

what you need to understand is how fucking wild West IGN was back in the day. Yeah, tell them about what would go on. When you're back in the day, you're in the booth doing this VO for this. You know what you walked in with? Absolutely fucking nothing.

Nick or Brennan or Craig sat in there for an hour and a half while you ranted, raved, and rambled in the booth. And they'd occasionally go, you're talking too fast, slow it down. You mumbled that, do it again. But we didn't, no one no one thought to write down a script.

That would be fucking insane to have a script to read off of. We went in there occasionally with notes, but everything you're hearing is me in the booth and the black is going, yeah, and I really like this because I'm just fucking talking. Okay. Thank you back to it. You didn't even go in with the written review?

There was no, no, we didn't write yet. You didn't even write it yet half the time. That's insane. Dude, when you go back and you think people when they were like, maybe we, again, this is old, old old I dream. Man, we should cancel podcasts. They're a waste of time. There's four or five people in there.

That's four to five man hours lost on every... No one thought how much time we're wasting in the fucking V-O booth. Jesus. Back to it. It presents an odd pacing issue with long bits of story waffling back and forth between CG and in-game scenes. Also, fans who balk at Metal Gear's lengthy cutscenes might want to think twice about Yakuza

as the game isn't afraid to make you watch story sequences for long stretches of time. Very true. Another thing to take note of is there's no English voice track in this game. So unless you're fluent in Japanese, you'll be reading your entire time. in Okinawa and Tokyo's Red Light District. Plus, this is a game that came out a while ago in Japan,

so it does look dated at times with characters popping in somewhat bland environments. I think the characters in fights look great, but other stuff can look less than awesome. All right, we have to watch the entire thing. Do you remember what you gave? I looked ahead of 8.5? 8.5? I hear my verdict for my written review, right?

Yeah, later on. Hopefully more thought it. If I wrote about everything in this game, you'd have a 10-page review on your hands. The long and short of it is that Yakuza 3 is a great experience. The story's cool. The fighting's fun and there's so much to do. Brunzies, did I mention beating it opens up an adventure mode,

fighting tournament, and other goodies, question more. The game is rough around the edges. It has its issues when it comes to pacing and repetition. The Japanese-only voice track will turn some people off, and it does look like a game that's been out a while. But all of these issues are just bumps in the road on what should be an enjoyable ride for folks looking to beat in some faces and wander the streets of the game.

So is this your first Yakuza game? No. Okay, so this was. Okay, gotcha. Yeah, and again, that's the thing, even now I'm so dated on, because what it was, this was PlayStation 3. Yeah. Yakuza 2 was PlayStation 2, right? Yes, and yeah, yaku's a one.

And I think that was so, that dated me so much of IG, and let alone the fact that nobody had the company had played it or cared about it at that point. And I'm broad brush, I'm sure somebody had, but like, yeah. Not enough to want to review them, not enough to be like, oh, these are awesome. There's really cool shit happening here. Yeah. Okay. Wow.

Well, that was 2009, 2012. Yeah. Roger, let's talk about... It must have been 2009, and then they do that. IG does that thing where it updates the thing. Yeah, hold on. The video review was uploaded March 9th, 2010. All right, yeah, March 9th, 2010.

You're right. Okay, cool, thank you. Okay. So that was a long time ago. Let's talk about 2014. Not that long ago. It feels like yesterday. Game is currently sitting out a medic critic and open critic score of 75 and 74 just minutes ago.

Should not have drafted that one. That was a tough one. You went with your heart. The one time I believe in my franchise. It does not happen. Rod, you have played the game. Why don't you tell us how long you played it for, what you played it on, and your, of course,

quick thoughts and review score. Yeah, I played it on the Switch 2. We can talk about the way that that runs and everything later on. I finished Yakuza Kwami 3, that version of it, that side of the game. It took me 14 hours to mainline it. I just mainlined it pretty much.

No, bad in cages for you? Nah, not. Well, a little bit. Yeah, you got to get it in a swing the bat ones a lot. You get a little high. You're like, okay, well, now I'm playing game gear. You know what I mean? I took an oath.

