thunderkiss92 said:Tozi Tiberius said:You're not wrong. The stories go from the extremely serious to zany in two shakes of a lamb's tale. In other games, this would become a jumbled mess of a product, but somehow they pull it together with Yakuza and it all works to its benefit.
You'll find a hundred different opinions in the forums here, but if you're really unsure of how to start the Yakuza franchise, I personally recommend one of the more recent games (all the games are self-contained stories so you're not missing much besides some character backstory.) I started with Like a Dragon, but Kiwami 2 or Judgement would be other excellent places to start. If you find that you really like the game, then go back to the older ones like Zero or Kiwami and continue from there.
Thanks for the info, this is very helpful!
I love the yakuza series and highly recommend it, but slightly disagree with Tozi Tiberius. I think there’s value in starting with a newer entry that doesn’t feel so dated. Like a Dragon is a great starting point. Judgment is in the same universe and a fantastic story and also a great starting point if you’re more interested in a detective story instead of a JRPG where you mostly use your strongest ability on repeat to do damage and constantly heal.
But I wouldn’t recommend starting with kiwami 2
Pros of starting with kiwami 2:
It’s just newer like Tozi said. It’s on a more recent engine and looks prettier and has some nicer quality of life features. It’s a nice game.
Cons of starting with kiwami 2:
The story is kind of stupid at some parts and I can absolutely see someone coming away with the impression that all the stories are dumb and not wanting to play a second one. 0, Judgment, and Like a Dragon all felt like more grounded and reasonable main stories to me.
You’re also picking up a 7 game story of Kazuma Kiryu with the third entry. They work fine as standalone games and you will understand everything in 2, but you won’t have the standard background for a lot of the story and it will straight up spoil parts of the earlier games.
I’d recommend 0, Judgment, or Like a Dragon. My ranking of the whole series is actually
Lost Judgment, 0, and Judgment in S tier, ranking in that order, but all very very close.
Like a Dragon in S-
6 in A tier
2 and 1 in A- tier
5 in B tier
4 in C tier
3 in Z tier
I just don’t think 2 is the best starting point. It makes as much sense to start with 6 as it does with 2 since 6 is also on the newer engine and it has a better story in many ways, but again you would just spoil parts of the story.