You would never do that. I appreciate that. Hey, want to go watch a movie sometime? And then Dark Ties only took me about five to six hours. So very, very short. Very, very short there, right there. I'm just going to be, I didn't love my experience

with either of these. I think this is probably the lowest of any of the Yakuza games that I've played. So stop, full stop on that. Give me your background than to get here. Because you are a convert to Yakuza more recently. I played Yakuza

Zero, maybe three years ago, two and a half years ago now, I'm probably three years ago now. I played Daugus Zero fucking adored it. I was like, damn, this game is awesome. Then I played most of Like a Dragon, the turn-based one with Ichibon. Then I'm pretty sure I played the guiding game, the man who erased his name. Didn't love that as much. That's a very small experience right there. Then of course, Infinite Wealth, and then of course, Pirate Yakuza. And I've went back and I've played some of Kwamey one and two. But I know the story of it. I've watched like the breakdowns of it all. I just didn't really. really finished those two games. But I

did not love my experience with this one. I think it comes down to what I am looking for from Yakuza games, right? Yakuza games, I would describe them if I were to compare them in terms of like food. This is like Taco Bell, right? Okay. And in terms of like it is the same

five, six, seven ingredients that we're just reforming into different packages, right? Like every single year, that's what they're doing. And sometimes they throw in, hey, this is the Doritos Loco. Hey, sometimes this is the big, the big, the big cheese it, right? For this one, it just feels like, no, we're just rehashing everything that we've already seen before. And it wore me down on top of the fact that I think the stories on both sides of it, dark ties, I think is more egregious, but Yakuza Kwami 3 specifically is just such an uneven

story experience, right? It is very, the second half is a lot more excited than the first half. It is super convoluted. When you actually get to that big finale, you're like, oh, this was it. This was what we're building towards, even on top of the added stuff that you have with me, and that that characterization that they're trying to build from the other experience that should really kind of make you super excited by that finale of like fuck this guy from this game and this guy

they're finally here and like it doesn't it ends in a place where I felt very disappointed I was kind of not rushing through it but I was playing it I was like I don't want to do the side stuff I'm not interested in this world I don't like the combat the combat in both of these are probably the weakest in the in the other

yakuza games that I've played which is weird because you would think like oh it's the same combat every single time. But no, you know, from the Pirate Yakuza game, that was a super fun combat system. It was a lot more grappling. There was a lot more, you know, juggling in the air. All of the combat systems and the play styles that you have between Dark Ties and Kwame 3 just kind of felt lesser than from the other ones that I've played specifically. Less dynamic. A lot more heavy.

Did not, especially when there is so much combat in this, I was just dreading it every single time. So yeah, I would say overall, if I would actually break it down, dark ties, I would give a five out of ten. I think it's a pretty mediocre experience. I would not really recommend that. I would recommend, honestly, people watching the, hey, here's what the game told you in terms of story-wise.

And then when it comes to Kwami 3, I would give that a six out of 10. So, you know, it's an okay experience. If you're a hardcore Yakuza fan, again, if you've played Yaksa 3, which I did not, you are probably going to have a lot more fun with it. But also, you might have some issues from what I've seen online about people being upset about certain changes.

So I would recommend it only to the hardest of hardcore. I would not recommend it to somebody who wants to get in for the first time. Yeah, I was raising my hand at someone who will one day take the journey, as Roger knows. I will commit to it. You know he says that and he will be one random ass Monday he'll do it and then by the end of the month he'll play them all. Yes, exactly. Now three, is this the best way to play three?

Would you say there's another way to play three? Like I guess when I'm looking back on this lineage, right, it's like, what am I supposed to do then when I get the three? You play. This is the one. Yeah, this is from everything I'm gathering, this is the one you play. I mean, it looks good. It is, you know, in the same newer engine. It is, you know, easily accessible on all the platforms, right?

So I would suggest you play this one. I just don't think it's a good story. Like, I just, I think it feels like a filler experience. It does not feel as big as the stories of one and two. It definitely does not feel as big as the recent story of, sorry, the Yaku Zero. even. It just does not hit as hard as I want to. Even those big anime set piece moments

are like falling out of my brain as they're happening. Like they happen and I'm like oh what happened? Oh yeah, I guess they did have that big moment but like it doesn't earn it. It doesn't earn that big villain. It doesn't have that moment where I'm like I care about this villain. I care about this journey. I just was honestly the thing that

I will talk about more will focus on more is like I just wanted him to be a dad the entire time. That is the focus of Kwame 3 is that Kyudu is the head of morning... Cosma, I apologize. He is the head of morning glory, which is an orphanage,

and he is becoming a dad. He has left the yakuza once again. Every single game, he leaves the yakuza. And now he is the head of this orphanage. And that was really good of like, you're walking around, you're talking to the kids, you're building up this experience and this connection with them.

But then every time they pull me out into the real story, I'm like, oof, this is just way too much and also not enough at the same time. It was a very confusing experience for me because I should like this game. I should love this game. game, but maybe it is just the turn every single year. Maybe it is I'm looking for that next big

leap in Yakuza right now. Maybe that's where I'm at. I'm looking at, you know, a gang of dragon, which I believe is the other game that they're making, not they're making, the competitor to Yakuza. I'm looking at Stranger Than Heaven. I'm looking for that next step. And I just, I think they need, when we talk about the metaphor of Taco Bell, they need the Doritos logo. They need to bring in something to shake this up because for me, this is not hitting. and this story specifically is not hitting. They need that Baja Blast pie. Got it.

Something to make you say, whoa. Oh, get on the news. Good morning, America. Yeah. Exactly. Now, Greg, of course, we talked about your old review. Yeah.

You jumped in as well. What did you play it on? How long did you spend? What did you think? Yeah, I mean, I did Switch 2 version of this as well because it's my year of Switch. And I did the same thing where I was like, oh, I'm going to jump in in Dark Tides.

And, you know, there's a joke around the office. I think it's Barrett and Bless. Maybe it's you, too. I don't know. Maybe this is the one. this is the one. And so as I've seen after reviewing three, four, yakuza of the dead, I remember that one being there too. That's when I, I went down. So I, the rise of it being popular has been crazy. And I'm always like, oh, maybe I should jump back in me. And I've tried Kawami here

or there, whatever. I kicked this one back on. And yeah, Mike, I played about probably 45 to an hour of it. And I was like, turn that off. I am good. I remember it is still. And not to mention it's not the best one, but it's like just the stiltedness of everything. I'm like, ah, yes, I remember these. I'm good. I was there. I put in my work. I don't need to do this. And I'm like, you know, this is the villain kind of.

I'm like, I don't remember this man. What we're doing or why this would matter for where I go. Yeah, and that's something that they're trying very hard to make me an A thing. And it's like, we'll talk about in a second, but like that specifically is just he does not carry this entire, an entire five-hour experience. Okay, okay. Well, let's talk about

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Click the link in the description below or go to kindof funny.com slash star sand to start your journey. This episode is brought to you by Factor. Cold days, big goals, no time to cook. Factor makes healthy eating easy with fully prepared meals designed by dietitians and crafted by chefs. So eat well without planning or cooking. Why do I, Greg Miller, use Factor? Easy lunches. I make my choices.

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gave your initial thoughts. Roger gave a review score for both the games. But I want to dive a little bit deeper because we've got new content. We got new Yaku's content. So Roger, let's talk about dark ties. You know, you've been, you gave it the score. I want to hear some goods and of course the bads and why you

gave it that score. Well, before we do that, let me just break down what this is, right? So of course you are following Mene, who is, he leaves a world of business. So he is like some leader of some startup. And basically he gets ousted from that company pretty fast. That's like the beginning of the whole

thing. He gets kicked out. He's rich. He's powerful, but now he doesn't have any friends. He doesn't have any people that he can really trust. So as he's from the ground up? Yeah, literally, yeah. So He's walking around. He's drinking a little bit. He walks a little bit. A little bit. He's fucked up. He turns the corner and then he just sees the most insane yakuza thing you could possibly imagine. He sees Daigo, who is the head of the Tojo clan, basically get ambushed and get shot up.

And all of Daigo's men basically put their bodies on him and protect him. And he sees like this form of loyalty that he's never seen before. And he's like, fuck, I need that. I need that in my life. I want to join the yakuza. Because the entire board just flipped on him. You know what I mean? This is his idea, his thing, now they're kicking him out. And it's a really compelling, like, first 20 minutes of the game. It's like, wow, this is awesome.

How is he going to join the yakuza? This underground organization that is based in tradition, that is based in origin. You've got to really make sure that you are doing this the right way. You can't just show up and just walk into the yakuza's front door and just give him a bunch of money, right? That's what he does. He just walks up and he whoops one guy's ass. He's like, you'll be my enforcer now. He just walks in, gives them a bunch of money pretty much.

It says, what up? And then they're like, cool, you're part of the yakuza now. And it is, it is so fucking weird. It is, I thought that we were going to do the story of him having to start from the bottom, maybe learn their ways. Maybe he oversteps a little bit, gets beaten down. Maybe he has to kill somebody for the first time. What does that look like?

No, dude just walks in and then they're like, you're the goat. Bro, you're actually sick. We love you. And like, I'm playing this and Lianz is looking on my shoulder. She's like, why the fuck aren't they concerned that he might. be the police. I'm like, that's a great call. This guy just shows up with infinite money, puts down a bunch of money, and they're like, you're my

guy. He's got an app. They know the app. Yeah, exactly. He's got an app. Yeah, exactly. He's got an app. So it's so fucking weird that they don't do the story of him just building up and becoming, you know, learning what the ways, he's just kind of the goat, walks in. And also, he's just a pretty unlikable character because he surrounds himself with probably the most unlikable character in all of Yakuza,

which is, what's his name? blah, blah, bah, bah. Yeah, it's that guy right there. I wrote down, oh, Kanda. Kanda, he is a rapist. Like, that is the first thing that you see him do is attempt to rape somebody. And it's like, Jesus, fucking price. And then he stops that, but only stops that so that he can basically give this guy money.

Mene gives Konda money. So he's like, hey, I want you to be my enforcer. And I want you to show me the ways of Yakuza. And then they're like, buddy, buddy the entire game. And it's like one of those buddy buddies of like, oh, like, clearly he's going to betray him, right? Like, that is like the underlying, like, you know, feeling there. But they don't really say it. Like, that is my biggest criticism of, of Mene's character here is that they don't let you into his mind. He's playing the character the entire time of like, okay, well,

I'm gonna, I'm gonna play my part and I'm gonna do my thing, but you don't see into like what his plan is. You don't hear his internal dialogue. You don't hear about his past or why he's doing something or his push and it pulls. So then by the end of it, you're just kind of lost of like, okay, well, I know he's gonna portray this guy probably, but I don't really know that. this guy. You know what I mean? I see the character that he is portraying. I don't see the actual true nature of Mene. I think that's really tough for a character like this who is

supposed to carry an entire narrative who's supposed to be the main villain of Yakuza 3. It's a really missed opportunity to not do the Yakuza Zero thing where they do, I don't know if you know, you can play as Majima in Yakuza Zero. And they really go into his backstory. And of course that character is insane and a lot more

deep than Mene, but still, like, you were able to see the depths of what that character is and his backstory, you do a lot of flashbacks. There's no flashbacks here. It is truly that he gets kicked out of the board. Peace. I'm on. I learned more about this character's backstory through Yakuza 3, and that was like just like the smallest of cutscenes. Like it is, it's kind of weird that we're not double dipping or just expanding on what they show in Yakuza 3 because there's a lot here. And I think this character is interesting when you read about him. But in action, he just kind of feels

very flat, kind of feels very like, okay, well, I'm, I'm going to, you know, I'm definitely going to betray somebody, but also I don't know what you're going for, so I don't really care at that point as the main character. So I thought that was probably the biggest issue with this main story is that I just don't understand this character of Mene, and they want me so desperately to care about him and to like him, especially if you're hanging out with a guy like this, it's like, fuck man, I can't like you, even if you are trying to betray him eventually. Like you are, you are helping him throughout the story. So it's like, it's such a weird one. It's such a weird one, them. How about combat during this sequence? Anything special for this character?

Yes and no. So they, when I did the preview, they did the thing, we're like, he has two types of styles. And I'm like, does he really? Because he has one. So his fighting style is, he's, you know, he's just kind of a, he's a boxer. So he like, he does like the fast side step and he punches like any, you know, Yaku's a fighting style. And then his second fighting style is that he can go super sane. So he just basically hits a little harder. like these heart meters that you're filling up as you fight and then you hold down the trigger and then boom you can just punch really hard. It's pretty uninteresting.

I think with every Yakuza game, right, as we go and they get more hype and it brings in new audience members and new people who are looking for it. Explain to somebody who doesn't know the history, right, why this game falls flat on the fighting, whereas other, because I mean at a glance, you look at it, it's like, well, yeah,

he's glowing blue or glowing red and he's going to beat that lot. It's a push and pull, right? because for me, at least, there's so much fighting in Yakuza games, you need to have a good balance of me being able to at least switch it up when I want to,

when I'm getting bored. And when you have just one fighting style, it is truly the most generic button mashing. You're pressing X, you're pressing Y, you know exactly what every heat move is, you know exactly what everything is going to do.

I want to be able to switch it up and have those different moments. And I love when Yakuza in the last few ones have just gotten weird with it. there's, for all the flaws that the man who erased his name has, which is, again, is just glorified D.LC. It's not very good. But you had a rocket boost on your fucking shoes,

and you had a Spider-Man whip. And you're just going around. It's insane. It is so much fun to play that game that it made the whole experience way better. And you just don't have anything to cling on to in this, where it became such a chore in the Dark Ties, and especially in Yakuza Kwami 3, when they force you to do so much combat,

where you're just like, fuck, man. I just, I want to have fun with this. I want to have, I just want to be either going through these guys really fast or at least be able to switch my moveset so I feel like I have ownership over it, where you just don't, you just are a little underleveled the entire time. It just, everyone's a little too spongy. It's, it's annoying. When I think of Yakuza, I think, of course, the combat,

we talk about the characters, the side characters, Roger brought up there seems like a miss. Also, the fun side quests. The apps and the involved, the fun side objectives, the fun little gimmick games. What does it look like in such a small package of only five hours, Roger? Is there anything? Yeah, there's some side stuff.

Again, I didn't delve too much into it into the actual side missions because I was trying to finish the game before review. But they have the two main side objectives, I would say, they're going for us. You have Konda Damage Control. Again, the worst character in all of Yakuza, now you have to do damage control for his PR.

So what you do is you run around the open world, and he's like, listen, I'm an awful person. I don't want it to seem like an awful person. So I want you to go and just do a bunch of fetch quest essentially. So you go, you find people on the street and they're like, oh, my tummy hurts and you run over and you just find, you know, some type of like elixir, you give it to them. You know, someone's about to get beat up.

You beat up that person, save them. Points go up. You get, you know, money for every time. So it's pretty basic exactly what you expect for something like that. And then you have Hellzerina, which is, I believe, something that they've done in, like a dragon, infinite wealth. And also, I'm sure, other ones. but it's essentially like a rogue light.

You're going in and you're fighting hordes of enemies and you go deeper and deeper and deeper. And there's like upgrade system. Again, would be really cool if I like the combat. Like I just baseline don't like this combat, so I just really do not want to play that. So those are the two main side stuff you're going on in this package. So for five hours, again, you can probably play this for 10 hours, 15 hours,

however long you want to do. It's really, you know, it varies depending on how much you're into this. It's nice that you have those two things because they have depth it, but that depth is pretty shallow once you realize just exactly, you're just punching things and you're finding things around the world. How about the map and locations? Where does this take place? Is it the same as Yakuza 3, so it's not much variation?

So yeah, you're on, you're in the city side in Tokyo. You're in Camarocho. So you're over there. Yeah, it's just there. So you're not in Okinawa where Yakuza 3 takes place in Okinawa and it takes place in Romerojo. There's a dual perspective over there. You're just in Camarocho.

So not the most positive. here for the new content. Let's talk about Yakuza 3 because you make it seem like this is not the strongest out of the yakuzas here. What didn't hit for you here on this remake? Yeah, it's a weird one because it starts off so interesting for me because again, I like Qaeda as a dad and I do think that there's some good stuff

there, especially about him dealing with kind of this new sector of his life and trying to distance himself from the yakuza. But it becomes the traditional yakuza thing where the story is he is, you know, this father, he's doing this thing. And then of course, there's some land that needs to be bought up by the government. And where is that land?

It is exactly where he's sitting on. It is exactly where the morning glory orphanage is on. Eminent domain. Yeah, exactly. So now he's got to run around. It's always some land grab. And it becomes this pretty drawn out situation of like, okay, who is who is the person that needs this thing?

What is the, what is this person want? What is this person want? and then it just becomes really confusing to then we get to the actual like meat of the story of what is the mystery here and the way that they explain it is you talk about in your original review

of just how long the dialogue is everything. Dude, they do the funniest thing in this one where I don't know if it's in the original one. You let me know if you can remember. But they sit down like, okay, we're just going to exposition dump, exposition dump. We sit down and they literally stop the exposition

four to five times, and they say, do you want to break? And they stop it hard. And then you just walk around, then you sit back down, then you just keep on talking. That is how they, the exposition dumped the entire plot.

And it's like, about halfway through, you finally get to the villains. Halfway through the game, you finally get to see who the real villains of the game are. And they're great. Like, the Mene and there's a few other people in it.

They're good. Like, they're really good. Like, it's compelling. They're scary. It's good stuff. But then we just, we took way too long to get there. there is way too much of them forcing us to do side missions,

which we'll talk about right now of like, there's some side stuff here that I fucking hate. I actually think it's like, it's like egregious in my opinion of like I love Yaku's and I love when they get crazy with it. There's some, this one just feels like it was misguided and it does not work. So they force you to do a fuck ton of the baddy biker gang.

Oh, sure, of course. Of course, where QDU is the leader of a women's biker gang in Okinawa, which is very silly and it's funny, and it made me chuckle a few times. But what it comes down to is him just running around the town, having to beat up people to then recruit people into the biker gang. And then the biker gang does like a big type of like boss fight where there's like three lanes of these biker gangs.

And then they have to all complete like their sections in order to get to the boss level. So what that in reality creates, especially in the early level stuff, is key to you going down one lane, fighting like 50 people and then realizing that the other biker gang women

are not holding their own and they're going to die so then he has to run over and fight fucking 50 people here, 50 people here and then finally get to the boss and then kill everyone there. So it just becomes and it's like they hard stop the game twice to make you do this and recruit enough people and it is very frustrating. It's like guys I understand you have this stuff

that you really care about. You just got to introduce it and then just let me do it if I really want to do it. 100%. You cannot hard stop. the story and tell me, and especially like something so deeply random as him becoming a biker gang leader, which I love,

I think it's funny, but it also like, when you're hard stopping the story, it's like, bro, you got kids to take care of. Like you got to, you got to, like, weave this in a little bit better, like in Pirate Yakuza, where it's like, oh, no, you're dealing with the pirate gang. And like, it makes sense. You're finding treasure. Like, that all made sense with the narrative. Then being like, oh, fuck, what do we do?

Okay, he's the leader of a biker gang. Fine. Okay. Like, it's, that type of stuff, it just feels prolonged. Again, only 14 hours, which is pretty short. for, you know, one of these JARPGs, these Yakuza games, but still, when I'm still feeling the 14 hours, and I'm like, fuck man, I just, I want to get through this. I want to see where the story leads me. And then, of course, that story is just not very good. It's tough. What does this do for your excitement slash fandom, like, for the rest of where we're going?

Uh, hurts it a lot. Honestly, not a lot. Harts it a good amount because I'm not spoil anything. We don't want to do that. They set up shit at the ending of this. There, there is teasers, there's stuff going on here. They're building. something here. I don't like what they're building at all. I think we're now maybe two for two of them building something that I'm very scared of. They're doing one thing here in this one that they're building to don't really love. And then they're building some stuff in infinite wealth. And I'm like, there's some scary stuff. I'm like, you might be going a little too far. I'm going fast and furious with it. We might be going way too far with it. So I'm a little scared

of it. I do think that RGG knows they need a kick in the ass. I know that they have the feeling clearly with Stranger Than Heaven, like they need to have this new franchise out the door that they can really push towards. But it doesn't seem like Yakuza is slowing down. It doesn't seem like they're able to kind of make those changes that Stranger Than Heaven is going to make because clearly we're going to get these every single year. They're not stopping. We're going to keep on pushing through. So I am interested to see if we're going to be able to take the lessons from Stranger Than Heaven and then bring them into the Yakuza franchise or are these two things just going to be completely separated, right? So I'm a little scared and I'm more

excited for the gangs of Dragon, Dragon of Gang, of that. That interests me a lot more. Did you ever play judgment? No. I hear a lot of good thing. Yeah, I like judgment. Yeah, you like, do you finish it?

No, I didn't finish it. I mean, it was a normal thing. I've got the code played and I'm like, man, I'm having a great time. And I'm like, you look how I'm like, I don't have that many more hours to get in this or whatever. I mean, it's just very similar, if not the exact same, right? I mean, different story. Yeah, more detective. Yeah, more detectiveing.

This is back in the day where I was looking for a detective game and I jumped in and played more of it. and I enjoyed it, but it was like, oh, no, this isn't like, I'm not being a detective here. Yeah. No, I definitely try that out. But yeah, it's, it's an interesting one because I had fun moments, especially with morning glory, right, of like, the whole thing is that you are a dad, so you're running around, you're cooking, you're farming, you're sewing, have a great sewing mini game.

I don't know if that's anywhere, Barrett, but this is great sewing minigame where it's like, it's like a racetrack, so you're going down, you have to, they have like the turns and the twist, so you have to speed up and slow down and try to get, it's really fun. that's a good one a reversey i've never played that before uh so that's a japanese board game so uh the way they do that is it's it's uh you're going down you're playing you're playing reversy with the kids but then the way that they pull up each of the kids is like the way they pull up the boss fights in uh the yucza franchise so it like has a small little child it's like don't don't as their name which is super fun uh so there's good stuff there and you're helping with the homework um but yeah it just the

it just it didn't work out for me man there it is oh there's cooking and everything. There's just like a bunch of activities. Yeah, fun little stuff. Chance to stank a big one. Yeah, that looks like Hughes on it. Yeah. Yakuza. Okay. Well, going into some super chats right now,

the record guy writes and says, as a fellow Yakuza enjoyer and Splinter Cell officiato, I love you, Roger. Very kind right there, Roger. We'll never get another splinter cell, but I love you. Roger, as someone who will eventually jump in, into this. I will have to play three, right? What is the timelines here? Because you kind of break apart. We have like a dragon you bring up. You have Yakuzah proper with numbers, but like,

what is the timeline? Where would people be playing? So you start with zero. That is the easy answer. Zero is going to give you the baseline of what you need to know. It sets you up perfectly for Kwami 1 if you really want that, which I enjoyed a lot. I just never got around to finishing it. But that story is also really great and really personal to QIDIU and everything, Cosma. Thank you very much. What was I supposed to do, chat? It's what they fucking call them. So I would say zero for sure. You've already played a lot of the pirate one, right?

So you have some. Finished pirate. Oh, you did? Played like a dragon. Crazy. Played a lot of like a dragon, but never finished. So the first one, yeah, yeah. Oh, the first one.

Okay, gotcha, gotcha. So I would say go zero. You're going to, the world is going to be calling for you to play one. So you're going to play one, maybe play two, and then you can skip around. So now you bring up three adding things. Yes. Is that weird? and we have something new coming,

it doesn't go into a four and then five and a six. There will be, I'm sure we will get to four, five, and six. That is, that's going to happen. I don't know. Those are games that are already out?

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Remakes. Oh, okay. Yeah, and that's, they'll add new stuff is what you're saying. Sorry, say again. You said at the end of three here, whatever they have,

they're cooking something. They're cooking something that you're like, I don't know. Yeah. Isn't that just going to four then? Don't worry about it. Don't worry about it. Spoilers for the story.

Spoilers, spoilers. Oh, shit. Roger, is there anything else that we have not brought up on this? Yeah, I saw a super chat talking about the casting of one of the villains in the game. The Brandicute writes and says, Roger, please address the character casting. Agawa. Yeah, that's shitty casting. It's fucking sucks.

If you don't know, let me bring it up. This is Grace over at GameSpot.com. Yakuza Kwami 3 director defends casting alleged sexual assaulter. Yakuza Kawami 3 director Ryuske Hoari justified the controversial casting of actor Te Ruiuki Kagawa

as Go in a recent interview saying quote, we tried to think of someone who makes you go, this guy's a creep. Hori spoke to Japanese outlet Game Watch independently translated by IGN about the casting, which is drawn criticism because Kagawa

has been accused of sexual assault. Hori said the team made their decision based on what performance they would like to see in the game. Jesus. Quote, Hamazaki is a sleazy persistent and militant yakuza, right? Hori said, since he isn't an explosive character like Kanda, when we try to think of someone who makes you go, this guy's a creep. Naturally, it was Kagawa.

That was the main factor. Kagawa's acting is fun to watch. Even when he's chopping a pig's feet off with the chef's night, Schiff's knife, it has a slimy feel. That feeling permeates his performance, so it brings freshness to the scene. It made it really fun. I'm sorry, feel really fun, end quote. Several women accused Kagawa of a sexual assault in 2022.

Kagawa has admitted to public, I'm sorry, has admitted to and publicly apologized for one incident, though at least one accuser claimed to have never received a personal apology. Hori also expressed during the interview that the team had considered fan backlash when making the decision. Ultimately, though, he claimed the studio quote, I'm sorry, the studio quote, felt there was no use in being afraid, end quote. because the fans have expressed Iyer posting on social media with the hashtag, hashtag remove Kagawa and starting a change.org

petition, which has almost 10,000 signers. Additionally, fans on the Reddit have accused developer RGGG studio of stifling the hashtag Remove Kagawa hashtag on Instagram and removing comments that directly referenced the issue. If Kagawa were to be removed, it would not be the first time RGG Studios

has recast an actor. It replaced the vocal performance and character model of actor Pierre Tacky in judgment after he was linked to drug use. Yeah, drug use is where we draw the line. Sexual assault allegations. Nah. Well, because was the drug use, you know, a part of the character?

We want. If it wasn't. If he was thorned in cocaine, they would have let that happen. Yeah, horrible. This is so fucking... Please address the casting. That fucking sucks. Kind of funny is very anti-sexual assault if you didn't know.

Fucking sucks. But yeah. And then our final one, Yel Singh writes, how would you feel if they remade the rest as part of these? I would fucking love that. I adore the turn-based RPGs that they're going for with the Like a Dragon, I guess, mainline stories now.

I think they're really great, they're inventive. I would have had a lot more fun with this if this was a turn-based RPG. I think that is something I really, when I was thinking about, oh, what's the future looking like for Yakuza? I remember, oh, fuck, we do have these turn-based RPGs, which I really adore. So, yeah, I would enjoy that.

I don't think people would love that because, you know, they want the remakes of it, but it would be really cool for me. I would love to see maybe more of the side stuff that they're doing, have more RPG tendencies. Maybe they throw in instead of, hey, we're doing another whatever, another, you know, pirate yakuza. Maybe we make one of them a turn-based RPG

instead of just a hack and slash button-mashing adventure. So that's a really good call. I would love that. Greg, you've been looking for a grand adventure. Does just relay your fire to possibly get back in there? No, but it's also one of those, like I feel like, I've picked the worst one to actually go back and kick the tires on. See if that would be.

I was like, oh, this hasn't gone anywhere. And I'm specifically dark tides. Obviously, I didn't go to the remake expecting it to be like, oh, did they change everything? But like, no, I'm good. Okay. Oh, also, I saw people asking about Switch 2. It runs fine on Switch 2, in my opinion. It's 30 FPS.

The issue that I was very high on it until I played it on handheld. And I got into a lot of fights in the game and not in real life. But I went on a plane. Yeah, I wasn't going to slap. But I'm fighting. And the dynamic resolution is really aggressive when you're fighting. So you're seeing the Jaggy. you're seeing this drop down to like 240p

like it's tough sometimes but it's totally passable I think most people would enjoy it so if you if you're planning to buy it or the other Yakuza game Switch 2 is a fine place to play them. Okay well while we wrap up the show let me know down in the comments down below if you're watching later on

YouTube what you think of the remake are you jumping in to the new content or are you passing on this latest installment of Yakuza? Thank you so much to Roger and Greg for both of your times and to Barrett for bringing us back in time looking at Greg's old school review. It was a lot of fun.

Hopefully you enjoyed it. If you're watching live on Twitch and on YouTube, we are not done with the day. We're going to kick it over to the lab where Mike and Bless are going to sit back down at the table and play Magic the Gathering. Oh, no, it's kind of feudy. Yep, yep, yep, yep, yep, kind of feudy. Never forget.

My show. Kind of feudy. And then we're going to play magic. It's going to be really exciting. We'll catch you after the after one. Watch the buds to be updated on the week and we'll catch you tomorrow. Goodbye. Bye.

Good job